Rek-O-Kut Re-Equalizer II - SWEET!

[Mallette]

Man, so much to do in the music room, and so little time! Managed to get the Re-Equalizer II hooked in yesterday and spend 30 minutes or so with it. Massive improvement, with the greatest coming from an early Duke Ellington (perhaps even first release...haven't researched it) "Take the A Train." I've heard modern recordings MUCH worse. Noise reduced to basically just over "tape hiss" levels, and an airy, open, hifi quality over all. I'd worried about the "fiddle factor" of finding the right settings (64 possible combinations!), but setting each is easy and quick. "Turnover" first, and then "Rolloff." Maybe 15 seconds all told.

Also, the charts for label and years with recommended settings is both extensive and close...though my mileage varied a bit on some.

All in all, tickled to death and looking forward to spending more time with my moldy stacks of well worn wax!

One sad note, and word of caution: Broke my copy of "The Mooche," one of my favorites. It was an early 40s reissue of the 1928 original (thank God, or I'd have been suicidal), but it was still sad. I've found that a number of 78s fit too snugly on the Empire turntable. So far, I'd never broken anything as I'd wiggle them a bit. For whatever reason, I just pulled on both sides of this one an CRACK, it broke into three pieces. Probably won't do that again...

However, on a nicer note...found a good archive copy at archive.org. If you would like to know whether you are interested in old recordings, it's the place to go. There are over 260 pages of cylinder and 78 transcriptions and they are, for the most part, extremely well done. Unfortunately, they are pretty highly compressed, but sound better than one might expect. Freely downloadable, too. Some incredible jazz there from the earliest days of recording and you'll be hard pressed not to find about any name you can think of, and many you never heard of.

Well worth a visit for the diversity minded audiophile on the prowl for new thrills.

Dave