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Author Topic: Have a few dollars laying around?  (Read 9609 times)

Offline MylesAstor

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Myles B. Astor
Magico S5 Mk. 2/cj ART>cj GAT Series 2 preamp>Doshi 3.0 phono>VPI Vanquish/3D arm/Atlas SL/Ortofon A95 cartridges/SRA Ohio Class XL+2 base>Technics 1506/low ind. FM heads/balanced out/Doshi V3.0 tape stage>Kubala-Sosna Emotion/ Transparent Audio Gen. 5; Viero speaker cables

Offline ironbut

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Re: Have a few dollars laying around?
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2009, 01:21:37 AM »
That one looks an awful lot like the one that Fred (from the Studer list) was selling about a year ago (it went for $12k).  Here's a link to an interesting thread we had going about them in the early days of this forum.
http://www.tapeproject.com/smf/index.php/topic,56.0.html
I guess Charlie King (stellavox) has a Cello repro amp that he's been fooling with but I'm not sure if that was one of Levinson's designs or not (he was partnered up with a couple of guys at Cello but I guess you'd know about that since I recall that there were a couple of Cello reviews in Ultimate Audio right?).
Aside from those ML designs, of course TdP has built a number of modified Technics RS machines (Mikel and [mia] Danny Kaey both have one). Rich Brown (U47) told me that he knows of a John Curl modified Technics too. And I'd still love to hear one of the Manley Tape Head set ups one of these days.

steve koto
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Offline MylesAstor

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Re: Have a few dollars laying around?
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2009, 10:28:25 AM »
That one looks an awful lot like the one that Fred (from the Studer list) was selling about a year ago (it went for $12k).  Here's a link to an interesting thread we had going about them in the early days of this forum.
http://www.tapeproject.com/smf/index.php/topic,56.0.html
I guess Charlie King (stellavox) has a Cello repro amp that he's been fooling with but I'm not sure if that was one of Levinson's designs or not (he was partnered up with a couple of guys at Cello but I guess you'd know about that since I recall that there were a couple of Cello reviews in Ultimate Audio right?).
Aside from those ML designs, of course TdP has built a number of modified Technics RS machines (Mikel and [mia] Danny Kaey both have one). Rich Brown (U47) told me that he knows of a John Curl modified Technics too. And I'd still love to hear one of the Manley Tape Head set ups one of these days.


Steve:

Thanks for the informative link. Lot's of good info!

Spoke with Charlie recently when considering what to do as far as a tape preamplifier and he was fooling around with some surplus Cello parts. And no, never did Cello in UA, just ML. I was always under the impression most of the later Levinson gear was the result of Tom Colangelo (and of course Mark engaged, paid might be too strong, designers such John Curl). If memory serves me right, John Curl worked for Ampex for quite some time and made some important contributions to their tape decks-not to mention being involved with the sound of the Grateful Dead live sound system.

As far as ML5s, I seem to remember one being on display at Lyric Hi Fi for many years (I assume that Mike Kay got that as an investor in ML). Never got to hear it (did hear the Goldmund Reference in those days) though several friends had and were quite impressed. Problem was that Mark seemed to favor certain qualities in his recordings such as timbre, dynamics, resolution and frequency response to the detriment of instumental focus and imaging. One can hear that on his LPs that are really sensational-or the early Cello speakers/equipment of its day.

AFA tape decks go, will write up for PFO my experience of putting together the J-Corder/TP Technics 1500 with Repro amp. George Cardas is making me some special cables to run from the tape heads to Repro and Repro to preamp. Should be an interesting test of the 15 ips tapes. Expect down the road to try a few tubes-with some guidance from Paul and Doc, most like trying either an Ampex 6922/7308 or Mullard equivalent :)

Myles
Myles B. Astor
Magico S5 Mk. 2/cj ART>cj GAT Series 2 preamp>Doshi 3.0 phono>VPI Vanquish/3D arm/Atlas SL/Ortofon A95 cartridges/SRA Ohio Class XL+2 base>Technics 1506/low ind. FM heads/balanced out/Doshi V3.0 tape stage>Kubala-Sosna Emotion/ Transparent Audio Gen. 5; Viero speaker cables

Offline mikel

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Re: Have a few dollars laying around?
« Reply #3 on: February 22, 2009, 11:20:49 AM »
Dream machine :)


http://cgi.ebay.com/MARK-LEVINSON-ML-5-STUDER-A80-RC_W0QQitemZ200311232936QQcmdZViewItemQQptZVintage_Electronics_R2?hash=item200311232936&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A3%7C65%3A1%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

Myles

yes, that ML-5 is Fred's.....and BTW, my dPv RS-1700 is Danny's that dPv had been working on for awhile. the only other dPv Technics is Philip O'Hanlon's.
« Last Edit: February 22, 2009, 11:25:26 AM by mikel »
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Offline ironbut

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Re: Have a few dollars laying around?
« Reply #4 on: February 22, 2009, 03:32:38 PM »
Thanks Mike. That answers a few questions.

Myles, be sure and let us know how you like the cables that George is making for you. I experimented with a few and have Silver Audio's Silver Breeze phono cable between the Technics and the Repro and a meter of their Appassionata  to the pre.
I did some tube rolling with the Repro and have a Amperex 7308 Holland manufacture and either Telefunken EF806s or MOV 4085 on the input.
Here's the thread on the Repro in general and the tube rolling posts are toward the end;
http://www.tapeproject.com/smf/index.php/topic,164.0.html
steve koto
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Offline docb

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Re: Have a few dollars laying around?
« Reply #5 on: February 22, 2009, 11:28:31 PM »
Quote
the only other dPv Technics is Philip O'Hanlon's.

I was under the impression that Tim had one and Dan Meinwald had one. But maybe Philip's and yours are those machines, relocated? Interesting, I would have guessed there were a few more around. We were guesstimating today that we have done maybe 20 Tube Repros. Not sure how many Seduction tape head preamps are out there, but certainly lots more than Tube Repros. At any rate, the club is still pretty exclusive.

And Steve, I am down with you on EF806s and gold pin 7308s. That's what we had in the Tube Phono at the meet today. We had the stock winged C EF86s and EH 6922s in the Tube Repro. For the difference in cost it's a reasonably close sound to the primo brands.
Dan "Doc B." Schmalle
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Offline mikel

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Re: Have a few dollars laying around?
« Reply #6 on: February 23, 2009, 08:28:32 AM »
Quote
the only other dPv Technics is Philip O'Hanlon's.

I was under the impression that Tim had one and Dan Meinwald had one. But maybe Philip's and yours are those machines, relocated? Interesting, I would have guessed there were a few more around. We were guesstimating today that we have done maybe 20 Tube Repros. Not sure how many Seduction tape head preamps are out there, but certainly lots more than Tube Repros. At any rate, the club is still pretty exclusive.

Dan,

of course, you are correct. it was either Philip or Dan Meinwald who mentioned to me that there were no others 'at that time' which was late last year. 'no others' referred to other customer dPv Technics. Dan has one and i expect Tim does too. and they may be doing more too.....but i got the impression that for now there were not more happening.

mikel
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Offline docb

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Re: Have a few dollars laying around?
« Reply #7 on: February 23, 2009, 09:52:29 AM »
I think Tim really puts a lot of time into those machines. In a discussion I had with Dan back when we started the project he indicated that Tim's plate is so full that they probably wouldn't be able to do a Technics but occasionally.
Dan "Doc B." Schmalle
President for Life, Bottlehead Corp.
Managing Director - retired, The Tape Project

Offline ironbut

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Re: Have a few dollars laying around?
« Reply #8 on: February 23, 2009, 07:37:14 PM »
One of our members here who lives in the EU is sending his 1500 to Tim for modification. He contacted me via PM and I asked him to let me know when it's done and how he likes it (he's going to be using it for recording and playback). Sometimes these kinds of things can take forever. I know, I've been waiting on a custom built headphone amp from another guy that was supposed to be ready in December.  You have to have a lot of patience for these small operations to finish this kind of custom work orders. Sometimes I wish I could hire someone to conk me on the head so I'd forget that I was waiting for it and it would just be a surprise when it arrives!
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),
 HE Audio Jades