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My treasure, "Wrinkles like grooves bring audio wisdom" "Single high-frequency" tuner by Man lost in sound on Aug 5, 2005 "NO.1 1955.12.3" is written on my first monaural LP my parents bought for me. I heard that the first LP released in Japan was in 1951, so I guess I got it quite fast. When I showed my first record to my brother in law as soon as I got it we decided to listen to the record right away and set it on the CEC turn table. When he was about to put the Primo PU saying "It is dark in here", I was thoughtful enough to strike a match so that he could see the record grooves better. But while he was putting his hands on the small player and I was finding where to light up, the match started burning out and its head dropped onto the record. It was too late when I got freaked out and blew the burnt head. This is how this vinyl record got a burn flaw and this is why this record makes snap noises. Nowadays this pitiful and frustrating memory reminds me of my goofiness. At that time that record cost like 2,300 yen or so. Even now I clearly remember what happened when I listen to the snapping noises from this record. No matter what others say, I guess the burnt flaw can be also one of the recording means. (-_-;)

My first audio system was with toy-like players that I wrote the last time. Domestic manufacturers I got familiar with for the first time were TOKYO SOUND, RION, PRIMO, FUJIYA, AKAI, CHUO ELECTRIC(CEC), DIATONE, FUKUON ELECTRIC(PIONEER), FUKUYO ELECTRIC(CORAL), TOKYO COMMUNICATION INDUSTRIES(SONY) and so on. Then later on many manufacturers sprang up like mushrooms after a rain. Please take a look at the Japanese version of well-known(?) GE Variable Reluctance "SOUND C-2", the great equipment, which I kept around. The right one is a page about Variable Reluctance from a book which I will mention later on.
NHK has started the stereophonic broadcast from the first and second broadcasting stations since around 1952. I think it was around 1954 when NHK started the regular program called "Stereophonic Concert Hall". If I remember correctly, I listened to that program with the imbalanced combination of a pre amp with a monaural "Single high-frequency" tuner, which I already made to listen for the right channel, 6V6PP and a radio on the left side. And I was so impressed by the indescribable "stereophonic effect" even though I was surrounded by such stereophonic sounds in my everyday life. Maybe I felt such a way toward the "weirdness" coming from the reversed phase because I was more like ignorant about the phase than I didn't control it. But It was really an amazing "stereophonic effect" that I won't be able to experience even these days. Detuning a bit on purpose widens the tone range by making high-pitched sounds. They say that we had a three-dimensional stereophonic broadcast by commercial broadcasters and TV stations but I don't remember that. It was totally natural that they made "Single high-frequency" tuner to add it on after that. I am not sure if I bought this for "Ordinary four" or by mistake, but I still have a suite of variable condenser. Maybe because of the accuracy of the condenser or its thread guard style tuning, this condenser with bearing turns smoothly even now.
Note: "Single high-frequency" is a name of the receiving circuit and short for the single high-frequency amplification method. "Ordinary four" is a radio spread across Japan before and during the war, meaning "Ordinary radio using 4 balls" (?) Well just imagine that I am talking about the reception level, the separation level and the noise level in volume. Levels improved from "Ordinary four" to "Super" through "Single high-frequency" and became more complicated. (To be continued)

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