TO APPEAR IN POSITIVE FEEDBACK IN 1998

THERMIONIC SPEAKERMANIA©

by

Dr. Harvey "Gizmo" Rosenberg
Guildmeister, The Triode Guild
Thermionic Techno-Shaman
Grand Wazir of Speakermaniacs

REBEL PRIESTS IN THE TEMPLE OF MONKEY COFFINS

As Guildmeister of The Triode Guild let me make my goals plain: I will not cease until the American high end audio industry is as creative, diverse and prosperous as the Japanese. It is well known that the only serious high quality audio market is Japan, where there is a well developed audio art culture which does not yet exist in America. In Japan the audio arts is given the same respect and adulation as any of the other traditional arts. The American audio scene is relatively weak because, as a group, American audio manufacturers are feeble in communicating the glory of their art. If anyone doubts this assertion just check out the track record of this industry's trade association, The Academy of High End Audio, and their ability to excite the public's imagination about our art.

Am I angry? You bet your boopy I am, but rather than rage against this marketing incompetence, let me rage against a structural weakness that can be quickly corrected and create new consumer excitement. To be effective in that task The Guildmeister of the Triode Guild will have to put on one of his most exotic masks. This mask will frighten many. This is probably my most terrifying, weird, and eccentric and will send the fragile screaming for cover... here comes my Wharton School of Business Mask, Class of 1963. I am wearing to scare away all the low effeciency speaker demons, That is me wearing one of my strangest costumes: a Brooks Brothers three piece striped blue wool flannel suit, a white Egyptian cotton button down shirt with blue and white polka dot bow tie, boxer shorts, suspenders, sock garters, and oxford shoes. No laughing and guffawing at this strange business warrior's armor. This article is about the next big business opportunity in high end audio. By serving my thermionic brothers I am certain that there will be a contract on my life. This is a dangerous job and it is my job.

Let me live up to my reputation as the man, referred to by his enemies as, "Red Hot Chili Pepper Up Your Butt". Hold tight, here we go again on Dr. Gizmo's roller coaster rides: the thousands of you who are artistically and musically sensitive enough to listen to tube amplifiers haven't got a clue how great these amplifiers are if you are using speakers designed for transistor amplifiers... which is 99% of the speakers manufactured in America. As Buddha says, "As you would not plow a field with a Indy 500 car, and as you would not race the Indy 500 with a tractor, you should not be using a tube amplifier with a low impedance/low efficiency loudspeaker".

Now sit back relax, take your tranquilizers and some Alka Seltzer, and enjoy some more pain, because it is the only way you will ascend to the next level of musical ecstasy... no pain, no gain. When I published, almost twenty years ago, Understanding Tube Electronics, they laughed and suggested the title be, Understanding Obsolete Electronics, and when I, like so many others, predicted the rise of single-ended triode amps, they laughed. So who has the last laugh now? Mark my words, because those who do not pay attention to my prophecy shall turn into obsolete moldy cheese balls. And I shall not cease until my prophecy comes true.

 

JUST THE FACTS...ALMOST

FACT: Tube amplifiers are currently dominating the amplifier segment of high end audio and will continue to grow in importance because marketing dynamics are compelling their vitality... relatively low cost/high performance amplifiers are creating a new group of tube fanatics who will mature and want better. We start out on our 350cc Honda Nighthawks and then grow up and buy a Hawg. You have to have an affordable first step on the ladder of thermionic ascension. Check this out... Stereo Review reviewed a Jolida tube amp! Under $500 tube amplifiers from China will create a new foundation for the thermionic arts. Or what about the Cary Audio's $799 300B stereo amp... again you can't grow up and be a Tube Grizzly Bear, unless you start in the Tube Bunny Rabbit group.

FACT: GADZOOKS, THE TUBE COFFERS ARE FULL! Reliable Sovtek 300Bs at $70, new Chinese and Sveltana 300Bs and Western Electric is back in the tube business! China, Russia and Eastern Europe have converted their military tube factories to consumer products and are responsible for the explosion of guitar tubes. Did you imagine that Class A and B directly heated triode transmitting tubes would be used in amplifiers, and that pentodes, i.e., 6550, El 34s, 5881s and KT 88s would abound... look at your calendar... it is the twenty-first century and thermionics are everywhere, including the pro market and the guitar market. The ultimate techno-conundrum of the twenty first century is that more and more music lovers are not impressed by "newer and better" and are seeking genuine emotional authenticity, which means harmonic authenticity, which means tubes. Your passion for music, and there are thousands of you, is the engine of this completely unexpected thermionic revolution, and thermionic entrepreneurs all over the world eager for profits are responding, i.e. Charles Whitener of Western Electric.

FACT: The digital conundrum ain't going away, and digital sounds better with tube amplifiers because it is a salve for digital's harmonic discombobularity. In the same way the ancient wisdom prescribes ketchup on French fries, and cream cheese on your bagel, it now prescribes tubes and digital. It doesn't matter if this is accurate audio or not, it is a matter of getting the most musical pleasure from a regressive storage medium... of how I love my techno-conundrums. What a delicious dialectic... millions of musicians who are building home digital recording studios are buying tube gear.

FACT: There is a more creativity in tube amplifier design today than any previous time, and this is true all over the world. The art and science of thermionics has significantly advanced over the last two decades. This is especially true for amplifiers that use tubes designed in the 1930s: directly heated triode output tubes. I believe tube amplifiers have replaced tube phono preamplifiers as the "thermionic play focus" of high end audio. Do remember the good old days when the cool thing was to own three or four tube preamps, three turntables and a dozen cartridges? Trevor Lees I miss you!

FACT: There is a wrong way and a right way to use a tube amplifier.

FACT: The first few watts are always the juiciest. In every amplifier those first few watts, or milliwatts, are the best sounding watts, which is why it is so desirable to keep an amplifier operating in that range. This explains why, for decades, our Japanese bro's have preferred high efficiency speakers...especially for their transistor gear.

FACT: All things being equal, a low powered tube amplifier will sound more refined than a higher powered one, meaning, few output tubes, and smaller output transformer...less is more. Because all things aren't equal, a low powered amplifier can be superior because it can more easily and efficiently employ regulated power supplies, i.e. it is much easier to build a lower powered regulator. The Golden Rule of audio design applies here: simple is better because it preserves signal integrity.

Let me say that again: By using high efficiency/high impedance speaker, you get better performance using a smaller more refined amplifier which will have better power supplies, and operate most of the time in the juicy region, and if that weren't enough your output tubes will last longer.

FACT: A tube doesn't know where it is, and the virtues of active regulation applies to all tubes no matter where they are used. An actively regulated circuit will operate better than an unregulated one. Yes, there are those who are screaming, NO. And yes, I have heard some magical systems with unregulated tube circuits, because the syrupy sound of unregulated circuits mollified system problems. But America is positively prehistoric in its failure to use regulated output stages on tube amplifiers. Gadzooks most tube amplifiers don't even use a choke! Shame on us!

FACT: Tube amplifiers are not operating optimally with any speaker that is below 94 db efficient, 16 ohms, with Alnico magnets. This triology of thermionic bliss has been known for decades. It is known all over the world. It is the foundation of Japanese audiomania, and we, the inventors of this aesthetic, rock and roll, fast food, the 350 Chevy small block, and the Hawg, haven't got a clue... yet. Shame on us! Reality check: if you can't have all three then at the very least get the high efficiency right. Getting all three right is very expensive but worth the cost, and it is eternal.

 

FACT: Consumers accept obsolescence if it is real. What are the American Priests of the Temple of the Monkey Coffins afraid of? More business? New excitement? Prosperity? Money in the bank? It is time for them to announce, "Dear tube loving audiophile- so sorry, we had our heads buried in the silicon. Yes, our grandfathers had it right; tubes need high efficiency/high impedance speakers, and we are now correcting our ways. No shame, No blame, just let's get on with expanding musical beauty. So throw away those 84 db, 4/8 ohms speakers, and make me a wealthy dude".

REBELLIOUS PRIESTS: OUR TRIODE HEROES

Is the pain and anger worth it? Yes, because the American speaker rebellion is happening as more and more American speaker designers are getting into the Japanese harmonic refinement trip: using low powered triode amplifiers as their reference, and this artistic maturity is creating a new generation of loudspeakers. Viva, La Revolution! My spies have also told me that a number of the top European speaker manufactures are now designing 100db efficient speakers that will arrive in America at the next CES show.

Let me describe the prevailing American orthodoxy: New and Improved Kevlar Carbon Fiber Uranium Enriched Speaker Cones, in a six way configuration using Asymptotically Infinitely Expanding 96 db slope Phase/Time Corrected Crossovers, 84 db efficient 4 ohms. The pressure on Priests of the Temple of Monkey Coffins to come up with something new and different every year is enormous, and it takes courage to design simple loudspeakers with a minimum of crossover parts. How many designers have the right stuff to boast... I didn't invent anything new, I just got it musically right? This new breed of loudspeaker designers are comparable to the new breed of triode amplifier designers who believe less is more...it is the way of the triode. This means using higher quality drivers that don't require loads of taming, i.e. require simple crossovers.

THE SURVEY

ALON/ACARIAN SYSTEMS: As you know I am a way big fan of Prince Carl Marchisotto for a number of reasons. Beside the fact that his daughter makes righteous cookies, this is a man who has had a triode religious conversion in the last year. He tried with all of his might to resist the beauty of 300B single-ended amplifiers, but like so many others he finally had to surrender. Here we have one of America's speakermeisters applying decades of skill to revealing the nascent harmonic whole-osity of directly heated triode amplifiers, and that means Alnico midrange drivers. In a previous issue of PF I reported about my love affair with the $10K Adrianas, an all Alnico mini-monitor. The reason these gems are so important is because it reveals Carl's genius at understanding the harmonic refinement implicit in the directly heated triode midrange. Check out the cunning of Carl's latest affordable speaker, The Lotus, which was designed specifically for low powered triode amplifiers... Alnico midrange/15 ohm woofer: so simple/so smart/so obvious. By using a high impedance woofer he is demonstrating his mastery of the single-ended gestalt; don't fight the weakness of single-ended circuit's ability to reproduce authoritative low frequency. By using a high impedance woofer Carl is coaxing the best performance possible out of all single-ended output transformers, and this strategy is so obvious you wonder why other Priests haven't thought about using this approach. The answer is: Carl's creativity, dedication and passion. At $3,500 (a pair) this loudspeaker may be the turning point in the American triode revolution because it is affordable, has an Alnico midrange, a high impedance woofer, can be auditioned at your local hi fi emporium, and most importantly, is endowed with Carl's artistic sensitivity, which is very high indeed.

The Lotus has outboard crossover networks, and can be ordered with three different flavors. My advice is order the ones that are flavored with AlphaCore silver foil inductors. Of course you are aware that crossover should never be in loudspeaker cabinets... if you want ultimate refinement.

ACARIAN LOTUS SPEAKER SYSTEM

WINNER

TRIODE GUILD AWARD FOR THERMIONIC COOLOSITY

THE FIRST TRIODMANIAC SPEAKER SYSTEM THAT
WILL NOT CAUSE MARRIAGE MELTDOWN

I share your pain because my "other" listening room is in my home which is a small apartment, and I don't want to give up my triode bliss when I am not in my 35x55 listening room, so I want to reveal a deep pain that most men have trouble expressing, because men are tough and emotionally guarded.

I have been experiencing a depression because much of the fun and joy of musical self-expression has been leeched from our tribe because of the digital revolution. Do you remember GOD, the Good Old Days, when you had two or three different phono preamps, a couple of turntables and a dozen cartridges and record mats, and you could, by twiddling create hundreds of different tonalities and thereby maximize the musical juice from your system? This is why I still use a Micro-Seiki turntable that has three arms. But with digital you have no control over your tonal destiny, and this is very painful, and if you are not feeling this musical pain your are in denial.

AN ANALOG OF ANALOG

Which is why last year I thought I had convinced Tannoy to make their new Churchill speaker a "system" that would give you control over your tonal destiny by offering passive crossovers with different "aromas", and offer the option of a Marchand tube crossover. Never happened, though the Churchill does have an outboard crossover that you can tweak.

Clearly my goal is create, for the musically sophisticated, the opportunity to harmonically fine tune their system. So I called up Prince Carl and invited him to do the Triode Guild dance, which is the "speaker system" dance, and again this is all about YOU deciding what works best for you in your system, with your amplifier, and most importantly, in your room. Prince Carl was the right man for me to exploit because he is the short path to putting a red hot chili pepper up the butt of other Priests of Monkey Coffins because he has years of experience using Alnico drivers. Do you remember that I tried to eat his all Alnico Adriana $10K minimonitors- that's how tasty they were? I am using Carl to force others into the Triode Guild dance, and The Lotus, which is an expression of this point of view is an amazing achievement. Let me make it clear that for decades Prince Carl has been a master speaker designer and I am not taking any claim for the artistry in the Lotus, but I am taking credit for insisting that he, like Ulrich Poulsen of Alpha-Core, design products that would reveal the nascent harmonic glory of triode amplifiers.

The reason that Carl is receiving this award is because of the way The Lotus stacks up compared to my reference system... and depending on the heaviness of your coin The Lotus can be purchased between $3,500 and $6,000... depending on your options. Am I biased? Yes. But why not come over to my 35x55 listening room and compare The Lotus to my reference system? I must insist that you wear loose pants when you visit because you will receive one of my famous New York Audio Labs AUDIO PAMPERS at the door, which you must wear... that's how much I believe in The Lotus.

THE GENIUS OF THE NO-BRAINER

What is the biggest trouble area for a tube amplifier? Those who would claim it is the upper register because of high output transformer inductance are wrong, because it is the lower register that is thermionic hell. This is true because here we have the widest ratio of speaker impedance, coupled with "the big hump" of speaker resonances, the biggest load of back EMF, and the greatest strain on the amps power supply. Of course all of these problems are multiplied in all singled ended output transformers. So it is a no-brainer to make sure you use, at the very least, a high impedance woofer in a multi-driver system. Your average "8 ohm" speaker system probably dips to 3 or 4 ohms in the low frequencies, and this is a major impediment. On the other hand a 16 ohm woofer may dip to only 12 or 10 Ohms, and that is sublime for a tube amplifier, which is why Prince Carl uses a 14 ohm, eight inch woofer, which makes so much sense you wonder why he is the first to use this obvious way to correctly design a woofer for a tube amplifier. It is the genius of doing the obvious.

Prince Carl can then use an 8 ohm Alnico midrange driver, which may not be perfect but it is available and affordable, as opposed to 16 ohm midrange drivers which are as rare as a properly set up listening room at an audio dealer. Going to the trouble of getting this 8 ohm Alnico midrange driver built is a big deal. How big is this deal? Name one other speaker designer who has gone through the trouble of getting a Alnico midrange driver made? I know that Carl worked for one year getting this driver right.

THE ARTIFICATION OF THE HARMONIC/SPACE/TIME CONTINUUM IN AN EXPANDED AURAL MATRIX

This is a three way system that is tri-wired with an outboard passive crossover which means three sets of speaker cables run into the outboard crossover cabinet and then three sets of cables connects to each of the drivers at the base of the cabinet, which adds to the implicit harmonic purity of the Alnico midrange driver. Again, one of my big bitches it the substandard operation of passive crossovers which is why I use a tube crossover. The combination of Alnico, external crossovers and "free air mounting" of the midrange and tweeter explains the magic of this speaker's midrange clarity and openness. You need to experience these speakers in a 35x55 room to appreciate their ability to artify the harmonic/space/time continuum in an expanded aural matrix... with only a few watts of triode horsepower.