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Can't Even THINK of anything to spend money on...


Mallette

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I suppose this must seem that I have lost my religion or something. However, at least for the moment, it is true. I am completely happy with my system. I got a really BIG bonus this year, and didn't drop a dime on my system. Bought a nice Jenn-Air outdoor gasgrill instead. That's bizarre, and certainly heresy (no pun intended).

About all I am jonzin' for is someone to come over and tweak my VPI/JMW/Grado...and even in it's untweaked state it sounds better than any LP playback chain I've ever heard.

Granted, the PAW is pleased...if skeptical.

Perhaps I'll get over it?

Anyone else suffering this rather strange malaise?

Satisfied in Seabrook,

Dave

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I hear you, oldtimer. Just moved down to Seabrook from Flower Mound last summer. I taught at UNT for a number of years there in Denton. My property had lots of post oak that made for great smoking (food, you freaks). However, I found that palm trees don't taste so good...

Lots of things I miss about Denton County.

Dave

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I think I am even worse than you are in this respect. I cant even build up the energy to go look for more records. I figured out with the current collection and my listening habits that I would be lucky to be able to listen to each disk I own once every 3 years. Adding to the collection now seems fairly pointless.

The above does not factor in my favorites which get played regularly. In reality some of my records will not see the platter for many years - if ever again. Isnt that strangely heart-breaking?

As for the system - lets just say it does it for me. Last night I posted to a thread on Tchaikovsky and then went to listen to the Pathetique before bed - twas truely wondrous to behold to the point that the music invaded my dreams all night. Cant get much better than that now can it?

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Haven't seen one of those in 20 years. They used to be about 200.00. A great idea but am not quite sure how to integrate into my listening room...

Max: While not so extensive as yours by a long shot, I also still have many unopened LP's. I also spend a LOT of time with my 78's now and revel in "time travel" of 80 years or so. I found a Kid Ory original recently in my stacks of "Mustkrat Ramble" and went about for days singing "It's one, two, three what are fightin' for? Don't ask me, I don't giveadamn, next stop is VIETNAM!" to the bemusement of my young traininees. Extraordinary sound well beyond the abilities of CD.

Yes, I am sure something will finally get my attention. I love the sound of my Grado, but it occasionally starts to oscillate for reasons I do not fully comprehend.

Dave

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I figured out with the current collection and my listening habits that I would be lucky to be able to listen to each disk I own once every 3 years. Adding to the collection now seems fairly pointless.

===============

Interesting! I've discovered that the CDs and LPs I actually want to listen to comprise a small fraction of the ones I have available. Hmmmm? Maybe they really are consumables?

That is interesting Mark. I used to be like that with CD - and I am not denigrating that format in any way - it was just that I tended to buy music that was rather of the moment. Much of the collection was modern music of the time (Purple Rain for example) which does not really hold much interest for me now.

With vinyl I was both more selective and more ready to give stuff away to friends where I felt I had made a mistake. The nice thing about classical music for me is that such mistakes are rare as there are few pieces that I did not already know from childhood and classical mad parents. That is not to say I have not made some discoveries along the way - and even a few mistakes - but they are fairly few and far between.

In translation - I have bought about 2000 records and kept about half in the last 6 years or so. Those I kept - I want, but it is hard to average more than one record per night.

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Interesting, Max. I applaud your discipline. I assumed you'd be awash in records. I am pushing 3k, including some 7-800 78's. There are certainly many I've not listened to in years but can't seem to part with for various reasons.

OTOH, I've not gone acquiring in a long time anyway, though, to be honest, that is probably mainly due to be new to the Houston area and not knowing where to go. I LOVE a good hunt!

Dave

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Dave,

Its only partially my discipline - it is mainly a "keeping SWMBO moderately happy" issue.

We have an agreed storage area for my records - there are 2 overspill areas that have been added on. Total holds around 1000 records. Not allowed records on the floor - fair enough - wouldn't do that anyway - and really very few handy places to store more. Course it aint easy to remember the limits sometimes - we have 29 vinyl shops in the vicinty that I am aware of now. I reckon Athens is probably one of the best places in the world to be a vinyl lover.

BTW - 3000 records at one per night average is about 9 years with minimal repetition - you know that dont you. Still there are worse - a guy over here claims to have 45,000 records - not seen it but I think I believe him (he owns a very well stocked 2nd hand record shop). At my rate of listening that is 145 years - my great, great, great grandchildren would complete the task. Kinda pointless if you ask me. I guess he is the collector Mark does not want to be.

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On the other hand, a clever build of a dwelling would use the lp's as part of an insulating outer wall, with access from the inside just in case a spin is needed. Thus you get build functionality combined with an enhanced listenability factor. This would work with any framing method, AFAIK, and thus deletes the SWMBO factor into a positive "this helps keep you warm and cool factor" so aren't you glad we have this much vinyl?

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Seems like Athens and the state of Texas are the hot spots for record shops! There's only one joint here in town, and it caters only to the underground goth/industrial crowd (won't find any Bach albums there). There's a decent record shop in the back room of Sensuous Sounds (a McIntosh dealer in Tampa), but they're not the cheapest (although an excellent source of mint classical, jazz, blues, and classic rock LPs, et al) and they're too far away to drive after work.

Back in the early '80s when I was stationed at Ft. Hood, TX (home of the 1st Cavalry Division...uhrah!), there was this li'l white cape cod house in Killeen (smaller than Picky's place) converted to a mom 'n' pop record shop that literally housed tens of thousands of clean LPs and prerecorded cassettes of all genres of music! I swear, you could find just about any obscure title ever pressed there, usually with quite a few copies of each title as well. It amazed me each and every time I wandered around that place, and I had no problems whatsoever spending my hard-earned soldier's pay on a few choice cassettes...that's right, tapes! Back then all I had in the barracks was a cheap Panasonic cassette boombox; this was '81-'82 right before CDs were introduced, and I didn't buy my first high-end stereo system until '83 while stationed in Germany. If I only had the chance to buy some albums there, what a collection that would be! Wish I could remember the name of the store...often wonder if it's still there today.

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