Tuesday, November 29, 2022

The Grand Wazoo is 50 🥇

 


I bought Frank Zappa’s disc when it was issued… it means I’m never tired to listen to this masterpiece after half a century!



🥇🥇🥇



A minty ReVox G36 MkIII 4 tracks

 


A sought-after piece of gear and a clean sampler 🥇


Rare as a four leaves clover 🍀 



Found a well-cared unit, at last.








A ‘54 Fender Bassman 🥇

 


Made in Fullerton, California 🥇🥇🥇



Serial # 0095





This amp has such an impressive mojo 😏




Monday, November 28, 2022

News from Analogtechnik - DST La Scala Odm Limited Edition is born 🥇

 


A very limited-edition DST cartridge will be soon introduced to the world by Daniel Kim: it will be a quite unique and exclusive product and not only for the one-of-a-kind, fancy color headshell 😏



Stay tuned, folks 🎶🎶🎶



Thursday, November 17, 2022

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Samar MG-20

 


The Samar Audio Design MG20 is a transformer coupled small diaphragm cardioid microphone that features very low noise, high SPL handling, natural sonics, smooth response and full extended low end. This makes the MG20 the perfect solution for demanding professional engineers, studios, artists, as well as home recording enthusiast to make highest quality recordings. It is handcrafted and meticulously assembled at the company’s Salt Lake City based shop.


The Samar MG20 design was conceived and realized by the company’s founder, Dr. Mark Fouxman. The efficiency of the construction and using innovative acoustical shape of the body are responsible for excellent off-axis response and minimal phase distortions behavior. Use of highest quality internal electronic parts and optimization of the design makes it no-compromise microphone, which will provide the highest possible level of performance and years of dependability.



At the heart of of the MG20 is a very high quality capsule working with a transformer coupled circuit, which consists of a single jFet loaded by made in house transformer. This circuit is very similar to a classic KM84 with a few modern tweaks to boost the performance even further. The transformer was developed by Dr. Mark Fouxman specifically for this model and wound chambered (topology adopted in Neumann BV8 and some other expensive transformers) for very low capacitance and excellent high frequency response, and assembled using US made 80% Nickel core lamination.


Special attention has been paid to the acoustical optimization of the MG20 microphone body, which forms a special shaped acoustical lens. This arrangement eliminates any sound waves interference, including off-axis. These facets along with acoustically open mesh screen eliminate any reflections, ensure the most acoustically transparent sound possible and phase integrity.


Created to facilitate a wide range of applications the MG20 delivers smooth sound, with deep bass response and an un-hyped, sibilance free, top end. Due to the un-colored and neutral nature of the sonics built into the MG20, it is especially suitable for applications where sibilance-free sound is a priority, notably vocals, voice over, and podcast applications. The extended low end and smooth top end make the MG20 an excellent choice for violins, brass instruments, mandolin, acoustic and electric guitars, drum overheads, various percussions, room microphones, orchestra, and choir among other recording, broadcast, and classical music applications.


For Holiday and introductory specials please visit


http://samaraudiodesign.com/MG20.html



The unsung hero - Dr. Heitaro Nakajima

 




Dr. Heitaro Nakajima — no stranger to cutting edge product development, having (among other projects), developed the prototype for what became Japan’s first condenser microphone 


🥇

— Sony’s C-37A in 1955. 



Switzerland 🇨🇭 is 🥇

 

I recently visited beloved Switzerland after almost three years and… like every time, I fell in love, again and again: as everything on planet earth, it’s not perfect, but the sense of things done right, awesome nature and nice people is awesome and unique.

Will I become a Swiss? I already someway consider myself so, as my mom got pregnant of me while on Geneve, back in mid-fifties 😏



Anyhow, such a pleasure seeing old friends and nice places. Switzerland 🇨🇭 is 🥇and its neutrality makes people free and relaxed, not slaves of the Big Game going on between USA, Russia, China and rest of the world.

🇨🇭🇨🇭🇨🇭🇨🇭





Tuesday, November 15, 2022

How much would a Studer C37 cost today?

 







“Die Stereo-Ausführung, im April 1961 zu 12.915,– Fr., würde jetzt (Indexstand Oktober 2022) inflationsbereinigt 64.820,– Fr. kosten.”

 
You got it right: it would cost CHF 64,820.00 😱
That’s freaking hi-end 😏






Saturday, November 12, 2022

Zavalinka at Milan Hi-End

 





Maria Kazantseva, Nikolai Kazantsev and yours truly


A small part of Zavalinka tapes offering: they issued 47 (forty seven) titles 🔝




A fantastic tape: superb music and recording 🥇





Operly back/front loaded horns at Milan Hi-End

 


Nice speakers… demo-ed with Zavalinka tapes and my own (on-loan) STUDER B62 reel-to-reel tape machine 🥇













Awesome sound from Zavalinka’s tape 🥇



STUDER B62 and 2A3 Operly’s integrated amp 🎶



One of loveliest sound at show 🥇



Thanking Sonia for being a 🌸







Family proudness 🥇 (Sonia and Konstantin)