Update

The Pioneer HPM-60s, and Marantz 2230 left yesterday and will be missed. On final listen (and I returned to them many times in the months I had them) I still feel that they are very good speakers, worthy of comparison to JBL L36s.

The Marantz 2226 is in a wood sleeve now and looks amazing! It looks (and sounds) really good with the new JBLs. Together they would make an awesome holiday gift for the vintage fan you (really) love

My cabinet refinishing skills are improving, and the Merak M4s and JBL L88 Plus 12s are smooth like glass. I will make the Rectilinear XIs smoother too.

Coming Attractions

Two pairs of speakers will be arriving shortly, and I'm excited to hear both. I haven't mentioned the Altec Ones in a while, but really like them. They do a lot well in a unassuming, very musical way. They are the only sealed (acoustic suspension) system in Altec's line. I will (hopefully tomorrow) have a pair of Altec Threes, with the same tweeter but with a 10 inch woofer in a ported enclosure. I expect them to sound richer and even more musical.
The other pair is also a 10 inch 2 way system, the L620 from ADS (Analogue and Digital Systems, USA), american purveyor of Braun speaker designs and drivers. I've known their speakers by reputation (especially the L810 and awesome L910) and design. I'm really looking forward to hearing them and will post about them as soon as I can.

Awesome little speakers.

These Canton GL 260s are stunning! Almost twice the size of the famous Radio Shack realistic Minimus 7s, they are an order of magnitude better. They image beautifully, are neutral and uncoloured sounding, and have astonishing bass for their size. The cabinets are epoxy coated metal with perforated metal grills and are heavy for their size and very solid. They are in the Bauhaus style of modernism popularized in Braun's industrial designs, and are of at least as high quality. I bought a pair of Wharfedale Diamond VIs this morning, another small 2 way speaker, but more modern (metal dome tweeter, weird textured plastic woofer). I expected to offer both for your consideration, but the Cantons bury them!

A beautiful set from Yamaha

Yamaha's receivers from the seventies are prized by many. Visually, they are modernist minamalist compared to Marantz and sonically they are considered less rich (or coloured, depending on where your tastes fall).
Here is a beautiful 55 watt/channel integrated amp and matching tuner in almost perfect condition that sounds great. It's got power for the JBLs and big Merak M4s and really controls the Meraks' bass nicely.
Please e-mail me to arrange a listen.

Live Blues tonight at Toronto's Home of The Blues!

From Grossman's web site:
Grossman's Tavern - Toronto's Home of the Blues
This tavern was originally open in 1948 by the Grossman's family, it was sold in 1975 to the Louie family, and since has been lovingly maintained and nurtured (except the kitchen: I wouldn't order dinner!).
A great number of intriguing patrons from every imaginable walk of life has come and gone through these doors.
Grossman's has become a legend in its own right, and has since beomce known as "Toronto's Home of the Blues"
Some of our Alumni include: The Downchild Blues Band, Kid Bastien & the Happy Pals, Milton Acorn, Robert Priest, Rebecca Jenkins, Jeff Healey Band, Allannah Myles, Amanda Marshall, Burton Cummings, Philip Sayce, and scores of others...

Tonight, starting at ten, playing 3 sets (the last one ending at 2) BLUESDRIVER, a band full of talent chops and experience (bassist Brad Campbell plays on Janice Joplin's Pearl album). Singer Frieda Nagel fronts the 4 piece band and must be heard.

If you've been thinking of taking a night away from audio for some reality, this is a fine night. I'd love to meet any readers who make it. I'll be near the front bobbing my head and smiling. I don't see enough live music, and when I get off my ass and do, I'm happy.

379 Spadina Ave.
Toronto, ON M5T 2G3
Tel: (416) 977-7000

Great Title

These are very good.

I wrote this a while ago, but have since spent hours with the HPM-60s. They are still to me an excellent, lower priced, MUCH more efficient (92.5 db/watt vs 76!) alternative to my beloved JBL L36s.

I am excited to offer these fantastic speakers. Designed by Bart Locanthi, the former Vice President of Engineering at JBL, the HPM-100 was seen (by him) as an update of the classic JBL L100. The HPM-60 uses a 10 inch woofer instead of the HPM-100s twelve, but otherwise contains the same driver compliment.
This Wikipedia entry describes the technology and craftsmanship that created these excellent speakers.
This pair is very good! The woofers have been expertly refoamed, the dead supertweeters replaced with excellent ones. The HPM-60 model was only available in fake walnut vinyl. This pair has been refinished in real oiled walnut veneer! They look as good as they sound!
Local pickup only. Thanks for looking.
Email me!

Desert Island album #1 (in a series)

but only the first! And if I could really only take one, this wouldn't be it. But classics are classics for a reason. If you don't listen to jazz, but want to own one brilliant album to impress jazz lovers, this could easily be it.

MUDDY WATERS HARD AGAIN

As hard and rocking as the blues can get. The brilliant comeback, produced and played on by Johnny Winter. This is just incredible!
The JBLs are kicking, my neighbors would hate me if it was later!

I'm grateful to have found this album again (in good shape!) at Sonic Boom's recent (to me) and fantastic downstairs vinyl store. Never released on CD, Leroy recorded it in Toronto with (mostly) Bruce Cockburn's touring band at the time (1980), for True North Records, a national cultural treasure. His cover of Let's Get It On is amazing! I was fortunate to see him perform with the group at the El Mocambo when it was released.

L88 Plus 12 = L100!

UPDATE: They are amazing! i've been using them for a few hours now, and they have an authority that's wonderful: true monitors, as good as I'd hoped.

I'm listening to them as I write (I've heard them for about 40 minutes). They are fantastic! This model was sold as a 2 way with the same tweeter and famous 12 inch white coned woofer as the L100 and 4311 studio monitor. An after market kit (explained here in the 1973 JBL catalogue) makes it an L100! The pair I got this morning were wrapped in vinyl. I just sanded down the walnut and they are gorgeous! The grill system is the same as the L100, and the walnut frames are in great shape, so I'll be able to install new cloth easily.

As my first JBLs, the L26s made me thirst for the 3 way L36s that I love so much, so the 36s made me hungry to experience the L100s, with their bigger woofers (so did my short time with the Pioneer HPM 100s, now kicking beautifully at Kevin's place). Someone selling a pair on ebay recently called them "The King of The Seventies" and I get it. I'm going to post a few photos and enjoy these for a bit. Btw, the woofers aren't stained...those are marks from an excess of the compound the white woofers are doped with to give them their necessary rigidity.

Catching Up & Looking Ahead

I think the JBL L36s are leaving today. This pair are as great as the first, and I've been really enjoying them. I'm sure they're not my last (a pair in need of foaming went for only $60 in Hamilton last week! - I couldn't make it out there.)The new black grill cloth looks really good (I don't know many people, retro hip or not, who would choose that blue. The binding posts are new. They allow easy connection of better cables than were conceived of when the speakers were manufactured. I now have a small bag of vintage JBL speaker connectors, both the twist lock (bad) and push-in (way worse) type.
The L36s have been a constant for me for a while now. So have the Pioneer HPM-60s. I have argued that Bart Locanthi, when at Pioneer revisited some of JBLs (and his- like the L100) classic seventies designs using newer technologies (carbon composite driver cones, the HPM supertweeter). The HPM-60 is exactly the same size and internal volume as the L36. It makes sense to me that Mr. Locanthi would have revisited the efficiency of the design, and here is where I think the Pioneers are a great opportunity (and value). The L36s produce 76 db at I meter with 1 watt, the HPM-60s produce 92.5db with the same watt! Where I've most enjoyed the JBLs with amps like the Marantz 1150 and 1180 DC, the Pioneers can make a 30 watt receiver sound like that kind of powerhouse. Please e-mail me to hear them.
I'm excited as I write this because I expect to have a new JBL project to hear and restore later this morning. I'll post as soon as they're in my hands.
Have a great weekend!

2226: The fairest of Them All?

I've loved and enjoyed every Marantz receiver that I've had. Each (even the same model number) looks a little bit different after 30 years or more. The 2226 listed here on the Vintage Marantz Collector's site, was made at the end of the golden age of the company, and to me is a combination of the two bezel design strategies that came before: the more silvery look of the 2230, combined with an articulated section that captures the tuner and filter controls. In my opinion the two textures of aluminum, the orange dots on the tuning dial, and the lightly faceted knobs (as on the DC integrated amps of the same vintage) all combine to make this rare piece the most sparkling Marantz receiver I've seen yet. None of this would matter if it didn't sound beautiful, and it does!
e-mail me.

As good As It Gets.

Update

I'm picking up the bulbs for the 2226 tomorrow, it should light up tomorrow night.

I replaced the mismatched connectors on the latest JBL L36s with good 5 way binding posts today, redid the faded, mismatched grills in new black cloth. They look beautiful (as good as they sound). I will try to give them a light sand and oil tomorrow, but the weather doesn't look like it's going to cooperate. I'm going to have to set myself up in the garage soon, until spring.

I have a beautiful Yamaha integrated amp and tuner set, that I cleaned today (I listened to the amp dirty last week and it sounded great). The amp delivers 55 real watts/channel, has a beautiful silver face and cool analogue meters with that clean Yamaha white light and modernist design sensibility. The tuner is musical and cool, with matching meters. I got them missing their feet, and will take care of that tomorrow.

People have been asking to see pictures of the Merak M4s, and I'll try to take and post some tomorrow. They sound great, especially with the big Marantz 1150.

Speaking of Marantz, I was never too excited about wood sleeves. Especially with the black enamel metal cased integrated amps, I thought they were perfect (the woodgrain metal receiver cases I have mixed feelings about, and the textured black finish of the 2226 leaves me a bit cold, so it may end up in a wood sleeve...the texture is too contemporary). However, the 1150 looks very authoritative in it's massive wood enclosure and the grain and colour is gorgeous!

e-mail me!