Museatex - it was a heck of a ride

kach22i

WBF Founding Member
Apr 21, 2010
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www.kachadoorian.com
Museatex, not sure what made them go under. They had it all, and the old ads now seem somewhat boastful in retrospect.

Several days before I got married in 1992, I took the day off from work and listened to an all Museatex system with my own shoe box full of CD's. Even if I bailed out on the wedding and cashed in the airline tickets for the honeymoon, I would have fallen way short of the price of entry. Nice system though, bet I would still have it too.

Here are some old ads from 1990-91 which I recently scanned. Most likely out of the old Stereo Review magazine.

One page ad:


A four page ad...................



 

MylesBAstor

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
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Ed's gear wasn't bad sounding solid state gear for its day. The platterless table was a little far out though. If I remember correctly, Ed designed the first remote controlled preamp; well it wasn't quite wireless as the remote had a wire connecting it to the preamplifier.

IMHO, the most interesting thing Ed designed back then were the Translinks (http://www.museatex.com/xlink.htm).
 

moray james

New Member
Jun 11, 2010
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Calgary on the Bow
yahoo.com
The PA6 then PA6i was and is a good preamp the units were available with a wired remote and then an IR version. The wired unit was far nicer to use and it never walked away on you. John Wright who owns the rights to the Museatex name and who provides factory service and designs all the factory upgrades can do wonders with all the Museatex gear. John can be contacted at john@museatex.com.
Ed did a considerable amount of design work on the Oracle TT which he never got credit for nor paid for by the brothers "0". I did have access to using one of Ed's TT's but never had the chance to compare to anything else. It is an interesting design which had a lot of thought and time invested. Looked very cool.
The Translinks are simply a pair of standard telephone 1:1 transformers potted into plated cans. You can make your own for a few dollars. Hardly one of Ed's more interesting ideas.
How about starting the ball rolling in the arena of Audio based Cryogenics? That was a great idea and Ed's did a lot of work to establish it. Then there was all the work that Ed did in developing the SACD system for Sony.
Guess that you never listened to a Bidat? The Bidat was a ground breaker at the time for 3K new considering it was better than the original Idat which sold for over 10K which was considered the best in the world at the time by some. Fully updated Bidat's by John Wright have sold recently for as much as 5K and will go head to head with most high priced stuff today even Ed's big box. I got to see a lot of this stuff go down at the time. I was an interesting experience.
 

kach22i

WBF Founding Member
Apr 21, 2010
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Ann Arbor, Michigan
www.kachadoorian.com
The Bidat
I've seen a couple of those for sale on Audiogon, sounds like a good deal to get one of those upgraded by John.

I've always admired the Museatex line up, good looks with good sound to back it up with. Unfortunately at the time, I was a mid-fi guy with a mid-fi budget.
 

MylesBAstor

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
11,236
81
1,725
New York City
I was referring to the improvement in sound with the Translinks back then :) Nowadays, I'm sure they'd be horribly colored :( They were just basically breaking the ground between the gear if I remember correctly.

I heard the Bidat at Lars Fredell's years ago. (He was good friends with Ed!). Impressive for that time though think Lars actually in the end liked the Dodson Audio dac.

Sadly I think the Dodson DAC is dead in the water. Jeff Smith (Silversmith Audio), who bought out Dodson, went back into the armed services (his real time job) and is training our soldier in Afghanistan. My thought are always with him as he is one of the nicest people in audio!
 

kach22i

WBF Founding Member
Apr 21, 2010
1,591
210
1,635
Ann Arbor, Michigan
www.kachadoorian.com

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