[Harry Lavo]

"Audio Empire" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 27 Mar 2011 07:43:06 -0700, Harry Lavo wrote
(in article ):

"Audio Empire" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 26 Mar 2011 12:56:28 -0700, Harry Lavo wrote
(in article ):


snip


I could happily live with them as my main system if
coupled to a decent pair of high-efficiency speakers. My friend plays
them
through a pair of recently acquired Warfedale W60Ds with a vintage
Thorens
TD-150 turntable/arm and a Sumiko Blue-Point Special cartridge. I'll
bet
the
combo sounds marvelous. I almost envy him.

Ah, memories! This was the first kit amp I built, and the one that got
me
through my last year of high school and four years of college. In
those
days it drove at first an EV SP-15 in a bass reflex cabinet and later a
Jensen 15" Tri-Ax in a corner horn (both cabinets hand built). Coupled
with
an Eico FM Tuner and a Garrad changer with an (exotic) Norelco mono
cartridge, it was a pretty decent beginning to my audio involvement.


Yes, it would have been. What model Garrard turntable did you have? Mine
was
a "Type A" with a Pickering Cartridge. I also had an Eico FM tuner
(HFT-90)
and it was an excellent performer as I recall. It didn't have AFC, and
yet
it
didn't drift appreciably. I didn't need really high sensitivity because
I
lived in the "prime reception" area in the Virginia suburbs of
Washington
DC.
And because FM stations were much further apart geographically then than
they
are now (and there weren't so many of them), selectivity wasn't of great
importance either. But I do recall that the thing had very wide
bandwidth
(designed for SCA) so that when stereo FM came along in '62, the
addition
of
a Knight-Kit stereo demodulator kit gave excellent stereo performance.
That
tuner and Multiplex "adaptor" lasted me through high-school, college and
I
probably used it up until long after I had moved to CA and started my
career
( I replaced it with a Pioneer TX-9500 IIRC) . I especially remember
this
tiny little vacuum tube that rode on the dial string carriage and moved
across the dial when the tuning knob was turned. It's green glow was the
station 'pointer' and it contracted from a line to an exclamation point
(!)
when you were tuned right on the station. I always thought that was
clever.

That's the tuner, for sure. I sold mine and bought a Sherwood when
stereo
came out and I had moved to Chicago for graduate school. In the area
outside of Cleveland where I went to school, the little Eico did fine.
And
the Model 20 amplifier was a dandy. Later on I built a 35wpc Eico as my
first stereo amp, just after graduating from school. My first wife
teases
me that I built that kit on our honeymoon (not quite, but perhaps within
a
few weeks afterward. :-( ).

Was the Eico stereo amp as good as the little HF-20? I think that the
latter's main strong point was the fact that it had such a HUGE output
transformer for it's power output.

No, the transformers were not as good....and the compromises needed for
one-chassis stereo were already in evidence. But the transformers were
bigger than the Scotts and Fishers of the day, and it was a pretty good unit
nonetheless. These old guys are still sought after and being refurbed by
hobbyists today.



As for the Garrard....the A wasn't out yet....this was the much less
expensive AT-6. But it had a much better arm than the previous Garrards.
I
still have it sitting somewhere on a shelf in the basement. Doubt it
still
runs. However, the Norelco cartridge was a marvel, and much better than
the
mono GE reluctance cartridges that were the mainstream at the time.

I remember the AT-6. It had a "dynamically balanced" tone-arm with a
square
weight on the back. It was certainly better than the previous generation
of
Garrads for sure which had molded phenolic tone arms and used a spring to
pull "up" on the arm to provide stylus pressure. They did have plug-in
shells
though, as I recall. Most seemed to come equipped with the almost
ubiquitous
General Electric VR-II magnetic cartridge, the one with the red knob that
stuck through the top of the tone-arm head shell. You changed from the 78
RPM
stylus to the LP stylus by pushing down on that knob and rotating it 180
degrees! I think they even made a stereo version of that puppy. What I
always
wanted as a kid was either a Garrard 301 or a Thorens TD-124. Then later
when
the Empire 298 "Troubadour" came out, I switched allegiance to those. I
still
want one (I had a gorgeous 598 once and for some reason, let it foolishly
slip through my fingers).

Well, my AT-6 yielded to a Dual 1019, then to a Rek-O-Kut with a Pritchard
wooden arm, then to a Dual 701 auto-manual (which I use still today), and
eventually to a Linn Sondek with Syrinx PU-2 arm, teamed with an Accuphase
AC-2 cartridge. I still use the Dual 701 and the Accuphase driving a
modified Marcof headamp in the system today.....the Linn was sacrificed in
the name of financing the five channel analog surround system I listen to
today.