MM X - MORITA'S SPEAKERS OF HIS HOUSE In past conversations with Morita, in the world of loudspeakers, 3 names always come up - Arnold Nudell, Dick Sequerra, and Jon Dahlquist. He showed me a few pictures of the speakers he collected in those times.
On the left, the Dahlquist DQ-10 Special Edition. Modified by Saul Marantz with a Sequerra HF-1 Ribbon Tweeter inside, with a rare white grill cover. And on the right, the AR-3(W) as bass drivers only, which he used as bass module driven by Phase Linear 400 amp. Crossover used was a Dahlquist Electronic Crossover. Morita was a bi-amping adherent.
Double Quad 57s, with original Mark Levinson Stands, he would use 2 pairs of AR-3s as bass drivers instead of the Hartley woofers, and he calls it 'AQ' - AR/Quad.
Regarding the HQDs, he told me something I didn't know before. Erstwhile, I had thought that the HQD system was lock stock and barrel supplied by Mark Levinson the man as whole package. What Morita clarified to me was that ML supplied only the electronics and the individual had to source his own H, Q and D. Morita was the importer of the double Quad 57s in those days, and he hooked up with a another local importer (who sourced the H and the D and the ML gears) to sell the HQD system to the audio hobbyist in those days.
Today, he plans to set up what he calls a 'GQS'' in the near future. Genesis 2 woofer towers, double Quad 57s, and a Sequerra Signature Ribbon/Cone high frequency driver, pictured below, and heavier than any bookshelf speakers I've come to know.
He was also a fan of Magnepan Loudspeakers (now he tells me), 2 decades before I got my own Maggie.
He bought himself a Tympani 3D on Christmas Day, 1977 - A day of self-serving bliss.
Why have I never done that?
Unknown to me till now, Magnepan had a 4-panel bass driver in the Tympani 3A-W, which he owned in those times with the Tympani 3D.
He also had the AR-LST speakers:
He also liked Arnold Nudell's venture into combining the KLH 9s with Bozak and Klipsch which was one of Infinity's very first speaker - The Servo Statik.
He kept articles that mentioned one of his idols, Jon Dahlquist and the now legendary DQ-10 and how the DQ-10 was used in the initial works of speaker makers who later on made a mark in the industry.
And last but not least, he pays tribute to whom he considers the greatest loudspeaker designer of all - Arnold Nudell of Infinity and Genesis. His admiration for Arnold Nudell led him into importing the Genesis Loudspeaker line in the early 90s, here with the then 2nd flagship Genesis Model 2 in Manila, which was featured in a local audio magazine in those days:
Before Genesis, there was Infinity. The IRS in Nudell's own room.
Nudell used a Mark Levinson modified Studer A-80 tape machine (modified by John Curl) and was called the ML Model 5.
He took a photo of the son of his partner in the States, beside an IRS in Nudell's factory in Denver, Colorado:
And this, in his own words, is the feather in his cap. In 1995, as the importer of the Genesis line of speakers, he flew up to Eagle Point in Denver to visit his idol Arnold Nudell, who hosted a dinner for him, with Arnie's family members and Genesis Partner Paul McGowan in tow.
For the record, the guy on the left is Pat Morita (aka Robert Tan), and on the right, the legendary Arnold Nudell. There can be no mistake.
Morita has lived his dreams, but I, I have yet to sit down with Larry Bird. And well, maybe try to meet Jim Winey's son in the Magnepan plant someday.