hello from Brooklyn

[TerryNYC]

Hi all,

My name is Terry. I came across this forum while doing historical research. I am creating a product-based history of high-fidelity audio using mostly objective scientific & engineering and industrial design criteria, from 1920 to the present, and including select firms & products from the USA, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and China.

This began as a sub-section of a history of industrial design, and I expected it would take a few months of research as did both autos and cameras. Five years later this is the tail wagging the dog. I did not realize how many thousands of small, undocumented or poorly documented, firms and products were involved, else I might not have started

The reason I’m doing this is that music on demand in an entirely modern conception. Haydn & Mozart both composed works which they only heard once but which I can pull off my shelf anytime. This is amazing. On the other hand there are the numerous downsides in reduced authentic musical experience and awareness in most people, reduced musical skill by many, distasteful use of technology that often produces highly unmusical results by performers, engineers, producers, record companies, and makers of audio reproduction equipment. Despite the downsides though the ability to have a believable illusion of standing just outside a musical event and the history of music available at our wish is extraordinary. I hope to memorialize the many who have developed authentic high fidelity through this chronology & database of their products.

I'm not an audiophile, rather a music lover who wants a convincing illusion. I have 11,000+ CDs and have always had competent but not brilliant gear. My hi-fi history is

* Philips 212A, Microacoustics electret cartridge, Advent 300 receiver, Advent 201 cassette, Advent loudspeakers, Stax electret headphones
THEN
* Linn LP-12, Grace 707 Mk Ii, Grace F9 Ruby, B&O 9000 cassette, Denon TU-850 tuner, Naim NAIT (original version), Fourier 8e loudspeakers
in 1995
* Meridian 500 transport, 504 tuner, 562V pre/DAC, DSP5000 loudspeakers, Stax Lambda Nova

After 21 years of hard use this system has died. I plan to acquire a Linkwitz Lab LXmini+2 system as implemented by Frank Brenner in Germany using the new Hypex Ncore amp modules just being released this summer 2016 along with the soon-to-be-released Hypex pre / DAC / DSP active crossover, an Oppo 105D and Mac Mini with Roon or JRiver. I'm starting a new firm so until that's up and running no new hi-fi and it will be late this year before the Hypex DSP is available anyway.

I'm glad to have found this place. If you have any questions please ask.

[struth]

Welcome to You Terrence.. Think you have a real job on your hands there, but good luck to you. There is some info here so sure it may help. Plus we have a number of very knowledgeable folk too. not me though; I'm a plodder with no musical abilities ;)

[The Black Adder]

Welcome to AOS, Terrence.

That sounds very interesting. Sounds like a huge project too, hope it's all going well.

Enjoy! :)
Jo

[twickers]

Welcome aboard.:)

[TerryNYC]

Hi Grant,

Thanks for saying hello. Yes, I think after five years I'm just past the halfway point. It was actually a post by Clark AKA BTH K10A about Neumann that brought me here. As soon as I figure out how to PM him I shall ask questions I hope he will answer. I notice you are a fellow whisky enthusiast. I've spent the last several years exploring straight American (and Canadian equivalent) with pleasure. Are you a malt, bourbon or rye guy?

[TerryNYC]

Thank you Paul. I must say I like your choice of guitar "stand" ;-)

[TerryNYC]

Hi Josie, thank you. It is huge but has been a lot of fun. Reading Wireless World and Audio Engineering from 40s - 70s has been really eye-opening plus I've gotten to know so many truly interesting engineers and physicists, and correspond with folks around the globe. I lusted after a 124 when I was young; you are quite lucky to have one and restored too.

[struth]

Hi Grant,

Thanks for saying hello. Yes, I think after five years I'm just past the halfway point. It was actually a post by Clark AKA BTH K10A about Neumann that brought me here. As soon as I figure out how to PM him I shall ask questions I hope he will answer. I notice you are a fellow whisky enthusiast. I've spent the last several years exploring straight American (and Canadian equivalent) with pleasure. Are you a malt, bourbon or rye guy?

Mostly bourbon and Tennessee these days but good malt too. Find scotch doesn't agree so much with me these days

PMs will be available after 4 or 5 posts


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[The Black Adder]

Hi Josie, thank you. It is huge but has been a lot of fun. Reading Wireless World and Audio Engineering from 40s - 70s has been really eye-opening plus I've gotten to know so many truly interesting engineers and physicists, and correspond with folks around the globe. I lusted after a 124 when I was young; you are quite lucky to have one and restored too.

Hi Terrence.

It sounds it for sure. I like to know the origins of things.

Yes, thanks, the 124 is a beautifully engineered bit of kit. I really enjoy using it. It gets used most days and never misses a beat, quite astonshing considering it was made in 1966. You should try and get one, live that dream, man... :) lol

[TerryNYC]

Hi Josie, While I have great admiration for analog I went entirely digital in 1995. No LPs in my future; lots of music though ;-)

[TerryNYC]

Grant, thanks for the PM tip. I thought I was just missing something. I never drank American until a few years back. Now I can't believe what great stuff I was missing all those years. Four Roses, Old Grand Dad, Smooth Ambler, WT 101 & Sazerac. I never knew ;-)

[struth]

Some nice stuff made over there and a damn site cheaper over your side.... Pappy van Winkle is real nice at the top end, and sippin' wise George Dickel No 12 is the real deal, although it needs some air for a week... I split the bottle in 2 and let it air off ;) (not literally of course)lol

[TerryNYC]

Ditto. Scotch & Irish malts have gotten quite expensive here but good bourbon and to a lesser extent good rye are bargains. If all goes well with my new venture then in a couple of years I'll start re-tasting malts. I loved these when younger, stopped drinking them for several decades when I switched to wine, and as I'm enjoying American so much, my curiosity is aroused to see if I'd still like them. I've never tried Pappy; too expensive and too hard to get. In November though there's an occasion that will be celebrated at a bar with a large selection of rarities and 1oz sample pours at fair prices. Pappy is on the list ;-)

[Firebottle]

Wow what a project. When I got back into hi-fi about 15 years ago I was amazed at the number of small manufacturers.

Do you intend to publish the finished project.
Best of luck with completion :)

[walpurgis]

Hello Terry. Welcome to AOS from me too.

That's a great project you are doing. As you have found, there really is no end to Hi-Fi and audio history and development. There are a few of us here who have pretty good knowledge of vintage equipment. Mine is not too bad back to the late sixties, where equipment offered on the British market is concerned. I can still recall Peter Sellers being interviewed in a magazine about his Hi-Fi and being pictured with his Janszen electrostatic speakers around 1972. :)

I like the first system you had. A really nice choice of gear for the time. Advent speakers were 'cutting edge' back then and excellent, like Henry Kloss's many other designs.

Do chat with us when you choose your next system. We like to know what people have in mind.


Enjoy the forum,
Geoff.

[TerryNYC]

Hi Alan,

Yes,that's what I didn't realize until I was well into it. In cameras & autos by comparison there are relatively few firms and they were already well-documented. Modern furniture & lighting and furniture manufactures while more numerous are also well-documented at least through 1975 or so. Audio ... thousands of often tiny firms. Also unlike say aeronautical engineering or photographic lens design, audio is a hotbed of theology. It took me a very long time to sort through the mythologies to establish my inclusion criteria.

My plan is to web-publish in stages, the first being essentially similar to an Internet standard RFC. Because this is large and I'm one person doing this avocationally, there are bound to be errors & omissions. Once these are sorted the next phase is an online RDBMS embedded in a Wiki to make searching & sorting easy & useful. The last step is to transfer the result to a responsible party, likely the AES if they'll maintain it. My hope is that a solid record of what happened and when will help future audio engineers not to reinvent the wheel, but to actually advance the SOTA.

[TerryNYC]

Hi Geoff,

Thanks for saying hello. Ahh but the first system I wanted was a Thorens, Ortofon, Quad ESL & electronics system; it's just that I could afford (barely) the Advent system ;-) That actually was good value. During the course of this project I've gotten to know Siegfried Linkwitz and this was also his first system except with an AR turntable and for the same reason.

I note you have a Helius arm; my next email is to G.O. to continue a discussion of the evolution of Tangent & Helius' products ;-) I keep coming across more surprises -- early suspended belt-drive TT from Australia (1959),TT & arm from IMF -- which made sense when I thought about who the chief engineer was and which I have yet to definitely date, lot's more. Lots of it casts a different light on audio history than commonly accepted. As I'm going through further UK audio journals I'll probably ask your opinions if I may.

New system will be the one mentioned, a Linkwitz - Hypex implementation as built by Frank Brenner in Germany. I've had a huge amount of help from Siegfried and have been through his entire website at least three times The math can be vexing but the thoughts and discussion of experimental data is always clear. I've gotten to be good friends with Bruno Putzeys who on one occasion tutored me in DAC filter theory until past 3AM ;-) Because of them and many others I have a good sense of what's possible in stereo reproduction and what level of implementation of possibilities is available at what price. I expect this system will get replaced just once more by a yet unreleased Kii Audio product. If I had a time machine though and could give my younger self a bag of cash and a good tip then either HK Citation I & V or Marantz 7 plus 2 or 9, Quads, Thorens, SME, Ortofon or Neumann cartridge would have been my first ;-)

Best,
Terry

[walpurgis]

I expect you have come across them Terry. The 'Hi-Fi Year Books' are a good basic reference.

Like some other members, I have a few going back to the sixties and they do come in handy now and then. Many here also have other Hi-Fi literature going back many years. I have a collection of manufacturers brochures and the like, dating back as far as 1970 or so.

You may already have seen them, but there are two forum areas that should be useful to you. The Knowledge Cafe and the Past Masters section. Both are sources of info about vintage or classic equipment.

[walpurgis]

If I had a time machine though and could give my younger self a bag of cash and a good tip then either HK Citation I & V or Marantz 7 plus 2 or 9, Quads, Thorens, SME, Ortofon or Neumann cartridge would have been my first ;-)

Best,
Terry

I've often had similar thoughts.

My choices might be rather different to those of many. I guess I'd be tempted by a Decca SC4E and Ortofon SPU cartridge again. Another Decca International tonearm, with original metal headshell, mounted on a white Garrard 301. That would be nice. An amplifier from Luxman maybe or perhaps Radford, driving a pair of Tannoy Monitor Gold 15" corner Yorks. That little lot would do nicely.

[TerryNYC]

The New York Public Library has almost everything in English as well as an excellent selection of German journals. I've been focused on American periodicals: Audio, High Fidelity, Stereo Review, and the Audio Critic plus skimming quite a bit of Wireless World. I think I'll be starting the English journals late autumn including the yearbooks.

Thanks for telling me about the other sections, I've not yet seen them but one evening during the week...

[TerryNYC]

Indeed it would. I was a fan of Decca when young. After first hearing Quads though very few speakers ever sounded right to me again. A bit like cooking for me -- my first three cookbooks were from James Beard, Elizabeth David, and Marcella Hazan -- this pretty much ruined me for restaurants for life ;-)

[walpurgis]

That's certainly some work you have ahead of you Terry.

[walpurgis]

After first hearing Quads though very few speakers ever sounded right to me again.

I've owned Quads. The original ESLs and I enjoyed them. What they get right, they get more right than any other speaker. However, to me there's a magic about what proper Tannoys do and I just keep going back to them. On my 22nd pair now! :D

[Virtual-Symmetry]

Well you obviously never learn Geoff :lol:

:sofa:

[walpurgis]

Well you obviously never learn Geoff :lol:

:sofa:

Oi. Behave yourself! ;)

[Virtual-Symmetry]

:eek:

[TerryNYC]

+1 ;-)

[Barry]

Welcome to AoS Terrence.

Over 11,000 CDs - wow, I bet they takes up some space. :eek:

Enjoy the Forum
Barry

[TerryNYC]

Hi Barry, thanks for saying hello. Not really a lot of space because at the 6" dimensions I can and do have them using lots of space that would be unusable for anything else. Also functions as decor and a conversation starter ;-) I am devoting one day weekly to email & calls for my project, and hoping to have finished the current round and be able to look through the forums and perhaps post something useful here starting in mid-July. Thanks again. Terry