Dr. Jose P. Rizal

Rizal portrait
by
Juan Luna

In commemoration of our national hero's martyrdom on December 30, 1896, let's reflect upon a few words of wisdom he left behind. They are very relevant today as they were over a hundred years ago.

On Education:

"My countrymen, I have given proofs that I am one most anxious for liberties for our country, and I am still desirous of them. But I place as a prior condition the education of the people, that by means of instruction and industry our country may have an individuality of its own and make itself worthy of these liberties."

What Rizal stood for:

"I do not write for this generation. I am writing for other ages. If this could read me, they would burn my books, the work of my whole life. On the other hand, the generation which interprets these writings will be an educated generation; they will understand me and say: 'Not all were asleep in the night time of our grandparents.'"

Dr. Rizal's Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo have been required reading for high school students since the 1950s and the essence of these novels is still very pertinent in our present day society. But why have we allowed the oppressors to develop from within?

November 2016 Hifi Show Report

Sierra Audio

Back in the late 90s, I frequented a west coast based website, Sierra-Brooks, that featured beautiful hand crafted wooden horns. Half of that partnership was Victor Sierra, a Filipino from Cebu City. In the interim, Victor had been busy managing their family business. The local audio community warmly welcomed their premiere participation in this event!

Their demo featured 3-way horn loaded speakers.

Driven by a stereo SE45 designed and crafted by one of his collaborators (below, left) using locally wound transformers by Edrel Sison

Congratulations Victor (right). Good job!

Friends in Audio 

This group of audio enthusiasts featured a 2-way horn system + super tweeter using my favorite Altec 414 woofer and a handmade wooden horn driven by an Altec 806A + EV T-35 super tweeter. At the front end was a Garrard 301 with a locally crafted linear tracking tonearm. A custom tube preamp and amp completed the system. 

Harana/Setup/Tono

Garrard 401 with a Dynavector DV507 tonearm fitted with either a Denon DL103 or Ortofon SPU-GME and a laptop/DAC combo digital source fed through a pair of Western Electric WE111C repeat coils

JE Labs stereo preamp dressed in Harana Audio hand crafted wooden case, loktal 7F7 tubes for the phono stage + 6F8Gs for line level

Harana Audio dual mono SE300B amps - Jensen input transformer > WE417A > Tango NC20 > WE300B > Tango NY15-3.5S output transformer

Harana Audio 2-way horn speakers - 15" Beyma woofers in V-Vent II enclosures, JBL 375 compression drivers behind carved horns + JBL super tweeters

For more pictures and information, please visit the November Hifi Show FB page.

NATO'ed Vostoks

Vostok Amphibia 420432 

Lug width = 18mm

Vostok Amphibia 110640

Lug width = 22mm

November 2016 Hi-Fi Show

The one and only Hi-Fi event in the Philippines, a must-see for enthusiasts in Manila!

Sneak peek of what you'll see and hear in room 447 (Harana/Setup/Tono)

Stuff I regret flippin'...

...in the early days because I was an idiot ;( 

In the summer of '86, I acquired my first Thorens TD124 equipped with the above tonearm at an estate auction for $1!!! I kept and used the turntable but the plastic cover of the counterweight was cracked so I replaced it with a Sumiko MMT. I eventually sold this tonearm for $10. I didn't know what an Ortofon SMG212 was then.

I purchased a box lot of tubes and parts for $5 at a hamfest which contained one of these. Later that day, I accepted a $15 offer for the transformer. I've been looking for another one since...

Found one at a flea market for two bucks and flipped it at a hamfest for $20. I didn't know it was an Altec 3000B, the phenolic horn looked too cheesy. 

je2a3 amp

Twenty three years ago, I built my first 2A3 amp in the basement of the very same house I'm staying in right now. This was a pair of PP2A3 amps with a Mullard-Style driver circuit pumping 8W per channel of pure Class A to drive 82dB/1W/1M (in)efficient BBC LS3/5As, with external preamplification.

As I enter another phase in life, I am back in the same house, mellower with age but hopefully wiser, building a single channel, single-ended 2A3 amp with 3.5W output to drive a 99dB/1M/1W efficient Altec 2-way horn system, with a phono and line stage on board.

This project started with a chassis and choke (amongst other things) handed over by Joe Roberts at the Capital Audio Fest last July. Additional parts were either donated by my hamfest/radio show buddy, Chong Ong or ordered online, like the Hammond 272X power transformer, which came from Steve at Angela Instruments. Back in the 90s, I could have built this amp (except for the output transformer) using parts sourced from hamfests and radio shows. But times have changed, sadly for this project, the only parts I got from a hamfest were the tube sockets ;(

I had been exchanging emails with J-Rob regarding the WE/Altec 32, Emilar horns/drivers, ROK idler TTs, viscous damped tonearms, vintage cartridges like GE RPX, Shure M3D, etc. Among the tubes he suggested I try in lieu of my favorite octal 6SL/SN7s and 5-pin 27/37 and 56/76s, which are getting quite expensive, are the Loktal equivalents + the "Mickey Mouse" plate and grid-capped 2C22/7193 med-mu triode.

WARNING: the 2C22 is not for the faint-hearted, there is over 200VDC in the plate cap if accidentally disconnected while the amp is operating!!!

As depicted in the above block diagram, this is classic (nothing new = boring) JE Labs ;) I used 2 x 7B6 loktals in the RCA derived RIAA phono stage sans variable EQ. A stereo > mono mixer via a WE111C repeat coil to process digital sources was integrated into the chassis, then a single medium-mu triode 2C22/7193 acts as a line stage preamp cap coupled to a Radiotron SE2A3 amp.

!!!WARNING!!! 

The voltages found in this circuit can be lethal, build at your own risk!!!

The chassis was painted in Silver Hammerite, but wiring had to wait due to actual music making and more important projects ;)

Fancy-schmanzy boutique parts were not used in this amp - just plain old carbon resistors, paper in oil caps and electrolytics in the tube rectified/choke filtered power supply.

The amp section is currently fitted with a Noguchi PMF-15WS OPT I got in Akihabara. It sounds really good! You just have to take my word for it since I don't have a scope and audio generator to prove it ;)

At a later date I might swap in the PMF-10Ws, but ultimately I'd like to permanently install an American made OPT, maybe an Edcor or ask/beg Mike L. at Magnequest to wind a single TFA204 OPT just to keep the amp an ALL American classic ;)

Time Out

ala  Turk