AndrewJohn

Jim, I had this great strategic suggestion all typed, when the site went down last night..., The jist of it was... 1. Consider that the quality of your vinyl in your "showcase" should be in parity with the ~$40,000 worth of the latest technology you are presenting. 2. Russ and Chiro are dead on with the MoFi suggestion. I'll add SuperDisc, and there are others. 3. Avoid used, moldy, beat up garage-sale records that would appear to your audience as being orthogonal to your high-end objective. 4. I would pick "pressings" over "titles" - which will give you enough overlap. 5. A few dozen quality pressings from MoFi, or SuperDisc, or even some of the Japanese and European pressings are better than 250 titles of junky pressings covering every genre. 6. Your audience, with $40K in disposable cash will expect top-quality vinyl - and the new stuff is pretty impressive. 7. If you pick up a used be sure to get a cleaner (ultrasonic, or other) your new TT and cartridge needs that respect. I like the suggestion of two DiskWashers, one for cleaning, one for finishing, that someone said - I do that. FWIW, MoFi, Mobile Fidelity, started here in Chicago - look up the Wikipedia article. And, there's a weekend sale at their HQ every week (close to us! - bonus). They offer 20% to 30% off MoFi titles along with lots of high-end used stock. BTW, I'm not trying to be a vinyl snob - just thinking about what I believe you are setting up with the Showcase of this gear. Most, 98% or more of my vinyl, is used, beat-up jackets from garage sales and swap meets. There ARE bad repressings (MoFi and others...) the best advice is to plug into some vinyl groups, like the MoFi group on FaceBook. There's lots of opinion there, that can steer you away from lesser pressings that MoFi can't help. Some of these repressings are super valuable, and in limited editions. The recent release of Donald Fagan's Night Fly on 45rmp MoFi, has more than doubled in price in the aftermarket. I heard it at a friends, last Sunday night..., and it is absolutely stunning (played it on some tubed Audio Research gear, a Marantz TT through Klipsch K-horns - orders of magnitude better than the original pressing. One last thing there are a couple very good shops in Rockford, and the used market for recent MoFi pressings is pretty strong in our area of the midwest. A regular event - record swap at the Hillside Best Western is on for this Sunday, always is a good place to find near new Mofi.

Welcome! Please post some pics. I have a TFM35x (or two). Good amp. I'd really like to see your DCMs - naked and fully clothed. Those are nice speakers, and hard to find or see. Let me know if you ever sell them! Welcome to the site!

Yes! 100mg of Thorazine.... What's next, Crystal Gayle on MoFi ?

I had title for one month. After I looked up about half a dozen songs that weren't available, I decided it was not the format for me. I'm the same way with my car. If I want to listen to an entire CD, I'll just take CDs with me in the car, or I'll use an iPod or similar player. My whole interest in streaming music, is quick availability to stuff I don't own, or finding new music I'm not familiar with. The introduction to new music or various recordings of a particular song or one of the reasons I like Pandora so much. Ditto, Travis. I buy CD's for a buck ($1 each) at Goodwill. Or in mass, on Craigslist when people are "dumping" their collections for pennies on the dollar. I'll never listen to them all. (I've collected Cassettes too, this way.) Sure, I don't get the "latest" releases, but I'm old, and like the older stuff - so I'm not missing much relative to my listening repertoire. For CD's It feels like 1992 again, when you could almost drive down the street and see people's entire Vinyl collections on the street for the garbage pick-up. People be kickin' themselves now! On a road trip, I can't find XM radio all that great (maybe No Shoes Radio - but most of it is not doing it for me) and I do FM to see what is playing regional, when driving across the country - but mostly play CD's, or ripped music I have on my phone.

Spotify seems to be taking the lead. Microsoft's decision to dump Groove, and partner with Spotify is something I'm keeping my eye on. If Microsoft were to infuse technology and $$ to Spotify - high-rez services might advance - which is an obvious organic move for Spotify. I have Tidal - but don't use it enough..., been thinking of cutting my expenses to wait and see while continuing to play vinyl.

Oh boy, that is very nice! Thank you for the pics. Lots of ideas there. I'm going to guess that you can access the back of that rack/stack from the other side! Super set-up, thank you for sharing.

Welcome to the site - I see you joined in 2016. Post those pictures! that sounds like an interesting setup and great turntable. I got into Carver in the mid 80's too. You have OCCD, not curable.

Welcome to the site - that's a nice set of gear! You're on the right path. Can't wait to see your pictures. Hoping you stay a while ans share your experience.

Welcome to the site. There are super techs here, and others that just Enjoy the Music. Regardless of your path to OCCD (our term for Obsessive Carver Collecting Disorder) all are welcome here to share their experience and contribute. I can't add to all the great advice above - but to say "ditto" and "+1". I have one system with a BillD C-1 and a MKIIopt2 M1.0t, which I call my "control system." All other trials and experiments are compared with that set-up. You will love it. And FWIW, so will those JBL 4412 studio monitors !! (that is until you pick up a pair of Carver Amazings, or the big brother JBLs... (it's a journey!). Welcome to the community. Oh, btw, invest in good shipping boxes - the techs here will send them back to you in the same boxes - worth picking up some double-layer FedEx boxes, and do the "double-box" thing, packing with solid styrofoam. Wecome!

It could be my eyes, or the picture..., but this speaker wire hook up, doesn't look solid. The lower lead seems not to be in the contact hole. ? Could that be the issue?

I'll let the techs respond on the diagnosis and repair of the left side amp..., ...but, had this handy from Dom's recent post on how to insert pictures... If it's helpful, great - if not, no worries. (FWIW, I recommend "uploading" images for content that is persistently valuable - the "links" to photobucket and other external photo-host sites can be broken - making your sharing of less interest in the long-term to the next guy that may have the same issue.)

Welcome John! Glad you found us. One thing we like is "pictures" ..., as you get your project going. Welcome!

Convinced Susan to do some critical listening last night in the Carver room..., Really nice Saturday Night experience. Gear in rotation for play for the evening: C-1 (BillD by wrf), M1.0t (MkII Op2 by Hashy), SD/A 490t (refreshed by me), Dual 721 DD TT (refreshed by me), ECS-U (stock, for SH), Carver Amazing Hybrids (how I got them from a farmer) Started out with vinyl Then more vinyl, Then some digital: More digital: Digital Peter Gabriel, to close the session:

Another welcome from the central Midwest... Need pics. Wondering if you have a pic of your original system from the 80's ? No pressure, and I'm not really serious. But pics of your current setup would be very cool to share.

Question for you Dennis, on using canned air that I've always wondered. Is there a trick to preventing the air from condensing, and developing moisture in this process? Or is it short burst, turn the pot back and forth, then another short burst? as in the short-bursts not generating the condensation.

Clearly working on building the mobile "party barn." Are we all invited if the Swedish Bikini Team shows up? Nice score. From a church, it has to be in pretty decent shape. (Minimal abuse - assuming no exorcisms ! )

The saving of the soul takes some pondering... However, I truly believe that the greats of the renaissance, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and others, had something unique - perhaps divine, well beyond my ability to imagine. The prolific perfection in their composing, in relatively shorter average life-spans of the time, created enduring artistic works that certainly sooth and heal the soul in that pondering - and which have survived the ages in great performances by diverse musicians across the globe for centuries. Thanks, for the great read, David.

+1

1+ on Norah Jones. On the classical side, Aaron Copeland's Fanfare for the Common Man (that's right ELP did not compose that... ;-) recording by any large symphony with decent brass and horn section kicks up some dust to compare minor changes. One other I like is any solid U.K. brass orchestra (common recordings of local "hobby" orchestras that existed in the labor towns of the north. The sound track to "The Full Monty" has some great brass music that puts my gear through a variety of paces.

Welcome Joey. This is a great place to be. As all these great ideas flow in your own quest for OCCD (obsessive carver collecting disorder)..., something I noticed lately is that C-19's come up for sale more often in Europe, than in the US. (My observation based on the places I look...) (from your first post, it appears you are in Scotland?) If a C-19 is your fancy, check out the search tool www.HiFiShark.com. There is one listed now, in Austria. (I realize that there's all kinds of tax implications getting something from one country to another - but these are rare.) Again, Welcome to the party!

Well, while the MoFi and the Superdisc's do sound great - they seem over priced. I kind of assume that some/many of these are what are referring to as CD-mastered. Been diggin' a few dbx records lately, played (decoded) through my dbx-224x. Unbelievably dead quiet, and excellent sounding recordings..., and I'm pretty sure they are analog-mastered..., what few of them I can find.

I dont' know for sure, but my HR 895 comes out of Standby when I press the "Power" button on the faceplate. The display lights up with the current settings (FM, or ?) before it went into standby. The power button on your remote should do the same thing - I think. I don't have an 880 - but this is how my 895 works. If this suggestion works, please let us know.

Catchin' up. Nice pics. LT, stop drooling !