Dear SoundMan - I live in Nashville a short drive away from Al Gores mansion. I passed it last night and the place was all lit up. I swear you can hear the power meter whirring in protest just by rolling your windows down. Here’s my problem. I’ve got a gig this next weekend and I’m afraid that Al is hogging all the power and there won’t be enough for my guitar amp. I can’t afford to cancel the gig, I haven’t worked in over 6 months, and I don’t have an acoustic guitar to play. Is there any way to round up enough AC so I don’t starve to death? Sincerely - The Starving Artist

Dear Starving Artist -

Sorry to hear that you play an electric guitar that you’re out of work. Now if you were a soundman like me instead of a guitar player you’d know this old SoundMan trick.

The average dynamic microphone (it’s that thing you try to sing into that’s sitting in front of your face) modulated at an average speaking level produces about 7.4 mV of alternating current [1] and there are somewhere around 2 billion (that’s billion with a B) microphones manufactured each year [2]. (Hell, SoundMan even have a few million or so hanging around in his closet.) So plug up about a half a years worth and hum at 60 Hz. Nothing to it.

- SoundMan -

SoundMans Sonofarm™ in Southwest Utah Old microphones never die - SoundMan just puts them out to pasture at his Sonofarm™. [1] Clifton Laboratories [2] Analog Dialoge

Not everybody is counting on a government handout.

Tags: Will mix for food

I just spotted this in The Washington Times. A German production company was given $700,000.00 to provide production for Obama when he appeared in Berlin this summer. Our congratulations to the SoundMan who sold that show. We hear that he is now retired and living on his own private island somewhere in the Pacific.

Great gig if you can get it.
(Click to enlarge)

Mike Sveda sent in this photo taken at a Lenny Kravitz show. Apparently the lighting crew was in charge of the PA rig that day. I hear they are taking applications for a new SoundMan. 220 - 221 - What ever it takes.

Let's see - over twenty years of MUSEP shows - at least 13 Sundays a year - an average of say 20 pictures taken by the press each of these shows - that's like what, a lot of pictures of people at MUSEP and THIS one ends up in the Rhino Times this summer? SoundMans been waiting for someone to catch even the back of his head or maybe even just his hand turning a knob. I don't know of any other one person that has been more exposed at a MUSEP concert over the years and it all comes down to this. Ah, so it goes. Pay no attention to that SoundMan behind the curtain. Sleep well. Yet another season looms ahead and you deserve your beauty sleep.

Craig Bess from Vision 2 Marketing sent me another great photo that I though I would share with you. Some things are just not worth fixing. Sometimes you just have to clean out the trash to make room for the good stuff. To bad someone had to make the same mistake three time though. Long live MIDAS.

The shopkeeper in this article in the Daily Mail found a unique solution to a his problem with the help of Electro-Voice loudspeakers.

Click here to see the entire article.

Dear SoundMan - I have a pair of ancient Bozeman Speakers (15 inch). Is there a secret or formula (that you can devulge) to building a good cabinet with deep bass resonance. Help me Oh Master Sound Man, you are my only hope! - Sincerely, Roodytunes

Dear Roodytunes,
So let me see if I have this right. You think SoundMan is OLD enough to know something about a pair of "ANCIENT Boseman speakers". Now be careful. It's not polite to reveal a SoundMan's age. I've got an image of ageless wisdom to preserve.

But seriously though - ARE YOU KIDDING ME. it's been years since I've heard of anybody trying to build their on speaker cabinets. You trying to put a poor Chinese guy out of a job of something? For heavens sake, those speakers weren't worth cutting down a tree for when they were new. Send those poor ancient Bosemans to the landfill where they can rest in peace. Get with the program, help fuel the new global economy by buying a pair of a pair a speakers that were made in this century. If your heart is still set on playing Frankenstein, I just got 376,000 hits on Google with the key words loudspeaker cabinet design.

Thanks for blowing my cover Butch. Just remember - you were my college roommate and GRADUATED BEFORE I DID.
Sincerely - SoundMan

I was browsing photo's from this last year and I ran across this photo that I had somehow hadn't noticed before. So how about it. We could all use a little humor this holiday season. Help me out with a photo caption that could also be used as a slogan for the new year.

We're everything we're cracked up to be.

Filling in all the cracks for you.

Service with a (vertical) smile.

Leave you're titles in the comment section.

The Dynacord Xa System brought down the house parking lot for a Ham's restaurant sponsored bash in front of their Brassfield location on the North side of Greensboro. One stage right, Regional rock tribute band 80'Z Enuf, provided their new Xa system and on stage left CareySound provided the other Xa System.
The BOSCH Gnome makes an appearance.

David Coble, hands down the best live SoundMan in the region at the helm.

Hey Randy, check out the EQ curve - smoooooth.
Oops, I forgot that I wasn't going to reveal names. Sorry.

The BOSCH Gnome in line array mode.

The BOSCH Gnome as Flux Capacitor.

And to question, who won the contest?, everybody there of course.

Remember the article I posted in June entitled Drum Roll Please about the Electro-Voice Model SP13.5TRBXWK? Well, it appears that someone has built something that looks a whole lot like it called the Hornmassive. According to the designer inventor artist, Matt Hope, "It functions as a mobile audio input station whereby people can plug-in in order to project "content" ... intended to catalyze social activities in multiple settings." Hmmmm... Anyway click here to go to his site and be prepared to be amazed.


By the way, Jim Long of Electro-Voice, writes the following about the origin of the Electro-Voice Model SP13.5TRBXWK .

Saga of the Electro-Voice Model SP13.5TRBXWKRearaxial Softspeaker Data SheetBy Jim Long, July 20, 2004,for KahnVention VI Souvenir Booklet - This is primarily from my recollection and samples of three different variations of this no-doubt-famous data sheet created by the late, lamented and brilliantly clever Dean Nordquist, former EV sales and advertising man and, later, the EV rep in the Pacific Northwest. The model number is a takeoff on the EV convention of the 1950’s, in which high-fidelity component loudspeakers sported monikers such as 12TRXB, SP15B and 15WK. Figure 13 shows a line drawing of the device, which reveals it to be rather ahead of its time, being both powered (note ac cord) and evidently capable of acting as a standalone PA system (note ribbon microphone).Three Different Versions - The SP13.5TRBXWK data-sheet variations with which I have been familiar turn out to be the two later ones, identical except for an updated format for the last version. A couple of years ago, Jon Kelly, a kingpin in the EV hi-fi businesses of the 1960’s and early 1970’s, pointed out that there was an earlier, first version, different not only in format but also in copy and in the Figure 5 testimonials from satisfied customers. The four testimonials themselves are unchanged but the first three customers are different. Jon explained that the copy and customer names contained thinly veiled references to competitors of the day. According to Jon, Al Kahn, founder and president of Electro-Voice until 1968, and in my view a true audio gentleman, took offense to these references and ordered them changed.In July 2004, Jon not only sent me an original of the first version but also supplied interesting comments about the competitive references. I have reproduced the text of his e-mail message below (slightly edited):Here is what I can recall/deduce about Dean's arcane references in the data sheet, and later mods. Front side: Feathers good-luck charm and stylus pressure gauge: obvious reference to Paul Weathers, who had a one-gram-tracking phono pickup when most others were still at 6 grams or so, and a cute, simple and accurate gauge. FEATURES: lavatories instead of laboratories seems pretty innocuous, but Al must have been using his highly sensitive good-taste filter. Bob N.: it was changed so must have been a reference to someone, but I don't know who.  Maybe George remembers. Miss Myriam S.: a reference to Myriam Simpson, a factotum at Masco, amplifier manufacturer.  (My first "component" amplifier was an 8-watt Masco, circa 1952.) Walter S: not certain, but could well be Walter Stanton, the phono-cartridge manufacturer. Back side: Kensico Ave.: it was changed to North Southwestern Ave. in the revised version.  Allied Radio in its heyday was at 100 North Western Avenue.  Kensico may have been the address of someone else more "sensitive," but I don't know. Large Barrington: High Fidelity magazine was headquartered in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, in those days. Faith and Charity, Ark: obvious pass at Klipsch, in Hope, Arkansas. Madglockenschpielergongenemoryclothenlab: because it is spelled "emory," it is a reference, I think, to Emory Cook, early maker of audiophile recordings.  Hope this helps.  Funny...I can't remember what happened yesterday, but this old stuff is still retrievable.

Dear Audio World -
SoundMan is feeling kind of spunky after his recent review and has decided to share a little industry scuttlebutt. Reading yesterdays post about the back story on the Klark-Teknik's Square One Dynamic processor has reminded me of a little 'back story' of my own. From highly placed anonymous sources of course, there is an interesting story behind the Bosh buyout of Telex. It seams that Bosh, wanting nothing but the best, rejected the other major players for Telex because the other candidates were not up to snuff, including the 800 lb. gorilla Harmon Industries (you know JBL, Crown, DOD Sound Craft, et all).

I used to say that if you bought gear from any of the premium manufactures you weren't getting ripped off you were just buying a different sound philosophy. They were all producing quality products but what's been up with JBL recently. A once proud company now turning out an unrelenting stream of inferior products. It couldn't be that all their talented engineers have jumped ship and joined the TELEX team.

I'm still waiting for a response on the line-array loudspeaker shootout challenge.
Congratulations TELEX! Maybe next time Harmon (love your car speakers though).

Sincerely - SoundMan

[Note from the publisher: Darn it SoundMan, you can't publish that stuff. I'm sorry I had to step in and censor your post but we've talked about this kind of stuff before and you promised to behave. I'm sorry readers that you had to see us fight in public like this but we have to have some kind of standards - right?]

[Note from Dale: To heck with the publisher. I'm putting the censored text back in!]

[Note from John: This kind of junk doesn't belong on the CareySound site SoundMan. If you want to air your dirty laundry , get your own blog. Don't get me wrong now, I've yet to meet a JBL product that I can stand to listen to, but it seems that you are trying to start a war and this just isn't the place to do it.]

[Note from SoundMan: Hey wait a minute. I'm just trying to get a little friendly competition going. I'm sorry if the truth hurts. Come on, how about a little Dynacord on JBL action (and what the heck a little Yorkville or Meyer). We could even sell a few tickets for the old soundman's retirement home. It would be fun! Quit taking life so seriously.]

[THE FINAL WORD FROM Ken Carey: Alright everybody, you need to take this outside so we can get back to the mission at hand, proving a useful SAFE place for all of our readers to sharpen up their audio knowledge and skills. PLEASE dear readers let us know the kind of things you would like to see on the CareySound site before this kind of nonsense erupts again!]

Craig Bess of Vision 2 Marketing did a loudspeaker shoot out in the fall of 2005 with some of his friends in Charlotte and was gracious enough to send us this short slideshow of the results of the power test.

Electro-Voice Model SP13.5TRBXWK
A CareySound.com Exclusive -

We are excited to announce that Electro-Voice is poised to release the world's most advanced audio system. A system so advanced that even EV's sister company MIDAS has temporarily had to halt production of their new XL8 Live performance System for redesign.

Decades ahead of it's time, this revolutionary system by Electro-Voice has only recently been possible to manufacture due to late breaking advances in computer, molecular and material science. The visionary brilliance of the late Dean Nordquist of EV is poised to become a reality. Over 40 years of secret research and development, in an unmarked basement laboratory in the old EV factory in Buchanan, MI, has gone into the project. It's has long been rumored that world renown Electro-Voice audio guru Jim Long remained in Buchanan along with the shadow president of EV, Paul McGuire, to oversee the completion of the project.

Thanks Dean - The audio world owes you a debt of thanks for your visionary genius.

An advanced copy of the SP13.5TRBXWK electronic data sheet can be found in the Tech Download section to the right .

(read more - pdf)