My Treasure – "Wrinkles like grooves bring audio wisdom" –‘Disassembler Boy' By Otomeijin (July 29, 2005) I have been interested in music since I was a junior high student. A child quickly becomes an audio enthusiast if he/she has friends or teachers with the same interest in audio equipment around him/her. Since I played with phonographs in my younger days and listened to an ore radio that I had made in class of science at the elementary school, I was all the more absorbed in the audio equipment. One of my classmates liked announcement and he used the GE Varirera PU 6V6PP amp copal of 10" in great volume, which his music teacher had made for him, and I adored that classmate. |
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In my case, my sister's boyfriend, who was my future brother-in-law, made me a record player with a Primo crystal pickup (with the arm and cartridge in one, hereinafter referred to as PU) and with a CEC turntable. Maybe he tried to curry my favor first in order to curry my sister's favor. I connected this with a radio receiver and listened to records. It was something like a "toy" but I was moved by his kindness and liked the record player just as I liked the Olympus Six camera that I had bought by saving money. (Shown in the right photo is my Olympus Six camera and the photo below shows the record player and the explanation of each part of it in comparison with the record player in the present time.) |
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In those days our family had a new super-radio with five tubes named Mitsubishi Diatone. It had the output tube named 42 and the P-62F speaker that was the ex-model of the Diatone famous model P610. I was already a "disassembler boy" at that time, so I can now write this article somewhat depending upon my memory. (The radio shown in the photo is the teienian 6S-32 in stock at Ohsu Head Store.) |
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Though I did not understand what the audio equipment was, I was fingering the PU gum damper and the stylus spring of the arm, saying that I heard the overtones of a flute and the like. Many of the crystal PUs emit voltage by the piezo effect, if vibration is transmitted to the crystal board of Rochelle salt by the stylus. This means the downward frequency response curve in playback as the frequency becomes higher. In case of an LP record, the frequency response curve is upward in noise reduction and change reduction, so the curve becomes flat in playback. As a result, I was able to omit the equalizer and amplifying stages at output of 1V and it cost less expensive. |
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A big demerit is that this kind of equipment was vulnerable to humidity. My equipment might be all the more vulnerable because I had fingered the crystal holder and the like and perhaps I made a flaw on it. The output began to lower earlier than expected and the low range tones became weak while the high range tones became higher. As a result, it gave hi-fi sound. What do you think I did when the sound became thinner because of humidity? I "dried" the equipment by placing a soldering iron near it. The memory makes me smile. The equipment was different from washed clothes! I felt the sound became a little better after the "drying." How do you think? Was it a kind of occult method in the present time? Tell me, please, if you are good at chemistry. (The photos are re-placed from the data base in the past. From top, the tweeter TW63; two P610 woofers. The cabinets are also the pure Diatone models.) (Continued to next week) |
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Information from the Editorial Staff The vacuum tube radio in the above photo is in stock at Hi Fi Do Record Shop. The maker is teienian and the price is \18,000. The radio is to be sold as it is. Don't you think it interesting to listen to a radio program featuring old pop music on this radio? If you have a question, ask at Hi Fi Do Record Shop mailto:hifido@hifido.co.jp |