Peter Aczel's Audio Legacy

[Blumlein 88]

ROFLAMO.... How about a pair of those Magnepan room dividers?

I've not known them to be lethal. They do however have high potential for initiating divorce proceedings. Somehow us guys think those would have a higher WAF. Somehow, it is much, much the reverse. I've seen a few woman upon first viewing unable to hide an expression of horror at the thought this was coming into their home. "see honey, these aren't ugly, they're like the oriental room screen in our bedroom".

 

[Blumlein 88]

FWIW,

how did the speakers sound?

They’re on the smeller side, right?

And dispersion?

I always imagined those early ESL's with gold leaf impregnated pig intestine diaphragms to be on the smeller side. Rice and Kellog's work. Not to be confused with Kellogs Rice crispies. They were said to eventually rot which would be a different than usual form of speaker dispersion.

 

[JJB70]

Sometimes these sparks can penetrate very deeply and be very nasty. I've had a few zaps in my time (thanks entirely to my own carelessness I'll add) and I also found it varies from a slight shock of no consequence to ****** painful.

When I worked in electricity generation my employers had some very nasty HV incidents, in some of them it was difficult to recognise that the mess that was left had once been a human being judging from photographs we were provided with. Not nice.

 

[JJB70]

On the subject of the Audio Critic, part of me regrets that no magazine ever seemed to really step into the void left by its closure, but on the other hand sites like this one have taken on the mantle of providing an objective view of audio and measurement based evaluation and certainly on the Internet it does seem that the objective voice of audio enthusiasts is now pretty well heard (at least compared to a few years ago before the Internet when reviews and comment were completely dominated by subjective magazine reviewers).

 

[SIY]

I've not known them to be lethal. They do however have high potential for initiating divorce proceedings.

There's a reason my Acoustat 1+1s have remained boxed up and in the garage since my most recent marriage.

 

[DonH56]

My wife lived with my Maggies for decades, no complaints. I had them before her and she knew my love for playing music so it was never an issue. She has been incredibly understanding of my hobbies and of course we share many of the same interests.

I have bazillions of electrical zap stories from many years as a TV/stereo repair tech, electrician (never got past journeyman), and of course decades as an EE. One of the scariest to me was when I was helping a lineman friend working in a local 115 kV substation like the picture below. We had a tool that was much like an 8' crowbar used to reach up and pry insulators off the tops of the support poles and transformers. It was a wicked heavy, maybe 3/4" thick hex steel bar with rubber grips. Not insulated; it was to be used when the lines were de-energized. We were up in the bucket (cherry picker) replacing a feeder line (dead) over the transformer bank below (live, humming, and scary). There were several sets of triple wires across the transformers parallel to the ground. I was holding the line as my friend maneuvered the pole to place a new insulator and he slipped. The bar dropped flat across one of the transformer input triples. There was a sharp sizzling snap then the bar hit the ground -- in four pieces. It barely even paused as it was sliced. He looked down, looked up at me (still holding the line) and said, perfectly calmly, "don't touch those with the line". We got a another bar (truck carried several) and finished the job. The reaction set in later...

 

[SIY]

My wife lived with my Maggies for decades, no complaints. I had them before her and she knew my love for playing music so it was never an issue. She has been incredibly understanding of my hobbies and of course we share many of the same interests.

To be fair, my wife has tolerated rather, ummm, sizable dynamic speakers, a succession of minimonitors, funny noises coming from my basement lab, and some rather geeky house-guests. And she's the one who arranges the house concerts.

 

[Sal1950]

While spending some time as a roofing apprentice I was shown a number of horror movies. These involving the incorrect way of putting up ladders in the vicinity of high power lines. Truly horrible how the human body can be damaged by having very large amounts of current passing thru it..
Be careful out there!!!

 

[Wombat]

There's a reason my Acoustat 1+1s have remained boxed up and in the garage since my most recent marriage.

Some guys are slow learners.

 

[Wombat]

My wife lived with my Maggies for decades, no complaints. I had them before her and she knew my love for playing music so it was never an issue. She has been incredibly understanding of my hobbies and of course we share many of the same interests.

I have bazillions of electrical zap stories from many years as a TV/stereo repair tech, electrician (never got past journeyman), and of course decades as an EE. One of the scariest to me was when I was helping a lineman friend working in a local 115 kV substation like the picture below. We had a tool that was much like an 8' crowbar used to reach up and pry insulators off the tops of the support poles and transformers. It was a wicked heavy, maybe 3/4" thick hex steel bar with rubber grips. Not insulated; it was to be used when the lines were de-energized. We were up in the bucket (cherry picker) replacing a feeder line (dead) over the transformer bank below (live, humming, and scary). There were several sets of triple wires across the transformers parallel to the ground. I was holding the line as my friend maneuvered the pole to place a new insulator and he slipped. The bar dropped flat across one of the transformer input triples. There was a sharp sizzling snap then the bar hit the ground -- in four pieces. It barely even paused as it was sliced. He looked down, looked up at me (still holding the line) and said, perfectly calmly, "don't touch those with the line". We got a another bar (truck carried several) and finished the job. The reaction set in later...

View attachment 16670

That work scenario would not have been allowed on my watch as High Voltage Policy, Procedure and Work Practice Engineer, State Electricity Commission Of Victoria(Australia).

 

[Sal1950]

There's a reason my Acoustat 1+1s have remained boxed up and in the garage since my most recent marriage.

Thinking back, its very near the 40th anniversary this December, of the day my partner Skip and I carried a pair of Klipsch LaScala's into my living room. The look on my first wife's face was priceless, as we unboxed them and she realized they were just a big outside the box as in, in the unfinished birch plywood they may even had appeared larger. LOL. Over the next 34 years they were the topic of conversation many nights with wife # 1,2, and 3 plus a few hot girlfriends in between. They did tend to dominate the 14' x 22' room placed for optimal imaging. Funny, I guess they must have thought they'd change my mind over time and I'd get rid of them, but the hotties were the ones to leave, not my cherished K-Horns. LOL

 

[maverickronin]

the hotties were the ones to leave, not my cherished K-Horns. LOL

Finally a man with his priorities straight!

 

[Wombat]

Thinking back, its very near the 40th anniversary this December, of the day my partner Skip and I carried a pair of Klipsch LaScala's into my living room. The look on my first wife's face was priceless, as we unboxed them and she realized they were just a big outside the box as in, in the unfinished birch plywood they may even had appeared larger. LOL. Over the next 34 years they were the topic of conversation many nights with wife # 1,2, and 3 plus a few hot girlfriends in between. They did tend to dominate the 14' x 22' room placed for optimal imaging. Funny, I guess they must have thought they'd change my mind over time and I'd get rid of them, but the hotties were the ones to leave, not my cherished K-Horns. LOL

I take it 'partner' means offsider and not the modern take.

 

[DonH56]

That work scenario would not have been allowed on my watch as High Voltage Policy, Procedure and Work Practice Engineer, State Electricity Commission Of Victoria(Australia).

Probably not even in the backwoods of MS, USA today, but 40+ years ago things were different. Or maybe we just got away with more. Heck, my swingset never even had a rubber mat beneath.

 

[Sal1950]

I take it 'partner' means offsider and not the modern take.

Don't even think about it Wombat. LOL

 

[jhaider]

Does anyone know what David Rich, the technical editor for The Audio Critic, is up to these days?

https://hometheaterhifi.com/author/drich/

 

[JJB70]

Wen I was younger it seemed everybody I knew had a stereo system of some sort in their home, usually a midi system or separates stack from one of the mainstream brands such as Kenwood, Sony, Aiwa, Marantz, NAD etc but generally proudly displayed and used a lot and with people having a genuine desire for such systems. Now when I visit friends people may have a blue tooth speaker or use an AV sound bar but very few people I know now have what we might think of as a traditional stereo system. And I do think music is less important to people, at one time talking about music was one of those recurring conversations in life, now I very seldom discuss music with friends or colleagues. We live in a changed world, yet high quality audio has probably never been as accessible or affordable.

 

[Jorj]

What a timely thread. I recently discovered Peter's amazingly good magazine. Dr. Rich's coverage of modern amplifier design in issue 20 was truly illuminating.

I have to wonder how Peter would feel about the Devialet Phantom line. It seems to check a number of his boxes....not the monkey boxes.

 

[sergeauckland]

What a timely thread. I recently discovered Peter's amazingly good magazine. Dr. Rich's coverage of modern amplifier design in issue 20 was truly illuminating.

I have to wonder how Peter would feel about the Devialet Phantom line. It seems to check a number of his boxes....not the monkey boxes.

Not sure he would approve of the 'can't be repaired' nature of the Phantom. Reading some of his reviews, he seemed to be interested in how well put together and how serviceable a product was, as well as performance.

S.

 

[svart-hvitt]

Not sure he would approve of the 'can't be repaired' nature of the Phantom. Reading some of his reviews, he seemed to be interested in how well put together and how serviceable a product was, as well as performance.

S.

And nobody doubts that membrane area matters if full frequency range is to be achieved.

So a basket ball size speaker can just do that and nothing more.