Owen Young 1950-2021

It is with great sadness that I must announce the sudden passing of Owen Young, the owner of this blog, on 19 April 2021.

Owen was an amazing Husband, the greatest Father/Father-in-law and an even better Grandfather. We all learnt so much from him and he will be remembered forever.

A service to clebrate Owen’s life was held on Saturday April 24, 2021 at All Saints Church in Ponsonby, Auckland, New Zealand.

We have collected PDF copies of the Pamphlet/eulogies/reflections that were given on the day, those who were not able to attend are able to download and read if they wish. There is a eulogy included which unfortunately was not delivered at the service but was written by John Auckram on behalf of the Royal Oak Cycling Bunch. Owen had been cycling with this bunch of friends for over 25 years and this eulogy captures a side of Owen that only a few knew.

Pamphlet:

• Service pamphlet

Eulogies:

• Belinda Seto
• Jeremy Young
• Harry Wong
• Eddie Young
• John Bower
• John Auckram – Royal Oak Cycling Bunch

A selection of photos from the service can be seen below.

Rest In Peace Owen.

For all enquiries regarding this blog, please contact jeremyyoung1985@gmail.com

LOUNGE Audio LCR Gold phono preamp – Pt 3 New PSU

In 2019, my LOUNGE LCR phono preamp was upgraded to a LCR Gold phono (plus a few extras), by LOUNGE AUDIO (Robert Morin) in California.

Everything now well ‘run-in’ and some initial ‘brightness’ has disappeared (exactly as Robert had advised).

How good is this phono stage? This is not a device that impresses in an ‘artificial’ way. Let me just say that, (sadly) I have no urge to return to my Diego Nardi Phi-42 all-tube phono preamp.

Now, I really wanted to improve the external AC Power Supply to this phono stage.

Magic and Microphony (Pt 2) – 6SN7GT tubes

Back in 2015 – Magic and Microphony (Pt 1) – I suggested that the tendency to ‘microphony’ in some vacuum tubes / valves, can actually enhance the sense of ‘ambience’ or ‘live-ness’ of the reproduced sound.

The last thing I wish for, is a ‘dry’ or ‘threadbare’ sound that is lacking in ‘resonance’ or harmonic ‘decay’.

However, having moved on from a 2-stage tube preamp, back to a single-tube, ‘WOT’ (With Output Transformer) Tube Line-stage, I’ve found that sensitivity to ‘microphony’ can be a serious problem.

TERMINATOR tonearm (Pt 5) – alignment

Back in 2016 – see TERMINATOR linear tracking tonearm (Pt 1) – I suggested an alignment gauge and provided a PDF template if required by anyone. (As pictured below)

Aligning a cartridge on a linear-tracking tonearm appears to be a simple task, simpler than a pivotted tonearm it seems.

However, over a long while, I’ve found that, instead of trial and error, it’s much more accurate, logical and efficient to follow a methodical approach.

My Terminator ‘alignment gauge’ can be downloaded here for print-out if you wish.

TECHNICS SP-10MkII turntable – Pt 5 plinth support

Previously, I used 4 x ‘mag-lev’ (magnetic levitation) support ‘feet’ under the new plinth on my TECHNICS SP-10MkII – similar to the mag-lev feet used under my previous turntable.

However, I found that this turntable sounds much better supported on top of (3) solid plywood blocks.

Supporting the plywood plinth perimeter – the sound is sharper, clearer, dynamic, rhythmic, with a light, ‘agile’ touch. Image height and scale are good. There is nice treble extension, nice tonal ‘sustain’.

This is an example of why you cannot just assume that what works on one turntable (eg. rim-drive) will work similarly on another turntable (direct-drive).

Always use and trust your ears! 

Fidelity Research FRT-4 MC cartridge transformer

This has ended up being my favourite cartridge step-up transformer (SUT) whenever I am using a Moving Coil cartridge.

The Fidelity Research FRT-4 SUT is versatile, with 4 x Gain/Impedance ratios and it sounds very good.

It is better sounding than my Fidelity Research FRT-3 (dynamic but slightly ‘coarse’ in comparison) or the very good Stevens & Billington TX103 (less extended treble tone).

Fidelity Research operated from Tokyo from 1964 – 1984.

FANS – Malcolm McLaren

When this record arrived in the mid-80s, I was an opera ‘newbie’, sampling the occasional aria.

This is Malcolm Mclaren’s strangely beautiful album, fusing together opera favourites (from Madama Butterfly, Carmen, Turandot and Gianni Schicchi), with ’80s Rhythm and Blues and disco beats, and given a youthful narrative.

35 years later, this album still ‘hits the spot’. Still as engaging and ‘catchy’ as ever, and the tunes and melodies of Puccini and Bizet’s music are timeless.

GAINCLONE Amplifier build

It all started in 1999.

47 Laboratory (Junji Kimura) introduced the 4706 Gaincard amplifier, which produced 25 Watts per channel from a single IC chip amplifier per channel.

The special features of this amplifier design were:

• A ‘high-end’ dual-mono amplifier designed around a single power IC (per channel)
• The world’s smallest number of parts in an amplifier (9 per channel)
• The world’s shortest signal path length (32mm including parts lengths)
• The world’s shortest negative feedback loop (9mm)
• Smallest possible Power Supply filter capacitance (1,000uF) combined with a high capacity power transformer

KEITH MONKS Record Cleaning Machine

The Keith Monks Record Cleaning Machine was introduced in 1969 and is still unique in the method used to vacuum-dry the cleaning fluid from the vinyl record.

The KMAL (Keith Monks Audio Ltd) Record Cleaning Machine was originally developed from a ‘Record Doctor’ concept devised by Percy Wilson in England and presented to the Audio Engineering Society (AES) in 1965.

In 1969, Keith Monks was successful in securing orders from the BBC for the first KMAL Record Cleaning Machines to be manufactured.

Vacuum tube Headphone Amp-DAC

The Sennheiser HD 650 is a great headphone with a little bit of sonic ‘magic’ appeal. The attractively priced MassDrop HD 6XX version is a special bargain.

A popular and nice match for the Sennheiser HD 650 / HD 6XX is a vacuum tube headphone amplifier.

The project here was built by Jeremy Young. It was inspired by the Bottlehead OTL headphone amp, but circuit ‘operating points’ were determined to suit a locally made power transformer.