October 19, 2012

  • Pinnacle PN-5+, Part 2

    Oh.  Hell.  Yeah.  To kick off the 87-88 school year, there was a lot of outstanding music.  But one which kicked us on our keister was Warlock's "All We Are."  And what an image!  The then 23-year-old German lead singer, Doro Pesch, even more so than Lita Ford, Debbie Gibson, or Deborah Harry, was every guy's wet dream.  And why couldn't Bonnie Tyler sound like Doro?  Marching down Lowell High's halls to "All We Are," we actually felt good to be back in school, and couldn't wait to kick some ass.

    Warlock gained a small but enthusiastic following.  In 1988, Warlock and Sanctuary (!) opened for Megadeth.  As some of you know, Megadeth's Dave Mustaine produced Sanctuary's Refuge Denied album.  For legal reasons, Doro Pesch had to give up the name Warlock.  But she soldiers on today, under the name "Doro."

    When I got settled in mid-September '92 at UCSC, we hooked up my housemate's TV to the apartment's cable, and to my Adcom/Pinnacle stereo system.  The TV was monaural, so (sigh), we could not enjoy stereo broadcasts.  In those days, more and more channels were broadcasting in MTS stereo.  When we flipped to MTV, we actually saw Warlock's eye-popping video of "All We Are."  Actually, that would be the last time I ever saw that video on TV.  But even in mono, "All We Are" kicked ass, portended a most enjoyable school year.

    The Pinnacle PN-5+ was NOT magnetically shielded.  Therefore, it needed to be kept away from CRT TVs.  As we were penniless college kids, we could not afford even a basic TV stand.  As I mentioned earlier, my housemate found a wooden board, and used it as a plank, bridge, and makeshift TV stand between two end tables.

    Sigh, the PN-5+ had the ubiquitous, cheap, and awful push-in-and-lock connectors.  My solution?  Twist the copper leads of the AudioQuest F-14, and go with them.  In hindsight, I should have taken the F-14 back to the dealer, and have him tin/solder the ends.

    We tried the PN-5+ with and without the grilles.  The grilles muffled the sound, so off they went.  The sound without grilles was kind of bright, with an emphasized upper midrange.  But bright-and-expressive is always preferable to dull or muffled.

    Okay, to recap, I bought the Pinnacle PN-5+ in June 1991, from Santa Cruz's Recycled Stereo Plus.  It stayed in my bedroom from June '91 to September '92.  The PN-5+ lasted the entire school year, September '92 to June '93, in my college apartment, where it performed admirably, gave us the music, and held a special place in my audiophile heart.  From June '93 to about June '94, it went back to my bedroom.  It was replaced by the smaller, more detailed NHT SuperZero.  I gave the Pinnacle PN-5+ to my older cousin.  I'm not sure if he still has it, but I know he had it for years.