AUDIO FAIRY TALES (PART I)

When we were young, fairy tales were always great stories because they all have happy endings.  The timeless phrase, "and they all lived happily ever after," is what makes a great fairy tale ending . I enjoy looking at my little seven year old daughter when I end a story with this phrase and I love that dreamy, happy-innocent look in her eyes as she tries to imagine that happy ending.

Of course as we grew older and got to experience the realities of life,  we've somehow lost that child-like view of innocence on how events would turn out positively.  Our hearts "get hardened," so to speak, after being at the painful end of a failed relationship; losing out on an opportunity; or losing friends or love ones.

And yet somehow the universe balances itself out.  Life throws a curve ball that often times, makes all the hurt and pain more bearable or even surmountable.  Sept 25 lives on in the memory of many people as a tragic day when typhoon Ondoy struck Manila.  No one ever imagined that on this day, the lives of hundreds of people would forever be changed.

My parents were one of those who were badly affected by the heavy rains and resulting floods from Ondoy.  Water was close to neck deep inside their home and practically ruined everything.

One of the things my Dad enjoys is listening to music on his audio gears.  He invested quite a hefty sum to build up his bi-amp audio system which consist of the following:

- Aurora SET amp driving a pair of bookshelf Fanfare Acoustics Prelude which were manufactured by a Norwegian company and was highly rated at the time he purchased these

- Sansui BA303 power amp driving a pair of Kef B300b speakers serving as subwoofers in a CS9 cabinet enclosure

- GSI Transient Perfect electronic crossover network

- Acoustic Research XA turntable with Koetsu black cartridge

- Audio Research LS2 preamp

- RGR Model 4 preamp

- Philips CD950 cd player

-Sumo Charlie FM tuner

- Van del Hul cables/interconnects and Belden speaker wires

- HP 9100-4062 isolation transformer

- Yaden line conditioner

When the flood waters started to creep up the inclined driveway, Dad switched off the main power and started to pile up whatever he could up the highest closet areas and stacking some of these on top of the chairs which he had placed on top of the dining table.

Sadly, the KEF subs and the isolations transformer which were too big and heavy to move together with the AR turntable, were the major casualties.  Dad was so frustrated and anguished with how the turntable (what remained) looked that he threw this together with the rest of junked furnishings.

Judging from the watermarks on the walls after the flood receded, it's possible that the other gears also got wet. Dad passed on the gears for me to dispose of. Here's how  some of the gears looked like after they were recovered from the flood waters of Ondoy:

 

                               Sansui BA 303

 

                               Aurora SET amp

 

 

                                    AR LS2

 

 

                                  RGR Preamp

                               GSI Crossover

                     HP Isolation Transformer

Seeing his pride and joy all ruined, I silently made a committment to either get them repaired/restored or buy him a new set. (End of Part 1)

Teaser: Resurrected Aurora Mk 2 Single Ended Triode Amp

Write up to follow.  Enjoy the pics in the meantime :)

Rekindling an Old Flame: Home Theatre System

I always did enjoy watching and collecting movies. Last December, my wife won a Samsung LCD TV in a Christmas party raffle. A few months earlier, our old Sony HTIB which we had purchased in 2000, gave up the ghost. I saw this as an opportunity to upgrade our old set-up with a new one.

After a lot of research, I decided to get the following set of HT gears:

* Onkyo 608 AV receiver. This model is 3D ready and has a host of features.
* Philips BD3000. Big bang for bucks model
* PSB Alpha B1 front speakers, C1 Center
* PSB 5i subwoofer
* Jamo A102 Surround speakers
* Era Design 3 Front High speakers

Coupled with my existing Xbox360 and Wii, this set up really rocks! The entire entertainment system is installed in the master's bedroom.

I had initially planned to get a pair of Polk Rm8s for my front high and RM7s for my surrounds. I liked the sound of these after I got to audition them. Unfortunately, the dealer didn't have these in stock and could not give me a definite time line as to when he would be able to get these. Feeling frustrated, I visited another store and fell in love with the sound quality of the Era Design speakers. I decided to get these instead of the RM8s. For the surrounds, I decided to re-use the stands from my old Sony HTIB surrounds. The Jamos fit the bill for this and the stand required drilling just a few holes to mount the Jamos on them.

Initially, my wife's first reaction was, "do you really need so many speakers to hear what's going on?" I just quietly took her nagging in and set up my gear, knowing full well I had an ace up my sleeves on this one. When everything was set, I loaded her favorite blue ray disk - MJ's "This is It." I then paused it at her favorite scene (Smooth Criminal) then called her into the room, propped up the pillow in the sweet spot on the bed, and asked her to lie back. The way her eyes just popped up coupled with the dropping of her jaw on cue as soon as I hit the play button was simply PRICELESS!

Here are additional pictures of my gear:

Physics Lesson: A No-Win Situation When It Comes to Watches

You get to discover new things about your watch when you damage it....aarghh!!! I got a not so friendly reminder on a basic law in physics on what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object.

I chipped the crystal of my watch when I accidentally hit the side of a metal tower while I was visiting one of the business centers of the company I work for. That's when I discovered that the bezel for this model is integrated with the crystal, i.e. a replacement crystal would have both.  As you can see from the picture, the damage extends all the way down to the bezel.  Sigh...

Fortunately, parts for this particular model are still available. A quick check with the website of a popular on-line vendor of genuine Omega parts and in less than five minutes, I ended up placing an order not just for a replacement crystal/bezel, but also ended up purchasing a new Mk2 dial and set of hands. I should get these in around 4-5 weeks.  I can then have the local Omega service center install these.

I can always plead temporary insanity if and when my wife finds out...

RANDOM THOUGHTS: OMEGA SPEEDMASTER MK 2

This is the second watch purchase that I made last month courtesy of my favorite vintage Omega dealer. This came in a nice vintage wooden box with the Omega brand carved on the outer lid.

This is a Speedmaster Mk 2 chronograph, caliber 861 with steel barrel shaped case, and flat mineral crystal introduced in 1969. Per my references, it's the first of the speedies to depart from the moonwatch line. The Mk 2 and Mk 4 consistently had the Professional appelation while only some Mark 3 and no Mark 4s had this appelation. The Mk 2 line was discontinued in 1976.

 The watch that I purchased has case back ref. no. ST145.014. Movement serial no. 3284xxxx dates this watch to around 1970. It has an original signed 1162/173 steel bracelet. This variant has a grey dial with orange/red/white colors along the minute track and tachymetre bezel. The bezel for this model can be changed with other factory produced alternatives (pulsometer, tachymetre, telemetric, and decimal).  The two other variants of this line are:

- Stainless steel case with black dial design similar to the previous Speedmaster dial
- Gold case with maroon tachy ring bezel.

RANDOM THOUGHTS: OMEGA CENTURY

This is the first of my two latest additions to my vintage Omega collection. A fellow member in our watch club based in the US went out of his way to take a long drive from his home to the store to check out the piece for me just to make sure I was making a good purchase. Thanks to him, I am now a happy owner of this watch.

My friend was able to get the lady sales clerk in the watch store to: (1) replace the old strap that the watch had with a new leather band (Louie of course got the lady to include the original band with my purchase); (2) include a leather case to protect the watch. Altogether, Louie's charm and looks got me these items with a total value of around $70.  The added bonus was I was able to save on shipping and duties by having my brother bring back my purchases with him when he came home to visit Manila last Sunday.


 Per my Omega references, the Century line was part of the 30mm collection which was marketed for the US, Italy, France, and Canada. This line is a contemporary of the Constellation line and the initial Century models used the same script font as the one used by the Constellation. Later models in the 1960s did not use the script font in the dial.

This watch has a caliber 30 T3-266. The entire dial is cream colored guilloche and has a minute circle with strokes. It has stamped gilt Arabic numerals, spike hour markers with radium dots and luminous Dauphine hands. Treatment of the dial gives it a textured/waffled look up close. The picture below which the dealer provided, shows the movement serial no. which dates this watch to around 1954. 

10k gold filled case back pictured below is stamped "Star Watch Case" which was an American company licensed by Omega to manufacture watch cases that were sold in the US market.

HOLY WEEK REFLECTIONS: CROSSROADS

I learned from my wife that in Mandarin, the word "change" could be applied in a number of ways.  To change an item in a store for instance, "change" would be denoted as "huan" (pronounced as "one" with an "h" in the beginning).  To denote "life change," the word "p'ien hua" would be applied (pronounced as pee-yen-hwa).

Life throws many unpredictable curve balls at us.  Day-in, day-out, choices are made which we hope result to a favorable outcome.  Many will be trecking to the fortune tellers in Quiapo this coming Good Friday with the belief that this would be the optimum time to find out what the future holds in store.

This Holy Week, I was presented with a decision point that would greatly affect me and my family. I couldn't help but look back at my past during Holy Week in 1993 when as a member of a religious Order, I had to make a decision whether to stay on as a Brother or move out of the Order.  It was a p'ien hua moment.  I prayed and prayed so hard hoping that like the experiences of the saints of old, Divine intervention would somehow tell me what to do, which choice to make.

Well, I'm certainly no saint so maybe that's why there were no flashes of lightning, no loud booming voice from the skies, or mystical apparitions.  There was only painful silence...

Heck, spin the bottle at least produces a clear result.  So I wrote on several separate sheets of paper the words, "GO"  and "No-Go."  I placed these alternately on the floor forming a circle with the bottle in the center.  I then spun the bottle and....well, the Creator has a strange sense of humor.  The pointed end of the bottle came to point between two sheets.  I spun it again and the bottle this time came to rest on "No-Go."

"Oh wow," I said to myself.  Somehow the decision weighed heavily on me -- I didn't like it.  So I spun the bottle again and this time it was "Go"  I wasn't happy about that either so I said to myself, "ok now for the tie-breaker, this is it!"  I spun the bottle and the decision was "No-Go"  Now, I could have spun that bottle the whole day with alternating thoughts and feelings with each outcome, and this entire episode would simply have been an interesting statistical exercise on the probability of how many times a particular outcome would come about.  I realized then that as in all things, the decision had to be made by me, with the corresponding conditions or consequences that go with it.  Not God, certainly not the bottle, that decision lies with me.

I did remember what one Brother told me when I shared with him the pain regarding the choice I had to make.  He said, "whatever decision you make, God will be with you in that choice.  All you need to do is make that decision with the eyes of faith."

"Eyes of faith" meant not just praying about it but also drawing from one's personal experiences, consulting others, gathering as much information as possible and then making a decision after putting all of these points together.  The journey can only start when one decides to participate in it by taking a step. Whether the step is to the right or to the left, forward or backward, one has to decide.  What lies at the end of a particular road may not be clear but at least I would be moving in a particular direction.  I would have established a "beginning" after weighing all of the factors.  My focus would now be in enjoying the journey that this choice has to offer.

And so I left the Order and now 17 years later I look back at the path I've traveled and boy, it's been an interesting ride. Sometimes bumpy, sometimes smooth; I've also met a lot of wonderful (and not so great) people in this journey.  And yes, there were times when I strongly felt that God was with me in this journey, and I also went through times where I felt He wasn't there at all.  It was the latter moments when I admit, I have questioned whether there is a God at all...

And today, I come again to a new cross-road in my journey.  Which road will it be, hmmmmm. Spin the bottle time, ha! ha! ha!  Scriptures always point out that after the crucifixion comes the resurrection.  Easter Monday will bring with me the consequences of my choice.  And just like the choice I made 17 years ago, there is at least one thing I can be sure about -- it's going to be an interesting journey.