Category: Antique Hi-Fi Archive

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Antique Hi-Fi Archive

Yard-Sale Speaker Spotter’s Guide: 1: JBL

JBLs ‘in-the-studio.’  Seriously tho you wouldn’t want to use these in an actual recording studio these days, trust me I’ve tried.

This week at PS dot com…  a collection of the better-sort of home hifi speakers that can turn up for $10 – $30 at yard sales in the local posh suburb.  Aside from some of the larger ‘marquee’ models, I think i’ve come across pretty much all of these at one point or another…  And remember, don’t be afraid of disintegrated foam surrounds on old woofers…  a $40 re-foam kit from Orange County Speaker and about 2 hours of your time is all it takes to bring most of these things back.  Scared me the first time too, but shit now I get to watch TV with a $1700 pair of Dahlquists that cost me all of $35.

Above, JBL Flair L45, Century L100, Decade L26, L88 Plus, Studio Master L200.

And last but not least… The L25 Prima!  JBL’s plastic-cased speakers circa 1974.  With optional coordinated record-bins.  This one’s for you MT.  You still got these things? 

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Antique Hi-Fi Archive

Jensen Explains Your High Fidelity Music System! (1953)

Download an eleven-page article from IST, September 1953, on the subject of “Your High Fidelity Music system!”

DOWNLOAD: IST-1953-09-Jensen-Your_High_Fidelity_Music_System

Glorious, glorious mono.   And so much assembly/work to be done by the user!  I was at a yard sale this past weekend… do I even need to mention this point… lured there by the promise of “Audio equipment.”  This equipment turned out to be a bunch of radio shack garbage circa 1980 and a pair of overpriced BOSE speakers (btw have you seen the T+E bit where they mock BOSE?  Amazing…).  As I was leaving I noticed a pair of circa 1955 full-range DIY’d corner speakers in the 30-yard container outside.  Trash, apparently.  I was invited to pull them out and turns out that they had GE full-range 1201A 12″ broadcast drivers in them.

Above, from the GE “Audio Data Book” circa 1955

The cabinets are ever so slightly different in construction, which led to me to believe that this enterprising man built one, and then the 2nd, once the Stereo Age was upon him.  I salute you, sir…  Anyhow, brought ’em home and the speakers sound good, INSANELY loud with minimal wattage.   Put on some Thomas F Browne and it was fantastic.  Strange thing is: there must have been an installer or shop in this area that was really pushing these 1201As back in the day as these are the 3rd and 4th that I have turned up in this county in just the past two years.

Above, maybe poor apparel choice for soldering-times.  What is that outfit even?  Was that swim-wear?  Enjoy the article.

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Antique Hi-Fi Archive

Hi-Fidelity Furniture circa 1957

Download the complete 36pp 1957 Cabinart catalog (presented in three parts due to size)

DOWNLOAD PART 1: Cabinart_1957_part1

DOWNLOAD PART 2: Cabinart_1957_part2

DOWNLOAD PART 3: Cabinart_1957_part3

Models covered include: well, hundreds of ’em.  All intended for Mono operation, including the ‘Rebel’ series of corner-horns designed by Paul Klipsch.

Above, the Rebel ‘Ortho 315’ which featured University (aka Altec) and Klipsch components.

When I think of ‘Hi Fi Furniture’ I immediately envision the wares of the Bell’ogetti brand (now known simply as ‘Bell’o’).  Their classic 80s and 90s designs were largely minimal, metal, and exposing the equipment in a dramatic manner.  Hi-Fi furniture of the 50’s was designed rather to hide and/or disguise the equipment: to ‘blend’ with the more traditional home-furnishings such as the hutch and end-table.

An interesting side-note: it seems like a mono-system offers more opportunities for designing attractive, unobtrusive hi-fi furniture.  Once you can commit to a single set of speakers, why not simply put the components in the same spot?  The whole system can be aesthetically unified, there are no wires running all over the place, etc.  Stereo console-furniture was certainly made as well in the coming years, but at some point we seem to have entered an era of conspicuous display of audio equipment rather than following a policy of tasteful containment.

Above, a Cabinart print-ad from 1956.  As the advert points out, most Cabinart models were available in three variants:  assembled+ finished, ready-to-finish, or as ready-to-assemble-and-finish.

Above, 99 North 11th street, Brooklyn, NY, former home of Cabinart, as it stands today.  Lofts are available, btw.  This structure is a stones-throw away from Beacon’s Closet and the Brooklyn Brewery, two icons of the ‘New-Williamsburg’ if ever there were.

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Antique Hi-Fi Archive

When Hi Fi was a hobby, not an industry

Download a four-page article from High Fidelity, 1966, on the subject of ‘early hi-fi’:

DOWNLOAD: High_Fidelity-6604-How_It_All_Began

Thanks to TF for sending us this piece.  The article provides an interesting perspective on the changes in state-of-the-art sound reproduction between the years 1950 and 1966.  The main themes worth noting: early hi-fi required more craft-work on the part of the consumer (fabricating cabinets, etc), had worse ergonomics, and of course: it was mono.

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Antique Hi-Fi Archive Publications

1953: What is High Fidelity?

Lee de Forest (L), the man who invented the voltage-amplifer tube, takes in the state-of-the-art in consumer audio reproduction c. 1953.

Download a two-page article on the subject of “What is High Fidelity” as-published right at the dawn of the hi-fi cultural phenomenon.

DOWNLOAD: IST-1953-09-Callen-What_Is_High_Fidelity

Audio.  From children’s toy to naval communication device to home entertainment to art, all within one lifetime.  What has changed significantly in our conception of the role of audio technology since 1953?  As this article makes clear, in 1953 ‘fidelity,’ or verisimilitude to some supposed acoustic event, was the ‘state of the art’ in audio, and contemporary technology such as the U47 mic and the Ampex tape machine was finally making this verisimilitude possible.  We now no longer have the expectation that a piece of audio ‘represents’ or ‘stand-in-for’ any actual acoustic event that ever happened in the physical world (Katy Perry track? Or Sgt Peppers?), but what have we gained?  What new expectations/demands do we have?

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Antique Hi-Fi Archive

Visual Culture

Feeling a bit of an 80s thing right now.  Jesus Christ you baby boomers.  You grew up in the 1950s, all industry and productivity and abundance (and unchecked racism, sexism,  and cold war terror), and THEN you got the 1960s, unheralded change, motion, sexual freedom, drugs, Godard, Psych, Soul, and space travel (and the draft).  When the 50s repeated themselves in the 80s, things seemed fairly optimistic.  And then we got the 90s.  Now as much as I love Pavement and email…

So if the 1990s (and pretty much everything that has followed) was a bit of a letdown, fukk it, we’ll always have the 80s.  Here’s some visual-story telling as it relates to certain Audio narratives/myths in the 1980s.  Feel free to discuss.

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Antique Hi-Fi Archive

1957: Golden Age of Hi Fi (ladies-of), take two

Download a two-page scan of Radio & Television News, August 1957, featuring screen-star Martha Hyer and her DIY audio-hobby.

DOWNLOAD: Martha Hyer 1957 Radio TV News

Hyer is shown above in the midst of assembling her PERI 50, a mono hi-fi amp of the late 50s.  You can download the schematic for the PERI 50 here: DOWNLOAD PERI 50 SCHEM.  It’s a 50-watt ultralinear amp of extremely simple, efficient design.

Thanks to PS dot com reader T.F. for providing this article.  This piece comes as contrast to typical Women-In-Fifties-HiFi depiction, examples of which are in this series of images.    Despite the fact that ‘soldering-your-own-amplifier’ falls much closer to the wine-rack rather than gun-rack end of the macho spectrum, there was apparently nothing in American culture of the 50’s that could not be bro-ified, as this charming shop-apron of the era makes apparent:

Despite its intended message of unapologetic philandering and stamina, I kinda of get the impression that dude’s workmanship is shoddy and he has a shrill voice.  Maybe not the best image to project.  Thank god for social progress.  And on that note: does this website have any female readers who build/service audio equipment?  Drop us a line and represent…

 

 

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Antique Hi-Fi Archive

Mystery Amp Circa 1955: Mystery Solved. Anyone have a schematic?

*UPDATE NOV 2016:  please read thru the comments section!  In all likelihood, this is in fact an original Mirko Paneyko piece, which means I am a huge A-hole for selling this thing for $180 on eBay in 2012. I only learned about MP in 2016 via a huge collection of old journals I purchased.  He was a titan in the audio field, and certainly one of the most interesting historical figures in the Bridgeport area in the mid 20th century.  Read his NYT obit here. – ED

  I picked up a big pile of old audio equipment this past weekend; notable items included a Shure Level Loc, a massive Bogen tube pa head, a kit-built Acrosound ultralinear 5881 amp, and a Gibson acoustic gtr case from the early ’60s (no gtr).  Also included was the mono amplifier shown above.  It’s a push-pull amp, cathode biased 807s, with 6SN7 driver and phase inverter; there is also a 2x 12A_7 preamp section with this ‘remote’ control section attached via 10′ of cabling…

After a little cleaning, the amp actually works fine if I remove the ‘remote’ and input directly into the final 12AX7 stage prior to the phase inverter.  As far as actually using the remote, well, I can’t quite figure out what sort of patching needs to be inserted with the two RCA jacks and one RCA male plug coming out of the face of this thing.  It’s a little bewildering.  If anyone can tell me who made this amplifier, I imagine I could find the schematics somewhere.  There are no markings on the unit anywhere besides an inked serial number inside the chassis and the letters ‘MP’ on the remote.  I am sure that this is a factory-wired unit, as there is tamper-paint on every solder joint.  BTW, I added the on-off-switch and the IEC socket on the side, so don’t let those two details derail your ID’ing efforts.  I am guessing that this a circa 1955 unit as the 12AX7 was only introduced in 1953, and the 807 craze was in the process of winding down by ’55…  so we’re likely looking at a unit made between 1953 and 1958.  Any ideas, please let me know.  This thing is 95% of the way to full operation and I’d like to get it running strong again.  It’s a tremendous looking piece, and it has a lot of volume.

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Updated: the mystery has been solved.  This amplifier was built by the Saulnier Music Service of Columbus, Ohio; so sez the son of the man responsible.   Read the comments section for the full story.  I am still in a need of a schematic (or even just a manual?) for this thing so that I can figure out what do do with the assorted preamp jacks n’plugs.  According to our poster, this circuit came from a transformer manual; which would likely mean a Stancor audio-manual circa 1954.  Anyone?

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Antique Hi-Fi Archive

University Speakers Circa 1963

Download the complete 20pp 1963 University Speaker Systems catalog (in two parts due to file size)

DOWNLOAD PART 1: University_1963_p1

DOWNLOAD PART 2: University_1963_p2

Products covered, with text, specs, and photos, include: University Medallion XII speaker system; Classic Mark II and Classic Dual-12 speaker systems; Companion II, S-80, Companionette, and Mini-Flex, and Mini bookshelf speaker systems; the full range of two-and-three-way coaxial University components including 315, 312, 6201, 200, 308, 200, UC-153, UC-152, UC-123, UC-122, UC0121, and UC-82; and University woofers, midranges, , tweeters, and crossover networks including C-15HC, C-12HC, C-8HC, C-15W, C-8W, HF-206, UXT-5, 4401, C-8M, Sphericon, H-600, Cobreflex, T-30, T-50, N-1 High Pass Filter, N-3 acoustic baton, N-2A and N-2B crossovers, plus more.

Above, the flagship Medallion XII system in a variety of “select-a-style” grilles.  There is a pair of Medallion XII (in French Provincial trim, naturally) on eBay right now for $200.  University Sound was founded in 1936, and became part of the LTV_Ling_Altec family of brands sometime before 1963, and eventually became absorbed into the Telex corporation.

Above, the University Classic Dual-12 system.  These things look serious.  I currently own a University single-12 system; it is a corner unit from the Mono era; its has very nice cabinetwork and it sounds surprisingly good for a full-range 12″ system.

This catalog is obsessively dedicated to selling speakers to a male/female couple.   Nearly every human image consists of a sample couple in the throes of consideration.  Which system to buy for our home?  So much to learn.  Let University help you.  Honestly I can’t read the emotions in these faces.  Perhaps early-1960’s people had a different feeling-set than we experience in the (post-Vietnam/LSD/Civil Rights) era.  Confused by these photos, anyhow.  This series seems to suggest: 1) ‘quiz-show-don’t-know-the-answer’; 2) ‘I’m not really paying attention to you’; 3) (undeserved?) smugness; 4) ‘we’re on a boat, and you’ve been naughty.’

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Antique Hi-Fi Archive

1957: A Few Bits From The End Of The Mono Age

From some 1957 issues of “Radio and TV News,” an electronic-serviceman’s publication, comes this collection of American Hif-Fi home audio kit of the era.  Notice the fact that…  it’s all mono. Commercial recordings released on stereo magnetic tapes were available as early as 1954, but it was the release of the first -ever stereo LP record in November 1957 forever turned the tide towards two-channel ‘Stereo’ recordings as the norm for recorded musical performances/productions.

Heathkit!  I have one of these A7s and damn it is a good-sounding little amp.  Anyone have a spare they wanna sell me (for stereo…. naturally…)?

I tend to think of Newcomb as more of an industrial-sound/PA sound company, but it looks like they made some home units too.  I have one of those huge glass-covered KX25 PA heads as shown here; it’s always been a little flakey but I can’t bring myself to part with it cos it came from a Catholic church and the knobs are labeled “Pulpit,” “Choir,” and “Sacrament Table.”  Take that, Kick/Ld Vox/ Bckng Vox.

Dude went to prison in 1974 for lying about the value of a music-collection that he donated to a university.  Tried to get Mancini and Bernstein to back him up and they would not.  Life is long….

Electro-voice home hi-fi drivers c. 1957

Eico home hi-fi amps and pre-amps circa 1957.  Eico was essentially the ‘other’ Heath(kit).  Eicos could be purchased either wired or as kits.  Here’s a two-page article on their flagship HF60, a beautiful amp with EL34 output tubes and an ultralinear Acrosound output transformer.