tonyniev wrote in post #17601908
Omar, I would like to see his collection and hear his system when I visit you in NYC , one of these days
. Vinyls are different sound and for an old man like me, bring back good memories. Some of my records I have owned for more than 40 years, a few are my dad's from 60 years ago. I am finding these records once enjoyed by people around that time too.
Read this posting on FB: And below is the current set up. I have more than 600 vinyls only, but buy at 50+ per week
A nostalgic audiophile story and which sounds better: Analog or Digital ?
May 3, 2015 at 4:01pm
I hope this note will help some of my friends understand my sudden interest in audio.
As many of you know from my Instagram, Twitter and FB postings I have recently started to listen to my 25 year old stereo system. This new interest came about when I discovered some old vinyl records in two of the unopened boxes that we packed years ago when we moved here to Las Vegas. Also last year, I had the luck of listening to an uber high-end stereo system in a specially built room of a true audiophile Greg Atienza. That evening of good audio with friends got me to appreciate good music again.
For the last 20 years I have been listening to surround systems primarily from CD's and while viewing television. I have a 7.1Dolby surround at the family room and a 5.1 surround in my bedroom. The 25 year old Onkyo system was rarely used in the 2nd floor family hall.
I grew up in a house always with a HI Fi. My dad was an audiophile, he started with a Phillips system, and when multiplex FM was not yet available, a few radio stations in Manila would transmit on Sundays simulcast FM and AM , he would be listening to the new technology of "stereo broadcast". Actually our first phono system was a monaural system and the cartridge used metal needles that had to be replaced regularly.
My dad eventually bought higher components and speakers. I remember his Garrard turntable and him using stroboscopic lights to adjust speed, carefully balancing the tone arm, cleaning the records and zapping it with what looked like a space age pistol to remove static electricity. He even had a special phono pre amp built that had multiple equalization for RIAA and DIN ( a world wide standard was not yet established so DIN for Europe and RIAA for USA standards). I remember our HH Scott stereo, Fisher and Quad, with variety of speakers including the large ElectroVoice Voice of the Theater. He had good equipment including his large open reel tapes like Ampex and Teac.
In my 4th year high school; as part of my electronics course ( yes I was fortunate to go to a public high school that offered college preparatory courses plus vocation training, by third year I can qualify as an electrician) I built a 100 watt vacuum tube audio amplifier. I bought all the parts at Raon street, Manila's "tin pan" alley and "akihabara" for electronics. Every thing was built from scratch- from punching the holes on the metal chassis for the tube sockets to creating a bus wire to solder all the components. It was push-pull system, a Class AB amplifier ( more of this later on various types of amplifier). My dad used this amplifier for his center speaker, a new trend then to enhance the two channel stereo.
When I got married I started my own stereo system. The first one, I bought in Hon Kong in 1968. was a 100 watt solid state mini integrated stereo receiver with two mini speakers, smaller than book shelf type. I used an old automatic Garrard record player from my dad's storage. I later changed the speakers by buying a pair of Phillips passive 8 inch two way speakers and building a cabinet, by asoking a cabinet/furniture maker to follow a design my dad and I found from "Popular Electronics" magazine. It was bass reflex baffle. I added later some cone and small trumpet tweeters and created my a DIY cross over network ( simple capacitors (capacitance) to filter low frequencies for the tweeter and a coil (inductance) from the mid and bass speakers). When the quad, (surround) sound systems became in vogue by the 1970's I shifted to a Sansui receiver, I also bought in Hong Kong, and added two more of similar DIY speakers. I even added a reverb device that used a pair of springs to create the delays for th echo and even tremolo effects.
. When I got assigned to IBM NY I sold the system to Dennis Legaspi of BPI, I believe he enjoyed listening to it for sometime.
In NYC ,during lunch time and on the way home from the city (IBM offices at 57th st. and Madison avenue to Grand Central station, to take the train as I lived in Katonah, Weschester county), I started looking for components to build the stereo. Dynaco amps and preamps were attractive then because it came as a kit and I can build it and save money. But before I can decide on an amplifier I must first select the speakers. I hunted for a good speaker, listening at various HI Fi listening rooms. I even brought a record to test the speakers- Pink Floyd- Dark Side of the Moon, particularly the song Money. Electrostatics was the new thing on speakers then. I like listening to vocals and with the large electrostatics, listening was like being swallowed by singer's mouth that filled the room.
Reading from the magazines, I learned that a company in Brooklyn, NYC got awarded a patent and was selling very good speakers - the OHM F. Fortuitously, I found a pair in a high end place in Mt Kisko, a city next to Katonah {and where my youngest daughter was going to her nursery school. the three other children were at St Mary's in Katonah . Google Katonah and most probably it will show the large property for Martha Stewart. At that time my neighbors looked at me with respect, the only other Filipino resident of Katonah lived in a large estate, Don Amado Araneta).
The Ohm F was a demanding speaker. The patented Walsh design, required 65 to 100 watts amps as the absolute minimum amplifier power. With so many types to choose and solid states were coming to be efficient and I opted to get the award winning SAE 400 amp (200 wats RMS per channel) and equalizer equipped preamp, a Marantz tuner and a dual turntable with Shure cartridge. I was set and started buying LP's to listen to. (if you danced in any discos or nightclubs in the in the 80's, chances are you were dancing to music amplified by SAE amps, the SAE400 was a workhouse for loud good music during this period. Glad I lived in a home with wide spaces between neighbors, else they may complain to the village association, I listened to my music like I was dancing in a disco.)
When I returned to the Philippines, and built a home in Alabang, I had the den wired with 30 amp single breaker line to power the SAE amp because the starting current was so high it could trip the circuit if shared with other appliances. When we moved to Forbes, I added another system for the den and kept the Ohm F & SAE in the living room, the preamp is now Precison Fidelity tube fed by a large and heavy Denon turntable with twin tone arms, a Nakamichi cassette and a JVC CD player. The den system was Snell A series 1, NAD amp and CD player. In the bedroom I had the Bose cube system powered by a Hafler amp (later Carver amp).
The Onkyo integrated amps with CD Changer, twin cassettes, tuner and MCS oem turntable with audio technical cartridge and 3 way Denon speakers was purchased 25 years ago for the South San Francisco vacation home. When I immigrated to NY , my son Gerry got us a home theater dolby system with a Yamaha receiver and Infinity speakers with KLH subwoofer. Retiring in Las Vegas, I installed at the family room a Denon 7.1 home theater system with 7 Bose in ceiling mount speakers with Velosolex sub. In the bedroom a 5.1 Yamaha home theater to Speakercraft wall and ceiling mounted speakers and Boston Acoustic center and sub. CDs and streaming are with Samsung Blu Ray player with built in wifi and apps.
Now I am listening to two Dali Lektor 8 speakers courtesy of my eldest son Christian, who is the audiophile in the family who had installed many systems himself. Glad he had these spare speakers
. I need to upgrade with new Turntable/cartridge, get a DAC to listen to CD and streaming and then a new amp (integrated or mono blocks). The Lektor 8's will need fro 40-180 watts of power. So if tube type amp minimum of 40 watts, solid state should be around 100 watts per channel.
The question raised by some is, why listen to vinyls? why not listen to CD's or live streaming, easier and more current technology. Let me try to explain. Vinyls are analog, while CD's are digital. Vinyls will be closer to the true sounds if reproduced with good equipment. CD's and streaming are trying to approximate the analog sounds of vinyl records and they are getting better and almost there.
Sounds waves are analogs and in simple term too are radio and light waves. They follow the sine wave. Audible waves are the low end of the spectrum 20- 20,000 cycles per second. (Radio waves are are in long wave, medium wave, shortwave 3-30,000,000 cycles per second (or 30 megahertz, (Hertz is cycles per second is named after Henrich Rudolf Hertz ), VHF is 30-300 mhz; UHF and so on, visible light is 430 to 790 terahertz. )
Sounds are made by the singer's vibrating vocal chords, or the vibrating strings of a violin and guitars
Recorded music starts as simple analog sound waves, converted by the microphones into analog electrical signals, and in the vinyl records theses electrical signals are recorded as grooves in the master records. ( in most instances, was first recorded into magnetic tapes). With Compact Discs, (CD's) these analog signals are digitized. The analog signals, the sine waves are chopped into many slices. So in CDs and digital streaming the sounds are really an approximation of the actual sounds, it is not the full sound. For many the chopped music is good enough, for the few audiophiles they don't want to compromise. In my case, maybe just in the mind, like a placebo, I find that vinyl records give a certain sound quality, even with the cheap turntable, uniquely different from CD music. My son Gerry thinks CD music is better. My Son Christian actually listen more to streaming on an apple TV device but thru a DAC (digital to analog converter) devise.
The other reason I listen to records is the nostalgic feeling I get from the old songs in those records.
To "improve" digital source materials sound "nuances" I will use a DAC that will also allow me to connect the new devices like apple TV to the analog inputs of the amplifier. (In the old days the only way to connect was with RCA plugs, one for each channels, the newer devices use digital optics, digital cable, and usb and HDMI or even wireless with blue tooth).
As stated above, I am now researching turntables that are affordable and better than good enough. A DAC and then the amplifier. Interestingly most new amplifiers now, are class D, meaning they too, are digital. Unlike Class, A, B and AB, that amplify full (or half) the sound sine waves; Class D do not amplify the full analog sine wave, rather the circuitry slices the signal into pulses that it amplifies. Just enough signals to approximate the true sounds. Some say this could make the sound too tweety,
Unlike in1976, when I can walk into listening rooms of Hi Fi stores in NYC, I now do my shopping online and rely on other consumer reviews. So it will take time before an actual amplifier upgrade will happen.
I am closer to making the turntable upgrade, maybe in a week, after I complete my research with the advise and help of my PhD son Christian.
Interestingly I saw a packaged deal of a pre amp with DACS, with phono input with companion two mono blocks of 100 watts each. It is Class D digital complete even with blue tooth and usb connectors. Doing more research. Maybe a class D is good enough. I am okay with solid state no need to go with vacuum tube powered amps, but the Chinese made ones are also interesting to review.
I will give an update as I progress into this new hobby. As an analogy, consider my photography hobby. I know my cameras, been shooting for 5 decades, and owned Voigtlander, Mamiya, Nikon, Leica and even did dark room enlarging and developing. I shifted to video and then went "point and shoot" with Sony digital 3.2 megapixel camera in the mid 90's. Went to DSLR with Canon in 2002, upgraded twice but was using Canon's in automatic mode.
Then 5 years ago, I decided to take up photography again and got the semi pro Canon 5D2 with high quality lenses and a second camera the Canon 7D and last year added a Sony mirrors A7r and more lenses. I enjoy the hobby and happy with the results and the good gears help in making those high quality images I share here in FB. I wonder what my new experiences and discoveries with this renewed interest in audio will be.
As the song says- Que Sera Sera.
By the way, most millennials do not need stereo systems with large speakers or big amps, they grew up listening using their headphones. Some of these high end head phones are good and for the young audiophiles there are even vacuum tube amplifiers for use with these headphones.
