One of my fondest vintage sound memories has to be at the age of 16 when I would ride my bicycle up to the high end hifi shop on Yonge St in Richmond Hill. This was the dream shop that I learned much of sound quality and equipment. I remember getting my first taste of Carver units and doing comparison tests with the other amps of that era. The sales rep who's name I forget was my sound guru. I do remember he was extremely tall. We would spend hours listening and testing in the sound room and he was always delighted to teach me the terms and train my ear. To spend that much time with me at that age was very exciting as I loved the pure sound he would demonstrate.
Hearing for the first time
Steely Dan's Gaucho album thru the amazing
Energy 22 Connoisseurs was just spectacular. In 1982 these retailed for $1,200. The hyper dome tweeter
is amazing and the relatively small cabinets produced a bottom end out of these small polypropylene woofers of 30Hz, seriously low. The timbre and backing keyboards were sweet sounds that I had never experienced prior to that day.
It was sooo pure and clean and of course it was vinyl. The imaging of these speakers was magical. A wide dispersion of sound filled the room urging you to place each instrument's location in your mind.
It was the Carver M-400t that pushed this masterpiece LP thru the 22's. Dubbed "
the cube" the M-400t differs from the M-400a seen here on my friend
Lloyd's blog, in that Bob Carver emulated a true tube amplifiers sound. It was an experience that is really what Vintage sound is all about. Even at the age of 16. Listen to
"my rival" to really hear the full dynamics of this album.
