@bdp24

On pages 258-261 of his book "The Search for Musical Ecstasy", Harvey ’Gizmo’ Rosenberg describes hearing the NYAL Futterman OTL1 combined with the Altec "Big Red" for the first time:

"If you ever had any doubt about how bad Altec studio monitors can sound, just go into the average recording studio and listen to these speakers with the ever present Crown DC300 putting 150 watts of glass-infected power into these dinosaurs. Argh! .....

(But) think about the problem of recording engineers, producers and musicians ... moving from recording studio to recording studio. You do some tracks in one city and others in another city or state. If the monitors are not constant, then confusion will prevail. It is extremely important to have a stable reference point so that when you are doing your mix-down, you don’t have to constantly readjust your acoustical frame of reference. That is how the tradition of using Altec and JBL loudspeakers as studio monitors got started, and over five decades things haven’t changed much. .....

(Nevertheless,) I was trying to sell OTL-1s to the professional trade, and what better way to start than to convince Phil Ramone to use OTL1s in his own mixing room? With the help of his studio engineers, we disconnected his favorite glass-burning transistor amps and installed the OTL1s.

How would a 125 watt tube amp compare to a 1,000 watt transistor amp on these monsters? I really did think that these speakers were so inherently bad that nothing could make a difference, why spend $15,000 on tube amps when a $1,000 transistor amp will sound just as bad?

Spool up the 2-inch 30IPS master tape, boys, and let her rip. Every one of Ramone’s studio engineers were on hand to see what this 4 foot tube tower would do.

How good was the music?

My first impulse was to rush home and kick sand in my Quad’s face and say " Get outta here you audio wimps".

Here at last, was the ecstasy of the audio edge. This was a defining moment. How could anyone ask for more? At last, all the sweetness and natural harmonics of tubes with effortless and unlimited dynamics of what seemed like a gigawatt of OTL power. The voices were real, the drums were right there in the room. All of the harmonics were right, from the crash of the cymbals to the piano. This was the first authentic reproduction of state-of-the-art rock and roll music that I had ever heard.

I was stunned. This formula did what no other combination state-of-the-art audio gizmos ever had. Super-efficient horn loudspeakers with micro-powered tube amps is the formula for rock and roll ecstasy, which as you know is 180 degrees fro audioxtasist [sic] dogma. Yes, nothing else would satisfy the the longing for rock and roll ecstasy. ..... I knew what I wanted in my home.

At the next Audio Engineering Society Trade Show we demonstrated the Futterman OTL1s with the Altec Big Reds, 1-inch 30 IPS master tape played on a professional Studer tape deck.

Recording engineers were in disbelief at what they were hearing."

Jon tells me that my OTL3s - with George’s triode mod, the bass tweak that Jon added himself @frogman and the modern, contemporary caps - are now functionally equivalent to the OTL1s.

I have a pair of 604Cs from 1956, and a pair of 604Ds, from 1958.

Basically the pairing that Harvey describes. Harvey is a little hyperbolic (maybe omit the word ’little’), but I am inclined to agree with him: the sound is holographically encompassing, the dynamics allow for profound musical expressions in the vocals to show through, the bass is rock solid and convincing, the soundstage specific, the timbres and textures palpable.

I had decided on the Altec 604C - tube amp (Dynaco Stereo 70, then the Dynaco MK IIIs) combo in my early 20s, during the mid 1970s, about a decade before I discovered the Futtermans, so I didn’t need Harvey’s convincing. It was a natural progression for me.

@trelja yes we miss him for sure.

Question to anyone: what's with the "glass burning" transistor thing? why does he say "glass burning"?

@unreceivedogma thank you for letting us know.

It's a real shame to hear when people you care about pass on.

I met George Kaye in Las Vegas at THE Show in 2008.  We had a room across from his, and spent the week getting to know each as neighbors.  I don't have any recollection of the speakers he used, but was struck by the elegant looking and sounding Moscode amplifiers he built.  They had that warm, relaxed, lush sound that appealed to me in the sort of way that makes you forever remember it, and often wonder if you should purchase it.  I also noticed a lot of folks sought him out, wanting to give his amplifiers a listen, reminisce over the days many in this thread brought up, or just say hello.  Over the years I thought about his amplifiers many times.  More than that, I remember George Kaye as a warm, engaging, humorous, kind soul who offered us his generous insight, became my friend, and made that week memorable for the best of reasons.

Rest in peace, George and family

Thanks, @dogearedaudio- I was obviously confused. 

One serious problem with most OTL amps is their very high output impedance. When that behavior interacts with a wildly-varying modulus of impedance (the fancy way of saying impedance) in a loudspeaker (such as the QUAD ESL), the result is a different frequency response that when the speaker is driven by an amp with a low output impedance. Many loudspeakers are designed assuming they will be driven by the latter, and are voiced to sound accurate with such an amp.

In spite of the above, OTL amps partnered with the QUAD ESL (both single and double stacked pairs) was for years considered one of the best systems available. Harvey Rosenberg drove his stacked QUADS with Futterman OTL's for years. In spite of frequency response aberrations, OTL's were (and remain) valued for their transparency. Superior output transformers are hard and expensive to make, and are responsible for some of the weaknesses in tube amplifiers.

Two tube amp designers/makers who were known for their excellent output transformers were Tim DeParavicini of EAR-Yoshino and Roger Modjeski of Music Reference. Roger wound some of his transformers himself, for those willing to pay him to do so (I think it was a thousand dollar surcharge). For the unwilling, he had custom transformers manufactured to his specs. Most tube amp companies just pick their off-the-shelf/stock transformers from the catalogs of companies who make them.

Thanks for the spell check @bdp24 😊

@unreceivedogma , as you obviously know OTL’s are great with high impedance loads.  The Stax are a very difficult load.  From 40-800 hz their impedance is 100+ ohms.  Limited bass and volume, but if midrange is your thing, they sound glorious with good OTL amps.  

@scotandholly

Jon Specter, hopefully, learned everything he needed to learn from George, at least with regard to the Futtermans. He’s coaching a guy in Oklahoma who is building a couple Futtermans. Jon worked under George for almost a decade, so I’m guessing he knows his way around Moscodes.

@frogman 

I drive a pair of 16 ohm Altec 604Cs. 

The Futtermans are better at 16 than at 8, and they hate 4.  
 

theaudioatticvinylsundays.com

Right you are @frogman. Harvey (I’m sure Harvery was just a typing mistake) was well known for his love of three hi-fi products: The Futterman OTL amps, the QUAD ESL loudspeaker, and Decca pickups.

Harvey befriended Julius Futterman, eventually talking him into giving him the rights to his OTL circuit design, and to manufacture amps employing that circuit. Harvey wasn’t an engineer, and he hired George Kaye to help him in fixing the problems the Futterman OTL’s were infamous for. He marketed them under the New York Audio Labs (NYAL) moniker.

Another fan of the Futterman OTL was Roger Modjeski of Music Reference renown. Roger studied the Futterman OTL design for years, and came up with an OTL that solved the problems inherent in the Futterman. He eventually sold the rights to his OTL to Counterpoint, who marketed their own version of Roger's design.  

Yeah, that's the guy.

If I’m not mistaken it was the infamous Harvery “Gizmo” Rosenberg who founded NYAL.  George worked for NYAL and later kept the brand name.  

@unreceivedogma , I still have the pair of Stax F81’s that I always hoped would be able to drive with a pair of Futterman’s.  Best midrange and small(er) scale soundstaging I have ever heard.

RIP, George.

Unfortunately, this is just part of our existence. So many of our teachers are passing. We will be next. Pass on some knowledge before you go.

RIP G. Kaye

I think I remember a former, well known Audio reviewer (whose name escapes me) was involved with NYAL?

George Kaye was the founder and designer of New York Audio Labs (NYAL). I have one of his hybrid tube/transistor amps: the Moscode 150 (75 wpc). 6CG7 front end, Mosfet outputs. NYAL also made some OTL tube amps based on Julius Futterman's H3aa circuit. Go to the Stereophile archives to read a review of the Moscode 300 amp.

No, it’s the same George Kaye of Moscode. Lyric HiFi was Mike Kay.

https://www.moscode.com/george_kaye_moscode.htm

Are you guys confusing a bassist with the guy that owned Lyric Hi-FI?

@frogman

I bought my pair of NYAL Futtermans from Dave Wasserman’s Stereo Exchange in 1985.

at first, when something went wrong with them, I took them to Dahong Seetoo, but Dahong soon went on to bigger and better things, eventually winning 5 Grammys for his work with the Emerson String Quartet, and though he always found time for me because I was one of his very first customers, he was never really a tube guy anyway, and somehow I then found George Kaye. He did the first overhaul, but when he moved to Brattleboro, well, that was a distance, and then I found Jon Specter, who was in Staten Island, who did the recent overhaul and installed George’s triode conversion for me. Jon can be heard here at this Dan Lynch YouTube bootleg, he is a blues guitarist and member of the blues hall of fame: https://youtu.be/k_BYPhgsooI?si=gQHL6ZasLA8klk9g Look in the comment to see Jon’s amazing bio/resume. I have been really blessed to know both of these guys. 

RIP 

Not mentioned in the article is that George played a large role in the design of the New York Audio Labs line of hybrid (tube input stage, mosfet output stage) electronics. I owned the NYAL Super It phono amp in the mid-80’s.

Very sad news indeed. RIP.

Very sad to learn this.

Excellent player he was! Not mentioned in his obit is that he also spent a fairly long stint as saxophonist Houston Person’s bassist.

I got to know George years ago when I would make periodic trips from my home in Brooklyn, NY to his house in Yonkers out of which he operated his audio equipment repair and modification service with emphasis on NY Audio Labs vintage gear. He was a very talented electronics designer as well as musician. He was the designer of many of the NYAL “Moscode” pieces. The Moscode 600 amplifier was my first “serious” amplifier and George did some wonderful updates/mods to it. To this day I regret not buying the pair of Futterman OTL’s that he offered to sell me.

Great guy who was very energetic and passionate about music and audio. He will be missed.

@unreceivedogma 

I'd never heard of him but if he played with N. Brignola, he must've been an excellent player. Reading the article, I get the sense he was a not only a multi-talented individual but a person who who touched those he met in memorable ways. It comes as no surprise that such an individual is sorely missed.