THEBES-A-THON!, THEBES-A-THON!, THEBES-A-THON!!!!!!

[customsteve01]

Thebes,

I would have showed up for sure if I wasn't working down in Texas all this weekend.

I would also head to Indy next weekend but you guessed it I have to work next weekend also...

Sounds like you guys had a great time and I could have learned alot if I would have been able to make it.

Steve

[thebes]

Thanks for the kind words fini. We did fire up the Grundig which is actually a German built model for the German market not their export product. All original telelfunkens, but I've got to put a better antenna on it. Larry thought it sounded quite good.

Steve, yeah you missed a good one. Hope they are paying you well if you have to work all those weekends. There will be other opportunities.

[3dzapper]

If the truth be known, I was the twin's uncle this weekend. Do they do that thing with you too Thebes?

Rick

[LarryC]

Yep, I thought the Grundig had a very nice, full "tone" befitting its exceptional Teutonic (oops, hope that's PC) size and musical authority. A small, simple button at the center of the top edge turned it right on. I really wish I'd dragged out the camera for that alone (in good time maybe).

Larry

[skonopa]

I figure I'd better check in, lest people think something bad happened to me on the way home.

I had an excellent time yesterday! I did not get there until right around 2ish, primarily due to trying to get some things done that morning, and the traffic just plain sucked. I am beginning to wonder if "Occaquon" is really an old indian word for "traffic jam". It seems the traffic always get so screwed up right around that Woodbridge/Occaquon Creek" area.

To bad that Gary could not have stuck around a little longer, but it was cool to get to see him again. The last time I saw either Gary or Larry was last summer at the Indy thing.

I also have to agree, that Militeria piece that Larry played for us did sound really good.

Some of the things that I remember playing myself.

The first thing I played was an orchestral version of "Nemo" from Nightwish, on thier Nemo single CD (only has 4 tracks). I was quite impressed with how well it sounded on Marantz/Cornwall setup.

I also went and put on a track from Michael Pinnella's Enter by the Twelfth Gate gate album. Michael Pinnella is the keyboardist from Sympony X, a very symphonic power/progressive metal band. This particular CD contains a lot of progressive rock music, with very heavy classical elements. Michael composed all performed all of the tracks except Scriabin Etude OP.42 no 5, which is composed by Alaxander Scriabin in 1903. The track I put on was track #3 - "Piano Concerto #1 Mvt. 1", which is a very modern piece, but very heavily classical influenced. All of the instrumentation is entirely synthesized, but I still found it to be very engaging. Larry seemed to be impressed with this. I also found this CD to really sound good on Marty's Marantz/Cornwall setup.

It was shortly after that when Larry left. After that, me and Marty, as he already said, pretty much shot the bull for quite awhile, even just sitting outside on the back deck and downing a couple "adult beverages". After a little while, he went and nuked up some wings, which were quite good.

We then and went and listened to a few more tracks. Since I missed it earlier that day, Marty went and put on that Alan Parson's Project CD again for me. I've always liked the Alan Parson's Project, thus I enjoyed listening to this.

I went and then put on a couple tracks from Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Marty has said he has heard of TSO, but has never got a chance to actually hear anything buy them. I put on thier latest CD, The Lost Christmas Eve. The first track I played was the self-titled track, "The Lost Christmas Eve". This track has always moved me, and I've always loved how it sounded on my own setup, so it was interesting to hear it on another setup. Needless to say, it sounded quite good on Marty's system as well. Just for comparison, I've then skipped ahead to "Christmas Night in Blues", a very rousing/bluesy sounding track. Part of it is that I've gotten to see that very song performed live with the exact same vocalist as heard on the CD. On my own system, whenver I played this track, I've always been immediatly transported back to that night. So I wanted to hear it on this setup, and yes, I felt the same thing. Marty seemed to be quite impressed with how good that TSO, and in particular, that CD, sounded.

After that, we moved things downstairs, since it was starting to get kinda late, and was worried if the music was going to bother the neighbors. Marty switched the 5.2s back in downstairs and we proceeded to basically screw arond some more. Marty put on this one CD. I forget who it was, but it was a modern sounding spanish/latino act that seemed to be an interesting mix of Flamingo and hip-hop elements. After that, we went through this stack of LP and just started playing around. After all these years, I've forgotten just how cheesy disco sounded after that Donna Summers record. And to think, when I was a kid, how cool we all thought that was back in the day. I saw he had a copy of The Cars, Heartbeat City on vinyl. He did not know what it was, so I told him to put it on! That is one of my favorite Cars album, and of course, hearing "Hello Again" on vinyl brought right back in the day when that album first come out me and my and my brothers cranking it up on my parents stereo. We also found an copy of The Motels, Little Robbers. I did not recognize myself right away, until I heard that track "Suddenly Last Summer". I cannot remember when the last time I heard that one! Marty did not particulary care for it, but I liked it, so he let me have the record (as well as The Cars, Heartbeat City album).

Actually, thanks for Marty, I can now get into vinyl again. He let me have this old Technics SL-QL15 turntable. Nothing particularly fancy, but it is something decent to get started with vinyl again. This is an interesting looking unit with a linear tracking stylus. Will be fun to try, especially since I have this old Pink Floyd album (A Nice Pair) that I found at a yard sale a few years ago, but never played it since I did not have anything to play it on. Now, I just gotta figure out where in my equipment rack to put the turntable.

He also let me borrow this cute little digital amp. One of those so-called "T-Class" TriPath based amps that everybody's seemed to be raving about. I may first try it out on this pair of Pioneer CS-99A speakers I got in the basement, and may try it out on the RF-7s. I cannot imagine it'll sound as good as my B&K amp, but it ought to be an interesting comparison.

Overall, I had an excellent time, and found both of Marty's setups to sound really good. Those KG3.5s he had really did impress me. For somebody looking for a good, but inexpesnive setup, say, for a second system in the bedroom, or a student for the dorm room that wants something beyond the typical PC speakers, I'd recommend those KG 3.5s and decent two-channel integrated amp/reciever (i.e., one of those old H/K units that seem to pop-up all the time).

After this experience, it really got me to appreaciate my own setup that much more. You really gotta hear these RF-7s with the B&K amp (although I am using a Denon AVR3802 as a pre/pro). That B&K amp really does have a nice smooth, warm sound that just seems to really go good with these Klipsch speakers. The room is a little larger than Marty's room in which he has his Cornwalls setup.

Again, thanks Marty for really putting out the red carpet for us. Looks like I found a true friend in the (in)famous 'thebes'.!

And at around midnight, I made that nice little trek back to Fredericksburg. At least at that time, there was not much traffic, so I just blitzed it straight home. Took me about an hour from door to door - not bad.

[customsteve01]

I heard Suddenly Last Summer on the radio comming into work today. I think Martha Davis sing's sooo sexy I can't believe Thebes didn't like it.

Steve