Old dog, New tricks? From Wisconsin.

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Just what I need, more motivation to stack up more new projects. Or perhaps at least get me further into the ones collecting dust right now? Such as the HK Citation 12 with hum in one channel. But rather than going after another e-bay one, or just recapping it, I decided to try the Pass MOSFET mod I had found on the net some time ago. So a Google effort led me to here. It's been a long time since I did any serious circuitry work. But the urge has been growing.

Growing up with an interest in electronics and in the era where transistors where just staring to replace tubes, I was used to the smell of solder resin. Mainly from Knightkits, but also Lafayette and Eico and homebrew, I built amps, CB's, VTVM, VOM, tube tester, CB tester, pirate AM radio xmitter, speaker cabinets w/hand wound xovers, strobe lights, power supplies ... I was also the family TV repair guy.

While in college for Electonics, I got a part time job selling Stereo equipment. Suddenly I found I enjoyed selling the stuff more than making it. And I was good at it. So good that when I graduated I was offered a regional manager position to run 4 stereo "stores" (leased dept's inside a Dept Store) in the Atlanta area. The company was being bought out just as I was transferring almost 1,000 miles away from home. 6 months later I was in a new part of the country and unemployedas the new company was not interested in the stereo shops, just the record distribution arm of the company.

A local manufacturers rep company hired me to cover 2nd level markets in GA. Then transfered me to TN to cover that state. We rep'd Marantz ('72, 2230 generation) Sony tape decks, Superscope, Pioneer Car Stereo, Grundig, and various other consumer electronics stuff. Had the chance to meet Joseph Tushinsky w/ Hugh Hefner during a Superscope national sales meeting held at the Playboy Mansion in CA. Met Saul Marantz in Knoxville TN at a show while he was pushing John Dahlquist's new spkrs. Gave him a Marantz belt buckle. Discussed the concepts of TIM with Dr. Matti Otala before it hit, and eddie currents in PS rails. Toured Cerwin Vega where Gene Czerwinski made one of his famous dome woofers for us by glueing half a basketball onto a woofer.

Japaness stuff was just starting to gain credibility in modest priced HiFi. Kenwood's models like the 1030 were replacing Marantz at Opus II in Memphis and HiFi House in Knoxville TN, some of my golden ear'd dealers. I was hired away by the Rep company that handled Kenwood, so followed the trend. I was Dr Maxell throughout the SE, doing the tape clinic shows at local dealers. I did the "High speed" clinics for Kenwood when they were intro-ing the KA907 series. Travelled with sig gen, storage scope and high wattage 8ohm loads measuring slew rates and rise times of all that brought their amps in. Sony just intro'd their switching PSs. Fry'd a number of them. Refused to test any more. Saw how poor most equipment was. By mistake, left a KA907 on at full output 1K squarewave during lunch, came back to a smoldering table from the load resistors heat. The amp was doing fine! Had a real interesting session in Knoxville TN wherre a local college had a class on building amps, students lined up with their personal best. Did the Audio Technica stylus exam ($5K stereo optic microscope) tour and found things like Sure's top cart (V15 III? Memory is getting bad) with as much as a 90 degree stylus rotation! So much junk out there. Set up the first Signet cartridge dealers in the country. Travelled with AR 9's doing a tour on their new line. Intro'd the Nagatron cart line, including their fantasic (and lower output than MC) ribbon cart! Toured with the just intro'd Audio Purist line including listening sessions at Fat Julian's in Atlanta which became a write up in Absolute Sound. He was amazed at the sound of the LO7's. Gave group training sessions with CMC, Pacific Stereo, Dixie HiFi (now Circuit City, but that is a whole bunch of other stories) and others. Finally got tired of the road and went back into retail at a friend's place in Kingsport TN. With in 6 months I was moving back to Wisconsin and out of consumer electronics and into Broadcast Video.

Now running my own IT operation. Kids grown and some following my love of old school audio, I have a chance to get back into it to play. Decades of pent up diyaudio energies surfacing. And a good sized collection of vinyl including demo pressings of Telarc, Toshiba, DTD, ... from my repping days.
 
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