Kevin Bresnahan

How did you get my wife to pose in that top? Oh wait a minute - let me put on my glasses. Hey! That's not my wife!! :D Kevin

I've made several purchases via AudiogoN. Two were local though. There have been quite a few horror stories so watch out. Don't go for any weird payment terms. Stick to PayPal and fund it with a credit card.

That is not a position I want to see my wife in! That's just... that's just... ewww. This is from The Onion, right? They must be doing videos now, right?

Just finished: Wisely - fun rocker out of California. Very limited pressing. Now: The Eagles - Hotel California - My old, original LP. One of the very few I saved when I exited the land of LPs (the first time )

I saw Scott Robinson use a theremin extensively at a recent concert at UNH. It was interesting for about 30 seconds, then it just sounded like the soundtrack to an old Sci Fi movie, which, BTW, was what he was trying for.

First off, I'm buying records again FOR FUN. Many of them are a lot cheaper than any CD version so I find myself buying records that I would never even consider buying on CD. I still do not hear any audio advantages over a well-made CD. The stupidest thing about these new bands putting out vinyl is that the entire recording chain is digital, right up to the cutting head on the lathe. The only thing these LPs represent is a needle drop of the digital audio. If you have a good transport with a good D to A converter, you can cut out this extra step *and* eliminate surface noise. Ahh, there it is - surface noise. To me, this is what's bringing back vinyl. Many quotes I see from vinyl buyers is that CD sound is "sterile". Clicks and pops are not heard at any Jazz club I've been in. Neither is rumble. I consider the sound I get off of a CD to be more like a live recording than any sound I get off of a vinyl record. I think this new crop of record buyers will continue to buy their vinyl until they start getting stiffed with crappy pressings like everyone in the history of vinyl record buying has. Oh how I hated vinyl back in the day. Bad pressing, bring it back, HOPE the store lets you exchange it and pray that the skip you had on the last one wasn't a pressing defect (they usually were). I vividly remember the stack of quarters and scotch tape that I used to keep next to my parent's turntable for those tricky pressings. I recently picked up quite a few brand new pressings so I know it's going to be the same as it ever was. The Who's new double LP set from Best Buy is impossible to find without warpage. The ZZ Top "Tres Hombres" has crackles on the lead out groove that sounds like you just poured milk into a Rice Krispies bowl. It will continue to have the same problems. It's part of the vinyl experience. Look at all the people complaining about those $50 Blue Note 45 rpm LPs. In a nutshell, I think it;s great that vinyl is making a bit of a comeback, if only because the mastering engineer can't MAXIMIZE the crap out of the audio or it will jump the groove. If only these meatheads hadn't MAXIMIZED every modern CD version of their releases, people would never have been forced to try vinyl in the first place. I blame the mastering engineers for this vinyl resurgence. Kevin

Isn't that Michelle Malkin defined?

There are 4 listings on Amazon for under $10.

He got his starting price, not his desired price! He desired to get as much as the market would bear. You felt it necessary to deflate the value of his offering. You chimed with your post while the auction was still running. Look, it's all about timing. If you had posted what you did after the auction, it's no big deal. You talk about a "community" but you just screwed Parkertown!! You're an idiot.

Oh well, maybe because you should treat people how you'd like to be treated yourself? Do you do this sort of thing when you're out with friends? I'd like to see you walk into a store, walk up to a customer waiting in line to buy a few high-priced collectibles and say in a loud voice, "Hey, why don't you go across the street to that store over there? They have those CDs for a lot less". Some stores might not let you out of there without a limp. Your attitude shows you appear to be clueless as to how to act among peers.

Thank you. Far out man.

If you have Windows XP, look around the web for bootvis. It's a Microsoft program that will optimize your boot. Also, check how fragmented your C: drive is and if it's got a lot of red, defragment it, even if the tool says not to. Lastly, get 2 GB of RAM. It's cheap and it will speed up *everything* your PC does, not just boot. Kevin

Southern New Hampshire should be renamed Northern Massachusetts. A majority of its inhabitants are transplanted MA people. We all moved here for the affordable real estate. A majority of us work in Mass and pay our Mass income tax. Which reminds me, whatever happened to "no taxation without representation? Now *Northern* New Hampshire is another thing! I think a property's value is increased by the number of cars you have up on cinder blocks.

Jim, I hope you have an easier time of this than I am. My Dad and I worked on our motorcycles together. Fixing things was how we bonded. When he died, my Mom gave me a whole bunch of his tools. Every time I pick one up and start to work with it, I think of my Dad. It really makes it hard to get the work done sometimes. But I will tell you this, our Dads would want us to use those tools. My Dad was proud that I could fix things like he could. Sometimes I think he was more proud of that than anything else I did. Kevin

There's a sometime-poster here on the boards (who frequently posts on the Jazz Corner board) who goes by the name "Dr Dave" who recently relocated from South Boston to Ashville, NC. He loves it and recommends it highly. I may consider it as my working days start to dwindle. Great cultural scene. Relaxed atmosphere. Decent weather. I would definitely recommend checking out Ashville.

When I talked to Michael Cuscuna about this, he said that the tapes are fine and that as long as normal care is taken, they will remain that way. When I asked him about Horace Silver's "Song For My Father" and how it sounded stretched, he said that it didn't sound that way until someone did something wrong with it. Most of them were damaged from improper use. In order for Classic Records to get these tapes, they have to insure them for big bucks. Hoffman was saying that the "Blue Train" master tape was insured for $100,000 or $500,000, I forget which. No matter, Classics knows that if they screw the tape up, they are on the hook for some big dough.

All of these EU public domain releases were expected and they were the main reason I was shocked that Concord paid as much for the OJC labels as they did. I wonder if that deal will be worth it? The only thing that might save them is when those Beatles sessions start hitting public domain. The next few years will tell.

This unit comes with a non-replaceable cartridge. Only the stylus can be swapped. It's OK, but if they made the cart swappable, it would be much better. Denon sells a re-badged version, the DP-29F, which I have. I swapped the stylus for an upgraded one at lpgear.com. and it's a little better. Looking around the LP Gear website, they sell an upgraded Audio Technica AT-PL50 turmtable for $99. That is probably a better deal for most of us. You get a new TT, not refurb'ed, and it has the upgraded stylus. BTW, it has a built-in phone pre-amp, so it's not necessary to have a receiver or pre-amp with a phono input. Kevin

What white van did you buy that from? Is it really a Sony Bravia or a Sonny Brevia? Sony has never made 41" LCD.

Jim, it was almost 2 years ago (already) that my Dad left us and I still think of him when I do something he taught me. You won't forget him. Like Jack Woker said, going the way your Dad did was better than a long painful disease. That's what I keep telling myself about my Dad's heart attack. I hope you find some solace in that. Kevin

The funny thing is, I really can't help you any more! I bought my Mitsubishi back in late '06 and really liked. I kept following the threads in the AVS forums to see if I could get any useful tweaks. After a while, all I was seeing was people complaining about this TV or that TV. There is also the annoying fact that next year's models will probably be better than this year's AND will cost hundreds less. Why torture myself with that!?!? I will say that my sister bought a Sony W3000 series LCD a few months back and loved the picture... until it died. They are putting in a new panel under warranty but that's still scary. I still love the picture of the Pioneer plasmas that I've glimpsed at the local Best Buy. However, if you're thinking Pioneer, be aware that this year and part of next year is it for Pio glass. Pioneer is buying their glass from Panasonic starting next year. If you want a "Pioneer" plasma, buy one now, otherwise, it'll be a Panny plasma TV with Pio electronics (which may or may not be a good thing). Kevin

A good addition to the Connoisseur list would be to add a notation for the titles that were released simultaneously on LP. I am often asked that and I don't remember.

Almost every auction is this way now. EBay did this to make it impossible to find out who is bidding on an item, ostensibly to prevent other eBay users from contacting auction losers to offer the same product "off the system". It's all about eBay's take. Money. What they fail to realize is that it makes it impossible to ferret out shill bidders. It used to be when someone started bidding up an item beyond it's expected value, you could check the bidder's other auctions to see if he/she had a history of doing that. If you found someone who usually bought Beenie Babies bidding $200 for a Jazz CD, you could be fairly certain you were getting shilled. Now, shill bidders are hidden. Caveat emptor.

Sorry, but I don't see clarke68's posting as "bad manners". If you are referring to his last sentence, it clearly reads as sarcasm. However, maybe clarke68 should have added a

Needs more cowbell!