Pilot was one of the classic NYC Golden-Age Hi-Fi makers (see here for earlier coverage on PS dot com). Although the Pilotuner mono FM tuner series was their most iconic product, the Pilotrol was their flagship offering.
The Pilotrol seems like an attempt to satisfy the most compulsive hi-fi fans; it really seems like they tried to cram as many lights, buttons, features, and knobs in there as possible. What with the excess of buttons, slant-front cabinet, and VU meter, Pilot seems to have been trying to turn the simple act of using your audio system into an experience; I see shades of ‘Mission Control,’ ‘The Cockpit,’ and maybe police radio as well in the design. Anyhow, it’s too bad this is a mono unit; otherwise I’d be looking for one…
Here’s the schematic. Nice pentode phono input. Anyhow, we can see echos of the Pilotrol and its feature-laden ilk in much hi-fi gear of the 70s – consider a typical high-end receiver of that era. Modern equivalents offer even more features, but nowadays the buttons and lights have been replaced with menus and screens. In opposition to this thread, we have the minimalist streak best exemplified by Apple and its associates. Which operating principle do you prefer? Do you want the equipment to be in the background or the foreground of your audio-listening experience? Exactly what is ‘the experience’ for you? Hearing the sounds? Or is the operation of the apparatus essential to your enjoyment? At what point will technology become so advanced and so pervasive that ‘controls’ themselves can only been seen as quaint and nostalgic? Are we there yet?
A two page article from AUDIO magazine circa 1955. Consider this article in comparison to “Japan Goes Hi Fi.” How differently these two countries have developed since these pieces were written. Both certainly became manufacturing powerhouses, but Mexico has been much less able to keep the profits from those operations in their country. I have owned plenty of audio-objects made in Mexico (Fender guitar amps come to mind) but I have personally never seen a Mexican hi-fi brand. Anyone? Also: please note: this article is presented for historical reference only; I do not endorse the political/ethnic generalizations and characterizations that author makes.
The development of magnetic tape recording is generally credited to German scientists. It is their Magnetophone that provided the inspiration for the Ampex recorder, which was the first truly high-fidelity tape machine. From Wikipedia:
Early magnetic tape recorders were created by replacing the steel wire of a wire recorder with a thin steel tape. The first of these modified wire recorders was the Blattnerphone, created in 1929 or 1930 by the Ludwig Blattner Picture Corporation. The first practical tape recorder from AEG was the Magnetophon K1, demonstrated in Germany in 1935.
These are Ham Radio towers. ‘Ham Radio’ is non-commercial, amateur radio-broadcasting activity which has carried on for nearly a century all over the planet. Although by definition both amateur and non-commercial, Ham Radio is regulated by the governments of the world (including the US) and a license is required in order to participate. The plus side of the this regulation is that, unlike, say, C.B. radios, Ham Radios can be incredibly powerful and experienced operators can (with the right equipment) directly contact other like-minded enthusiasts all over the world. This actually sounds a lot like something else we’re familiar with… oh right the internet.
So much can be said about this venerable institution, and I am not person to do the explaining. So why discuss it here? Well… most common of the signals sent with Ham Radio has always been the human voice; many Hams have, and still do, carry on the tradition of designing and building their own audio equipment; and the innovations sprung from this field have played an important role in the development of audio technologies that we all use today. The importance of the technical aspects of signal transmission/reception in the Ham community cannot be overstated; in fact, most of he conversations that go on using this technology are in fact concerning the signal quality itself. A direct consequence of this importance of signal integrity is that Radio Hams would often send physical postcards, in the actual mail, to those individuals with whom they had chatted with on-air. These postcards confirmed the technical operating parameters of the radio equipment in-place when the successful conversation took place. These are called QSL cards, and they are one of the most fascinating and exciting examples of vernacular graphic design that I am aware of. E. purchased a crate of several hundred at the flea market yesterday; they all date from around 1980-1987 and they are really idiosyncratic and beautiful. Here I will present some of my favorites:
Do any of the Top-Quality mics in the above scan look familiar?
I seem to see… an RCA BK-1A?
….a shure 777 crystal mic?
an Electrovoice 664?
…and what is this thing exactly?
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I picked up this Lafayette PA-46 for a few dollars at the Flea Market yesterday. It appeared to be unused; the odd 3-pin socket was unsoldered. I hooked it up and it works well. I wired it ‘hi-z’ and the sound is good for a 50 year old dynamic mic. The design seems to be an ‘homage’ to the contemporary Electrovoice 636. Here they are side-by-side:
…although it also seems to have connection to the earlier Altec 21b ‘coke bottle’ condensor mic:
Lafayette Electronics was an importer and retailer of consumer-electronics active from the mid 1920s through the early 1980s. They were a competitor of Radio Shack and Allied electronics; when those two retail giants merged, Lafayette was squeezed out of the market. So what happened to all of the Lafayette shops? Turns out that may of them became Circuit Cities. Crazy. Anyhow, a lot of Lafayette’s merchandise in the 1960s was re-branded Japanese goods that bore a certain resemblance to US-made goods of the period. These microphones are a good example. When the Japanese designers got the ‘copy’ exactly right, it’s not that interesting… but the odd pastiches, such as the PA-46, have a certain weird-dream charm to them. Check out the complete history of Lafayette at this link.
Included in this download: “Echo Buss Vol II, Take 1,” a FOSTEX newsletter to pro-sumer users of the 80s. Plus 2-side product sheets for the 2050 line mixer, 3030 Graphic Equalizer, 3070 Compressor/Limiter, 3180 Reverb, and 6301 powered monitor speakers.
The 3180 offers a unique feature among line-level stereo spring reverb units: a non-adjustable 24ms pre-delay hardwired before the spring drive amp.
Interesting to note that FOSTEX makes no attempt to disguise these pieces as pro-studio equipment; they were designed and marketed specifically for use in the new ‘personal studio’ of the early 1980s, alongside such other FOSTEX offerings as the personal reel-to-reel multitrack and the FOSTEX 250 cassette four-track. See previous posts here, here and here for information on these recording devices.
The Fostex 6301 powered monitors did enjoy wider use, though; true to the photo at top, these compact 10w powered speakers did in fact experience wide use in video-facility machine rooms as basic program monitors. Many are still in use in this role.
Not sure where I came across this obscure volume. Written by one S.J. Begun, then VP and chief engineer of recording-tech pioneer Brush Development Corp, ‘Magnetic Recording’ (h.f. ‘MR’) was completed in June 1948 and published the following year by Murray Hill Books.
There is a lot of information in this 235pp volume; the best feature by far, though, is that it contains diagrams and schematics for a great number of the recording devices discussed.
Here’s a quick survey of the machines covered in MR. Most are wire recorders. Remember that tape recording was still incredibly new in 1948; wire was still the dominant format. If you have any of these machines and need to service it, seek out this book. You might find what you need. Names are beneath each image.
The original circa 1948 Ampex tape recorder, which promised an unheralded 30-15k (+/- 1db) frequency response.
The WW11-era German Magnetophone, from which the Ampex was largely derived. The Magnetophone ran at 30 ips in order to achieve its (then) excellent performance.
The Armour Master wire recorder.
The Armour Model 50 wire recorder
The Bell Labs Mirrorphone
Brush Labs Model BK-303
Brush labs model BK-403, the portable Sound Mirror
Brush Labs model BK-503 ‘mail a voice,’ which recorded a magnetic signal on coated paper discs.
Brush Labs SoundMirror
Brush Labs model BK-401
The Lear Dyanport (pictured with American Dynamic mic)
The Magnecorder SD-1, a predecessor (prototype?) of my beloved Magnecord PT6.
It is 1955. WWII-era German military-communications equipment has been successfully deconstructed, economized, and introduced to the American public as the Tape Recorder (via Bing Crosby, incredibly). Economies of scale allow these devices to be sold in vast number at widely accessible cost. For the average person, this is a significant new technology. And with new technology comes questions. How do I make this new stuff work? What can you do with this new stuff? Enter the handy Tape-Recording Guide Book, a once-genre unto itself.
8mm film cameras had been widely available and fairly inexpensive for a few years already; as had bulky, low-fidelity wire-recorders and disc (shellac record) recorders. The tape recorder offered a few new advantages, though. Small size and relative ease-of-use; decent fidelity (sound quality); the ability to edit and to re-use bits of tape; and long recording-time at low cost. It was now possible to ‘capture the moment,’ to ‘capture everyday life,’ in a way never before possible.
This deluge of information was not limited to the book-format; indeed, there were in fact regular periodicals solely devoted to the support of this new technology.
So much to learn. What we take as basic-assumptions regarding the operation of audio-equipment all had to be explained to us at some point. We now learn basic concepts such as ‘what to do with a microphone’ in a very informal, natural manner; early on, though, this was information best communicated /By Experts/ to /The Public/.
Beyond technical details like and ‘where to stick the mic’ and ‘editing the tape,’ there was also instruction regarding what kinds of sonic-event to capture. In these books, experts tell us not only ‘How-To-Use,’ but ‘When/Why-To-Use.’ In the image below, a tape-stock manufacturer of the era (Sarkes Tarzian, INC) delineates several fields of tape-recorder application that you may/may not have been aware of.
It is this last suggestion of ‘inviting tape to the party’ that I find most disturbing. Surprisingly, this ‘party-recording’ application gets a great deal of attention in most of the books scanned above. Please keep in mind that it is TAPE STOCK COMPANY that is suggesting that you ‘invite tape to your party.’ What possible benefit could it serve a TAPE STOCK COMPANY that you roll through seven $3.99 reels of tape in one evening? What possible benefit could it serve a TAPE STOCK COMPANY to reinforce this concept in the culture?
Oh really, you shouldn’t have. No, seriously. You shouldn’t have. Notice the strained look on her face. Is this due to the massive weight of a vacuum-tube powered reel-to-reel recorder, which she struggles to carry while wearing party-heels, or due to the fact that her husband has once again made them the pariahs of the scene by bringing along the dreaded time-binder, the magnetic-mind that forgets nothing, the One Who Recalls Things Best Forgotten, the tape-recorder.
The mirror is fairly ancient technology. In fact, all it takes is for a baby to see her face in a reflective surface and there is some knowledge of the Appearance Of The Self. On the other hand, the sound-mirror (aka Tape Recorder) is a much newer concept. For every person who dislikes seeing photos of themselves, I can bring you 100 people who don’t like hearing the sound of their own voice recorded.
We are inundated with recording technologies today. Almost every cell phone has a video/audio recorder with performance that rivals the 8mm film cam/tape recorder technology that consumers first had access to in the 1950s. But before you capture the moment, perhaps it is best to ask yourself: why am I doing this? What benefit does it serve?
In the film LOST HIGHWAY, Bill Pullman’s character makes a remark that has always stuck with me. The remark can be heard in the trailer (see below), but here it is in text as well:
Ed: Do you own a video camera? Renee Madison: No. Fred hates them. Fred Madison: I like to remember things my own way. Ed: What do you mean by that? Fred Madison: How I remembered them. Not necessarily the way they happened.
Why do we remember?
What does the process of remembering do to our past experiences? How does it shape our future actions?
What is lost by subjugating memory to recording?
What kind of world are we building (via unheralded levels of self imposed ((Facebook)) and Government-Imposed ((Terrorists-already-having-won)) surveillance)?
I use low-power single-ended tube amps in our home for music and movie listening. 8watts per channel won’t cut it for a party, though, so today i dug deep into the PS basement and came up with this system for our holiday party.
The McIntosh 2125 was one of their earlier solid-state power amps. Thing thing weighs a ton. It really sounds fantastic.
When M dropped off these Urei 809s for (possible) use in the new studio, I was a bit dubious. True, these were state-of-the art 30 years ago, but… Well, anyhow, I listened to them for the first time today and i am very impressed. These things really sound great. Listening to tracks that I have heard hundreds of time, I was hearing things that I had never noticed before. That being said, they are also very pleasant to listen to. I learned the basics of studio-recording at university in the mid-90s. The school had a state-of-the-art circa 1980 studio, with a Trident console and a pair of Urei 813 monitors, which were the big brothers of the 809s. Maybe my fondness for the sound of the 809s is some sort of sonic nostalgia. Possible.
Pilot was one of the classic NYC Golden-Age Hi-Fi makers (see here for earlier coverage on PS dot com). Although the Pilotuner mono FM tuner series was their most iconic product, the Pilotrol was their flagship offering.
Here’s the schematic. Nice pentode phono input. Anyhow, we can see echos of the Pilotrol and its feature-laden ilk in much hi-fi gear of the 70s – consider a typical high-end receiver of that era. Modern equivalents offer even more features, but nowadays the buttons and lights have been replaced with menus and screens. In opposition to this thread, we have the minimalist streak best exemplified by Apple and its associates. Which operating principle do you prefer? Do you want the equipment to be in the background or the foreground of your audio-listening experience? Exactly what is ‘the experience’ for you? Hearing the sounds? Or is the operation of the apparatus essential to your enjoyment? At what point will technology become so advanced and so pervasive that ‘controls’ themselves can only been seen as quaint and nostalgic? Are we there yet?
