Audio Catalogs & Morita's Memorabilia

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Re: Audio Catalogs, Accessories & Memorabilia

Postby jadis » Sat Nov 05, 2011 7:39 am

Just a rejoinder on this newly installed tweak. I must say that the cause of this can be traced to my restlessness while my 'being-broken-in' ARC VS115 is morphing itself every 100 hours. While generally it is for the better, I wouldn't say that it is entirely in accordance with my personal taste. I had been doing a lot of small things throughout these times, cleaning plugs, re-positioning speakers, changing input tubes, cleaning tube pins, because I begin to hear some aberrations like sudden thinness in some recordings, and even 'honky-ness' on some. The amp is revealing something which my old amp did not. And while pondering on what else can be done to remove these undesirables, I thought of giving them spikes a shot when I spotted them again. One reason why I never bothered to try finding a way to spike these Maggies was because with the old amp, they sounded pleasant and musically satisfying on 'most' of the records I play. As the saying goes: "Don't fix it if it ain't broken". But alas, this new amp is a different animal. It's can be mean and ruthless, and it makes me crack my head thinking why some super records sound even better while the mediocre ones got worse. I'm missing the music here, I thought. I'm sure others have experienced this too and this is one of the 'imperfections' of audio. We can't have everything under one package and one room. Still, there is one more thing left for me as a last option, which is to go back to the KT88 tubes which my old amp had, then it would be a totally fair comparison between the 2. Right now, it's a waiting game for hitting the magical 600 hours. 200 hours to go. It's like community service in college but heck, this is still much more enjoyable. :lol:
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Re: Audio Catalogs, Accessories & Memorabilia

Postby kabubi » Sat Nov 05, 2011 7:44 am

Magandang umaga, Philip. :)

nice reading your threads first thing in the morning.
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Re: Audio Catalogs, Accessories & Memorabilia

Postby jadis » Sat Nov 05, 2011 8:00 am

kabubi wrote:Magandang umaga, Philip. :)

nice reading your threads first thing in the morning.


Good morning too, Bubs. Thanks for reading too, always glad to share something. :)
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Pat Morita's Memorabilia

Postby jadis » Sun Dec 18, 2011 8:54 pm

MORITA'S MEMORABILIA :lol:

Ponytail Pat Morita has been promising to show me his secret wares hidden in an undisclosed address ( an address unknown to mankind or friends of 10 years vintage) for so long now I thought it would never happen. But lo and behold, he surprised me in a coffee shop rendezvous the other day by whipping out a box that contains probably the smallest branded speakers that I've ever seen. According to him, they were designed by Saul Marantz when he was President of Dahlquist, the loudspeaker company famous for the DQ-10 model. It was a gift to him in the 70s for being a top Asian seller of Dahlquist loudspeakers of which he was Philippine importer and distributor. One thing I have always been impressed with Ponytail Pat is the way he 'preserves' his olden golden audio goodies. I've seen his Quad 57s and they were in impeccable condition, nary a scuff of scratch mark, and this pair is another prime example of the way he keeps his audio stuffs. He can be a curator in an audio museum, in my estimation. :lol: And so without much more fanfare we proceed seeing some pics of the Dahlquist ALC-3, the smallest 3-way hi-end loudspeaker that I've ever seen.

Isn't the Mongol Pencil cool or what? :lol: Well, the speakers are that 'tall'. :)

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Side View: The proper position when used in cars.

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Cars? What do you mean cars? (Below the brand name, it says 'Three Way AUTO/Home Loudspeaker) There is a toggle switch for auto/home use. 8)

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For car use, the side has provisions and holes for a swivel bracket to tilt it up or down. 8)

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The 'naked' view. The pencil is really nice and holding its own. :lol:

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In 'Hammertone' finish. The whole body is made from metal casting and is very very heavy for its size.

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Too bad he didn't bring a miniature integrated 4 ohm tube amp. There was an outlet right below our coffee table and I had tons of music in my cellphone memory card. ;(

If he brings in some more, we'll have a "Morita's Memorabilia Part 2". :lol:
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Re: Morita's Memorabilia II

Postby jadis » Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:22 am

Morita's Memorabilia II

Digging up a Decca... :lol:

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If one gets to scrutinize the above thing, a good guess of what it is may be something cut out of the movie 'The Fifth Element' or 'Predator'. :lol: :lol: But the strange looking thing is actually the 'belly' of a cartridge made by Decca named simply as 'Decca II'.

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A few more peculiar things are that it does not have a cantilever, and the cartridge itself serves as its own headshell with a shaft with pins that is supposed to be directly coupled to a tonearm.

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And inverting it back to its top shows a more 'handsome' thing - alas, resembling a cartridge which would be a standard that other manufacturers would follow in more recent times.

Morita tells me this cartridge was made around 1958. So a lot of us were not born yet at the time. :lol: I tried to pick up some info of this 'antique' tracker and was only able to find this:

"In some respects the Decca cartridges are just like other fixed coil dynamic designs: a varying magnetic flux caused by the motion of the stylus is intercepted by a set of coils which convert the change of flux to an electrical voltage. Deccas could thus be described as variable reluctance (moving iron) cartridges. What makes Deccas unique is the virtual absence of a cantilever. Engineers at Decca’s research department were of the opinion that the modulation of the record groove read by the stylus needs to be converted into an electrical signal as soon as possible, otherwise owing to the less than infinitely rigid cantilever, information would be lost. Decca’s engineers called this undesirable loss ‘cantilever haze’. "
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Re: Audio Catalogs, Accessories & Memorabilia

Postby TheAnalogSource » Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:58 am

siguro pang professional yan cartridge na yan...walang finger lift eh hehehe
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Re: Audio Catalogs, Accessories & Memorabilia

Postby jadis » Mon Feb 20, 2012 1:58 pm

TheAnalogSource wrote:siguro pang professional yan cartridge na yan...walang finger lift eh hehehe


pro na rin si pat noong panahon na yon. :lol: :lol:
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Re: Morita's Memorabilia III

Postby jadis » Mon Apr 02, 2012 7:13 am

MORITA'S MEMORABILIA III

A 'kamikaze' tea session with Pat Morita yesterday afternoon yielded some more audio-of-yesteryears' talk in between tea sips. :lol: He even came armed with a few pages of his 'white papers' - so-called because they are xeroxed in very white paper. :lol:

First off, he showed me what was supposed to be a 1963 Stereophile 'Recommended Components' list, with a short essay on what was then the great audio components of that time, which Morita calls 'The Golden Age of Audio', and that was just the beginning of what gets us crazy in the hobby. :)

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The highlighted components below have been owned by Pat himself, of what I would call 'Pat's Products'. He either has sold some of them or is still trying to sell the rest. :D

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Below, excerpt from an article from The Sound Advise magazine circa 1973, highlighting his own favorite cartridge, the FR-1 MKII which is currently also being used by JAA. And below that, the Decca cartridge, in its MKV incarnation, was also noted.

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Below, a sampling of what Pat considers as the best way of rating the performance of phono cartridges, via numerous categories to clearly illustrate the strong and weak points of different carts. He wonders out loud why present reviewers do not use this format anymore and presents a theory that the reason is because present reviewers and magazines are weary of irking audio advertisers while adding that The Sound Advise magazine did not carry any advertisements in the mold of the defunt IAR of Peter Moncrief. Well, he then told me that indeed The Sound Advise magazine survived for only 2 years. There you are. :D At any rate, Pat's point was that he believes in reviewing or assessing a cart's performance, parameters as indicated below - Balance, Transients, Tracing, Distortion, Tracking should be a must. Until the next 'tea time' with Pat, I will ponder for the next few days his cartridge 'tea-ology'. :lol:

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Re: Audio Catalogs, Accessories & Memorabilia

Postby TheAnalogSource » Mon Apr 02, 2012 9:38 am

i have the two near state of the art tonearms....both were given to me by Sensei Pat :) 8)
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Re: Audio Catalogs, Accessories & Memorabilia

Postby jadis » Mon Apr 02, 2012 9:59 am

TheAnalogSource wrote:i have the two near state of the art tonearms....both were given to me by Sensei Pat :) 8)


well, well, well...i should ask for 3 tonearms and 2 carts pala from him the next time we have our tea ceremony...for plugging his 'audio escapades'! :D :D and i guess that will be called 'tong-pats', so, on second thoughts, huwag na lang. :D :D :D
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Morita's Memorabilia IV

Postby jadis » Sun Apr 15, 2012 8:53 am

MORITA'S MEMORABILIA IV...

A few days ago, Morita was in the vicinity and sounded very excited to meet me and give me a couple more 'white papers'. The guy seems to have a top-notch memory despite his seniority over me. :lol: He wanted to address a question I posed last year in Val's 'members' setup' thread. That time, I had asked him what the 'weapon' JAA was using in this pic while checking Val's Transfiguation Phoenix cart :

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He tells me now that the instrument was a lens from a microscope, and he was directing JAA to check on these parameters, which he described by showing me 2 papers which he collected and marked in the yesteryears. :lol:

May 2002 edition of Fremer's Analog Corner:

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Highlighting the importance of checking "horizontal tracking geometry" and "SRA" :

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Next, Morita pointed out that Fremer had used a diagram from a 1981 issue of Audio Magazine to illustrate parameters such as VTA and SRA:

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A copy of the actual page of Audio Magazine in 1981 with the VTA and SRA illustration:

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Morita was all the more intrigued when I told him that a few weeks ago, I received an email from a close friend with pictures of microscopic shots of SRA illustrations.

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The guy had paid attention to SRA all along and was very glad I mentioned the 2 actual microscope pictures on the said subject. And he continued to give me some insights which I myself had not really done, mostly due to the absence of a scope. So, without much further ado, I present:

Points from "Pat's Pulpit"... :D

1. Not all cartridges have the same SRA settings.

2. The ideal SRA setting is 92 degrees, to mimic the cutting lathe.

3. He likens the stylus/cantilever setting to a horse feet and its hooves. :D ( I had to laugh a bit there when he said that) And he adds that if 'baluktot ang hoof, hindi da makakatakbo ang kabayo ng tama'. :lol: ( After the laughter, I thought that it does make a little sense) :lol:

4. 'Short' is better than 'Long'. It's one of the rarer times we get to hear this, and I'm sure nobody would brag about this in a shower room. :D But fortunately, the guy is talking about cantilevers. :lol: How short? How bout this?

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Look ma, no cantilever. :D But, he says that's a very difficult design to produce, and Decca ended up producing carts with cantilevers but with short lengths. He adds that short cantilevers 'reduce tip mass' and create 'better transient response' than the longer ones which can cause 'loss of definition' in the sound.

There you have it. I always discover a few things in these 'chanoyu' tea meets with Morita san. But I will never join him for a 'kabuki' meet. :D
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MORITA'S MEMORABILIA V

Postby jadis » Wed Jun 27, 2012 9:03 pm

MORITA'S MEMORABILIA V...

What is certain is that there will be more episodes of Pat Morita's Memorabilia than Stallone's Rocky. :lol: A brief 'cha-time' this morning yielded more antique stuffs from Pat, starting with a product catalog of the Rabco Linear Tracking Tonearm from the early 70s. It is one of the earliest audiophile grade linear tracking tonearms which is one of Pat's all-time favorite.

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Next he showed me a 'hard' copy (actual unit) of the Infinity Black Widow Tonearm, designed by none other than Arnold Nudell, who talked about his past designs with Infinity in the latest issue of Stereophile Magazine. Installed in the Black Widow tonearm is the MM cartridge from Grace, the Model F9E, which he claims is the best match for the arm with its weight only at 6 grams.

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Next up is a Grace G-714 tonearm which is the one of the few than employs a wooden arm wand in its design coupled with a first generation prototype Transfiguration Temper MC cartridge which was Pat's last personal cartridge in the mid 90s. This combination, he says, is one of the best trackers he has ever used.

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To be continued...
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Re: Audio Catalogs, Accessories & Memorabilia

Postby jadis » Thu Jun 28, 2012 7:52 am

Continued...

Another 'arm' that Morita whipped out was the Fidelity Research FR-64 SS (for silver wire) model. The thing looked brand new to me, and he claims he has 2 of them, NOS pa. 8) I held it, and it is one heavy tonearm. Morita said it is best fitted on a direct drive turntable.

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Attached to the FR-64 SS arm is the legendary Long Body Rosewood from Koetsu, also in NOS condition. :inlove: (This is the minimum fee I will charge Morita for all my typing here). :lol:

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And his final 'armory' for the cha-time special, an MCH II cartridge from Thorens which has its own 'heavy metal' headshell. I'm seeing these kinds of stuffs for the first time. 8)
I wonder inside kung tumutunog pa ba ang mga ito, but Morita did mention before that these were all bought brand new and some of these were never even played before.

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And to end the tea party, I took a snap of this acrylic arm base which was custom made in those days to fit various tonearms with their multiple pin holes. Pwedeng 3-armed swordsman pala itong si Morita noong panahon ni Wang Yu, ang original 1-armed swordsman. :lol:

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Coming Soon - Pat's TT. Slowly, this corner will be unearthing hidden treasures never before seen in public, :lol: and following the 'TT Special', :lol: we shall dwell into his nerves (the electronics of yesteryears), and finally, the end game - the loudspeakers. And after that, we shall bestow on him the honorary title 'The Shogun of San Juan'. :lol:
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MORITA'S MEMORABILIA VI

Postby jadis » Tue Aug 21, 2012 6:54 pm

MORITA'S MEMORABILIA VI

MORITA'S (TT) MADNESS

A quick rendezvous with Pat last week had him drop off a few catalogs and owner's manual of his favorite turntables throughout his audio-collecting life. (Mahirap daw dalhin ang 5 TTs all at once). :lol: First off,

THE GOLDMUND REFERENCE TURNTABLE

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Goldmund Studio Turntable:

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The state-of-the-art in turntables in the 80s, the Reference was the table of choice of HP. In the year 2000, 300 units were specially produced as limited edition for those who still lusted for the best in analog.

THE ROCKPORT SIRIUS III:

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Morita was the importer of Rockport in the past, though no Sirius actually arrived here, there was a Capella table that was brought in, with the Rockport linear air-bearing tonearm. I actually saw the Sirius in action in the 1991 HK Hifi Show and it was truly an amazing engineering piece of work.

The Linn Sondek LP 12:

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TAS Most Significant Turntables of All-Time:

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Morita pointed out that 11 reviewers picked the AR-XA and Linn LP12, while the Sota was picked by 9 reviewers.

Morita's Owner's Manuals:

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He collects magazines even in the present, this one with the AR-AX in the cover and another with a write-up of the Lenco GL75.

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Re: Audio Catalogs, Accessories & Memorabilia

Postby TheAnalogSource » Wed Aug 22, 2012 7:55 am

last night philpath and i were discussing some audio concepts over a few rounds and we come across the audio concept of buka. I pointed out that nowadays only a few understand this concept because most have concentrated on the center - tonal character, imaging/separation. Imho and just me especially if we are talking of analog front end, what separate most of those listed above from the average technics and pioneers. With buka comes also lawak and detalye. Technically the minute detail which gives the impression of buka and lawak is just a product of very good lowering of the noise floor. Base on previous ABs, I will have to agree that the TD-160 is notch higher than the 301 especially if you got the right cart combination with the TP arm but I dont think the supers will perform as well as the plain 160. Of course, I wouldnt have gotten half a dozen AR XAs if i've not experienced how glorious it sings. Then at 100$ mint, its a no brainer. But regardless of the price, it does beat the hell out of the other tables. The only drawback though nowadays is it would take a lot of courage to fit a hi-end cartridge to a flimsy arm....but who needs hi-end when even a beaten v15 or a grace f8 will do the job more the well.

so am i eating my words about the lenco...if im to make my own list...i'll put it above the AR....just because it is more match to my music type which are mostly pop and rock.
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Re: Audio Catalogs, Accessories & Memorabilia

Postby jadis » Wed Aug 22, 2012 8:47 am

TheAnalogSource wrote:last night philpath and i were discussing some audio concepts over a few rounds and we come across the audio concept of buka. I pointed out that nowadays only a few understand this concept because most have concentrated on the center - tonal character, imaging/separation. Imho and just me especially if we are talking of analog front end, what separate most of those listed above from the average technics and pioneers. With buka comes also lawak and detalye. Technically the minute detail which gives the impression of buka and lawak is just a product of very good lowering of the noise floor.


Buka, or open-ness, if that's what you mean, is always a key trait to me in the audio hobby. While it's difficult to rank key audio attributes in this imperfect world, I'd say on my own, it's still tonal first, then open-ness (which to me will naturally result in what we call transparency and superb imaging).I'm not an ultra detail freak because in my own findings, getting more detail lead to some brightness of sorts and that is one thing I cannot live with in a system.
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Pat's Picks

Postby jadis » Thu Aug 23, 2012 7:45 am

PAT'S PICKS...

Or they may be called Morita's Sushi Bar Favorites. :lol: Below are Pat's personal top vinyl treasures which he beholds for their recording quality. He always maintains that extraordinary recordings are the raison d'etre for his painstaking assembly of the audio chain. I have once seen him elevated to 'nirvana' status while listening to Gerhard's The Plague, when he was marveling at each stroke of the string instruments while seated in a 'lotus' position. I kid you not. 8) He regards Cat Stevens as the greatest male vocalist he has known, loved the Sheffield Direct Discs so much that he became the local importer in the 70s, and brands Pigs Eye Jass as the best recording from tape that he has ever heard. He bought my Saudades and trumpeted it for its magnificent ambiance and vast soundstage, necessitating me to offer him 9 mint LPs to buy it back from him. Parang Kevin Garnett 7 player to 1 deal in 2007. :lol: And I deduce that his pony tail was patterned after Willie Nelson. :lol: There is no question in my mind that he has flipped over to the 'dark side of the moon', many many moons ago in fact. :lol: The complete Morita Magnificent 12 below:

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He gave me a copy of this, as a Christmas gift to me daw, papel lang naman. :lol: And points out that his fabulous S-9 has appreciated in value. 8)

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Re: MORITA'S MEMORABILIA VII

Postby jadis » Thu Sep 06, 2012 8:04 pm

MORITA'S MEMORABILIA VII

MORITA'S PRIZED ELECTRONICS:

MARANTZ MODEL 10B TUNER

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Audio Magazine Letters to the Editor, mentioning the merits of the 10B Tuner:

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VAL'S PHILSTAR ARTICLE ON MORITA'S MARANTZ GEARS - SPECIFICALLY THE MODEL 7 PREAMP:

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MARANTZ MODEL 7 PREAMP: (WITH 803 TUBE MODIFICATION FROM SID SMITH::

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MARANTZ MODEL 9 POWER AMP WITH MODIFICATION BY ALEGRO SOUNDS:

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Morita loved the Marantz gears so much he kept a few NOS units till he retained only a set of these 3 beauties, which when added up, actually equals a receiver. And not just an ordinary receiver - it is a work from the golden age of tubes, touched by the hands of the legendary Saul Marantz. His units were patiently modified into the ugraded status, for the preamp that employed the services of the famed milspec Telefunken 803s, which at that time already cost 3 times more than the ordinary tube available. In those days, it was easy to ignore such upgrades, but Morita, being the audio psychic as he has come to be, knows something more. 8)
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Letter to the Editor

Postby jadis » Tue Nov 20, 2012 10:13 am

PC to HP... :lol:

Almost 20 years ago, when there were not much gadgets to play with, there was only the trusted (not even) :lol: Post Office 'snail mail'. Registered meter mail gets you a sense of security while letters in stamps into a metal mail box means 50-50. Actually it was a lot more than that. :lol: So while being a loyal TAS reader since the 80s, it dawned upon me in the mid 90s to write a 'stab to the moon' (suntok sa buwan) letter to HP, wondering if the guy will even read it, let alone respond and publish it. Well, as luck would have it, he did them all! :) I now recall what spurred me to write him was an excellent article by Dan Sweeney on various types of room treatment materials and how to treat a listening room entitled 'Anatomy of a Listening Room'. And there were other matters concerning some speakers and late magazine arrivals to bug him with. :lol: My surname was printed erroneously, most probably my 'Underwood' typewriter made the C looked like an O. :lol:

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Re: Audio Catalogs, Accessories & Memorabilia

Postby Jon Agner » Tue Nov 20, 2012 10:50 am

Phil,

I think you should have asked Ivor Tiefenbrun to also send you a personal letter ;) :D
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