DAGOGO’S STAFF - Bill Epstein
ARTICLES BY BILL EPSTEIN:
47 Lab 4723 MC Bee MC cartridge & 4718 Shigaraki Phono stage
Accuphase E-450 integrated amplifier
Dignity Audio DA-08SE single-ended 300B monoblocks
KR Audio Kronzilla SXI integrated SET amplifier
KR Audio VA340 integrated SET amplifier
Mapleshade Isoblocks & Ready-to-be-finished Maple Platform
XLH REF-1812 horn loudspeaker system
3 Cartridges, 2 Turntables, and Hours of Fun
PLUS HIS COLUMN DIY HEARTLAND
Bill grew up in a family of music, in which his mother and sister both “pounded” the Steinway and sang in the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. He enjoyed playing the trombone in high school, and went on to play with the Kent State University Band (involving the James Gang), the Oxford University Symphony and the suburban Symphony in Cleveland. Bill loves to “tear things apart”, and has been an avid DIYer for five years. In this period, he bought an Aristan RD-11 Superieur turntable with an SME 3009R Series II tonearm that hadn’t been played for 20 years, and refitted it with the “black Linn” springs and bolts, as well as a Dynavector 10X5 cartridge. Per Bill, “the Ariston has a bearing you won't believe and of course you can actually correspond with the SME people. Very helpful for guys like me that tears things apart.” Speakers initiated Bill into the DIY arena. Using Wayne Parham’s Pi Speaker design plans mostly, as well as the help of Internet, Bill has built 10 pairs of speakers to this day. He recently completed an “Altec phase”, with experimentation on the 811B horns as driven by 806A Alnico, housed in a cabinet he completed 2 years ago. The 811’s have now been replaced by the 902As in Martinelli Woodhorns. The sound? “Much airier and alive sounding.” JBL’s 2226’s are used as mid-woofers, augmented further by a Titanic 1200, tuned to 17Hz (-3dB) by way of Wayne Parham. His current amplification consists of a Hagerman Bugle Phono stage that he built in separate power supply and signal boxes. He then added a switch to eliminate the need for another input at the amplifier. A recently completed Audio Note Kit 1 300B amplifier was his latest choice, as being “a country boy raised in the Fifties”, he is “a sucker for chrome and tailfins!” For his digital front-end, he bought a Sony SCD-CE775 SACD changer and had it modified by a 16-year-old high-schooler for $400: SACDMods.com. But way before his passion for DIY took shape, he began his audio hobby with a Fisher 201 Receiver, a Garrard turntable and a pair of Fisher XP-55 speakers. Then in 1974, he upgraded to a Dynakit SCA-80, a 40 Wpc solid-state amplifier. In the pursuing years, he had owned speakers such as Bose 901, Acoustat 1+1, NHT Superones and Meadowlark Kestrels. He also owned turntables by Kenwood, AR and VPI, plus various Harman Kardon and Bedini amplifiers. Bill currently works at Home Depot as its Pro Desk supervisor with building contractors. He has 3 daughters, and one of them is a professional football player. Analog Front-End KAB Technics SL-1210M5G turntable with silicone arm damping Benz Micro Ace L cartridge Dynavector 10x5 cartridge Digital Front-End Marantz SA-8001 SACD player Amplification Audio Research LS-1 DIY Hagerman Cornet II with Cinemag step-up transformers DIY Steve Brown Edition Simple 45 Audio Note Kits 300B Speakers XLH 1812 DIY Altec-University DIY Batspeakers (JBL 2226 mid-woofer/B&C 8PE21 mid-range/Fountek NeoCD 2.0 ribbon tweeters ) Cabling Paul Spelz anti-Cables IC's and speaker cables
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