Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Heavy metal


Don't bother me.

It sounds like my childhood in here.

It sounds like heavy metal.

Now, by heavy metal, I do not mean Megadeth. I'm talking a sheet-metal chassis filled with vacuum tubes and wires that connect them to resistors and capacitors and all manner of normal-size things that won't fit on a computer chip.



I'm talking an honest-to-God tube-type, hi-fi tuner . . . circa 1960, when FM was mono, not stereo, but you could buy this little box,
see? And when stereo did come to town, this "multiplexer"
(below) would set you up.


HI. I'm the Mighty Favog, and I'm a geekaholic. Hi, Favog!

Right now, I'm listening to the new/old Voice of Music tuner. No one will mistake it for state of the art. But the sound it produces could be mistaken for a certain Magnavox console, circa 1962. The one that lived in my childhood home.

It sounds quirky, but really warm. It also gets warm, thanks to the vacuum tubes, which fill the studio with a nostalgic aroma.

The old VM also is unforgiving. It hates rock stations that turn the processing up to 11. It really hates them. I can almost hear it saying,
"Back in my day. . . ."


BACK IN
its day, FM was for "good music." And like a good tuner of its time, the VM loves classical and jazz, enveloping the orchestration in an affectionate hug, then playfully tousling the music's long hair.

Which is a pun you might "get" if you're as old as I . . . and my Voice of Music tuner.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm sure it needs a recapping at minimum. That would probably dequirkify it.

The Mighty Favog said...

I'm sure that would not hurt a bit. I just don't want to be the one wading into that minefield on the outskirts of my electronic competence.

The sound on jazz and classical is pretty stunning, but the sensitivity of the tuner sucks. Caps and a new set of tubes might make a world of difference . . . or not.

When I hit the lottery. . . .

The Mighty Favog said...

But when the day for recapping and/or other fixes to the ol' V-M comes, I did invest in an original Sams Photofact for the thing. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Well, at least a tuner like that is an excellent choice for a first time recap... Pretty simple.