AUDIO EQUIPMENT ODDITIES

[4krow]

Given the nature of this forum, I suspect that many of us have gone out on a limb more than once, trying to build/find a better mousetrap. I have a question for you. What was the craziest or most unusual system or piece of gear you ever owned or made? Let me get the ball rollin here. In high school, I got ripped off by the local HI-FI salesman by being talked into a set of Johnzeer speakers. The sudden realization was that these were crap, and only looked cool(to me). After the sting wore off, I started my journey into real HI-FI, and came up with a kit from Speakerlab. It was a folded horn design that didn't sound great, but the bass is unforgettable! ALL the way down to 20hz with force. It took about three months to build them in shop class, and I got an A- cuz the instructor had no idea what the Hell they were. At 170lbs. each, they looked more like refrigerators with wood fronts.  But in the end, I sold them a couple of years later. Wish I knew then what I know now.

 

[Grainger49]

My most odd piece of audio gear was a Dayton-Wright SPM preamp.  They are of course known for their "full range" electrostatic speakers.  These speakers ended up with a Piezo tweeter and subs. 

My SPM had so much gain I couldn't play it in my room.  The left channel didn't cut in till it was too loud for the room.  I sent it back.  I was a salesman for D-W and got it on accommodation. 

 

[Chris]

Johnzeer... that is a hilarious name... All the gear i started out as a teeneager with was respectable. Silver Pioneer , CTF-1250 , Technics sl-10 and Bose 901s.. Superb for an 18 year old, I loved it....So no weird gear, BUT, I guess the craziest thing I did was to get rid of ALL of my vinyl (mofi pink floyd, mofi alan parsons etc).. So not a crazy piece of gear I owned, but a CRAZY thing I did with audio gear I owned..... I am slowly crawling my way back into a respectable vinyl collection as we speak....

 

[4krow]

BOSE 901's are 'respectable?'

 

[Chris]

Sure, when you are 18 and just want to blast hard rock... yesssiree they were actually pretty darn awesome to say the least. I was the envy of all my friends at the time, some would even ask to come over and blast their Nugent or J Priest etc.. An older friend of mine at the same time had a stack of 3 pair in a basically acoustically "dead" room fed by 3 amps, and all I can say is after many years of listening to many systems of well over 100k, I have forgotten alot of those, however , I will never forget my friends "six pack" playing stuff like Rock Candy by Montrose etc....JUST PLAIN AWESOME!!!!! when setup correctly..... BUT, would I own them now???  No........ I have grown and evolved, but I will never forget them though.... and THAT is why this hobby is SO  much fun... This is a great thread topic.... Oh and my 6 pack friend has long since moved on to electrostatics.. I have as well owning 3 pairs actually.... Great memories....

 

[Chris]

Actually now that I think of it. Along with my teenage system way back then , I was talked into a DBX 3BX dynamic range expander (the new rage of the day in my neck of the woods) ... Have to say I hardly used it due to the fact that I didnt like how it emphasized the high frequencies "brighter" and the bass "boomier" in my system...This is probably the reason I , to this day, dont like to add any "processing" in the chain.. Just keep it as simple as possible... So good lesson out of it. Funny enough, just 4 years ago, after it had been sitting in a box since the early 80s and in mint condition of course, I sold it on ebay for $350... I orig. paid $450 so not bad.  Have to say it was the craziest component I have purchased...

 

[[email protected]]

I also acquired a pair of 901's when I was a Senior in HS.  Around '79.  I still get comments about them at class reunions.  They really were the thing back in the day.  Mine were series II Continentals.  Very classy.

I recently found a pair of series II on the 'bay and have them properly placed in my garage with an equalizer that I recapped.  For a few hundred bucks they make wonderful garage speakers.  I have them hanging from the ceiling so the cars, or whatever project I'm working on is never in the way of the sound and they can take a lot of abuse. 

For me, very nostalgic.  I can also move around the garage without a big change in sound perspective.  It always sounds like balanced stereo no matter where you are.

The strangest piece of gear I ever bought was a Phase Linear Model 1000 Autocorrelator.  I used it with a B&O 1700 turntable and TEAC A3300SX Reel to Reel.  It is the only piece of electronic gear that I still own from my youth.  I was always adjusting the knob so that the indicator light flashed not too much and not too little.  Kind of like a peak level indicator. 

 

[earwaxxer]

I would have to say that the weirdest piece of gear that I can remember is a portable mini real to real tape recorder. Battery powered. That was WAY before cassette. I can easily place that from the early to mid 60's remembering what music I was taping.  Of course we all had our 'portable' turntable in a box. Like Greg, I cut my teeth on some home built Speakerlabs. Any head worth their salt had Speakerlabs.

 

[4krow]

Yah, Carver made some unique stuff, that's for  sure. I still own a C-9 Sonic hologram, and get a kick out of it once in awhile. I forget, did Carver also make the 'clicks and pops' machine to reduce record noise?

 

[Paul Joppa]

Dudes, you do know that Speakerlab and Phase Linear/Carver are Seattle area companies, right? :^)

@earwaxxer, was that perhaps a Uher? Long story about THAT! Poor man's Nagra.

First time I realized how different speakers could be was when I auditioned Bose 901s against Klipshorns. Early 20s, just graduated and with a $$$ job so I could actually thing about non-dumpster-sourced components. Wow.

 

[earwaxxer]

Hey Paul - I dont doubt it at all. Seattle is so cool it cant stand itself. I love that town. My brother used to live there. Worked for Microsoft. The enemy. I liked the town though. Visited there once or twice.

 

[Chris]

Yes, thats correct about Speakerlabs... MANY people I knew growing up in Washington state owned speakerlabs in the 70s.. Successful business concept back then...  And speaking of 901s and dumpster gear... I read a review of the 901 from a guy dissing the speaker.. his hilarious quote was.. "the BEST sound the 901s ever produced was when they hit the bottom of the dumpster"... hahaha
Porcupunctus... I am with you man...sounds like you had the same type of experience/fun as i did.. Mine were series 4  bought in 1982 when they were still a well regarded speaker.. I went off to college with them and a Carver M1.5t. It was an awesome, lightweight and small package perfect for moving them from west coast to east coast and back again.. And  holy moly could they go loud with that Carver.. I had a 20 foot loft ceiling so the sky was the limit for image height and they got up there pretty high.... anyway, sorry, I got carried away down memory lane.. But again, this is EXACTLY why this hobby is so much fun... We talk about our gear like it is a part of the family... WHICH IT IS!! 

 

[Grainger49]

The other odd place with a cluster of audio manufacturers is Boulder CO.  Of course, Boulder is odd by itself and very proud of it.  No offense to anyone living there.  I have my Boulder T-Shirt saying so many square miles surrounded by reality.

 

[Paul Birkeland]

I picked up a Sansui drawer loading turntable at a thrift store for $20 in 2000.  It had two tonearms, so you could play either side of the record without flipping it over.  I used it for a few months, then decided to let it go on eBay based on its sonic merits.  Somebody in Japan had to have it, and paid over $500 for it, which was rather surprising.

 

[4krow]

Wow, I don't I remember THAT TT. That is truly unique, not to mention the TT they tried to sell us that used a laser instead of a needle. It was only $10k, and wasn't exactly perfect.

 

[ssssly]

My strange concoctions are generally speaker projects. Such as my most recent quad ppsl, open baffles that are soft coupled to a front loaded 50hz horn. Interesting experiment that looks like a tic tac toe board with speakers hanging out of it jammed in a ski ramp.

My curved 36s were pretty funky looking too. Could never get them to image quite right and got tired of all the cutting required to make new curved baffles so I gave up. Super loud with 2w and flat response though.

 

[earwaxxer]

That sounds pretty cool - can we see pics? I love that DIY one of a kind stuff. It gives me ideas.

 

[4krow]

Yah, pic's are a must bro. That is exactly what I am talking about, strange but true, and good results in spite of it all.

 

[Chris]

Yeah, the laser turntable, I remember that one.... around the early mid 80s I believe, Panasonic/Technics came out with an audio tape deck that digitally recorded on a video cassette. It retailed for $1500... Never knew of anyone who owned one though..

 

[4krow]

And one more comes to mind the EL CASSETTE  by Sony. A little larger than a cassette, and probably better, but it didn't catch on for long.