Re: Since I couldn't be there... Mini-Midwest Audiofest

I didn't try the amp with the ten π Speakers, but that's only because we completely ran out of time. I really wanted to, but we just couldn't. We spent all our time running the four π's with the Paraglow's, and that's OK since that was really what I wanted to hear - that combination is what has become "all the rage" right now.

The two watt Paraglow sounded really nice with the four π's. I expected a bit less bass from the combination, simply because we are going through a transformer, which has a very definite high-pass lower cutoff. But the parafeed arrangement definitely helps in this regard.

I also sort of expected to hear a bit muddier bass because of less damping. Even "tube friendly" speakers benefit from having a good current source, because circuit output impedance interacts with the voice coil to set Qes. Some speaker motors actually require better damping, but the ones I've listed as tube friendly don't need as much damping - the Studio, Thermionics and Theater Series four and sevens. But even these would benefit from a well damped current source.

And finally, I expected a bit of attenuation in the higher frequencies. This is also an area where the transformer sets the limit. A direct coupled amp can literally boast DC to megahertz range linearity, no problem. But a transformer is like a horn - It's tuned for a frequency range. I found midrange and treble to be nice sounding, with full extension and no artificial rolloff. The amplifier sounded very natural, more so than I expected.

There was one other thing I liked. The nastalgia. It's very much like the feeling I get when I listen to my favorite talk radio program on a radio that was built before the second world war. I can almost hear the engines burst into life on a B-25. I can imagine Glenn Miller playing at ballrooms with pretty ladies who still wear high heels and femine dresses. I visualize old round cars driving and no computers, no jet airplanes, no nuclear anything and no microwaves. No televisions. I see these things in my mind when the tubes start to glow and I imagine the current surging through them when I listen to the radio, here, now, more than 50 years later.

That same feeling comes over me anytime I power up a tube device. It is just something nastalgic, and it is sort of unique to this time. Most people have long ago thrown away anything with tubes (except the television picture tube) and they wonder why on earth you would want to have something that used one. So it's sort of unique, like an antique car, and it's just retro and cool.

So that's the long version of how I felt. I loved it. I always listen to talk radio with my Stewart Warner tube radio. I could listen on any other radio, from my AM radio in my large stereo to a few little pocket radios I have around the house. All of these radios gets pressed into service at one time or another - One is a shortwave that I enjoy listening to pretty often. Another is used when I'm in the garage working on my car. But most of the time, when I listen to Art Bell in the evenings, I switch on the Stewart Warner. I'm enchanted by the glow.

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