A Show Unlike Any Other: Enter The nyNOISE Event
Article by Steven R. Rochlin
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  While i am personally reporting on three different shows during a thirty-day period, none get my juices flowing like the nyNOISE event. Sure there was great new products at the 2002 High End Society Frankfurt show, the PRIMEDIA Specialty Group Inc's (Stereophile) show will have plenty of the latest and greatest commercial home audio and video, though it is the 2002 nyNOISE Audio Design Exhibition that will shine as true artisans, inventors, and enthusiasts let the public experience what is truly possible in the home-brew hobbyist's soul. This is not to say that commercial companies are falling behind the times, far from it! It is to say that many people have been the route of commercial products and found them lacking, or in some cases, that people still want to be able to build their own audio system to achieve what may not be possible in the commercial venue.

While a major print magazine editor claimed over seven years ago that single-ended tube amplifier were nothing but a fad, today we see in both the commercial and the home-brew Do It Yourself (DIY) a strength in such low-powered devices that it is impossible to ignore. As someone who travels the world reporting on shows, it brings me joy to state that the nyNOISE Audio Design Exhibition marks our 50^th such coverage! While not boasting or bragging here, it is simply a fact that can be seen on our main Show Report page. So why is it that, like a moth to a flame, i find this DIY event so enjoyable?

Because i love music dammit! It is no secret that my first real day job was working for Heathkit Electronics so i could continue being a musician at night. In fact my father taught me to solder at the ripe old age of six! Add to that dad's then stereo was a Garrard turntable, Dynaco tubed electronics, Tannoy 12" dual concentric Gold monitors and other gear, this easily spells out how personal experience within the craft of audio is quite deep (given my young age of 36). Therefore seeing others enjoying themselves through carefully designing, building and tuning their own systems is a joy unto itself. While most of the world simply goes into their local hi-fi store and buys off-the-shelf commercially available products, it takes true talented and dedicated individual to seek a different path.

The Road Less Traveled

The ever-popular Joenet e-mail list, started by none other than Joe Roberts of Sound Practices fame many years ago, is still one of the places for such DIY enthusiasts to share their insight. This is more than using a simple design/schematic as a road map such as Enjoy the Music.com™'s very own Herb Reichert's ever-popular Flesh and Blood design. By reading Herb's article you will see that it is not just the part's value, but also the specific part manufacture that matters. To quote Herb's article "I am not going to get into the parts philosophy thing except to tell you I have tried everything I could lay my hands on. My ideas change daily so here are today's recommendations. No Teflon. No silver plated wire. No MIT multi-caps. No metal film or metal oxide resistors. No polypropylene caps. No Vitamin Qs. No Solen. No REL caps. No Holcos. No metal oxides. No Vishays. No SCR. No MKP-1845s. No solid state diodes. No solid state current sources. No silicon anything. If you use this stuff, you know who's amp design it is NOT."

While such ideas of one brand of parts "sound" different than others could make an electrical engineer wax lyrically that like parts sound the same, the DIY community knows better. In fact it goes much deeper than one certain brand of a specific parts is best. Like wire in audiophile-land, some specific brand and designation of a part is better in one place of a circuitry in a specific design, while in another design a totally different part brand and type works best. Confused?

Imagine that Kimber's all silver Select cables sound great for your digital rig while the Audio Note all silver wire is best for your analog front end (turntable, tonearm and phono stage). This same type of philosophy takes place when you are making your own electronics. In fact there are many small companies that are now offering tweaks to commercial products. Allen Wright of Vacuum State Electronics, for instance, offers fairly low priced SACD upgrades... plus his own line of DIY cables and amplification kits. Furthermore, there are many DIY enthusiasts who have started their own company offering kits. Unless you have lived under a rock for the past few years, surely you know of Doc Bottlehead of Bottlehead Corporation who offers goodies such as the Foreplay pre-amplifier, Paramour 2A3 amplifier, Paraglow and also the Parabee 300B amplifiers, and much more. In fact there are simply too many kits and professional tweak-gurus on the market to list them all here!

Getting back to the 2002 nyNOISE Audio Design Exhibition, here is where many great people get together to share in the good times and showcase their inventions. Much of it is for sale at great prices too! Look forward to seeing you at the show on Saturday, June 1^st at 12pm within Arlene Grocery (a New York City rock club). If you are attending the other highly commercial New Your City show, then you owe it to yourself to experience what the true artisans in the world have been up to. Of course in the end what really matters is that you...

Enjoy the Music (Roger Waters Radio Kaos right now),

Steven R. Rochlin

 

"...Satellite buzzing through the endless night
Exclusive to moonshots and world title fights
Jesus Christ imagine what it must be earning

Who is the strongest
Who is the best
Who holds the aces
The East
Or the West
This is the crap our children are learning

But oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning
The tide is turning
Oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning..."