YardCrap

I really like that Van post up above. The guy has no real talent except timing. I have all his stuff.

I have LPs from back when they were popular. As to sound, the deal is a great record cleaner. Can records be pressed better than before? Is 180 gram a selling point? I believe LPs can be better made now but are they - I think not. It is likely I have collected more that move me than you as I am old. My collection is not flea market grab bag. LPs are on the rise but remain a smaller part of the market. Is the LP sound better than digital or is it just a gear thing? Is that important? I been playing records too long to stop now.

On the porch with Brain Bromberg and Urquell today watching my birds and my mind has turned yet again to auido. My thought son it change all the time, often depending on how cold the beer is. I remember my "beer snob" days when I never drank really cold beer because experts said it killed the flavor. Maybe, but now I am secure enough to drink beer the way I like it best -> very cold. ~~~~~~~~~ Audiophiles and people who consider themselves audiophiles claim dramatic difference in the sound of a tune when they change any component. 99% of the time if they paid $$, they claim improvement. They use the other 1% to show they are indeed an audiophile and not biased. Even small things like different wires and tubes are claimed to do wonders for a system. If you want to feel like an audiophile you can achieve that by just changing the wall cord and claiming the sound is to now "to die for". I am just an audionut and a "cold" beer drinker, so in a blind test, I often don't hear the difference, and if I do, is it a better? No matter, because if in a blind test 60% choose one over another after consentrated listening, is it a big deal? Swapping carts and tubes and wires and small things can break the audio bank and if in a blind test audiophiles cannot agree then - then WTF? I may have worded that wrong as very, very few "audiophiles" will sit in a blind test where credibility is at risk and now have developed endless reasons not to with help from the internet. In my opinion the best deal is to assemble the best quality "neutral" sounding system you can afford. That is not easy but with help from people here and other research, it can be done on many $$ levels. The main parts are player, amplifier, and speakers. You must have those. Spend your money there. Everything else in the system like preamps should be added with care and research as they can drag down the system. A neutral audio system is not the choice of all. It is not the choice of any audiophiles I know. "Neutral" would be the tune sounding just as it did to the person mixing it. No one hears that as systems are different. Even the same system at my house will sound different at yours. Who is to say the mixer got it right anyway? A case in point is the Beatles' 'LET IT BE". After several rejected remix attempts, Phil Spector was brought on board and the album has now sold a gazillion copies. In 2003 Paul McCartney remixed it. I have both and cannot say I prefer one over the other. I believe we could agree both these guys know more about music than do I (and maybe you?). The point is that unless you are at a live acoustic event, you hear a mix of what someone believes you will like. To that end, why can we not tweak it some ourselves? We do whether we want to or not as a CD will not sound the same in our car as in our house or through earbuds hooked to an ipod. Back to our original goal of a "neutral system" -> yep, that is not possible. It might not even be desirable, but I believe it is the goal to go for before we begin to tweak/personalize. The biggest tweak is speakers and then matching the proper amp. Once you have that, players are a big deal ( CD player, Turntable, Computer, etc). Players are a big deal and in most cases we want them to reproduce the infomation on the medium in a neutral or pure way. No one seems happy with a neutral system. Audiophiles (and even audionuts) soon want to tweak it. My first car was a 1963 VW Beetle, and one of the fun things was the incredible amount of aftermarket easy tweaks for sale to make it "yours" and make you feel special and part of it. Today in audio that seems to be the easy tweaks of wires, tubes, etc. I believe that other than making one feel special, they add little value to sound over soild (and less expensive) gear. If an item like this really does change the sound "dramatically", the drama is in your head or it is crap messing up your "neutral" system. One will claim the change good as they just layed out $$$, but ??? The best way to change sound is to experiment with speakers and amps and players. Once you get that together, if you want to mess with the sound (we all do) then look into Equalizers. They were a big deal before most reading this were born. I had one in the late 60s that had a ten foot spring for vibration. (I have been an audionut for a long time). An Equalizer can do more than any wires or tubes or etc. It can alter good speakers and amps to a huge degree. Is that a good thing? It can be fun. My friend TNRabbit said that if your Equalizer Graph is a smiley face - you have it wrong. Many things have Equalizer in some form. Bob Carver added them on many of his things. A tone control or his famous Sonic Holography are examples. Way back "when" all of us had a separate Equalizer in the rack if for no reason other than seeing the music dance. You don't see them much now, but if you want to mess with tunes - get one. If the person mixing the album can do it - why not you? If you are a "file" player, there are incredible options in software. In my opinion no digital file player on the market can compete with a well set up computer as they can't keep up. Those things are just computers and not as easy to change and update. Here are some free Equalizers for computer. https://sourceforge.net/projects/equalizerapo/ https://sourceforge.net/projects/pc-equalizer/ I use Isotope Ozone on my computer and have for years. If you think a NOS tube or $$$ interconnect can change things, this will blow your mind as to the endless possibilities.

W O W ~~~!!

That is a reference album. Over the years have it on different formats. They all sound good, but that is true of many albums we have heard many times.

Post counts are fun and I like them. Sometimes a guy with 10 posts is more up to speed on a given topic than one with a million. Having many posts does not make one smarter or his post more relevant, just means he posts more (which is needed and desired on a forum). I hope in time to be up there where I can read all. I actually am kinda dumb, but don't hang that label on every guy with few posts.

Cant figure the youtube embed but here is a link.

I will throw in a vote for Joe Morello. He entertained me to no end as a kid and I got to see him play with Brubeck once. He was not just excellent but beyond that. He can be heard on many older Jazz tunes.

A while back, saw a post on a sand pit box which is interesting. I am lucky in that my stand is on a concrete floor. I also use Sorborthane and a big Maple block. I guess you have a really great TT to go to that trouble for small improvement.

I recently became the owner of new speakers. I am speaker poor as I believe good sound and different sound starts at the speaker. It is fun to talk cables, amps and WTF, but in my experience, speakers make the biggest difference, and not a small difference. For most improvements (?) you need a blind test, not so much with speakers . I have a lot of excellent speakers, Carver, Gallo, Polk, Def Teck, etc. My new toys are McIntosh XRT-28. I am not saying these would be your choice, but I was willing to pay for the sound they make. I already have great speakers, so WTF? These are greedy speakers. They take 1200 watts @4ohms. I suspect the few reviewers of them lacked the power to make them shine. Thanks to my buddy Bob, am running them with two SunFire 600X2 amps putting 2400watts to each at 4ohm. That is important as the woofers need power to perform. BASS needs power. All of us love the crap we have. Trying to put that to the side and look at these in a neutral way -- I would say: I have never in life heard anything nearly as good.

I am lucky in that my audio rack sits on a concrete floor. Otherwise I would surely look into the wall mount. It all means little, but the "little" is what we are looking for. I think "vintage" players give "vintage" sound. That is sound from the days of a girl and a drive in movie. If you no longer have the girl, time to upgrade your gear. I also have all my crap on rubber lined shelves and my TT mounted on Sorbothane as this is just a hobby. I have a 4"inch Maple block under it, but let's be honest, Maple, granite and etc are for "show" which I think is important. Here is a post I just put up at YardCrap which tells how I feel about record play: http://yardcraphome.com/showthread.php?1190-PHONO-CARTRIDGE-THREAD&p=10980&viewfull=1#post10980

I am a big fan of POLK speakers. I believe they and Def Teck are the best bang for buck one can buy. Any thoughts on that?

My Bride's favorite movie and sound track.

"Believe me if there was somebody else to do it, I would let them do it. There's not, so we are doing it" John McClane