Allan Songer

A purely visual adjustment of azimuth doesn't cut it. I have owned more that one cartridge that reached it's optimal performance level only when adjusted to a point where it APPEARED crooked as hell. Always drove me crazy--the neat-nik in me wanted it to appear at an exact 90 degree angle, even though I knew it was WRONG for that particular cartridge. You can spend countless hours dialing in a cartridge. WHAT FUN!

NO PROBLEM! Hey, if you want to borrow a quad of GEC KT-66 for a week or so, just let me know. I'm sure you'd like to hear the difference before you buy! But I WILL NOT sell you any of mine (but I can tell you where to get some!).

Azimuth! Arrrrrgh! I know some folks who think this is THE most important setting (Victor at BAT among others)!! I'm lucky because azimuth adjustment on an SME 3012 is a piece of cake and you can dial it in with a test record in about an hour. But with some tonearms it's freaking IMPOSSIBLE!!!

Hey, man! These are NOT my amps. I would NEVER shill a sale on this forum. HOW DARE YOU?!?!?!?! I could think of a few choice names to call YOU, but I'd just get bleeped.

If I can print up some of these mugs in time, maybe I can trade a couple of dozen of them for this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=919583145

I'll bet you dollars to donuts (!!!!) that the "factory" setting on the Music Hall is wrong. Play with it for a few days and decide--you'll really learn a lot even if the original setting is optimal.

Wow! VTA is the one thing you have to fiddle with the MOST to dial in your analog set-up. Tracking weight is cake. VTA can take DAYS to figure out, but if you don't do it you will NEVER know what you have!

When people say they don't like Mac tube gear they usually complain about a "grainy" treble and a "flubby" bass that overwealm a GLORIOUS midrange. I don't think this is true of ANY Mac tube amp, but am willing to admit that the MC30, even though it is the LEAST powerful of them all, has the tighest, cleanest bass--as long as you're using really efficient speakers. And ALL of the tube-rectified MAC amps have a much "sweeter" top end than their solid-state rectified brothers. I guess the buzz-word here is that the MC30 is the most "musical" of all the MAC amps. Smooth, warm, rich-- yet still detailed. This is especially true when you go for "Cadillac" NOS tubes (GEC KT-66 outputs, Telefunken or Mullard 12AX7/12AU7 and RCA black-plate (1940's) 12BH7).

I'll never live down called the Music Hall a peice of crap, will I? I was only talking about how they're made anyway--I've never ever heard one!! If you say they sound good I believe you!! They just look kinda cheesey to me, that's all. According to the USPS your package was delievered yesterday at around 4PM. Did you not receive it? Allan

So sorry http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1395863667

These LOOK a lot worse than they are--not too rusty and not mucked with. These are among my favorite vintage amps and I'll be they sell for less than 800 bucks for the pair. I've owned many, many vintage amplifiers and these are the ones I've been listening to non-stop for the last few years. I like them so much I've pretty much decided they're all I'll ever need . . . http://listings.ebay.com/aw/listings/list/category14973/index.html

sorry--

I just got my copies of "Introducing Johnny Griffin" and Lee Morgan's "Candy" yesterday and I have to say that these are every bit as good or BETTER than the 1980's Japanese reissues. These two titles are in the mega-buck territory if you can find originals and the King Japanese reissues are hard to find these days as well. The packaging is first-rate, the pressing LOOKS exactly like an original---no groove guard/deep groove on both sides and the SOUND is really something else-- they are dead quiet and have that "hot" old Blue Note quality. For 25 bucks (at Red Trumpet) you simply CAN'T go wrong!

Well, there you go! I have a good freind with a Krell/Watt Puppy system that is VERY impressive. You know what he plays to show it off? Formula One race-car noises. Then he moves into the typical audiophile crap like "Jazz at the Pawnshop." He doesn't even own a turntable. He is ALL ABOUT THE GEAR and that's FINE! But if you own a hi-fi system to listen to MUSIC, then all the detail in the world won't make up for a horn not sounding like a horn.

Republican jazz fan? Yes. But very few. And most tend to be "Goldwater" rather than "GW" style Republicans. You know, my favorite political cartoon involved Goldwater. Herblock had one of Barry G lecturing a bunch of poor black children on the stoop of a DC tenament with the Capitol Dome looming in the background. Barry G was telling them "if you kids had any ambition you'd go out and inherit yourselves a department store." Perfect.

I have a Milty Zerostat that has to be at least 10 years old. It works great--I can easily tell the difference between the "snap crackle pop" of static and that of wear--3 or 4 zaps with the Zerostat and the noise is gone. We have these 5% humidity "Santa Ana" wind conditions here from time to time and the static electricity on those days is MURDER. I do use an AQ brush before spinning every side--I suppose this has some anti-static effect too, but nothing like the Zerostat. I find that I need both even with extensive Disc Doctor/Nitty Gritty cleaning, rice paper sleeves and a maniacal stylus-cleaning routine. Sell the one that will give you the most profit. I think used Miltys sell for $30 or so on ebay.

Politics? Well, to understand where I'm coming from you should know that I attended BOTH Clinton innugrual balls. I have never voted for a Republican in my life and I never will. I donated by GW Bush "tax rebate" to the DNC. I was at a cocktail party in Orange County (CA) a couple of weeks ago and the upcoming election became the topic of discussion. I was the lone Democrat. One (typical) Republican said to me "well, you must either be unemployed or on welfare." I responded by saying I was for higher taxes and bigger government. He was dumbfounded.

I know Clare Fisher. I have quite a few of his 50's and 60's LPs and have always admired him both as a pianist and composer/arranger. He made a big-band record on Atlantic in the late 60's that's a KILLER--don't know the name of it off hand, but every player on the record is "first call" all the way.

I'm pretty much sure it's on the Areito label, but I'll have to dig it out tonight to check on the tunes and the catalog number.

C & S- I only have a handful of old Latin jazz LPs. I know I have one early one from Chucho Valdes, a trio session--on the LP's jacket he's standing up, maybe leaning against a wall and I remmeber that he's wearing BIG FLARED bell-bottom jeans. I'm guessing this is an early 70's release? Is this one fairly representative of his early stuff? I've heard him live a couple of times in the last 3 years and enjoyed his performances quite a bit. I have a couple of his recent CDs and rarely listen--he was much more engaging live for me. I think I'll pull out the old LP and give it a spin. If I rememeber, it's in visually great condition but plays like crap.

HEY! Have you been talking to my wife or something??!?!? Shall we now go into Roy Hall's Czechered past? Nah, I think I'll go eat my Grape Nuts.

"I have talked to high level audio engineers who totally agree." --I guess that makes you right. Enjoy your new turd of a turntable.

Vintage racing just lost it's attraction for me when the gazillionaires started showing up with 48 foot trailers and 6-man pits crews and there I was with a Craftsman tool box, a Chevy pickup and a couple of sleeping bags. The last time I was on the track was in '93. I left SCCA for vintage in the mid-1980's for the same reason--it was impossible to compete in Formula Ford on a workingman's salary. Then in 1993 one of these rich guys almost ran me and my Lotus-Cortina off the road at Laguna Seca. He had a minty mint Alpha GTA Jr. (1300 cc) and had NO idea how to drive it-- he got pissed as I was going around him and amost got me killed. I ended up tracking him down after the race and attacking him. I beat the tar out of him--they had to pull me off of him and I was kicked out of "V.A.R.A." for one year and I never went back. I guess I'm lucky he didn't sue me! I sold the Cortina to a guy in Japan for 28K and the Lotus 19 to someone in San Francisco for 30K and that was that. No more race cars. I did keep my 1952 MGTD which I've owned since I was 15, but I don't race it--it's just a fun, old sports car that you can drive at 10/10ths and never break the speed limit! I did some drag racing in the mid-1990's in a Studebaker Lark that ran high 12's, but I got bored with bracket racing after a couple of seasons. I guess I'm done with motorsports forever. Audio is cheaper anyway!

LOTUS XI??? In a former life I used to race cars for fun. Formula Vee, Super-Vee, Formula Ford. I had a Lotus 51, A Lotus 61, a Brabham Formula 3 with a Cosworth twin-cam. I also had a Lotus 7 (variety of engines, including a Rotary from a Mazda RX-3!!), a Lotus 19 Formula Jr., a Lotus-Cortina (as much fun as ANY of the open-wheeled cars). BUT I NEVER HAD A LOTUS 11! I would die to run one of these hard at Willow Springs!! It might follow the rain-grooves on the freeway, but I'll bet it will take your breath away in a four-wheel-drift in turn 7. Yowza! I guess a Linn LP12 is a lot like a Lotus, and I suppose my TD-124 is more like a Cunnigham LeMans Caddy. Both are great and fast and VERY cool, but couldn't be more different from one another. . . Colin Chapman RULES!

I have all of the Previns that Contemporary released (I own every Contemporay 12" release from the 50's and 60's--"collector mania" strikes again)--I look at Previn as Les Koening's version of Blue Note's "The Three Sounds" or Prestige's "Red Garland Trio" recordings. While I think Garland's LPs are head and shoulders above the others, all of these are, on the surface anyway, very simple, not-very-challenging recordings that probably played in the background at countless cacktail parties some 40 years ago. My favorite is the Freeman/Previn 'Double Play' LP, or maybe the solo-piano Vernon Duke record. I like Previn, I just dont think any of these records merit any inclusion in any "best" list.