Grateful Dead

I was concerned, glad to hear you are well. Southwest of you I'm concerned, I still have friends in central florida, my mother lives down there (93 yrs old) but also dodged the main bullet, waiting for others to contact me. Mini vay kay play dead

Good to hear you and yours safe and sound. Thoughts go out to FL friends (so far, all good) and all who were so near the path. Almost at 1972 here, streaming the early December 1971 run at mini-MSG Felt Forum. A gloriously bright sunny Vermont day, fall foliage coming on, first frost tonight. Will pull the last peppers, tomatoes and basil out now.

Love it! The Ess Amt-4 is a two-way with the slightly smaller Heil Air Motion Transformer and a 10" woofer rated 20W to 250W. They are 4 ohm, 45hz-24Khz, with the x-over at 1000hz, and called the sleeper in their killer line up from BITD. The best thing they have going is that Amt which delivers clear beautiful highs and solid mids in all directions from an open top design. Easy placement that way too. Look up their big boys, ESS Amt-1s and their Towers (I forget the number), well respected and still fetch four figure prices as parts units which tells you a lot. The Amt itself is indestructible and lifetime warranted. Mine had a solid pure pulp cone on that 10" which I have had to replace with a set of Misco, made in Minneapolis, Oaktron 10" from their Heritage line made to replace the similar stuff in all the brands from BITD. Same pure pulp cone and big voice coils and magnets but in a stamped steel frame just like the originals. Spec at 16-4000hz and 92 db efficiency.
Got the ESSs cheap when almost new in 1977 from a college roomy who couldn't manage to get them back home to Cincy without a car. But then when the cat put a hole in one of the woofers in the 90s I replaced the originals with what I thought would be an upgrade but I screwed up. Bought subs that were 8-ohms by Pyramid, Super Pro Super Blue, made by Eminence in US ( Kentucky?) famous for their instrument speakers for bass and guitar. Great deal from a car audio shop going out of business and they took my torn ones in trade as well. As you know, that 8-ohm mistake changed the x-over to 2000hz and I traded off some midrange for killer, punchy bottom end which I thought at the time was good. Found out about five years ago that I screwed up and got the Miscos for about what I sold the now valuable subs for. Fit like a glove which no one who tried that swap with the only available 10" direct from ESS could do as all they sold was the big boy 10" from other higher models with a cast aluminum frame that required sawing into your cabinets just to make it fit. Found that out on Audio Karma luckily from others trying to do the same replacement on their various ESS. A couple of those guys used Dayton woofers to good effect but I went with Misco as their specs were a perfect match to original, hence original sound. Was not going to try to mess with upgrading as I might have had to upgrade the x-over too and taking a saw to the cabinets was out of the question. SO, long story longer, I got my midrange back and Phil bombs sound better than ever! Not bad for a novice hack job since I have zero skills with electricity or carpentry. Not even interested in a sub really. Pretty small living room and I want to keep peace in the neighborhood. Anytime you upgrade there is a leap of faith that the money you're spending will get the result you're after so I got lucky in all this I'd say. Some with a little more dinero are switching stuff all the time but you don't know unless you go. I certainly was OK with all my 70s stuff but you get used to your sound and don't realize how much better it can be until you go there. Thanks Oro.
Cheers

I wish your last statement was true - but I suspect that the selfish behaviour of the powerful will have long lasting negative consequences for years to come.

For all those who asked, or were concerned...............

The Gillespie household is doing fine. So far, we've only lost power for about 45 minutes, but it's back on now. We've only caught the "tropical storm" part of Ian, but I have heard that potentially, this may be the deadliest hurricane to ever hit Florida. We now live in Green Cove Springs, about 30 miles southeast of Jax, safely away from the beach, the St John's River, and Black Creek. We're in a newish house, on high ground, have lots of food and water, and have an excellent generator. The St Augustine area is getting badly flooded........

The strongest hurricane to ever hit Florida was the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, sustained winds of 180+ mph when it hit. There is a lovely--and moving----monument in the Keys to the hundreds who lost their lives in that storm. I've visited that site many many times while I lived down there. The deadliest? Probably the same hurricane, the exact toll is unknown, but probably in the hundreds.......

For Matthew, we evacuated. For Irma, we hunkered down and rode out the storm. For a hurricane, either get out early, or be prepared to ride it out. I reassured my wife, "No matter what comes, we'll ride it out together".

Out of an abundance of caution, my office is closed today and tomorrow, and I don't work this weekend. A "mini-vacation" of sorts. Now that the power is back, I'm actually busy spreading 1972 Lyceum shows around. Some things never change, hurricane be damned!!

Here we dodged a bullet, yet I pray for those in harm's way on the Gulf coast...............

Stay safe, and rock on,

Doc
What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal......

Don’t think I’ve heard of the ESS Amt 4s, looked them up, interesting, do you use a sub with them?
And you refreshed my memory about adcom so I looked into that brand a little too.
Interesting video comparing Adcom and NAD to contemporary Schiit audio.

Almost bought a Schiit Yggdrasil DAC before I got my Meitner. For like 22-23 hundred bucks they sound as good as many DACs costing many thousands more! Schiit makes simple but value friendly great sounding products, or at least the ones I’ve heard.
But yeah, NAD and Adcom, same idea, BITD budget friendly but great sounding gear. Sounds like a sweet little system!

Hybrid stuff. I’ve heard some sweet sounding hybrid stuff at audio shows.
Of course Jer Bear had a hybrid system utilizing a Fender Twin Tube amp for his pre and a SS MC2300 power amp and we all know how great that sounded and perhaps why he never changed his backend!
I would say if your going to try hybrid go tube pre and SS power…
My best recollection was with my buddy who started YFS and built my custom Ref 3 server: had an amazing sounding system one year at RMAF using YFS server, Meitner DAC, Custom made fully analog pre (tube?) biamped with one of the best sounding MC 275 tube amps on the highs, and a 200 per McIntosh solid state amp on the lows (don’t recall the model), powering some Von Schweikert audio stand speakers. I thought the sound and imaging of this system, even in the shitty little hotel room sounded as good or better than much bigger and expensive systems there that year.
Just can’t describe what a big clean sound this relatively small system produced! Of course for the price of the system it should! Lol.

I think it’s like everything else: trial and error and if it’s done right it can be a plus!
I’ve never had tube stereo gear, but I’ve heard some great stuff, but that particular MC 275 that my buddies dad (some kind of engineer/scientist) restored and modified, is perhaps the best tube amp I’ve ever had the pleasure to hear. His dad is the one who built the custom line stage too. Ya know, let’s design and build a one of a kind killer audiophile unit just for something to do lol. They build their own bike frames too!
So to me it’s like all this stuff, tube versus SS, analog versus digital etc, there’s not just one thing that’s best or better, if it’s done right, and you get the right synergy for your room etc, I’ve heard systems of all kinds that were amazing!

Just a thought, yeah tube amps can be great for instruments for musical creation when you want that slightly overdriven sound (think Dead 72 before using Mac amps on the instruments), but for sound reproduction they can get tubby or muddy with perhaps too much distortion. Some people like that as it can give a richer, or warmer sound, I’m with you 1stshow, I prefer a more neutral sound, though some think that’s too dry etc?

In the end, it just comes down to what’s best for you!

For a few years, I was deeply into audio: or as deeply as my meager budget would allow, anyway. It started when I realized I needed a tube amplifier. This was because I realized that I would never in a million years use a transistor amp for my guitar, so why would I use one for my home listening?

But of course tube amps and preamps are pretty pricey, so I had to go the DIY route: I built a preamp from a kit (Bottlehead) and bought an old ST-70 power amp, and I spent a lot of time tweaking them with various upgrades. They sounded pretty good, eventually. And I needed some efficient speakers, so I paired them with some Klipsch Heresys that I got off craigslist (for $100!).

What happened next is so typical of me it's embarrassing: the ST-70 worked great for about 10 years and then just cut out one day. By this time, I had forgotten all the various rewirings and component upgrades etc I had done, and lost all my paperwork. So I had no idea how to troubleshoot it! Couldn't even find my volt meter! I decided to just sell the ST-70 for a couple hundred, get myself a used Sansui Au-417 (since they're reputed to have a tube-like sound, also a great phono stage), put all new caps in there, and call it day. So after all that I'm back to transistors. Sounds pretty good, though.

Somewhat bemused to read the travails of my fellow heads who ordered the MSG set via Rhino and are now working through the delays and shipping mishaps. I didn't get the box set (early '80s are just not my era) but I went for the 3 CD breakout. Ordered it from Bezos and received on the day it was released. What a concept! I'm glad to have it, it's a good performance, but disappointed in the mix. It's all Jerry and Brent, Bob's guitar is completely (and I mean completely) inaudible, Phil and the drummers much too low. But you can hear Jerry great, and it's a high energy show so probably most people will really dig it. Still, I hope the rest of the box is better, for everybody's sake.

Five for the universe:

John Coltrane: Coltrane
GOGD: Dick's Picks 36 (yow!!!)
Joe Henderson: Mode for Joe
Zappa: Hot Rats
Sturgill Simpson: Cuttin Grass

I went to separates during covid after doing some research and hearing from a collector of Heil Amt speakers that I wasn't hearing all my ESS Amt-4 floor standing speakers could do. Got an Adcom dual mono amp with 100W and 180 damping factor and was blown away like the Maxell guy. Got the other Adcom separates one at a time and noticed improvement each time. The pre-amp was better than using my old integrated amp as a pre and the digital tuner was way better than the old one. All are late 80s MOSFET stuff and fully restored they are still way cheaper than either vintage premier like Oro's McIntosh or 10x cheaper than modern audiophile. Just got to find a reliable restorer. They were the bargain audiophile brand BITD and made in USA. Very neutral coloring which some don't like but it's better to hear it exactly as it was made and play with the tone controls if you want different. Diminishing returns to go higher but I would have if the money was there. All in I spent maybe $700 and it sounds good to me. The bonus was I got a bedroom system from the old stuff, just have to add some speakers.

Ten days to get my 3 CD MSG from CA to CO doesn't sound very innovative. Mail Innovations, aka the Louis Dejoy enrichment scheme, adds almost 500 more miles to the route that would have gotten to me two to three days earlier had UPS shortcut Mail Innovations and delivered it straight from the handoff point only 60 miles away. Bad for the customer and bad for the planet. Should be here tomorrow. Oh well, as Neil says, "don't let it bring you down, it's only castles burning".
Cheers

Edit: I find it interesting that folks are going back to valves, or tubes, especially in the pre-amp. I was advised to go with a hybrid solid state/tube pre-amp but stick with a solid state amp to get the benefit of the "warm" tube sound without the big bucks of the tube amp. But the hybrids were beyond my budget even used/restored as they are a newer thing. Wish my family had kept my Dad's old home built Heathkit tube amp. Would love to have heard that again.

Thanks Oro, a wealth of helpful information. AJS, there with you, floor standing wise, found a pair of 1986 Klipsch Cornwall IIs, 3 foot tall, 2 foot wide, 16" deep. Horn loaded tweeters and mid range, 15" woofers. They sound incredible for 35 year olds. Was driving them with an Onkyo receiver, one of the high end spec models for a long time and was happy. Eventually hooked up a power amp/pre amp combo and was surprised how much improvement... like Oro said. The power supply on the amp is huge, output rated at 150 watts per channel so a very efficient speaker like Klipsch has no stress, there is so much headroom. The damping factor as well important, a measure of how effectively (tightly) the amp controls bass response. When damping factor number is large, bass is well defined with detail and timbre, not boomy muddy. Whatever sub anyone might be using, not much useful response below 18-20Hz, as it's exponentially demanding to get lower, subsonic. The octobass and piano lowest notes are A0, about 27hz, Pipe organ low note is C0, 16 Hz. Except there's this thing called a rotary woofer that can go down to single Hz numbers at hideous expense, IMAX theater only? I would love to see and buy a 1968 NW tour box. Meanwhile, hoping Forensic Doc will let us know how it goes, we know he's in the Jacksonville area.

Mr Ones - great band, Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets. I saw them just before covid, and was supposed to be going again in 2020-but... That dvd/blu ray disc of them live is worth getting, too.

Irrespective of the extent to which climate change is affecting the hurricanes in America, there can be little doubt that the countries who are suffering most are the poorest ones. And the ones who are contributing to it most are the richest.