sidewinder

I have a NY USA stereo so I will resist that title. Oh almost forgot - and a ‘Wally’. Tempted to check it out !

All 3 of my Tone Poets have just arrived. The Lonnie Smith sounds pretty good.

Showing as ‘despatched’ for all 3 titles so maybe BN UK have their act together. Fingers crossed ! I will be interested to check these out and if they are good I’ll be tempted to dabble further with a few selected titles.

Mine were ordered from Blue Note and are currently being shipped. One thing that I did make sure of though is that the titles were showing as ‘in stock’ before I ordered.

CDs 1 and 2

Hux CD

All are good - the original issue sounds superb but the King LP is very commendable too. I have the ‘Introducing Kenny Burrell’ on CD but not on LP - there se3m to have been very good reports on that one.

I have the ‘It’s Time’ on an original NY mono issue, a King and on the Mosaic LP set so no way am I going to slap down the dosh for another copy of that one. Having said that, I have just ordered the Lonnie Smith, Burrell and Baby Face Willette in this series to fill specific gaps and to check the series out. That will likely be it for me.

Some great music and live atmosphere on this one.

Agreed - a masterpiece.

In the middle of a re-spin of this one I read that saxophonist Don Weller has just passed a couple of days ago. He had been in ill health for a while but this is particularly sad news. RIP. One of the best of the UK tenorists, for sure.

At least they have brought out the Karousel bearing ! I hear what you say though - the Linn Forums being discontinued didn’t help. I was surprised how low key Linn’s presence was at the Bristol Show earlier this year. Demos were almost like a secret society.

A similar problem here - although there was a temporary wave of CD555s when the ND555 came out. Optimal set up for that one is with two 555PS supplies but it is a formidable player and hard to beat. The CD555 would be the equivalent I think to your Sondek CD12. You could always go for DCS Bartok and Clock..

CD5si would certainly do the job. The CDS3 and 555 etc. also require an additional power supply unit, not cheap. Not sure what the dealer coverage is like in Italy - probably better in Netherlands and Germany. Any servicing would have to be done back in Salisbury but on the plus side they can service and repair pretty well all of their legacy products, with a few exceptions like early CDs and tuner heads. My CDS3 is still on its first transport - long may it last ! The moment it starts juddering it will be off to HQ.

Have a look for a second hand Naim CDS2, CDS3 or CD555 porcy. The latter one is getting to be an attractive buy as people have switched to ND555. These players use the Burr-Brown converters I think - again, Naim did a one time buy to support their production run with spares.

Fortunately there is a lifetime buy of Philips mechanism spares on mine which means that it should survive for a good few years yet.

That Clayton Mosaic is a corker - love the way it captures the 30th St studio ambience. My CD version was obtained from the ‘Horse’s Mouth’ i.e. M. Cuscuna.

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My immediate reaction - Naim Audio NAIT5Si. Naim and Focal are part of the same corporate entity and usually make for a good match. A beyond your stated budget but worth it e.g. second hand.

Those Coltrane and Dolphy LPs fetched a high price - certainly no rarities.

I’ve had a recent LP arrive in the UK from the Netherlands in 4 days.

The Auction sale results are now in. No bargains on the LPs, some hefty prices on the CD bundles and some nice deals on the Mosaics ! https://bid.omegaauctions.co.uk/m/view-auctions/catalog/id/84?page=1

From my recollection the sleeve is US but the vinyl indicates made in the UK on the label. A bit like the German Liberty LPs of the vintage. I’ll have to check but I think it is ‘Van Gelder’ in the runout. These UK issues were definitely very short lived. In 1970 the economy was still doing OK. The industrial unrest and power cuts of 1972 onwards would have decimated budgets allocated to UK Blue Note shenanigans. Major own-goal.