Kevin Bresnahan

Recently, I've been having fun buying Van Gelder blue labeled LPs at Stereo Jacks. But I have to say, I think I'm seeing part of the reason why Blue Note had the cachet back when these LPs were issued. You see, I've been buying Van Gelder blue labeled Blue Note LPs as well and there is no comparison. The Blue Note pressings are almost all better-sounding than any Prestige pressing. I've plunked on mint looking blue label RVG LPs and heard fuzzy distortion, rice crispies, inner groove distortion and a lot more. There are better sounding versions out there too. I happened to have a new OJC vinyl pressing of Gene Ammons's "Boss Tenor" and you know what? I'm keeping the new OJC and trading/giving away this old RVG STEREO LP. The OJC pressing blows the RVG away. The other thing I've noticed about these Prestige RVGs is that you have to inspect the *vinyl itself* when checking it for scratches. There were several mint-looking blue label RVG Prestige LPs where the vinyl had dimples and marbled vinyl. I think the marbled areas are what was called underfill. Nasty looking. I imagine they woouldn't play very well so I didn't buy them. Kevin

Ha ha! You give me too much credit. My oldest does not take rejection/disappointment well at all. My youngest is much better at it. Truth be told, I'm still working on them, even when they're 22 & 19. I hope I put them out into the world in decent shape.

I would say "let's blame the parents" but since my daughters are from this generation, I can say with a straight face that it ain't us! I think I first noticed something was wrong when our oldest daughter started playing soccer. Her team sucked. I mean really sucked. Among a whole bunch of sucky teams, their team sucked the most. I don't think they won a game. At the end of the year, we started to leave the field when the coach called everyone aside and handed out trophies. Yup. Trophies. I asked him what they were for and he said "It's a participation trophy". I have tried to keep my daughters above the stupidity. I keep warning them that in real life, there are winners and there are *losers* too. I don't know if a lot of today's kids can handle rejection. The therapists will be making a fortune in the future.

Valerie - I think you're right - their proposed prices are steep, especially in this economy and especially for Jazz shows. How are they going to book 250 shows a year with enough name cachet to fill the club at $35/ticket? Jazz fans are notoriously cheap in Boston (according to the few waitresses I've talked to about it). Is it any better out in LA?

Neil Young's anti-digital stupidity shines through again. Dumb quote of the article right here: "Such a format, he said, would contain 100 per cent of the data of music as it is created in a studio, as opposed to five per cent in compressed formats including Apple's AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)". As Bugs Bunny would say, "What a maroon". So Neil, only 5% of the actual analog input is recoverable from a digitally compressed file? Really? So instead of a 20-22,000 Hz analog playback, we only get 20-1,100 Hz playback? While I admire Neil for trying to get the music industry to get its stuff together and end the Loudness War, saying stupid stuff like this will not help. Digital is here to stay. Target things that will improve the digital files out there, like better mastering.

The Sweets Edison date can't hold a candle to what that Lalo Schifrin CD was going for back in the day. Didn't a copy sell on ebay for almost $300 one time... or was it $500? The Alan Shorter CD fetched some good money for a while too. Kevin

Don't you know it, Hans! I could never post this on the Hoffman forum. There are too many loonies for this crap over there. Heck, the inventor of the Bedini Quad-Beam 3 Ultra Clarifier is probably a member there. And you just *know* how the thread's gonna go too. "I hear what I hear and no one can tell me I don't hear it". No matter that it's scientifically impossible to hear wider soundstage, deeper bass, "darker blacks" (whatever the hell that's supposed to mean) etc. by flipping a couple of bits (worst case) in a digital bitstream. When will the audiophile fringe stop applying analog (LP) playback problems to digital discs? Cleaning up the surface of an LP will make it play back better. Cleaning up the surface of a digital disc will make it have less (completely correctable) errors. It simply cannot change what is digitally encoded on that disc. All the terms they use to describe the changes they "hear" with digital disc treatments would require a change in 100's of millions of 1's & 0's.

I just got a E-mail from Elusive Disc. Now on sale!! You must have this!! http://www.elusivedisc.com/prodinfo.asp?number=ABED-QUAD3&utm_source=email&utm_medium=special Now on sale for a mere $199, a machine that spins your CDs, DVDs and even BluRay discs at "quad speed" and fires 4 LASERS AT ONCE at the disc to "POLARIZE THE POLYMER" to allow you to "maximize the laser's ability to retrieve stored data". And get this, "by using the Bedini Quad-Beam 3 Ultra Clarifier to treat your CD's before playing, you will discover a distinct improvement in video and audio quality". Whoa!! So it's like... dude, when you play your disc later, your player will actually read all those 1's & 0's the way they were laid down. Awesome! This is so #%$%@*&% stupid!!! Please tell me that no one here actually fell for this. Please. I think too highly of you to believe any of you would fall for this absolute BS. :lol:

George plays alto on a couple of tracks of "My Horns Of Plenty" too. Nice CD but the bass was recorded too closely. I hear whirring sounds as Ray Drummond slides his fingers up and down the strings. It drives me nutty sometimes.

Yeah, that one. What am I missing (and do I want to know? )

What's wrong with the cover? I must be missing something.

RIP Joe. Great coach who earned the respect and admiration of 10's of thousands of Penn State Nittany Lions. It's unfortunate that the man's legacy has become so tarnished by the ineptitude of his school's administration. Everyone has an opinion about what Joe should have done when told what was witnessed. What he did was report it to his bosses. What they did was criminal (and is being tried as such). My opinion - what Joe did was stupid. Yes, I would have told my bosses immediately, but if they did not call the cops, I would have called PDQ. Not doing anything because your bosses failed, well... stupid is good word. Of course, I'm one generation removed from Joe. History shows that my father's generation liked to pretend that shit like this never happens i.e. look at the catholic church.

It's kind of funny to read this topic. The thread starter asked which *musician* (singular) do you listen to most frequently and leads it off with Art Tatum. About 1 out of every 5 posters in this thread answer in the singular. Everyone else posts a list. The musician I listen to the most frequently is Hank Mobley.

Plextor drives used to be a premium-priced product because they made a premium drive. Since they outsourced the drive manufacture, they dropped off my list. I don't see a reason to pay a premium to have the drive say "Plextor". I will say that I have several Lite-On drives and they work fine. I think I paid $20.00 at newegg.com for the last one I bought which is a lot less than the ~$70 Plextor's getting for this drive.

Our Capresso is dying quickly. The Capresso line out now is not getting very good reviews. It looks like the Technivorm is the one to buy today but it's expensive and it doesn't make a lot of coffee. Any advice for a drip coffee maker out there today?

George Coleman is 76 years old. I hope I am long retired by the time I'm 76! Everyone should get the chance to kick back their feet a bit before they die. As for missing being on the road... In my case, being on the road got old. I did it for 3 years and by the end, I was miserable. I would never want another job that put me on the road all the time. I drank too much, ate too much and generally became a slug. I eventually lost the 45 pounds I put on during those 3 years but it was tough. Horace Silver's retirement caused his Alzheimer's? I've never heard of a study showing this. Also, when I talked to Horace during his last visit to Boston, he seemed a bit off. He signed a picture I brought with me and added the wrong date. Looking back with 20/20 hindsight, I have to wonder if he wasn't already starting to exhibit early warning signs.

The amp is sold.

The amp is on hold pending payment.

Up for sale is a very lightly used Marantz PM5004 Integrated Amplifier. I purchased this for use on my secondary system and I had it in play for only about 3 months last year, which equates to about 50 to 100 hours of playing time. I used it for LP (Moving Magnet) and SACD playback through my B&W Nautilus 805s's and it sounded very nice. I have the original shipping box. I am only offering this up because I bought a Rotel RA-1052 at a significant savings... one of those offers I couldn't refuse. This Marantz amp is not better or worse than the Rotel that replaced it and I would have been very happy sticking with it. My Rotel impulse purchase gives you a chance to buy this Marantz for a very nice price. $320 including shipping to a US address. It's selling for $449 new all over the web. No used units out there right now. Buyers from other countries need to be aware of the line voltage and shipping will be at actual cost (this includes Canada). I prefer PayPal, but if you must use a check, let me know and we can work it out. Specs (from http://us.marantz.com/us/products/pa...oductId=PM5004): THD: 0.05% (20Hz - 20kHz, 8 ohms) Input Sensitivity/Impedance: PHONO(MM): 2.2mV/47k ohms, LINE: 200mV/20k ohms Frequency response: 10Hz – 50kHz +0dB, -1dB S/N Ratio: PHONO(MM): 83dB (5mV input, 1W output), LINE: 103dB (2V input, 8 ohms, Rated output) Number of Channels: 2 Output Power: 35W (8 ohms), 45W (4 ohms) (20Hz - 20kHz) Power Transformer: EI Current Feedback Amplifier Pre Amplifier and Power Amplifier Speaker Terminal: Transparent screw-type x2 pair Tone Control: Bass (100Hz): +/- 10dB, Treble (10kHz): +/- 10dB Source Direct: Yes Speaker A/B: Yes Music Direct has a nice write up on this Marantz amp here: http://www.musicdirect.com/p-12627-m...rated-amp.aspx. They are right about the power rating. It is very conservative. I was easily able to crank this up too loud for the small room it was in. Also, the MM phono input sounds very nice. Kevin

This was issued last month by Candid under the title of "Tubby's New Groove" and very good it is too! Details are: 01 - Tin Tin Deo 02 - Visa 03 - Supper At Phil's 04 - Symphony 05 - Hook's Way 06 - The Trolley Song Tubby Hayes - tenor sax Terry Shannon - piano Jeff Clyne - bass Phil Seamn - drums Recorded: December, 1959 London and you're right, it WAS a tape sent to Alfred Lion by Tony Hall. Apparently it was found by Michael Cuscuna amongst the Lion archive sometime in the 1970's and it then lay in a box in his house until being rediscovered in 2008. Has anyone heard this? I was in Bull Moose Music up in Portsmouth yesterday and they had this on the shelf. Is it worth getting? Kevin

Does anyone believe Bowie's statement that he's officially retired?

Playing now, Bobby Hutcherson's "Spiral". Up next, Hank Mobley's "Quintet" (now called "Curtain Call").

Was it Richard Pryor who said that they never could have made "Amityville Horror" about a black family? When the disembodied voice says "Get the fuck out", a black family would be running out the door. Seriously, but along this line of thinking, if this person is freaked out by this situation and thinks it's the old dresser, she should burn the dresser. It's a dresser for crying out loud. You can find another one. Have a bonfire and say goodbye to sicko granpa, if that's what's happening here. BTW, I have to think that her prior abuse at the hands of her grandfather is not helping her in this situation. I would be willing to be that she sees her grandfather in many ways, especially when she gets upset or frightened. I hope she's seeing a therapist.

Make sure to read the fine print on those things! There is language in the stock purchase agreement that states that the commissioner can fine you $500,000 for saying something bad about an NFL player or team and another stating that you can be fined $5,000 for betting on an NFL team. Kevin

You mean this one? I finally found a copy of this elusive LP. It is a very good date. I could do without Tiny's vocals (on one track) but they're not too bad. The same day, I also found another one I'd been looking for - a copy of Joe Farrell's "Skateboard Park". A good day at Stereo Jacks.