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Author Topic: Liberman Sound , SF bay area  (Read 9254 times)

Offline ironbut

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Liberman Sound , SF bay area
« on: April 12, 2007, 11:12:30 PM »
I took my RS1500 to Adam Liberman for regular servicing, alignment, and to have the record bias set for RMGI SM911 tape. This was a few weeks before Doc announced that he'd be doing servicing and mods to optimize the Technics machines. Adam works on tape and film machines and has a very impressive list of regular clients listed on his web site. He does a lot of "on location servicing" of film gear and has a small but very well equipped shop in El Cerrito Ca.( just a couple of miles north of Berkeley ). He's pretty busy so unless you specify when you will need your deck back, it could take a while.
When I took my 1500 in, I thought it was working great ( I've had it about 1.5 years) and was interested to get a baseline of performance. As far as I can figure, I think it sounds at least 10-15% better! I guess it did need alignment! Adam provided a detailed description of the work performed along with a graph of freq. responce of 15 ips 2T playback,7.5 ips 2T playback,7.5 ips 4T playback, record@15ips (which I asked for the bias to set for) and record @7.5 ips. I've been listening to a stack of tapes that I've gotten while it was in the  shop and it seems like sounds like triangles, drum hits and pianos are more real sounding. I think that the work done to the tape handling areas may be the reason for this improvement. I can't wait to have Doc reduce flutter even more!
To conclude, Liberman was recommended by Richard Links over on Tape Trail and I'd like to pass it along. I like the little "pro" touches , like a sticker that gives what the bias is set for, when it was done, the work order #, and the position of the switches for that bias.
Like I said though, he's busy, so in the future, I'll give him a date that I want the machine back.
BTW there were a couple of surface scratches on the headblock. One of the few cosmetic flaws on my beloved 1500. Well, they aren't there no more! I tried to rub them out once with no luck. And he didn't even mention it! Now that my decks off his bench, he's starting on a Studer 810.libermansound.com
steve koto
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Offline xcortes

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Re: Liberman Sound , SF bay area
« Reply #1 on: April 13, 2007, 09:34:15 AM »
how much did he charge?
Xavier Cortes

Offline ironbut

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Re: Liberman Sound , SF bay area
« Reply #2 on: April 13, 2007, 06:17:50 PM »
It was $250 which I believe is his default regular servicing charge. I didn't need any parts or extra labor for anything that was seriously wrong with it. Knowing that Doc is going to set up a refurb/mod service, I think I would wait to have him do it if posable. As I mentioned in my post, I didn't know that when I took mine in for servicing. I think, once that the mods have been done, I might still take it to Adam once a year or so.
steve koto
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Offline ironbut

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Re: Liberman Sound ,moved to Portland Ore area
« Reply #3 on: September 10, 2007, 09:49:26 PM »
As of July of 2007 ( I think) Adam and his family moved north. If you're in the Portland area, you're in luck! The only complaint I had with Adam was he was so busy keeping professional machines running right that it took a while for him to get around to servicing us audiophiles. Like I said in my original post, if it has reels, he's your man.
BTW he has the same website so you can contact him there.
steve koto
 Sony scd 777es(R. Kern mods)> Vpi Aires>Dynavector XX-2mkll>Bent mu>CAT ultimate>CJ premeir 140>Magnepan 1.6qr(Jensen xover)Headphone Eddie Current Zana Deux>AT ad2000,HD800 ,Metric Halo ULN-2 (battery powered),
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