Absolute AudioHelp Sound Systems  
A Dexter eBook  

Perfection is listening to a good "Absolute Sound" system with a great recording because it becomes one of the wonders of this civilized world. The beauty of it lies in its simplicity today. We reproduce sound everywhere today. Even while shopping and in an elevator, we are hit with this as background mood setting noise.

Music comes in many forms and its use depends on your mood - or it sets your mood. Music comes in simple groups: Popular, Jazz, Older Bands and for Classical, Symphony, String Quartets, Vocals, Cantatas, Opera and Country.

Why is "Absolute Sound*" necessary when listening  to recorded Music?
Absolute Sound is a wonderful dream of music lovers of all kind. Most people are not willing to invest their funds and move toward that goal thus achieve the joy of realism in the reproduction of sound with the listening pleasure. It is all about priorities. Allocating money to reward the listener is a modest choice over your life time earnings. Many will think nothing of taking one or two week vacations which can cost the same amount. The rewards of music are always just a step away in your home.  Many feeling that background music does not require anything more than a Bose CD Radio for $300. The difference in noise and music is quality of the reproduction. It is less intrusive for my ear to listen to original sound quality versus that poorly reproduced distorted music we often are forced to hear. 

Rock groups can be demanding on a stereo system. But so to is a Jazz group recorded in a small smoke filled club. Classical symphonies demand power but imagine what is necessary for a French or Germany Church Organ at full blast. Then just listen to a vocal and piano that makes you feels they are in the room, your center stage. These all are the joys of music and its communications.

The choice of priorities are for the listener.

How did it all start?
My steps toward quality sound took many phases and the training my ears time and comparison. Just like the tasting of fine wine or scotch the fun is in the learning experience. But isn't that what is all about, life offers constant learning through new experiences.

I was in third grade, and my first venture into tube electronics was an amplifier breadboard Allied Radio Knight kit 10 in one device. I used solder with a flux because I didn't know any better and the wiring became corroded and was not long for the world. In fact it lasted until the 80's..I needed a better sound system so my father bought me a 10 watt tube amplifier known as a Knight kit. I  learned that you use rosin core solder for electronics. this also lasted until the 80's.

The 45 RPM Player and this amplifier required a speaker. I bought a wooden kit to build a corner folded horn using a 12 inch speaker and small center mounted tweeter. It sounded great. My uncle Harold worked for RCA and had a dual degree in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering and he built a true folded horn speaker later used by Klisph. It was my music standard until I heard the Franklin Institute huge horn 15 foot speaker in Philadelphia. They played a saxophone to demonstrate the sound. Wow! but Harold speaker was close since it matched the 15 or so foot horn - but it was folded.

 My next project was a Heathkit 25 watt amplifier. I built it and the Heathkit dual speaker with a mini horn. 

During this time my dad bought me a metal Clarinet and I began taking Clarinet lessons, I really wanted to play the saxophone but he talked me into the clarinet as a first step. As a freshman in high school I began playing the Clarinet in the high school band.

The high school marching band was an opportunity to mix and meet people. I liked this social life.

My private music teacher played the clarinet in the church band, He started a Youth Center band and I played with this dance band. I hated practicing and the clarinet was difficult for me. So we bought a Wooden Clarinet and what a difference it made. I was best when improvising or playing by ear. Jazz was a natural next step for me.

The Dance Band at the Youth Center needed a drummer. I bought a set for $50 (time payment to dad) and began practicing with my Big Band records. I was self taught but ok for the Youth center. I really enjoyed this new role in the band.

I never really was that good at reading music for the clarinet so my high school orchestra leader suggested I switch to Alto Clarinet for the orchestra band. went and tried out the for the various Bucks-Montgomery County band concerts with a Alto Clarinet. Again the social opportunity led to meeting new people from other schools. A clarinet player from Quakertown was attracted to me and I to her. We spent much time together, She was a cheer leader and very social. She expanded my world.

When I went off to college all these instruments became irrelevant. However, music was still important as a release from the world.  I was expanded and impressed by the other people who listened to modern Jazz. the Dukes of Dixie land were new to me and the recorded audio sound was so superior and it made me want for more quality speakers and amplifiers. I was still playing monaural sound. So I needed to add a second 25 watt Heathkit Amplifier and another Heathkit speaker for this new stereo sound. Plus I needed a 33 RPM player and and dad said that Glaser Steers had a special one that stopped the platter to drop the next record. We added it and what a system we now had. Off the college and the fraternity with it I went. We could blast the house with this new sound.

The next phase was after college graduation and I had some money. I bought the two ideal speakers AR3's. This required a bigger amplifier so I built a Dynaco kit Stereo 120 watt tube (dual 60 watts for stereo). It required a separate Preamplifier and Dynaco kit PAT tube kit offered one. Now I had the best. The jazz records were the best way to display the sound system. Classical was used for special effects like the cannons in the 1812 Overture. Uncle Harold introduced me to his Mercury recording monaural 1812 cannon and new sound.

The ping pong sound of stereo was the rage and the Enoch Light orchestra showed off the sound display. This AR and Dynaco system lasted me for many years. I upgraded the turntable to a manual Thorens heavy platter with a Shure arm and cartridge. What a system. Later I added a Dual record changer to handle the automatic music playing. More watts for the amplifier were required so Dynaco kit Stereo 200 watt solid state was built .

The quadraphonic records with 4 channel sound were introduced and new record cartridges and encoders for revealing this dual sound as quad. So two more AR3s were added. I added four super tweeters to upgrade the high end of the older AR3s and a second Dynaco 200 watt was added.

In the Hudson Ohio and more money, I bought two Infinity QLS 5 foot monster speakers. But I needed a big amplifier so I built one Dynaco kit 400 watts amplifier solid state for these speakers. I later added a second Dynaco kit solid state 400 watt and the system was well over 1000 watts combined which I amplified the tweeters separately from the woofers. (Bi-Amped each at 200 to 400 watts into the 4 ohm speakers). (400 watts x 4 at over 1600watts) It could blow the house down when paying the 1812 overture or the direct disk of Good Vibrations with the Beach Boys.

The best 33 RPM record player I bought was the Oracle floating turntable from Canada and mounted a fiber glass arm with the Japanese hand made Quetso Cartridge, and transformer.

Over the years I bought several headphones, Koss was the first lightweight set ith true Hi-Fi sound, The came The Koss Studio Headset with Mylar and powered Electrostatics, Later I bought the Sennhauser, who built the best including electrostatic.

I love my present system which is the best for me so far. It uses a bi-amped two Martin Logan Electrostatic reQuest speakers (below), a Velodyne powered 15 inch Sub-Woofer, 200 watt (dual) Bryston Amplifiers (below), B&K Components AVR 202 series 200 A/V receiver (below) with Motorola Software selected Video preamp/5 amplifiers for 5 channel surround sound, four Sony rack 300CD players.. How sweet it is.

Links to super sounds makers.
http://www.bkcomp.com/ProductsMainFr.html
http://www.martinlogan.com
http://www.bryston.ca/,   

AudioHelp making sound, or your own digital music!

Start with a simple or good Synthesizer. For example….

Dexter’s Audio and Music Background:

My first recollection of classical music was Edward Greg's the Peer Gynt Suite. My kindergarten teacher was playing short pieces of music and I told her it was "in the Hall of the Mountain King" from this suite. She told my mother, she was surprised by my knowledge of it. My mother said I would listen to her classical music played on a old 78 RPM record player. I have a good ear and memory for music. It maybe because, the original Waite's in England were said to be special king court musicians.

My father liked the Big Bands especially Isham Jones. I first began collecting these bands on 45 RPM records and used their small 45 RPM player. I liked Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller. By my teens I got to know and could identify each band by it unique way of playing the music "their sound".

Ancestry?
 It is interesting to note that Dexter eBooks are done by a person named Waite. Which in ancient times was spelled Wayghte or Wayte, is derived from the old German "wahten" which means to keep watch; more commonly used in the sense of 'guard' or 'watchman' in all Teutonic languages :the German Wacht, Dutch Vaght, Swedish Vakt, and English Watch.  When used as a verb its meaning was 'to stay in expectation of'; as a noun it denoted a minstrel watchman.

The original Waytes were found in England immediately after the Norman Conquest (1073 A.D.), but only among the retainers of the king, princes and great barons; their rank gradually declined with that of other orders of minstrels until now the name is applied only to those itinerant musicians who, in most of the large towns in England, go around the principal streets at night for some time before Christmas, play and sing two or three tunes, call the hour, and then remove to a suitable distance and repeat the performance.

The pipe used by the Waits was termed a 'Shawm' (sometimes translated 'wayte-pipe').  It was an ancestor of the modern oboe. ...

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Waits cultivated their musical skills to the point that a variety of instruments were coming into use and paid bands were beginning to appear.

...It is worth noting that the famous composer Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) was the son of one of the Waits of Cambridge. ...Two of his brothers, Edmund and Ellis were also musicians of note.  The father of composer John Banister was a Wait of St. Giles of the Fields; and another composer, John Ravenscroft, was a Wait of the Tower Hamlets.

...the waits are best remembered today as carolers who serenaded the public at Christmas time, though this was but a small part of their vocational activity.  They were licensed to receive alms for their music; and there is even a record of a legal suit against unlicensed singers who were undercutting the business of some of the waits.

...to this day, one familiar Christmas hymn, 'In Bethlehem, 'Neath Starlit Skies, by Grace Stutsman, is sung to the tune, 'The Waits' Carol'." (DMW)