I can't even begin to remember all the speakers I've owned. I once had a chart which traced the history of changes in my various components. It got too long and complicated.
I do remember a few of my past systems spanning a period from 1965 to the present. (Wow, that's 37 years; no wonder I don't remember them all!)
I started with a KLH 11, the first "suitcase" compact system with good sound ($200; designed by Henry Kloss) and then a KLH 20 ($400), the first home compact system with great sound (Garrard Turntable, Pickering Cartridge, Amp, FM/AM Tuner with a pair of two way speakers, all in wood, again designed by Henry; boy, did I sell a ton of Model 20s!).
When I started working at the Stereo Shop in 1969, through graduation from Trinity College, the equipment went in and out fast and furiously.
One system I do remember was one of my all time favorites (along w/double stacked Advents): Mac MC275 Power Amp, Mac MR71 Tuner, Mac MI-3 Performence Indicator, Mac C22 PreAmp (all of preceding constitute the last generation of Mac tube equipment), Thorens TD-125 Turntable w/SME Series II tonearm and Ortofon Cartrige and two pairs of KLH 9 Electrostatic speakers (the second ES to be made after the Quads, I believe; designed By Victor Campos, not Henry).
Can you imagine having that set up in a college dorm room? (It was a very large room w/2 small bedrooms in one of the original Gothic Dorms: leaded stained glass windows, fireplace, window seat, etc.) Word spread around campus about the system and dozens of people whom I never met would come to the room and ask to listen to the system.
The KLH 9s cost $1140 a pair, one of the most expensive speakers made at the time. I got the whole system ultra cheap (Mac about 55% of list for Mac salesman; the rest for cost from the Stereo Shop), and like a complete idiot, I sold it.
Can you imagine what that "Mac Pack" would sell for today? Of course, at the time I had no idea Mac tube equipment would became classic, and its value would soar. (No one can predict the future except for Nostradamus.)
Check out
www.AudioClassics.com if you want to see what the "Mac Pack" in excellent condition (as I keep all my equipment) goes for these days.
I first met Henry Kloss at Advent in Boston or Cambridge. He was rumpled, and appeared in a fog. When I was introduced to him, I said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr.Kloss." He gave me the weakest handshake I ever had in my life, mumbled something unintelligable, and turned away.
I recall one story about Henry: that he did not have, and never had, a driver's license, and rode a bicycle to work. Whether it is true or not, I don't know.
Somehow or other, I ended up going to Kloss Video in Boston or Cambridge, after Henry left Advent, to see one of the first JVC S-VHS VCRs imported into the US. (Either I met Tom Young there, or I met him before and he invited up to Kloss Video.)
The JVC came with a Japanese Instruction Manual, and Japanese lettering on the VCR, so Henry, Tom and I spent several hours trying to figure it out. Henry was about as communicative with me at Kloss Video as he was at Advent. Essentially, all communication between Henry and me was through Tom.
Henry was a true visionary. His work at AR and KLH (Kloss, Lowe & Hoffman) advanced home audio by leaps and bounds. His dream was to make a home video projection system.
He formed Advent for that purpose, and only designed the innovative products which he did at Advent to get cash flow for his dream projector. Advent Loudspeaker, Smaller Advent Loudspeaker, Advent Rec'r, Advent Cassette Deck (Wollensack transport) w/ Dolby B Noise Reduction and CrO2 tape, and others I can't remember.
The Advent 201 Cassette Deck did two amazing things: 1) it was the first Cassette Deck that could equal or beat Reel to Reel Tape Recorders (excepting Revox and Tandberg); AND it brought Dolby Noise Reduction to tapes and the name Dolby into American households (and where would we be with Ray Dolby today?).
Henry did acheive his dream: the Kloss Video Home Projector. The stories from Tom Young about the development, manufacture, and flying all over the country to repair them are hilarious. Of course, Kloss Video went under.
I obviously have an enormous amount of respect for Henry Kloss and his acheivements. And, it is only within that context, that I say that the last part of Henry's career was less sterling than what proceeded it. His time with Cambridge Soundworks and Tivoli Audio, which he founded w/Tom DeVesto, and where he worked until his sad death.
But even in this period, Henry revealed one of his other dreams: to make the best sounding, sensitive and selective FM Radio in the world. This dream started at KLH, was continued at Advent, became dormat while he worked on his projector at Kloss Video, was resurrected at Cambridge Soundworks w/the Model 88, and culminated with the Tivoli Model One Mono Radio, the Tivoli Model Two Stereo Radio, the Tivoli Subwoofer, the Tivoli PAL, and the Tivoli CD Player, which he was working on at the time of his death.
Of the Tivoli Model Two, Tom DeVesto told me that Henry said, "I'll never design a one piece stereo FM Radio [i.e. The Model 88] again." Being a devotee of Henry, I have always had one of his products in one of my systems or in my home: KLH 6s, KLH 5s, KLH 12s.
Henry thought that the KLH 6s were better than the KLH 5s or KLH 12s; he only designed them at the urging of Lowe and Hoffman to generate income. As I think I mentioned in an earlier post, Henry, who designed and engineered the Advent Speakers in a couple of days, preferred the KLH 6s to the Advents.
When at Advent, he owned KLH 6s. The Smaller Advent took considerably longer to design and enginer than full size Advent, interstingly. For all I know, he was using KLH 6s when he died.
[The list continues.] KLH 9s (Even though not designed by Henry, who didn't like the KLH 9s; hardly surprising at this point; as far as I can tell, the ONLY seaker Henry liked was the KLH 6.) Advent Speakers, Double Advent Speakers, Advent 201 Cassette Deck, Advent Rec'r, [gap for Kloss Video],
Cambridge Soundworks Model 88, Cambridge Soundworks 88CD, Tivoli Model One, and, now Tivoli Model Two w/Tivoli Subwoofer, and Tivoli CD Player arriving today.
It is sad that so many American audio companies have gone under or been bought out by "Tropicana": AR, KLH, and Advent, all started by Henry (and others); Marantz, Fisher, and Scott; Infinity and the entire Harmon group, and Harmon-Kardon itself; and even MacIntosh (owned by Clarion). Dunleavy just went under. (Too bad, WSR!)
I wonder just how many American audio companies are 20 years old AND owned by the same person or persons who founded it. Not many I bet.
Tom Young is an interesting person by the way. For those who don't know Tom, he owns and runs Cinema Source, a internet/phone order high end A/V company.
Before he started Cinema Source, Tom worked for: Kloss Video, where he helped design and build the world's first home video projector...and flew all over the US fixing them; NAD, where he helped design the MR26, and designed the MR13; Vidikron, when it first started in the US, where he modified the Italian (CRT) projectors for the US market, wrote the owner's and service manuals, and trained all Vidikron repairmen; AmPro, where he wrote the owner's and service manuals for its CRT projectors; and Cambridge Soundworks, where he again worked for his old boss, Henry Kloss. I'm sure I've forgotten some of his jobs. I have a vague recollection that Tom has something or other to do with some outfit named Outlaw Audio.
With Tom's history in mind, perhaps you can understand why, even though he sells CRT projectors at Cinema Source, he says he can not wait for the day when digital projectors equal or beat CRTs, and "We can throw all the damn CRT projectors out!"
(We're very, very close w/the TI DLP HD2 projs; and some D-ILAs. I can't wait to see projectors with the TI HD3 chip which TI is currently developing. Please, please, this is an AUDIO forum, not video; no comments please.)
No one asked about what happened with the Mac "shopper" and panning the Mac bookshelf speaker vs. the 1/4 cost Advents.
At the time, the Vice President of Mac (Farmer Frank was still President of Mac, but the Veep really ran Mac.) would travel the country visiting Mac dealerships and taking all the employees out for lavish dinners.
When available, he always ordered Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1959 (a very good year?) which ran $100 dollars a bottle in 1970. The average consumption at these dinners was a bottle per person, plus many cocktails and many aperatifs. As you might expect, everyone tended to get a bit tipsy.
He would always call the restaurant and special order zabiglione (don't even remember what it is; just remember the name) for dessert. These dinners usually ran about $400-500 per person, in 1970.
I didn't just knock the Mac speakers to the shopper, I knocked ALL of Mac as being overpriced equipment which could easily be bested by equipment at a fraction of the cost. I took delight in ridiculing Mac transistor amps for using expensive autoformers (half a transformer) rather than direct coupling, as everyone else did, destroying the amp's damping factor.
Well, being a lot drunk, I made some sarcastic comment about Mac. The veep had heard the report from the Mac shopper; at the time I had no idea that Mac even used shoppers. Frankly, I don't think anyone was supposed to know.
The veep, having consumed as much alcohol as I, took umbrage at my comment. He said, "So you think Advents are better than MacIntosh speakers, and would rather sell Advents." I do not recall my response.
I DO recall standing shaking hands w/the veep (his handshake was the polar opposite of Henry's: crushing), as he repeatedly asked me, "Do you want MacIntosh?" I finally said yes. The story has a happy ending, as we went back to the store, and I did my world famous Saul Marantz imitation.
And there was the time when the veep flew us in a small airplane to the MacIntosh factory/headquarters in Binghamton, NY, and at a very elegant restarant I suggested ordering the vegetables "family style" because they all sounded so good (guffaws all around), and we all went to a strip club where a dancer got me on the stage, put my eyeglasses in her panties, and then put her panties on my head, and I kept trying to give her my hotel room key, and I fell asleep in the bathtub full of water to wake up the next morning, hung over, in cold water. (Quite a shock!)
And then there was the time we all went up to Boston for an Audio show, went to a Mac gala dinner, consumed way too much alcohol, as always, and I was pulled over by a Policeman doing 90 MPH on the Mass Pike in my first car, a 1968 Dodge Dart w/slant 6 225hp engine (gold, 4 door if you must know; cost a little over $1k).
I pulled over to the left side of the road as it was the first time I had pulled over and didn't know what to do.
He performed a field sobreity test on me which I'm sure I flucked. Noticing my CT plates, he asked what I was doing in MA and I told him about the audio show. We ended up discussing audio equipment for a half hour.
As we parted he said, "Keep your speed down...and, by the way, when you're driving drunk, keep your window down [it was winter], and turn your radio turned up loud, or you'll fall asleep at the wheel." (This was 1970 when drunk driving was socially acceptable.)
And then there was the time when...
ENOUGH! The memories are flooding back, and I have to stop somewhere. I hope you have found this nostalgic or informative or amusing, as I hunt and peck away.
The story has an unhappy ending, though. In 1972, I graduated from Trinity College and left the Stereo Shop and the world of audio which I loved, and made the horrific mistake of going to law school, which, together with the practice of law until I retired early in 1998, constituted a complete waste of almost a quarter century of my life.
I should have stayed in audio; I would have made less money but had what is an increasily rare commodity these days: job happiness. And I didn't even go to law school to make money; I went to law school to avoid "real" life, and getting a "real job."
Good Night, I type almost 25 hours to the minute from when I started this now infamous thread. (Gee, I hope I didn't post anything objectionable this time, given the late hour.)
Bob
