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Jim Coash

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Jim Coash last won the day on April 11 2014

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  1. Carver tuners, especially the TX-11a were miles ahead of everything else when they came out. I did so many demos where I tuned in stations with one people could not get on their tuner. Sometimes getting a weak station and then just switching on the ACCD to their shock and amazement. I also used a paperclip as an antenna just to prove how little signal could produce listenable results. When my Dad and I built the Dyna FM-3t tuner in 1962, it has a separate "kit" to make it "Stereo Ready" if you wished. The base model was mono. I don't listen to a lot of radio but I did ask for and get a new outdoor dipole mast mount antenna for Christmas. I plan to install it soon. That should make things in the Party Barn better for radio. It wasn't bad until we had to replace the shingle roof and went with steel. That really made the indoor dipole essentially worthless. Jim
  2. Gary: Glad you found the site. You will love the Carver M-500t, it is a wonderful amp. I had several and never had any complaints. I also owned two pair of E/V Interface:A speakers. I assume you are using the supplied active EQ. I have very fond memories of those speakers. I have at least a dozen pair of E/V speakers right now including a pair originally made in the early 1960s. They have been modded with new tweeters but I listen to them everyday. I spent almost 40 years in the DJ business and used E/V speakers from my first gig in 1973 with the Interface: A speakers through many models and now use the E/V SX-200 system. Feel free to ask questions and learn about your gear. Jim
  3. Remember, I was one of the last people in the A/V business to actually own a CD player. My experiences with them was very negative from a reliability standpoint. Now I own at least a dozen. They are still the most trouble prone, unreliable, expensive to repair source units I have EVER owned. The latest ones have been much more reliable than the older ones. The only repairs I have done, successfully to CD players are belt replacements, especially loading belts, cleaning the slides and optics and re-aligning mechanisms. I tell all my friends DO NOT push the door closed. Use the button. It is the safest way and will avoid problems in the future. Still, many "insist" pushing the door shut is just fine. True only if you use just a light push squarely in the center of the door. I have had to remove paper labels from mechanisms so I tell people never to use them. Now, after selling off the bulk of my vinyl, CDs are my biggest software investment. As I said, my biggest disappointment has been the failure of so many of the CDs I and my friends have custom made. Those that were made on quality blanks have held up better. Those made on poor ones seem to be reliable for less than ten years at best. I agree completely with Chuck. Unless you are extremely careful, CDs in cars will suffer an early demise. Both the machines and the software. Of course, we live in Michigan. Perhaps the weather where you are is less of a problem. When it is very cold, I let CD players acclimate slowly to the temp and humidity problems. At gigs, cold CD players must be warmed before use, after traveling in the car for long distances. The CD rack is always in the warmest place I can carry it. Jim
  4. I have had little or no trouble with any CDs I bought new. Of course, I treat them the same way I treat all software. No matter what it is, vinyl, tape or CD, they are always stored in the original box or package in a cool dry place. My home is humidity and temperature controlled most of the year. All vinyl is clean, in a VRP, stored on edge, alphabetically in the original sleeve the open end turned 90 degrees to the top. All tapes are in the original package. Played back to the start, never fast wound, cassette or reels. Also stored carefully. CDs in the jewel box, stored either in a nice rack or a zippered Case Logic unit. No software of any kind is ever left in the car. When I do take some on a trip, it goes with me back inside the house or to my hotel room. Nothing is ever left in any machine. I have seen plenty of tiny holes in burned CDs that do eventually skip and are then worthless. I always buy Maxell, TDK or Sony blanks and I record them in real time on one of three machines, always one track at a time, analog. By far CDs are the worst format I have ever seen. Period. A few of my records have some surface noise, a few cassettes have gotten eaten and if not repairable, thrown away. I have never lost a reel. When I had DAT and DCC they were OK but definitely second only to CDs in terms of problems. I have thrown away several CDs. Sometimes I was able to copy at least some of the tracks to a new CD but a few would not work at all, in any machine I tried. There is no question that a lot of people are to blame for the poor condition of their CDs but I am not one of them. It bothers me to know how much time I spent recording just to find out that the CDs after 5 to 10 years become a problem. Just one reason why I mistrust them so. I love vinyl for sound and longevity. Jim
  5. I had extensive experience with CDs in car systems during my Stereo Showcase years. So many times I had someone ask me to sell them a CD player and I pointed out the likely problems they would encounter. Even so, I sold some. Invariably, several came back and complained about the poor quality of the equipment I sold them. Most of the time the CDs were simply trashed from being in the vehicle; dusty, dirty, scratched, worn and abused. My first test was to take a couple of them into the store and prove that they would not play in any CD player. Then take one of my CDs out and demonstrate that it worked just fine. My stock statement about CDs in general was, they are clean. quiet and dynamic. They are also the most unreliable, service intensive and over hyped product I have ever come across. I never bought a CD player for my vehicle until they came with one and cassette was no longer available. I have nothing against CDs except that the records I have that are 50 years old still sound great, none of my CDs ever sounded as good and quite a few of the ones I burned do not work. I have cleaned some that skipped successfully but some just do not work ever again. I have found some machines that will play more of my questionable CDs that others but I am reluctant to ever really trust CDs the was I do vinyl or tape. All I can do now is preemptively copy my favorite CDs to a new burned copy before they get too old. The question is, how old is that? 5 years, 10 years? The thing that really made me mad was the big billboard near my store put up by Classic Stereo that said, "Denon's $200 CD player, perfect sound forever". Words I would NEVER use about anything. Jim
  6. Delicious vinyl. Some great finds are still out there. Gov't Mule on vinyl is interesting. Tom Brignall was one of my employees at Stereo Showcase and his Uncle Bob the last and best drummer in my band. I have the CDs of two albums but no vinyl. I recognize so many of these and some that I had long ago and sold off when I dumped the bulk of my collection. At one time it was huge, over 10K, My son Chris had his choice first and still owns most of that, I kept only my top favorites, about 500 and the rest went to a collector with the maple shelving. Most of my CD collection are compilations of the favorite albums of the past. Plus all the taped recordings and burned CDs I made either for saving oldies or for specific gigs. Here I am, very sick, with the vinyl behind me, in 2005. The whole wall was vinyl, end to end, top to bottom, alphabetical. Jim
  7. Like a lot of rock bands, there are snatches of both music and lyrics taken from old black musicians from long ago in nearly every Led Zeppelin tune. We had a DJ who worked in town at the rock station and every Sunday night he played nothing but the blues. When people called in and asked him to play a Led Zeppelin, Clapton, Hendrix or Stevie Ray cover he would refuse and play the original instead. Kind of refreshing actually. 12 bar blues is the most common musical form in the world and much of what I like to play is based on it. Any good guitar player can sit down and play several hundred "different" songs all with the same three or four chords. Just make up your own words. Jim
  8. I don't think there are many Led Zeppelin songs that aren't basic blues based riffs with plenty of borrowing being done. Jim
  9. When I think of my life I am stunned to think of how my values and opinions have changed. I was brought up in a Catholic home where my family routinely disparaged minorities, denigrated other religions and forced their opinions upon us. I was headed down that same path when I met Martha. I attended an all boys Catholic high school, she attended Kalamazoo Central with plenty of minorities. There were 75 boys in my class, 600 boys and girls in hers. She made me take a whole new look at the world. I came to understand that we are all in this together and that we were no more than a spot of mold growing on a tiny planet in a remote corner of a huge universe. Our time here on the earth is but a blink in the age of our 4.5 billion year old solar system. My ancestors were Canadian fur trappers and poor immigrants from England, Germany and Poland. My boys and their children are my future. Just as I learned so much from my Dad, I pass all that I can down to the next generations and try to help them understand science. We are atheists. I had nightmares for years growing up about my sinful nature. Then, with help from Martha and some of my college professors and friends, I finally left that behind. It is easy to see how humans evolved from earlier species for me. I believe in Darwin. I also understand how our ancestors came to look to gods for answers but we are growing beyond that now. In a few hundred years I hope humankind will rid itself of that curse. I sure have. Below, my parents, Bob and Sherrie Coash. Born 1927, married more than 60 years. Jim
  10. They look great. Here are a few of mine. All made in Kalamazoo at 225 Parsons Street. I have a few more downstairs. Jim The last Heritage Bass ever made. A prototype, custom model, made for me by the employees with their signatures under the control cover. One of a kind, loaded with unique features including stereo outputs and multiple pickup options. Just like Ted Nugent's H-550 but not blonde, Antique Sunburst, with deluxe package and HRW pickups. Tap tuned, beautiful. My overall favorite to play and smooth as warm butter. Heritage H-555C, gold package, butterscotch translucent, flame top tiger maple. Only "triple bound" known. One of a kind. 1956 Gibson ES-130, tobacco sunburst, original P-90, maple bridge, a beautiful player. Know as a "student" model. Jim
  11. I sold a lot of TFM-25 and other TFM series amps at Stereo Showcase. They are fine performers. I would consider the Carver 1.0t amp to be superior in many ways, provided it has been modified to the current best configuration. Many of the early ones did have some stability problems and age will make that more likely. The best news is when you get it properly done it is one of the very best amps in my opinion. I have a nice TFM-55 that would love your Maggies. Care to part with one of those Gibsons? I also love tube guitar amps. Here are some shots of the amp. Jim Provided they are "real" Gibsons, of course.
  12. I too am a Michigander, born and raised. I've visited most of the states and find traveling in the USA to be a great experience but I always love coming back to Michigan. I sold MG-IIs new at The Sound Room during the 1970s. Those look vintage. I also have a collection of guitars. Your two "Les Paul" Gibsons look great. Having been a DJ for more than 35 years I became very fond of Carver pro amps. I sold Bob Carver products beginning with Phase Linear, then Carver and finally Sunfire at a store that had outlets in GR and Kalamazoo, Stereo Showcase. Carver products lend themselves to collecting, using and upgrading and yield high performance and reliability. Your plans sound interesting. Keep us in the loop. Jim
  13. I love science fiction. I am a believer in the ultimate search for answers and have found most of mine in the pages of the great science fiction writers. My Dad laughed at "Star Trek" saying that everything on the show was pure baloney. Now most of us walk around with hand held computers that allow us to instantly communicate with anyone. I just cannot understand why we do not have fusion energy, a base on the moon, no need for fossil fuels or continued wars of aggression. It will come. Someday. Jim
  14. Does anybody remember the Record-Vac? It was sold on TV as the "best" way to easily clean all records. It was also called the record "burger" because it kind of looked like a Big Mac. There was a vertical slot with felt pads and brushes mounted along the edges to contact the record surface while a battery operated motor turned the record. A lot were sold and soon there were complaints that records came out worse than when they went in. Nitty Gritty and VPI were always very good systems but I never invested. My method seems to work as well as anything and is gentler and more thorough than most. Clean your vinyl! Jim
  15. I use a sink full of warm, soft, filtered water with one drop Dawn and two drops bleach. I clean each record carefully submerging the vinyl but avoiding getting the label wet. I place them in a dish drainer vertically to dry for a few minutes and then use a soft lint free cloth to dry. Finally I place them flat on my granite counter top on another dry lint free cloth and the use a Discwasher with my own cleaner to give them a final going over. If they are warped, I place them between two pieces of 3/4" finished plywood using a soft cloth between the record and the wood. They go into the oven on the middle shelf after an hour of preheat to 250 degrees. Once in, I turn off the oven and leave the record over night. In the morning, 90% of them are perfectly flat. A second treatment will increase that to 95%. A few just never seem to get perfect but most are still playable. If the records are noisy due to ill treatment I either live with it or, if I really want to have a good copy of that recording I still have some of the old Ball record treatment. That sometimes makes a big difference. I always save the original sleeve but the record goes into a new VRP every time after I clean it so I know it has been done. I use a Sharpie to date my ownership and when it was cleaned for the first time. I never have done a record more than once. Never needed to. Vinyl is superior. Period. Jim
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