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THE AROMA OF MUSIC: 16 OHM ALNICO © HEALTH WARNING FROM THE TRIODE GUILD
GIZMO'S BIRTHDAY NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE BENEFITS AUDIOMANIACS
WORLD WIDE
by Dr. Harvey "Gizmo" Rosenberg
Positive Feedback's Techno-Shaman of Coolosity
Grand Wazir of Speakermaniacs
Guildmeister, The Triode Guild
Thermionic Techno-Shaman
Firstly, let me address the rumors you may have heard that I am about to announce that I am running for President on the Triode Guild Ticket. I am not confirming or denying those rumors, but I can imagine how these rumors got started. America needs new leadership. The kind of dynamic leadership that would put the greatest country in the world back on the 16 Ohm Alnico standard... the loftiest of places. Yes, it is true that I feel very strongly about Alnico magnets, and here is why, and what I am doing to insure their return, so we can all get to the next higher stage of triodosity. Perhaps, some day I will need your vote... so remember you heard about the return of 16 Ohm Alnico first in Positive Feedback, and your servant, Gizmo, The Techno-Shaman of Coolosity of Positive Feedback made it happen for his righteous bro's.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME ... IN TRIODE HEAVEN
You can tell by heavy spiritual harmonics that I am working very hard to become the audio industry's first living saint... St. Gizmo, The Patron Saint of Audiomaniacs (remember that Presidents are always religious). Because of decades of decadence this is going to be difficult to achieve, so I work very hard at it, which includes only having sex once a year... on my birthday... which is immediately followed by my yearly birthday cigar. I live a very quiet monk-like pious life that is very devoted to artifying the harmonic/space/time continuum in an expanded aural matrix ©, and because of this my audio system undergoes constant day in and day out tweaking and has reached a very subtle level of tune. I have been tweaking the Westminster Royals now continuously for fourteen months, so I was very excited about celebrating my birthday last November 28 with new levels of musical ecstasy, but I had no way of knowing that the Angel of Death would be dancing with me.
It is very difficult for any of us to keep a perspective on the progress of our life. It is difficult to step back and get a sense of the ebbing and flowing of time gone by, so on this most special annual occasion, while I was dancing naked with my Goddess girlfriend, I had a breakthrough, a flash of insight, and I, all at once, realized the enormous progress I had made in manifesting the scoopulosity of my Nth Dimension of Music Hyper-Space. This caused me so much joy and elation that I picked up my hairy 300 pound, six foot seven, femme fatale in my arms and twirled her around my head, planted her feet on the ground and then in our naked primal splendor we tangoed back and forth like wild Spaniards on fire... and I was an amalgam of music, sexual longing and amazing grace... and then... there was a sharp pain in my chest... and I was shooting up a long tunnel filled with Liberace's music towards a very bright light.
This was not a scary feeling for me because (1) I was raised in Brooklyn and spent my Saturdays on the wild rides of Coney Island, (2) My mother watched Liberace's television program almost every day, and (3) I watched every talk show from Regis and Kathy Lee to Oprah and read every book that was ever published on "near death experiences", so I knew I was now in "Stage One" of such an experience. So I was real chilled out expecting very soon to be in the place where angels hang out .
How can I describe my surprise when, at the end of the tunnel, there was Peter Qvortrop dressed like The King of Single Ended Triodes , with a crown filled with directly heated triodes, an ermine cape and holding a staff. In a very matter of fact way he just looked me over, stuck his head out, sniffed me and nodded for me to pass, and pointing......that a way....
How can I describe fields filled with real Western Electric 300Bs, gently swaying in the wind like an Iowa corn field? Or the miles and miles of wild triode vines with their succulent fruits: pre 1940, 211s, 845s, mono plate 2A3, and those millions of bees buzzing over there by the blue KR 300Vs. No, they weren't bees; they are swarms of 1944 6SN7s. In complete awe I silently watched a gaggle of audiomaniac angels with their tiny wings fluttering, floating above these fertile fields of triodes plucking fresh tubes from their green sockets. Look at all of those pink adorable audio cherubs. Can you imagine the thrill of seeing Andy Singer, Gordon Holt, Joe Roberts, Herb Reichert, Dennis Had, Gordon Rankin, John Stronza, Mike Le Fevre, looking like chubby pink humming birds on steroids hovering over the fresh fields of triodes?
Up ahead I could hear this amazing music so I quickly jogged down the path and came to a very large iron bridge that crossed over a very turbulent river that had carved itself deep into the earth. I could feel a beautiful magnetic energy coming from the bridge, in spite of the fact, that the rushing water below was very frightening.
I got up the courage and started crossing the bridge when a very gnarled old man appeared at the end of the bridge, waving his hands and yelling out to me ..."If you cross this Alnico bridge, you can never return". The old man looked like a one hundred year old Guy R. Fountain. I stopped and thought for a moment, but the tug of the music was soooo powerful that it pulled me closer to the old man, and then I looked down at the turbulent river beneath me and the old man yelled out again ..."That river is from the run-off of the tears of men who weep over the beauty of Alnico and triodes".
As I gained consciousness in my hospital I knew I had a near death experience, and had spent a few brief moments in Triode Heaven. I was given three important lessons:
CITIZENSHIP, LIFETIME FREE ROOM, BOARD AND MEDICAL CARE
I heard a rumor that the Japanese government, to stimulate Alnico speaker immigration to Japan, offered any American or British Alnico speaker citizenship, and lifetime free room, board and medical care. How else can you explain why almost all of the Alnico speakers in the world now live in Japan? Go ahead and try and buy a pair of vintage Alnico speakers in Japan, or ask your buddy who has a guitar amp with Alnico speakers if he wants to sell.
In the same way it took America a couple of decades to wake up to 300Bs and single-ended triodes, we are now waking up to the artistic truth - if you want to know one, you have to use the other. Those of you who are pontificating about triode beauty and are not bonded to Alnico, well you are riding a rice burner... if you know what I mean. I ask for and give no triode quarter, and the truth is made from spring steel... you can bend for a short time, but it soon snaps back.
There is an alchemy between triodes and Alnico that is more profound than beer and pretzels, ketchup and French fries and ice cream and cookies. You all know the feeling when you have "chemistry" with a woman, when one plus one equals one hundred. That is what happens with Alnico and triodes... and our Japanese audiomaniac bro's have known this alchemic musical bliss for decades.
PRINCE CARL OF ALON GETS COLOSSALY COOL
Near saints and prophets of coolosity have one great advantage: they have great noses and can smell something coming down the road a few months or years sooner than guys with ordinary push/pull pentode noses. So it should not surprise you that my hysterical ranting about my Tannoy's Alcomax (a very refined Alnico type magnet) magnets is not an isolated form of dementia... others are grocking Alnico in a very serious way. Prince Carl of Alon is deep into Alnico. Carl Marchisotto creates Alón speakers for his own company, Acarian Systems, which always seems to receive rave reviews from audio ravers. The reason Carl is a Prince of Speakermaniacs is because for some unknown reason he doesn't know how to design a bad speaker. Quite to the contrary it seems that everything he designs sounds amazing. He is like a "natural" at pool or pitching... he just has this magic feel and taste and nose for speakers' righteousness. Carl must have speaker DNA.
Before I go any further let me remind you again I am a man with a mission, and if I am going to be successful in revolutionizing the high end audio industry I need to make alliance... you can't do it alone. Why would The Bruce, and Seventh Earl of Clan Mc Tannoy, embrace and support a competitive speakermaniac? Those of you who have played on winning football teams know the answer to this question.
The first time I heard Carl's new Alnico mini-monitor I could smell that special musical aroma that I only smell when triodes and Alnico make musical love. At the CES show Carl was demonstrating his micro Alnico objet d'art with a Tim Paravaccini single ended triode... a nice amp... but no TRIODZILLA©. With saliva running down my lips, and cackling like an Olde Salem Witch, I invited Carl and his wife Marilyn to visit the land where TRIODZILLA© roams. They couldn't refuse my offer to explore the Nth Dimension of Music Hyper-Space, where the Guildmeister artifies the harmonic/space/time continuum in an expanded aural matrix, while he eats the yummy homemade cookies that Carl and Marilyn's daughter, Karen, made as a sacrificial offering to TRIODZILLA©.
LET'S GET EXTREMELY HIGH... IN IMPEDANCE
Carl and Marilyn brought two pairs of speakers - one with crossovers and one without, so he could, for the first time, hear what bi-amping does to mini-monitors.
Comparing Carl's speaker to the Tannoy horns is like comparing a mouse to an elephant... but don't forget the folklore... the mouse can terrify the elephant. We are comparing the polar opposites of Alnico art. We are talking about comparing a loudspeaker which requires a fork lift to move its mass to speakers that you can put in a suitcase. Let me put it another way... why would America's top "four hundred star" speaker designer start using Alnico magnets when they are sooooooo hard to get? By the way did I mention that these two cute little portable speakers cost only $10K per pair?
What we call Alnico is a gourmet blend of metals, with a very big SNAFU. The secret ingredient is cobalt, and it is only available from Zaire, and that country is at war. Tannoy has been using their own type of Alnico for decades. JBL, Jensen, Altec and almost every other "classic" loudspeaker maker also used ALNICO 16 OHM drivers for decades. Take a very deep breath now. Keep your pills nearby, and be sure you are seated. ALNICO 16 OHM is the place where the audio arts is re-evolving to, and it is a Himalayan high place and it is a place that we descended from a long time ago. Pack your pack we are going back up the mountain. When I talk about the time conundrum of the audio arts, I am not talking about preventing AIDS, I am talking about the maturing of the audio arts to the point where it can embrace paradox and conundrum and thereby stand tall with other classical art forms. To find the most amazing grace we are returning, going back, to a place that we once knew well.
Thirty years ago, to exploit the transistor revolution, the Priests of the Monkey Coffin Temple switched from sixteen ohms to eight ohms, and then twenty years ago it became essential, with the advent of the transistor behemoth, to create low impedance speakers so that everyone could boast... 1,000 watts into two ohms... what could be cooler? Now that the thermionic revolution is reaching maturity, it is time to go back to 16 ohms, because the transistor artistic revolution has exhausted itself and thermionics reign supreme. With the proliferation of fantastic tube amplifier performance under $1500, it is time to bring back high impedance speakers because all tube amplifiers will perform better with them. Tube amps will play with lower distortion, greater dynamics, and the tubes will last longer. Transistor amplifiers are so over-powered anyway they will not mind playing into 16 ohms.
The alchemists fire, ALNICO 16 OHMS, shall once again ignite very soon, and all of you will have a four audio pamper filling thrill, but until then we must be content with its twin half-brother, ALNICO 8 OHM, which still stands Redwood trees higher than ferrite type magnets. Why am I taunting you? Why am I kicking sand in your speaker's face? Can you not hear my lament? HELP ME! I want you to call up your favorite speaker manufacturer, or send an E-Mail, or a dozen roses or a smelly sneaker... anything to make them pay attention to you and your desire to reach the highest place you can reach on earth short of tickling Triode Heaven's toes. Demand Alnico drivers! And most importantly rub in their face that the Master Speakermaniac, Prince Carl of Alon, is leading the way. Are Tannoy, Vandersteen, Thiel, Von Schweikert, Dunleavy, B & W, Wilson, and other Priests of the Monkey Coffin Temple paying attention?... ALNICO 16 OHM is the path to ascension.
I bet you seven gillion PEZ that in twelve months of publication of this article there are ten more companies using ALNICO, and remember you heard it and smelled it first in the pages of Positive Feedback, and from your favorite almost living audiomaniac saint.
A REMINDER FROM BUDDHA
You have heard the advice from The Large Wise Corpulent Audiomaniac before but I must repeat it many times because so few understand its meaning: "I would rather have a tea cup of tone than a ocean of power". The emergence of tonality as the highest aspiration of the audio arts is new to America, and the whole Alnico-triode trip is about being a connoisseur of midrange scoopulosity. Pentodes and ferrite magnet speakers are fine for Burger King slingers, but for us, the men who seek the peak of musical refinement... well, we have no choice but to eat the expensive spread.
THE NOSE KNOWS A GREAT ELECTROSTATIC SPEAKER
The advantage of getting old is that as our hearing diminishes our noses become much more sensitive. For this old audio blood hound it takes about five seconds to smell if an audio gizmo has got the right "harmonic aroma" (a phrase I take from Nobu), and that is how long it took me to know that the combo of TRIODZILLA© (in its Atma Sphere OTL configuration) and Carl's micro-Alnico speakers were producing a form of musical intoxication that The Westminster Royals couldn't create because of their huge size. Mini-monitors have their own special kind of musical magic. It was instantly apparent that Alnico has a very unique harmonic subtlety that has nothing to do with size. Carl's speakers had a delicacy and refinement in the midrange coupled with an extremely deep soundstage that typifies the unique refinement of gourmet magnets. There is a definite alchemy between triodes and Alnico and it becomes embedded in your brain, and becomes the standard of harmonic joy.
But the aspect of these toy-sized speakers that was most amazing was their capacity to fill the room with enormous waves of energy. This is the highest praise I could give to Carl, but here is the paradox... this was the first time that Carl had ever heard his children in such a brilliant performance... meaning being connected to a totally outrageous TRIODZILLA© OTL amplifier. So we were both in the process of smelling a new aroma. I had never heard a micro-Alnico speaker before, and the amazing things they can do, and Carl had never heard his speaker artify the harmonic/space/time continuum in an expanded aural matrix with such naturalness and authority. It takes a great speaker to know a great amp, and vice versa. Though these are dynamic speakers, after listening to them in the dark room, I thought I was listening to some of the best electrostatic speakers I had ever heard... and I used to be the President of the Quad Owners Club. Perhaps that is the best way to describe the unique quality of these very expensive and elegant speakers: they are truly world class electrostatics... and they are tiny.
REAL SPEAKERMANIACS GO BI
But this was only the beginning and soon we were bi-amping using the Marchand tube crossover. Now we were using four mono pairs of TRIODZILLA© OTL... separate amps on the tweeter and separate amps for the woofer, and in the candlelight darkness of my listening room it only took Carl about thirty seconds, in the best tradition of the Baptists, to raise his hands in praise and start shouting, "Hallelujah, Hallelujah, I have seen the truth". Whatever was fabulous about Carl's electrostatic-like speakers, and there were many things to fab about, they were even better in the bi-amp mode: the subtle got more subtle, the dynamic got more dynamic, and the spatial, spaced out. For those of you who do not yet understand... the artification of the harmonic/space/time continuum in an expanded aural matrix, all that you have to do is listen to these speakers for about one minute and your musical vernacular will instantly improve. The message to my audiomaniac bro's is: bi-amp minimonitors. Again... if you want to achieve electrostatic clarity and delicacy in a small package... go bi with minis.
CAN I LISTEN TO THE ADRIANAS IF I PROMISE TO WEAR A MUZZLE?
I am now going to reveal to you a top secret strategy. The genius of this strategy will also explain why both the KGB and the CIA tried to recruit me. Promise me that you won't tell anyone else about this masterful cunning that always discombobulates the uncooperative audio retailer from Hell.
Firstly, you have to borrow a friend's solid gold Rolex Oyster Perpetual watch. This is an important magic charm because when retailers see one of these masculine power totems they become compliant, polite, charming, and bow at the waist, offering service and obedience. At which point you will say "I want to hear the Alon Adriana mini-monitors with a truly refined singled ended 300B." If he resists, right there and then whip out your Samurai sword, and cut off his ears... Or... slowly flash your Rolex in front of his face and let the gold dazzle him as you chant, "Price is no object, and I pay in cash". This will hypnotize the retailer, and in effect make him your audio slave. Give him a few days to order everything. When you go back for your listening session show respect, bring some fine hand made cigars and some fine French Cognac, circa 1890. Reach out to this tortured soul. Invite the store owner to share the experience with you. Together enjoy the cigar and cognac, while the alchemy of Alnico and triode liberates your souls to fly about the room.
Trust me, you will have made this tortured retailer's soul very happy.
A MOVING EXPERIENCE
I recently sold my business and decided to get involved in the recording business so I moved my Tannoy system into Ambient Recording Studio in Stamford, Connecticut, which will be the new home of Triode Guild. With a state of the art 55 x 35 foot listening room the Tannoy horns are very happy, but I was faced with a major crisis... I was, for the first time in four years, going to live in an apartment, and that meant an apartment sized listening room. I was terrified of being normal. I now had a home listening room that was only 14 x 10 foot.
I immediately installed my 300B single-ended mini TRIODZILLA©, with its huge tube power supply in my living room, and needed to search for a magic speaker that could ejaculate on only 8 watts. You guessed right. The Adrianas came to my rescue... for one month I was amazed at their ability to demonstrate the most refined harmonic magic, and were the best devices I have yet encountered for revealing the subtle differences in various brands of 300Bs. Once again I have to point out, in spite of the possibility that it may cause shrinking weenyitis to us Americans, that the Japanese are way ahead of us on the triode trip. It is time to change our diet and bulk up on triodes and Alnico, and you don't need gigantic horns to hear their glory.
PRINCE CARL PISSES ME OFF BIG TIME
Does all of the polite obsequious post-review bullshit between reviewers and manufacturers make you want to barf? i.e. ..."Golly Gee, I want to thank the golden ear reviewer for taking the time and trouble for reviewing our humble product and I really appreciate the wonderful review you gave us confirming once again what a sensitive musical loving dude YOU are. We really try hard and we really love music, and we really appreciate the appreciation". Yuck, barf, fart, burp!
So let me tell you how and why Carl really pisses me off big time, and you should be aware of this major criticism of his products (bordering on flagrant irresponsibility) before you think of buying any of his speakers.
When Carl shipped his $10K jewels to my home he was very careful to remind me that the speakers I had were the ones he was taking to the Stereophile show and I should be careful. No problem. After I returned Carl's $10K mini-jewels he called me and was really angry and started to scream at me, "Gizmo, how could you let your dog chew on my speakers? You know they have a real piano lacquer finish and... and... and... these are no junk toys". I could hear his wife Marilyn in the background trying to calm him down, i.e. "It isn't worth getting a heart attack over ..." At first I was shocked. Of course I knew these speakers were finished in a totally deluxe way, because I was afraid of going near them they are so beautiful, but I answered Carl's ranting very calmly and said. "What's wrong with you, Carl? Have you got brain damage? You know I don't have a dog. Those teeth marks were made by me. What do you expect when you design such a beautiful speaker. You know me long enough. When I get really passionate about something I want to eat it. Isn't that the whole point of great audio art? Take responsibility and put a consumer warning on your speakers... WARNING: ALNICO: DO NOT EAT". Carl jumped back with, "What are you crazy? Humans don't eat speakers". While boys will be boys, and nothing feels better than relieving stress through a really good fight, I saw no point in continuing my tempestuous dialogue with Carl. He too didn't understand my sensitive emotional make-up, so I hung up.
The reason I mention this warning is that, if you are like me, I would put spikes not only underneath these speakers, but also all around them, because there are moments, I guarantee, that your mouth will start watering, you will start to howl, and you will run wild with the musical wolves... if you get my meaning. Of course your wife could put a muzzle on you, but that would make drinking beer and eating pizza a mess. And this would also wreck her complexion if you got horny... which you will with Alnico.
MAKING AMENDS
Carl thought long and hard about what I said, and called me the next day and reached out to me, and we both apologized, and he promised me that each pair of Adriana speakers will be shipped with a warning label, WARNING: ALNICO: DO NOT EAT. Then I suggested this two part healing between us and Carl agreed:
IT'S TIME TO BLAST OFF
To bring all of this artistic hyper-ventilating down to Earth: the next speaker revolution is past due. Though the Priests of the Monkey Coffin Temple have reached new heights of expression, they have artistically stalled, because they have failed to respond to the obvious: tube amplifiers are now the standard. Only the brain dead would not make the leap to... LOW IMPEDANCE SPEAKERS ARE CHEESE BALLS, HIGH IMPEDANCE IS THE CONCRESCENCE OF THERMIONIC COOLOSITY. LONG LIVE THE TRIODE REVOLUTION.
Dr. Gizmo
drgizmo3@earthlink.net
Alon Speakers by Acarian Systems: (516) 265-9577
Marchand Tube Crossovers: (716) 872-0980
© Harvey "Gizmo" Rosenberg 1997. The contents of this article and all of the arcane really cool expressions are copyrighted by HGR, and you need permission from The Techno-Shaman of Coolosity to reprint any of his golden words.