My
Audio Interests
Robert Gilchrist Huenemann,
M.S.E.E.
October 20, 2006
My Audio Systems
Back in approximately 1960, I owned a modest audio system consisting of a Rek-O-Kut belt drive turntable, a Shure Studio Dynetic pickup/tone arm, a Heathkit A-9C preamp/amplifier to which I had added a tapped screen (Williamson) output transformer, and an ElectroVoice Baronet loudspeaker.
I moved to
In about 1985 I designed the living room of my house around the classic Klipsch three-way system. Two Klipschorns plus a Belle Klipsch for the center channel. They are driven by a Sony STR DA333es receiver. The primary program source is a CD player with optical output. I also have a DVD player, a VHS HiFi VCR and a cassette deck.
I have about 600 CDs, including all of the George Wright recordings, all of the Michael Murray recordings and a bunch of other Telarc discs. And lots of bluegrass, traditional jazz, classical and blues. Charlie Musselwhite sounds great on this system. So do Ricky Skaggs, Emmy Lou Harris, and the like. And yes, I have CDs and videos of trains, planes and racecars. I have VHS tapes and DVDs of many operas.
I have a computer data base for most of these recordings. It includes titles, artists, track listings and some program notes. I have 400 of my favorite CDs in a Sony CDPCX455 carousel. I try to listen to one of them each day.
I am endlessly amused by the claims made in the audio field. There are ‘experts’ who have gotten wealthy by claiming that they can hear differences in speaker wire or differences between tubes and transistors. Some even claim that vinyl records sound better that digital media. The most outlandish claim is that you can improve the sound of your equipment by upgrading the power cords.
I have played all kinds of music all of my life, and my hearing is still pretty good. I think that CDs sound great and that ordinary lamp cord works quite well for speaker wire. I am thankful that I do not have to listen to vinyl records any more. My Sony STR DA333es receiver sounds better than the Sony solid state receiver I had previously. It should, because it has lower distortion. In other words, the improved sound correlates with something that can be measured.
Double blind experiments have shown that ‘experts’ cannot tell one kind of speaker wire from another, and they can’t tell much of anything else either. In fact, most of these experts now refuse to take part in double blind experiments because they come out looking like fools.
But if you want to spend thousands of dollars on vacuum tube equipment, be my guest. At least your house will be warm.
I grew up listening to Tom Lehrer, Johnathan and
Darlene Edwards, Anna
Russell, Peter Schickele,
The New Lost City
Ramblers, George Lewis, Doc Evans, The “Real” Dukes of Dixieland, Turk Murphy, Leon Berry, Virgil Fox, George Wright, John Prine,
etc. To my amazement, much of what I enjoyed as a youngster has been
re-released on Compact Disc. I have a couple of Leon Berry CDs (Giant Wurlitzer
Pipe Organ, Volumes 1 and 2). I would like to have a CD of the recording he
made at the Hub in
The Australian Broadcasting Company has done a superb job of cleaning up early recordings by Bix Beiderbecke, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith and others. The early Armstrong recordings are especially important because it is easy to forget what an astonishing musician he is if you are only familiar with the end of his life. Listening to them is a humbling experience.
I have another page on my web site devoted to the recordings of E.D. Nunn and his Audiophile label.
The Telarc label started out by producing direct-to-disc recordings. However, they soon recognized the advantages of digital recording. They have used minimal miking techniques that have consistently produced some of the cleanest Compact Discs in the industry. I have many of their releases, and they are all delightful.
The first digital recordings made in the