[Sonnova]

On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:30:38 -0700, Arny Krueger wrote
(in article ):

"Sonnova" wrote in message


Sure, it's an illusion, but isn't that what
hi-fi is all about? The Illusion of a live performance in
one's listening room? I'd trade all of my
"state-of-the-art" gear to be able to go back to my attic
room in my parent's house for ONE live Watergate concert
in 1962 over my Eico HFT-90 FM tuner, my Knight-Kit
stereo FM demodulator, my pair of Knight-Kit 18-Watt mono
integrated amplifiers and the bass-reflex speaker
cabinets my dad made for me, each holding a Knight KN-812
12" "full-range" speaker and a Layfayette horn tweeter.
Crude, yes, but none-the-less satisfying to my then
16-year-old ears.

I've never been all that satisfied with reproduced sound. That is probably
because I've been exposed to live music, often several times weekly, for my
whole life.

In 1962 or there-abouts I owned a Sherwood stereo tuner, an Eico ST-70
integrated amplifier, and a variety of headphones and loudspeakers. I think
my first hifi record player was a Glaser-Steers changer, which was followed
by a number of AR turntables. Several times I sold my AR turntable, bought
"something better", sold or scrapped that, and bought another AR turntable.
My last turntable was a Thorens TD-125 with a SME 3009 arm.

God, a Glaser-Steers, I haven't thought of that name for 40 years or more! In
1962, I owned a Rek*O*Kut "Rondine" and some Japanese stereo arm that I
bought from Radio Shack (when they were still a Boston mail-order house). I
think I was using a Stanton cartridge in that set-up. My first real record
player (ignoring the little RCA 45 RPM deck I had as a child) was one of
those ubiquitous British BSR changers that everybody sold for about $20. Then
I got a Garrard AT-7 "Automatic turntable" with the big, heavy platter, but
it rumbled. So did the Rk*O*Kut, (it was idler driven too) so I changed it to
belt drive (Outboard motor, belt from a belt-driven Rek*O*Kut, had a local
machinist turn the motor spindle to the correct diameter - I even knew enough
to have the shaft "crowned" so that the center of the shaft was the correct
diameter and the shaft tapered above and below the crown to keep the belt
form "walking").

it was obvious to me in the late 1960s that analog record/play technology
had pretty well done all that it was going to do. I figured that sometime in
the early 70s that digital would become available. I was totally amazed when
it took until the early 80s for that to happen.

Frankly, digital, as a consumer music medium never even occurred to me until
the mid seventies.