Unusual HiFi products from the past.
SeleniumFalcon
Posts: 3,834
I wasn't sure where to put this one, but "2 Channel Audio" sort of describes a certain reader awareness, I believe. The idea is to post anything about audio equipment from the beginning of recorded sound to near present that seems interesting or unusual or both. For example:
Comments
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Audio equipment went a little "wedge" shaped in the middle '70's:
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Very cool stuff.
The Nikko and Nakamichi names were very BIG when I started my audio journey. now they are remnants of the past. Damn shame actually. -
The CD Stoplight, aka the green pen, heartily recommended by Stereophile for many years. Not sure if these are still made. Maybe CD players just got better at reading the pits without errors.
https://www.musicdirect.com/accessories/audioprism-cd-stoplight -
The CD Stoplight, aka the green pen, heartily recommended by Stereophile for many years. Not sure if these are still made. Maybe CD players just got better at reading the pits without errors.
https://www.musicdirect.com/accessories/audioprism-cd-stoplight
I still had one until two yrs ago. I put it on several CD's, I couldn't hear a difference. To be fair I may have not had good enough equipment to actually hear the difference. It finally dried up after 30yrs😉 -
I may have bought one too.
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How about the Dynaco Quadaptor? Neat piece of kit, btw.....
I plan for the future. - F1Nut -
The Nakamichi 600 system was a nice assembly of stuff.
Wedge-shaped for use on a credenza or table, or the whole shebang could be rack mounted.
Also, the components were available in black or silver -- not that I've ever encountered any of the silver morphs in the... umm... flesh.
A good friend of mine bought a 600 cassette deck -- it was a fine-sounding two-head deck, albeit somewhat finicky to keep it "in tune".
PS I'd love to have one of the 630 FM tuner/preamps (imagine that?!).
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^ The Dynaquad actually uses the same channel difference information as Polk's SDA uses, however it is applied to surround channel speakers instead of crosstalk cancellation.
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Dynaco QD-1 front by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
Dynaco QD-1 rear by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
The Hafler/Dynaquad circuit (which used the "left minus right", out of phase information from the two stereo channels to extract ambience information for the rear channel) was simple, elegant, widely copied -- and had a very long shelf life Dolby ProLogic is (was) fundamentally just a tweak of the "Hafler circuit".
https://www.audioasylum.com/forums/vintage/messages/8/87331.html
Note the interesting three-ganged rheostat for adjusting level(s).
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^^I used the "green pen" as well as Rain-X on CDs and believed I heard an improvement, especially the Rain-X cleaning/coating. I believe early CD players had problems dealing with error correction circuitry "borrowing" power from power supplies. Some of today's players have multiple power supplies and better ways of dealing with errors.
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for a "fresh"
contribution to this thread, howzabout the Livingston tonearm for playing the Cook "binaural" (two channel "stereo") records?
http://www.soundfountain.com/cook/cook-livingston-binaural.html
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^ True two independent channel stereo record playing, at it's best! None of that compromising "put each channel on one side of a groove wall" foolishness!
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Yamaha went "wedge":
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Hill Plasmatronics loudspeaker
https://www.stereophile.com/content/hill-plasmatronics-type-1-loudspeaker
or, heck -- just the DuKane/EV "Ionovac" plasma tweeter
EV manual (still) available at, e.g.,
https://mypicsonline.net/archive/archives.telex.com/archives/EV/Drivers/EDS/T-3500 Ionovac EDS.pdf -
We had Dr. Hill and his Plasmatronics speakers as a guest at DKL Sound Lab. It was a little tough getting a tank of Helium through the Baltimore tunnel (we were turned around and had to drive all around the Beltway to Silver Spring). We got things finally hooked up and started powering the system. Without a shadow of a doubt the most amazing high frequency response I have ever heard. The fairly loud "pop" when the speaker shut down was a bit disconcerting, but it sure sounded like the real thing. We just felt that the necessity of having regular tanks on hand for the owner limited it as far as consumer appeal.
The bass response wasn't in the same league as the upper midrange and treble, but man that "mass-less" tweeter was something. -
Dang it Ken!! Now I'm going to have to rain-X my CD collection.
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As I understand it Rain-X was developed originally to clean perspex aircraft windscreens and allow rain to more easily flow off. One of the results was that the screen became more transparent, clearer for the pilot to see through. I think the same thing happens in CDs less read errors mean less error corrections needed and subsequent sharing of the power supply. In CD manufacturing a glass coated silver disc is made for final evaluation before going into mass production. I wonder if Mobile Fidelity will ever offer audiophiles a gold plated glass (or crystal) coated disc instead of plexiglass?
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Design Acoustics D12 Dodecahedron Loudspeakers
Circa 1973 -
Stereo Review 1979 Ad.
Did anyone ever try this film stuff? Kind of like the wood glue treatment.
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Disco Film! That's great!
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SeleniumFalcon wrote: »Disco Film! That's great!
John Travolta was in one of those, if memory serves.
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There have been so, so many... odd hifi products, you know?
As an example, I would, humbly, offer... the Luxman "Suckface" line of components.
(Luxman didn't call 'em that, though)
https://youtu.be/AqzgpF4b_qQ
Luxman called 'em "Servoface"
https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/luxman/rx-101.shtml
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SeleniumFalcon wrote: »As I understand it Rain-X was developed originally to clean perspex aircraft windscreens and allow rain to more easily flow off. One of the results was that the screen became more transparent, clearer for the pilot to see through. I think the same thing happens in CDs less read errors mean less error corrections needed and subsequent sharing of the power supply. In CD manufacturing a glass coated silver disc is made for final evaluation before going into mass production. I wonder if Mobile Fidelity will ever offer audiophiles a gold plated glass (or crystal) coated disc instead of plexiglass?
Firm believer in rain-X on my windshield. I use a lot of it. I've never thought to use it on my CD's.
Man I'd see that glass disc as a nightmare for sales, unless they are able to create one with Corning Gorilla glass. I'd test it out.
😉 -
A "test" that I have done is to look at your reflection in the surface of a CD. Then apply Rain-X with a fresh cotton ball and polish it with a second ball. Then look at your reflection again, to me it seems to be a clearer image. A better mirror.
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CD Players: Sony CDP-211; Sony DVP-S9000ES; Sony UDP-X800M2 (x2); Cambridge Audio CXC
DACs: Jolida Glass FX Tube DAC III (x2); Denafrips Ares II (x2)
Streamers: ROKU (x3); Bluesound Node 2i and Node N130 w/LHY LPS // Receivers: Yamaha RX-V775BT; Yamaha RX-V777
Preamps: B&K Ref 50; B&K Ref 5 S2; Classe CP-800 MkII; Audio Research SP16L (soon)
Amps: Niles SI-275; B&K ST125.7; B&K ST125.2; Classe CA-2300; Butler Audio TDB-5150
Speakers: Boston Acoustics CR55; Focal Chorus 705v; Wharfedale Diamond 10.2; Monitor Audio Silver-1; Def Tech Mythos One (x4)/Mythos Three Center (x2)/Mythos Two pr.; Martin Logan Electromotion ESL; Legacy Audio Victoria/Silverscreen Center; Gallo Acoustics Reference 3.1; SVS SB-1000 Pro; REL HT-1003; B&W ASW610; HifiMan HE400i
Turntable: Dual 721 Direct-Drive w/Audio Technica AT-VM95e cart
Cables: Tripp-lite 14ga. PCs, Blue Jeans Cable ICs, Philips PXT1000 ICs; Kimber Kable DV30 coaxial ICs; Canare L-4E6S XLR ICs; Kimber Kable 8PR & 8TC speaker cables. -
OK, here's one -- sort of.
The JC Penney MCS "VTR Component TV"
NTSC Video monitor with a monochrome CRT and analog VHF & UHF tuners.
Oh, and a weird sort-of oscilloscope signal/level display (as shown in the photo below).
DSC_7020 (2) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
No audio input or output, nor monitor speaker, though, as far as I remember. I am sitting less than 10 feet from it -- but I am too effing lazy to go look.
https://youtu.be/KPneS9ZdUB8
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all righty then -- you gonna trot out Hear Muffs, eh? I'll see your Hear Muffs and raise you a Bone Fone.
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Well, how about the Jecklin Float Electrostatic headphones?
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SeleniumFalcon wrote: »Well, how about the Jecklin Float Electrostatic headphones?
I had a pair of those about 100 years ago. My then girlfriend said they made me look like a cyberman from Dr. Who.
