"OWL 1" phono preamp - info needed

[P. S.]

Hi,
I just happened to acquire this device as part of a bigger vintage stero lot. Besides a couple of vague mentions - there's not much info available on this preamp. It misses the power cable so I had no chance to test it either. What I know is that it's masinly a mono preamp and is suitable for playing the 78rpm records. It also has a mode to work with a regular stereo MM cartridge - but I am not sure if it does anything in this mode.

Maybe there's somebody who actually used one and tell if this device will make a difference with playing regular stereo LP-s? Also - is this some well regarded phono preamp worth investment into replacing cable etc. or just some very niche device for playing very old records?

Thanks,
-Peter

 

[mimoser]

Hi,
I just happened to acquire this device as part of a bigger vintage stero lot. Besides a couple of vague mentions - there's not much info available on this preamp. It misses the power cable so I had no chance to test it either. What I know is that it's masinly a mono preamp and is suitable for playing the 78rpm records. It also has a mode to work with a regular stereo MM cartridge - but I am not sure if it does anything in this mode.

Maybe there's somebody who actually used one and tell if this device will make a difference with playing regular stereo LP-s? Also - is this some well regarded phono preamp worth investment into replacing cable etc. or just some very niche device for playing very old records?

Thanks,
-Peter

sorry to comment on an old post, but
– have you still got this?
– if so would you part with it?
many thanks in advance
Michael

 

[tubeactive]

FYI, The Owl1 requires 10 to 12V AC to the internal power supply.

These were reference grade phono stages, used by the Smithsonian and Library of Congress in the 1990s ! They have precision grade, switchable, early mono phono playback curves, as well as a very versatile, high frequency filter, which can be dialed in to remove constant hiss or scratch noise.

 

[mke246]

These were also advertised in collector magazines like VJM in the 90s era. While they were good for the time and still beat any non-specialized preamp for playback of 78s, they have long since been surpassed by better preamps like the Timestep T-03 made by Dave Cawley and the Parks Waxwing. Both spiritual successors work in stereo, as well, so that true archival transfers can be made if desired. I think they're worth fixing up and moving on to an appreciative collector/listener. As a vintage piece, it may need a recap. I don't think they'd be particularly well-suited to playback of LPs other than the early mono ones that may have non-RIAA playback curves because it's exclusively mono. Even for mono LPs, it's probably mid-tier at best. They're not terribly expensive, though, and they're very good for what they are.

 

[dankik]

OWL 1 Owner's Manual at Library of Congress website.
https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/mbrs/recording_preservation/manuals/Conductart Installation and Operating Instructions for OWL 1.pdf

(Page 1 of 7 in the manual)

 

[mke246]

Coincidentally, the designer, Tom Owen, passed away on June 28th in Costa Rica. He worked for the Rogers & Hammerstein archives at the New York Public Library in the 1970s and 1980s and later became a pioneer in the field of forensic audio, founding his own firm and working as a consultant to the news media.

 

[tubeactive]

May he Rest In Peace !

His Owl 1 and Multifilter creations are/were essential for some transcribers and audio program producers.

If you haven't heard the Owl 1, how could anyone possibly comment on its sound quality ? Considering it was used as a reference transcription preamp, at the Library of Congress, it deserves merit.

The Owl 1 uses a stereo, magnetic phono cartridge for two important reasons. First, often one side of the groove is more musical and less noisy than the other. You can delete the problematic groove.
Even more importantly, a stereo cartridge can be switched to "channels in series," to enforce more lateral or more vertical compliance/sensitivity. By using the stereo coils in series mode, the cartridge output is doubled. Thus, the versatility of an Owl 1 deserves mention for disc transcribers.

While I was developing and optimizing my own multi, phono playback EQ curve, tube preamps, I used the Owl 1 as a cross reference to my preamps' results.

The Owl is very detailed, but cool sounding. It is not a musically rich, warm and cuddly, sweet sounder. Where it accels, is in detail retrieval, providing easy dialing-in of less noisy playback with well used and antique discs. It is a very low distortion preamp.
That dial-in, notch filter provides amazing, audible results.

Long live the Tom Owen Owl 1 and Multifilter devices !

 

[mke246]

If you haven't heard the Owl 1, how could anyone possibly comment on its sound quality ? Considering it was used as a reference transcription preamp, at the Library of Congress, it deserves merit.

As a relic of the 80s and 90s, yes. I've only heard it at a few fairly boisterous 78-listening sessions, so I have no real basis to evaluate it as an audiophile instrument. Tom Owen was instrumental in developing the field of 78 audio restoration, and it has a well-earned place in history and even in all but the highest-end playback systems. However, one of many reasons the LOC and others moved on from it is that you can't transfer both groove walls. Stereo transfers are not possible with it. Therefore, it's obsolete for archival transfers. Other more modern preamps like the ones mentioned above offer more flexibility for EQ and other non-standard playback curves. For the time, it was absolute genius. It's a really economical design, too. Most everything you need for live playback is in one tidy box.

Nowadays, archivists like me go even simpler: A simple flat preamp directly into a computer. I do all my curves and mono-summing digitally. I use a Millennia LOCi I found online cheap and just use the flat preamp stage, ignoring all the over-complex analog EQ and filtering modules. I'm having a second backup preamp built based on the HV-3C preamp, which is the basis for the LOCi's preamp. They're still working on it.

 

[tubeactive]

@mke246 ,
Did you work with Audacity before that ?

For a digital transcribing suite site, Audacity actually exposed some serious playback charts to the real-time spinning, record playing public. I actually contributed info to their disc playback expose. That made me proud...

Still, today, few folks realize the potential of 78 RPM playback !

Keep on spinning and
"Dont forget to Boogie !"

 

[mke246]

@mke246 ,
Did you work with Audacity before that ?

For a digital transcribing suite site, Audacity actually exposed some serious playback charts to the real-time spinning, record playing public. I actually contributed info to their disc playback expose. That made me proud...

Still, today, few folks realize the potential of 78 RPM playback !

Keep on spinning and
"Dont forget to Boogie !"

I use Audacity for some minor things like pitch shifting. If I'm remembering correctly, the built in Audacity EQ curves are FIR instead of IIR and therefore don't exhibit the same phase behavior as analog curves. You can implement IIR curves with the Nyquist tool, but very few know how. I make all kinds of EQ adjustments outside of the oft-incorrect standard EQ curves, anyway. I use CEDAR Cambridge for my transfers and processing. It allows for live playback of records with any number of plugins. running in real time. While it's extremely expensive, it also allows for flexibility that no other software offers.