Japan
Audio TubesJapan
Audio Tubes
Japanese Tannoy
by: Dr. Harvey`Gizmo Rosenberg, Guildmeister, The Triode Guild
On meta-gizmo.com!
by kind permission of the author 1998
I cannot read Japanese but I have spent much time studying the schematics in Nobu's book. I rightly looked at each circuit as a piece of triode art or poetry, and I could follow his searching; his restless exploration of uncharted triode territories. I could feel a shift in Nobu's focus and I could also feel just how courageous and rebellious he is. Any of you who saw his latest cookie jar amplifier at the CES knows what I mean. We should think of Nobu as either T. S. Elliot or Joyce in the way he has expanded the triode syntax and vernacular. Which is why I am so certain that it is timely to expand the way we communicate about triode circuits.As you read Nobu`s book there springs up a spontaneous artistic greed, I want to do that.
Pretty soon after reading his book our greedy artistic
imagination craves twenty new Shishido triode amplifiers. Nobu's
job is to make us jealous so we push further to test ourselves
and discover if we have the right triode stuff. Perhaps it would
be better say that he is also a master choreographer of the
triode dance. The metaphor of the triode dance is insightful,
with each triode artist twisting and turning and physicalising
his unique vision of triodosity. This is the first time that the
audio artisans of Europe, America, Japan, and Asia are jiving to
the same triode beat. These ancient glowing device are the audio
industries NASA Deep Music-Hyperspace Probe Only these devices
have the power to break free from the gravitational pull.
JAPANESE AUDIOMANIACS
`Fundamentally the marksman aims at
himself.`
Zen in the Art of Archery
If any of you are regular subscribers to Stereo Sound ($24 per issue and worth every pound) or MJ, you can skip this section.As you know from my previous writings, in the early 1980s while I was in Japan to receive an award for having perfected the Futterman OTL amplifier I discovered that to the ultra-serious Japanese audiomaniac Tannoy was not a loudspeaker, but a religion. These audiomaniacs were much more sophisticated and refined than their spam slinging brothers in America or truffle munching brothers in Europe and were sucking up every vintage Tannoy in the world in the same way they had sucked up every piece of vintage American tube gear, especially Western Electric, Marantz and McIntosh gear. The Japanese were so gah gah over Tannoy that Tannoy responded and manufactured a special group of loudspeaker just for this market, i.e. refined....and called The Prestige Series.I heard Tannoy loudspeakers many years before this trip, in the late 1960s, at Music Masters in NYC, but it wasn't until I heard them with single-ended triodes did I discover, for the first time, something much better than sex. Decades ago America was not ready to embrace what the Japanese knew well...high efficiency concentric loudspeakers are the Juliets for the Romeos of refined tube amplifiers. After a meeting with one of Japan's leading audio critics where he played me his Tannoy horns, I made a vow that someday...I too would be worshipping in front of the dual concentric alnico alter. And, of course for decades the Japanese audiomaniacs have been using, in their homes, professional studio monitors. Both JBL and Tannoy have always dominated the professional monitor markets and during this trip I found it very peculiar, indeed, to see these gigantic studio monitors in very small Japanese listening rooms. But there was method behind this musical madness. These professional monitors, like the Tannoy System 15 DMT II , are ultra high in efficiency (around 97 db) which means that ultra-refined low powered single-ended triodes are not stressed. When used with high efficiency loudspeakers, tube amplifiers always sound more refined because they are operating at their lowest distortion level and most importantly because the output tubes are under-stressed, they will have longer life, and if you are paying $800 for Western Electric 300Bs that matters. Yet, there is another compelling artistic imperative working here which is rooted in the Japanese culture and it is all about musical dynamics. Over the last few decades musical dynamics have become the poor step child in the American audio arts. Dynamic contrast is implicit in Japanese art. It is apparent in their painting, sculpture, language and music, and they express it in their audio arts, which explains why studio monitors are so popular for home use. Professional studio monitors are much more dynamic than consumer speaker, and that explains why the Japanese use them in their home...in the same way they use horn loudspeakers. So when you open a Japanese consumer magazine like STEREO SOUND you see both consumer and professional loudspeakers advertised. (Note: Tannoy will not sell its professional speakers in a consumer store in America, though you can buy them if you shop in the right places...pro dealers) Six years ago, I fulfilled my Tannoy vow that I had made decades earlier.
The single-ended triode aesthetic of Japan was
finally flowing in America largely due to Cary Audio and
AudioNote introducing single-ended triodes here. It was obvious
that both American and European audiomaniacs were finally
reaching the artistic maturity to appreciate what the Japanese
had been worshipping for years...tubes and Tannoys. While there
were more and more refined single-ended triode amps available in
America, there were simply no refined high efficiency
loudspeakers, so I called TGI, which is the Tannoy North American
distributor, and convinced them to send me a pair of the Tannoy
15 inch Dual Concentric professional monitors....the ones that
Japanese audiomaniacs use in their homes. TGI was so busy with
keeping up the demand for Tannoys, in the professional market,
they were not paying attention to the current American triode
renaissance. Are you aware of how many men are building
sophisticated digital recording studios in their homes or
closets?
By the early 1990s the passion for Tannoy in Japan was so intense
that the company was manufacturing some extremely way awesome
dual concentric coolosity... two amazing compound folded
horns...do I smell smoke billowing from your audio loins? Or let
me put it to you in Zen terms.....what more does a religious man
need than his Tannoys and his triodes?
Soon after the 15 inch professional monitor arrived I was
smelling, and eating Tannoy. I was dreaming Tannoy. I thought
about the Tannoys in the shower, and during sex with Cindy
Crawford I fantasized about my Tannoys to keep me excited. I no
longer needed to go to my favorite monastery for meditation and
prayer...I just listened to the Voice of God through my Tannoys.
DO YOU KNOW THE FEELING OF HAVING SEX WITH A TRANSPARENT
GREEN WOMEN WITH TEN BREASTS FROM MARS?
The above question explains my essential problem: explaining to
you the world of the Japanese audiomaniac. We American
audiomaniacs have absolutely no experiential frame of reference
for this world of crazed music lovers. This is exactly like
trying to explain what it is like to have sex with a Martian
super-model. We all know what sex is like; we share that context,
but sex with transparent green women is so completely different
than sex with female humans that unless you have had at least one
experience of doing it with a green transparent women you can't
understand what I am talking about. Trust me.
On the other hand A Ninja Mutant Teenage Japanese audiomaniac can
skateboard down to his local hi fi emporiums and listen to
hundreds of different types of horn speakers. This teenage solder
slinger knows the sound of acoustic suspension speakers,
mini-monitors, electrostatics, and he is keenly aware of the
unique qualities of horn loudspeakers. Even our most seasoned
sophisticated American audiomaniacs have not yet heard a typical
refined Japanese horn system, and this is why there is so much
confusion over this single-ended triode trauma tripping over the
tiny minded.
If you are into cosmic consciousness then you already understand
that the beginnings and ends of revolutions are inevitable. For
years, I, like so many others, were saying that the single ended
triode thing was inevitable, but at that point I digressed from
this group of triodians, because I asserted that the single-ended
triode thing was coming down because the audio winds are now
blowing from the east; the Japanese audiomaniac spirit has
invaded our shores, in the same way that Harley-Davidson is
invading theirs.
This revolution has not yet reached its maturity here because the
wholosity of the Japanese audiomaniac culture has not yet
appeared in its full power: the power to embrace great diversity,
eccentricity, strong personal expressions and unfettered
experimentation. Are you listening to a four way horn system with
a special triode amplifier custom designed specifically for each
driver? Does your turntable have three arms with different
cartridges? Do you like to listen to your local radio station on
a perfectly restored 1930s radio? Do you collect extinct triodes
because they are objet d'art?
Do you consider yourself a spiritual mature coach potato? Let me
suggest that the definition for a spiritually mature man, within
the Japanese culture, is a man who has found a profound form of
self-expression; a concrete method of affirming the world's
beauty by endowing it with his own form of beauty. The creation
of the Japanese audiomaniac's audio system is high art and
appreciated as such. Their approach to the creation of an audio
system is the same as their approach to pottery, calligraphy,
flower arrangement or the martial arts. The dialectics of
classicism and innovation in the Japanese arts have been refined
over centuries. This refinement is certainly expressed in their
audio systems.
At the concresence of the Japanese audiomaniac culture is the man
who, within the audio classics, creates his own very personal
vision of musical wonder. The greater the distance from brand new
just off the production line the better. The closer each pieces
comes to be custom made and personally reflective the more it is
adulated. We Fast Food Freddies are completely befuddled by this
culture worshipping pre-1965 American audio art that we consider
defunct. What is wrong with these crazies that they get woodies
over Western Electric and McIntosh?
Fascination with nostalgia audio is one of the most interesting
aspect of this community. Perhaps this context will help you
understand it. It is one that is close to my heart because for a
number of years my full time occupation was working to bring back
into production the classic 1940s Indian Motorcycle. One model we
are making is an exacting copy of the 1941 Model 441/Straight
Four. As you know nothing feels better than riding in the beauty
of America countryside on an antique motorcycle. It is an
entirely different experience than riding a hyper-tech crotch
rocket. For an increasingly large number of men riding an old
Harley-Davidson or Indian is ultimate expression of the ecstasy
of motorcycling. If you had a choice would you rather be driving
around in a perfectly restored 1953 Corvette or a brand new Dodge
Caravan?
When you call your friend up and shout with joy, I just received
delivery on my 1946 Indian Chief, be reminded that your Japanese
brother is about to tell his buddy with the same pride, I just
received delivery of my 1946 Western Electric amp. Both will be
powerfully magical forms of transportation.
Yet, there is another aspect of nostalgia audio that eludes our
understanding. According to the Japanese audiomaniac there are
classics in the audio arts; works that have a timeless quality of
beauty, even if it is within a very narrow area. For example,
amongst others, certain European moving coil cartridges from the
1970s, that we thought were extinct , are still made just for the
Japanese market. We all know that McIntosh re-introduced their
MC-275 for the Japanese. The list of classics worshipped is very
long. What could be more enjoyable than sipping a fine cup of Jim
Beam and listening to Frank Sinatra on my Marantz 7C? It is this
capacity to enjoy an expanded and more imaginative relationship
to audio gizmos that sets this culture apart. True enough,
creating a state of the art system at the edge is way cool, but
there is much much more. We are talking about creating and
enjoying multiple audio systems with completely different
personalities.
Have you forgotten how many men are employed in the consumer
electronics industry in Japan? Often the case is that the man who
is designing $49 boom boxes, is hand crafting a sublime one watt
single-ended triode, using an output tube that went out of
production in 1933. We are talking about massive technical
sophistication on the part of our brother crazies. This technical
confidence permits the audiomaniac to ponder each pieces with
great intensity. Here we have serious consideration of circuit
topologies by people who love to read and eat schematics. Here we
have coffee houses devoted to audiomania. (How many American
audio editors can read a schematic?) Here we have magazines that
are almost exclusively schematics for the home builder. Here we
have serious questioning on transformer design and the choice of
laminates. That is the point: there is so much high audio art
worthy of serious consideration. Here audio transformates into
meditation. This is the direction America is going.
If you ever have the good fortune to experience an authentic
Geisha dinner you would immediately grasp the artistic intensity
of the Japanese way of expression. Can you imagine what it would
be like to live in a culture that loves minute details?
Obviously, the beauty of an amplifier is directly related to the
beauty of the wiring....just check out the wiring of some of
these DIY amplifiers and see if you can't see the connection
between the elegance of the wiring and the Japanese art of flower
arranging?
A perfect example of what I am talking about is illustrated by a
quote from a fax I received from the now eternal Nobu Shishido,
one of Japan's master of audiomania, who you will be hearing
about in greater detail later on:
We have been experimenting on what a amp can be as a form of art,
sound-wise, design-wise, and construction-wise. We no longer see
an amp as just a tool to produce sound but see it as a work of
art in its entirety. You can say its a sculpture which also
produces sound, if you like; an experimental proposal to the
culture of future world of audio. The way it differs from just
sculpture is that this sculpture has to be constructed in a way
to improve sound also. So it's a delicate combination of art and
technology....
My fellow techno shamans I am suggesting after four decades of
xenophobia, we are finally gaining the ego strength of maturity
to be inspired by our Japanese audiomaniac brothers who have
created a luxurious Garden of Audio Eden so rich and diverse that
only a hemorrhoid suffering mealy minded mendicant would not want
to frolic in it. American men maybe ready to move from shopping
for musical ecstasy in the home to creating it.
I AM JUST A MUSIC CRAZED SUSHI SALESMEN
My job is to convince you to embrace the Japanese audiomaniac
point of view: create your own individual audio system as a form
of artification, of self-expression; get more involved in the
process of creating your unique musical context. It is my job to
fan your fires; the incandescent fire of unceasing exploration of
the audio arts. Even at the risk of being tedious I will say it
over and over again; we should pay much closer attention to our
Japanese brothers. We have much to learn from them and grock
their poop.
It should not surprise you that Europe's leading audio
manufacturers make special, and by that I mean refined, products
for the Japanese market. The European multi-century tradition of
trading with the Orient has sensitized them to this aesthetically
refined culture. As a corollary the Japanese demand the objet
d'art of European industry.
While this may horrify the audio Calvinists in America and compel
Harry Pearson to turn up his fire and brimstone of eternal Hell
and Damnation, Japanese audio critics play an active role in
developing serious audio gear. This cooperation between critic
and manufacture is openly acknowledged and fully supported
because their group ideas about art and culture are quite
different from ours. Before your Puritanical dander starts a
white tornado, let's put things in perspective about the Japanese
audio critic's power and role.
What if your readership is composed of very sophisticated,
technically trained men, who have fully developed networks of
audio experts and craftsmen, who are capable of their own
independent and authoritative evaluation. And what if all of this
is going on within an audio culture that applauds diversity,
eccentricity, creativity and exploration? How many American audio
critics are trained electrical engineers, or professional audio
designers? You will also note that Japanese magazines will do
group reviews where five or six critics work together to appraise
a new product or system, and in the process share ideas, disagree
and debate. Japan is a culture that values this type of group
interaction, while America is still the land of the lonely
morally righteous gunslinger coming into town to single handily
clean out the bad guys.
This is obviously a different audio culture than ours. The reason
I mention this is that the Tannoy cult of Japan, including their
most esteemed audio critics have been creatively involved with
the development of the Westminster series of horns. Only a fool
would ignore the wisdom and refinement of these critics. It would
be inappropriate to introduce such an important product without
getting the advice and consent of the Japanese Tannoy cult. To do
otherwise would be inviting marketing suicide.
For the sophisticated consumer there is enormous benefit in this
type of community process, and the Royals are concrete evidence
of this. A consortium of Scotch Tannoyite audiomaniacs and
Japanese audiomaniacs inspired each other and brought their art
to a higher level. The quality of the Royals is a reflection of
the collective passion and intelligence of this group.
Again, the audio value system here places personal creativity at
the top of the value scale. The thing to admire is commitment,
passion and the artification process, not whether the audio gizmo
you own got four stars from in a review. The audio hit parade has
little appeal to these men. Quite the opposite is true: creating
your own version of a classic like a 300 B amp single ended amp
is what is artful and worthy of prestige.
I also subscribe to the common Japanese audiomaniac point of view
about audio haute couture home design and decoration, which is
brazenly chauvinistic-a home exists for only one purpose: to
fully support one's audio system. All other design consideration
must be subjugated to this, including the trashing of antiques,
chintz and any feminine froo froo that gets in the way of a good
stereo image. Those who read Japanese audio magazines like Stereo
Sound and MJ are familiar with this form of haute audio home
decoration. There should be no concession given while searching
for musical ecstasy in the home, except a great listening chair
or couch.
Of course you are aware that many Japanese audiomaniacs build
custom HORN houses, which are built so the throat of their bass
horn is incorporated into the concrete foundation of their home.
In this way the horn can fold up the side of the house and the
mouth of the horn can open in the wall of the living room. It is
the only way you can create an ultra accurate bass horn, which
needs to be at least 20 feet long. This makes great sense because
if your bass horn weighs more than ten tons it will not resonate
in the audio band. I heard rumors that a new magazine is about to
appear in Japan called House, Horn and Garden.
The typical audiomaniac home has gigantic efficient speakers with
multi-custom made micro triode amps in small rooms played at very
moderate levels. This is one hundred eight degrees to the
American orthodoxy. Though some of these horn speakers have the
capability of filling an arena with sound, they are not used for
their sound pressure capability but for their effortless low
distortion dynamics at low listening levels, and by that I mean
no dynamic distortion in the music. This culture's pride in
subtly and refinement naturally flows into its values in audio
systems. Though a simple generalization is a dis-service to their
audio cosmology, let me assert that natural triode harmonics and
effortless dynamics are of the highest priority.
In the same way the Communist revolution became obsolete, our
thirty year old acoustic suspension/inefficient speaker
revolution has become obsolete. The Party that came to power on
the 200 watt amplifier to tame a 82 db efficient, 1 ohm speaker
platform is, like the Communists loosing their grip, and why
should we gripe about that?hermionic mediocrity and lift us off
and hurl us into the music beyond the music. This was confirmed
over and over again for me by listening to Nobu's interstage
transformer coupled 300B amplifier on the Tannoy Westminster
Royals. This Japanese triode master dude is exploring a
completely unique harmonic/spatial syntax. As I switched back and
forth many times between other 300B amps it was quite clear that
Nobu's concrete ineffable was manifest in this amplifiers. It was
Nobu's ability to manifest a completely unique triode syntactical
magic that compelled me to begin TRIODZILLA.
Over the months that I was listened to the three different models
of Nobu's works of art ( I used both his 300B and his 4304 amp on
tweeters and his 805 amp on the woofers) they became postcards
from some exotic place; they beckoned and thrilled me so that I
had to pack my bag and go to that place....but I wanted more and
I wanted something that would be mine....Isn't it the job of the
master to make his student go beyond the beyond?
I couldn't stand the tension; the jealousy that Nobu created in
me. Just like every other great master, his being, his art,
compels response. Nobu was pushing every button, and every time I
asked him why he did certain things in his circuit, he told me:
Harvey, I don't know why it is so beautiful, I just know that it
is beautiful, and that I trust. My fellow triodians isn't that
what Yoda, the Jedi Master, said to Luke Skywalker? Dudes, those
were words of advice from a living triode saint....strive for the
ineffable,..let the triode force be with you.
This section is of an article which is a detailed account of
my experience and tweaking the Tannoy Westminster Royals which
will shortly appear on the Triode Guild Web site
by: Dr. Harvey Gizmo Rosenberg, Guildmeister, The
Triode Guild
Please visit The Triode Guild website.