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"?