Preservation Sound

Happy Holidays y’all.  I’ll be joining my good friend JBW aka Sway behind the 1200s at Firehouse 12 in New Haven again this Wednesday 12.19.12.  Got a whole new set ready for this one.   45 Crown Street  New Haven, CT.

Since we’re on the subject of antique hi-fi installs… download a three-page article from RADIO-ELECTRONICS, April 1950, on the subject of the burgeoning custom-installation business for hifi equipment (via opportunities-await-you).  Author is one William Rivkin.

DOWNLOAD: CustomHiFi_1950

When I was a child my family moved into a circa 1930s home (renovated circa 1965) that had one of these custom installs.  I can’t recall what brand of drivers were installed, but the amp was a Harmon-Kardon, stereo, with (I think…) 6BQ5s.  The Ttable was likely a Garrard.  I really think that the particular smell that the amp made was one the things that fascinated me the most about it; shortly thereafter I picked out my first guitar amp (thanks Mom+Dad), an excellent-sounding brand-new Fender Champ 12.  I remember the gtr-store salesmen being completely shocked that a child wanted a tube amp, rather than something with Mega-Distortion and Chorus; perhaps I should have told him that I was attracted to the smell.  The Harmon Kardon, I believe, I gave away to a high-school classmate named Matt Tebbe; Matt, if yr still out there, drop us a line and let us know if you stuck with the tube thing.  I definitely have…

Recently shipped this bespoke four-channel unit to customer P.G.  PG sent me a pair of UTC A20s and a pair of Triad HS-66 600:600 transformers; he wanted a finished piece that would allow him to switch the transformers in-and-out of a signal path easily.

For an explanation of the ‘transformer-as-signal-processor’ concept, see this previous post concerning a similar custom build.  P.G. wanted his unit built as a two-space chassis so that he could add a third pair of transformers in the future if he wished; the front panel was precisely measured and punched so as to allow this to be done in a visually harmonious manner.

Above, the inside of the unit.  Belden 9451 wire and the same 12,000 watt (no typo) 4PDT toggle switches as the prior build.  So how does it sound?  For those of you who are curious about commissioning or DIYing a piece like this, here are my impressions.

First, the ‘hard facts,’ measured using sine waves at +10db.

UTC A20: Insertion loss approx. 0.2 db.  down 1 db at 12hz, down 1 db at
65khz.  Otherwise flat.

Triad HS66: Insertion loss approx. 0.1 db.  down 1 db at 10hz, down 1 db
at 60khz.  Otherwise flat except for a bump up around 10k.

As fast as listening test (with music, not test tones): and this is obviously very subjective: the UTCs are very very subtle.  Bass is little more organized but it’s really hard to say. They are just too perfect I guess.  If they are run them at full protools level (+22) the user will likely hear some color, as it is outside their stated linear range. But at +10 there is little effect.

On the other hand, the Triad HS-66 definitely have a sound: at first I thought that they were bass shy, but the sweep test denies that.  To my ears, they make everything sound more forward and aggressive.

As I was packing my belongings for a new, quieter life in the Eastern Atlantic, I came across this curiosity.  A Blade-Runner themed guitar.  But.  Not even the ‘famous’ (relatively speaking, of course) Guild-Brand Blade Runner Guitar.  Close analysis of this obscure piece of content revealed a deep truth: there is still so, so much to be learned from digging thru endless piles of ancient audio-themed papers.  I cannot stop.  Yet.  There is still more work to be done.   Let us now examine the facts.

The Guild ‘Blade Runner’ (at left; source) utilizes the actual Blade-Runner-Film font on its body, suggesting that the Guild guitar was actually licensed by the film’s producers?

Initially, it seemed incredible to me that a second guitar-maker would enter the market with a guitar named after the film Blade Runner; which, as great a film as it is, features neither a guitar nor any guitar-music for its duration.  What could explain this seemingly totally unnecessary redundancy in the guitar marketplace?  Perhaps the answer is more complex than we have yet realized.  Perhaps the ‘licensed’ GUILD-brand Blade Runner Guitar was all too content to align itself with the orthodoxy imposed by the film’s producers (the same producers, naturally, that insisted on the inclusion of the humanizing ‘voice-over’ in the film’s theatrical release).  Perhaps the ARIA-brand Blade Runner guitar was part of an alternate explanation of events, one that perhaps comes closer to the truth?

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Above: at left, Daryl Hannah as the character Pris in the film Blade Runner.  At right: Some Model as Some Future Lady in the Aria Pro advert.  The similarities beg the question:  Is the man holding the guitar a surrogate for Roy Batty, the character with whom Pris was aligned in the film?  Or is the man-with-guitar intended to represent Deckard, the protagonist of the film? He definitely seems to have a stronger resemblance to Harrison Ford’s Deckard than to Rutger Hauer’s Roy Batty; yet the sunglasses are a confusing and highly suggestive twist.  In the grand tradition of Blade Runner Conspiracy Theories, I would like to put forth the following thesis:

In the so-named ‘Aria Thesis,’ Deckard is the 6th Nexus replicant; here he is shown, before the crash landing, with Pris; Batty was in fact an interloper who usurped Pris’ affections after attempting to kill Deckard prior to the crash, in fact causing the crash.  Batty attempted this murder by his indicated choice of killing technique: crushing the eyeballs into the brain. The Aria corporation signals this violation by covering Deckard’s violated eyes with their branded eyewear, eyewear that appears nowhere in the filmed narrative.  In the Aria Thesis, the police force discover Deckard’s near-dead body; re-suit him with replacement eyes and unicorn dreams, and then set him to the task of capturing his former associates.

Please direct all question and/or comments about this post to these guys.

Or these guys.

Good luck.