Tag: music

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Braun Atelier – Hi-Fi from the 80s

I haven’t submitted a minimalist report for September yet, but one purchase from September is shown above: various components of a Braun Atelier system. The background is that sometimes I like to listen to something in peace on my headphones, but that’s not possible when a movie is being watched, since the same amplifier is used for both. However, I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a new system, especially since today’s devices can do everything except what I actually need. For example, our NAD c700 is really great, but it doesn’t have a headphone output. Yes, you could connect AirPods to it, but as I mentioned above, if a movie is being watched, that doesn’t help me. So, I started searching for something used.

The Braun Atelier system caught my eye because it is also a classic. I don’t know how much influence Dieter Rams had on the design of this system, but it looks very much like it’s from the 80s and not as timeless as much of his other work. However, the system fits perfectly on a Vitsoe 606 wood shelf with the 36 cm depth. In the 80s, you only saw this system in movies, among the wealthy. The parents of my friends didn’t have such a system. It was available in black and a light grey that was very unusual for stereo systems at the time. What was special about it was that you didn’t see any cables because they were covered at the back with flaps. The stand and the cable sleeve in the photo below also show the simplicity that this design concept was meant to convey.

Another well-thought-out detail is that the functions you use frequently are immediately accessible, while special features, such as Dolby on the cassette deck, are hidden.

The search for a used system proved to be difficult. Many sellers are aware that their parents spent a fortune on the system, so they often try to get four-digit sums for it. That doesn’t work, at least not with me.

So, I started small with the receiver R1, the cassette deck C2 (both shown in the photo above), and a turntable P2 (not in the photo). The Braun P2 is a semi-automatic turntable without a quartz drive and is considered an entry-level model between the P1 and P3. To give you an idea of what these components cost back then:

  • R1: 1,250 DM (1981, today around 1,430 euros)
  • C2: 1,300 DM (1982, today around 1,400 euros)
  • P2: 800 DM (1982, today around 860 euros)

With the system, I received some speakers, unfortunately not original Braun, but very good CANTON GLE60, which were badly scratched. The potentiometers (volume controls) on the system were scratchy. A back cover was missing. However, the sound is great, except for a hum when idle. The system had been completely overhauled. The components, by the way, are incredibly heavy; I could barely carry them alone. And the thing you see at the top of the photo, I would never have been able to lift it.

Shortly after, I was offered the P4 turntable, a fully automatic model with some fun features, such as the ability to move the needle without lifting the lid. The turntable was sold from 1984 to 1990 and cost up to 1,550 DM, today around 1,400 euros. I sold the P2 within two days.

Then there was also a cheap CD4, originally priced over 2,000 DM in 1986, which I bought used. The CD player is still top-tier today. By the way, both the P4 and the CD4 now show that the power button is no longer green but black with a green ring.

My system, as seen in the photo above, would have cost nearly 6,000 euros today, accounting for inflation, etc. Crazy, right? I paid 780 euros, after buying and selling components. It’s a lot of money for an old system, but in terms of sound, it holds its own against the NAD c700. It can’t stream, but it’s ready to go as soon as you turn it on (unlike the NAD, which I never keep on standby). By the way, it’s also still hard to find old manuals. They aren’t available for download and are instead offered at high prices on eBay or as copies.

At the moment, I’m still looking for a Braun A2 amplifier to replace the R1. The R1 doesn’t have a CD input, and the A2 comes in two versions: one with two phono options on the front, and one with both a phono and a CD option. I’m specifically looking for that version.

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Andrea Mastroni

The Berlin Philharmonic’s series on the Golden 20s began with a symphony by Weill and Oedipus Rex by Stravinsky. And here, the bass Andrea Mastroni was seen and heard. In fact, I had already seen him live in Hamburg, in the new production of The Magic Flute, which I didn’t really like.

The bass actually studied clarinet and seems to have a fondness for Gothic-like aesthetics.

His album Melancholia is highly recommended, from which the following piece also comes:

 

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Phoniebox: From MVP to the Real Deal (Toniebox Alternative)

Preliminary: The first Phoniebox, my MVP (Minimum Viable Product) in a cardboard box, was an instant hit. The RFID cards, which were decorated and painted, are treated like the greatest treasure, sometimes even hidden or brought to the table. So, it’s time to turn the MVP into a proper box. If you haven’t read the first part about my MVP, the Phoniebox is an open-source alternative to the Toniebox that you can build yourself. The advantage is that you don’t have to buy expensive Tonies but can use cheap RFID cards or stickers to play your own selected music files.

I’m not particularly handy, and the question of how to make holes in the wooden box had me stumped. I didn’t want to just drill small holes again, especially since I wanted better speakers this time. And that’s how things escalated. This box ended up being considerably more expensive. What did I buy?

Total: approximately €200! The saw attachment can be used again, and handier people may already have such tools at home. But you should be aware that the Phoniebox can initially be much more expensive than the Toniebox. However, if you were to buy multiple Tonies for the Toniebox, and let’s just take the Creative Tonies at €11.99 each as an example, you’d be at the same price after 10 Tonies. From the 11th card onwards, the Phoniebox becomes cheaper. In terms of sound quality, my box is definitely in a different league than the small Toniebox.

Activating the MiniAmp wasn’t entirely straightforward. Olaf Splitt describes the necessary steps very well here. However, it seems I had already installed the Toniebox software, which unfortunately occupies some of the GPIO pins. These need to be disabled. What was confusing was that the Raspberry Pi detects the sound card, and you can adjust the volume, but unfortunately, no sound comes out. This made troubleshooting tricky. But the sound, combined with the speakers, is really great. I initially assembled the parts without the box just to check if everything works.

The EasyAcc power bank is one of the few that can provide enough power while also charging. This ensures uninterrupted music enjoyment. However, I haven’t had good experiences yet in terms of more power being pumped into the battery than is being used by the Raspberry Pi. Olaf Splitt doesn’t address this point clearly in his otherwise great guides. He even mentions weeks (!!) before needing to recharge the power bank. The big difference is probably that I’m using a Raspberry Pi 4, and it drains the EasyAcc power bank faster than it can recharge. The power bank can theoretically be charged with 5V 4A, but only if both USB ports are used for charging. Otherwise, it remains at 5V 2.4A. The Raspberry Pi 4 is typically powered with a 5V 3A power supply, but it should also run with 5V 2.5A, depending on the peripherals connected. In my case, that’s the MiniAmp and the USB card reader. I may end up replacing the Raspberry Pi 4 with a Raspberry Pi 3.

Here’s the final result, though the video doesn’t quite reflect the actual, really good sound quality.

 

This is what the inside looks like:

Other DIYers had removed the card reader from its plastic casing and glued it directly inside. However, it works well like this too, as the box wall isn’t so thick that the card signal wouldn’t work. An additional Wi-Fi antenna wasn’t necessary either, but our apartment’s Wi-Fi signal is also very strong.

I haven’t installed the USB port yet. In the next step, I also plan to add a power switch that will properly shut down the box before cutting off the power.

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Phoniebox, the Affordable Alternative to the Toniebox (My First Prototype and MVP)

When I was a child, if there was one thing I loved, it was listening to records or cassettes for hours. Our kids also love music, and luckily, famous arias from The Magic Flute are a hit, but so are Kraftwerk’s The Robots or Herman van Veen’s quirky adventures. But how can we give toddlers access to “their” music in a world dominated by Spotify and Sonos?

A Toniebox wasn’t an option for us, even though its user interface is very child-friendly. Fortunately, there are open-source alternatives, and what’s even better, many of the components needed for this project I already had at home. One such project is the Arduino-based Tonuino, which has the big advantage of being very power-efficient and having an extremely quick boot time. The other project, which I replicated, is the Phoniebox, based on a Raspberry Pi 3. It has a longer boot time of more than a minute if the box is unplugged, and of course, it consumes more power. The big advantage for me here is that music can be managed via a web interface. Plus, I can easily turn the volume down when the kids get too excited 🙂

How does it work? On the SD card, folders are created in a specific directory, where music files or stream URLs are stored. The RFID cards are linked to these folders, so each card “triggers” the playback of the music in the respective folder. No data is saved on the card itself, and you can always reconfigure the card-linking. You can paint or sticker the cards so the kids have a reference for which music, audiobook, or stream corresponds to a card.

The shopping list on the Phoniebox site was a bit confusing and sometimes unsuitable. Here’s what I purchased:

Total: €94.15. For comparison, a Toniebox costs €79.90. It comes with one Tonie, with additional pre-recorded Tonies priced at €14.99 and creative Tonies for €11.99. If I understand the concept correctly, you can load 90 minutes of content onto a Creative Tonie via the cloud, and while you can use them offline, the content is still managed online. With my 50 RFID cards, I essentially already have 50 Tonies, just without content. The content can be either something I already have (I had many of my old cassettes digitized because I couldn’t get them as CDs) or can be sourced cheaply. So, an RFID card can also be linked to a Spotify song, album, or even a radio station. Overall, it’s cheaper if you have more content, plus you’re independent from any platform. Building a box with Arduino would likely be much cheaper, and the battery would probably last much longer too.

The setup of the PhonieBox took me about 90 minutes:

  • Flash the Raspbian Buster image onto the SD card.
  • Pre-configure SSH and WiFi so I wouldn’t need a monitor or keyboard.
  • Assemble the components and connect the power.
  • Log in via SSH and start the installation with a one-liner.
  • The box is then ready to use!

Here’s what it looks like when initially assembled without a case:

Most of my time was spent loading the cards with content. You can either upload the audio files directly via SMB to the drive or through the web interface. However, not all MP3s were immediately recognized.

I hadn’t initially planned for a case, as I wanted to first check if I could even assemble the Phoniebox and if the kids could manage it. Therefore, the first version didn’t turn out very pretty, but hey, it’s a Minimum Viable Product 🙂

Much nicer boxes can be seen here:

What are the experiences after a few hours/days?

  • The box is loved dearly and sometimes even fiercely contested. So definitely a second box is needed.
  • At 2 1/2 years old, the kids don’t fully understand that multiple songs can be played with one card, and that the card needs to be placed back on the reader to move to the next track (if configured this way). So, I’ve set it up to restart the song from the beginning when the card is used.
  • It’s also a good idea to start with only a small selection of cards; otherwise, it can be overwhelming for the little ones. Our cards include:
    • “Zu Hilfe, zu Hilfe” from Die Zauberflöte
    • “Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja” from Die Zauberflöte
    • “Weg da” by Herman van Veen
    • “Das Lied der Schlümpfe” by Vader Abraham
    • “Die Roboter” by Kraftwerk
    • “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra”
    • “Peter and the Wolf,” narrated by Loriot
  • One of the kids has hidden the card for the first track in the list—it’s his greatest treasure, which he barely lets go of.
  • I can’t recommend an Anker PowerBank, as it doesn’t charge while supplying power to the Raspberry Pi. Therefore, for version 0.2, I’ll switch to this model. This will make the device an additional 33€ more expensive.

My next version:

  • Will be built in a proper wooden box.
  • I will also upgrade to better speakers and use the HifiBerry MiniAmp.
  • I want to add a socket to the case for charging the battery.
  • I plan to avoid buttons for now; the more parts there are, the more that can break.
  • Finally, the two boxes should also be able to synchronize, and there is a guide by Olaf Splitt for that.

And here’s the post about my second Phoniebox!

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Live Aid 1985: The Fifth Man of Queen

I have definitely seen this clip from Live Aid on July 13, 1985 more than 100 times. And not once did I notice that the fifth man of Queen was visible in it from time to time.
  Queen and 5th man? His name is Spike Edney, and he’s still on tour with the rest of Queen today. Supposedly, he had even become aware of Adam Lambert and had given Roger Taylor the decisive tip. Of course, I had already wondered in 1985 who plays the synthesizer on Radio Gaga and operates the vocoder. Someone backstage. But if you look closely, you can see Spike Edney performing several times: In all those years, I had never noticed Spike Edney, I always thought he was just a stage mixer, and the instruments in front of him might have been from the previous act or the next. But the film crew had also done everything to get him on the screen as little as possible. After all, he was only there to complement the sound. A few months earlier, at Live in Rio, he was more prominently involved:
  Only later on in other recordings does it become clear that he also sang background, which explains why it always sounded like more than “just” Mercury and Taylor and sometimes May. Today Spike Edney is partly on stage as normal, for example here at ’39 in the background with the mini keyboard:
  That doesn’t mean that you actually have to see him as the 5th member, because there weren’t that many tours after Live Aid, and only there he was there. However, he was a permanent member of Roger Taylor’s solo project “The Cross”. Queen’s Live Aid performance is considered one of the best of the festival and of Queen himself. It feels like after all these years, you can suddenly see a ghost that was always there and had helped Queen create the sound they couldn’t have had without it. A strange feeling.
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Cold Song – Purcell/King Arthur – 6 versions

The Cold Song is actually called What Power art thou and is an aria from the 3rd act of the opera King Arthur by Henry Purcell. The first time I noticed the aria by Klaus Nomi, who recorded it live shortly before his death:

Actually, the aria is sung a few octaves lower, for example like this:

There is also a beautiful recording with German lyrics by Nanette Scriba, although this recording is somewhat distorted:

A somewhat more recent recording comes from Germany from the Berlin State Opera, played very slowly:

An interpretation with a child’s voice:

And finally, a somewhat freer interpretation with a steampunk character:

Encore (I don’t think this version is so beautiful, but it’s just an idiosyncratic interpretation of the singer):

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Neither black nor white – Or what The Magic Flute is still able to say today

First of all: I was a great admirer of Achim Freyer’s production of The Magic Flute at the Hamburg State Opera, which received not only applause but also boos at its premiere in 1982. This production still felt modern after more than 30 years due to its playfulness, and I must have seen it a dozen times. I always found the interpretation that Tamino could have dreamed everything and therefore could observe himself at the end idiosyncratic, but Freyer’s pictures were simply beautiful.

The Magic Flute may have a special meaning for the Hamburg State Opera, after all, it was the first piece to be performed in 1955 after the reconstruction of the opera house. There is also a DVD with a performance staged by Peter Ustinov in Hamburg in the 60s, which probably formed the bridge between the reopening and the Freyer production.

And the Magic Flute also has a special meaning for me. Every time I deal with it, I discover something new in it. And as soon as I have the opportunity to see a production, I try to do everything I can to make this possibility a reality. I have already seen a number of productions, from a very classical one at the Semper Opera to a wonderful production by the HfMT to a John Dew production in Bielefeld, where he transformed Sarastro’s temple into a computer laboratory.

34 years later, Jette Steckel’s new production also received boos like the Freyer production. Probably every new production would have led to boos, because after all, one had grown fond of the old production, it was a constant companion through many years. So Jette Steckel didn’t have it easy. And it took me two years to venture into the new production. The light installations are fascinating and at first put me in a more than conciliatory mood, but right at the beginning I found the shortened libretto disturbing. No wonder that the State Opera wanted to be finished in three hours (in the end it was even a quarter of an hour less), and that despite the intermission. Some of the text has been shortened, and if I remember correctly, then also the first aria (“Zu Hilfe”).

No black or white, no clear good or evil

And so the music and the visual staging are in the foreground, because not much remains of the text. Instead, a little new text was added, which suited the pandering to the young audience. Of course, a production can be attractive for new opera-goers. Or maybe you rely too much on the fact that the content has been discussed extensively at school beforehand.

Because the fascinating thing about The Magic Flute, besides the music, of course, the change from good to evil and vice versa, did not come out that way. While at first the Queen of the Night stands there as the poor mother deprived of her child, Sarastro later turns out to be the good protagonist, although not quite, because not everything is good with him either (“I don’t want to force you to love, but I won’t give you freedom”). In the introduction to yesterday’s performance, the gentleman, who did not introduce himself, also gave the example of the violence he had carried out on Monostatos. And he also referred to this ambiguous polarization.

In Kenneth Branagh’s film, which is also phenomenal, the interpretation even goes so far that Sarastro had an affair with the Queen of the Night, but left her. He wants to save her in the end, but doesn’t succeed.

Life is not black or white, and some things are different from what you first suspect. But no matter what it is, you have to work on yourself to become a better person. This is how I would formulate the core message of The Magic Flute in two sentences, and we see this in all the characters of The Magic Flute. If you look at the simplification of some of today’s political problem-solving approaches, it becomes clear how relevant The Magic Flute can still be today. It’s not simple, it’s complex. And no simple answers will help. It is precisely this relevance to the present day that Jette Steckel has failed to show.

It is obvious that the message to work on oneself comes from the ideas of the Freemasons, because both Mozart and Schikaneder, who provided the libretto, were Freemasons. It is an irony of history that if you look out of the foyer of the State Opera to the street, you can see the entrance to one of the more than 40 Masonic lodges in Hamburg at a certain angle. But there was not much left of all this in this production.

Life paths and directions

Instead, the red glowing arrows that the protagonists dragged around with them were the predominant motif. Paths you take, some are wrong, some are right. And the life paths of Pamina and Tamino, who only meet again at the end and seem to stay together, are a great idea if you understand life as a series of trials and a labyrinth of wrong and right decisions. And yet, if we remember the basic motive, can something be completely wrong or right? Papageno, who did not pass the exams, took a “wrong” path, but met his dream woman, which was probably enough for him. The arrows are therefore a really good idea, which add another facet to the interpretation. Unfortunately, something else essential was taken away from her.

By the way, I think I have discovered a quote from the “old” production of The Magic Flute, namely the hand that guides and embraces Pamina (see photo), only this time it is formed from light. If it is indeed a quote, it is a beautiful idea.

The new performance will not be my new favorite performance. And that’s just because of the shortening of the text. Shorten and adjust a bit, of course, the Schikaneder text is not really up-to-date.

It is a pity that content has been removed so radically and, in my opinion, unnecessarily. The play with light is fascinating, there are many really great ideas in this production. But as in The Magic Flute itself: no clear “good” or “bad”.

By the way, apparently no more soloists are flown in from the Tölz Boys’ Choir. The boys yesterday came from a Dortmund choir; unfortunately, the first boy was much too loud, so that the other two boys went under. But I’ve always wondered if there aren’t any children in Hamburg who can take on this part. On the DVD of the Ustinov production, soloists from a Hamburg choir sang. Which is certainly better for the kids and for the environment when local soloists come on stage.

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Revols Custom-Fit Wireless Earphones Experiences or Why I Love Kickstarter Anyway

This is not a love song. This is not a love story either. At least not about this product. This is the story of Revols’ Kickstarter project, which was about a great idea, but somehow it didn’t turn into a success story. In January 2016, I co-funded Revols’ Kickstarter campaign, $219 for headphones that automatically adapt to my ear. A great story, I thought, because my ear protection, which I always wear at concerts or when playing the drums, I had made by the hearing aid acoustician for just under 200€ at the time, and I am still very convinced of it after many years. For the same money then get wireless headphones? Wonderful idea.

Here is the Kickstarter video that convinced me:

The headphones were supposed to arrive in June 2016. With a little more than two years delay, the product actually arrived. Almost 40€ customs on top. Do I get annoyed about that? No, not a bit, this is a completely new product, and one can only admire the founders for persevering despite all the resistance. In between, they were bought by Logitech, so the probability of seeing nothing more was low. It’s also not my first product that I’ve bought on Kickstarter, the Vi was also one of those projects that had to survive a few teething problems. That’s just the risk of an early adopter

What is suboptimal about the Revols

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So it bothers me? First of all, the headphones are huge. Yes, I should have noticed that in the video. But when you really have them in your hand, they somehow look bigger. For comparison, I put them on a Reclam booklet, which has the advantage that probably everyone knows the size of a Reclam booklet and can thus estimate for themselves how big the earphones are. I wonder if it couldn’t have been smaller.

And then… they don’t even fit very well. They fall out of my ear. And yes, I followed the instructions exactly. The sound is not great. Of course, this may be due to the fact that they do not fit properly. But even if I press them into my ear, they sound rather well. The sound seems quiet to me, the bass doesn’t come right, even the Vi headphones are better.

The announced 8+6 hours of battery life (8 hours for the headphones themselves and 6 hours for the additional battery) have become 5+5 hours. I get about 4+4 hours. As far as I know, the reduced battery life was not communicated.

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There are a lot of cables to be seen here despite the wireless. The charging cable does not seem very stable, and since the cable has to be pulled if you want to separate the charging shells from the charging rods, then I am always afraid that the dry cable will break. Although this is said to have been checked, it does not seem really stable.

I spent a total of 250€, and for that money I would probably have had less cable clutter, more quality and faster delivery, but no adapted headphones, which don’t fit well with me anyway. In fact, I’m not alone in my opinion when I look at other reviews on YouTube:

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Why I still love Kickstarter

What I find exciting is the fact that Kickstarter innovators encounter a parasitic industry of vendors who have little experience with the production of such products and drive up prices as soon as the order is there. This also explains why some projects get into so much trouble.

But as the author himself says there, I wouldn’t do without Kickstarter despite some disappointments. Because you have the chance to experience new technologies before the masses get their hands on them. Or sometimes simply to finance a smart idea that makes life easier. In total, I have already supported a small double-digit number of Kickstarter and Indiegogo projects. Some were canceled like the MOTI, some companies went bankrupt after delivery like the manufacturers of the backbone, the Hangbird was one of the best purchases ever (and not really high-tech), I’m looking forward to the documentary about Dieter Rams like a toddler, and even if the reward of Mine Kafon Drone was more symbolic, the idea of ridding the world of landmines, is just wonderful.