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SEAWOLF97
01-15-2007, 11:38 AM
was cleaning out my dads old stuff, when I found all 12 issues of AUDIO from 1954. What a trip !!
really nice condition and very informative - DIY on speaker refoams , DIY amps ...etc.
But the ads !! Those are way kewl ...

here are the JBL and Altec ads

SEAWOLF97
01-15-2007, 03:26 PM
here is the Frazier-May speaker. I think it was Ed May's first. nice design

and then I saw this one and immediately thot of HJ and her light colored gear :)

and then there is Edward Vilchur's article on his upcoming experimental acoustic suspension speaker !!

Titanium Dome
01-15-2007, 03:45 PM
Neat. Life was so much simpler then, and expectations were relatively low, so everything could be new, exciting, and neat-o!

SEAWOLF97
01-15-2007, 05:50 PM
A cool remote that looks like a book

and job opp :)

SEAWOLF97
01-15-2007, 05:55 PM
Maybe the original plan for Zilchlab's sub ??

15 in LF mounted into the top of a 55 gal drum , planted in the ground with a huge cement horn into a 4 x 6 ft aperature in the dining room.

notice rocks in the drum for dampening ....:blink:

SEAWOLF97
01-15-2007, 08:46 PM
more

opimax
01-16-2007, 09:43 AM
It has become obvious to me that you are ignorant as I can ALMOST (Darwin might be at work here) guarentee you will too will become old, then what? lol

Mark

SEAWOLF97
01-16-2007, 09:43 AM
:p

I would rather be ignorant than old, thats for sure!

-Storm.

Y & D

SEAWOLF97
01-16-2007, 11:21 AM
this is how I always imagined the fabled ZilchLabs....:)

SEAWOLF97
01-16-2007, 11:25 AM
DIY 1954

Zilch
01-16-2007, 11:25 AM
this is how I always imagined the fabled ZilchLabs....:)


:D

SEAWOLF97
01-16-2007, 11:30 AM
consoles were the big thing in 1954. most were 300-500 dollars so this was very expensive

SEAWOLF97
01-16-2007, 11:35 AM
TALKING RUBBER !!!!

Hoerninger
01-16-2007, 12:32 PM
Seawolf, thanks for sharing all these old informations:


TALKING RUBBER !!!!
When I was young, very young but I can remember, my father brought home a strange office machine. He encouraged me to sing. Afterwards I could hear my own voice for the first time! I never remembered this kind of machine exactly, I only knew it had no tape.

It must have been something like this Talking Rubber, thank you!
___________
Peter

hjames
01-16-2007, 12:44 PM
Seawolf, thanks for sharing all these old informations:


When I was young, very young but I can remember, my father brought home a strange office machine. He encouraged me to sing. Afterwards I could hear my own voice for the first time! I never remembered this kind of machine exactly, I only knew it had no tape.

It must have been something like this Talking Rubber, thank you!
___________
Peter

Perhaps a wire recorder? They predated Tape machines (I'm not even askin' how old we are to know of such stuff!)

JBLs JBLs!!

SEAWOLF97
01-16-2007, 01:05 PM
Seawolf, thanks for sharing all these old informations:When I was young, very young but I can remember, my father brought home a strange office machine. He encouraged me to sing. Afterward I could hear my own voice for the first time! Peter

Funny that you mention that....

A little OT , but.... when my son was about 8 months old, I got out the cassette recorder and was taping him. Got all the babbling and crys.
I was playing the tape back while he was crying and it got to the part of the tape with the crys....AND wham !!! He stopped dead cold as soon as he heard himself cry. He stopped and looked around like "who is that ??"
I tried it again next time he had a tantrum , worked again.

He never cried again unless it really was warranted. :applaud:

Hoerninger
01-16-2007, 01:25 PM
Perhaps a wire recorder? They predated Tape machines (I'm not even askin' how old we are to know of such stuff!)

JBLs JBLs!!
Shurely no wire recorder. It was a very easy to handle machine with a stylish mikrofon and some smart knobs.
At that time there was a big run on NEW parts best from America! Cadillac, Elvis Presley and so on ...
... around 1965 a Opel Record costs ca. 10000 DM, a Paragon ca.15000 DM (I have a pricelist here somewhere).

I'm much younger than this:
http://www.tonaufzeichnung.de/images/Tonband/magnetophon_K1_gross.jpg
Magnetophgon 1936 already with tape but without HF bias
____________
Peter

hjames
01-16-2007, 01:34 PM
Shurely no wire recorder. It was a very easy to handle machine with a stylish mikrofon and some smart knobs.
At that time there was a big run on NEW parts best from America! Cadillac, Elvis Presley and so on ...
... around 1965 a Opel Record costs ca. 10000 DM, a Paragon ca.15000 DM (I have a pricelist here somewhere).

I'm much younger than this:

Magnetophgon 1936 already with tape but without HF bias
____________
Peter

OK - I was watching "The Two Jakes" (a sequel to Chinatown, but without Faye Dunaway) the other night and they had a wire recorder in one scene
- not that you or I are old ... :applaud:
I'm just saying ... heck, I had Norelco Carry-corder in my teens - played pre-recorded cassettes of Bill Cosby, Cream and Iron Butterfly

Hoerninger
01-16-2007, 02:39 PM
I'm just saying ... Iron Butterfly
Can you imagine that someone here will have Iron Butterfly? My neighbour on the other side of the street has got one. And I have the live version:
IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA, 19 min. :rockon1: ...
... :cheers: we dicovered one New Years eve.
[Aint they all using JBL, just to be on topic? ]
____________
Peter

Titanium Dome
01-16-2007, 03:06 PM
Such a long song. Such short lyrics. So many replays on my L100 Centuries in the dorm.

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, honey,
don't you know that I love you?
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, baby,
don't you know that I'll always be true?

Oh, won't you come with me
and take my hand?

Oh, won't you come with me
and walk this land?

Please take my hand.

...and so off topic...

They wouldn't play that in the 50s!

What music is reviewed in that issue?

SEAWOLF97
01-16-2007, 03:30 PM
So many replays on my L100 Centuries in the dorm.


It was fantastic with headphones...the drum solo crossed from ear to ear , sometimes straight across , sometimes in increments with each drum beat.
Yea , I have the CD

SEAWOLF97
01-16-2007, 08:13 PM
There was a really helpful article there on how to raise the compliance on your woofers.

essentially you cut out the foam or rubber surrounds and replace with 4 chamois strips about an inch wide between cone edge and basket. Then you cut out large portions of the spider leaving 4 1.5 in strips of spider still supporting the cone.
Although it looks really inviting, have yet to modify my JBL LFs. Anyone who wants to try , I'll email you the illustrations how to. :blink:

Robh3606
01-16-2007, 09:03 PM
Then you cut out large portions of the spider leaving 4 1.5 in strips of spider still supporting the cone. Although it looks really inviting, have yet to modify my JBL LFs. Anyone who wants to try , I'll email you the illustrations how to. :blink:

Was this a mod to set them up as acoustic suspension drivers??


Rob:)

Steve Schell
01-16-2007, 11:54 PM
SEAWOLF97, I have been intending for years to drive by the home pictured in "The Concrete Monster" article to see if that horn is still there. If I do I will take a copy of the article to give to the current owner.

SEAWOLF97
01-16-2007, 11:56 PM
SEAWOLF97, I have been intending for years to drive by the home pictured in "The Concrete Monster" article to see if that horn is still there. If I do I will take a copy of the article to give to the current owner.

they printed the address in the article. If interested, PM me.

Steve Schell
01-17-2007, 01:20 AM
SEAWOLF97, I have a copy of the magazine, which includes the address as you mentioned. I will try to visit the location in the next few days and will report my findings.

glen
01-17-2007, 09:53 AM
Thanks for the scans Seawolf, I love this vintage stuff!

glen
01-17-2007, 09:55 AM
. . . the current owner.
Just seems like that should be YOU somehow

SEAWOLF97
01-17-2007, 01:07 PM
gracious living

SEAWOLF97
01-17-2007, 03:24 PM
confused Altec owner

SEAWOLF97
01-17-2007, 05:54 PM
good price MAC gear..99 96/100 perfect

Tweak48
01-17-2007, 08:36 PM
Such a long song. Such short lyrics. So many replays on my L100 Centuries in the dorm.

........ L100 Centuries in the dorm??????

You would have been BFMOC at my school with those L-100s!!!!:applaud:

My Altec Boleros-harman/kardon 670/Miricord-Shure M91ED turntable was the best system at the USU men's high rise dorm in 1972.

Of course there was beer, cigarettes, albums, ski passes, and a car to keep running, so no JBLs for me (until I got a job at a hi-fi store selling JBLs).

SEAWOLF97
01-18-2007, 08:11 AM
altec

Rolf
01-18-2007, 11:47 AM
It must have been good to be an audiophile in the 50's and 60's. Looking at all this (of their time) fine equipment.

I , at the age of 54 only got the 70's, the last decade of pioneering, and affordable stuff. This was the last decade you could get "top of the line" most working people could pay.

Today, if you want "top of the line" you have to pay 10 times or more of a normal income to get it.

I wonder what the next decade will come too.

glen
01-18-2007, 03:03 PM
It must have been good to be an audiophile in the 50's and 60's. Looking at all this (of their time) fine equipment.

I , at the age of 54 only got the 70's, the last decade of pioneering, and affordable stuff. This was the last decade you could get "top of the line" most working people could pay.

Today, if you want "top of the line" you have to pay 10 times or more of a normal income to get it.

I wonder what the next decade will come too.

Not really, I hear the same kind of dreamy nostalgia about old guitars and amps, but it's not really true.

Before you get too starry-eyed about vintage "top of the line" systems think about the "dream system" in Life Magazine's 1955 article that made JBL famous. That system cost $1625 in 1955, $726 just for the speaker. That would be over $16000 dollars in today's money for a MONO system. Most working people in 1955 with an average salary of $5000/year would never consider spending that much money for a system.

Compare the L100/4311 to the modern equivalent LSR32.
In 1971 the L100 sold for $273 ea., that would be $1316 in today's dollars, $2632 for a pair. That's considerably more than the $2000 price tag of a pair of LSR32s now.

As far as "statement" speakers you're a little closer to the truth. JBL's 1957 Paragon sold for $1830 and, even at the equivalent of $12696 in today's dollars, that's only a fraction of the price of JBL's newest "statement" speakers. But I would argue it would be nearly impossible to spend that sort of money today and NOT get a speaker system that sounds better. It's just that the improved sound quality of the average system is so much better than it was back then that makers are forced to get more and more extreme for a speaker to stand out enough to be considered a "statement".

Dollar/year conversions from here:
http://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ppowerus/

Rolf
01-19-2007, 02:04 PM
(snip) Not really,

Thank you for your detailed explanation Glen. It is always nice to be "put down to earth". Anyway, this is how I feel.

But still ... ... : The price of a Paragon ... and the price for the DD66000 ... ... You get my meaning?

Hoerninger
01-19-2007, 02:45 PM
Today, if you want "top of the line" you have to pay 10 times or more of a normal income to get it.

Rolf, today with family and house the "limiting line" is somewhere else, you are shurely right.
But I have a secret plan (public is turned off right now ):
Bose should be animated to invent innovativ Dolby 13.1extended. Perhaps someone will sell DD66000 for cheap - it's only stereo - to get the latest.
:spin:
____________
Peter

Rolf
01-19-2007, 11:14 PM
(public is turned off right now ):
____________
Peter

Turn public ON ... ... then maybe:blink: I understand what you are talking about.:bouncy:

4313B
01-20-2007, 06:52 AM
Thank you for your detailed explanation Glen. It is always nice to be "put down to earth". Anyway, this is how I feel.

But still ... ... : The price of a Paragon ... and the price for the DD66000 ... ... You get my meaning?Considering that JBL has sold four times as many DD66000's than originally planned I'm thinking the price tag isn't a problem at all. Usually people who want something either work to get it or they steal it from someone who worked to get it.
I wonder what the next decade will come too.A further drop in relative prices for the lower and middle class items due to continued exploitation of "third world" labor pools along with a continued relative increase in the cost of TOTL items due to their usually being built by "first world" labor pools.

Or total war. :rotfl:

glen
01-20-2007, 07:30 PM
Thank you for your detailed explanation Glen. It is always nice to be "put down to earth". Anyway, this is how I feel.

But still ... ... : The price of a Paragon ... and the price for the DD66000 ... ... You get my meaning?

Yeah, I do get your point, but today's statement speaker also has the advantage of a well established high-end hifi market.
I think the Everest II is selling faster than the Paragon ever did even though it is relatively more expensive.

Rolf
01-21-2007, 02:41 AM
Considering that JBL has sold four times as many DD66000's than originally planned I'm thinking the price tag isn't a problem at all.

Yes, so I have heard. Is the reason that Japan and other country's in the east buying more than they used to during the "Paragon years"?

Rolf
01-21-2007, 02:42 AM
Yeah, I do get your point, but today's statement speaker also has the advantage of a well established high-end hifi market.
I think the Everest II is selling faster than the Paragon ever did even though it is relatively more expensive.

Agreed. Note my quote to Giskard.

SEAWOLF97
12-18-2009, 10:47 AM
Can you imagine that someone here will have Iron Butterfly?
Peter

I have "Inna Godda da Vidda" on LP.... STILL SEALED -no UPC , looks like original

how can a person tell the date of unmarked LP's ?? have a vinyl friend who tells that on the Beatles "white Album" you can tell generations by the distance that the lettering travels around the label.

jcrobso
12-18-2009, 10:54 AM
Can you imagine that someone here will have Iron Butterfly? My neighbour on the other side of the street has got one. And I have the live version:
IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA, 19 min. :rockon1: ...
... :cheers: we dicovered one New Years eve.
[Aint they all using JBL, just to be on topic? ]
____________
Peter
I haven't played it in years, maybe it's time!

jcrobso
12-18-2009, 11:00 AM
The High School library had many back issues of Audio and I read them all. I drove the library aids nuts with my request, I'm sure they said not this geek again!. After I graduated from HS I got my own subscription to Audio I kept it up for many years.

LRBacon
12-18-2009, 11:19 AM
I have "Inna Godda da Vidda" on LP.... STILL SEALED -no UPC , looks like original

how can a person tell the date of unmarked LP's ?? have a vinyl friend who tells that on the Beatles "white Album" you can tell generations by the distance that the lettering travels around the label.

Tom, I think it's kind of hard to determine from the sleeve. If you check the LP, if it's an early 1968 pressing the label will be two-tone, rose and cream like colors, if pressed late in 1968 it may have a yellow label. I think when "Ball" was release in late 1968 early 1969 it had the yellow label. If my memory serves me correctly. I used to have all the early Iron Butterfly LPs. I saw them live in Seattle in 1969.

Larry

SEAWOLF97
12-18-2009, 11:27 AM
Yes off topic, but I have the LP!!!

Its my thread,,,,we can go anywhere audio


Tom, I think it's kind of hard to determine from the sleeve. If you check the LP, if it's an early 1968 pressing the label will be two-tone, rose and cream like colors, if pressed late in 1968 it may have a yellow label. I think when "Ball" was release in late 1968 early 1969 it had the yellow label. If my memory serves me correctly. I used to have all the early Iron Butterfly LPs. I saw them live in Seattle in 1969.

Larry

69 ? I was on an Asian adventure ...in a different universe..only AM (AFVN) to listen to...

problem with checking the label is then it wudnt be sealed any more , first time I heard it was late '68 ....we passed around the headphones, amazed at the drum solo :bouncy:

Hoerninger
12-18-2009, 12:19 PM
.... maybe it's time!
Turn of the year ... yes, it is time :cheers: !
___________
Peter :)

Fred Sanford
12-18-2009, 08:27 PM
The High School library had many back issues of Audio and I read them all. I drove the library aids nuts with my request, I'm sure they said not this geek again!. After I graduated from HS I got my own subscription to Audio I kept it up for many years.

I actually got a job in my college's library, so I could waste time with the Down Beat and audio magazines there.

I recently found this stack of mags, didn't care to follow up on it, though. If anyone's interested in it, let me know, I'll be seeing them again in a couple of weeks.

Fred Sanford
12-18-2009, 08:31 PM
Actual Lansing content- there were some freshly renovated coaxials there, too (604Es, I think):

Krunchy
02-09-2011, 08:47 PM
SEAWOLF97, I have a copy of the magazine, which includes the address as you mentioned. I will try to visit the location in the next few days and will report my findings.

Steve did you ever get a chance to visit the place?

Steve Schell
02-10-2011, 01:07 AM
Krunchy, I never made it over there. I did check out the address recently on Google Maps and it seems there is a fairly new modern home on the lot with no trace of the original house or The Concrete Monster.

Krunchy
02-10-2011, 05:50 AM
OOoh I was hoping you'd found the relic still there in all its glory :( It was too much to ask for I suppose,
progress has a way of casting these things into the trash heap, I doubt it survived.

Thanks for the update Steve :)