Showcase--Leach and Jung turned out under a craftsman's hand; Editorials
COVER STORY
Reggie Williamson's prototype 40/40 power amplifier and the excellent photograph on our cover are only two of his varied interests which includes beer brewing, amongst other things. They also include his work for the British post office-keeping the telephone lines working properly, helping with a local hospital radio group, chairing the National Gramophone Society and commissioning, with his wife Audrey, a composition by William Alywn. He's now begun doing stints as recording engineer for some special organ music recordings in the Royal Albert Hall. An enthusiastic traveler, he lives in Norwich, England.
Reader Andrew Spillios of Laramie, Wyoming has earned a free two-year subscription to The Audio Amateur by recognizing, on our 3/79 cover, the stylus assembly of a Euphonics Model 15 phono cartridge just prior to assembly. The factory location: Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. Mr. Spillings informs us that the strain gauge format of the Euphonics is now produced, with many modifications by Sao Win, Win Labs, Goleta, CA.
Showcase
Audio AMATEUR, Randy Vikan of Edmonds, WA obviously likes building beautiful audio gear. Above left, a view inside his Leach power amp (Audio) built with Walt Jung's speaker saver (TAA, 3/77) sporting its relay where the transformer is normally mounted on the board. At right, another view of the amp showing its massive toroidal power transformer.
Below, left, Vikan's precision attenuator inside a Dyna chassis with Leach's low-TIM preamp installed.
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Editorial
ONE DECADE
THE TOP OF THE MASTHEAD in this issue marks a milestone in Audio Amateur's short history of ten years. We congratulate this October, two elder publications. Popular Electronics is twenty-five and Radio-Electronics marks a half century of publication.
Time in electronics is crowded with development. Some of it is progress, some results only in indigestion. The end of this first of TAA's decades exhibits a slump in consumer audio and a rising desire for better reproduction.
Time's passage is producing one most encouraging sign for audio's future. While engineering schools nearly everywhere treat audio as a decidedly minor Cinderella, this generation of engineering graduates grew up in the sixties with the 'new'' attitude toward sound.
My hi-fi system in my college dorm during the forties was a one-of-a-kind novelty. 'Stereos,"' by the late sixties, had become necessities of life for anyone under thirty, and those "anyones'' include today's engineers. They're specializing in any esoteric branch of engineering you can name, taking jobs in such pursuits as computers, instrumentation, military hardware, and electronic astronomy. But they also love music and their avocational enthusiasm is significantly enriching this hobby and this magazine.
After ten years we can view the growth of serious do-it yourself audio to its present level with some modest satisfaction. TAA closes this year with a circulation near seven thousand. But the disturbing fact is that in countries one fifth the size of the USA, France and England for ex ample, the audio avocation flourishes at a level many times higher than that in the USA. We're richer and lazier, of course. Necessity and relative poverty mother far more than inventiveness.
But TAA is not growing with any rapidity despite the fact that we obviously have a hobby which ought to grow in an increasingly electronic world. Our neighbor Byte Magazine, all about constructing computers, is approaching 150,000 monthly circulation after four years of publication.
TAA, we believe, has steadily improved in the projects it offers. These get more demanding as the art becomes more precise. The time our authors must invest grows.
Frankly we can see possible projects coming which the present size of the magazine cannot afford.
Designing excellent equipment has never been more difficult, building it has never been easier. Good hand made gear has never been better, the number of people building it has never been smaller.
Do it yourself audio is a great avocation whose joys are as varied and as satisfying as any pursuit we know about.
It is a rare day when we don't get a letter from a reader including that encouraging phrase ''keep up the good work." We will if you will. But it seems to us that audiophiles must begin to spread the good work by some good words, to friends and acquaintances if we are to fulfill that dictum with distinction.
We are announcing, with pleasure, the advent of a new magazine for audiophiles devoted entirely to the theory and construction of loudspeakers. Speaker Builder will be aimed more toward simple skills, and a group of potential audiophiles who are fairly sure they can assemble a kit speaker or build one with the aid of a local lumber yard.
Our strategy is fairly simple. Speakers are a big subject and can use a separate magazine's space easily. The many folks who think they can build speakers aren't all that sure about their electronics construction skills. We hope Speaker Builder can make converts of them.
Does that mean Audio Amateur will give less space to speaker construction? Yes, it does. But TAA will still publish some material on speakers, crossovers, and the like.
Some TAA readers who are speaker buffs may want to shift over to SB entirely. We'll have a way you can trade TAA dollars for SB dollars, of course.
Why not increase TAA to five issues-or six? Well the ad pages of TAA are supporting more pages per issue but present circulation levels will keep the number of issues at four until we see some significant circulation growth.
Our second decade really begins very far indeed from our beginnings, and yet closer to friends who helped make those early issues possible. We begin decade two decidedly hopeful and with more pleasure over audio's prospects then ever before. We hope you share those feelings and plan to enjoy it with us.
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Also see:
The Williamson 40/40, Power Amplifier--Return of an improved favorite after a decade