#audio research

[audio-luddite]

Finger on the pulse!

I still check ads. Maybe that Beogram 4000 will come up for cheap. Ya sure.

Lately I have been looking for people selling power tubes. A full set of 6550s matched from my reliable real store source is about $1k CAD. A private sale could be far less.

So I was checking the Canuck (Canadian) Audio Mart. There are a few potentials. One is a full set of 8 almost new, pulled from a different amp brand. There are a couple of sets of 4. The cost would be $600 to $800 with the added risk of no warranty and all that.

When I used the search term "6550 tube" an ad came up from a town in the middle of BC. There are a lot of retirees and people with money. The ad was for an ARC Cl60 amp just like mine but for a black front face. $3900! That is 2.6 times what I paid and tax and shipping on top of that. He also lists it on Ebay for $3750 US! They are a dealer who are very knowledgeable but known for higher prices. He was selling a Sony TT like my old one for almost 2k. Makes me feel very good about my deal.

The ad says they have the original box. Maybe I should offer to buy the box. If I ever need to ship it a crate would be good, but a real ARC box is very solid.

Hifi shark shows prices up to that range which is probably where he looked.

The other Cl60 down here on the coast is still there and the price dropped again now $1850. It has been in the listings for 6 months. I still feel it was not a real situation, it could have been stolen or at least removed from an old person's home. I may just repeat my offer of $900 bucks no questions asked to tease the guy. Hell he may raise the price given that other one, but I think he is not capable of shipping it given my discussions with him. There are a few fans of the brand around here, but if they really wanted it....

I have been toying with the idea of fiddling with the chassis to make the test points externally accessed. 6 banana jacks 3 per side with wires run to the circuit board. It would make bias a very simple process. Key to getting it right is temperature. You need the covers on to get operating temp, but off to test the voltages.

Down side is that I would be putting a 420 volt potential in an easier to get to place. Well that is the point, no? Maybe I could get a danger sticker with skull and cross bones?

Like I say I know enough to be dangerous.

[hifilounge]

Audio Research I/50 Integrated Amplifier Now On Demo, All I can Say is WOW!

Hi Everyone,

Well is has certainly taken some time to arrive since being announced but I am really pleased to say that the new Audio Research I/50 Integrated Valve Amplifier is now with us and it has certainly been the wait.

I won't go on for too long but firstly I really can't think of a better spend of the £5198 asking price for this amp in HiFi today, it's not very often you put the words 'ARC' and 'good value for money' in the same sentence but this really is, firstly it is all hand assembled and tested at Audio Research in Minnesota to the same exacting standards as their other products, including their Reference range, the look and build quality is stunning, the sound is pure ARC so open, big, organic, full and very natural, and I love 2 pillars at the front that count down from 49 at boot up as the valves warm up then they become the volume control and input select indicators, very cool, It is also available in 6 different colours and can be specced with a phono stage and DAC if required.

I guess it is pretty obvious that ARC are going after the PrimaLuna EVO400 with this amp but the great news is that we have both here so if you are in the market for a new amp feel free to get in touch to come in to compare, please find a few pics below of the I/50 in place as my new office system amp, works really well with the Wilson Audio TuneTots and HiFi Rose RS150 streamer, really not sure how I am going to get any work done.

https://hifilounge.co.uk/product-category/brands/audio-research/

All the best,

Regards,

Paul.

[alwaysbewoke]

[ghost-bxrd]

[REDACTED] caught me tempering with the drone footage. Like a fool I tried diverting his attention, tried to explain— I’m ashamed to say I wasn’t above begging.

[REDACTED] left without another word.

I am… afraid. I hold no illusion towards my fate, but if there is any god out there then please, leave them be. They just want to be left alone. He doesn’t deserve for you to-

[audio corrupted, water damage irreversible, one minute of audio missing]

This may be my last log entry for… a while. I will try to purge as many logs as I can and erase what little information I have gathered.

If you hear this, [REDACTED]:

Fuck you, sincerely.

— Audio log transcript, recovered from the ruins of the [REDACTED] research facility, researcher identity: [REDACTED], status: deceased

[jstor]

Discover new dimensions of research with Artstor On JSTOR! 📚✨ Our recent blog post explores the expanded multimedia content now available, including audio, video, and panoramic images. These dynamic formats provide a richer, more immersive research experience and enhance accessibility for diverse learning styles. Read the full post to learn how these resources can support your academic journey and make your studies more engaging than ever.

[Image ID: "JSTOR Blog" in the upper left hand corner, and a red triangle in the upper right hand corner. "There's much more to Artstor than images," By Morgan Godvin, Content and Community Engagement Manager, ITHAKA, backdropped by an old film clip of a Swiss mountain range.]

Clip: John Beattie. A Record of Physiology in the Sun. Video Recordings, 1938. Wellcome Collection.

[sketchitings]

So this probably isn’t the exact shirt but since the earliest ones I could find were from 2003, I decided on this one. Based on the dialogue, it seems to be implied that the name of the band isn’t obvious at first glance so the scene could go something like:

Alfonso: (holds shirt with back facing upwards) Oh, the band? They’re called… (flips it over to the front) Fall Out Boy.

@escapedaudios

[bubblergoespop]

i always think about the fact that vincent said he’s probably stronger than alexis, despite being turned 30(?) years after her.

apparently it’s because he was turned by older blood since william aged even more between turning alexis and turning vincent.

[kaialone]

This is actually so funny

A.B.A: My husband will pay for everything <3

Paracelsus: What the heck are you talking about I literally have no money

[audio-luddite]

Audiophile Bullshit.

I mean to actually target the bullshit stuff people emit regarding the details of the hobby. That is opinion over facts and more often than not disinformation.

The apotheosis of this are the megabuck system schemes and the golden ear nominations for State of the art (SOTA) as some kind of goal to be attained.

The truth is different people like different things for different reasons. That is all.

Golden ears are mostly self-appointed experts. Some have a technical background and can confidently discuss details of electrical circuits. Others came from a sales background which is exactly like a automobile salesman judging a new car model. Of course they like it, this week. Next time who knows. Others may simply be good writers of words.

What is missing is some kind of consensus or line to be passed that denotes that a given device is a "good one." If you have such you have attained a certain level of quality to get to the point of truly appreciating the sound it produces. It is not a car with a zero to sixty number or an amp with vanishing low transient intermodulation distortion. I have seen positive endorsements of crap components. Or even if not steaming piles of wasted money just not as good as what you could buy with that cash.

If you have a 4 figure system that is past that standard it is just as legitimate as a 6 figure system. One can argue the principle of diminishing returns. I may have 92% perfection and the millionaire has 97%. Nobody has 100%. Mr 97 does have bragging rights, but that is just bragging. Blah Blah Blah.

I think my system is really good. My switch from an all tube preamp to a tube hybrid (both below SOTA) was an incremental improvement. It gave me more clarity and resolution, but it was only an increment. Frankly I cannot imagine extracting any more off of an LP than what I do now.

The ARC tube (hybrid) amplifier is very very similar to my pure bipolar transistor Franken-amp which speaks well of both. I cannot say if it is better, but it is different. They are that close. It is fun to compare. Hey my wood burning fireplace warms my house like my gas furnace does. One is certainly more romantic. Better? Hmmm.

It is easy for me to do this as my playing has been cost neutral. I buy stuff from reserves I built from selling stuff. The basis of my scheme is a combination of critical reading of things, and memory of things from years gone by as well as my own amateur work. When possible I check out the circuit diagrams to see past the marketing blah blah. I can identify treasure and sometimes get it for decent money. If I sell it later I will not lose money. Yet for all that my line of absolute quality has not moved very far.

So for all the tribes and wisdom and rumor and BS I let the results speak. I read the golden ear articles, and watch the You Tube videos but it is for fun not education. I have seen lies out there. You gotta sell stuff.

This is supposed to be fun. Keep that in mind.

[hifilounge]

Christmas Break Vinyl Indulgence!

Hi all,

Happy New Year everyone, hope you all had a great Festive period, I had a rare 10 days at home so decided to take home a system that I wanted to test in our very small 200 year old snug as I am planning to set that up as an intimate listening room once the builders have finished sorting out the damp, it will be vinyl only and a total contrast to our PMC BB5 SE room, so I took home the DeVore Fidelity O/Baby speakers and partnered them with the Audio Research I/50 amp, Rega Planar 8 and Chord Symphonic Phono Stage, I wanted to keep it all well matched without going too bonkers on cost, firstly to see how the room coped acoustically and would I be happy at this level or would I constantly be thinking about upgrading.

I posted daily updates on Social Media on my vinyl choices so I thought I would quickly post it all on here for anyone who doesn't do social, I did fire up the BB5's at one point though as I really wanted to hear the Atmos mix of Peter Gabriel's i/o album on the new Reference Magnetar UDP900 Universal player + try some other SACD's as well as the David Bowie documentary 'Moonage Daydream' I highly recommend this if you are a Bowie fan.

I must admit firstly the system sounded amazing in this room, I mean really amazing, to a point where I actually couldn't imagine it sounding any better although like everyone who is into HiFi I did start wondering what a Planar 10 or even the Naia would sound like and could I actually fit in the DeVore O/96's but in reality I should just go with this system once all the work is finished as I spent hours in that room listening to around 4 albums a day, more if I had the time, certainly been a while since I have listened to that much music, it was so much fun.

Now we just need to get the room finished so I can install is all permanently.

Please find my vinyl selection below -

We sre only allowed to upload 30 pics on Tumblr so please find link below for the rest of the selection on the blog on our website -

Cheers,

Paul.

[fuzzkaizer]

Endangered Audio Research - Gristleizer

"Desktop Version with CV and Expression Control 2012 ... [with] added CV In, CV Out and Freq Ctrl (expression) jacks"

cred: reverb.com/Mysterybear's 3D Den of Gear

[zefforuins]

Batman (1940) #426 // Batman: Arkham Knight (2015) - Arkham Knight Audio File #2 // Batman (1940) #650

[jstor]

"Tuskegee University Archives recently released new recordings from the Tuskegee Civic Association records that feature prominent leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. These speeches address the Tuskegee community by civil rights leaders like John Lewis and Coretta Scott King, fill in historical gaps to illuminate the relationships between leaders and their constituents."

The Chapel Collection audio recordings–yes, audio is now on JSTOR!–are freely available for listening. Hear the recordings on JSTOR or learn more about the collection from JSTOR Daily.

Image credit: Tuskegee University Archives. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. March 25, 1965.

[balkanradfem]

I started reading the book 'Pests' by Bethany Brookshire. I thought it would be a book filled with information on how to protect your garden without causing any harm to animals. I could not have been more wrong, but soon it didn't matter, because I was drawn in immediately. This book is written by a brilliant scientist, who presents to you, the history, the data, the results and the cultural context of pests all around the world. It starts with squirrels, but then goes on to talk about pythons, pigeons, cats, rats, mice, frogs, coyotes, wolves, elephants, dogs, raccoons, deer, bears – and how they've been seen as a pest, most often for no fault of their own.

I learned about the numerous ways people in the past have created a 'pest' problem for themselves, and how they went on resolving it, and honestly I was shocked  at the most of it. I did not know that human scientists developed specific plagues for animals in order to get rid of them. I also had no idea how quickly humans turned the perception of a certain animal from 'useful' to 'pest', without even realizing they're responsible for the behaviour of the animal in the first place. Also the number of times humans have attempted to introduce a predator in order to get rid of an invasive species – only to immediately cause a new invasive species, absolutely incredible.

I was surprised to find out that some specific animals could be pests at all, for example, elephants. Absorbing the information presented to me thus far, I thought elephants were nothing short of wonderful and welcome in anyone's life – but, the story describes them eating the entire fields worth of grain, in only one night. And due to their size, they're unstoppable. They've destroyed houses, and even killed people, as a result of trying to get to the food. The elephants are a protected species, so the locals have been forced to develop different way of co-existing, namely, to stop growing grain and try to find different ways of survival and sustenance. There have been numerous other attempts to protect the fields from them, but how would you protect anything from an elephant? The only thing they're scared of, are bees. And if there's food to be gained, they'll overcome the fear of the bees too.

Did you know that if mice multiply too much, they'll have a mice plague that will wipe them out, without human interference?  Mice and rats are described as the animals closest to us – because they live where we live, eat what we eat, and learn whatever it takes to find their way in the land of humans. And it seems, we have the same problems as well.

One of my favourite little piece of knowledge in this book: the scientists studying the snakes in a lab name the snakes after Slytherins – so they have Snape, Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, and Bellatrix. It was amazing to listen about Snape the snake.

The author of this book is incredibly unbiased, and shows her love for every animal mentioned, but also understanding and compassion for people who have felt wronged, violated, helpless and cornered by the animal, and how awful it feels to not be able to protect their homes and livelihoods from an animal invading their territory. In author's mind, the animals are not at fault, because all they've been trying to do is survive, get to the source of food, for them this is foraging. For us, it's nature taking from us what we intended for ourselves.

The problem of seeing animals as pests, comes often from the perception of us being the dominating species, and having the right to remove or introduce or change animals, by how convenient and pleasing we find them. She sourced the problems from negative experiences, loss, violation and danger, but also from culture, colonialism, religion, behaviours of the people around us. Most children have no concept of danger or pests – babies in a study would reach out curiously seeing a picture of snake. Perception of which animal is good and which one is bad, comes with culture, experience and the behaviour of everyone else around it. And our collective perception comes from whether the animal is rare, whether it lives close to us, if we have to adjust our lives because of it or not, if we have had negative experiences or not, whether it can hurt us, whether we have something the animal wants (food) and tries to get from us.

I recommend this book to anyone who'd like to know more about the history of humans trying to live alongside – or refusing to live alongside certain animals. And anyone dealing with any kind of pest, or just not understanding why animals act the way they do around humans.

I come out from reading this, feeling no more wise on how to keep the pests out – except for, don't leave the food outside the house where animals can get to it, that's the #1 reason for most scenarios – but feeling way more understanding and at ease about animals that are perceived as pests. I know solutions  that have been tried to deal with them, I know what didn't work, and I know how badly some collective solutions can become. I understand we need to find a way to live with them as our neighbours, not enemies, not violators of our property. And most often, just being responsible about where you leave your food, how much animals you tempt to come close to you, how you reward them for interacting with you, is more than a half of the solution.

[paperbaldi]

dumbass joke I apologize 😔

[garadinervi]

Malcolm X, The Ballot or the Bullet (Notes), 1964 [Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, New York Public Library, New York, NY]

Speech delivered on two occasions: Cory Methodist Church, Cleveland, OH, April 3, 1964; King Solomon Baptist Church, Detroit, MI, April 12, 1964

Audio: Malcolm X, The Ballot or the Bullet, King Solomon Baptist Church, Detroit, MI, April 12, 1964 [Atlanta University Center – Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta, GA]