KEN MICALLEF KLH Model Five LOUDSPEAKER

In May of 2019, I heard about a promising jazz vinyl and hi-fi estate sale happening on New York’s Upper East Side. Little did I know then what treasures the dig would yield.

Jazz Record Center’s Fred Cohen had called from the UES apartment, the former residence of late CBS Records and Sony Entertainment mastering engineer Harry N. Fein. Fred said, “The records are kind of beat, but the apartment is jammed with tape decks, turntables, cartridges, tubes, midcentury modern furniture—get up here.”

I called NYC turntable technician Mike Trei, who’s always up for a dig. Upon picking me up from my Greenwich Village pad in his pearl black 1991 Mercedes, we zoomed uptown on Park Avenue. Well past Grand Central Station, we found the address on a quiet residential block.

At the doorway to the apartment, two muscled Russians were removing a ratty red velvet couch. We squeezed past them into a tiny living room. Books were strewn everywhere. A window sucked in hot, sticky air. A Zenith Seville console stereo, a crusty BSR McDonald turntable, and a ’60s-era Ampex Model AG-350-2 1/4 tape machine stood sentry. Where were the records and other audio booty Fred spoke of?

Mike found a side door, jammed shut. We applied two-shoulder pressure and stumbled our way in. The 10' × 6' space—Fein’s secret workshop—was a time traveler’s dream of audio exotica.

SPECIFICATIONS

Description Three-way, acoustic suspension, standmount loudspeaker with three-position Mid-HF attenuation switch and included metal-frame slant-riser base. Driver complement: 1 aluminum-dome tweeter; 4 pulp-paper cone midrange driver; 10 pulp-paper cone woofer. Frequency response: