neveronfriday

At current real estate prices? I think not. Couldn't find a better version, but your reply reminded me of this: Pepsi Ad.

I turned 60 every day in 2022. ... and I gifted a CD to myself for each birthday. I'm going to be 61 every single day next year.

Those (age-old) Dynaudio speakers beat everything else when I demoed them ages ago (B&W, Triangle, etc.). I bought them because I have lots of music, including crappy remasters, compressed reissues and whatnot. You know the game. The Dynaudios were the only pair of speakers that were forgiving in every regard. They just sound good to my ears. Since then, I have only found one single pair of speakers to my liking ... and those you don't put into an apartment/house but have to build a rock-solid one around them: Focal (Grande Utopia). I have never been blown away by speakers like I was by those, but I would have to sell my wife and everything I own just to buy one single tweeter. Those speakers (also) perform the way I want them to. BTW: They also weigh more than a truck. So, I stuck with my trusted Dynaudios from the late 18th century that do the same thing on a much smaller (affordable) scale. Neutral, rock solid ... and they play well with Marantz who always add a bit of "warmth" to the spectrum. P.S.: I used to be an audiofool () and gave that up a decade or two ago. When you turn 60 (+), speakers have to work differently ... especially if you listened to nasty stuff on full blast for 50 years. I'm not kidding. "Hearses don't have luggage racks" is something I told my wife ages ago. "Burn it all", she replied, "and take it with you. You can re-assemble it in the afterlife." Let's hope that works.

@sidewinder Yep, the 1.8MKIIs need a little bit of juice, but the Marantz PM14 has enough of that. Still, I bought the speakers three decades ago to fit into my then well-dampened (large) living room and now I have a rather "naked" environment. I still need to add stuff to make them fit in nicely. But then again, I have plenty of time to tweak for another decade or two. The retirement was forced due to permanent health issues (that won't kill me), but in terms of pension payments, it didn't really make a difference if I worked another couple of years or not ... so I jumped ship. P.S.: Nice to see that many people are still around from way back when ... Cheers!

I just wrote a post and the software allowed me to upload/attach an image which is below 100kb in size. No problems. If you have some software that can minimize photos to that size, you won't have any problems. BTW: I'm sure, once the software has been tweaked, that Jim can increase the size of an image upload to a bit more than that (if he has the server space). I uploaded a smaller-sized image because I was lazy, just to make sure it makes it into the post, but the .jpg-format is one that can wonderfully be tweaked to be really small (compressing it, f. ex., to 25% of its original size without really losing all that much detail). You just need the software to do it.

Since I still read around here once in a while and noticed that the forum software has been updated, I thought I'd update what I wrote when I started this thread and try the new interface that way. The heart of my current setup, which I have been happy with for many years now, are the two Marantz units, PM-14S1 (amp) and SA-14S1 (CD/SACD player). When I could get hold of one at a ridiculously low price, I added a Marantz CD6005 because, lo and behold, the SA-14S1 does choke on some single CDs that go way beyond CD specifications (so far, I came across about 20 out of 14000 CDs that the 14S1 loves to regurtitate) ... Marantz only guarantees the funtionality of its high-end players for CDs/SACDs that adhere to the redbook standard (go figure). About two years ago, I added a Technics SL1500 turntable when I got it at half price (new). I only have a little more than a handful of LPs left that are simply not available in any other format and I wanted to play them. The Technics turntable does so better than my old Dual did. On top of the cheap (but excellent) Marantz CD6005, I keep an age-old Samsung notebook which, in a week of reading and tweaking, I turned into my very own music server. I threw off everything (really, everything and every service), kept Windows 7 (!), disconnected the machine from the Internet (froze it in time) and kept Foobar plus a bunch of audio thingamajigs that hook into Windows and Foobar to let me play any hires audio file I have. That machine, in turn, is connected to the SA-14S1, which has a USB-interface for that kind of work. Attached to the notebok are two small (virtually silent) Western Digital 4TB portable harddrives which contain the most important hires files, SACD rips, high quality remasters (DCC, etc) and whatever I don't have in my CD collection. I still kept my Dynaudio 1.8 MKII speakers, which have always come through for me, in every place I moved to (3 different ones) in the last few years. Just a few weeks ago, I retired and moved to a new and wonderful apartment (penthouse, etc.). In my new room, I surrounded myself with all the music I have, large cover reproductions of my favorite albums on the walls and several vitrines stuffed with hardcovers left over from my formerly large book collection, which I reduced by 90% a few years back. My wife jokingly says that once I drop dead, she just has to torch the whole room and scoop the burnt remains into a smaller urn to fulfill my last wish ... to be buried with all the sh@t I accumulated as an eternally dysfunctional collector. Cheers.

I have had both boxes for quite some time now and am very happy with them. The sound quality is good and, in regard to the recording dates, more than adequate. I'm a bit of a discerning listener and not once did I have any moment in which I would have criticised the sound. The cover reproductions are nice (bare bones, but sturdier than many of the more flimsy covers in other boxed sets I own), the liner notes are adequate enough, etc. I have really enjoyed these and considering the fact that I bought each one for around 19 Euro, they are actually prized possessions, despite the unavoidable duplication I encountered in my rather extensive jazz collection. Get them! They're just nice and fun to have! P.S.: A few years ago I switched to CD sleeves and many box sets were removed, but these two are still around because I also like to look at them. Cheers!

Ah, very interesting! Thanks for the link!

Yeah, they were great. I noticed the other day that via a mail backup program, I somehow managed to keep every single mail snippet since the middle/late 90s (and then forgot about the fact). My finger got tired when scrolling through the Caiman order confirmations. I bought a sh@tload of stuff from them and have never regretted a single purchase ... not one!

Thanks! The Internet, once again, is silent on this important issue unless, of course, you spend a million hours researching. I bought stuff from them for nothing which will cost you two or three non-essential organs and a leg today ... not that anyone needs either of those to survive if good music is around. Cheers!

I drop by here every couple of months and I do still read along, but in this thread, with all the mail-order customers hanging around, does anyone know whatever happened to the long-defunct "Caiman" marketplace seller on Amazon? Recently, I went through a large part of my collection and noticed how ridiculously cheap many of their offers were. I bought hundreds, I think, but that was before Amazon.us slapped on a kilo of postage fees which made this import route unfeasible. Maybe that move also signaled Caiman's death, or did they croak before (for European customers, Caiman used to be the sh@t)?

And that, exactly, is the problem. I've lived in the vicinity of 6 different customs offices around here, and only one was "sloppy" enough to let shipments slip through. But, again, this is assuming that everyone on this planet would rather rip off the state/cheat on taxes/save a buck. As a customer, I have absolutely no problem with a company reacting to mails asking for this kind of cost reduction (you know, make it look like $30 although it cost $300), but for the general populace, they should just stick to the damn laws. And nothing they declared for my shipments ever came even close to the truth (this time, because I ordered two sets, they declared $30 for a value of over $200). Cool if they do so on demand, uncool if they do that by default. In my case (no car) I have to travel 28km to a customs office in a remote harbor to collect my shipments. Every single damn time. The people at the office always smile and I always tell them that "Yeah, that's the way Mosaic handles things". But, because I order a lot from the States (still, despite sometimes horrendous shipment costs), Mosaic is the only company I know and have known for over 10 years that does this. Nobody else does. That's why I'm surprised about your statement that "All in all not better and not worse than how many US shippings fared en route over here". In my case (only), it is always worse than any other shipment I receive from the States. Every damn time. Before I left for the customs office the other day, I received a shipment from Amoeba Music in SF. You would think they don't know better either. Yes, they do. Bill (incl, separately listed postage) affixed to the package. Paid for at the door (see above). As I said above, Mosaic won't get my business anymore. Not that they (I tried before, to no avail) or anyone else really cares. But I hate that kind of behavior out of principle. All these hard-nosed people talking about law & order all the time ... unless it concerns their CDs, their stereos, their neighborhood or whatever. All of those things are, of course, not covered by their principles (P.S.: It's just an experience I've had on many forums ... the state should do this, the state should do that, throw them into the water and let them drown ... but don't make me pay an extra cent for import duties. Screw the system and hope it doesn't notice.... Sign of the times, and all of that). I rest my case. I might be back in a couple of months.

Some of the best stuff that I got via mail/PM was from Mark. Because I'm not around here anymore, really (every few weeks/months), this thread here took me by total surprise. Mark was one cool dude who knew his stuff. I keep all my mail in a program (highly recommended) called "MailStore" (compressed, database, etc.) and, in exactly that order, I received mails worth keeping from - couw (= John ... long gone) - Flurin (still around, I see) - and Mark. Mark had a great (!) sense of humor, deep knowledge of the topics we conversed about and, most importantly, a deep-seated passion (!) for these topics. I'll miss him.

I'm really enjoying this set. Although I would heartily agree with Larry Kart's comments re the liner notes, I haven't felt this giddy for a long time. This is great stuff which would otherwise have been lost. The fidelity? Uh, well, ... but, I guess, they did the best they could. Whenever it comes around to music like this (especially the Basie stuff), I only care about the sonics if a shoddy job was done on the material. In this case, I think they managed to do a 100%-job with what was available. Along with this collection, I bought the Teddy Wilson Brunswick & Columbia and I'm in heaven. I haven't been around this site here for ages, but those who remember me from way back when know that I'm Germany's biggest Teddy Wilson fan. When I lived in Copenhagen decades ago, I was able to see him live several times (until the sun came up) and was able to talk to him (my drum teacher, Ed Thigpen, helped in this respect) many times. He was, like Ed, the perfect gentleman and incredibly knowledgeable. I learned more about (earlier) jazz/swing/small group sessions from way back when in a few evenings from Ted and Ed (hey, that rhymes) than from about 20 meters of jazz books. So, with these two boxed sets, it's Christmas time here ... in the middle of summer ... with 30+ degrees Centigrade on a daily basis. Love both sets!

Didn't expect anything else, really. So yes, xenophobic it is, just for you. --- I really don't care if they "farmed this out". They are the only company that a) have tried and continue to try to cheat (European) customs constantly (supposedly in the interest of their customers. It's not in my interest. I pay my dues and don't want a company to decide for me if I want to cheat the system or not), b) have absolutely no notion how European customs work (and haven't, ever since I started ordering from them ages ago), c) know they have lots of "fans" who condone the practice. But since this thread is about, I guess, Mosaic's imminent demise (really [?], strategically-placed mails to get their business going ...?), I thought I'd leave the above thought. Not once (!) have I gotten a shipment from Mosaic that adhered to anything, legally. Most of you will probably say "good on them for trying", but I would say ... "Thanks, but no thanks!" Again, I'm a huge fan of their output and I have tons of it, but their business- and shipping practice (no matter who does it) is just totally lame and, yes, completely illegal over here! And, I guess, illegal in most parts of Europe (no idea, what the rest of the world adheres to). I really don't think that in a globalized world, that's a viable business strategy. And, as I stated above, albeit a bit hotly after x-years [15? 20? No idea] of being pissed off about this practice, it has soured Mosaic for me in a major way. No skin off their nose and no skin off my nose, but a company that just doesn't get how to do international business shouldn't complain about losing business across the board. So, I decided to abstain, no more, no less. Cheers!