Robert Crumb’s music room

 

Garrardzilla is ready for upcoming Fall season 🎶

 

Recently self-serviced Garrardzilla: fresh Kluber’s lithium grease in bearing and it’s such an amazing music machine which will outlive his creator 😏

A lifetime achievement 🥇(and not just my opinion).

MCI JH110A

 

Thanking my reel-to-reel technician I’m hooked to those (apparently) chunky MCI’s machines: believe it or not, they put to shame many Studers’… at least sound-wise. 

Try to locate one in good shape before prices increase… something I already saw happening 😏 you won’t regret 🔝

Ampex loves Mondrian

 

Sound Practices - to don’t forget

 

Always thanking Joe Roberts 🥇

… more idle views

 

Idle audio system 😴

 

Capt. Beefheart on TV screen

 

Amazing concert and music 🥇

Tom Waits - Da Man plays Da Nelectro 🥇

 

What’s this beauty? Toho 🥇

 

Yes… a Toho 15” arm!

Handmade in Japan by an ultra-specialized small manufacturer also producing fantastic large-format cameras.

I truly fell in love for this wooden arm and felt both happy for the owner and jealous for not owning it myself 😏

Look at the details: this truly is among the best arms I ever handled… I trust will be soon able to experience the sound of this rare, sought-after masterpiece.

Thanks to my friend Marco for proudly showing his treasure(s).

P.S. - Toho was also making this interesting TH-80 universal arm-mount, separated from turntable motor, a solution I also advocate and use myself.

Also worth having a look to other Toho’s handicrafts: TH-100 arm base and turntable(s) plinth(s).

& 🎶 &

 

Belden 9497

 

… if it was good for Ken Shindo… 

Everything’s in triangle player’s hands

 

Bare-legs listening

 

A sealed, little gem by ECM

 

Jazz-free juke-boxes 😏

 

Dave Grohl’s POV

 

🥇

A one-of-a-kind ReVox A77

 

Yes! This is one of unique, modified ReVox A77s Robert Fripp used as “Frippertronics” in several live concerts and on discs alone, with King Crimson and countless others.

Look at the several bespoke features on front panel… such a music machine!

Onken

I still remember the deep impressions I had listening to Onken system in Paris, at Rue de Belfort… it was 30+ years ago, but I’ll never thank Hiraga-san enough for introducing us all to Onken W, OS-5000 tweeter and multicellular horns.

Onken An Audio tradition by Eijiro Koizumi

Before starting the Onken company, Eijiro Koïzumi worked as an engineer at Goto Unit from 1965 to 1967 with Mr. Seiya Goto. Koïzumi left Goto in 1967 to found Onken Seisaku.co Ltd in the city of Suwa near Nagano in Japan. The said company evolved until 2009, when its founder retired. Onken has designed and marketed audio compressors, horns, subwoofers, complete speakers, crossovers, and even amplifiers, as well as a modified turntable model.

Throughout his life, Mr. Koïzumi had famous clients such as Mr. Tamaru who was one of his first clients. The founder of Onken evolved at the same time as Mr. Akihiko Kanéda, to whom we owe a rich audio heritage in terms of tube and transistor electronics.

For about 25 years, Mr. Koïzumi was very active in the Japanese magazine MJ Audio. He wrote numerous articles there and took part in various round tables on audiophile subjects. This mythical character, to whom exceptional high-fidelity owes a lot, died on July 7, 2017.

In France and in the West, it is to Mr. Jean Hiraga that we owe the discovery of the Onken heritage. The latter, via the defunct French-language review L'Audiophile, has enabled a greater number of amateurs to discover Koïzumi's work.

Today, enthusiasts in many countries carry on this Onken tradition that has left its mark over the decades. These audiophiles and music lovers own sound systems which are equipped with these parts which have kept a greatness qualitative value.