Posted by Wayne Parham [ 66.137.59.113 ] on November 09, 2003 at 11:58:18:
In Reply to: Re: Philco model 41-280 posted by Neo on November 08, 2003 at 20:48:07:
In my Rider CD's, there are models 41-81 to 41-105 and models 41-722 to 41-759. There are many 42-xxx models, from 42-121 up to 42-1016. Several of them have the (121) suffix like you've listed for your 41-290.
So I don't have any solid information about that radio, but I'm still betting it was made in the mid-to-late fourties.
Have you connected a long wire antenna to it yet? Can you pick up any shorwave stations?
On another subject, I just bought Jerrod Harden's Foreplay and ordered the Seduction phono preamp. I already have a pair of Paramours, so soon I'll have a system that's tubes from pickup coil to speaker coil.
Last night, we had a great meeting at Mark Margiotta's house. As soon as Mark sends the photos, I'll post on the π Speakers forum. I took my Stage Seven π's and Paramours. Front end was a NAD C160 preamp and a Sony CE345 CD changer. Phil Wilson also brought his Decware Zen Select amp, so we could A-B the two amps.
We listened to music from Natalie Cole, Frank Sinatra and Dianna Krall. This is really the music that these kinds of systems sound best with, in my opinion. Where normally people visit during events like these, we all found ourselves sitting quietly through several songs during this meeting. But then one of us would make a joke, or get something to eat or drink, and we would all "snap to" and start talking about one thing or another. But for several minutes at a time, a particular pasage would come along and hypnotize us all over again.
Many of us wanted to compare the Paramour and Zen amps since the last meeting. As you might expect, the Paramours delivered deeper, flatter bass. It is particularly insensitive to woofer load, so it did better in this regard. But I think the Zen sounds cleaner in the midrange, and everyone there did too. The Zen guys are all quite proud of their little amps for this reason. They don't hum as much either. But in fairness, the Paramours were stock and many say that improved parts make a big difference.
It isn't surpising that the Zen would have a little trouble in the bottom octave since the Omega 15 used in the Stage seven π speakers generates a lot of back-EMF. You could hear some bass notes louder than others from this combination, as is to be expected from a very small tube amp on a monster-motor speaker.
It should be remembered that this speaker/amp combination has not been recommended, and yet the truth is that the pairing sounded good enough that about half of the people couldn't hear any problems in the bass and prefered the sound overall. You really had to listen closely to bass note progressions to notice the difference. But there is a bit less bass overall, and a slight tendency for some bass notes to be louder than others just a little. The up-side of this combination is that the Zen's midrange sounded noticeably cleaner, a unanimous opinion of everyone present. And the amplifier also generates a little less hum.
All-in-all, I think both little amplifiers are an excellent value and very seductive. Their prices are about the same and I think both are an excellent value. I don't know why I got off on the subject of the Zen and the Paramour, but you mentioned your Foreplay preamp and I still have this subject on my mind.
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