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Papa Hemingway's audio system

pqrannes

pqrannes

Tubes warm your heart too
A few weeks ago I visited Finca Vigia, writer Ernest Hemingway's house in Cuba.

The countryside house only 40 minutes busride outside the city of Havana, that Hemingway bought in 1940 and that later was expropriated by the Cuban state, is very a very beautiful and aesthetic place that I enjoy from the second I set foot there (despite a pickpocket emptied my pocket for wallet with money, credit card etc in the bus going there - I had to go back to Havana centre to get money for the entrance fee). You walk around the house and look through the open doors and windows but you don't get in the house that more or less sits like Papa left it around 1960.

When I saw this pretty sight my joy only got bigger:

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Records! Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller was recognized. But no audio system.

Bending over and looking closer I saw a turntable (Garrard?) and when one of the ladies who was looking after the house asked me if she should take a picture of the audio system I got this:

P1080100.JPG

Leaning in to the open door (or window) I got this picture of the mono wall mounted corner speaker:

P1080102.JPG

The same kind of mono corner speaker is to be found in Hemingway's office:
P1080115.JPG

I have been searching the great internet for info on Hemingsway's audio system but nothing came up.

So, help me out. What are we looking at? A Garrard turntable? A mono tube pre-amp with the power amp hidden in the cupboard? And the open baffle-ish corner speaker? Any clues?

PQR
 

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It looks just like a mono 6v6 (two metal tubes) push pull integrated I have. No choke and the opt and rectifier behind the PT. I parted it out. Just a chassis and PT now. Nice trip to Cuba!
 
Hmmm, to me that looks like a preamp but there could be power tubes behind the power trans. A lot of custom made sound systems from that era had the main speakers in the cabinet with the power amp next to the speakers.
 
Thanks for the feed back. Nice to learn here that the amp is a Bell (I have a Bell stereo tube amp sitting on a shelf somewhere).

The only thing not to do now is starting to dream about putting a copy of the audio system together.

I better read more of Hemingsway's books first.

onwardjames said:
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Sucks about the pickpocket. Did he do the old "bump into ya" thing?
Click to expand...

I think he took his time to unbutton a pocket in my trousers on a very crowded public bus. Theft is a rare thing in Cuba, though, I was told.

PQR
 
It was actually playing when I was there just after Christmas this year, couldn't get a photo as the window was crowded. Sounded good with the window open.
 
A model B went for under $90 on that site back in January. Reconstructing his system would be a fun project. I wonder whether an email in Spanish to the curator could ask them to photograph the speaker? For historical research and all.
 
pqrannes said:
And the open baffle-ish corner speaker? Any clues?
Click to expand...

I instantly thought that it resembled the Cabinart baffle from one of the corner folded horns.

So I looked at the catalog and it's close, but not the same one:

Cabinart Catalog - 1957 - Page 28.png

Now that catalog from 1957, so it is possible that another model year might have been different.

The Cabinart folded horns were Klipsch-licensed designs. So a different manufacturer might have had a slightly different front.

The curators might be tell you the model it sticker appears on the back. It would have been inventoried and detailed. It is similarly possible that an invoice was preserved.
 
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