BREAKFAST IN AMERICA

[boputnam]

Sorry I missed the Zilch Emporium... Too many gigs this weekend - arriving home at 05.00am each morning - and with the bridge closure I couldn't get it all done.

We had a late dinner, and then a brief listening session - 11pm 'til about 2am.
- Patricia Barber (Cafe Blue)
- Joni Mitchell (Travelogue)
- Tommy Emmanuel (Only)
- Dave Grusin (Migration)
- Eargle on Everest
- JGB Band (Friday night's boardtape 08-31-2007)

I think his impression was favorable to the 4345's - they are substantially refurbished since his visit 3-yrs ago. In particular, the TAD TD-2002's and the Bryston crossover are the most ear-fulfilling improvements.

IIRC (it was hella late...) he's off to Chicago as we type, visiting Clark from Peoria ( ), Rick Riessen and others in the midcontinent contingent, then off to Rob in New York and some Coney Island sessions with Scotty.

Then across to the old country, with Rich & Co...

Keep well, dood.

[Ian Mackenzie]

Hi Bo,

I'm in an internet book in NY upper West Side as I type.

Everything has gone according to plan...The Tardis is being reliable...although I could have sworn I Lansing in the Lansing workshops while staying with Steve Schell in Long Beach LA.

Stopping over in LA and meeting Steve was facinating..Steve's a great story teller of The Lansing history...!

Please thanks to Doug for making it all happen and meeting all the guys..swell.

SF was a real Mission Impossible sequel....

On the weekend I arrive the Bay Bridge was closed for maintenance and with the warm weather the alternate route to Zilch's was clogged solid to Berkeleyvia the San Mateo Bridge but with some persistance I made it..about 1 1/2 later than scheduled.

My visit it Zilch was really special ....and it was nice to meet the man behind so many of our favourite threads.

We went out to the local favourite Pizza venue..I was the driver with my Pacifica Van....we should have called it the Lansing Heritage Bus,,it was quite weird that I got a free upgrade on the hire car and it fitted the 6 of us.

We later heard Zilch's latest creation and shared many JBL experiences...thanks guys for making it.

Driving back across the San Mateo Bridge I had to break for some guy and the camera flew off the seat and slid under the accelerator peddle.

OOOOP's.

I few thoughts went through my mind and figured well if Tom Cruise can live to tell the tale so can I so I used my L Pad skills and managed to keep going and stopped about 20 miles further on.I was actually more concerned about squashing the camera.

Later that evening Bo and Suz treated me to a beautiful dinner out...thankyou!

We theen heard Bo's 4345 and over a few drops of an aussie Red.

Bo has worked really hard on his system since I last heard it. All I can say it performed beautifully...... I am going to have to think about a QSC map for the bass and a pair of tad 2002's.......

[Ian Mackenzie]

Went out to Rob's out on Long Island for the weekend.

Did some sailing on Saturday and a bike ride on Sunday.

Thanks Rob and Izza! A holiday when your having a holiday.

Ian

[Robh3606]

Hello Ian

It was good seeing you!! We all had a good time. Speaking of bikes they look kinda small from up there in the lighthouse!! The last folder in your camera didn't copy so I have none of your pictures

Rob

[Ian Mackenzie]

Rob,

Leme work on this over the next day or so.............The signature and the gate...LOL

[Ian Mackenzie]

Arrived home tonight safely..23 hours travel time.

It was an interesting and enjoyable vacation from many perspectives.

Meeting again some old forum friends, meeting for the first time some(new) members, hearing some JBL systems for the first time and visiting some new cities. I think I met some 16 Lansing forum members on this trip in the USA.

I propose to edit some of the 800+ pic taken and post with some dialogue by the weekend.

Ian

[Titanium Dome]

We'll look forward to your photo journal.

It was certainly my pleasure to spend a morning with you; I would have preferred more time. The next time you come to SoCal, stay longer.

[Ian Mackenzie]

Perhaps these'll be playing for Ian:

[Well, ONE will, at least.... ]

Okay,

I'll start here on the SF leg as I opened these files first.

By the way I am finally starting to get some real sleep. The plan incidentally was to have 4 early night before the big plane ride. I confess I was sleep deprived from the get go. My father had an operation just before I left and well as you know family stuff robs you of sleep but that is life (he is okay for about 80).

However, this lack of shut eye following my landing in SF did not matter because this turned out to be one incredibe day that I will always remember.

What a beautiful view from my window seat on the plane coming in over the Bay area. My camera was not accessable but I am sure you guys know the view. I saw this really long bridge, the San Mateo and figured well I guess I will be driving across that!

It was really weird like I was seeing the future because everything I did kinda worked in my favour like it was meant to be.

I love the airport too and the air train to the rental car is great. By chance I upgrade to a Pacifica Van. It became the Lansing forums Bus later in the afternoon. Full collision waiver insurance on the car was a good idea little did I know the traffic that lay ahead on my journey to Zilch's!

On leaving the airport I managed to get onto the Hwy 280 somehow and I should have stayed on it. The van just seemed to want to go that way but I felt lost and so doubled back to the Hwy 101. Big mistake because the traffic on the 101 was banked up for miles before the 92E turn off. As I found out later it was the Summer of Love Weekend (Zilch's 40th anniversary) and aside from the Bay Bridge closure everyone was heading for the beach or doing stuff because it was such a nice weekend. As I said the view from the air was fantastic.

So I got on the San Mateo 92E and let the Map Quest Directions do the driving. I printed out colour directions and maps before I left home. Good idea because when you are driving on the other side of a road and going to a place you have never been before you don't have time to look at the directory.

If you have seen the film "Recall" this is my version..it was like scary but exciting at the same time and you sort of tell yourself is this for real! Well when I saw all these car I figure it ain't no dream! Car, more cars and lots of cars..both ways.

This San Mateo is a really long bridge and it starting going up and up and wow, so many cars. There were more cars on the 92E than in my own city! This drive was going to take more than an hour so I made a quick call to Zilch. Thankfully I set my mob phone for global roaming. Lucky break and this super cool "sophisticated kind of " guy (Zilch) answered the phone and said fine we are all just drinking beers....... That was encouraging as I was in transit, a world within a world.

San Francisco is a stunning city. I just picked the wrong weekend to be driving around. Anyway, I got up to Zilch's which was straight forward with Map Quest and followed this sign on the door that said head for the garage. There was a nice red Porsch (porcshedpms) parked out the front so I decided to park around the corner rather then trust the left hand park foot break! We don't have those in Australia.

On entering Zilchlabs you are confronted with an entire garage full of JBL stuff. I mean hello. He has a triple chamber bandpass sub woofer (for faultline testing), numerous cartons of JBL drivers, horns, cabinets and stuff stacked to the ceiling everywhere. I figured to myself this is this guys life right. You got it. I thought Steve Schell and Doug had the bug bad but wow, Zilch is immersed in JBL, he really is.

Around the corner were these super cool characters, David F, John, Ed, Don C and Zilch. What a bunch of really nice people. We sat around and listened to Zilch's latest diy effort while I chilled from the drive. This system is a centre channel hyprid box using two 10 mid woofers with one as a helper woofer for response down to about 80 hz and really nifty JBL horn with a serious JBL compression driver. The sub is an LE14H as I recall.

It sounded really good. Clean, smooth and crisp.

God bless Zilch as he got this system completed the day I arrived and he has done a really nice job!

To be continued

Ian

Ps. That shirt I sent Zilch for winning a quiz I ran a couple of years ago.

[Ian Mackenzie]

Zilch demonstrated the system and we even did an RTA level check with some different L pad settings. This horn has some passive EQ correction but the whole thing was tri amped. Even at close listening distance it sounded sweet and detailed and I liked that little horn.

I could have spent a month in the Zilch labs and not seen the same driver twice. There was so much to see and so little time. Meeting the guys was a reall treat. My long time forum friend Ed also presented me with a JBL shirt and a Eargle Cd (which I used in my travels).

So after some listening we figured it was time for a meal. There were six of us and by chance my hire car seated 6. So the van became the Lansing bus and I was the Lansing bus driver. We drove a few blocks to downtown Albany to Zilch's favourite Pizza house. The beers and the pizza were great. Thankyou guys. It was really nice meeting you all and having a chat over a few ales about what we are all doing with our JBL rigs.

We then cruised back to Zilch labs for some more JBL fun.

As I recall we were all trying to hold in our beer "guts'' for this photo. Somehow I dont think it worked. I have posted 2 pics here as John took the first snap

Ian

[Ian Mackenzie]

If anyone has an questions or if the guys want to add some dialogue go for it.

One question keeps coming up. Was I what you expected from my posts and avatar. This is really funny.

I thought Ed was lot younger than his post suggest and from our occassional ph calls. Must be driving that red Porsche that does it
John reminded me of Joe Walsh (the Eagles..taken as a compliment!)

I would never have picked Zilch as a guy out from ..was it NJ..forty years on now and still loving it. Meeting Zilch has given me a special appeciation and respect for what he is about.

This was one of the real gem's about doing this trip. Meeting the people is priceless.

Rich took a while to find me at Paddington station. Apparently he was looking for tall older bloke ( I would suggest an ol fart..LOL)


l'll post the details of the LA stop over tonight. It may pay in the end to merge these two threads, if just for continuity.
Ian

[johnaec]

John reminded me of Joe Walsh (the Eagles..taken as a compliment!)

Sheesh! Well, I did grow up out "Rocky Mountain Way"...

Again, it was nice meeting you! 'Hope I can make it to Australia some day, ('always wanted to...).

John

[Titanium Dome]

Mon dieu, des dames avez-vous mangé la quiche ? :shock: :shock:




My gosh, did you ladies eat quiche?

[Ian Mackenzie]

For continuity refer to this post:
http://www.audioheritage.org/vbullet...7&postcount=61

Zilch and Bo used the internet to monitor the return traffic and determined my best departure time from Berkeley.

The only hitch on the way back over the bridge was the camera sliding under the accelerator and working out how to turn on the headlights!

Bo and darling wife Suz took me out to dinner at a nice place that served beautiful seafood. With so much to talk about and so little time we decide to just listen to his JBL 4345 system. A seriously killer audio system to die for (not I did not say audiophile thanks) and the best ever 4345 based vintage system I have heard or are likely to hear.

Ian

[Ian Mackenzie]

Okay,

Here are a few pics of Chicago.

I was only in Chicago for one night so I decided to go up to the new Hancock observatory. These are only some of the many pics. The view at night is stunning.

Later that evening I went out to a steak house call Chops and had a nice meal. Needless to say the steak was cooked to perfection. Then on to the Blue Chicago Jazz club. Breakfats at Johnny Rockets and off I went for a walk around the block.

Could not find any Hifi shops with JBL..damn. Plently of nice department stores and the latest fashions.

Below are some pics of Chicago by day. I wish I had more time here. Chicago is quite a town!

Ian

[Ian Mackenzie]

I can see why TiDome calls Chicago America's favourite city.