[Roger A. Modjeski]

Hi,

The last half of 2009 has been a busy one for me. Both my parents died this summer of natural causes. They had a good life together and almost made it to 93 years. The Modjeski clan has good long life genes and I am excellent health with the full expectation of 100+ years. I went back to Virginia to settle up some affairs and get a few things out of the house I grew up in. There I found a "Quarter Century of Service" pin given to my grandad for his years at Brunswick. Over the years I have been collecting information from my dad on his dad's work there. He told me that his dad brought home defective or out of catalog 78's for target practice in the basement of their home.

I have been collecting Brunswick phonographs and records for many years and hope to write a book on their work in the early days of recording. Although known primarily for their bowling equipment and beautifully carved pool tables, they were an important force in both pre-electric recording and playback and the electrical systems that followed. If you are a student of early jazz, as I am, you will note that they were the early label for Billie Holiday and many others. (Check your CD booklets for BR numbers )They had exclusive contracts and made known many early jazz artists, Al Jolson was under exclusive contract for example. I have a 1925 catalog of their recordings that numbers in the tens of thousands. Brunswick eventually sold their recording business to Decca.

On to my work and some MR updates:   I made it to RMAF and we shared a suite with Silverline Audio playing the RM 200 MK II for most of the show. Amplifier production is always first on my list and the current run of RM 200's is the best we have ever made. It has taken most of my time and effort to get the quality and reliability I demand in my products. We have brought all the transformer production back in house and it's been a real effort to train and watch over the winding, potting and testing of these newly designed transformers. I will say that we are are doing some very unusual things and that I've wound some transformers with bandwidth I had never imagined possible. I have had great response from those who have spent the extra $1050 to have transformers wound by me personally. I could talk for days about what goes on in my transformer shop verses what goes on in the transformer industry. The things I am doing are just not done out there and I think there is no way to get them done outside as my techniques differ so much from theirs. Whether I wind the transformer or my assistant does, he must do it my way start to finish. We are currently making a run 5 amps with transformers I wound over the past few months. A few of those amps are available this month. Given the other projects I am working on I may not have the time to make RM 200 transformers myself for many months. If you want an amp with transformers I have made personally they sell for $5250. The standard amp is currently available at $4200 and still class A rated by Stereophile since 2001.

Due to encouragement from several dealers, I have been working on a headphone amplifier/preamp. This is a very interesting project and has brought to light several things I had not previously thought of. We are planing to have two models one around $700-$900 and one around $1400 -$1800. Both will have output transformers, multiple impedance taps and preamp outputs that can drive any conventional power amp. They are in the listening stage of development and I have good feedback from several people who have borrowed them for use with top end Sennheiser and other phones. These amps are very quiet, simple and versatile in what they can do.

As to the shop and business: This summer I decided to expand our work areas and improve the organization of all the stuff it takes to build amps and provide tubes. Several of you have spoken to my associate, Robert. He is doing a fine job learning this business and doing much of the re-organization around here. There is a lot for a person to learn here and he's getting it bit by bit.

Thanks to all who have been here to answer the questions of others. I hope in a few months I will once again be here more as I do enjoy hearing from all of you.

[launche]

My condolences for your loss Roger.
Glad to have you back.
Excited about your new discoveries, personally if I could afford to I'd love to try one.  Having owned your work before and listened to others, I appreciate your products and hope to get my hands on something again.

[Bhmartin]

Roger,

Very good to hear from you here again.  My condolences for your loss.  Will keep you in my thoughts. 

Good to hear that you have several projects going on (as always).  Especially glad to hear that you are working one that I have been waiting for you to get 'round to... a preamp/headphone amp.  I always thought the RM-5 was about the best preamp out there with a single tube for the line-level section.  Does the new one use more than one to take the RM-5 performance even further?  Are you considering a remote control capability for it?  What willl the cosmetics of it most resemble... the RM-5 preamp, the wooden casework & metal top/bottom-plates like the RM-9/10/200, or something smaller in a 100% wooden case like your new low-power amp series?  Lots of questions I know but, again, have been hoping that you would get to this specific project & would be very interested in seeing pictures of the two versions of it in their current forms if you are able to post or pm them. 

Meantime I have been reading through the old circle posts here from the beginning & was interested in hearing more about the "EQ-in-a-box" with variable cutover frequency and the customized preamp with bass & treble tone controls that you had built for one customer.  Will either of your new preamp/headphone amps include these features?  Thanks.

[Roger A. Modjeski]

Thanks for your questions. The new headphone amp/preamp is going to have a variety of tube options including some octal based types. It will be a line stage with balanced outputs. No plan for remote at this time. Cosmetics open for suggestions though I plan for the unit to have controls on a 3-4 inch tall 6-8 inch wide metal front and be 8-10 inches deep. I have often considered the idea of using the RM-200 style construction for a preamp but that forces all controls, inputs and outputs to be on the horizontal top plate which I would not find attractive.

Due to the high cost and difficulty of the 100% wooden case I have no plans currently to produce in that style. For those of you who have all wood units they are rare treasures.

EQ in a box and Pot in a box are and will continue to be available. I have made a prototype of Active Pot in box and can take orders. The circuit is the very well liked RM-5 line stage with one or two inputs. Prices start at $450 for a single input and go up from there for more inputs. It is built into a plastic box with the single tube out the rear and shielded to make tube rolling very easy. It is powered from an external wall transformer. The high quality plastic boxes I use allow me the flexibility of making many variations without the cost of sheet metal which is often half the cost of a product. These are good looking boxes, sturdy and employ point to point wiring resulting in better sounding units than those built on a PCB.

[santacore]

Roger, my condolences on your loss.

Due to encouragement from several dealers, I have been working on a headphone amplifier/preamp. This is a very interesting project and has brought to light several things I had not previously thought of. We are planing to have two models one around $700-$900 and one around $1400 -$1800. Both will have output transformers, multiple impedance taps and preamp outputs that can drive any conventional power amp. They are in the listening stage of development and I have good feedback from several people who have borrowed them for use with top end Sennheiser and other phones. These amps are very quiet, simple and versatile in what they can do.

I'm one of the people that had the opportunity to demo Rogers new headphone amp/preamp. I spent a good amount of time with the amp and used it mainly with my Sennheiser HD800's. Bottom line-this is a great sounding amp. It competes with my current amps, and the other amps I've previously owned in the 1K range.  It was extremely quiet, run fairly cool, and just sounds great. It's a very musical design with great dynamics. Let's just say I was bummed when I had to give the unit back.

All my listening was to the headphone section. But, judging going by it's quality, I have no doubt the preamp section is also dynamite.

I for one, can't wait until the production units are ready. Nice work Roger!!

[Scottdazzle]

Roger,

I'm glad you're back.  I'm sorry you lost your parents this year and you have my condolences.  It's good to know you are well and back at work. 

I'm looking forward to great things from Music Reference.  I hope you decide to bring out a full-featured preamp or integrated amp in the not too distant future.

Scott

[Roger A. Modjeski]

Roger, my condolences on your loss.

I'm one of the people that had the opportunity to demo Rogers new headphone amp/preamp. I spent a good amount of time with the amp and used it mainly with my Sennheiser HD800's. Bottom line-this is a great sounding amp. It competes with my current amps, and the other amps I've previously owned in the 1K range.  It was extremely quiet, run fairly cool, and just sounds great. It's a very musical design with great dynamics. Let's just say I was bummed when I had to give the unit back.

All my listening was to the headphone section. But, judging going by it's quality, I have no doubt the preamp section is also dynamite.

I for one, can't wait until the production units are ready. Nice work Roger!!

Thanks for beta testing the headphone amp. Currently working on some other variations.

[santacore]

Thanks for beta testing the headphone amp. Currently working on some other variations.

My pleasure, it's a great sounding unit. I can't wait to hear the newest version!

[Rob S.]

Hi Roger,  any idea where the pricing will come in on the headphone amp/ preamp?   a range would be helpful.  I'd like to hear one w/ your RM200 MKII that I currently love.

Rob s.

[chadh]

Roger,

I'm also sorry to hear about your parents. 

I had a little question about the variety of pre-amp options you're going to be offering.  Purely in terms of linestage performance or characteristics, how will the RM5/active-pot-in-a-box compare to the new headphone/pre-amp units?  It sounds like there will be a difference in "flavours", with different tubes being used in the headphone/pre-amp; and obviously there will be a difference in various aesthetic dimensions, as they'll be using vastly different enclosures.  But when it comes down to performance as a pre-amp, is a clear sonic preference likely to emerge?

Thanks.

Chad

[DustyC]

My condolences for the loss of your parents. My mom and dad are still kicking. I can't imagine life without them. It would be like losing a compass. Anytime I need answers they're always there.