The Tube Otaku

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The Tube Otaku

Postby ttommy » Sun Jan 16, 2011 12:35 pm

The otaku, the passionate obsessive, the information age's embodiment of the connoisseur, more concerned with the accumulation of data than of objects, seems a natural crossover figure in today's interface of British and Japanese cultures. I see it in the eyes of the Portobello dealers, and in the eyes of the Japanese collectors: a perfectly calm train-spotter frenzy, murderous and sublime. Understanding otaku -hood, I think, is one of the keys to understanding the culture of the web. There is something profoundly post-national about it, extra-geographic. We are all curators, in the post-modern world, whether we want to be or not.

William Gibson
Article in The Observer: Modern boys and mobile girls (April 2001)


Our story starts when I bought a NOS matched quad RCA 811A upon the recommendation of ambel/Erik and my amp's manufacturer, Dejan Nikic. As luck would have it, one of the tubes was DOA. I got in touch with the eBay seller who said he'll ship a replacement but in the meantime, impatience a curse in this hobby, thought that I should reconnect with a local tube guru whom I haven't seen for some 10 years.

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Richard Matthews, the owner of Leeds Electronics, runs his business from a warehouse in Williamsburg Brooklyn. Leeds Electronics was originally located at the famous "Radio Row" section of Lower Manhattan before it was redeveloped to site the World Trade Center. Richard bought the business from its original owner in 1994 after it had relocated to Williamsburg. I'd first visited Leeds around 2001, back when the area was mostly industrial, pre-hipster. I believe I was looking for some 6SN7s and it was a shock to see Richard sift through what appeared to be a burlap sack full of old RCAs and Sylvanias.

Click picture below to read an interview with Richard on the Culture Push blog.
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Well, how to begin? Let's start with what greets you as soon as you step inside Leeds, aisle upon aisle upon aisle of... stuff! Pre-digital age stuff. The stuff you probably won't recognize if you listen to MP3s on your iPod. Richard immediately warns me not to post pictures on the web, he doesn't want Leeds to be another stop on one of those guided walking tours around Williamsburg. I reassured him I'll only be posting pictures on private fora but nevertheless, please don't get the impression that Leeds is a museum even if, in a lot of ways, it could very well be one.

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Here's one of those aisles. I told the missus to go ahead and shoot while I caught up with Richard. The wife and I brought three cameras, I had my Olympus EP2, the missus had her Panny GF-1 with the 1.7 pancake I got her for Christmas and a Canon 40D she didn't get to use. Being very much into photography himself, Richard and Yelena also talked shop, at one point comparing digital scans of film vs supposedly higher resolution digital images on Richard's computer. Later, on the way home, Yelena says she was a bit afraid to run loose she might've broken something.

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But, boy-o, there's just so much cool stuff. Like this metal filing cabinet, man, I'd love to store a stash of tubes in one of these! Richard and I did get to talk about tubes and audio. He's an OTL guy, still has his Futterman OTL-1s for some 20+ years. I'm a huge OTL fan as well, but my experience was owning Atmasphere MA-1s which gave off so much heat I couldn't run them during the summer. Properly mated with the right speakers, I agree with Richard, there's nothing like OTLs, it does combine the best of solid-state (speed, extensions) and tubes (liquidity). "Mainlining music" is perhaps the best way to put it.

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Leeds also stocks a wide assortment of vintage parts, in one wall we have shelves of measurement devices, transformers, radio parts. Chances are if something serves an electrical function and was used in analog electronics before 1980, you'll probably find it here.

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There are hundreds, if not thousands of these types of parts in assortment. I probably could name a few after only after closer inspection could determine its function. In comparison, our otaku host definitely knows each and every piece, its history and usage. The mindmap required for this arcana is huge. And tubes are just a small part of it.

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But speaking of tubes, before long we were wrapping up our business. Richard, below, testing my 811As.

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And here's that radio that's mentioned in that Culture Push interview that used to belong to Radio Free Europe. Don't even think of making an offer on it ;)

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We would've loved to hang more but another customer had arrived and each of us gets Richard's full attention. We had to say goodbye.

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Epilogue

For lunch, we headed to Fette Sau, which was a short drive away. Now, I dunno about you, but tube shopping at Leeds followed by Fette Sau BBQ is an absolute treat in my book. I only need to flimsiest of excuses to feast on pork belly, ribs, brisket and some crispy pork skin in the first place.

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Inventing an amuse-bouche, pork belly on a "canoe" of crispy pork skin.

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I'm listening to the NAT Audio Generators as I'm writing this, sonically, the NOS RCAs have a lower noise floor, keeps its composure when pushed (unlike the Cetron and Sino I've used before) and sounds positively glorious. If you ever find yourself in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on a tube hunt, just step through the door.

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Thanks for reading!
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Re: The Tube Otaku

Postby JackD201 » Sun Jan 16, 2011 2:31 pm

Is he related to Howard Stern? :lol:

Just kidding Tito :D I wonder how he's got all the stuff inventoried.
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Re: The Tube Otaku

Postby keith » Sun Jan 16, 2011 3:39 pm

:o thanks for sharing Tito! Long live Otaku-san! :bow:
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Re: The Tube Otaku

Postby ttommy » Sun Jan 16, 2011 4:03 pm

Thanks, Jack and Keith. Jack, it's quite possible the inventory is mentally catalogued!
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Re: The Tube Otaku

Postby jadis » Sun Jan 16, 2011 4:46 pm

What a awesome sight, Tito. :o Thanks for the 'tube porn'. :lol:
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Re: The Tube Otaku

Postby ttommy » Mon Jan 17, 2011 9:51 am

jadis wrote:What a awesome sight, Tito. :o Thanks for the 'tube porn'. :lol:


You're welcome, Philip, next time you (or any Wiredstater, for that matter) are in NYC, I highly recommend a visit to Leeds. A couple more pictures below--

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Still I can't adequately convey the breadth of the tube stash at Leeds! Now don't get me wrong, some tubes aren't available and the bias is more on US production. But I did ask Richard if he has a Western Electric 212E and he says he gets that "from time to time" although he also said he doesn't understand why folks would use it in a design except, and here we agree, to make a statement.

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Re: The Tube Otaku

Postby JackD201 » Mon Jan 17, 2011 11:44 am

Think he has a matched quad of 417As in there somewhere? :angel:
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Re: The Tube Otaku

Postby kabubi » Mon Jan 17, 2011 12:10 pm

JackD201 wrote:Think he has a matched quad of 417As in there somewhere? :angel:


naughty. naughty.
:lol:
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Re: The Tube Otaku

Postby dimfer » Mon Jan 17, 2011 1:03 pm

But I did ask Richard if he has a Western Electric 212E and he says he gets that "from time to time" although he also said he doesn't understand why folks would use it in a design except, and here we agree, to make a statement


is he referring to Nori Komuro's (from Brooklyn) Komuro 212E ? ;)
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Re: The Tube Otaku

Postby JackD201 » Mon Jan 17, 2011 4:23 pm

kabubi wrote:
JackD201 wrote:Think he has a matched quad of 417As in there somewhere? :angel:


naughty. naughty.
:lol:


:devil: :devil: :devil: :devil:
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Re: The Tube Otaku

Postby bonghiskan » Tue Jan 18, 2011 1:25 am

Thanks for sharing Tthommy, that place looks like an electronic surplus store to me (my favorite play or hunting ground.) I frequently visit those kind of places both for business and leisure related. Those outdated industrial test equipments on the shelves are the best source for hard to find, selected, industrial or milspec's tubes (goldpins, pinchedwaist and JAN) and components. Its just a matter of knowing which of those boat anchor to buy. I will definitely add that place to my must visit list.

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Re: The Tube Otaku

Postby ttommy » Wed Jan 19, 2011 2:11 am

You're welcome, Bong. And good luck on your hunt! Jack, I emailed Richard re: 417As, will follow up later. Ding, I should've been clear about context re: 212E, a lot of it's got to do with the price. Having owned the Kronzillas (and perhaps more importantly, having had accidents involving tubes and guests on two different occasions), the fear of retubing was very real. That's US$5K for a quad. Even worse with the 212E since they're more expensive than the T1610 and they don't exactly pop up everyday on eBay!
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