Dirty Little Secrets

[bobsticks]

... during which I took a number of courses in both grammar and phonetics (not, "phonics," which I doubt is the word you meant to use).

Actually, I believe that Hooked On Phonics could be a start in this case.

For the record emaidel, as a young person in this hobby I appreciate your anecdotes. I have a fondness for some vintage equipment derived from my Grandfather and the firsthand rememberances without judgement or lecturing are much welcome.

[Mr Peabody]

One thing worse than a dang manual turntable is one with a stick shift. My reverse went out on me now I can't listen to Beatles records backwards until I get my table into Aamco or Midas, some place. I just don't have the time to tare into another transmission right now.

[GMichael]

Learn to respect others opinion , than they will respect yours !

Please, take your own advice.

[Groundbeef]

Hey, Mr. Peabody, and Mr. Walker are both from St. Louis. Maybe Mr. Peabody could drive over to the home, and take Mr. Walker out for a nice lunch. Maybe that would cheer the old guy up.

Then they could hit the arch, grab a brew over at Budweiser, you know make an afternoon out of it.

[basite]

Hey, Mr. Peabody, and Mr. Walker are both from St. Louis. Maybe Mr. Peabody could drive over to the home, and take Mr. Walker out for a nice lunch. Maybe that would cheer the old guy up.

Then they could hit the arch, grab a brew over at Budweiser, you know make an afternoon out of it.

yeah!!

Mr. P could hear his system and tell us how terrific Melvin's system is...

I can only think of how much his system is in need of a total recap...

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

[melvin walker]

Well that makes sense. Was it the same copy that George Washington gave you when you were in your twenties? Or did you later donate that one to the historical society, and just carry around the pocket version?

BTW I can only imagine how captivating your radio show must have been. Sorta like Rush Limbaugh, only more angry, less articulate, and even shorter on facts.

Now, please excuse me. I have to get back to reading. Got a midterm coming up this afternoon in my Saturday MBA class.

You read !!! With that creepy audio system you have , I would have never guessed.
I enjoy Mr. Limbaugh , the most successful radio talk show host in the U.S.A. !
Never met old George , but it would have been my pleasure.

Very popular radio talk show. One of my many hobbies. It is people like you I enjoyed the most. MBA , good luck,

[Groundbeef]

You read !!! With that creepy audio system you have , I would have never guessed.
I enjoy Mr. Limbaugh , the most successful radio talk show host in the U.S.A. !
Never met old George , but it would have been my pleasure.

Very popular radio talk show. One of my many hobbies. It is people like you I enjoyed the most. MBA , good luck,

I don't belive that anyone has ever referred to my, or any other a/v setup as "creepy". I'll take it as a compliment, as it came from you.

Again, what was the name of your little radio program? And what were the call letters of the station. A man of your stature certainly wouldn't mind telling all of us about it.

I'm not really suprised you enjoy Mr. Limbaugh, the drug addled weasel that he is. Why exactly was he on that plane with 5 other guys and a suitcase of Viagra again?

So again, what exactly was your station?

[Mr Peabody]

I noticed several references to St.L but is this where Mel lives? I didn't notice him denying it. We've a few members in my area, Nobody, Msstl and I believe another but I forget his name. I met Msstl, nice guy to be sure. Nobody and I were at the same Rob Zombie show but we did not meet. I wouldn't mind at all checking out some of that vintage gear of Mr. Walker's. Maybe he will take me for a ride in his sports car.

[pixelthis]

Particularly when one considers he posted this in the HT forums in response to one of my posts about 1/12 hours before he made his presence known here.

As previously mentioned, a man is only as good as his word.

And, also from that same post...



Yeah, right. Yet he follows me here, instantly becoming a stalker, something he was crying about PVS doing to him.

heh.. heh... heh...

"Somehow, Frank, I don't think you really come here for the hunting"

Okay, you have managed to learn how to type basic words.
NOW take a stab at typing something coherent, something at the first grade level, we wouldn't want you to strain your little brain.
If a "man is as good as his word" you aren;t worth a peso

[pixelthis]

One thing worse than a dang manual turntable is one with a stick shift. My reverse went out on me now I can't listen to Beatles records backwards until I get my table into Aamco or Midas, some place. I just don't have the time to tare into another transmission right now.

if you stopped listening to the Beatles backwards maybe you'd stop hearing those little voices in your head

[emaidel]

[QUOTE=melvin walker]
I enjoy Mr. Limbaugh , the most successful radio talk show host in the U.S.A. !
QUOTE]

Though I don't particularly like, or agree with, Al Franken, his book's title says it all:

Rush Limbaugh is a big, fat idiot.

How anyone could admit to "enjoying" this fact-distorting, fat braggard is beyond me. Whatever credibiltiy (however small) you may have had before, Sir Melvin, is now lost forever.

[emaidel]

I've actually been able to recall another "dirty little secret," which was what this thread was originally about.

While at BSR, when they owned the ADC and dbx brands, I became the National Sales Manager for ADC cartridges. Unfortunately, BSR had opted to discontinue the U.S. manufacturing of the ADC cartridge, forever abandoning the "XLM," and "QLM" designs. The result was to purchase Japanese-made (by PIezo, of Japan - a large cartridge manufacturer) P-mount models, and two "high-end" units.

The P-mounts were the PSX-10, 20, 30 and 40, and all were pretty awful. The "high-end" models were two "Zero Resonance" models: the TRX-1, and the TRX-2. No one ever explained what was meant by "Zero Resonance," but there was no doubt that both models were pretty lousy. BSR techs ran QC tests on the TRX models, and every unit tested flunked, and flunked badly. The frequency resonse curves were anything but flat, and channel separation all but ceased to exist at anything above 10,000HZ.

One of the company's salespeople, without checking the product first, sent a TRX-2 to "High Fidelity" magazine, which actually printed a rather poor review of it. After all of this, BSR's contact in Japan arranged to have a "new and improved" model made: the TRX-3.

Actually, the TRX-3 was a tremendous improvement over the other two, but the manufacturing was inconsistent. The original sample sent to us sounded great, and tested wonderfullly, but as we had no reason to trust the manufacturer, we informed them that we wanted at least 3 more samples to check out, and based on their tested results, we would then release the pending order for 100 units.

To no one's surprise, the 100 units arrived before the 3 test samples. Then, when the samples arrived, all three tested magnificently. Again, to no one's surprise, those tested from the 100 stock units flunked. When I addressed the Japanese from Piezo at a Consumer Electronics show to ask why they shipped the order before the samples, all I got back was quizzical looks, and "don't understand" statements from them.

Just as with my experience with Japanese businessmen at Onkyo, I learned simply not to trust them as far as I could throw them.

The company went through a myriad of upper-management changes thereafter, and the TRX-3 was simply dropped. I had a working sample I recently gave to my son in law, who absolutely loved it, but then my grandson, as most 3-year olds are wont to do, broke the stylus. And so, my TRX-3 "died" as well.

[Mr Peabody]

My first real turntable was a BSR and I use "real" loosely. All the BSR's I've seen have been entry level at best. But being a teenager mine was a cheap purchase and seemed to play my Ted Nugent albums just fine then My system then was a Realistic receiver and some off brand 12" 3-ways. A far cry from what that little weasel Basite has in his youth. I'm not a hater though, good for him. I wonder if he has heard Ted?

I hope you know Basite I'm just messing with you.

[kelsci]

Hi Emaidel; I remember using a XLM ADC cartridge only. Delivered nice sound. The stylus was very rigid so it kept down wow and flutter better than most. I had a friend who had a record that had 4 bands of "torture" or skip so because of the ADCs damping, it could not go thru the third band of torture as say a Shure M91ED, but the Shure passed more wow and flutter.

[E-Stat]

I remember using a XLM ADC cartridge only...The stylus was very rigid so...

Actually the reverse is true. The XLM was at the highest end of cantilever compliance - a measure of the relative stiffness of the cantilever where the higher the number, the less stiffness it exhibits. The spec for the XLM and its brethren were in the range of 50 x 10 -6 cm/dyne. The workhouse M91ED was stiffer and had a correspondingly lower number (~30). The *problem* with the XLM was that it required an ultra low mass arm for it to work optimally. The arms found on most combo players were really not ideal with those ultra high compliance models and tracking suffered. The Shure, on the other hand, worked well with a wider range of arms.

I ran my Sonus Blue (a later Peter Pritchard design) with what was arguably the best arm for the job - a Transcriptors Vestigal. That sucker was of exceedingly low mass. It was basically a pivoted headshell where the arm moved only in the lateral plane. It could track the Telarc 1812 without jumping out of the groove.

rw

[bobsticks]

Well, so much for Rick and the ESS crew. Pretty cool diggin' up ye ol' Melvin thread though. I didn't know he lived in St. Louis...I was just there. I'd have stopped by the sanitorium and said "whattup".

[Auricauricle]

Just finished readin' through the thread....Man, I need a beer! How 'bout you, Stick Man?

[Worf101]

Really interesting stories, Emaidel. I use to go to the Lafayette store in Jamaica,Queens in the late 50s and 60s. It was a mad house on a Saturday. Pretty busy during the week too. A tremendous inventory of all kinds of electronics too boot. I thought that the reason they might have gone out of business was the way they tried to spread them selves around the country which seemed haphazard in camparison to Radio Shack.with just too many "associate stores" rather than real live branch stores.

I grew up in Jamaica Queens. From my window in "The 40 Projects" (named for P.S. 40) I could see the red neon Lafayette Sign some blocks away. Lafayettes catallouge along with J.C. Whitney's were the high points of the year for me. I miss the place terribly. Wondered what happened to them... had they stayed around long enough they might have ridden the PC catalog boom into the next century... Sad.

Da Worfster

[bobsticks]

Just finished readin' through the thread....Man, I need a beer! How 'bout you, Stick Man?

Well, it's a little early in the morning...and there's about a foot and a half of snow with more to come...so why not? You buyin' ?

Actually, I felt this thread had some of my finer moments from a jackassery perspective.

[Feanor]

Well, it's a little early in the morning...and there's about a foot and a half of snow with more to come...so why not? You buyin' ?

Actually, I felt this thread had some of my finer moments from a jackassery perspective.

And people think government is incompotent.

[Auricauricle]

The jackassery was certainly rampant, LOL! Geeze, shame that "melvin" isn't around anymore. Lawsamussy!

Geeze, Worfster, that's an old stompin' gound of my own. Usta live out in (Not so) Great Neck at one time. One o' my best friends is a perfesser at St. Johns! Small, small world...

Yeah, feanor: You mean Neocompetent, don't you?

[bobsticks]

And people think government is incompotent.

Yeah, because I was serious.

[Deadeye]

I have owned my Accuphase T101 tuner since 1983. It has been in for repair once. It has otherwise performed superbly. Here in Phila when WRTI used to go off the air it would routinely pick up a station broadcasting from Washington DC that also broadcasted at 90.1. It sounds better than just about everything I've ever heard with the exception of Marantz 10B's, Sequerra's and the like.

[Deadeye]

As for as Consumers Reports is concerned , what publication or source offers better informed test than Consumers Reports ? It has no advertising.
There were many test reports of a singe audio component , the consumer compared the reports , this helped the consumer in making an informed decision. There was test reports made by over a dozen magazines , some European.

I agree it is better to check with one's ears. But very seldom can one check most of the audio gear that is sold. Where would you go ? How long will it last ? Magazines while not perfect is a great help.

I remember seeing your website several years ago , but it has changed. There are some members yourself included who try very hard to inform others of the history of audio.
There are others ,it appears many who couldn't care less.
Keep trying , Rome wasn't built in one day.

Consumers Report tested a Porsche 911 years ago and gave it a bad review because it couldn't hold enough grocery bags in the trunk.
If I'm buying a washing machine I'll check Consumers Review. Anything of any kind of enthusiast's nature is not served well by Consumers Report. Checking their audio equipment reviews will support what I'm saying.

[GMichael]

Consumers Report tested a Porsche 911 years ago and gave it a bad review because it couldn't hold enough grocery bags in the trunk.
If I'm buying a washing machine I'll check Consumers Review. Anything of any kind of enthusiast's nature is not served well by Consumers Report. Checking their audio equipment reviews will support what I'm saying.

I agree, Bose comes out on top in CR. But you may want to check the date on Melvin's post. Doubt he'll see your response.