Outdoor Stereo

How about something different for a Saturday afternoon? Let's talk stereos.

Since it's warming up a bit here in lovely NW NJ, I've taken my summer/oudoors system out of hibernation.

They say there are two kinds of stereo guys: amplifier guys and speaker guys. In my heart, I tend toward the former. The guts of the system are a tube amp and preamp:

My favorite tube is the 300B, but at 8W, the 300B just won't cut it for outdoor use. This amp, an Assemblage ST-40, is a stereo amp that uses EL34 tubes hooked up in pentode and puts out probably 35W. It was the first amp I ever put together, made from a kit sold by a company called The Parts Connection, which was the parts-and-kits arm of the old Sonic Frontiers. Every time I plug this amp in, I'm amazed how good it sounds. I love it.

The preamp is a Foreplay clone, jazzed up with some tweaks and some "designer" parts, such as the caps. I've also added twin stepped attenuators, assembled from Welborne Labs kits. Very pricey, but I just hate potentiometers.

Finally, here are the speakers. They are based on Pi Speakers Tower 2 kits. The boxes are MDF, veneered in ash with cherry borders. Frankly, I'm not wild about the ash look, but it was worth experimenting. Whatever they look like, I know the boxes are well-made. There are two layers of MDF on the front faces, almost 1 1/2 inches worth, and they're well-braced inside. The Tower 2s mate extremely well with tube equipment.

City Stereo

It's been a long time since I've told you that I love low-power tube amps and high-efficiency single-driver speakers, so I'll tell you again: I love low-power tube amps and high-efficiency single-driver speakers.

My setup in my small city apartment is simple: Lynn Karik-Numerik CD/DAC, conrad-johnson tube preamp, Audionote 300B stereo kit amp (8W), and small DIY speakers with Fostex drivers. The picture above was taken years ago, but it will give you the idea. Not ideal for Wagner or Mahler, but then again I'd be tossed out if I really cranked it up anyway.

Playing now is Tom Rapp's (Pearls Before Swine) The Use of Ashes, from the recently-released Jewels Were The Stars collection. I've had Tom Rapp's albums for over thirty-five years (yikes!) and play them at my weekend house, where I have a setup that includes a Rega turntable. It's about friggin' time that these albums have come out on CD.