Bill Evans – The Village Vanguard Sessions

The two records of the Bill Evans Trio "Sunday at the Village Vanguard", "Waltz for Debbie" taken at the 25th of June 1961 at the Village Vanguard club in NYC are such a rare moments of recording history (Riverside RS-9376 and RS-9399, both the first stereo releases). They mark a very special moment in Bill Evans biography.

The critic Joachim-Ernst Berendt wrote: "Bill Evans has revolutionized back to the twenties reaching genre of piano trios in jazz. Simply put: Up to 1959 founded Evans Trio played jazz piano trio 'two-dimensional'. On one hand, dominated and led the piano, on the other hand, the rhythm section of bass and drums fell the task of creating the appropriate foundation. In contrast, the Bill Evans Trio played the first piano group in jazz 'three-dimensional': each instrument of the trio could now fall to a leadership role, which had the consequence that Scott LaFaro on bass, not just walking-lines - four quarter notes per measure - played, but also lines he phrased melodically and rhythmically independent of its support function. To the same extent Paul Motian was a play that the timekeeping - marking the Beat-Opened and expanded the melodic percussion additional options "
According to Herbie Hancock opened his concept of the piano trio musicians a whole new way completely to work coherently together. The very first joint album "Portrait in Jazz" from 1959 already shows a then new band concept. Evans, LaFaro and Motian been playing during the presentation of the issues, and not only in the solos, completely equal footing and with each other. The bass takes over melody lines in the upper register, and the drums keep it together with "commenting" interjections. Miroslav Vitouš ruled: "[...]. Communication between the musicians makes it one of the most important ensembles" [Kunzler] "In fact, the trio led, among other conversations in which tender partner, almost seismographic responded to each other," said Michael Naura [Kunzler] Evans achieved its almost "telepathic" communication and intimacy between the musicians. This "chamber music" density was henceforth one of his trademark for decades to come. He left - quite different than he had experienced before - his fellow musicians come to fruition. To his game in the trio and other groups Evans expressed himself thus:

"When I play with a group, I must of course take considerations, because none of these musicians can guess what comes to mind - perhaps to change the key or to change the rhythm. Because it really requires a common intend to a musical unit created. The inner freedom must not remain on the track. It actually strengthens it. "

Tragically 10 days after that sessions at the Village Vanguard in NYC Scott LaFaro died at a car accident.

If you want to play these recordings at their finest level of reproduction possible from a storage medium the vinyl record will do best. Like with almost any recording of that age the first pressing is not only a collectors item, it will bring the best fidelity of this live sessions. Unfortunatly in this case these first releases are very expensive. As tremendous improvement in almost all criteria of fidelity, like dynamics, details, space and finesse, the the Analogue Productions reissues are the records to play today. The early 1990ties release of "Waltz for Debbie" (APJ-009) is nowdays a rare item and therefore quite expensive as well, but its finest fidelity improves a lot about the original Riverside releases. Analogue Production releases of the formative years between 1990 and 2000 are always the best possible sounding records pressed into vinyl. The later (2007) release of "Sunday at the Village Vanguard" (OJC-140) is as well very good indeed.

Read on soon, Volker


Joachim-Ernst Behrendt: Das Jazzbuch – von New Orleans bis in die achtziger Jahre. Überarb. und fortgeführt von Günther Huesmann. 4. Auflage, Wolfgang Krüger Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1992
Martin Kunzler; Jazzlexikon. Rowohlt, Reinbek

The Tannoy Speaker Design

In the history of loudspeaker development during the first phase cone equipped speakers were primarily developed with an electro magnetic unit (so called field coil speakers). It was not until the end of the second world war that permanent magnets were introduced, due to the fact that materials such as cobalt, nickel, aluminum in greater quantity were available again. So that commonly named alloy "alnico" produced magnets of before unknown strength. So they did resemble the complex (wound coil with iron core and dedicated power supply) and expensive systems from before (cost cutting). At this time the coaxial called loudspeaker systems have been designed by almost every well known speaker company. In this constructions up to three different speakers are usually arranged concentrically in one physical chassis. This had the advantage that it needed only one cut out in the cabinet to make and the speaker did act almost like a point source over the entire frequency range. In the most cases, a strong horn tweeter and a generously sized cone loudspeaker (twelve to fifteen inches) were combined for efficiency-optimized applications. Many manufacturers such Westerrn Electric, later Altec, RCA, James B. Lansing (JBL), Jensen, Stephens and others had been in competition about that sort of speakers for professional demands. They all were quite similiar from that point of view, 15'' low frequency cone and a high frequency horn cut at around 800 hz to the lower frequency with a simple crossover design to prevent efficiency in the days of low power tube amplifiers. But from another point of view the Tannoy design was completely different and superior to all its competitors. The HF-horn uses the shape of the LF-cone as seamless extension for its horn development as the first unique position. The second is the use of the same magnet system for both drivers, which compensates maturity differences perfectly. Have a look at the cut away drawing to understand. Both advantages lead into a much smoother integration of both frequency parts and to a more homogenious sound stage.

The LF-cone completes perfectly the HF-horn development. Both systems use the same magnet at both ends for compensation

All other designs set the HF-horn as a separate unit with own magnet system in the center of the LF-cone without any physical correspondence. I do not actually know if this important difference was regulated by patent regulations made by Tannoy in the very early 1930ties, at the beginning of the companies success. And even later in 1950 when a lot of following companies continued to produce coaxial or duplex designs (University, Goodmans, Altobass, Stentorian, Parmeko, but also later asian replicas from Pioneer or Coral), this ground braking difference never got touched by others.

Casted chassis from 12' Monitor HPD close to the disassembled "Alnico"-magnet showing its construction just before reconing process.
The so called "pepper-pot"-tweeter, the HF-compression chamber with phase compensating elements

The Beginning

The major design of Tannoy speakers started in 1947 with the first "Dual Concentric Speaker" designed by Ronnie H. Rackham from Tannoy. He married the two drivers together so that the flare shape of the 15" bass unit continued the flare rate of the high frequency unit. 

It was designated as the '15" Monitor Black'. It had a power handling of 20 Watts RMS, a voice coil impedance of 15 Ohms and a crossover point of 1 kHz. Magnetic gap fluxes were provided by a cast iron alloy magnet at 12,000 gauss for the low frequency voice coil and 18,000 gauss for the HF coil. (10,000 gauss = 1 Tesla). At 20 Watts power handling in 1947 the unit was very well received and this coupled with a sensitivity close to 92 dB for 1 Watt at 1 meter right up to the highest frequencies, was a milestone for the company in providing high quality speech and music capabilities in an efficient way. With this design Tannoy layed the ground for 30 years of succesfull manufacture of this design before significant changes took place. During that time four generations of "Dual Concentric" speakers were launched which all were based on this incomparable principle design of the first "Monitor Black".

The structure of the casted aluminium chassis can be seen with its typical connectors. The magnet assembly from the side.
Both designs existed without significant change between 1954 and 1978 troughout the Monitor Range of speakers.

The Model Line

In 1954 the "Monitor Silver" replaced the former "Monitor Black" without significant changes in the technical data, accompanied by a scaled down smaller version with a 12'-cone. Both had got a new lighter casted chassis, painted in hammertone silver with a barrel shaped magnet cover of the same color. This new casted chassis marked the way for the next 30 years without change for both sizes. These two sizes spread into the recording industry first in Great Britain, later throughout the Commonwealth till today were you will find them in recording studios world wide.

In 1958 the silver range got to be replaced by the next generation, the "Monitor Red". Now the chassis was painted in darker blueish gray hammertone with new formed pinkred metal magnet covers. Basically the same two speakers with little increased power handling capacity. But they got a small 10'' brother beside, which was mainly designed for the "near field monitoring" needs in the recording industry (III-LZ). This speaker is the only Tannoy design with a 2.5'' voice coil for the LF-cone, were all others are equipped with 2'' coils. This design delivers a perfectly controlled operated LF-cone and its refined resolution of detail up to 1500 hz, a big advantage for near field monitor use.

In 1967 the reds were upgraded to the new "Monitor Gold" line. The chassis got a grey paint with golden plastic mold magnet covers. Now the first important changes were introduced. The crossovers got transformer operated controls for hf-energy and for cut off frequency. The speakers had to follow the market changes. Now transistor amplifiers were used with higher power priority. As a result, the impedance was reduced to 8 ohms to match the transformerless output stages of the new power amplifiers. As well the increased power handling capacity with corresponding heavier voice coil was a requirement for the new line.

Two 12'' chassis from two generations showing their design progress, the 1958 Monitor Red on the left beside the 1974 Monitor HPD frame needing cone and diaphragm to complete (without plasic cover).

1974 the new "Monitor HPD"- Line got introduced with 15'' (HPD 385), 12'' (HPD 315) and 10'' (HPD 295) versions. These speakers are sold in Canada as Monitor Royal line with blue magnet covers. The new chassis had golden paint with gray plastic covers. They (HPD = High Power Drive) followed its predessors with hardly improved power handling capacity. For this reason the paper cones got redesigned. The cones have been equipped with agile foam surrounds instead of the former hard paper edges (the foam surrounds show typical aging after 20 years been exposed to uv-light and need replacing). As second treatment for increased power handling capacity the cones got stiffened out through 8 paper bars ("Girdacustic" called) glued to the back of the cones and a reinforced voice coil with better temperature abilities. This changes make a wider cone deflection possible to high power input, resulting in less deformations of the cone structure and a smoother response as resulting benefit.


Exceptions of the production line between 1947 and 1978

Tannoy is the only speaker company of this age I know which completely concentrated on the dual concentric design principle. Some rare exceptions from this continuation of model history are known. During the Monitor Silver range Tannoy released a 12'' direct radiator speaker (without the HF-unit) based on the standard chassis with green colored magnet. It was completed by a HF-unit based on the standard magnet assembly extended with a metal horn of the size and shape of the 12'' paper cone.
The Monitor Blue called speaker which is based on the HPD series as direct radiator chassis without HF-unit available in 12'' and 15'' to extend the standard series.
Through out a long period (I do not have any precise knowledge about that product and any advice and help would be appreciated), Tannoy is most famous for its eight inch (?) direct radiator units made for the british railroad stations. These speakers have been spread widely common for announcements made for departures/arrivals in lots of stations in the UK. This use has made the company name Tannoy so popular that these sorts of announcements are populary named: a tannoy. (to be continued).


The crossovers

The crossovers of the different generations did start very simple with a 6 db filter for the 1000 hz cut frequency at the beginning. Tannoy used huge paper capacitors and waxed impregnated copper coils for the Monitor Black. With higher production numbers of the Monitor Silvers they got a specially made paper capacitor with three units in one can supplied. With Monitor Reds Tannoy started to use electrolytics for the crossovers (cost cutting). The Silver and Red 12'' versions did drive the cone in full range mode, just the tweeter got cut to be protected for the low frequencies. All the crossover designs kept efficiency in the foremost stage. With Monitor Gold and the new lower impedances of 8 ohms the crossovers needed to be redesigned completely. Tannoy used the chance to change to more complex filters with the possiibility to cut or damp the HF-horn in four steps each for all three sizes. This new luxury brought the opportunity for room compensation of the cabinets. Thanks to the believe in quality Tannoy made these attenuators with switched auto transformers, the by far superior way to do so (expensive). And they supplied compensating filters to improve measured linearity over the entire spectrum. All supplied "improvements" were accepted as further degradation of efficiency as tolerable side effect.

Over the years the speakers have been treated with numerous improvements, mostly in order to improve power handling capabilities for high output transistor devices. The company tried to follow the tremendous increase of power output in amplifier design, right to a point were it found a simple physical limitation. Seen from today the treatments did not always improve the general performance soundwise, in particular if you do use them with low powered tube amps. It is more like permanent stepping backward. At the end the lightweight cone with the 30 watts voice coil of the early designs, added up to the double weight with the HPD range. These differences together with more complex crossovers lead to clearly listenable degradations, foremost in terms of lost dynamics and a decrease of fine details. If you ever have compared a Monitor Silver to a Monitor HPD you might know what I am talking about.
In this logic a lot of products did not benefit from the advantage of its "market advance"; i.e. means have fallen down their staircase of development. This is fairly common observation and a poor truth at the end of modernism and industrialized mass production with almost any of its products.

When Guy R. Fountain, the founder of the Tannoy company died in 1977, the company was sold. This chapter ended the "West Norwood"-history and the company was moved to Scotland by its new owners in order to cut production costs. From 1978 the "Dual Concentric"-speaker got completely redesigned with ferrite magnets for both frequency parts. New materials got applied, as well a new hf-driver design was developed to cut production costs. Only within the Prestige-Series some of the old magnets ("alcomax 3" named) get installed in countable amounts to enclosures at tremendous price ranges. The other dual concentric designs got a horn amplified dome tweeter design ("tulip wave guide" marketing speech) with hefty coils wound, able to play 300 watts of power, as a tribute to modern demands of audio fidelity.

Read on soon, Volker


For further informations on vintage Tannoy chassis and specific data base about visit: http://www.44bx.com/tannoy/

The Tannoy Autograph II – Improvements on a legend

Hello again,
for some continuation of the story about Tannoys legendary vintage full range horn speaker cabinet.

Klaus and me met again three weeks later for a Sunday to work at the cabinets. Klaus had tested in the meanwhile different positions in his room for the cabinets instead the dedicated corner position. They were placed like ordinary speakers with distance to the rear and side walls and some 15° degree inverted angle to the listening position – with good success how he said?! A much better low frequency response with much reduced boost effect in the region around 100-200 hz was listenable. Of course this type of positioning must have this sort of influence to the sound performance. The cut horn openings (off the walls extension) will lift the cutoff frequency of the lf-horn up into the registers of 150-200 hz region. Together with a shortened opening it will decrease the efficiency for some decibels, so the horn will be a lot less present in the all around performance of the speakers.
The inverted angled position of the them make the front loaded horns to work better focused in the listening position. So the illusion of imaging in the projection seem to improve a lot. A by far more defined soundstage with much better width and depth was the result of the new position.
Klaus did finish the covers and ordered some 12mm woolen felt as new damping for the compression chambers. The felt was used to exchange the former acoustic foam in the compression chamber. This implies the same sort of damping, but with thinner and stiffer materials, taken less air space and therefore a better adjusted chamber volume?

The new damping of the compression chamber and a new seal for the speakers. These will be mounted now at the baffle board instead the wrong mounting behind the front horn.

When I arrived at Klaus house he needed my helping hand to get the speakers layed back on the floor. With a good 100 kg of total weight these speakers are not easy to handle, for every step you need a helping hand, better two. On the floor he could apply the felt in the compression chamber and mount the speakers in their original dedicated position.
We installed the new boards covered with grill cloth for both side openings of the cabinets. Klaus still did insist that the covers will reduce the effective openings to 50% of their former uncovered surface. This will have a noticeable influence in damping the back loaded horns.
The drivers got now screwed to the originally dedicated baffle boards of the compression chambers and were sealed it with new foam tape. Between front horn and driver now there is a 5mm air gap without physical connection, this helps to prevent the introduction of resonant energy, which will be boosted from the horn itself. This has a tremendous effect in reducing the resonances around 500 hz, which were more than present before. We placed the cabinets back in the corners and started the second audition after several hours of work.

Working at the second speaker in front of the finished speaker. The decoupling of the funnel can be seen by the disappearing of the four screws in the corners of the funnels base board.

 After six hours workwe started to drink some remarkable wine from Klaus vine cellar as a good alternative for
listening to good jazz music.

They did already look like originals from the 1950ties with the newly made covers and the perfect matching grille cloth. The sound improvements introduced by the changes were nothing else than tremendous, from the first moment the big bass boost and the whooly mids did disappear completely, the tonal range opened up to a much better audible richness of tonal color spectrum. As well the illusion of the projected space has got a much better dimension, even when it is not the perfect discipline of this angled construction. The corner design fixes the inverted angle of the hf-horns to a 45° degree position, which is mostly not a optimized angle seen from the listening position. The complete wrongness of the first audition did disappear and as a new dimension it was noticeable that we did listen to 15-inch Tannoy speakers with their typical sound stage and advantages, other duplex speaker constructions of that time don't have.

We did listen to several records and switched to digital programme material later on. After another three hours we closed the test and cooked a late night meal. Eating and drinking was a must to complete our discussion about further improvements in the coming future. Some french "soupe de poissons" closed the day at 1:00h o'clock late at night. We decided that it will need further improvement into the same direction and I needed desperatly to drive home to get some sleep.

Delicious "Soupe de Poissons a la Provencale" as a late night meal

On my way back home I made a summary of the today realized improvements. But I am still very sceptical about the process of damping to a given horn development and its "resulting improvements". – Yes the improvements were listenable, but from a technical point of view this change does not make sense to me.  My expectations of the "legendary horn design" and all the internet gossip did not match reality, the all around performance of this speakers still does not impress me. After 25 years of living with Tannoy sound I still did expect some more affection from incomparable qualities other speakers don't can deliver.

If there will be somebody out who has some personal experience with this or similiar type of speakers like the Westminster I would be interested to know about. Read on soon on further improvements on this legends, Volker

The Tannoy Autograph I – A first Impression

Hello to everybody. Some month ago I had the rare chance to own a pair of Tannoy Autograph Speakers. These were located near Vienna in Austria, a good 1000 km away from here. So not a decision which will be made between the first and second coffee in the morning. For the first consideration each speaker is 152cm high, 110 cm wide and 80 cm deep, in a triangled shape to be ideally placed into the corners of a room. The Tannoy Autograph is one of really famous horn speakers of the 20th century, it is not only mentioned to be in a virtual top ten list, it is more one of the top five candidates. In this list other speakers like the JBL Paragon, or the Western Elelectric WE -type horns, diverse Klangfilm Horn constuctions or the Lowther Corner Horn will do the competion. To make it short, for a Tannoy addict the Autograph is the one of three full range horn cabinets available. Beside the Westminster the GRF Professional is the largest originally by Tannoy made cabinet for recording studios (180cmx120cmx80cm, with two dual concentric drivers in parallel), almost impossible to be used in home systems. The Westminster is a rectangular shaped box of similiar size as the Autograph (as well with rear and front loaded horn development from the mid 1980ties). These have a very "tasty" cabinet design for the "conservative hifi enthusiast wanting the very best" of the late "Prestige Series" as dedicated customer. Available in two different cabinets made from different wooden materials and equipped with modern ferrite magnet chassis or for a reasonable additional charge sold with "limited editions alcomax speakers". The West Norwood history of Tannoy with its founder Guy R. Fountain (GRF) and its engineer Ronnie H. Rackham will be topic of an own article soon.

"Luxurious Listening" (tannoy sales brochure of the 1960ties)
The Autograph has been initially designed in 1954 by Ronnie H. Rackham using the well known Paul Voigt (Lowther) as a experienced horn expert and consultant. It is a classic corner horn design and is dedicated to be used with both walls as extension of its side openings of the folded rear lf-horn. In theory this construction is superior to the Westminster and the different types of GRF's. This design will give the less limited low frequency response due to its wider openings. With a rear horn development of effectively 20 Hz to 250 Hz and a front horn development of effective 250 Hz to 12500 Hz the Autograph is one of the very rare horn type speakers which is capable to transmit the full audio frequencies with this design. 

With all this theory in mind I had to decide, if I am going to be adventurous and get these two monster sized speakers. "Who has the corners in place, where the speakers need to be placed to work properly?", "Do I really need to get two wardrobes in my livingroom?", "If you don't get these, you never will have a chance to get these again, so you never will know how good they really are?", lots of questions went through my brain. I could not decide between being serious or being adventurous. The memory was instantly awake to my GRF Rectangular in 1994. At that time I was also initially euphoric about the project, but then later very unhappy to get rid of the rather large enclosures. If you really want to have these big speakers you need to have the space, the money, you should be in the social situation to decide about. I decided I am not. So I left the rare opportunity to my friend Klaus, knowing that he would be very interested to get a pair Autographs as well. He has lots of other room taking hobbies like cars and planes, so another set of speakers for his hifi collection will not matter.
The adventure started already to find a car where these will fit in. With a ordinary estate car no way to come by, the minimum size of car would be a bus or a real transporter. A packed size front to front is 1.10x 1.10x1.50m and needs something with bigger space inside, packed side to side is 1.50mx0.80mx1.60m and might fit better?

The two enclosures taped together, so that there is no overwidth to the car, just 180 kg of weight.
Will the car survive to carry that overweight for 1000 km?

Luckily the weather was good through out the alps.

Klaus who has build up his own sport planes from plywood (Falcos) after they have been cut in handy pieces before shipped from the US over here, did not fear the transport. He just spanned the two speakers together with belts and fastened them on the roof of the car of his partner. Knowing that a overload of 120kg above the allowed 80kg at this car roof will not do any damage within 1000 km of survey?! Ok, he did it without getting any real trouble. The final problem was to get these monsters (90 kg each without speaker) into the first floor of his house, were his hifi room is located. With a little help of his friends he managed it.

First of all one of his Monitor Gold speakers needed a complete new adjustment of the hf-diaphragm with an oscillator. They did not have a smooth hf-response. Here shown wrongly mounted to the back board of the funnel. Since this mounting will amplify all the resonances initiated by the speaker.

For a back loaded horn type cabinet the hard edge coned speaker types from the Tannoy Monitor range are a must. The paper surround with the light weight cone benefit a lot in this application. This cones have a better free air resonance and work with  reduced distorsions without the typical air suspension of a closed cabinet. Here the models Monitor-Black, -Silver, -Red and -Gold are rated a lot better than the later HPD type with its foam surround and weighty stiffed up cone design. Their design has been optimized for high power applications with transistor amplified systems.

These enclosures have been built carefully by some carpenter in Munich in the late 1980ties using the original diagrams published in these days by "la maison l'audiophile". Klaus did check materials and the construction before he took them back to Germany. Only little details had been changed from original, so these cabinets were quite well made from northern coniferous plywood of the right dimension (16mm). He did know from other speaker projects that here no compromise can be accepted for a expected perfect final result. In this days a lot of vintage speaker plans got changed for more rigid materials in order to reduce any resonant distorsions. In many cases the all around coherence, which is often a clear sign of a early process of experimental design gets lost for "improved measurements".

Klaus and me arranged a first auditioning for the end of April and I was very excited to have a first hand experience with this legends. I drove the long way to his house (100 km distance) with his speakers in my mind: "will they really be that good?" It is rumored that they will completely disappear in acoustic terms when perfectly matched into a room. As well they are known to behavor than with the fastest and most deep bass response of all Tannoy cabinets, lots of other superlative attributes are as well published in the web. I am always more than sceptical about such superlatives and in particular when the rumors is from the web. Who is able to proof it or has a real first hand experience with this rare legends, not to question who knows one person owning a stereo pair?

Klaus hifi-setup uses a lot of common components I do use. He has a Platine Verdier turntable with SME 3012 and SPU Gold pick up, but he uses additionally a EMT studio turntable with EMT arm and dedicated "EMT Tondose"-pickup. His amplifying chain is completely different in character to my equipment. Were I prefer DHT triodes as well in the preamplifying stages for their exeptional linearity and fine resolution, he prefers mainly vintage professional studio components from Telefunken and Maihak because he believes into their professional engineered qualities. With a Leak TL12.1 as power horses we find our way back together to drive our Tannoy speakers. So there are differences, but the corner stones are comparable enough to justify a new speaker in his room. This room with wooden floor and ceiling has a very good shape (similiar to mine with roughly 4x6 meters), but is much better damped than mine.

When opened, it could be seen that the last owner had changed the mounting of the speakers. The baffle board is made from different material and looks very customized, so it might be be introduced later on. Originally the speakers need to get mounted at this square baffle board. This board closes the pressure chamber of the horn against the back of the speaker with a seal. It is completely damped with acoustic foam here?.

The first listening test ended completely frustrating, the speakers sounded the absolute opposite way of what I did expect. They did sound very heavy and dark, almost like driven with defective hf-units. The sound is characterized by a big boost of the lower registers, mainly the frequencies transfered by the back loaded horn. The cabinets seem to push the frequency between 100 and 200 hz to an extreme (some +6db?), the other areas of the tonal spectrum are completely dominated by this effect. I really could not believe what I did hear, these legendary speakers were so far out of a balanced range, that I could not even remember that here Tannoy speakers were installed. We did sit for three hours in front of the them listening to different records without having a clear concept to follow for improvements?

Do the cabinets need their dedicated covers as dampers for a optimized lf-performance?

Pulling them out of the corners might get good effects, but for a legendary corner speaker not a good idea. Klaus insisted that we did hear them without the dedicated covers on their openings, he was convinced that these will do a good portion of damping. A perfectly working low frequency horn has not to be damped, or am I wrong?! I did remember the day when I had my newly built GRF rectangulars on start, which ended with a big pillow in each of the openings to make them listenable...?! Today it ended with the complete set of Klaus bedclothes of his sleeping room in both speakers, to shut down the horn effect in general. Al the way driving back home I was thinking: what might have been wrong? We had checked all details of construction, but could not find any substancial problem with them? They were made very precisely orientated to the original drawings. The next day Klaus rang me up and we discussed what to do as the next step? He decided to complete the covers as first step and later he wants to change the speaker mounting back to the baffle. May be a new damping material for the compression chamber is on demand as well? Are these systems extremely room dependend because of their corner construction for their position and its physical expanse?

Read on soon for part two, Volker




For futher informations on vintage Tannoy systems visit: http://www.44bx.com/tannoy/

Kind of Blue - Miles Davis – Vinyl Grading for Collectors

From time to time I would like to talk about other interesting aspects beside hifi. So I will try to discuss some aspects of music, its culture, as well the todays format questions and as a part of it the vinyl  record collecting. Longer than I am interested into hifi, I am interested into music. At the begining it was classical music as well some jazz, but living in Germany makes the use and the collecting of jazz records (if you are on original releases) almost impossible so I collected classical music in the first stage. Everything changed with ebay.

One of my absolute favorite jazz albums always was and still is "Miles Davis - Kind of Blue". The original recording was made by Columbia in march/april 1959. This record entered in august 1959 the market as CL1355 pressed in mono and alternativly as stereo edition CS8163, both with a wrong sequence of the takes of "All Blues" and "Flamenco Scetches" for the first 50000 (collectors!) on the label and cover. The following pressings corrected the mistake at the label but Columbia never noticed or changed the misspelling of Adderleys name on the cover before the CD release. This record is originally a true stereo recording and not the for that time typical mono record, which was later electronically enhanced for a stereo use. Since 1958 stereo was a new thing in the marketing of music, so almost every company offered than recordings in both versions, were the stereo edition always was sold more expensive.

5 times almost the same record, from left: modern aniversary reissue from 2009, 3 issues of the first stereo release CS8163 and in background one CL1355, the first mono release

"Kind of Blue" is one of the most important jazz albums from the 20th century. It is commonly known as the very first initial piece of modal music in jazz history. Whole books have been written about that record in order to classify its significance. So its not on me here to write about its dimension for the jazz music at all.
I really do like this music a lot, so once in the 1990ties I started to look for the original recording in the early ebay days. At this time I was driven by the understanding, that only the first release of a recording will capture all original qualities of its content, like dynamics, space, air and tonal richness. I did know that record companies stored the original master tapes in their archives after the first pressing. For later pressings the most of these companies used 1:1 copies of them, so I believe that the copy already is characterized by a degradation of the original dynamics. Firmly taken by that idea, it seemed to be logic to me that only first releases will garantee the best possible reproduction of the original recording available. In my collection several examples of jazz records from this time do acknowledge my theory of best quality on vinyl.
So I hunted for the mono recording of "Kind of Blue" in these days of the late 90ties at ebay.com. I always tried to get a copy for 50$ or less, but this amount was never enough to make me a winner. The auctions ended always at a minimum of 85$, sometimes far beyond the magic 100$ line. I didn't know anything about "goldmine gradings" and all the little necessary informations for collectors in these days. So I never got one of this beloved records.

The cover of the versions vary by the double arrow symbol for the stereo issue and behind without arrow for the mono version

In 2001 I was invited to teach as guest professor at a well known university in Cambridge, MA. I moved for a year over there. From the first day I realized a vinyl record shop every 300 m at any main street there, this is definitive a record collectors ground. Every shop had a very good jazz department with a good variety of vintage records, for a german a unknown "vinyl heaven". The prices ranged between 2.99$ and 20$ for quite rare first releases. And than Boston next door, were the story continued with several good shops. I only want to mention the "Loony Tunes"-shop at the opposite street side of the famous Berklee College of Music which has unfortunatly closed in the meanwhile?!.

I did buy every week 20 jazz records, mostly first relases from the time between 1950 to end of the 1960ties. In my time in Camebridge I did not see one copy of the first "Kind of Blue" in the shops, while I bought almost 1000 first releases of other jazz music.

The CL1355  "6-eye" mono version, the deep groove iindentation is clarly visible on the label

The CS 8163  "6-eye" stereo version with arrow, the deep groove indentation is clarly visible on the label

Back in Germany in 2002 I started my hunt again on ebay in order to get finally one copy. I did increase my input and got the first mono pressing CL1355 for 85$ plus shipping. I was happy to manage this old dream. Some weeks later I could hold the record in my hands and was very exited to play it on my turntable. When the stylus slipped into the first groove it was clearly noticeable, that the music was not the foremost content of this record. I could not really believe what I did hear, the record was in such a bad condition, that almost three pops per second sounded like a fireplace concert instead of the well known music. I went back to the auction and it was advertized as: "VG+, some surface noise might be audible". OK, I had understand, even if I learned in the meanwhile about the goldmine gradings. But I had to learn that ebay competition changed the interpretation of the grading. A VG graded record is meant as "only for display use", while a MINT- is some adaquat condition for use. So I looked out for the next one. This time I looked for the stereo version, which was normally more expensive in this days. A MINT- copy went for 290$ to a asian collector, puhh...?!. I got a copy of the stereo version CS8163 for 136$ plus shipping sometime later on. It was offered as VG++. A MINT copy rarely appeared at ebay, I saw one going for 450$, that was definetly out of my reach. Some weeks later the VG++ record arrived and I was very impatiend to listen to it. To be honest, it was almost the same like the first one. Cracks and pops all the time, for a record with some very calm passages a real "no go". I contacted the seller and he told me that with goldmine grading only mint or MINT+ marked records will garanty a noise free play. Ok, I decided to look for the second release version. So far I had two copies with the legendary 6-eye label, the next will be a 2-eye version. The prices for this version decrease a lot comparing the first releases. I got a MINT- copy for 32$ plus shipping. I was happy, but I did not know if the second release will be as good as the first one. Unfortunatly the record never appeared, it had got lost on its way over the atlantic. Two month later I started again my hunt. I was succesfull and got a 2-eye copy for 24$ in mint condition. This time it came out well and I received the record. It sounded good, almost without any surface noise, but I had the impression that the former releases do have a wider dynamic range than the second releases. Miles  trumpet was a lot better focused and the other instrumentation had a deeper soundstage. With the 6-eye  version you can hear the space between each musician, were the 2-eye is missing it. So after a while I started again my hunt to find a MINT- copy of the 6-eye version. I spended 180$ plus shipping and was succesfull. The record came and it was really in good condition, it sounds amazing comparing it to the later versions. I was happy to get a good copy at the end. Alltogether I had spend a good 1000$ on that record, I did buy 6 records to get one good one, only addicts will act this way ...?

In 2009 this record celebrated its 50ties anniversary. Columbia released a newly (digital?) remastered version of this recording on 180 g vinyl, with all "absolute necessary" improvements and with all  "record colllector blah-blah" and inclusive a limitation of the edition. I got weak and did buy a copy. When I played this new version, I could not believe what I do hear. A dramatical reduced dynamic range comparing it to the original first release, almost no more realistic space of the former set up and a typical tonal degradation of several instruments. "The most important record of the 20th century (Columbia) has gotten even better" sounded now exactly like the very poor cd-pressing, which was existing for years.

Cover print of the CS8163 stereo version back side with the wrong order of tracks

Imprint in dead wax at CS8163 indicating a very early matrix pressing, for the collector it is heaven: 1AA

Record collecting in the 21st century, the time of the media free music and "unnoticable compression" is showing its perspective for the years to come. Nobody soon will remember how it once sounded with "true fidelity equipment", real master recordings and their pressings, nor that somebody has the opportunity to check the former audible qualities on his own perception. Since once american companies have mixed cd's for the use in cars in the 1990ties, todays music is mixed for cell phones and its dedicated ear pluggs. Amen.

Ebay has changed a lot the collectors market and its today options to buy vintage records. When in the beginning years the most vintage records were sold in open auctions and the hot collectible records sometimes skyrocketed (prices from 450$ to 2500$ per record), todays offers at ebay are "buy-it-now-auctions" at fixed prices for the standarts. The highly collectible records have completely disapeared, since the gobal  collectors market seems to be saturated. As with vintage hifi, the generation of its initial interest is going to retire, the younger generations are aimed into other topics.

Soon I will write about a diy record cleaning machine for the real vinyl collector, which really cleans and dries without loud noises, so stay tuned, Volker

Impressum

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SME Compability Chart of the Conversion Kit

This list contains the known conflicts and difficulties with different classic SME tonearm models:

1. Early MK1 types have a clamp built in the front end of the stainless steel tube, so the headshell connector (diam. 8.0 mm) does not fit my tube (diam. 8.5 mm) without modification (difficult), better to be changed for a later socket with screwed fixing.
2. First generation MKII arms have rarely a headshell connector which is pressed and not screwed, they fit in size but need little modification to be fixed in the tube (possible). The socket needs to be drilled and cut a thread into. With 1.6mm screws it can be fixed.
3. From second generation onwards 3009/II and 3012/II can be converted with respect on the length of the wayrod. These are the most common arms and for these the kit is made.
4. Early improved versions have a detachable headshell, here the wayrod needs to be replaced with a longer type. Later versions have a fixed headshell, to make it work you need a headshell connector socket and a longer wayrod (55mm). Some improved versions have the cueing bridge integrated into the vinyl saddle, here a cueing bridge from the S2 would be necessary.
5. Late 3009R, 3010R, 3012R should not be converted since several parts do not match the inner tube diameter of my kit (headshell socket, extension tube holder). They cannot mount my steel saddle, otherwise the saddle has to be cut short by some 4mm to fit the extension tube holder or use the original short vinyll saddle. 

Original parts or spares which are still available through SME Ltd. (with partnumbers):

RCA socket conversion (around 100 EUR): No: 3826G Output Socket Coversion Kit
Steel saddle (around 350 EUR)  no: 2203S R0414PRO for 3012/R
Wayrods (around 50 EUR each): no: 1908 P0557 for S2; no: 2266/12 R0418/12 for 3012R
Headshell Sockets ( around 150 EUR each):

No: 1802/9    P0507   Socket inc. 2215 for S2/IMP

No: 1802/12   P0507/12   Socket inc. 2215/12 for S2/12

No:  2208/12   R0423/12   Socket inc. 2215/12 for R Type

Cartridges with a compliance higher than 12x10-6cm can not improve their low frequency response with the conversion to a heavy stainless steel tube. Here lighter arms like the original SME's with aluminium arm wand are recommended instead.