Oh man those were the days. In '79 my college housemates and I hitched to
Boston from Providence one cold Saturday to get Pennysaver audio toys. We
got an AR but only for the motor, platter and pivot. We called the tone arm
a baseball bat, $25. Then we got a Grace tonearm, a beautifully tapered
aluminum channel with holes drilled thru it for weight reduction. It had
bare gold wires epoxied to it for the phono cartridge signal (the epoxy
isolated the 4 wires). The tone arm had an oil damped uni-pivot so you had
to balance it in 360-degrees, $125. Got a new moving coil cartridge and
preamp, $275. Lastly, since the base of the AR was also substandard, we cast
a solid concrete base. Total weight about 100-lbs and NEVER any rumble,
noise or feedback. Total cost about $450. What a cool set up alongside a
pair of Dynaco 400w amps, etc. Right after that we decided audio wars with
college room mates was too expensive and we formed a band. Last I heard, the
turntable still pays great! The band, well we were called, Some Not Overly
Talented, actually the acronym.
Eric
-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Marcham [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tue Nov 29 21:23:32 2005
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [BP] needed: one of those Radio Club nerds
The venerable Dual 1219?
I have one of those old "completely manual" AR (Acoustics Research)
turntables (doesn't set the needle on the record or pick it up when it get
to the middle) that were popular among audiophiles back in the early 70s
(well the cheap ones anyway). I got it from my brother when he stepped up
(but I don't know to what). http://www.vinylnirvana.com/ar_models_xa.shtml
If I remember correctly "the best" were ones that took the needle cartridge
across the record so that it was always perpendicular to the radius to match
what the devices that made the masters did. Light stylus pressure, low
rumble from the motor, etc. ad nauseum.
I must say that the hassles we put up with in the old days were pretty
amazing compared to shoving a tape in the deck or even putting a CD in the
player now (to say nothing of the CD players that hold five or 20 CDs at a
time). Remember turning a record over after about 15-20 minutes of music (or
even a single song in the case of 45s)? That partly explains why my
audiophile brother made "party tapes" for his Revox reel-to-reel that went
on for a couple of hours or so (it cut down on accidents when handling the
records in "altered states" but to be fair it cut down on handling the
records or defiling them with the stylus any more than once or twice).
I heard it said recently on NPR that as far as preserving information
(digital and analog) for a long period of time none of the current
technologies match old vinyl records so that suggests that recording your
records onto CDs (something I plan to do at some point) isn't the last word.
This surprised me.
Born To Run.
-----Original Message-----
From: The listserv that takes flossing seriously!
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Becker, Dan
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 3:18 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [BP] needed: one of those Radio Club nerds
Be careful. I thought the same thing with my BIC 980 semi-automatic belt
drive, and when I finally did dust them up, the lubes in the motor had
frozen up and it was worthless. Had to buy me a used Dual.
Be sure to take it out for a test spin every once and a while.
D.
-----Original Message-----
From: The listserv that takes flossing seriously!
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jim Follett
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 12:55 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [BP] needed: one of those Radio Club nerds
I always thought the Phillips 212 was the thing to have, I ended up with an
880, still have it locked away, never know when I'll dust off those early
Springsteen albums.
-----Original Message-----
From: The listserv that takes flossing seriously!
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Bruce Marcham
Sent: Monday, November 28, 2005 10:08 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [BP] needed: one of those Radio Club nerds
Chris:
As it turns out the unit I have is a Harmon Kardon with a Garrard 50
turntable so I have nothing to help me on this end.
Speaker cone deterioration could cause some unwanted noise, rattle, or buzz
to the sound but It doesn't sound like that is Chris' problem if it is just
there in the background. I've heard of doing a heap fix with nail polish or
something like that, gluing the tear back together, but it will probably
just tear again if the material is dried out. You could try another set of
speakers or headphones to see if that solves the problem.
Speaker phasing, from my knowledge, shouldn't cause a problem like what
Chris is describing. It only causes a mild distortion of the sound from the
standpoint of the volume of certain tones. If I remember correctly sounds
that are supposed to be in phase due to coming from both speakers at the
same time get cancelled out midway between the speakers (or maybe they
should if the speakers are in phase). With the RCA speaker jacks that Chris
has that shouldn't be a problem (assuming they were wired properly from the
factory and not rewired since). In any event to my knowledge you shouldn't
get a background hiss from improper phasing and it shouldn't come on all of
a sudden.
Maybe the internals need a good cleaning? Dust built up on the circuit
boards combined with humidity might cause this.
I assume your thanking me (in another note, the one that started the SS W/S
wastebasket string) was not because something I suggested had fixed the
problem but because I offered to check my stock of old equipment to see if I
could come up with anything? Your moving on to the corrosion on the SS W/S
wastebasket led me to believe that you might have solved your initial
problem. Combined with the table mildew problem it leads me to believe you
need to spend more time there to keep up with all these things (or maybe you
should let the whole place return to nature which seems to be attacking it
full force).
Bruce
-----Original Message-----
From: The listserv that takes flossing seriously!
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Bruce Marcham
Sent: Friday, November 25, 2005 3:04 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [BP] needed: one of those Radio Club nerds
Chris:
Short answer (as I'm sure you know)--anything can be saved if you throw
enough money at it.
The next question is "is it worth it?" It might cost $50 to $100 or so and
look what you can buy for that these days (not much I'd want in my living
room).
KLH was a good brand at one time.
Is the turntable part of the tuner/amplifier, a real wood enclosure with a
stylish low slope to the front? I may have one of these at home. My
recollection is that it might be an FM-only unit?
I had output power transistors go in the "old" amps (post tube era) but I
think that would give no sound.
Anyway, I'll be home in a while and will look at the one I have to see if
there is a switch that might be in the wrong position (I was think of a
speaker A/B/A&B slider switch but it seems like that would also give you no
sound if in the wrong position).
Another possibility is that there is no civilization (read NPR) out there
anymore...
Is the antenna connected (maybe the cat/mice/poodle chewed through it)?
Have tried a record on it with the switch in the phono position (maybe just
rub your finger side-to-side under the needle to see if you can scratch out
a good rap rhythm...). If you get no static in this mode and a scratching
sound when you rub your finger on it then maybe it just a problem with the
tuner circuit.
I assume you've spun the tuning knob to see if you get any change in the
buzz?
I'll check back late this afternoon.
Bruce
-----Original Message-----
From: The listserv that takes flossing seriously!
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
[log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, November 24, 2005 10:41 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [BP] needed: one of those Radio Club nerds
Am in MV, land of waxed screens. Have beautiful old KLH turntable/FM,
height of cool modernity in 1969, listed to Jeff Airplane, Steppenwolf,
Canned Heat, Neil Young, "Eight Miles High" etc. on it. Heard first
confused news bulletins of the Weathermen explosion of rowhouse in Greenwich
Village on it.
Now, with power on but no radio, record, etc., speakers give off almost-loud
hissing noise. Cannot listen to Bach, Donovan, Weavers any more, not that
noticeable with Blues Magoos, electric Dylan, Cream. A real problem with
Garrison Keillor.
Can this instrument be saved?
Christopher on dfi
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