vintage audio...costa rica style...

[gene french]

good evening....

dont know if there is any interest here...but, i will ask...

in the past years i have been collecting and rebuilding vintage stereo equipment....mostly phase linear and hafler...

i have built quite a system for myself 2300 watts rms......i have 2 monoblocked  hafler p230s running the woofers .... a cool 700 watts rms...into 15" dayton audio bass reflex woofers...

i have 2 white oak upgraded phase linear 400s...running a set of voigt pipes and the 10" midranges....an upgraded stock phase linear 400 running the 6" mids and an upgraded phase linear 400 running the tweeters...

i have a smsl dac driving the preamp...along with the fm tuner ....

i have active crossovers from the dayton 408 dsp and a dh 160 equalizer feeding the voigt pipes...

over time i have collected spares.. all reworked and ready for another 30 years of service.....i have an extra set of p230ss that can be monoblocked for 700 watts rms....

i also have a pair of phase linear 400s rated at 400 watts rms...but they can not be monoblocked...stand alone 2 channel amplifiers...

a spare dsp 408 and a spare dh 160 graphic equalizer...

there are two spare preamps a hafler dh 101 and a hafler dh 110....also have a hafler dh 339 fm tuner...

also have a 1978 pioneer sx1080 integrated amp....recapped and ready to go...240 watts rms...

also a cambridge audio arx199 integrated amp with built in dac...

i have a pic attachment of my system...dont know if it will make the list...

sam, can probably fix it .... lol....

 
Pura Vida
Gene French

Virus-free.www.avg.com

[gene]

an error or 2...fat fingers

tuner is dh 330

cambridge audio is axr 100...

im old...

pura vida...

gene

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[Don Hickman]

Ah, yes.  I remember those days and similar equipment.   But my little Sony soundbar and sub-woofer will have to do.  With my hearing loss I can't tell the difference anyway.  Nice rig Gene.

Don

[gene]

thanks mr. don...

we love our music here  .   

finally i can afford it...barely...

lolol

pura vida...

gene

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[Sam Wilson]

Sure, it is true that we can hear Gene rocking out from 4 km away, but his fancy stereo can't even play my music collection!  jajaja

Did your pics make it okay?

I spent the morning planting 56 grape vines and drinking wine... forgot to keep an eye on the compu.

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Sam

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[Sam Wilson]

LiCR,

I see Gene's pic did make it.  8-track tapes aside, without a doubt, Gene has the BEST stereo system in Costa Rica and I dare say all of Central America + Caribe.  Plus he learned a thing or two while rebuilding all that old junk!  ;-)   The real problem is going to be what are we going to do with that lovingly restored stuff when Gene passes on to that big Sound Studio in the Sky.  I gave all my vintage robot stuff away to the local robot club when I moved down to Costa Rica, and except for a few choice items I stored in a family member's garage, I had to toss my antique computer collection with stuff going back to the mid-70's and earlier, before I hopped a plane to Costa Rica with nothing more than a backpack and what I could carry.  I have already contacted a few places like the 1001 Hi-Fi Stereo Museum and The Vintage Knob, but nobody has gotten back to me yet.  Is there a Costa Rican Museum of Modern History?  Maybe we bury Gene and his equipment outback on the farm in a shipping container with solar panels above so he can crank it to the end of time?  jajaja.  Surely it would freak out archeologists in the future when they hear In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida on loop blasting up from the tomb!  ;-)

--

Sam

[Joe Harrison]

Sam:  Them there grapes that you planted must be a fantastic variety if they can produce wine for you to drink the same day you plant them.  

On Sat, Aug 26, 2023 at 11:03 PM Sam Wilson <sliw...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[gene]

bet you missed the wedding that ran out of wine too....

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[Don Hickman]

Joe is so old  he was probably at that wedding!

Don

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[Joe Harrison]

I resemble that remark Don.  I wasn't just AT the wedding, I was the GROOM.  Only reason we ran out of wine is cuz I got into it before the wedding.  

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[Joe Harrison]

Wondering if Sam's new boat is seaworthy yet?  According to the article (see below) the French have a horrendous problem.  And, after all, they helped us out when we had had a bit of difficulty liberating ourselves from the Brits back when I was just a kid.  Let's take your boat and see what we can do to help our froggy friends.

France has a surplus of wine and is paying $216 million to destroy it - The Washington Post

On Sat, Aug 26, 2023 at 11:03 PM Sam Wilson <sliw...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[gene]

lololol....i was around...i am suspecting my invitation was lost in the mail...

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[Sam Wilson]

LiCR,

Jajaja.  Our first vine did produce grapes the 1st year after planting but was not quite ready to make wine the same day.  I didn't know much about grapes back then and if I did I would have pinched off the flowers that 1st year and maybe 2nd to encourage the vine to concentrate more on growing roots.  Of course I didn't know how important it is to train grape vines and be serious, serious about pruning.either.  Since then I've studied up a lot and understand the grape a lot better.  The 56 vines I planted yesterday will be our Viñedo 2.0.and I'm determined to do it right this time to maximize quality and cosecha.  Technically I still don't know what cultivar of grape we've got.but I'm so thrilled that we are producing grapes it hardly matters.

I have located 3 real vineyards in Costa Rica, two of them south of San José and Cartago respectively and one of them around Nicoya.  I know the one by Nicoya has Isabella grapes which are not considered all that great for wine in modern times, but they do grow better in tropical climates than many other varieties.  The big grape growing regions in the world are pretty much in the 30°-50° North or 30°-50° South latitudes which includes California and New England in the US and Spain, France, and Italy in Europe and then Chile, South Africa and Australia in the southern hemisphere.  Costa Rica doesn't even get an honorable mention.

Grapes don't grow true to the mother plant when grown from seed, so almost all grapes are grown from cuttings.  However, today my farming project includes trying a 4-way experiment to grow some grapes from seeds saved from table grapes purchased from our local super.  Common wisdom says you must stratify the grape seeds before planting by putting them in the freezer for 3 months, but I have read about a shortcut one can take by putting the seeds in a stream under constant running water for 7-10 days to get rid of the germination inhibitors -- Gene, I've got a little bag of grape seeds I'd like to stake down in your creek bed to see if this actually works.  So, I've soaked my seeds for over 24 hours to weed out the floaters which are not viable and now I'm putting 1 batch in the freezer for 3 months, another in the fridge for 3 months, some I'm just going to plant outright to see if that stratification business matters, and then my 4th batch I'll try to stake out in a stream for a week or so.  Maybe soon I'll have a new Costa Rican Grape cultivar to share with my friends...  jajaja.  BTW, that is how America got started in the grape business with Concord grapes when a diligent farmer kept trying over and over to grow grapes from seed.  Finally he hit upon a good grape and then everyone took cuttings from that good vine.

So my project yesterday was pruning grape vines and planting stakes.  Some I did with rooting hormone, some I did without, some were from last year's woody vine stock and some were from this year's green growth.  By next year I should have this figured out a lot better and maybe then we'll actually try making some wine from our grapes.  The mature racimos we've harvested so far this year have been sweeter than the table grapes we buy in the store, so I think our sugar content should be suitable for winemaking.  We'll see!

In the meantime, it is Clos Merlot in a box for us.  jajaja.  Although last night when we ran out of wine, I was reminded that years ago we were doing a fantastic job of making pineapple chicha.  21-22 days from start to finish to have 5 gallons of sweet, sweet fermented stuff that the girls went crazy over!  Yes, my beer brewing buddy snobs up north would kick me out of the club if they knew what my carboy looked like...  ;-)

But, hey.. what happens in Costa Rica stays in Costa Rica, right?

--

Sam

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[Don Hickman]

Absolutely amazing!  Great read.  Thanks for writing all of that.  Let me know when to stop by as your volunteer taste tester!!

We had lots of grapes growing around our house in Indiana when I was a kid.  But we only made grape jelly from them.  

Don

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[Sam Wilson]

Oh, Joe... if only it were so...

I'm trying to get a better galerón built out on the farm to have a proper boat building shed.  The wifey swears she will move out if I continue with my plans to build this sailboat on our side patio.  I'm willing to call her bluff, but yet again life has been getting in the way of boat building.  This being fútbol season, we head out to the cancha, either at home or away, almost every weekend.  It is about the only thing that gets our 12 year old away from his X-box so I try to encourage his participation -- and he is pretty good!  He is very good technically and pretty good athletically. He knows enough to be in the right spot when it is important and actually makes a gol or two every other game.

Those Frenchies... (Gene not-withstanding)  What will they think of next!  ;-)

We actually used to put moonshine in our diesel cars back when I was a kid -- we had a big still (55 gallon drum plus 12' or so cooling tower) we used to make licor out of grapefruit.  Maybe that wasn't such a good idea looking back on that now, but back then there must have been some research that said it worked okay and it really wasn't that much we mixed in...

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Sam

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[gene]

made a still once....made 4 5ths....

first one was milky....cooked it too fast....

other 3 were perfect...burned invisibe...maybe light blue flame....used coleman camping stove...5 gallon bucket to ferment sugar...was easiest...

just to say i have made and drank moonshine   ....

dont know why....that stuff would clean rust off of metal...lol...we cut it about 2 to 1 with water...made a very drinkable vodka...

we didnt have video games...had to entertain ourselves!!!

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[Don Hickman]

A friend here has a still.  He makes a wicked moonshine from his bananas.

Don 

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[Joe Harrison]

My first experience with shine was when I went to grad school at UTenn.  At the first football game, the guy next to me had a brown paper bag and offered to share its contents with me:  Peach moonshine.  ummmm, good.  Knox County was dry in those days (except for beer), and my first venture into politics was to join a student movement to get on the local ballot a referendum to allow "package stores."  Previous efforts had failed (Baptists and bootleggers banded together!) but we registered enough students to prevail.  

Knoxville's leading bootlegger was a guy named Jack Vance, who provided excellent home delivery.  I'll never forget his radio interview during the campaign:

Q: Mr. Vance, why do you oppose this referendum?  A:  "Because I just think it's immoral to have liquor legal."   But we prevailed b/c of the student movement, and package stores sprung up and flourished!  Thus, my lifelong interest in politics.

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