And here it is in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZM8iNTZruY
Posted on 01/31/2011 10:43:38 AM PST by Malone LaVeigh
Guys like things. We often work very hard to acquire these things. Guys shop with purpose. We go shopping for items that make our living space more comfortable and more importantly, we are shopping for things that will make other guys envious. However, sometimes we have a tendency to buy items that make it more difficult for us to leave or places of residence. For men, it’s not shoes, stylish dresses and new purses we are shopping for. We need “man” stuff. Things like popular electronic devices, a new driver, or a sex robot. Wait, a sex robot?
(Excerpt) Read more at guyism.com ...
hee hee.. If I have to translate, then you aren’t in the club: dorks with turntables...
I don’t have an 8k tt or 1000 lps but I do have a few hundred and some nice smooth classic tubes...along with some of those tinny tiny transistors..
I've 200 or so albums....would love to play them again..or turn them into CD's. Got any suggestions?
>>You are both an audiophile AND a musician? I think I have read in some thread that you are a player.
Funny, I thought we musician types were rarely audiophiles. I have always been waaaaay more interested in the quality of the musician’s performance than the sonic quality of its playback.<<
HAHAHA! I was an Audiophile in the 70’s. Now I am into “retro HI-FI” from the 70’s.
I stopped being an audiophile when, one day, I looked at my absurdly eclectic record collection and realized that I did not enjoy listening to music. I enjoyed listening to cool equipment reproduce the music. That is when I changed.
Nowadays, if I am going to sit down and listen to music, It is vinyl. No, it does not sound as good as CD’s or even high bit-rate MP3’s, but it is all about the retro experience: Putting a needle in a groove and having to lift it off after 20 minutes.
Heck, I listened to about 20 distorted 45’s last night and loved it.
Oh, and about the eclectic record collection, I still have it, but I realized that a LOT of my records from the 70’s were bought on audio quality as opposed to musical quality. I have a lot o “direct to disk” recordings that amount to lousy music recorded very well. Now most of my stuff is music I really like, and usually recorded pretty well.
I was a gear-head in the audiophile days and now I am a gearhead in my musician days.
And to drive the last nail into my “audiophile” coffin. A TRUE modern audiophile thinks tube is best for HI-FI and records sound better than CD’s. I strongly disagree on both. :)
How about 12,000 lps and 5,000 78s played through a 45 SE tube amp, vintage Thornes TT and massive Altec/Edgar/JBLs?
RR, Haven’t been on AK for some time; however, I do have several friends that are quite active over there.....C
First a wife, who loves me and makes our house into a warm and happy home is the most important thing to keep me happy.
“A well stocked refrigerator and pantry should be on the list as well.”
The only thing on the list I want/need is the grill. I got into grilling in the late 1950’s and used the fire place in our college apartment to grill steaks and other goodies.
I’m about as bad as Arlo in the comics re grilling. Even in our mild but wet California winters, the grill gets fired up several times a week unless we have one of those one week long storms. I use the grills so much that they wear out after 3-4 years. Both sons are great grillers, and the youngest one was a chef for years and gets invited to many grill outs by friends and us, his family members for his great food.
Our tv is a 23+ year old RCA. With Comcast, the picture is great and fact both Comcast guys said the picture was better than most HDs they connected to Comcast. I/we can’t understand the need for the home theatres and expensive large screens tvs. Even with Comcast, their On Demand and what seems like a zillion choices, we have nights last night where there was nothing on until after 10 pm that we wanted to watch. The DVR takes care of the late shows. There is no justification in our minds for a home theatre with the limited choices on tv. Last night our top choice was a hokey Jackie Chan movie before it went off and we went to bed.
TV/electronic games have never appealed to us. Card games like bridge, chess and just talking are our enjoyment outlets.
I have a small office for my computer, reference books and solitude if I need it.
Quickly after marriage, I realized that my wife was in control of the house, let me have my small office, my Lazy Boy in the family room with a couple of magazine/book racks near by and a small table, and the north end of the laundry room for organizing, cleaning and storing my fly fishing gear, and I am happy. In our 2750 square foot home, I use about 220 square feet. Outside storage is basically mine for fishing and kayaking stuff that can’t come inside.
The kitchen is my wife’s, and the only area I really claim/share is for our self grinding/auto coffee pot. When she fixes/preps meals, I stay out and vice versa. She leaves the charcoaling/grilling to me. She is a nice control freak, and has given up on trying to controll me at the grill. I let her run the timing on a couple of meals at the grill and the results were not great. I use our younger son’s reply when she pushes me about the timimg of whatever is on the grill. His reply is the whatever will be done when it is done, I don’t know the time.
Agreed. We grew up on really sweet tube amps and nice turntables, so we have a bit different perspective on sound.
And there is the loudness wars. I do not believe vinyl sounds better than CD’s, but if the source on the vinyl was recorded back when dynamic range mattered, and the source laid down on the CD was recorded with loudness wars in mind, the vinyl will sound better.
I have several Linda Ronstadt vinyl LP’s with the Nelson Riddle orchestra that are unbelievable. The woman has an amazing voice, and the sound quality and dynamics are like having the band in your living room.
And the Ronstadt/Neville CD is equally amazing.
rk
And here it is in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZM8iNTZruY
I found I can get good records at the thrift stores for 10 cents, 25 cents and $1.00.
I spent last night listening to several Sammy Kay recordings! I love old easy listening records! I've also got lots of movie soundtracks from the 1960s! Lots of James Bond music by John Barry who passed away . I wish I could find a new stackable turntable for an easy price.
yes Osage...
a good beginner turntable is the Pro-Ject One turntable by Sumiko, it comes in every color. you can buy them new for about $300. usually at Magnolia (connected with BestBuy stores). Grado has a very nice turn table cartridge for $200 ( Prestige Gold). add in a good brush to clean your records and you are good to go.
I found an old 1970s Harman-Kardon “Twin Power” Amplifier for $75 at a local TV repair shop. I use that as a pre-amp to go into my digital Yamaha receiver, but you can also buy a budget pre-amp from Rotel for $100 new... BTW, they don’t make many home system amplifiers with turntable (phono) inputs these days, so for most home amps, you will need a pre-amp.
Good luck with your analog adventure... I love my home analog gear, but I do listen to CDs at home, as well.
Yamaha R-50 receiver
Technics SL-D2 turntable
Klipsch KG-4 speakers
My 15 year-old son is the vinyl freak. Right now, he is on a Billy Joel kick.
yep.. I buy a lot of used LPs, as well.. we have 3 great stores for that in Los Angeles. you can find used classical music LPs, which are normally in amazing shape with not pops or crackles, for 3 to 5 dollars.. sometimes 1 to 2 dollars.
I love buying used records... I don’t dig spending 17 bucks on a CD, unless I know I’m going to love it, or I’ve already heard it.
Men wants lawns and lawn gadgets, mowers, weedeaters, clippers, etc., so that they will NEVER have to go on a vacation. With those things, they always have the excuse that they “have to cut the grass”.
HAHAHA. Read my last line in post 24. ;)
I used to argue solid state vs tube back in the 70’s with my McIntosh friends. I was always bugged by the “warm sound” subjectivity. When I started playing bass in the late 1990’s I was surprised that guitar players coveted tube equipment (and bass players, but to a much lower degree) until I read an article that summed up why tube is best for guitar amps, even though it is less common in Hi-Fi, and the hint is in that “warm sound” thing.
It is like this:
Hi-fi is “reproducing” music. This means you want components that add as little color to the sound as possible. Solid state fits this bill best, at least nowadays. However, some people love the color that tubes add (just as I love the “quaint distortion” in 45’s sometimes). But accuracy normally trumps “warmth”.
Guitars CREATE music. That is. The guitar is the source and “color” in the sound is all part of the equation between strings, electronics, wood and human flesh. Heck, the whole point of a violin or acoustic guitar is to amplify and color the sound. Words like “rich”, “warm” and others are very common - and real.
And then there is the tube amp. Tubes distort differently than solid state (SS). SS distorts in an audibly annoying way. It is pure harshness. Tubes tend to distort in the bass first, and in a “smoother” way. So what you often can get is a fairly clear high end with a sort of saturated bass. The sound of a good blues distortion is often called “silky”. You’d never hear SS distortion called “silky”.
But the point is, the distortion is ON PURPOSE and a part of the sound, just as the sound of a trumpet is the sound of a person buzzing their lips.
So, I’m now all about Tubes for guitars, and Solid State for Hi-Fi. That said, if someone wanted to donate an old tube hi-fi setup to me, I’d be happy to re-cap it and enjoy that good ol’ “warm” tube sound of the past.
>>RR, Haven’t been on AK for some time; however, I do have several friends that are quite active over there.....C<<
The admins there are so hyper-sensitive I was almost banned before I got started. In fact, I posted, about a week ago, to a new guy, that the site is great, but be really careful about what you post, because the admins don’t like people making waves or spouting strong negative opinions.
the next day, the admin had commented that part out - proving my point. ;)
I hit that site heavily every month or two, then drop off completely. It can be very entertaining and actually useful. I discovered Part’s Express thanks to that site.
Beats my old Kenwood stuff. :)
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