neveronfriday

Thanks for that recommendation. I will certainly have a close look at it ... now.

Cool. Always best to be buying from the locals! Though, as I say, I don't have any direct experience with the product, the fact that Vladimir at North Country carries Atoll is a pretty good endorsement; I think he's generaly considered reliable and a decent judge of products. Yes, actually all the reviews have been good to stellar, depending on the way you read them. If I hit some forums though that cater to us audiophile geeks, I get a whiff of subdued criticism. One of the major ones seems to be (very few people have voiced this concern ... and in a rather veiled manner) that the amps (recent models) seem to run hot in very few situations because cooling seems to be somewhat inefficient. Others usually swipe that opinion off the table by the standard "then turn the volume down" reply. I've gotten a bit careful with endorsements by just about anyone when I found out that two Cambridge models (I'm talking about British Cambridge Audio, not Cambridge Soundworks) I was interested in and which had been unanimously praised in the various media actually turned out to be faulty. Service from Cambridge was top-notch, but somehow the reviews and endorsements didn't seem to jell with real-life experiences users had with the units over an extended period of time.

Thanks for the feedback, BeBop! I'm all set up with a fine shop here in my area which will lead to substantial savings if I jump on this duo by January.

My shipment has been stuck in customs for bloody weeks now. So I wouldn't even know if I got the right one. Seems like they have two people working there to battle the Christmas rush. That would be twelve thousand packages per person per day. [Edit: And two forms, two letters and five phone calls per package.] That's Germany for you.

I'm thinking of getting a CD-player/amp combo to oust my current Marantz setup (CD-drive has started making too much noise, amp is still fine but can be used elsewhere in the house). Anyone here that has any experience with these (I'm highly distrustful of the glowing reviews that have never had any of the reviewed equipment running for longer than a few days). What I'm especially interested in is to find out if Atoll products are as solid and robust as most reviewers claim. Secondly, if anyone has any one of their CD players, old or new, I'd like to have real-life feedback on error correction, besides sound quality the number one feature on my list. Thanks for looking. P.S.: http://www.atoll-electronique.com/

My old rant: "Limited" and "Exlusive" are probably the two words one should avoid when purchasing sets. A marketing scam, the lot of it (exceptions, like Mosaic, prove the rule). Anyone stupid enough to think that the Beatles' mono boxed set and the Miles Davis boxed set wouldn't be reprinted ad nauseam if they sell well is an idiot. Let's wait for the bargain bin appearance of these sets after Christmas .. for a sandwich a piece. I'm just surprised that after once exclusive DVD sets and limited CD releases are still around today for a fraction of the price (expanded and packaged better than the previous limited and exclusive ones at that) and the various other scams, the industry hasn't started to complain about dwindling sales. I'm sure they'll start suing some customer soon ... for whatever reason. I've stopped falling for it a long time ago and have stopped joining the scrambling masses unless someone has a good offer in the process. I just wish there were stickers attached to these sets (bright-red, large letters) that state "I'm still going to be around ten years from now for a penny" so we wouldn't miss out on the ones that do disappear like lightening.

I actually had to get a new printer -- not by choice -- but because Dell decided not to pay their techies to upgrade the drivers on the older printers for Windows 7. Thanks a bundle, Dell. That's the last time I will ever be a customer of yours. I put a Canon printer in my Amazon cart at a very good price, and when I woke up on Black Friday it was $25 less. The price on printers has gotten so insanely low that for many brands it is almost like razors and razor blades. The printer is nearly free, and they make their money back by selling ink! Yep. Had that with every printer until I bought myself a Kyocera years ago. Have been a happy camper ever since (mine is the old workhorse, FS-1030D).

Same here. Sad to say, I'm beginning to get used to it.

Financial trouble isn't really the issue all the time, but I've gotten close once or twice in respect to my strict monthly budget (I have enough to cushion extreme sprees). I haven't been in the rug squeeze yet (although, in Germany, every single one of those creepy rug shops seems to have everything on discount 24/7/12. I've been wanting to upgrade my stereo though for a long time, and there's this special (French) Atoll Electronique offer (amp + CD player) at the moment which is extremely hard to walk away from.

Asylum? We could call it "our clubhouse". The "back-up HD under the bridge" is a good idea, I just need a bridge long enough to bury 18 HDs beneath. I had gotten a grip on my shopping sprees for a long time, but these past two or three months, the offers have simply been too enticing.

Is it just me, or are there other people out there who completely blow the roof off their budget when sales comes around? Have you ever gotten the shakes because you know you shouldn't have ... but did? Did you ever hope that not a single unexpected bill would pop up because it might have forced you to relocate to that place under the bridge around the corner because you blew every cent on music (= two Beatles boxed sets where one would have sufficed)? Have you ever had that "Christmas" feeling (any time of the year) when a new boxed set, a rare release or just a "goody" appeared on your doorstep? Is there any cure for this affliction? Am I normal? Should I leave the house more often?

Err, no? It really depends on what kind of "jazz buff" you are. I do have quite a bit of Miles Davis' recordings, but a large part of them I had never even considered buying (later period(s)). I have a medium-sized collection with a couple of thousand CDs and Miles Davis does NOT feature prominently therein. Yes, the "classics" are there (50s and 60s, roughly), but I have more Teddy Wilson, Erroll Garner, Count Basie, Ellington, Fitzgerald, Peterson, Brubeck, Hodges, etc., etc. etc. ... even more Glenn Miller. :blush2: I think what you should have said is "I don't think this is meant to appeal to jazz buffs ... registered here". Besides the fact that this box was a steal for what I paid for it (a laugh, really), I thought this was the perfect opportunity to check out a lot of Miles Davis I haven't consciously explored yet. I love just about all of the "classics" (earlier phase), but I had the misfortune of seeing him live in his "spandex-pants-fuck-the-audience-phase" which annoyed the hell out of me. That time (in Copenhagen) I had to look at his egocentric ass for two hours and although the sound I heard was intriguing, the whole thing just turned me off for two decades. Although, of course, every note he played was interesting, I can't remember him having played more than about 10 or so. That's about $10 per note. I don't want to be too harsh here, because he's recorded so much stellar stuff, but when I was offered the box at that price, I thought it might be the perfect time to drop old grudges and get on with it. And ... ... what I've heard so far tells me I've missed out on some good (also: extremely interesting) shit. My bad entirely. P.S.: I was given another 4 boxed sets (I now have five on my living room table) to assemble one good set from. I have never ever seen such crappy production value (packaging) ... not even the Armstrong Hot Fives & Sevens comes close (and that packing sucked royally)!

There not all solo piano, not at all. Many trio sessions etc.

Not really. Not at 80 cents per CD. Still, I've decided to return the box altogether and go out for a nice dinner, adding an excellent bottle of French white wine, to boot.

Just posted this over on the Steve Hoffman forums (along with a large number of others complaining about identical problems): "Got mine at Euro 60.- (long story). Am still returning it for replacement. Box ripped, most single cover reproductions are coming apart at the seam (about 1 cm of each has already split), up to 12 CDs have glue residue or scratches. What an absolutely shoddy job by Sony/Columbia. This was an original shrink-wrapped copy, so all the mistakes were made by whoever printed/packaged/etc. this set. Yes, the box is cheap, but not really with all of these faults. I'll give one more box a go, then I'll return it for good." :/

Thanks for the heads up, Ray! I received mine after having ordered it late and it having to travel all the way across the pond to Germany. It arrived here in pristine condition. Am listening to "Closeup in Swing" right now.

Hm. I do want to support your business (been reading along all these weeks/months and rootin' for you) but having three of these sent to Germany sort of defeats the purpose (for me). So, how about I buy some virtual candles off you (no joke)? I'd like - 1x NAG CHAMPA - 1x KUDZU - 1x MONKEY FARTS Once you have photos ready, I'd like to see each one of these and have a brief description of what these smell like. Once posted, please send me a PM with the PayPal (I hope) details, and $20 (+ handling fee) are yours. Please add "handling" expenses at your discretion. Looking forward to doing business with you. Volkher P.S.: This might be the first example of real "virtual business" in existence once we're done. P.S.S.: I am serious about this.

No kidding ! Especially as it looks as if Blair is not going to be El-Presidente too Hm. Have you looked at who they actually pulled out of the bargain bin? Not sure if that was any improvement.

Ordered mine from jpc.de for Euro 29.99.- yesterday.

Yep. The owner of the shop is a real survivor. He keeps his customers happy (he has one of the best classical selections for about 300 miles around) and they keep him happy. It's really a last recluse for us freaks and geeks, with knowledgeable staff and coffee (or cognac) while sifting through endless rows of CDs and a pretty healthy supply of LPs. Because I only had to work for an hour today (the other 20% of what made this day great) I could go reasonably early today and - I also told him that - I was completely surprised about the number of customers in there (I would say about 40 people in a comparatively small shop). Because he's got such a good reputation, the people in there are also not your regular walk-in customers. These were mostly regulars who also looked like they had the cash for some serious shopping. The whole place is almost surreal when compared to the ground zero atmosphere in other cities I frequent. There is only one more shop like that that (albeit 10 times the size) I can think of (in Munich, Germany) and it would take me about 4 hours to get there.

It pays off to be one of the "good" guys once in a while. Today I went through a rather large order in the office of my favorite music shop with the owner. Whenever possible, I try to leave my money there instead of ordering online (if, which is usually the case, the owner can make a competitive offer without me pushing him over the brink). When we were done, he said he would throw the new Miles box in for Euro 60.- if I'm interested. He just asked me not to run over to eBay to get rid of it, which I won't, but to pass it on to someone else for the same amount if I decided not to keep it. So, Euro 60 I paid and I can pick it up on Monday with the rest of my (back)order. I wasn't sure if I should go for it because I have most of the Miles Davis I like already, but then again, I also know some very good people I could simply give those editions to (or the box), people who simply don't have the cash to buy what they would perhaps like to have. So, what goes around comes around, and all of that. Good day, today.

I just made a quick comparison: With the exception of roughly 10 tracks everything that's in the green 10cd box is also in the 25cd box. Thanks for checking. I thought a large part must be included in the new box as well. I paid Euro 9 for the old box, so no skin off my nose. I simply haven't had the time and, to be quite honest, I doubt I'll be able to actually check the new box out in more detail before the new year. There's just too much backlog at my end because for some reason or another, there have been far too many too many good offers these past months which I couldn't pass up. I've got a meter-high stack of mostly boxed sets and reissues to go through.

To my ears Let It Be - Naked sounds awful, as if a lot (and I mean a lot) of noise reduction was applied. It sounds dead as a dodo. No idea, I sold my copy long ago. According to AMG it was mastered by Steve Rooke. The Let It Be - Naked was perhaps one of the most disappointing releases I ever bought. It. Sucked. And that after all the anticipation. Life could be so much easier ...

Since I've been invited, I'll pee on the rug a bit. The biggest problem I've had with iPods was the sound. I borrowed one for a few weeks and I think an iPod can't be beat in terms of usability. Compared to lots of alternatives, it's a breeze to work. I'm sure you'll find it very easy to move around intuitively and keep everything running smoothly. As far as I recall, the European edition has reduced volume capabilities (I can't recall if there's a way around that). You definitely need to shell out extra cash for good earbuds/phones. The ones that are shipped with the Ipod suck (still, most people use them because they want to look cool). "Ooooh, look, they're white and gray. Cool!" I had the 160GB classic on my list for a very long time and almost bought one once or twice, but in the end, I decided against it because I wanted to go with a different format (flac). I have made the mistake of ripping and re-ripping lots of stuff in other formats too many times these past 10 years or more and decided to go with a format (once and for all) that seems to be one with a solid future. Before I switched over, I was a 320kbps MP3 guy all the way, but the flac format is just that much better, especially if you perhaps want to not only limit yourself to portable players. In short, I wanted to keep as many doors open as possible. Still, most of my friends and colleagues are totally happy campers with their out-of-the-box iPods and give me that strange look when I state any of the above.

Sorry.