Kevin Bresnahan

I would prefer to stick to speaker wire discussion, since they are in the signal path and could possibly affect your sound. If you all want to start talking about AC power cords... well, in my book, fancy power cords are simply a waste of money. And yes, I have experimented with them too. Start another thread about power cords so I can ignore it.

I wish I didn't already buy that Harry Allen CD a few years back for almost $25. It's a beautiful date with some very nice piano playing by Tommy Flanagan. It's probably my favorite Harry Allen CD.

I first ran into upgraded speaker wires back in the late 80's when a rep from a local company, who knew I was an audio geek, told me about his latest speaker wires, which cost him $10,000. He said that they made his very expensive amp "listenable". It was "un-listenable" before then. What the... I had to hear this and he was glad to show me. We listened to some great music and I told him his system sounded great, but how did it sound before with the old wires? He started going on about no bass, muted highs, just general crappy sound. So this $10,000 amp, $5,000 pre-amp & $4,500 CD player needed speaker wires to make them listenable? I was glad I didn't have the money to buy that gear. Fast forward a few years and I get a bargain on some heavy gauge Monster Cable speaker wires. I buy them and start an A/B test. I swapped as fast as I could, back & forth to no avail: I could not hear any differences. Maybe there were some, but if there were, they were far too subtle for me. I recently did it again when I bought a pair of Blue Jean Cables speaker wires. I have also done this with an expensive CD player interconnect. I swapped away (even pulling in one of my daughters to the test) and we couldn't hear any differences. I have come to the conclusion that I do not have the audio memory to hear these differences. To my line of thinking, this is a good thing. It saves me a lot of money. Now the dreaded "science arguments"... I can get into them here on Organissimo, unlike at other forums. I work in the RF industry where signals can go as high as 100 GHz. That's 100,000,000,000 Hz. Most people's hearing tops out at ~16 kHz. That's 16,000 Hz. Believe me, cabling affects RF performance and it's almost directly proportional to frequency. We test the heck out of "interconnects" (RF signal cables) to make sure that we are transmitting the signal to the device under test as best as we can. Loss is a killer at high frequencies. It can mean the difference between being able to test a part or not. I can tell you that these very, very expensive cables test out identically down below about 1 GHz. To almost every cable, any signal below about a 1 MHz (that's 100,000,000 Hz) is just DC. In other words, you connect it and the signal on one end comes out on the other pretty much unaffected. Now, what can affect audio cabling? Resistance, inductance and capacitance could do something, right? Not really. Most amplifier designers are very particular about their designs and it's all about the transfer curve. They worry more about power delivery to a 4-8 Ohm load than they do about its absolute output impedance. At these frequencies, that's what matters. So how much should we worry about these things. Well, capacitance and inductance don't mean much at all. Certainly not at an audible level. Resistance - now there you got something. You will see a loss of power with a lot of resistance. This will result in a lower volume, but that should be it. But how much resistance are we talking about? 1 Ohm of added resistance to a wire is a lot - it would take a pretty bad speaker wire to add this much resistance and even that much resistance is likely to be inaudible to most listeners. Here's a good article that sums up a lot of what I am saying and adds a discussion on the damping factor, which some people believe is the be all-end all for audio amplifier design. But as this article shows, even that has very little affect unless it's really bad. One last thing - I am not saying that anyone buying expensive speaker wires, RCA interconnects or AC power cords is an idiot. If I had the money, I'd consider upgrading myself. Many of these esoteric wires and cables are almost works of art. However, for me, I know that I can't hear a difference so I put this item very far down my upgrade list. Other listeners can hear a difference, so they are happy with their purchase. I am just as happy that I can't. It allows me to concentrate on improving what I hear changing my system. Lon and I can still talk about audio and get along fine. I am sure I'd love the sound of his system and I imagine he'd dig mine. We can disagree on how we got there too.

So young... I remember seeing him play a few times and I was impressed by the big sound he got out of his bass. RIP Mr. Burno. Wasn't he good friends with Jazzy Mary (Glennon) & Lois Gilbert from the old Jazz Corner?

Those are pressed by Rainbo Records in CA and they are from a digital source. While they're supposed to sound fine, I don't see the point of 'em. It's just the CD with clicks, pops & surface noise added.

I never knew about this box set. Does anyone know of a place where I can get a copy? I got turned onto the Electra/Musician "Live!" LP years ago and I'd love to get this completed concert.

Kate Bush - 50 Words For Snow (Fish People). Brand new out of the sleeve, these sides have never played without crackle & pops. The first time I played this, I didn't like it that much. I still don't think it's great, but I it's not Yoko Ono bad.

The Modern Jazz Quartet - The Modern Jazz Quartet At Music Inn (with Jimmy Giuffre) (Atlantic). Original black label pressing in OK shape. Unfortunately, the vibes distort every now & then and there are some pretty good pops but listenable. Not my favorite LP, that's for sure. Too polite? EDIT: I paid way more than $6 for it!

While expected, this is still an incredible bummer. Horace has always been one of my favorites. I am glad I got to see him on his last tour. It was great to see and hear him that one time. RIP Horace.

One thing I always wondered about this... doesn't it make sense to abbreviate something said out loud as "December sixteenth, two-thousand and thirteen" to 12/16/13? Does the rest of the world state dates differently from the US? I can see if you state today's date as "the sixteenth of December, two-thousand and thirteen", then 16/12/13 makes sense. Is that how it's done there? Numerical dates are simply abbreviations of stated dates and abbreviations typically follow syntax. No one would abbreviate "emergency room" as RE.

The Incredible Jimmy Smith - Christmas 64 (Verve). Black label reissue (with reissue sticker on the cover) but still a Van Gelder pressing.

Many years ago, my buddy Rob talked me into to going and seeing Jim Hall during one of his annual treks to Boston. Previously to this, I was rather ambivalent about his playing. After that show, I never missed him again. He was a great performer and I'll miss him. He just came through town a month or so ago and looked very frail. It was still a great show. RIP Mr. Hall and thank you for all the smiles you gave me.

Al Cohn - No Problem (Muse). This is a nice date, if not a bit predictable. Barry Harris plays his usual stuff, which is very good, but also quite a bit predictable.

Next up: JJ Johnson - J Is For Jazz (Columbia). Nice mono 6 eye record I found in a used bin for $4. I like this Columbia stuff. I should pull out that Mosaic box again. What do you think of this one? Good; not great. Where I'm coming from - I have exactly two Jane Ira Bloom albums, this one and a more recent one, plus scattered tracks here and there. She's someone I want to like more than I do, if that makes sense. I'm not sure what it is, but I can't get into her music that much. That being said, I've enjoyed this album since I bought it - more than anything else I've heard by her. I do think that her use of electronics is organic, and works better than most such attempts. I probably like this a bit more than you but you're right, it's not great. Now "The Red Quartets" on Arabesque, that's great. Never on vinyl though.

Various Artists - Herb Wong Presents Mistletoe Magic (Palo Alto Jazz). Lots of great players on this. Elvin Jones, Art Pepper, Mal Waldron, Joe Henderson, Tom Harrell, Jerome Richardson, Dave Liebman, Hank Jones and many more.

Bobby Timmons - Holiday Soul (Prestige)

Gene Clark just ended. Up now, Jorma Kaukonen - Quah (Grunt - 1980 reissue with alternative cover).

Gene Clark - Here Tonight (The White Light Demos) (Omnivore). A Black Friday Record Store Day release. Mellow folk-rock with a Dylanesque sound. It's good enough to play again but I wouldn't want a whole bunch of this type of stuff in my collection.

Elusive Disc still has some copies of the very limited edition reissue of this LP: http://www.elusivedisc.com/TONY-KINSEY-AN-EVENING-WITH-MR-PERCUSSION-180g-MONO-LP/productinfo/SPELP002/. It's a very good date if you're a Tubby Hayes fan.

Please accept my condolences. I know it seems dark right now, but the darkness will lessen with time. Try to do things you like to keep active. You'll always have those memories.

What amazes me is how much they get away with charging for these fonts! $229 for a font? One that was invented back in 1905? Wow.

Unless they've changed it, Microsoft doesn't allow you to roll back Internet Explorer. Once you install a later version, you can't go back. They do a similar thing with Microsoft Office. Once you upgrade, it's practically impossible to go backward. I'm glad to see you got it running Hans. FWIW, I have to use IE for some websites, particularly those that use Silverlight.

Buck Hill - This Is Buck Hill (Steeplechase)

I traded in my rainbow LP when I got my hands on a copy of the Connoisseur LP. It sounds better. That weird phasing on the cymbals is not as bad and the stereo separation is better.

My wife went through a big medical scare a few years back so I know exactly what you're going through. Telling her you love her is a start but simply being there for her is even better. Our relationship underwent a shift that day. I have always given my wife a kiss on the way out the door. It just means a bit more today than it did 3 years ago.