Kevin Bresnahan

The site says the CD "ships out within 3 days". I would elevate this if I were you.

Seeing Steve Schwartz's name listed there still hurts. Such a sweet man. I really miss him. The Boston Jazz scene won't be the same.

I was at a hot summer party and someone had a cooler filled with Bud Light Lime, Never having tried it, I stupidly decided to pop one. Even stupider, I sucked out a large mouthful, remember, it was hot that day. Urgh. I had to spit it out. Do. not. like. FWIW, the people at the party had a great laugh at my expense. Thankfully, no pictures exist.

I don't care how good it is, in this day and age, selling domestic CDs, particularly self-produced domestic CDs, for $25, is excessive and seems pretty dumb unless the goal is to not sell too many of them. Many new CDs in stores are selling for under $14 (oldies for ~$5) and the used market - forget about it. I've bought a lot of CDs from artists at shows over the years and the only time I paid over $15 was when Harold Mabern had a few copies of his Japanese Venus CDs. Lately, most artists are selling at shows for $10/CD. $25? Nope.

If all of this music hadn't been issued on Japanese CDs shortly before this box set was released, I would think that it would have sold out much sooner. I know that I already had all of the material found in this box on CD before it was issued.

Unfortunately, solid state hard drives as well as thumb drives, are not necessarily permanent digital storage solutions. The data is "written" electronically and there's no guarantee that the 1 written into a memory location will still be a 1 in a decade. Yes, the memory circuit latches into a fixed state but if aging results in an electronic change that allows that state to flip back, you can lose data. I've read a couple of papers that recommend that you should power up solid state memory every now & then if you want to make sure that your data stays put.

I doubt it. From the stories I've been reading, DAT tapes have not held up well at all. I've only had 2 CD-Rs fail so I've been happy with them at this point.

DAC as in Digital-to-Analog Converter? CDs play back through a DAC, so I don't understand the inference here...

$25 each. http://yesrecords.bigcartel.com/

I seem to remember that if you burn a music CD-R with the option to write more data later, known as "leaving it open", you could get errors like this. When you burn music CD-Rs, do you select the option to close the disc?

Based on this info, I won't be buying this. I haven't liked the sound this team gets on the reissues they've been involved with so far. The resulting music is too loud and shrill for my ears.

After several weeks of postal delays (ordered Nov. 4th, received December 22nd), I finally got a chance to spin this and I am very glad to have it in my CD rack. I like it as much if not more than "Blue Bogey". Thanks again for bringing this CD to my attention.

The Cincinnati Bengals just re-upped Marvin Lewis. From what I've read on some of their fans' message boards, this is not going over well.

I just listened to a bit of this here: The echoes from the venue walls is pretty noticeable. I guess this is an audience recording and not taken from the soundboard?

Thanks - After listening to a few samples, I ordered this for next year. I almost ordered the vinyl but it's missing 3 tracks that are on the CD.

Do you like this date? I didn't like it at all. The main reason I still own it is that I got Jones to autograph it.

Yes, it's a "with strings" Christmas CD and it's what makes it a late night favorite in my house.

I have several Blue Jean Cables products. I use their speaker wires on both of my systems and I have a couple of pairs of their RCA audio cables. I use several pairs of Monoprice RCA audio cables as well. Go with whatever you like. I know a lot of people who swear by Audioquest and if they look good to you, go for them. That Pangea is a nice looking shelf for $99. Those thin shelves might, just might, be an issue for the turntable on top. If you have issues with mechanical feedback (rumble, skipping, etc), you can always go with an inexpensive wall shelf later. I have two wall shelves that I had made for me. I bought wall brackets from Home Depot for about $20 and had a friend who runs a woodworking shop make me a 1 & 1/2 inch thick piece of butcher block maple. That was about $35. Total $55. The nice thing about a wall shelf is that you can use studs.

They most certainly do! The real question is whether you like this effect or not. BTW, there are days when I miss my tube setup as well.

I am not surprised at the difference you're hearing. From a pure electronic standpoint, the phono preamplifier steps up the signal from the cartridge to the amplifier. The Conrad Johnson likely had ~50 dB of gain, whereas the NAD is probably closer to 35-40 dB. This 10-15 dB difference in gain can mean a lot to the resulting sound. Most likely the differences you're hearing is because the cartridge you are using is matched differently to the NAD phono preamp than it was to your old Conrad Johnson phono preamp. When it comes to matching a tricky phono cartridge to your amplifier, particularly a moving coil cartridge with unusual output impedance or very low output voltage, you might need a phono preamplifier with adjustable settings. I just bought one last year, the Pro-Ject Phono Box DS, that has several rough adjustments that can be made from the front panel. I bought it because I'm thinking about going to moving coil (using Ortofon 3M Black MM now). There are models out there that allow for more adjustment than this but for me (and my aging ears) this worked fine. Your mileage may vary.

My family is big into Christmas music. We're still playing it today. I have several Jazz-tinged Christmas discs that have gotten playtime in the past few weeks. Top 5: Vince Guaraldi - A Charlie Brown Christmas Scott Hamilton - Christmas Love Song (also found under the title "Late Night Christmas Eve") Various Artists - An Uptown Christmas Paolo Fresu - Jazzy Christmas Bobby Timmons - Holiday Soul (needle drop) And then there's always my personal favorite that's not really Jazz: Nat King Cole - The Christmas Song

I highly doubt that Pro-Ject's entry-level phono pre-amplifier's circuitry will be much different from the built-in phono pre-amplifier in your Onkyo receiver. Again, the phono pre-amp only needs to boost up an audio signal by ~45 dB for a MM cartridge and apply the RIAA equilization. This can be done with very little circuitry (which is why that Pro-Ject box is so small). The basic circuit only needs about 14-20 circuit elements per channel. High-end pre-amps take this basic schematic and add bias control circuitry, additional noise filtration and other things to improve the clarity of the signal. I doubt that this little Pro-Ject box has much of that. Although I generally recommend Monoprice audio cables, it seems like you want a step up. My preferred "step up" audio cable is Blue Jean Cable. Their 3 foot long BJC LC-1 stereo (pair) is $35.75. I've never used Pangea cables but I have several Blue Jean cables in my systems. They also make excellent speaker wire for the money.

Regarding the phono preamp - depending on the make/model of your receiver, you could already have a very good phono preamp built in. In fact, schematically, you could have an identical phono preamp to a free-standing phono preamp on the market. There are limited ways to boost up a phono signal and add the RIAA equalization (again, schematically). If you hook it up and it sounds good to your ears, why worry? As an example, I once owned a McIntosh MX110 tube preamp that had a built-in tube phono pre-amp. That built-in phono pre-amp was wired up using several tubes that are used in many high end tube phono pre-amps. Most are wired up in the exact same way (schematically). Sure, the quality of the construction could come into play, but the audio amplification should be pretty much the same. I never felt the need to use an external phono pre-amp with that preamplifier. You may find yourself in the same situation with your current system.

Sad news. He will be missed. It looks like he died on December 15th at home. He was only 59 - far too young. Cancer sucks. No full obituary yet, but here's his death notice: http://www.lagrandeobserver.com/obituaries/5857496-151/obits-dec-20-2017

That probably depends on the receiver and how well it matches your cartridge. Are you already using it? If you are using it, are you happy with the sound? If you are, why worry?