Speakers
| Model | Drivers | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Event 20/20 | LF 8" HF 1" |
This was the first pair of studio monitors I wanted to buy when I was younger. Ended up buying this pair about 15 years later for a family member. |
| PMC TLE1 | LF 2x6.5" | Amp board from Bryston, though not very serviceable. The speaker disconnect relay does not close, which results in the sub farting when the amp is shut off. |
| D&B Ci80 | MF 8" HF 1" |
Coaxial drivers! |
| D&B E12 SUB | LF 12" | Compact folded horn design. |
| Canton Plus C | LF 12" | Dual voice coil, made in W. Germany. |
| Renkus Heinz CT5M | MF 8" HF 1" |
A huge mid-high horn driven by a coaxial mid/high driver, meant to fulfill a very specific need in a larger system. Left on the curb from a church in Rancho Bernardo, CA. I responded to their Craigslist ad. Yes, three can fit in my car. |
| Blue Sky Sat 6.5 | MF 6.5" HF 1.5?" |
You will have heard these speakers if took music courses in the large multi-purpose room CPMC at UCSD before 2018. I ended up buying four more from a local radio station in 2024. Has Vifa XT25SC dual ring tweeters that are unfortunately out of production, but can be replaced sufficiently with XT25 tweeters from their parent company, Tymphany (The T-S parameters are compatible). |
| Blue Sky Sub 12 | LF 12" | An extremely high performance sealed subwoofer design; works with the Sat 6.5 |
| JBL 4312A | LF 12" MF 5" HF 1" |
Bought from a surplus store and veener restored. The 035ti tweeter voice coil had broken, and I almost melted the speaker as I was learning to solder at the time. Currently my main listening speaker. (Workbench post) |
| Cerwin Vega VS120 | LF 12" MF 4" HF 1" |
My first woofer re-foaming job. |
| Cerwin Vega VS80 | LF 8" HF 1" |
Reconed for a friend. Size comparison with VS120. |
| Dell ADA995 | LF 2x6.5" | My first secondhand purchase. I bought this subwoofer by itself for $20 off Craigslist and would patch them together with some cheap home theater satellite speakers. This setup came with me to college. |
| Carvin Belair | 4x12" | A 50W tube amp. Far too much power for my needs, but I loved this amp growing up. This half stack consisted of a 2x12 combo and a 2x12 cab. |
| Psyclone Nodus | 2x5" | I had bought this on sale at Fry's Electronics. This speaker is just a big-box store speaker, but it has honorable mention because it was the first speaker that I bought as a child. It was also the last speaker that I had bought new. Tripath topology. |
Amplifiers
| Model | Channels x WPC (8ohm) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| B&K AV1260 | 12 x 55W | Sold to me as not working. The 5V voltage regulator for control was fried, and it was too much effort for me to fix . |
| QSC RMX850 | 2 x 185W | |
| Furman SP-20AB | 2 x 20W | Model AB has balanced XLR inputs. Wanted a compact amp to power a friend's Auratones. |
| Hafler 9180 | 2 x 105W | |
| Hafler P3000 | 2 x 150W | Internals laid out in a similar manner to the P1000 |
| D&B D6 | 2 x 600W | Has profiles to drive other D&B speakers correctly, can also function as a general purpose power amp . Inside photos |
| Crown CT8150 | 8 x 125W | Class D. From a family friend. |
| Hafler 9300 | 2 x 150W | A monolithic box with exposed heatsinks. Bought at a steep discount from a thrift store going out of business . Inside , current bias . |
| Sonance Sonamp ASAP3D | 2 x 50W | ICEpower topology |
| Fisher X101B | 2 x 60W | 6 x 12AX7/ECC83, 4 x 7591, 1 x GZ34/5AR4 |
| Yamaha CA400 | 2 x 20W | |
| Yamaha CR400 | 2 x 16W | |
| Crown CP660 | 6 x 75W | |
| Yamaha P2160 | 2 x 80W | Inside , another angle |
| Hafler P1000 | 2 x 50W | My favorite 1RU amp thus far: Styled in a very utilitarian manner on the outside , compact on the inside. Very easy to bias by output transistor current. |
| Sony TA-AX500 | 2 x 80W | Bought on behalf of a coffeeshop coworker. |
| Cambridge Audio SR20 | 2 x 85W | Probably the only amplifier that I had bought new. I ended up selling it to a friend , who got it to match quite nicely with his turntable. |
| Yamaha M85 | 2 x 260W | Can operate in a hybrid Class A mode under a certain power output, then switches to class AB for higher power. Sold to some buyer who apparently has a wall of 6 Klipschorns in his little living room and swears by using nothing but M45/65/80/85 and MX-1000 amps. I have concern for his sense of hearing. |
| Jolida JD-302B | 2 x 50W | 2 x 12AX7, 2 x 12AT7, 4 x EL84 |
| Yamaha P2150c | 2 x 100W | The commerical "c" model has smaller volume knobs. |
Studio Miscellany
| Model | Notes |
|---|---|
| Whirlwind pcDI | |
| Radial JDV | |
| Countryman Type 85 | Sounds great, hard to service due to all of the internals being potted in plastic. |
| Cymatic Audio uTrack 24 | |
| MOTU Ultralite mk4 | Suffered from an intermittent noise issue and ended up selling it (Workbench post). |
| Aphex 188 Preamp | Bought from Phil Ramone's estate with an outboard PSU modification done by Aphex. This preamp comes with digially-controlled gains and was used for IEM mixing for a live music endeavor. |
| Yamaha MLA7 Preamp | |
| FMR RNLA | "Really Nice Leveling Amp" |
| FMR RNC | "Really Nice Compressor" |
| Dolby LM100 Loudness Meter | Nice little hardware implementation of BS.770 LUFS/LKFS. Also works as a DAC for S/PDIF and AES3. |
| Dolby DP564 Multichannel Audio Decoder | Can decode an optical 5.1 PCM stream into 6 balanced outputs. Suffers from some firmware brick that has been stumped the online community. I gifted one and had to take it back because of the issue :( |
| MOTU 896mk3 Interface | Bought at a large discount because the firewire/USB interface does not work. I'm currently using it as a digital crossover between my JBL 4312As and subs. |
| Minidsp 2x4 | I initially got this to implement my own crossover, but was limited by the IO. Ended up selling it and using the Motu 896 for crossover. |
| Shure FP32a Field Mixer | Fun little VU meters! |
| Crown PCC160 | The boundary microphone that started it all. |
Measurement Equipment
| Model | Notes |
|---|---|
| Bruel and Kjaer Type 4158A | I was inspired by the lab equipment at work and decided to buy a pair on eBay. A flatter response and cheaper setup than equivalent pro audio mics! |
| Bruel and Kjaer Type 2607 Measuring Amplifier | This was the first thing I bought after my first work experience in acoustic research. Bought on eBay. |
| Endevco 102 | This is a two channel power supply made for providing CCP (constant current power) for accelerometers, but it works just as well for CCP mics. It also has some nice little wheels for hard-setting calibration factors. Mine comes with the Model 109 mains power supply. |
