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Gramophone Dreams #27: EleKit TU-8600R amplifier kit

I will never forget.

In 1988 I had my first experience with Western Electric 300B tubes. It took place on a quiet, streetlights-and-snow night at my friend Ryoichi's apartment on Riverside Drive, in Manhattan.

I had never heard of the late Japanese amplifier designer Ken Shindo, of Shindo Laboratory. But that evening, Ryo's audio system was all Shindo: a hammertone gray Shindo-restored, grease-bearing Garrard 301 turntable sitting on a Shindo plinth of glossy wood, with a Shindo-modified Ortofon tonearm and SPU cartridge, a Shindo moving-coil step-up transformer, and a Shindo…

Gramophone Dreams #27: EleKit TU-8600R amplifier kit Page 2

The TU-8600R is obviously not your father's—or Hiroyasu Kondo's, or Ken Shindo's—300B amplifier. When I realized this, I took a slow breath and remembered what all wise philosophers say—"condemnation without examination is prejudice"—and proceeded with my examination.

At least the TU-8600R's case and chassis are old-school. It measures 15.2" wide by 8.5" high by 12.8" deep and weighs 28.2 lb. Its black, crinkle-paint transformer cover and tube cage are definitely old-school. On the brushed-aluminum faceplate is a on/off toggle switch with a little blue On light, a ¼" jack that connects…

Gramophone Dreams #27: EleKit TU-8600R amplifier kit Contacts

Sidebar: Contacts

EleKit, EK Japan Co., Ltd.. Tofuro-minami 2-19-30, Dazaifu-city, Fukuoka, 818-0105, Japan. Tel: (81) 92-923-8235 Web: www.elekit.co.jp. North American importer: VK Music, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Tel: (604) 931-8844: Web: www.vkmusic.ca

Deutsche Elektronenröhren Manufaktur GmbH, Robert-Bosch-Strasse 26a, D-88131 Lindau, Germany. Tel: (49) (0)173-3773747. Web: www.elrog.com

Jean-Michel Jarre: Organic meets Electronic

"I have an organic approach toward music but I've always been interested in electronics," says Jean-Michel Jarre, whose luxurious electronic pop conquered the world in 1976 with his hit album Oxygène. Even today, Oxygène's bubbling tones and saturated textures provide a blissful sonic experience. "I love jazz because of its organic approach to sound, and I've been influenced by that. I always thought that jazz and electronic music have much more in common than we think."

After planting his electronic-music flag, Jarre has enjoyed a level of success shared by few, having sold 80 million…

Jean-Michel Jarre: Organic meets Electronic Page 2

Micallef: What are some of those vintage pieces on the album?

Jarre: I used the Memory Moog, and I just received the new Moog One, the polyphonic synthesizer. This is going to be one of the Stradivariuses of electronic music. It has that very deep analog sound, it has real polyphony, and it's three synths in one. And I'm using lots of plugins also. I used the very classic machines, like the modular Moog and modular ARP, the EMS VCS 3, and a granular-synthesis synthesizer from a young guy [Tasty Chips Electronics] in the Netherlands, the GR-1 Granular Synthesizer. You can do granular…

Philip Glass Premiere from Third Coast Percussion

Philip Glass (b. 1937) may not quite be a household name in America, but he's surely as well-known as any living classical composer, and the repetitive minimalism that is the hallmark of his music has influenced everything from rock music to TV commercials. Still, after 5 decades of composing, it took a commission from Chicago-based Third Coast Percussion for Glass to write his first concerto for percussion ensemble, Perpetulum—"What took them so long to ask me?" Glass has said about the commission. TCP has just released the premiere recording of the 21:23 minute concerto on their new 2-CD…

Lighting Strikes: a Bolt From the Blue

One evening late last summer I took the most expensive workout of my life. In my hurry to meet a friend at the gym, I left the house, leaving my computer and hi-fi on despite the ominous look of the sky. In the South, experience teaches you to dash about disconnecting everything at the first sign of a thunderstorm. Usually I do, but this time my mind was elsewhere.

I headed across town toward my favorite gym. Stopped at a hilltop intersection, I saw one of the new office towers take the biggest lightning strike I have ever seen. The building, 40-some stories of Gothic Modern topped by a…

Lighting Strikes: a Bolt From the Blue Page 2

Had I been desperate and/or gullible enough to be talked into buying a new computer, add $800–$1600. Then figure in the hours of hassling with service people and salesmen. An obvious question at this point is, "Why didn't you make an insurance claim?" The answer is that I had let our policy lapse and had been "too busy" to call our agent. Human oversights and mistakes can combine with natural disasters to yield costly, and sometimes deadly, results.

I had hoped, in researching this article, to produce some "shocking" statistics regarding the dollar value of electronic products damaged or…

Lighting Strikes: a Bolt From the Blue More Information

Sidebar: More Information

Sources for lightning protection hardware

Delta Lightning Arrestors, Inc., P.O. Box 1084, Big Springs, TX 79721.

PolyPhaser Corp., P.O. Box 9000, Minden, NV 89423-9000.

Cushcraft Corporation, P.O. Box 4680, 48 Perimeter Road, Manchester, NH 03108.

Information sources

Insurance Information Institute.

Edison Electric Institute.

Lightning Protection Institute.

Underwriters Laboratory.

National Fire Protection Association/

Books available at your public library:

All About…

Carver Silver Seven-t monoblock power amplifier

In 1988, Bob Carver set out to design the best amplifier he possibly could, without regard for cost. It was more of an ego exercise than an attempt to build a product with wide commercial appeal. The result was the four-chassis, $17,500 Silver Seven.

Interestingly, Bob Carver chose vacuum tubes to realize his dream of building the ultimate power amplifier. The Silver Seven uses fourteen KT88 output tubes per channel, and puts out 375W into 8 ohms. Bob built three pairs of Silver Sevens, not expecting to sell many at the $17,500 asking price. When those sold quickly, another 10 pairs were…