Kevin Bresnahan

I loved the sound of SACD until those Police SACDs and those Peter Gabriel SACDs. In my opinion, earlier CD versions beat these releases handily. When Nick Davis butchered the Genesis SACDs, I really knew that the emperor had no clothes. Now don't get me wrong, I still think a well-mastered SACD sounds better than an equally well-mastered CD, but it's not "night & day" better. It's just a little better. It's easy to compare with a hybrid SACD that uses the same mastering for both formats.

Bill Evans - Live at Art D'Lugoff's Top Of The Gate (Resonance). I forgot I bought this 10" record at a previous Record Store Day. Keeping it going with more Bil Evans - How My Heart Sings! (OJC pressing). An exclamation point record! It must be good!

Truth be told, this sounds like another run at HDCD, which was also marketed for a while as a sort of "super CD". It wasn't and once everyone realized it, it faded away. While I applaud the engineers trying to squeeze every last drop out of the CD format, be willing to admit that while your invention is a theoretical improvement, please stop with these extraordinary improvement claims. Most of them result in small incremental improvements that any mastering engineer can destroy with a single turn of a knob.

More fun - they compare MQA to "air" (another WTF there) and claim that MQA has less ringing. Hey, anyone guess which of these plots shows "ringing"?

Here is the MQA website: http://www.mqa.co.uk/professional/the-tech More mumbo-jumbo in there too and they really don't ever say what they're doing here. "MQA captures the entire signal and then ‘folds’ it up"? They also claim that "This file will play at above CD quality on any device", without anything to back this statement up. Of course there are several (paid?) endorsements from record producers and musicians to give this some cachet.

Kenny Burrell with the Brother Jack McDuff Quartet - Crash! (Prestige). A nice date that I didn't even realize was on CD as I've never seen it.

" Even if you do not have MQA-enabled hardware/software, the disc can also be played on regular CD players in UHQCD 44.1kHz/16bit resolution, which is far better than that of regular CD." What does this even mean? All CDs are encoded at 44.1 kHz with 16 Bit resolution. There must be a problem with the translation or some marketing person got a bit off track, particularly with "far better".

I thought about those Wallingtons too but when I did the math on my stack of discs... something had to go back.

David - I'll take these.

Supposedly re-mixed from the original multi-tracks. Not a favorite of mine, so I am not that familiar with the differences, but they are supposedly obvious.

Won't this set have the re-mixed version of the original sessions? I thought that all of the currently available the US/Legacy CDs use Mark Wilder's re-mix.

If you haven't ordered the Mosaic box yet, you only have until Wednesday to get this on CD.

You have a lot of catching up to do!

They did eventually sell them all out. It was the first Condon set - The Complete CBS Recordings Of Eddie Condon And His All Stars - MQ7-152 . The CD version sold out years before they sold their last LP set. It stuck around for a very long time.

Good idea but (I hate to say this) you better set your sights low as Kickstarter is a "make it or lose it" model. If you ask for too much, you might not get any. And remember, as great as a Bill Barron set might sound to you and Jim, there are just not a lot of people out there like you willing to spend "Mosaic money" on a box set. You're also going to run into the fact that there are some people, myself among them, who already have nearly all of this material on various CDs & LPs.

I remember years ago when Michael would complain about all of the Condon LP sets they had collecting dust on their warehouse shelves and how they had so much money tied up in these sets that it was hurting their ability to get out any new sets. I am pretty sure that set was instrumental in Mosaic completely abandoning vinyl for all those years.

Those will work fine. Edit to add: I am not backing down from my statement above, but thinking on it more, I would prefer a tool with the stripping holes below the pivot point. Like this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005QVRB/ref=s9_acsd_simh_hd_bw_b2Jxm_c_x_1_w?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-3&pf_rd_r=1G1T4E7SS7EKM38TDJHK&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=f6696391-cce8-5c19-a9f4-3720630a6927&pf_rd_i=553398 The reason for this is that I find that I sometimes need to spin the cutter a bit to completely cut through the outer jacket and I prefer the spin point to be near the middle - it makes it easier to spin as it's more balanced, Also, when you pull on the wire to slide off the outer jacker, you have to keep the jaws closed the whole time. I find this harder to do with the type of stripper you show above. With the holes near the middle, I can grab the tool and keep the jaws closed while pulling the whole tool. I can control the pulling force better that way too.

I guess you haven't shopped cartridges in a while. The Ortofon 2M line is pretty affordable in this realm. Sort these cartridges on price from high to low: https://www.musicdirect.com/equipment/phono-cartridges/?category=Phono%2520Cartridges&sort=sitePrice%7CDESC&page=4&pagesize=24&c1=tab-products&c2=grid. The Ortofon 2M Black shows up on page 4 out of 7 pages so almost half of the cartridges they sell are more expensive than the Ortofon 2M Black. And if it means anything, I have 2 Ortofon 2M Black cartridges. Both were bought used for less than $400.

I've used a box cutter for years but I have a lot of experience with it so I haven't gotten cut in a while. I also use wire strippers. The type I use looks like this: https://www.parts-express.com/gb-gs-366-wire-stripper-crimper--360-630. I like this type because they double as a small bolt cutter. No matter how you do it, it's important to do it in a way that you don't accidentally cut through any of the copper strands inside. So if you do buy a wire stripper, make sure to use the right sized cutting slot. You have 12 Gauge wire so use the slot labeled 12. The one labeled 14 may cut the outer jacket better or easier, but it's likely damaging the outer copper strands. These often break off inside your connector once you start moving or flexing the wire. Also, always remember that copper is not something you want inside your skin. Copper slivers infect like crazy. If you happen to get a small piece of copper in your finger, dig it out with tweezers. You're better off with a hole in your finger that you can cover up with a bandaid than an infected sore from subcutaneous copper.

What cartridge do you use? I have found that some cartridges handle scratches better than others. I will say that my Ortofon 2M Black is pretty impressive at playing through pretty large scratches. I believe it has to do with the shape of the stylus.

Terminating these wires with the Sewell bananas is pretty easy. All you really need is something to cut off the vinyl jacket from the wire and little patience. Wire strippers or a box cutter works but the box cutter requires a lot more caution. This page has a description of what you have to do: https://sewelldirect.com/sewell-deadbolt-banana-plugs-6-pair?stm_type=ppc&stm_source=adwords&product_id=SW-29863-6&campaignid=410148363&adgroupid=25857622683&creative=92183573763&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5q3Cq-m02gIVxo2zCh0M7gv4EAQYASABEgJQM_D_BwE There's even a video, which I'll put down at the bottom of this post. Now to the nitty gritty. I've terminated many speakers wires with connectors like this and it's always been easy but I've learned over the years that there are a few things to be aware of to get the best connection. First off, when you cut off the jacket, take off only enough that you can spread the individual wires out over the rim. You do not want bare wire sticking out of the bottom of the connector! Also, be very careful when spreading the strands of copper wire out over the rim. Make sure each wire is a single strand and try to evenly distribute it around the entire rim. Why? Well, if you accidentally have 2 wires still entwined going over the rim, your final hard connection will probably be just those two wires because they stick up higher on the rim. The rest might not even touch the cap you screw on. Also, if you don't spread them out evenly, in my experience, the screwed-on cap (the banana) will loosen with time and use. You do not want these to loosen! Bad things can happen if it gets too loose. By spreading it out evenly, you'll get the tightest connection possible. One last trick... After you screw on the banana cap, try unscrewing it. It should be difficult. If it's easy, you're not tightening it hard enough. For very heavy gauge wire with thick single strands, I've actually had to use padded pliers. Pad the pliers to prevent the gold getting scraped off. These are very lightly gold plated, not solid gold. The video - note that he does not seem to evenly distribute the wire over the rim. Maybe these connectors are better than some of the ones I've used.

Did it work?

I bought "Live!" directly from Harry Allen at one of his recent appearances at the Sahara Jazz Club in Methuen. The Amazon listing is here: https://www.amazon.com/Live-Scott-Hamilton-Harry-Allen/dp/B01BIMDJIS/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523303647&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=harry+allen+scott+hamillton I'm looking forward to Harry's next swing through Jocko's club in September.

I don't think I've ever seen this one before. It appears to be a Japanese-only release. I have two of their other release, "Live!" and "Heavy Juice". They make a great team.

Horace Silver's autobiography, "Let's Get To The Nitty Gritty".