BillWojo

Find a set of Altec A7 speakers in your area and take your wife to look at them. After seeing them and responding with a resounding NO and seeing the disappointment in your face, mention the smaller LaScalas. She will more than welcome them in your living room. Just don't listen to the Altec's if you like horn loaded speakers. Hint, I started with Heresy's, heard some Altec's, bought a pair and never looked back. BillWojo

RodH beat me to it. Kevin has a great collection of SoundStream gear. Might even have what your looking for. BillWojo

I had an issue like that and it turned out that the spider had come unglued in the driver. Not an easy fix. BillWojo

Look on Ebay for the Russian PIO's, they are fairly cheap if you can stand the wait. I'm building a set of Altec Model 19 crossovers for my HeathKit AS101's (Altec Valencias in much nicer cabinets) using Solens caps but I'm building them on turret boards so I can swap other caps in and out fairly easily. I have a complete set of vintage oil filled caps (large metal canisters filled with PCB oil) to experiment with, they are said to sound excellent. Turret boards will use studs so I can crimp connectors that are cold welded to the components or wires for very good electrical connections. Brass studs and brass nuts to tighten and secure all mounted to 1/8 red fiberglass board. Gives me lots to play with when mounted externally. BillWojo

By the way for anyone pulling out there copy, side two, last track is a series of frequency sweeps, make sure you turn down the volume for this, the high frequency's at high volume might damage your tweets! It actually let me hear the bumps and valleys in the frequency response curve of my Altec horns. Pretty cool. BillWojo

My copy of the Carver Reference Disc 2014 that Daddyjt put together for the members here. I was a new member at the time and asked if I could have a copy and he gladly sent me one. It's a 2 disc compilation that the members helped put together and Daddyjt made all the copies, art work and than preceded to mail out to the members. What a ton of work! Anyway, I hadn't listened to it in a while and it is an amazing collection of music of all different types. It's nice to step outside of my normal? listening habits and be reminded of some of the great artist out there. Through this forum I have been introduced to a number of artist I would have other wise over looked. Anyway, I want to put a big Thank You out there to Daddyjt for his unselfish work and time he devoted to this project. BillWojo

That speaker wire with the strands of copper and the plastic core sounds like the crap that Monster sells for speaker wire. They claim it has some magical properties with the plastic core. Well if they can make claims I can to. I claim that the plastic core is used to make the wire look fatter and look to be a larger gauge wire while in reality it is a way to save a lot of expensive copper on there part. My claims are made with an engineering background while there claims are made by there marketing department. Another strike against Monster. BillWojo

Was at the GW tonight and saw a Buddy Guy CD "Skin Deep". Pulled it out and the art work was autographed. "Buddy Guy 09", must have been on tour and someone had him sign it after the concert. I have another signed CD in my collection, forget who it was at the moment. So has anyone else found hidden treasures like that? I think it's really cool to stumble across something like that. BillWojo

I'm loving the cheap prices here in NJ. I just filled up with diesel and it was 1.67/gallon. Listening to the radio they say that cheap oil prices is bad for the market? I say the hell with that, leaves more in the consumers pocket to spend. I bet the average driver saves 25 bucks a week compared to a few short years ago. BillWojo

I already know, you push this button for rock, this one for country and this one for jazz.............. If you could explain how a tuner works in layman's terms that would be awesome. BillWojo

Interesting article. Not only are records and TT making a comeback but the Polaroid camera as well and Kodak is working on a 8mm cine camera. I have an interest in photography, it was an early hobby of mine. Compared to digital it forces you to slow down and actually compose a photo, something that is lost on most of the digital photo crowd. I have a small collection of Bolex 8mm and 16mm cine cameras. Way to expensive to use as both the film and processing is a specialty in today's world. But the magnificent beauty in these old cine cameras will never be duplicated again. Mechanical marvel's built of metal and glass, wrapped in fine leather with polished aluminum chassis and sprinkled with nice chrome plated knobs and control levers. Is it any wonder I get excited looking at vintage stereo gear? Interesting times we live in. BillWojo

Thanks zumbini, I emailed the pics to my computer and posted them with your help. Not the best pics but you get the idea. BillWojo

I just tried to upload a pic from my cell phone and it says file size is to large. Ok, I emailed a few to my computer. What a night. Brother has white hair. BillWojo

Just got back from a jam session at a local bar, Dr Lou's in Roebling NJ were my brother and a bunch of other musicians that he grew up and played with in local bands gathered for a night of jamming. Almost every year when he comes into town from Atlanta Ga for the holidays he has a get together with his old friends. I can remember as a kid when he started playing and his group of friends would practice at our house in the rec room, all the musical instruments, the drum set, just taking over our space. We never minded, it was free and cool entertainment. Tonight almost every one of those guys were there and a few others I remember that he hooked up with in our later teen years. My brother played in a lot of local bands in the area and toured the country playing at different clubs. When he got married this all stopped until about 10 years ago when he dusted off his red hot Gibson guitar and started playing again. Tonight was just awesome seeing him and the guys I remember as a kid jamming away and they were having a blast. Thanks to Facebook and other social media the place was packed as a lot of folks came to see him and the guys play. It was the highlight of my holiday, a great memory. For those interested in checking him out, he is on YouTube, look for Jim Wojenski. Ok, I got a pic in. The fellow with the white hair is my brother, he's playing a borrowed gold Les Paul. Don't know much about the guitar, he borrowed it from one of the other band members. Not as pretty as his old 1957 Les Paul that was his regular axe for years. Sold that one to buy his first house.

Nice work Jim. I'm glad your getting into the Dark Side (tube amps). I bet those Dynaco's really sound great with the new caps. Believe it or not, they may take a few hours to break in and smooth out. I was never a believer in "caps breaking in" but after I recapped my Klipsch Heresy's I was a bit disappointed at first. After a few hours they smoothed out and now they sound great. So even though I can't explain it, I have experianced it. One of the best pieces of advise I can give you when soldering is to use flux on every joint. I picked up a bottle of Kestor 186 with the needle tip on it and use it on every joint. I still have to finish up my Dynaco PAS3X preamp but I built a complete new set of upgraded PCB's for it. This was my first time building a PCB kit. I used the Kestor on every joint and when I was done I took them over to Kevins to have him inspect my work. I think he was a bit surprised and never even hinted that a solder joint needed to be touched up. I give the use of flux most of the credit for that. Twice I forgot to flux a joint and knew right away. Added flux and the joints flowed in perfect. Next you need to find some horns, they are great with dynamic music. Plus they are made for tubes. Winter is a great time for tube amps................ BillWojo