2000
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Our Hostess
Welcome to
another Enjoy the Music.com nyNOISE show report! For those of
you who missed our last year's show, please click
here and enjoy our 1999 coverage. nyNOISE is the place for
all the true tube designers from the Northeast USA to get together and
share in their designs and delights. No posers, hypemeisters or deadbeats
allowed here! All the really important folks are here so come along and
let's get this thing started shall we.
Blackie Pagano
First i would like to say that none other than tube G-ds Blackie Pagano and JC Morrison
are the dudes who turned this show
idea into a reality. JC literally allows the show into his own home, which is a very
large warehouse! nyNOISE is by invitation only (which explains why such a high
caliber of designers are here and such a wonderful audience too) and in fact it
is a standing room
only event too!
Standing Room Only Attendance
Various Loudspeakers @ the nyNOISE Show
JC Morrison gave a great opening speech. Truly
glorious indeed! He
was singing the praises of how the DIY guys making audio gadgets that are a true
labor of love. He feels there are many reasons for the general public to not
have great music in their homes since an overly large amount of "dreck"
is available. What the nyNOISE is, according to JC, is about people who build gadgets to reproduce music simply for the love of
it. For adding happiness to heir lives.
Joe Roberts
First up was Joe Roberts (of Sound
Practices magazine fame) was glad to see everyone at
the show. He was especially happy to share in the differences between all of
the DIY folks who have their own unique way to breathe life into reproduced
music. Joe feels it is a "self generated" difference... The diversity
arises from each individual coming from their own past experience and hopes for the
future." He feels the important craze we all share is the common interest
of "system building". Finding parts that will make up and
compete the whole. Even down to the resistor! "Are parts
amplifiers?" Joe Roberts asked.
He then went on to praise the level of craftsmanship and
achievement from the DIY community. He truly feels it is amazing. "There is really a high
level of achievement" says Joe. The biggest level has nothing to do with
pre-built audio components, it has to do with the DIY units. Anyone who has
compared the normal readily
available high-end products to DIY knows what is being discussed here.
Allan Wright
Next up was none other than Allen Wright. Allen
gave us a good idea to his very in-depth background of true electronics
modification, design, and engineering. He then discussed the advantages of
proper, absolute phase and how music is best when the phase is absolutely
correct. Alan did bring his glorious preamplifier which was using throughout
the show.
Nick McKinney
Nick McKinney nick@lambdacoustics.com
is a great speaker dude out of Florida. They offer both speakers as well as
cabinets. The Bass section is custom, while the top part is a 300 Hz horn that
is 110 db/w/m!
Dave Sleagle was up next and simply played some cool Johnny
Cash "One Piece at a Time". His cool wood base blue glowing tube amp
was a site to behold. Next up was good ol' Bob Marley "Redemption
Song". This music filled the quite large room. Check out the below close
out shot folks!
YUMMY!
Larry Moore also simply let the music speak through his line
stage and 10Y driving 10Y amplifier. Following Larry was Jeremy Epstein
has his 2A3 creation. Driver tube is 5842 direct coupled to Sovtek 2A3 output
tube. This was developed after trying a DC version of the Darling amplifier he
exhibited last year. This new amplifier is an attempt to try using the 2A3
tube which is such a wonderful tube in many systems. The dude's a music folks
so the geekery and tweakery is in service of the music. Jeremy never looses
sight of it.
Randy of BEAR Labs
Randy from BEAR Labs showed a fully DC coupled single-ended
solid-state monoblock amplifier. These are of
the MOSfet variety. They are SE MOSfet about 30 wpc and because they have a
current source, they react to a load music like a tube amplifier with a
transformer. That orange glow dudes is the "solid-state filaments".
They also have a very wide bandwidth over 150 kHz. These pure
Class A babies have nothing between the MOSfets and the loudspeaker.
Getting the award for a tube amp that doesn't glow is Bob
Danielak robert.m.danielak@lmco.com.
Svetlana 3CX300A1 tube which is a ceramic planar triode. It's a push-pull
design using a DC-coupled 6BM8 split-load driver. It can produce 100 watts per
channel from a healthy 750 volts supply. This amp was a natural progression from "the beast" amplifier
(see this
Web page) which Bob built almost thee years ago. The "dolphin" amp that he
built for nyNOISE 2000 is essentially a stereo version of that amplifier. It uses a pair of Svetlana 3CX300A1 Ceramic Planar Power Triodes
for nearly 100W per channel of Zero-Feedback Triode power. You'' notice it is a little different from the original "beast" design in that
it uses cathode bias instead of fixed bias, and the driver is completely different.
A schematic for the "dolphin" is available simply by
clicking here.
Herb Reichert
Komuro graciously introduced a few people who spoke about
their joys of music and the art of DIY... including none other than cool dude Herb
Reichert (who now writes for a few groovy New York art magazines and also for the most excellent
Listener magazine). He was singing the praises of the quality of both build and
sound of Komuro's designs.
During the big speaker change over there was an auction for
Larry Moore's parallel Darling amplifier. The tube amp went to Al Mitchell for
a winning bid of $600.
Winner of the DACT stepped attenuator
Blackie Pagano "Universal" AMplifier
Then Blackie playing his "Universal" amplifier that
can play a whole onslaught of output tubes by simply rebiasing the amplifier.
This is the unit hanging from the ceiling folks. Is that ultra-cool or
what???
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Lastly was Stuart with cool stack supply coupled 3-tube
circuit as seen in gory detail in the photographs above. A WE437 is used for gain, 2045 for
flavor and a TL250 for power output. Ahhh,
look at 'er glow!
TL250 Output Tube
More on the show from Jeremy Epstein...
I brought a direct-coupled two stage power amp, using the 5842
(417A) as the input/driver tube, and a Sovtek 2A3 as the final output. Output transformers are Audio Note T-144's and many of the other parts are surplus/scavenged. I was inspired by Joe Roberts' seminal "I Never Met A 2A3 Amp I Didn't Like" article in
Sound Practices. I agreed with his premise, and I had already developed a great-sounding, simple DC coupled amp using 8532 driving two 1626's. I used a similar circuit to build this amp but with the better-performing tubes and classier, though still budget-priced, output transformer. One listener who A/B'd the two amps in my home felt that my cheaper 1626 amp was more fun to listen to despite the fact that the 2A3 amp has more power and a wider bandwidth.
I come to this hobby as a music lover first and as an audio geek second. Never forget that these are tools to enjoy the music! For me, the experience was very social this year since so many people came from around the world to be together.
I enjoyed the day even more than last year! jc and Blackie are The Men.
Jeremy Epstein jepstein@shwd.com
More photos available by clicking here.
High-Performance Audio Reviews
