Bigshot

I have Barshai and Rostropovich and the Barshai is much better than the other. I have a couple of odd Haitinks too. They're not as sparky.

ELO was better when it was The Move. That later disco stuff makes me feel like I've just eaten a six course meal of marshmallows and whipped cream.

In honor of Bach's birthday, nine hours of classic Bach performances from the Vanguard label on MP3 for 99 cents! Ends Saturday. http://www.amazon.com/Big-Bach-Set/dp/B007MS6D1I/

"oogling" is better than Googling -- you can actually touch them! Not if it's a girl!

They completed it on CD. It didn't get to the end of the series on vinyl. But RCA France had a compete set on vinyl. I remember oogling it at the record store back before CDs.

JSP started out really good with excellent transfers done specifically for them (Mills Bros, Django, Hot 5s, etc.) For some reason they abandoned that and it seems that now they're lifting a bunch of their transfers from other labels' releases. That's pretty common with bargain box labels in Europe.

I've never had any complaint about the sound of the RCA Bluebird complete Fats Waller collections. My only complaint was the price I had to pay for the one out of print set I had to buy when a friend borrowed and lost one of the boxes in the set.

The Mercury Living Presence box is down to $108 at Amazon on preorder today. It will probably go up $20 after it comes out.

Those were the preorder prices at Amazon. If you keep an eye open, I'm sure they'll dip again. There are Amazon price watching sites that will email you when a price goes down into a specified range. That makes it easy to wait for a sale.

I got the Living Stereo box with 60 CDs for $99 and the Decca Sound with 50 for $90. This set should be in that range.

The US price has gone downto $130. If it dips under $100, I'll be very tempted.

Actually, I'm considering subscribing to emusic. That Boswell set is a great bargain and they have a bunch of Tumbao Classics albums that I'd love to have but wont pay the going price of 17 bucks for.

I clean extremely dirty records with a 50-50 mix of distilled water and white vinegar. Once they're clean you can maintain them with a couple of drops of distilled water on a cleaning pad. If you want, you can put a very tiny bit of glycerine photoflo in as a wetting agent, but it isn't absolutely necessary.

Yes, but that won't make any difference to those who think they actually do hear a difference. The specs of even the cheapest CD player are identical to those of high end players. Jitter as it appears in even the cheapest cd players is 100 times below the threshold of audibility. Most CD players are made from stock parts. They're all pretty much the same inside. The differences are features and build quality. The advice to buy cheap CD players and throw them away when they act up is great advice. I select cd players based on the clarity of the layout of the remote. That makes a big difference.

It's more likely to be dust on the stylus being dislodged. There are dozens of variables that could affect sound in mechanical sound reproduction.

Perahia is my favorite, but I have a certain nostalgic fondness for Geza Anda because the Elvira Madigan LP was one of my first classical records.

The story is in the April/May 2004 issue of The Absolute Sound in the article on the Consumer Electronics Show. The quality of speakers and their balance to the room matters a lot. The wires and source don't. An iPod playing an MP3 through a radio shack cable sounds as good as a 24 bit master playing back through a $5000 cable if the speakers are working properly. As long as the bitrate of the MP3 is high enough to eliminate artifacting, it's the same. The reason for unnatural sound in home stereos is almost always due to frequency response dips and spikes caused by imbalanced speakers. If someone is concerned with getting great sound, they should spend their money on really good speakers and match them to their listening room with equalization and room treatment. As long as the amp is powerful enough to drive the speakers, it doesn't really matter that much what electronics you use. Don't spend a lot on your source and nvest the money you save in buying more music.

Monoprice is where my engineer friends buy their cables. They get them on big spindles and add their own connectors to save money.

I read about a demonstration done by a high end speaker company once. They invited a large group of "golden ear" critics to audition their newest designs. After a couple of hours, the critics were ecstatic, declaring it the best sound they had ever experienced. As they were leaving, one of the critics asked about the source. The engineer running the demonstration admitted that their high end CD player was acting up, so he had used his iPod running mp3 files through a radio shack cable. The thing that *does* matter that very few people attend to is frequency response. With a speaker setup, the acoustics of the room and the placement of the speakers and furniture within it can have a huge impact on the sound. You can put the best speakers in the world into the wrong room with the wrong placement and they'll sound terrible. But most people place their speaker cabinets solely based on using them as end tables to set a lamp and a drink on, or hide them in wall cabinets or tucked between couches against the wall. They refuse to equalize because of some theoretical sound quality impact, and continue to listen to grossly imbalanced response. This isn't much of a problem with headphones, but headphones have their own set of problems when it comes to naturally reproducing sound.

I find that my informal impression isn't as trustworthy as controlled scientific testing. Placebo and psychological factors can have a huge impact. Food tastes better if I eat under a warm colored light instead of a green one. That doesn't mean i should spend more money on food or season it differently. It just means that i should pay attention to my own comfort and not base my satisfaction solely on how much something costs. There's no reason for me to spend $100 on a hunk of wire to feel better about how my stereo sounds. A comfortable couch to sit on while I listen does more for the sound of my system. I've worked with engineers who built recording studios. They used regular old wire to hook up the mixing consoles. That's good enough for me.

The differences between the conductivity of various kinds of cables are well beneath the threshold of audibility. There have been numerous tests that show this. Silver doesn't sound brighter. That is sympathetic magic... The color of the metal is brighter, so the sound must be brighter. It is perfectly possible to measure the differences between cables and determine the difference that makes on the sound. Any reasonably good cable sounds the same. There is so much hoodoo in home stereo discussions it's pitiful. Jitter in inaudible in the extent that it occurs in even the least expensive CD players by a factor of 100:1. Most solid state amplifiers are equal, except in power rating. It is simple to create a good sounding preamplifier. The things that matter are the quality of the DAC to a certain extent, but mostly the quality of the transducers and the balance of the frequency response. The reason that there is so much misinformation is because of equipment manufacturer's sales pitch. When you're assembling a product from stock parts to a stock design, the only way to differentiate your product from the others is to make a number on a piece of paper look a little bit better. Never mind that the difference between your specs and your competitor's is 100 times below the threshold of human audibility. If it looks better on paper, someone with OCD will go with your product for "peace of mind". The truth is stereo salesmen lie more than used car dealers and politicians combined.

Cables make no audible difference. That has been proven in double blind testing. However cheap cables can become damaged easily around the connectors and short out. It's good to buy decent cables just so you don't have to chase down shorts. Surprisingly, monster cables are among the worst for having bad connectors. In any system, the thing that makes the most difference to the sound is the transducers- speakers and headphones. With speakers the room and equalization is important. If you want to improve your sound, that's the area to focus on.

No offense, but an entry level Rega or Music Hall can't hold a candle to a Technics. With newer brands, you need to spend 2 or 3 times your budget to get a decent turntable. Older turntables are built better for less money.

Your problem is likely your analogue to digital conversion. A better sound board or input device might solve the problem. You also might have a problem with your line level. A preamp would allow you to adjust your input level to the optimal spot. Higher bitrates won't really help because all of the aural improvement would be outside the range of an LP. LPs generally are limited to a dynamic range of around 45-50 dB max. A CD can safely contain 70-90 dB. Both formats cover the full audible frequency range. Increasing your specs beyond that would be overkill. High bitrates are for mixing when you need to alter the volume of the recording a lot. A flat LP transfer doesn't require that. I've done a lot of transfers of both LPs and 78s using my Mac. With a blind line level matched A/B comparison of the LP and the CD transfer, it's impossible to hear a difference. It is possible to do perfect LP to CD transfers. By the way, I had the same bouncy tracking when I was using a Grado. If you have a cartridge that tracks properly, it's a good match for your turntable.

In the $300 and under range you'd do best with a used Dual or Technics. Allow a little of your budget to get a pro to install your cartridge and check alignment since you have no experience in that yourself. Modern turntables in this price range are junk.