Sunday, August 28, 2016

70s Vintage Folding Bikes - Picnik and Rapido

I love bicycles BUT I don't like bike racks...

...so at the beginning of the summer I started scouting Craigslist for folding bikes. We finally got a deal on four vintage folding bikes in various conditions of disrepair from a bike shop in Pottstown, PA. 


Three of them, disassembled, fit in the trunk. But the nicest of the bunch, the Italian Picnik, deserved a spot in the rear seat.


The Raleigh Twenty was in the worst condition, a long-term project that will be discussed in a future entry.

Picnik - aka Amica or Graziella



This single speed coaster brake Italian beauty just needed cleaning, lubrication and a new set of tires and inner tubes to get back on the road. I thought about flipping this around for a quick profit but da boss loved it and decided to keep it as a collectible ;)

Rapido from Czechoslovakia



The green unit is a single speed coaster brake model while the gold frame is equipped with an early Shimano 333 3-speed internal gear hub. Unusual for 1970s bicycles, both have alloy rims!


With minimum fettling, I was able to recommission the green Rapido using its original white sidewall tires and Brooks saddle from the Rusty Raleigh 20 project, as my daily ride. 


The gold frame was rusty so I stripped and repainted it in hammertone silver.


The refurbished 3-speed Rapido with new Kenda tires and inner tubes and a genuine leather saddle from China for the touring comfort of da boss ;)


On our regular exercise/expedition route ;)


Sunday, August 21, 2016

'95 Nissan Altima

Our daily driver "Jill" (nickname inspired by the memory of my parents' first car, "Jack" a hybrid '41/'47 Chevy)...


...is a low mileage 90s surivor inherited from my cousin in NYC.


It survived the 240 mile trek but this rusty bit needed the attention of a body shop to pass MD state inspection. Soon after getting it titled and registered, the water pump and one of the electric fans seized, taking away the radiator. 

DIY

...so there's more budget left for folding bike parts, film, tubes, resistors, capacitors, etc. (toys) ;)


Got a brand new radiator and water pump locally, an original electric fan from the junkyard, wrenches and tools from Harbor Freight to get it back on the road, with help from my apprentice ;)

Chambersburg, PA
Canon 7s + Canon 35/2
Agfa APX100 in Rodinal

The car has taken us to the Baltimore/Washington, DC area, PA, NJ and back to NYC!

Monday, August 15, 2016

Octal EAR 834P phono preamp


During my visit to NYC earlier this summer, my buddy Ding loaned me his home-brewed octal version of the EAR 834P phono preamp using 3 x 6SL7 octal tubes. Powering the preamp is a General Radio 1201-B tube regulated power supply.


Ding is not into boutique parts. Instead, he used carbon film resistors, mylar coupling capacitors and electrolytic caps gathered from Hamfests and surplus stores. Proper grounding and parts placement ensured a very quiet phono stage.


Traditional tube phono stages like the classic Dyna PAS 3 and Marantz 7 employed active RIAA EQ networks inserted in the negative feedback loop from the final stage to the input stage. In the 834P, Tim de Paravicini used active RIAA EQ with a clever twist - the EQ network is fed from the cathode follower output back to the second stage only. IMO, the benefits of this topology are: a 1st stage unimpeded by negative feedback, low noise and low output impedance.

I've been enjoying this phono stage so much that I'm inspired to build my own version. Good job, Ding!

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Shippensburg Music Festival 2016


From 1999-2008, I spent three weeks of July making music with these wonderful musicians at the Luhrs Center. It was great to be back!


Vidcaps of rehearsals 

1st week
R. Strauss - Metamorphosen

2nd week
Schubert Symphony No. 9 - Finale

3rd week
Verdi - La Traviata

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Capital Audiofest 2016

 Here's my Vintage/DIY centric point of view of the July 8-10, 2016 event at the Hilton Hotel in Rockville, MD.

EMIA

Custom turntable and tonearm

2 x 300B amps per channel 
using high nickel content iron 
wound and designed by Dave Slagle

Bi-amped stacked QUAD ESLs

DejaVu Audio


Mint Garrard 301 + Ortofon tonearm + Koetsu Rosewood 
in a custom plinth


Custom tube preamp and amp by Aldo D'Urso using vintage Western Electric tubes, iron, paper in oil caps and carbon composition resistors.


Speaker system by Aldo D'Urso 
Altec 803A woofers, 60s vintage Japanese horns + Jensen RP302 super tweeters.

Aldo D'Urso and Vu Hoang

DC Audio DIY


Joe Roberts' Garrard 301 + Schick 12" tonearm
in a custom plinth

Joe Roberts' Altec 756B in 2.5 cubic foot sealed cabinets on retro mid-century modern hairpin legged stands. Highs are augmented by Fountek ribbon tweeters through paper in oil caps and transformer attenuators. Hey Joe, you need Altec 3000s tweets there instead ;)


Custom GM70 monoblock amplifiers with hefty Tamura output transformers by David McGown


David McGown (center)

DCAudioDIY set up

Roscoe Primrose 
Head honcho of DCAudioDIY Forum


Lots of LPs!

Yours truly with Herb Reichert and Joe Roberts ;)

Monday, July 11, 2016

Leica Store SoHo NYC


While strolling around SoHo NYC,  we stumbled upon this Leica store. This guy looked so familiar, I had an inkling he was the one who sold me my Leica M6 at Tamarkin waaay back in '96! I was right! Nice seeing you again, Craig!

Monday, June 20, 2016

PNoy 2010-2016

PNoy at the November 2012 Hi-Fi Show 

I am glad the bulk of time I spent in Manila was during your term. I know you tried your very best. I just wish more Filipinos cooperated with your vision of a better Philippines. 

Thank you very much, Mr. President!!! 

Sunday, June 19, 2016

(Re)building a Hi-Fi Room


ca. 2006

Eight years ago I vacated this space, not knowing that I would be back someday...

Late Spring 2016

Altec 861 cabinet

Among those that didn't make it into the 20 foot container in 2008 was a pair of Altec 861 cabinets loaded with generic 15" drivers. I used one temporarily to get some sounds going in the room while I figured out how to repurpose the other cabinet.

Amplification


Grommes LJ2

 This sweet "Little Jewel" PP6V6 integrated mono amp fired up with no problems after almost 8 years of silence.

Rek O Kut B12GH + Velvet Touch

My hand-carried Velvet Touch tonearm "blu-tacked" on a ROK B12GH and mounted on a state-of-the-art crate plinth. 


After a thorough cleaning and re-lubrication of the main bearing, Papst motor and replacement of motor mounts, the dreaded motor vibration is still felt on the tonearm finger lift. I have to send the idler wheel to Terry Witt for a rebuild and plan on building a heavy plinth.


Unlike the fussy Rek O Kut, this Pioneer PL6U is running quietly on its original lightweight plinth after I replaced the 3 perished rubber motor mounts with rubber grommets + light cleaning and re-lubrication. It sounds great with a $40 Stanton 500 cartridge!  

Pioneer PL6U

Line-level sources


KLH Model Twenty One

Classic Hi-Fi FM table radio found in a bicycle shop. 

Western Electric 111C
+
UTC A20

Stereo > Mono transformer mixer for the iPod Nano

Hi Eff Speaker



Since the Altec 861 (aka Madrid) share a similar internal volume with the Altec 614, I went to Lowe's to get 3/4" plywood cut to the size of the front panel. Using a Harbor Freight Router + Jasper Jig 200, I cut a hole for a rear mounted Altec 414A and a rectangular 2" x 7" port to mimic an Altec 614.

Altec 2-way

Altec 861 loaded with an Altec 414A running full range augmented on top by an Emilar EH800 horn or Altec 32A horn with an Emilar EA175-16 compression driver.


Work in progress...