Tube Hi-fi Buys And Stereos

Discussion in 'Other Reminiscences' started by Tony Page, Mar 7, 2021.

  1. Tony Page

    Tony Page Veteran Member
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    I remember all the great Hi-Fi buys and Stereos of the past some of these companies are still around today the old tube models had unique sound. March 1st stereo with a put together system of 2 Scott monaural amplifiers from different years in the 40s I build my own speaker systems eventually when I had this tweet the sound spread around the room like it should have.
     
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  2. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I had some old tube short wave radios (Zenith, GE) but no tube stereo equipment.

    My first receiver was a 12 watt Lafayette. I bought it in 1972, so by that time things were solid state.
     
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  3. Tony Page

    Tony Page Veteran Member
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    I made my speaker systems from discarded TVs, hifi consoles, & surplus stores speakers. on Courtland Street in New York City I spent many a weekend searching for bargains. I build my own crossover Networks based on an article in popular Electronics. I figure out the circuits the crossover frequencies based on trial and error using an electronic slide rule from Cleveland Institute to calculate the LxC circuit values. It had standard slide rule function on one side the other side had ways of calculating inductance and capacitance was a handy tool.
    The final speaker system sounded better than I expected I was very pleased. I would say it was mostly from luck I really enjoyed it. One side of the speaker system was just a board with cloth cover do I put on a small table imposition caddy Corner against one of the walls. The other side of the system I had gotten a bass reflex cabinet. I have friends and relatives come in I'd play a record with a vocal last and what speaker the voice was coming from. It always pick a center speaker I just had a grill Court over cabinet hole with nothing behind it when I show them it was an empty hole they kind of were amazed. That's what I do the system is balanced perfectly.
     
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  4. Faye Fox

    Faye Fox Veteran Member
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    My father bought an H.H. Scott HiFi amp and a bass reflex speaker box that was about 4 feet high back in the 50s. It had amazing sound and was all tube. My best system ever was a McIntosh all tube that I bought back in the late 1960's. I sold it within a few months as I needed money. I was traded a Stromberg Carlson all-tube stereo amp by a guy that owed me money and I had it many years before selling it. It was hard on the EL 34s so I lowered the plate and screen voltage on them and enjoyed it for many years using matched Mullards. The invention of the miniature tube was such an innovation for HiFi mono and stereo. Preamps made with dual section triodes like 12AX7, 12AU7, and 12AT7 were the bomb.
     
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  5. Tony Page

    Tony Page Veteran Member
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    I got to know a lot of audiofiles when I was 14 or 15 through my uncle who had one of the best stereo systems in the country at the time. It's funny they were more interested in the sound of their system then the music they played for the most part. They would select music that could show off their system.
    I used to dream of the day I can get a system like they had, but until then I had to make due what whatever I can put together myself that's what I did. It was exciting times for me I always wanted to be an audio engineer bright ideas submarine used today like the subwoofer I did it back then for myself.
     
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  6. Martin Alonzo

    Martin Alonzo Supreme Member
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    The first TV we had was back about 1949 it was a tube set of course and when it had a problem we took the tubes down to the local drug store which had a tube tester to get them checked out and buy the replacement. The quality of sound was great but we had nothing to compare it to. We also had a piece of plastic to cover the screen to give you artificial color. as it was black and white.
     
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  7. Tony Page

    Tony Page Veteran Member
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    Those were great times and memories
     
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  8. Tony Page

    Tony Page Veteran Member
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    I remember the plastic sheet that would go over the screen try to simulate color. We also had the bubble which hung over the screen it was filled with an oil an enlarged the screen.
     
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  9. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    @Martin Alonzo @Tony Page

    I have mentioned that plastic overly to several folks, and you two are the only ones who recall them. They had me doubting myself. As I recall it was green on the bottom (grass), blue on the top (sky) and tan in the middle (western deserts.) Landscapes were awesome, closeups of people were the stuff of sci fi. Or so I recall as a 5 year old kid.

    You talk about wanting to be an audio engineer...I helped a friend set up a small studio in his basement back in the late 70s. We built out the walls with silicone spacers and sound-proofed it all with used acoustic ceiling tile we scavenged from here & there. It was nothing fancy...basic range expanders, noise limiters, and a TASCAM 4 track reel-to-reel. He would get jobs on the weekend playing the bars at Holiday Inns and places like that. I would spend my free time recording him playing the backup music one instrument at a time (and maybe backup vocals), then mixing it to cassette tapes for him to take to the jobs, where he would sing and sometimes play lead guitar to his own backup. Sometimes we would bounce stuff from two tracks onto one track to free up space for the next instrument.

    It was amazing how you can completely change the flavor of a song by how you mix the exact same tracks. I was really into it...subscribed to Modern Recording and learned as much as I could.
     
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  10. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I recall riding my bike to the drug store with a brown paper bag full of tubes from the TV or from one of my radios.

    [​IMG]
     
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  11. Tony Page

    Tony Page Veteran Member
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    I did a similar thing for my father he was an old-fashioned crooner I use egg cartons on the walls and a curtain. We had a teac tape recorder various microphones like Shure, and Beyer. He would sing to mmo records. For those you may not know what an MMO record is it was music minus one. It was the background music for a singer or any musician similar to karaoke today. My father had a good voice but had stage fright he did perform once with Sammy Kaye. After he had tape where he liked it I didn't do the mixing we brought it to a professional recording studio and they did it. made a record album out of it and a reel to reel tape.
     
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  12. Tony Page

    Tony Page Veteran Member
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  13. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I just took a look. Winky Dink went off the air when I was 3 so I missed him. Drawing on the TV with a cover screen sounds like a great concept...other than those static electricity shocks!
     
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  14. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I played trumpet from the time I was 9 until I was in my 30s. I know MMO. The only song I really recall playing along with is "Come Saturday Morning." That's pretty cool that your dad sang with Sammy Kaye. That's my favorite genre, having played a brass instrument (although I like most types of music.) You and I both know that the artists that "make it" are not only in the vast minority of musicians in this world, they aren't necessarily the best.
     
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  15. Tony Page

    Tony Page Veteran Member
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