· If nostalgic sentiments attached
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| The sound processor - Sonodyne Uranus amp |
I found myself falling through my
memories when I stumbled across this today! It was once-upon-a-time a high-end
sound processor – alias, my Sonodyne Uranus amplifier with matching bass reflex
speakers which I had got it decades ago at a time when digital technology just
entered into the acoustic space replacing the analogue system. This had indeed
induced nostalgia quickly and easily.
During that era, premium home
stereo systems which ruled the Indian market were now the defunct Akai-Bush,
Sonodyne Uranus, Philips Monster and Norge among others. Real high-end products
such as the legendary Bose 901 Series Home Theatre System, Denon, Onkyo, Adcom,
Marantz, Quad, Yahmaha, Tannoy, Gale, Luxman etc were available too, but only in the
grey market with a prohibitive price tag or for those lucky ones who had a US
or foreign-returned relatives.
I can recall a couple of my
friends in Shillong who had a penchant for such great stereo systems – Jonathan
(Joe) Chittaranjan and Michael Pariat. It was my association with them where I
got to see, listen, feel and analyse some of the well-known sound systems of
the world.
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| Laptop connected to the Sonodyne Uranus amplifier |
At Joe’s place where we used to
spend hours together listening to music, dubbing and creating mix-tape mixer cassettes for
various occasions, will always remember his high-end Technics and Sony stereo
systems. Although Sony had just entered
the market with an Indian partner – ‘Orson’ (later known as ‘Sony Orson’) but,
the system which I had seen at Joe’s place was a very high-end one and not
available at any of its retail outlets throughout the country. Yes, I still
remember his matching Technics stroboscope belt-driven turntable too which had a real
stylish hydraulic automatic self- return tone arm and pick-up cartridge!
Michael lived at a picturesque
place surrounded by lots of pine trees. It was equally a treat visiting him
taking the steep ups and downs drive-way contours towards his house. A pleasing
personality, Michael was considered a ‘music bank’ during the university days –
give him a list of your favourite songs and he would record them for you in a
cassette with utmost precision. He would take note of the average cassette
players owned by most of us and accordingly would adjust the sound level,
enhance the high frequency, bass response, midrange and perfect balance for
equal output from both speakers. His recorded cassettes always had the clarity
like a compact disc since the annoying Hsss… sound was eliminated and this was
his signature!
It was at Michael's place where I got to see
for the first time the legendary Bose 901 Series Home Theatre System. This
killer sound machine with mind-blowing sound effects absolutely carried me off.
Perhaps, Michael was one of the few people in the country to own such a system
at that time – It was just like owning a Lamborghini or a Ferrari car! The Bose
901 speaker, the one that was originally introduced in 1968, is still in
production today.
Whenever after returning home
from these two friend’s place, I
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| Front panel open of the amplifier |
used to rigorously clean the head of my player
with an after shave lotion and adjust the alignment with a small star-head
screwdriver to enhance treble effect as the sound always seemed to be muffled
in my ears! Inspired, I had also created my own version of home theatre system by fixing
a 10 inch speaker in a tea chest and multiple old radio speakers of all sizes
in earthen pots with cross-over network circuits! Ha ha ha, those were the
crazy good-old-days. And trust me, though I have now physically grown old but, I
am still the same and crazy like before as far as acoustics and home sound
systems are concerned.
Both Joe and Michael were very
lucky to have a decision maker in the family who were very interested in
high-end music systems. Joe’s dad, Late H.S. Chittaranjan, ex-DGP of Assam and
Meghalaya was extremely fond of good music and unique gizmos. Infact, uncle Chittaranjan was very young
at heart. Michael, who comes from a very
refined background, had a family member settled in the US who brought such
goodies whenever he visited India.
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| Laptop connected to the Sonodyne Uranus amplifier |
Coming back to my amplifier, I
was wondering what to do with it now? With the digital boom, electronic junk has
become very common in every household, taking up valuable space and I was
seriously considering to get rid of this too.
Had just cleaned the system with a damp cloth then connected the speaker
cables and mains. Oh-my-god! the LED function key came to life and a mild
humming sound from the speakers could be heard. Next, I connected it to my
laptop using a 3.5 mm stereo jack and the other end with flower jack to the
Auxiliary input of the amplifier. Played a track and guess what? The mere 32 watt RMS (Root Mean Square) device sounded so good and refined in this digital
age comparable or even better than many systems currently available in the
market. Push opened the front panel of the amplifier to adjust the bass,
treble, balance, loudness and filter/scratch controls that sounded even
pleasing.
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| The F&D USB player with remote control |
Looking at it for a while I was
wondering one of the downsides of this amplifier – it does not have a remote
control. After doing a market and internet research, I came across a solution.
A USB player is available in the stores which can be integrated with the
amplifier through an Aux cable. It is a small devise which has provisions for
memory cards as well as pen drives, play audio/video files, FM radio and a
remote control that enables the entire function of the system. The USB player
commonly available has only a pen drive provision which cost less than Rs.
400/- while the one which is smaller and sleeker has memory card and pen drive
slots is close to Rs. 900/-. It comes in F&D, an imported brand.
Interestingly, technology has developed so much that now bluetooth converters too have come up which can be directly connected to such amplifiers. Once it is paired with cellphones or other bluetooth enabled devices, it can remotely play music with the ability of adjusting volume, equalising and shuffling of tracks. It is a small device and is available of Belkin brand, a well known Chinese company. The cost of this bluetooth converter is around Rs. 2,300/-.
So if anyone of you are having a
good old system and have nostalgic sentiments attached to it, think twice
before you consider to get rid of it. You can still enjoy the bass and mids of
Santana’s Black Magic Woman to high notes in Adele’s Skyfall or Led Zeppelin’s
Stairway to Heaven including thud of bass in Bollywood songs without investing
much for a brand new music system in this festive season.
