CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

Tim in Phoenix · Joined: 21 Oct 2006 Posts: 4409 Location: Phoenix

Okay Guys

I confess, I had a humble start in this business!

Novabeam Model One 6.5', JVC Vidstar, Infinity ServoStatik 1s, Mc60 amps, Quad 303 amp, Revox Tuner Preamp, Revox A77, Thorens with SME arm, circa 1985.

I still have and use the Servos and Quad amp!!! The audio is upgraded some; an Audio Research LS3 preamp, a Quad 405 amp for midrange, two BagEnd Infra 18s, a Panasonic DVD-A300 for CDs, iTunes from an iMac 21.5, a Panasonic DPM-BD45 BluRay, and a brand X OTA digital tuner. And the infamous BlendZilla processor with two M9500s for today.

My first serious projector was a Marquee 8000 that I snagged for $500 from a competitor in Detroit who took it in on trade but didn't want it (Barco dealer). I used that a couple years and sold it to Bob Sorel in Rhode Island after I relo'd to Scottsdale. After that it was one M9500, then two.

**kal** · Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2018 4:19 am Post subject:

That's not a humble start for the time Tim - That's some pretty high end equipment for back then considering what most people were using at the time!

Kal

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2018 5:09 am Post subject:

I think it's time for a "What I was running in 1985" thread.

jbltecnicspro · Joined: 23 Apr 2016 Posts: 512

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2018 4:03 pm Post subject:

Sadly I have no pix, although I do have an 8mm film from maybe 1979 of me in my shop in my parent's basement. I should digitize that one day..

My first HT though would have been a VHS machine to an old Barco Data with super soft tubes, on a 5 x 7 pulldown screen. No idea of the speakers, but I know I had a Sansui AU-719 amp to drive everything.

Tim in Phoenix · Joined: 21 Oct 2006 Posts: 4409 Location: Phoenix

Yeah

It was kind of nuts for the day. Sound quality from video sources was so lame I didn't bother feeding them to the stereo!

I may have altered the course of history a little. Alan Caskey walks in to our showroom one morning, he's our Electrohome rep in 1990. He sees a NovaBeam running and comments that it looks pretty good. We had been whining that our ECP 4100s looked pretty good on CAD workstations for a hundred hours or so, then the lame-ass SD187 Sony tubes would go soft and stay soft; it was not helping sales.

I sez to Alan, "Yeah, and it has a more advanced focus system than you guys use!"

THAT got his attention. "What do you mean Tim?"

"They had magnetic focus in NovaBeams from day one."

"What is magnetic focus?" he sez. Alan is trained in finance but he is somewhat technical.

A circuit tracks beam current and sends a voltage to windings on the tube neck to constrict the beam just right regardless how bright the picture is, I tell him.

I have a couple of deceased NovaBeam tubes in my office; I pull off a focus yoke and hand it to him. "Here, have your engineers look at this and try it on some tubes."

They rolled out the Marquee about two years after, and we were thankful that they had incorporated mag focus.

wanderer · Joined: 11 Jan 2015 Posts: 76

Tim, those pics are awesome. I'm just imagining what those MC60 amps would sell for now. Cool stuff!

So this was 1985 and I'm thinking Beta Hifi was likely out, Laserdisc and VHS HiFi were probably about to come out. I really want to know what your next upgrades were after these pics were taken! I can only imagine having a good audio source playing and almost regardless of the composite video signal, this would have been fantastic for the time.

Tim in Phoenix · Joined: 21 Oct 2006 Posts: 4409 Location: Phoenix

Uhhh

That is largely the system I moved to Scottsdale with. The Novabeam died and I got an M8000 cheap in 1998, about a year before I moved to Arizona. The Thorens and 400 vinyl discs were replaced by a brand X CD player and later by a Panasonic DVD-A300, which has a stunning audio section; I still have two of those, now used just for audio. The Infinity woofer was tubby and underpowered so that got replaced by a Marchand electronic crossover and two self-powered BagEnd Infra 18s at 400w each. 10hz to 30khz lets you shake the plaster with subsonics and hear tiny percussion sounds.

It was a sad story on the MC60s. I took them to a guy local here in Tempe for installation of gold RCA sockets and a checkup. Jim Munser built tube amps from scratch and was a gifted engineer. He got a little confused and crossed some wires and fed the outputs back into the inputs and the amps were damaged when I got them back in the system. They made a faint squealing noise and the 6550s turned purple. He fixed his mistakes but the transformers were overheated and failed soon after. I got a thousand in a sale for those to a guy who had them rebuilt. Worth $3K or more now.

CIR Engineering · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2018 2:34 am Post subject:

That was a mighty fine system Tim. I wish I had photos of my older setups... I never think to take pics.

craigr

UncleWill · Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2018 6:53 pm Post subject:

Wow. Cool setup. Has a definite post-midcentury, post-modern vibe. So MUCH brown.

Remember the stone age? This picture looks like it was taken in the WOOD age! Smile

The wired remote on that NovaBeam looks badass, but the 10" reels are CLUTCH!!

Do you have any more pics?

Tim in Phoenix · Joined: 21 Oct 2006 Posts: 4409 Location: Phoenix

Nope

That's all the pix I have from that apartment. I still dig rosewood though. I have a Wesnofa rosewood dresser that's fantastic.