home recording – Preservation Sound

Home with Recording Studio For Sale (1964)

“Only 25 minutes from New York City!” Download a HQ scan of the original 2-page real-estate flier (‘JD Levin & Associates’) advertising the ~1964 sale of the home of Les Paul and Mary Ford:

DOWNLOAD: LP sale

I pick up so many lots of ephemera from ancient studios and old-time producers and engineers that I have no idea where this came from, but it somehow ended up in the pile. My assumption is that someone picked it up at an AES show back in the mid sixties. It’s professionally printed on cardstock and AFAIK this item has never been interneted? Is that even a word? Anyhow, check it out, it’s pretty awesome. I am guessing 1964 as the sale date because the flier mentions 1962 as a renovation date and LP+MF were kaput by the end of ’64. HOME STUDIO. PROFESSIONAL EQUIPMENT. Wow.

The Sansui AX-7 ‘Audio Mixer’ c. 1978

Sansui’s late-70’s line of hi-fi equipment is fairly collectible; I’ve had several of them over the years, and they generally sell for good money. My last pair, a tuner and integrated amp, actually went to a prop stylist for a film… I wish I could remember the name of the picture. Anyhow, aside from the usual amps, preamps, tuners, and integrated amps, Sansui also made this very unusual device during the ‘first-wave’ of home-music-production: The AX-7 ‘Audio Mixer.’ A four-input HI-Z mixer, the AX-7 was designed to allow the user more easily use multiple stereo tape decks to ping-pong tracks into a layered production. It also offered global spring reverb!

There is a good-looking example on eBay right now for $99 BIN, which is a great value just for the spring reverb!