Curtis-Mathes Stereo

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Yeah I grew up with it, as my parents had it before I was born. My mom was not the Jimi Hendrix type, wrong generation. It was Jerry Vale, Englebert Humperdink, The Lennon Sisters (yech, Lemon Tree I remember), my dad liked to play old operas, movie soundtracks like Paint Your Wagon, Oliver!, 2001, Boston Pops, etc. Of course Christmas albums by Nat King Cole, Percy Faith, Burl Ives just sounded great on it. It was my sister with her Panasonic all in one (I still have it too!) that started bringing Deep Purple, Iron Butterfly, etc. into the house.

When I still lived at home in 1980 I used to play Rolling Stones and Zeppelin albums on it and it still sounded great at that time. It's funny, you don't appreciate some things you grew up with, as they were always there.
 
Kevin-WOW!! that CM is one really fine looking Hi-Fi Wish I could hear it!!Looks like their TOL unit.the grill cloth is just like what was on my Mom Maganavox. It is very acoustically transparent.Even found some of the same and used it on some speakers I built.i can agree on one of the posts-the electrlytics should be checked or even replaced-not only can they blow out the transformer-but can also take out recifiers or rectifier tubes.You will know it when the caps let go!!If the equipment is frequently used or left on-that is not as much of a problem.Caps don't like being turned on-off frequently-the charging of them when they are "empty" is the hardest part.
 
Beautiful set. Back in it's heyday, Curtis-Mathes was one of the few console stereos that had good frequency response, especially in the treble range. Most other types, (Zenith, RCA, General Electric, etc.) Had overly boomy bass, or none at all and treble so dull you couldn't hear delicate percussion instruments. Magnavox also had good sound until they switched from tubes to solid-state electronics.
 
I can go along with Rinso-on the console Hi-Fi's the tube ampted ones were best-I can Remember the Magnavox "concert Grand" unit my Mom had-the sound of it blew the SS units away.And I find mostly SS units in the swap shops or discard piles-bet folks hang onto the tube ones because of their better sound quality.Esp early Germanium transistors were especially terrible in sound quality-and to think some early SS recording consoles were loaded with those horrible Germanium things!!also in later console Hi-fis the builders were putting in cheaper quality speakers.
 
You are correct, Mr. Tolivac! Germanium transistors were the culprits of poor frequency response and mediocre power output of the early SS units. All harsh mid-range response. But companies migrated to solid state electronics because because they were so much cheaper to build. The power supply units alone are far simpler on SS units than tube types. When silicon solid state appeared on the scene, things improved markedly. But, even today there are tube purists who claim that tube type amps still have a much warmer and smoother sound.
 
rinso-Another culprit in SS electronics that gives BAD sound quality-electrolytic coupling capacitors between stages-the low impedances of the SS circuits required the high value capacitors-so whats cheap and compact-electrolytics.They can smear the HF sounds because they start acting like an inductance to the HF instead of a cap.In some broadcast audio processors I have fixed because of bad sound-replaced ALL of those electrolytics-makes a difference.I too love tube amps-but the prices of them and the prices of vintage tube gear is going thru the roof-it used to be if you were on a BUDGET-you had to buy used tube gear-was worth it though.I have owned,repaired, and used many types of tube electronics-eico,Mcintosh,Marantz(those two about the best-dynaco,Scott-those are excellent!!I have some McIntosh amp that need recapping-used to get them easily-now almost impossible.They just sit in the closet.My future dream was to fix them and use them in my Home Theater!!To sum up there are good sounding amp circuits for SS or tube-it depends on the quality of the circuit design and the quality of the components used in it.Fortunately I now use a SS receiver (Onkyo) that has excellent circuit design and components-the sound quality is excellent and not real expensive. Modern higher priced receivers and amps are a bargain.
 
Tube electronics

In the recording and music industries tube processors are making a comeback.Same with tube musical instrument amps-The Fenders,Marshals,Peavys,etc are coming back.Folks are demanding them.
Some recording equipment manufacturers even make tube record amps for digital recorders to "soften" their harsh sound.and one studio I talked to-the owner-says he booked more record time on his tube studios with vintage Ampex 300,350 recorders.He commented the Sony Digital DASH recording were gathering dust and wanted to try to sell them to me.Gave him the number of a company that may be interested-don't know how it worked out.Some record companies-BTG,Mercury are dusting off and cleaning up their vintage tube studio electronics and actually USING them-some reissues of recordings use this equipment-the same they actually cut the recordings from!!
 
Wow! Interesting info, Tolivac. And to think I threw away my 1964 HH Scott pre-amp and amp. Haven't owned anything since that I think comes close to its total performance. High value electrolytics do start to introduce inductance in stages. I'm guessing it's because in their construction, there are many layers of foil between the electrolyte. I'd also like to add that my my in-laws had a Magnavox tube type stereo that was one of the best I've ever heard. It was all built into a 6 ft cabinet. The combination of the amp and its side-firing bass speakers, two front firing mid range, and four treble speakers gave this machine an outstanding sound. When one listened to it, the music sounded like it was coming from the whole wall. You could pick out distinct instruments spatially, but it did not have the "sound in the box" that even many high quality speakers give. The dispertion was excellent. The next year after this was built, Magnavox started using SS electronics, which necessitated the use of efficient exponential horns to recover the loss of high frequency response of the amp. It helped, but still couldn't recapture the sound of the earlier models.
 
Interesting information

I had no idea that tube-powered ANYTHING had any superiority over solid state stuff. Can one still get tubes, beyond old ones on EBAY? I remember up to even about 15 years ago our Thrifty Drugs had a "tube tester" there!

Unfortunately, while I am extremely good at cars, mechanical things, restoring toys, etc, I never did take a course in electronics, as I should have. I am pretty blind in this area--wiring up my sons' space ship was/is pushing my capabilities to the limit.

Drmitch, is that item you linked to supposed to be bolted into your CAR somewhere????

Is anyone buidling a big, tubed hi-fi set, or are these tube-based items limited to special components?

How wierd is that, seeing anything new that has a tube in it. Can someone explain how tube technology actually surpasses solid state stuff? Fascinating.
 
Car

WOW!!!-Gone full circle here-anyone of you remember those Vibrator tube car radios of the 50's?Used to have a small collection of them years and years ago.They got lost in a flood.They were very high quality once you got good tubes and a good vibrator in them.
Vintage tube Hi-Fi-stereo gear is now the rage with some folks-esp the Japanese-they love our vintage tube gear.Thats one of the reasons vin tage tube equipment is getting scarce and expensive-some of it is going to Japan.
Some recording studios have in the instrument stock for clients to use-Fender Stratocaster Guitars and Amps-(Vintage ones-not new ones)Hammond B3 Tonewheel organs and other similar things.They also try to buy up "Ampeg" guitar and instrument amps.
And they are restoring old tube mixer consoles and recorders.
New tube Hi-Fi stereos are availabe today-but the prices-better get a second mortgage on the house--they are getting more expensive than the house you put them in!!
 
Tubes, right up my alley! I don't know if I've shared this with you guys, but this is the amp I built for my system- It's a combination of two 100w power amp channels (EL34s), a 6 tube active equalizer (3-band), a grounded-grid preamp, and tube regulation all on one chassis. A microprocessor visible through round glass on the top orchestrates the chassis, including a thermal shutdown routine, a sleep timer, staged power-up and wireless remote. When you turn the amp on, the volume knob will rotate from zero to your last setting (if so desired) and the white glow under the knob turns red as volume increases. You just gotta see it : )
 
And the last shot of the underside. What you don't see here is the large toroid transformer for the power amp sections, that's hidden under the sheetmetal "case" on top where the microprocessor is also located. All finished off in Cadillac white-diamond paint!

Cory
 
Awesome Hi Tech tube amp!! It would be a treat for the ears to be able to listen to that! Turn it up,I might be able to hear it in Indiana,Iowa is only a couple of states away....
How long did it take to build? And did you design it yourself?
 
Cadman--VERY NICE amp-Do you build those for others?The folks into tube gear would love that unit-a really nice intergrated amp.Like the idea of the VR regulated input and EQ stages.
your VR tubes remind me of the low level regulators in one of our transmitters in use right now-has the same reg tubes.they regulate the screen voltage for the low level audio in the transmitters modulator.Does the eye tube act as a level meter?or is it for use as a meter for setting output tube bias voltages?I also like the no circuit boards in the underside of your amp.Makes for easier repairs!!Maybe you can help me locate some capacitors for My McIntosh MC 60 and 75 amps. If I could fix them-will use them in my home theater instead of the recivers power amps-would then use the receiver as a preamp-processor and it would feed the "Mac" power amps.Got MANY tubes for my amps from radio stations "discarding" their unwanted tubes to me.and yes-many radio and TV transmitters STILL use tubes!!Like tube AM transmitters more so than SS transmitters.-and how many SS modules are going to last for 60,000 operating hours??A 50Kw tube transmitter I installed in a station in the wash DC area in 1985 is still operating on its original pair of final tubes!!The station may replace that transmitter with one that is digital (IBOC) compatible.That would mean a SS rig-BOO-Hiss!!The transmitters I am using now are all tube.
 
Wow Cory thats something! I like to work on things but I cant imagine building one like that! Heres a 1972 Sears silvertone tube HI FI a friend gave me. It sounds as good or maby better than my Bose system. also have the original books and schematics for them.
 

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