My Audio Systems: The Yamaha Era

You could call the late 90's of my audio history; the Yamaha Era. By that time, I had gone through several epochs (which you're aware of, if you've had the patience to following along). The previous one with the a/d/s/ gear and cobbled together A/V parts as my "collecting years". You could say that I was getting tired of the hassle of various external processors, several amps, and a table covered with remotes! By this point, I had figured out that I liked Yamaha's approach to surround. Let me go off in that direction for a little while just to reminisce if nothing else.

 

In 1986, Yamaha brought Soundfield DSP to market in the United States in the form DSP-1. It was an add-on processor like everyone else at that time. However, their technology was different. Everyone had a chip that simulated different venues by adding delay into the channels for the effects (surround/rear) channels, plus some level of attenuation, you get what could be called an "echo". Every room, unless intentionally treated has some sort of an echo signature. We tend not to notice unless it's pronounced such as the case of a cavern or other large space. Which is why the building of concert halls was/is part science and part art. Virtually all manufactures programmed the "echo" or delay into their chip based on the math of sound reflection/refraction of venues large (concert halls, stadiums) and small (jazz clubs, studios) and called it good. They pretty much sounded alike and really, not that great to my ear. What Yamaha did wasn't like anyone else. They went to specific venues all over the world and recorded the sound characteristics using an array of microphones, then programmed the specific digital signature into a chip to be called up by the name of the venue. I liked theirs much better. In those early years, I couldn't come close to affording their processors, but as with anything digital, the technology got cheaper and more powerful very quickly. So, when I got ready to pare down the number of components I was using in my system. Their new flagship product, the DSP-A1 was high on my list. It is to this day, one of the few components that I've ever bought new and at the 1998 MSRP of $2600, the most expensive by a fairly wide margin.

One of my weirdnesses, is that I generally like the majority of my component to match (if the sonic differences aren't significant). I like for things like the operational designs to be similar, such as the power button being on the same side and type, the markings to be alike, etc. So, I chased down Yamaha's top-of-the-line turntable, the PF-800 (which was very, very good), and other components of that era, such as a CD Changer, Cassette Deck..... 

and one of the very best Minidisc Decks of the time, the Yamaha MDX-793. I was into Minidiscs for my portable media in those days. 

 

On the video side of things, along with a procession of their TVs, I liked (still do) Sony products. Those were the Laserdisc years, so I progress through a few of the Sony models of those as well. At that time, I had also finally given up on SuperBeta and moved to SVHS as well, ultimately owning a SLV-R1000 which was an amazing product, along with a really nice SLV-585HF for regular VHS as well.

I was still using the a/d/s/ L1290 as my mains but added a Snell KIIv as the center channel after finding it to have the closest sonic characteristics to my mains. I was using a pair of Paradigm ADP-350s as the surrounds which were very good as well. The "front effects" (a concept that Yamaha was using at the time with their "Soundfield" system was a pair of a/d/s/ L200s. These had a very similar driver compliment to the upper range of the L1290s, so did a great job of not calling attention to themselves.

So, this was the state of my system from the late 90's till we moved to the Dallas area around 2003. That gear went from Lubbock, Texas to Chicago, Illinois, back to Lubbock! It was really nice equipment and sounded great! Those were happy years.... until I dismantled it and sold of fthe major pieces to help fund our move to Dallas....... but that's a different story.

End of An Era

I've dabbled in Minidiscs for a long time, almost for as long as they've been in the country. At first, they were too expensive, but then I was able to buy a used Sony MZ-R30 and I fell in love with it. Back in those days, you could even walk into a Sears (SEARS!!!) and buy blank discs, which might explain why I have 45 recordable MDs sitting around. 

I even took my R30 out and recorded with it in "the field". No; I didn't "bootleg" any concerts (although Minidiscs were a favorite of that crew): I just did our church choir's performances. I would even title the discs and tracks using the scroll wheel! This was essentially the perfect medium to replace the cassette for me. ....Yes, I was a "mix tape" maker. I even lusted after the very rare versions that attached to a computer which allowed a PC to do the editing and titling although I never could afford one.

I could and did afford this though: the Yamaha MDX-793, one of the top MD decks of the time. It recorded and played beautifully, AND fit perfectly in my extensive A/V system. We were so minidisc-centric in those days that my wife even had me buy her one so she could have music while working out. Things percolated along pretty well for some time, till we moved about 9 years ago. They got packed up and over the course of the next few years, we just stopped using them. 

There was a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the arrival of the iPod. Although, I'll defend the sound quality of the minidisc to my grave, you just can't deny the convenience of the hard drive devices after all the music has been ripped to it. We might have been some of the last hold-outs, as we didn't get one till the 5th Generation (video) version. I bought a 30Gb one for my wife and as they say; the rest is history. We now have 3 working iPods, plus some dead parts units. For me, the ability to do all the organization on the computer and the ability to stream one set of files throughout our network was the ultimate "killer" feature. In fact, my 80Gb "Classic" also doubles as my portable mass storage.

 

Actually, for me, the last few years have seen a renaissance of sorts. First there was a pair of Sony professional decks (one record, one play) that was picked up from a college radio station for $20. Then I came across the Sony MXD-D40 combo, CD/MD deck at a local Goodwill for $8!

At one point, I almost went whole-hog and got the last (and greatest) recorder/player that Sony brought out about 6 years ago in the MZ-NH1. But I decided that north of $300 was too much for a rarely used "hanger queen". Which brings us to the cross-roads I was at about a week ago. While doing one of my periodic readings on the state of minidiscs, I came across an article discussing the end Sony production, which if you didn't already know it, effectively means the end of all minidisc production period. Of course, this brought on the usual bout of nostalgia, so I looked around on eBay to see what prices were doing. Apparently, they are now "up" some, so I was left with a dilemma. Hold on to it as a "collector" format, or sell off?

....And after careful consideration, which included weighing my various other hobbies, space restrictions, pricing etc., I've decided to "List It". Thus the end of an era.

 

Loss'd and Found

Free (or included) stuff that really works is kind of the joy of my life. This afternoon, I was in the living room enjoying the fruits of my labor. Actually, I even sat just watching the software doing it's job. I think my wife thought that I had actually lost it! I was excited by the Media Center reindexing itself due to my work ripping music the last few days. 

All the little album cover art refreshing over and over till the indexing was over. Then I went through it, grabbed a few albums to stream to the main A/V system in the living room. After a while, reality hit and had to go in the office and grade essays. 

While I was doing that, I fired up the archiving A/V system in the office so I can do one the "honey-dos" for my wife. This amounted to converting a series of stories from cassettes that she'd like to use with her classes. Of course, nobody has a cassette player, so everything would be far easier it they were in the form of computer files. 

To that (and other) end, over time, I've accumulated a bunch of antiquated components.

Mostly these are left over from previous systems, or picked up from random places. The Yamaha KX-200U cassette and Sony SLV-D360P DVD/VHS desks were saved from previous systems. A Panasonic RS-803 8-Track deck and Dual 1219 3-Speed turntable were picked up from the Disabled American Veterans Thrift Store in Lubbock. And finally a Sony MXD-D40 CD-Minidisc combo deck was found at a Goodwill Store in Garland. Actually, the only purpose bought piece is the Yamaha RX-V870 receiver that integrates everything, and sends the signal to my desktop workstation. It was bought off of eBay for about $15. The seller had stated that the speaker volume of one channel was lower than the other, which turn out to be correct, but not really relevant for my purpose anyway. Oh yeah, as packaged with the deal is a Yamaha RAV-2000 universal remote along with the original one as well.Significantly, this receiver was in Amarillo and therefore I could have a family member pick it up for me. It was a huge plus not to pay shipping on a fairly heavy electronic component!

This combined with a free easy to use piece of software called Audacity makes for a nice and inexpensive archiving system that can do 7 different kinds of obsolete (to one degree or another) media.

Saturday Morning Blog: Return of the 90's

I did something odd this beautiful, early November (gorgeous month here in North Texas) morning. I got out some CD's and are playing them; literally as we speak. Why is that unusual? Some of you may already know. Ironically, it's a compilation of popular 90's songs! .....you know, one of those CD's you can buy at Target or some place like that, or in my case, Half Price Books. It cost $7 and they are all good songs; if you don't mind Pop. For me, the 90's were pretty much a music wasteland anyway, and I mostly wanted the songs to situationally return me to a time when I was working in higher education administration, spending a lot of time with college students. So, these types of CDs are perfect...no waste on songs I don't recognize.

Now is it obvious where I'm going on this!?! The 90's was when the CD medium reached it's Zenith. By the last half of that decade, it had swept all competition into the dustbin of recorded sound history. Yet today, I was literally blowing dust off of my cherished 40 CD albums to get at my languishing collection. What happend!?! In today's world, I'm not so much deciding what CDs I want to play, but more what format(s) I want my collection ripped into so I can access them in a more efficient manner. Computer manufacturers are about to eliminate optical drives from the design of newer laptops all-together. This is a medium that sowed the seeds of it's own demise within the concept itself. As a digital format, the medium is actually pretty much irrelevant. 

 

In the world of 1s and 0s, it certainly doesn't need to be in the form of pits read by a laser. 

In October of 2001, the devastator arrived:

Was it the first digital music player? No Was it the best (however you define that)? Probably not. It was the most powerful, in terms a shift of how people saw the delivery of content. Yes, I understand that it was probably a product that rode on the back of what went before.

I'd argue that the concept of portable music can be credited to the Sony Walkman.

And that the 1992 Minidisc was the pinnacle of that concept, with a superior sound reproduction almost a decade before the iPod, but with the arrival of the 20Gb versions of the iPod, a person could pretty much put their entire music collection in one place. This is almost irresistible as a concept.

For us, the tipping point was the 5G (5th Generation) version in 30Gb capacity. I kind of use my wife as a "bell-cow" (forgive the term). She's not so much technologically oriented vs. technologically aware. When she starts asking about some product or another (Android Tablets are the latest), I know that it's mature enough to look into purchasing for our use. When I say mature; what I mean is that the cost-benefit ratio is such that I'll get enough use out of it not to have "buyer's remorse" after purchase. In this case, it was her Christmas present that year, and I spent the rest of the holiday ripping our CD collection into her iTunes. At first, we just enjoyed literally having our entire CD collection with us when we traveled (from Dallas, it's 6 or 7 HOURS to Amarillo, Lubbock or Midland......Texas is a BIG place). So the necessity of going through my CDs to decide which ones to take came to an end.

Then a couple of years ago, the Griffin TuneDock came to live at our house, which of course interfaced with the receiver in my main A/V system which is the main reason that there's dust on my CD albums. 

But the things that really put the nails in the coffin was my rediscovery of the joys of vinyl records for my serious listening.......and the adoption of the computer based home file server which not only streams music anywhere on my network, but "losslessly" meaning that it's essentially the same as what the CD originally offered. 

So yeah, something like this; which explains the HTPCs littered through previous posts for those who have been following along. "Thus endith the lesson", as originally delivered by Sean Connery to Kevin Costner in The Untouchables" of 1987.