Travis In Austin

I love 'em, they are the best Scottish rock band of all time and have the greatest rock song with bag pipes in my opinion. I'm 48, and it has been hard to bet folks to go with me to shows on their latest tour here in the US. I'm even planing on catching them in their native Scotland for their Glasgow show. Travis

Pet Sounds Exile on Main Street

I have sat in that chair and can attest that it truly is a great sweetspot. The perfect place to enjoy a cup of Salada. Travis

I have owned several, including a DP 935 I sold after I got married. Talk about scary fast. Travis

Now that was funny. The second guy for sure never listens to his records. After he finishes with that 12 step process, he puts his lp's in his $2,000 lp demagnatizer (http://www.musicdirect.com/product/73520) only to discover they are dusty requiring a repeat in the steam bath. Travis

They are $20 for $50, or $15 for 50 if you buy 500 (10 packs of 50) from Music Direct (they own MFSL). I called them direct the last time I ordered and asked for a quote for 1000 and they came in one large box in bulk for an even better price. Travis

I'm glad you posted on this because I have been meaning to mention an alternative place to get sleeves then the typical outlets. You can give www.squaredealonline.com a try for record supplies. The other two main ones I think have been mentioned, sleevetown and bags unlimited I have found squaredeal has the best prices on outer sleeves if they have what you are looking for. They carry the rice paper inner sleeves, but I don't believe they carry the MFSL brand. I agree that the MFSL is the best quality and is what I use. If you have a number of records you can get the price down if you buy them in bulk. The last time I got them I got a case of 1000 and it cut the cost by more then half. Travis

I think the Disc Doctor brush is by far the best think out in the market. It has a two level nap, one gets well into the grooves, and the other gets the surface. I also like his cleaning fluid, I use the original that requires a clean water rinse. I am really interested in the steam system and the results people achieve. I have the 16.5 VPI and get great results with the disc Doctor system, but it does require two vaccum wands and a 2nd rinse cycle. If the steam avoids the necessity of a vaccum cleaner then it will be a good option budge wise. But for someone who has a vaccum system, the big question is going to be whether it provides a deeper/better cleaning, or can achieve the same cleaning wth less steps. There is no question, after watching the first video, that it is the best way to go for a manual system. (He is using nothing but steam). If he can get everything out then it is very inexpensive and fairly quick. However, I could clean about 3 records to his every one with a VPI 16.5 so it will be interesting to see what results folks get with steam in vac system. If they get the same cleaning without having to use brushes, and or cleaners then it would be worth a try. It would be hard to believe that steam is going to get something that DD brushes and solution would miss by themselves, so I want to see if it lets you skip something and be just as clean. On the alcohol issue, if you use too strong a solution of alcohol it can for sure strip the sheen right off an lp. This has always made me wonder what alcohol is doing to the vinyl even if it is diluted. The DD claims that alcohol leaches the plasticisers out of record vinyl, whatever that is, but who knows. Like I said, I actually removed the sheen off of a record using 100 alcohol. For a normal lp cleaning, one that has not come from a garage sale, etc, I use a non-alcohol based cleaner such as the DD solution. There are, however, some things that are going to require alcohol in order to be really clean. If a record comes from a smoking household, for example, you are going to have to hit it with an alcohol based product first. I reccomend following that up with your normal non-alcohol based solution, followed by a water rinse. Whatever brush you use with the alcohol based solution you are not going to want to use with the other solution. With regad to "rubbing alcohol," I would avoid using it. A pint of 99.9% pure isoporponol costs about $10. It is available at a lot of places, Techspray offers it along with a bunch of other places. I know that is more then a pint of rubbing alcohol, but it can't be that much and you don't know what you are gettngwith the rubbing alcohol. Rubbing alcohol can either be ethyl or isopropyl alcohol. Ethyl alcohol is the kind we drink and so federal regs require ethyl rubbing alcohol to be denatured so you can't drink it, The denaturing agents are something you would never want on your records. Isopropyl rubbing alcohol, as previously mentioned, can have lanolin in it, which may or may not be on the label. More importantly, it usually contains perfume oils, and you don't want that stuff on your records. For the slight difference in cost I just don't risk what may, or may not be in the rubbing alcohol. With the 99.9 I know there is nothing it. Like I said, I am looking forward to hearing more about the steam system in conjunction with the VPI machine. Travis

Mark, I am very interested in this 6H30 option. While I have had 6DJ8's turn microphonic, if you have a good one (no 1/f noise) they seem to have much less tube noise and distortion than tubes such as a 12AX7. It does take a little bit more effort to find quiet ones, but once you do you can forget about it. The 6DJ8 has a great deal more bandwidth than a 12AX7, thus they are much more prone to RFI and other outside sources of noise and so I have found using a metal shield/heat sink eliminates this type of thing. I think part of the problem is more that the 6DJ8 was a more recently developed tube (1950's) and was not used hi end audio until the late '70's. A lot of these tubes, as you mentioned, went into test equipment or were part of tv tuners. A whole lot of them were made in the 1980's, but they were made in Eastern Europe with poor quality control. These were than labeled in a lot of different ways including "Made in W. Germany." A 6DJ8 has about 7X the gm rating of a 12AX7 and consequentlly, the noise voltage on the 6DJ8 is superior to the 12AX7. How does it compare with the 6H30? Travis

I don't seem to have that problem with mine.

Roger, I'm sorry I did not update this, I have been so busy with work that it took a back burner for awhile. I did in fact buy them, they are in pristine condition, we don't believe they were ever hooked up. They do not have the original boxes but they are on the original pallet, and had been re-wraped. I could not find a scratch or nick anywhere. You could also tell the doors on the bass bins had never been unscrewed, so I did not even mess with opening them. I am not sure what I am going to do with them yet, I am waiting for my Jubs to be finished and that may still take some time so I may put them in the house while I am waiting for those to get finished. I plan to play with them for at least a little while. I have to go back up and get them when I have a chance, but that doesn look like that will happen until the middle of November. Sounds like quite a project with all TSCMs. Is that going to be 4 or 6? Travis

Can't really add to anything that has already been said, but man that is a pretty dog you have there. Travis

Thank you all very much, Michael thanks for the PDF which I am taking with us. I'm going to fly us up there in a hurry tomorrow and see what we can find. I am going to try and give Kevin a call as well before we get up there. Travis

Thanks Doc. Where is the access panel on the bass bins on these and what tools do I need other than a screw driver. Are the K-33, 55's and 77's? Travis

I have a line on some TSCM's that I am going to look at this weekend to purchase, and I need to know what to look for etc. Colter, Kevin, Bill W. are you out there? This just came up and I have to move fast so I thought I woud post here first and then send out some PM's. Any help would be most appreciated. Thanks Travis

TheBes, I was reading your post with great interest, as I am usually prone to do given your gift of prose and spinning a yarn. As a matter of fact, I am was having a bit of hot tea in your honor as I read the responses. It figures that CBS is way off in their numbers. They are not even close. As you know, I am a big vinyl fan, have lots of it, and am always looking for more of it. I really wish it was true, that vinyl got it's groove back, but the fact of the matter is that vinyl is insignificant in the total U.S. music market. So why do they continue to make it? Because it is a high markup item, and idiots like me are more then willing to pay to pay twice what a cd costs for perceived (actual in most cases) superior sound , collectibility, nostalgia, to justify high $ turntable rigs, etc. Thus, on a limited scale, it is still profitable. LP's are now made in much smaller runs, 1,000, 2,000 maybe 5,000, and then they sell what they make. Depending on how fast they sold they may, or may not, run another batch. The day's of cutouts and bargin bins are pretty much over. All new vinyl is pretty much a limited edition, whether it is marketed that way or not. Why the growth last year? I am not really sure I think it is for a number of reasons, some previously stated in this thread. Things like folks, like me, that grew up with the lp format will continue to buy in that format as long as we can. Others see that it is still out there a plenty and that it is not difficult to get back into it and so they have. Others, still, have found, to their own ears, that it provides something that the digitial formats do not and so they have taken the splurge. You hear their stories in threads of this forum all the time. Now the real question. Why was it big news this year? Because it was about the only positive thing that the music industry had to report. CD sales have been in a decline for 4 years and even with downloads, total music sales have also been on a 4 year skid. So some music industry executive when asked about the 20% decline in sales responds with some good news: "Well that is true, but downloads sales are skyrocketinng and vinyl is making a comeback. Vinyl sales are up nearly 50% from last year." You sit back and get a warm fuzzy feeling inside with visions of giant vinyl retailers poping back up again, advertising that they stay open 'till midnight every day of the year with thousands of square feet of vinyl as far as the eye can see. Then you realize that when you look at the numbers, vinyl is not even a drop in the bucket. I too had romantic ideas of vinyl being stocked in every department and drug store once again when I heard the stories about vinyl sales on the rise. I was brought back to harsh reality by my bean counting wife's uncle. Her uncle used to be a top A&R man at A&M records until H & J sold it to Segrams. He then went to Nielson Soundscan, i.e, Billboard, the company that is charged with tracking music sales. He is really into vinyl, and we were sitting playing some of mine when they were in town earlier this year and I brought up the Wired article that came out in the spring that suggested that vinyl was going to be the death of the CD. He laughed and said, "I hate to burst your bubble but . . . ." He then went on to explain that it was true that LP shipments were in fact up over 35% from '06 to '07. He then had me guess what the total number of lp's shipped were in '07. I thougt 5 million so I said 3 million cause I knew it was a trick question. He said that the units shipped went from 900,000 units to 1.3 million. Well not bad right, I mean, that's 400,000, units, not chump change. The shape of things to come right? He explained that was a jump of $15,000,000 to almost 23M in sales, and that was the key to seeing it continue. I thought that was pretty impressive jump, but the numbers sounded so low. I then thought, well this is all relative, and I asked him what do these numbers really mean in relation to the whole picture. He said that was the other part of the story, as it was concerning vinyl, that was not being presented because the industry was searching to put a positive spin on anything in light of all of the bad news. In '07 over a half billion CD's were shipped, with sales of over 7.4 billion. That's billion with a B. The total U.S. music market in '07 was 10.3 billion, down almost 1.5 billion from '06. CD's were 83% of the market. Vinyl? 7/10 of 1%, a whopping 1/10 of 1% up from '06 (down 2/10 from '04, where vinyl was almost 1% of the market). To put that in perspective, SACD's accounted for 6/10 of 1% of sales. You remember SACD? That is the format that everyone is saying that is all but dead and gone. DVD-A sales are 1.2% of the market. It's not back, it's not even close to being back. But it is steady, and appears to be profitable to the extent that we are getting both great reissues and new stuff. Hopefully it will continue to be profitable for companies to be able to offer it at a price, while more expensive then CD/downloads, is still within the realm of reason. I agree with all of the atributes that have been mentioned by others here as to why it continues to be made and sold when the market has obviously gone for the CD. Now the good news I got today was that Tascam was talking about going back into making reel to reel machnes and I am dreaming of big return of reet to reel pre-recorded tapes (I'm a subscriber to the Tape Project, a total of 10 tapes that pop out 1 every couple of months). Well I can dream can't I? Travis

West Paterson Was hoping for something more along the lines of an address and what the owners' work schedule was, or if they were going on vacation soon. No reason, just curious.[6] Travis

Thanks for those nice and kind thoughts. I was quite surprised by the extravaganza my wife planned for me at a local rooftop club in downtown Austin. I was also surprised to see Luther and his wife Rose sitting in the corner with smiles on their faces. luther, I don't know about the photos, post away, I think they can take it. I was blown away when I walked through that door. Travis

Two nations separated by a common language Shaw? It figures that our resident wordsmith would know that. I think Wilde actually thought of the idea of a "common language" first, but Shaw cam up with the separated part. Travis

No it is a bad idea unless Bob Crites says it is ok to do so, otherwise you might be buying a replacement diaphram from him. Where are you located? What city and state. Travis

Two nations separated by a common language

Nice post of the Hi-Fi World photos Dean. Anyone know how big a publication that is over there? Travis

That is awesome. Can only wonder how it would be in person and live. Wow. Travis

Well sort of, but it is a start, a great start. As many of you know, fellow forum member dhtman lives in the UK and has a company called Artisan Audio. His company, I beleive, concentrates on products made by US audio companies that he imports to the U.K. He also owns Jubs but I am not sure whether he imports Klipsch speakers or not.. He apparently was at the Heathrow High Fidelity Show since Paul Messenger of Stereophile, in reviewing several exhibitors at the show said this: "I particularly enjoyed a system put together by newcomers Artisan Audio. Their small room was dwarfed by a pair of monstrous Klipsch Jubilee speakers--Klipschorns on steroids, and intended for movie theaters--driven by by tube amlification from Quicksilver Audio and fed by a Galiber turntable with an Atrisan tonearm." Not bad for Rogue speaker.[] Congrats to dhtman/Artisan Audio and Klipsch Travis

Nope, I burned 'em all after I read this: "Gilligan's" Mary Ann busted for marijuana By The Associated Press Article Last Updated: 03/11/2008 02:32:36 PM MDT Dawn Wells, the actress who played "Mary Ann" on Gilligan's Island, was sentenced Feb. 29, 2008, to five days in jail, fined $410.50 and placed on probation in Idaho after pleading guilty to one count of reckless driving. (Teton County Sheriff's Department) DRIGGS, IDAHO — Dawn Wells, who played Mary Ann on "Gilligan's Island," is serving six months' unsupervised probation after allegedly being caught with marijuana in her car. She was sentenced Feb. 29 to five days in jail, fined $410.50 and placed on probation after pleading guilty to one count of reckless driving. Under a plea agreement, three misdemeanor counts — driving under the influence, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a controlled substance — were dropped. On Oct. 18, Teton County sheriff's Deputy Joseph Gutierrez arrested Wells as she was driving home from a surprise birthday party that was held for her. According to the sheriff's office report, Gutierrez pulled Wells over after noticing her swerve and repeatedly speed up and slow down. When Gutierrez asked about a marijuana smell, Wells said she'd just given a ride to three hitchhikers and had dropped them off when they began smoking something. Gutierrez found half-smoked joints and two small cases used to store marijuana. The 69-year-old Wells, founder of the Idaho Film and Television Institute and organizer of the region's annual family movie festival called the Spud Fest, then failed a sobriety test. Wells' lawyer, Ron Swafford, said that a friend of Wells' testified that he'd left a small amount of marijuana in the vehicle after using it that day, and that Wells was unaware of it. Swafford also said several witnesses were prepared to testify that Wells had very little to drink at the party and was not intoxicated when she left. He said she was swerving on the road because she was trying to find the heater controls in her new car.