Def Leper

More likely the musical fans just won't admit doing it.

First of all, the low 'buy it now' price and high shipping is a clear violation of ebay's rules against excessive shipping and handling charges to circumvent paying ebay final auction value fees. I've seen items with $49 selling prices and $290 shipping/handling. For some reason, ebay has a set of written rules (like this one) for regular ebay sellers and an unwritten set of rules (or the rules are not enforced) for sellers with busy stores. These very high shipping/handling fees and low prices are a typical pattern with Chinese sellers, as are one seller having identical auctions under a revolving list of different ebay seller names. This seller also lists several hundred different signs, most of which are covered by trademarks or copyright. Given the selling prices and names involved, I can pretty much guarantee that they are not paying a dime in licensing fees and these products are in violation of US and EU intellectual property laws. However, ebay has set up a system where they will not take action (or do anything to prequalify) sellers like this, even in real IP problem areas like China, unless the trademark or copyright owner contacts them to complain. Why? Because the secret ebay motto is 'The Fees Must Flow' and ebay has a long history of failing to police fraud and IP violations. The only way these crooks will be knocked off ebay is if they fail to pay their ebay bill, or if the federal government threatens to shut down ebay unless they regulate sellers who offer trademarked goods. People who buy these items are contributing to the problem. Telling us they are concerned with the trademark owner's rights is BS and they should be ashamed of themselves. I gues it's probably different if someone is stealing from them, but if it's stolen from somebody else and they can get a good deal......they don't care. One nice thing is that these products can be seized and destroyed by US Customs and if so, the buyer loses their money. Unfortunately, virtually none of these counterfeit or infringing products are caught by Customs.

You mention you want to see what you are missing with horns. That's the whole point of a Klipsch horn system. When you switch, you'll notice what you were missing with a non-horn system. I switched to Cornwalls after years of listening to good JBL speakers (various) because I immediately noticed a much more detailed sound with the horns and also could hear instruments and nuances that were masked or hidden with non-horn speakers. You are lucky enough to have not wasted time and money with other speakers.

Looks like a great way to back the drywall screws and nails out of your house while recreating the excruciating sounds of Iraqui street life. Soon you will see a site offering special 'audiophile blue coating' (paint) that can be applied to walls using these drivers, and guarantee to improve "soundstage imaging, spatial dimensionality, and give a true 3-D effect to the sound."

Anyone who will pay more than $500 or so for used Heresy's is a moron anyway, and there's no shortage of morons on ebay. For the seller, morons can sometimes be a good thing..... at least, if they pay.

That would probably be the guy who said "I might suggest the ZYX Universe. I have not heard it personally..." All the statements like "I've heard those and they can't compare with these" are great for you but what if someone else can't hear the difference? That's a lot of change to spend for someone new for the hobby who probably doesn't even have a clue as to how to set the darn thing up on the turntable to get that high-end sound. What's wrong with helping other people go through some of the same learning and discover process that you did? That's half the fun of it anyway, and the other half is listening to the music.

LOL forgot about Throbbing Gristle heheheheeeee. MANOWAR always gave me the creepies I always wondered what happened to the Village People.

C'mon now, admit it, spending huge sums of cash is the real object, isn't it? You've got a good start on a system that will have friends and family talking about you behind your back (and making that circular hand sign at the temple) and folks here recommending $8,000 photo cartridges they haven't even heard. Wow, that's solid advice, isn't it? Apparently the assumption is that if it's that expensive, it has to sound great. Why not try a good "low end" cheapo cartridge? (under $1000) ;-) I know it will be embarassing to mention the price so just make up a price when you tell people how much it costs and they won't know the difference anyway. Two higher-end cartridges that I've heard and liked were the Grado Reference (I don't remember which particular model it was) but it was a moving magnet type with a wood body. The other was a Benz Micro Glider moving coil design, but the lower cost was offset with a very expensive preamp. If you want to start with a low cost cartridge with an excellent reputation and work your way up, try the DL-103 MC, available through a reliable ebay seller in Germany for $150. By starting with some reasonably-priced cartridges and moving up, you can stop when you can't hear the difference any more, and probably save yourself about $7,000 to spend on more glittery stuff, like those huge $8000 welding cables to hook up your 103db efficiency speakers. On the other hand, if the exercise is simply to spend big bucks for the bragging rights, good performance for the money isn't an issue.

Actually, my hearing is acute and always has been at least 98th percentile. I can certainly tell a dramatic difference between a live performance in a good acoustical space and an audio system. Can't you? Of course you can. If we can both hear this difference and yet, one of us can't hear much difference between a carefully selected moderate-cost audio system and a high-end system, the sensible conclusion is that there is little difference to hear.

To follow your plan, the best address to give is that of your local postal inspectors. Alert them that you are giving their address to these scammers and pick a specific fake name for them to look for. That gets the evidence right straight to the law enforcement folks who handle mail fraud, which is what this is.

Gosh, what an unintelligent response. You forgot to tell us how much you've sunk into your electronic monstrosity.

I certainly disagree. I've heard quite a few "high end" turntables and cartridges in action, all plugged into very expensive systems. One stands out as being one of the best systems I've ever heard, but that has more to do with a professionally designed room treatment than the system itself. I've heard several that didn't sound any better than my $400 turntable/cartride, despite costing as much as a new car, and certainly didn't sound better than CD's. To be fair, I've also heard a few CD players that cost as much as a car and didn't sound any better than the CD player I bought for $160 used. In all cases. the owners of these systems say basically the same thing that you say, and it seems to revolve more around a very large investment in equipment than any real improvement in sound.

Clean pair of unfinished birch Lascalas for local pickup in the SF Bay area at what looks like a very good price of $900. Seller won't ship and wants local pickup. Very short running time- ends friday. Remember, never pay using cash payment services. For pickup, best way to pay is cash or postal money order, face to face with the seller. http://cgi.ebay.com/Klipsch-la-scala-ls-br-PAIR-alnico-metal-horn-k77-k-33_W0QQitemZ200007379259QQihZ010QQcategoryZ61378QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Madonna's music is formula-based pop product in the same vein as that produced by Michael Jackson, and like Jackson, with a damaged and warped personality hiding behind the facade. While Jackson was able to get away with peddling dancing as the main side attraction, Madonna had to resort to peddling sex, and quickly reduced herself to little more than a singing prostitute who rode around in her limo looking for sex partners in back alleys. It sure beats child molesting but doesn't lend itself to building a reputation as a person with something of value to say. Her main message seemed to be that women had little value beyond that of their ****** and the way to wealth and power was to force men to pay to use it.

It's got to beat eating Soylent Green. Human population is 6,000,000,000 and rising rapidly, the effects of global warming are accellerating, and now a voracious (some might say rapacious as well) Asian population with money and a burgeoning 20th century economy and unethical authoritarian government should spell out ELE for those with the smarts to project a bit into the future. As we've seen many times already this century, most parts of the world are about 10 days removed from mass starvation and anarchy, and many parts are much less than that.

I'm hoping that you're joking here. I'd say that putting no reserve and a low starting bid on an item and then withdrawing the item at the last moment is a bit unethical, but buying 'low ticket' items specifically to leave negative feedback in retribution for a cancelled auction is REALLY UNETHICAL. In the first case, the seller is operating within ebay rules, but buying small items to leave revenge negative feedback should be grounds for dismissal from ebay. OTOH, the seller refusing to complete the sale of the horn parts because he didn't like the winning bid amount is certainly solid ground for a negative feedback, keeping in mind that you will certainly receive one in retribution from an unethical seller.

Thanks for the tip. Snagged 3 rolls, which should let me replace my home de-putz zip cord on the home theater with plenty left over.

Well, I have quite a few analog recordings that are not (have never been) and may never be available on CD. .....and, of course, many, many recordings on CD that were made after the demise of LP as a mass medium and are not available on analog. I do have many recordings on both LP and CD, and even a few on various combinations of 78, 45, mono LP, stereo LP and CD. In some cases the digital version is better and in some cases the analog. Do you listen to CD's with damaged equipment, faulty cables, blown speakers and blame the bad sound on the CD? Not unless you are an idiot. Having a way to thoroughly clean the analog recordings is very important. However, there are hundreds of recordings that are flawed, including digital recordings, but we enjoy the music anyway. The music is what's important, not the recording media.

Steve, the phonograph sounds like it might be good one for parts, but not in playing condition. The tonearms were often made from pot metal or aluminum castings and it's very important that the tonearm pivots freely both side to side and up and down. When one is jammed at a joint, that's a good indication that it is made of pot metal which has swollen. This is hard to correct without breaking the arm or joint. If the tone arm doesn't move freely at the joints, it can't track a record successfully and may actually damage the records. Michael's Edison has a broken tonearm tube on the Victor-style reproducer that illustrates how delicate the old metal castings become. I think you probably misread the model number and it is a C-150, which is a fairly common edison model. They can pull up to $400-$500 in extremely good playing condition, but this one doesn't sound like it is usable for anything but parts or a full restoration job. Below is a picture of a C-150 "Sheraton" cabinet in prime playing condition. This one has what looks like an original grille cloth and you can see they don't hold up well.

....I'd kiss ya if I didn't have puke breath.

Goldmember! ....I see there is no pleasing you. I got a viagra caught in my throat and I've had a stiff neck all day!! ....Nigel Powers

No doubt it also smells like an ashtray and has that nifty brown tar film that drops the value by half. [+o(]

Hi Michael, Glad you found the rebuilder. There are quite a few people doing reconditioning work and it's pretty easy to get a player rebuilt. On reproducers, the important thing is making sure the rubber gasket that seals the diaphragm is soft and working. They tend to harden up with time and it hurts the sound reproduction. Most users can do a lot to help the motors without going to a rebuilder. Most common problem is the grease in the spring motors hardening up, which makes the springs catch and then slip, making a thumping sound. The other problem is dirty, hardened grease covering the gears bearings. This stuff traps dirt and makes very effective sandpaper, which prematurely wears out gears. Pulling off the motor assembly and cleaning off old grease with naptha really helps. I lubricate with a very light coating of moly grease on the gears and a light machine oil on the bearings. I don't recommend opening and cleaning the spring motors unless you know what to expect-- a spring uncoiling can injure you and even take out an eye. There's an excellent book on phonograph rebuilding called "The Compleat Talking Machine" by Eric L. Reiss, ISBN 0-911572-55-4. It has information on rebuilding just about any kind of hand-cranked phonograph and cylinder machine and is a great education in how these devices work. Here's a shot of my main phonograph, which is a higher-end Brunswick. It's noticably large compared to the typical cabinet phonograph, and has really nice hand-picked tiger oak and quite a bit of carving. It plays extremely well and has a very large, double spring motor that will pay six or more sides without rewinding. I paid $450 for this one at an antique mall which is a fair price. It might bring more from a knowledgable collector, but generally the cabinet styles are harder to sell at a good price because they are not very practical to ship and thus not good auction site items.

Michael, thanks for posting all those pictures, that's a great phonograph. That cabinet style is one Edisons I don't see very often, probably because it was one of Edison's least expensive models and the public seemed to prefer the models with larger cabinets. One spotting feature when trying to determine a model's original place in the lineup is the number of spring motors, and the A-100 had a single motor, indicating a basic model. The result is a phonograph that has a shorter playing time than two or three motor models. There is an accessory record rack that was available to sit on the lower shelf to hold about 20 records upright, and it would also fit inside the larger cabinets. The Edison players had good mechanisms and I especially like the tonearm lifters which were standard fare on the edisons. The edisons also had one of the best muting/volume control systems on the market. Your player does have the interchangible reproducers and some models have a tray and strap on one side of the horn to hold the reproducer not in use. Shame that your Victor-style arm is broken but they come up on ebay fairly often. If you do an internet search on Edison diamond disc you might even find a supplier with a reproduction part. It's great that your grille is intact because they are fairly delicate and tend to break. There are several vintage radio rebuilding sites that have the sheer silk-like grille cloth that you can use restore your grille if you like. Edison used a red fabric on most grilles. I would estimate your player is worth between $150 and $200 as is, and a bit more with the reproducer replaced and a little finish reconditioning and a new grille cloth. Sentimental value, of course, is priceless. As a coincidence, I visited the Edison museum in Port Huron, Michigan yesterday. That's where Tom Edison lived as a boy and was taugh telegraphy by the train station master as a reward for pulling the station master's child out of the path of a train. Sorry for the lack of snap in the picture but it was dead dull overcast. The train station is in the background to the left and the international bridge to Canada is in the background. That's the St. Clair river to the right and Lake Huron behind.

I don't own an edison disc player at this time but I've owned a number in the past. My main player is a very ornate Brunswick floor model with the Ultona reproducer that will play both styles of discs. I also have a number of Victor table-top models and few portables, too. I'll try to post a picture of the Brunswick. Almost all the players you see in antique mall are overpriced, but there are some good deals, usually after the dealer has paid the mall for a year or so to display it for them. Generally, anything with an outside horn will command a much higher price than inside models. It's rare to see anything with an outside horn sell for less than $500 and not unusual to see them go for $1000 and up. The exception are the "Crap-O-Phones" which are cheap outside horn counterfeits made in Pakistan and India, and now in China. Ebay is flooded with these and they are simply bottom-end portable mechanisms in cheap cabinets with outside horns. They almost always have the "His Master's Voice" trade name and decal on them, which is the Victor European trade name. That's a bummer because it's a legitimite trade name and there are authentic HMV items out there. I'm seeing a flood of Chinese counterfeits on ebay now, almost all with silk screened counterfeit Victor name plates. Victor nameplates are NEVER silkscreened, they are always etched. If you see a flat one that is screen printed, you are looking at a fake. BTW, a Victrola always has a horn inside the cabinet, and the older Victor Talking Machine will have an outside horn. The Victrola name was created for the inside horn models, which was quite revolutionary at the time.