1999
Click here
for the music.
The NY Noise show is for
allowing those artisans who enjoy the glories of lower-powered vacuum tube gear to show
their wares. Blackie Pagano and JC Morrison were the dudes who turned this new show
idea into a reality. JC literally allowed the show into his own home which is a very
large warehouse. It was by invitation only and in fact it was a standing room
only event too!
The system used during the entire NY Noise Show were these pure
silver-wired speakers made by our gracious host JC Morrison. These very large
speakers use 18 mid drivers (open baffle to reduce the "stored energy" as in
sealed speakers), a single Raven ribbon tweeter, and a rear firing tweeter as well.
One 15" woofer per channel is also employed to reproduce the lowermost octaves.
Although these are 100 db/w/m @ 8 ohm sensitive speakers, JC commented that they are not
the easiest speakers to drive due to the amount of magnets used within this speaker
project. A Sota turntable served for vinyl duties while a Dennon CD played covered
the digital needs. Speaker cables and interconnects were all Silver Lightning and
supplied by BEAR Labs.
The keynote address was given by none other then the internationally
acclaimed tube designer Herb Reichert. He gave a great, approximately thirty minute,
address which was very inspirational. Those with the free RealNetworks RealAudio G2
player can hear the address in it's entirety. If you do not have the free RealAudio
plug-in, please click the blue graphic below to get it. The speech itself has been broken
down into approximately ten minute segments each.
First up was
Bob Danielak and his
carefully crafted and wonderful sounding amplifiers. He began by using his The
Darling amplifier (green amp). This 1/2 watt amplifier uses the 1626 output tube and
ya know what, the dynamics didn't sound at all constrained. As much as you 500wpc
Krell/Levinson owners won't believe me, you guys really need to get out and hear this
stuff in action. Even another writer from the printed media, J-10, seemed to be
diggin' the tunes. Anyway, the music seemed to really float freely during the first
tune he played! Bob then played a groovy tune by the Whitehead Brothers. After
that song was over he switched to a different amplifier called the DC Darling (red amp)
which differs from the standard The Darling in that it is a DC coupled design. He
closed by playing Zap Mama which sounded eerily realistic. Within the right system
even a 1/2 watt can be very satisfying.
Next
up was the well known Steve Berger of April Sound. He broke out some
Duke "And His Mother Called Him Bill" only available on vinyl and let 'er
rip. No big introduction was given about his gear, he just poured the jazzy music
into the air. There was quite a good amount of delicacy being reproduced. In
fact the lower octaves were well defined too. The amplifier Steve used is a parallel
2A3 single-ended monoblock design which produces a massive 5-6 watts each. Steve
feels that what really matters is that people enjoy the music. i must admit there
were some amazing things happening musically in my humble opinion with his
amplifier in the system. Those small, subtle nuances lost in most systems came
though wonderfully with his amplifier. He closed with Cannonball Adderly and the
Poll Winners Your's Is My Hear Alone. Nice touch!
After
Steve was good ol' Dr.
Bottlehead known for his great S.E.X. (that's Single-Ended
eXpairmenter's kits to you latecomers into the DIY game). This guy
makes many reasonably-priced tube yummies available in either kit form or as pre-built
units. Lessee here, he sells units called Foreplay, Anticipation, Afterglow, and
other names that, well, have erotic connotations. (Humor) Maybe some guys do
"get off" on their music reproduction systems after all.
The next guy up was Jeremy Epstein who played his small 1.5
watt monoblock 1626 parallel single-ended amplifier which uses a 6SN7 for driver
duties. The second song he played was a great guitar piece by Kurt Rodarmer
"Bach Goldberg Variations" (Steve's side note: must remember to buy this album
when i get home). It consisted of amazingly fast and precise guitar work. The
amplifier easily kept up with the fast-paced music. There was much inner clarity
within the notes too! The last song he played was the classic tune Green Onions.
It grooved baby. Yeah yeah! Click here for the schematics.
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High-Performance Audio Reviews
