Kevin Bresnahan

Someone over on the Steve Hoffman forums has started a thread saying that Stereo Jack's in Cambridge, MA is closing in two months! Jack - is this true? Are you hanging it up? I have to make plans to visit a few more times before that final curtain goes down. Man, am I feeling old right now. Kevin

I do have "Baritone Madness" on LP as well as a CD-R I created to allow me to play this in my car. Kevin

I've actually got an extra copy of "Burn Brigade" that I bought by accident a few years back. I see Bee Hive LPs so rarely on the shelves of the record stores that I usually grab any I see. This was one of those, "Oh man, I've already got it" moments.

The owner of Bee Hive Records, Jim Neumann, has only licensed out one title from his catalog and that was Johnny Hartman's "Once In Every Life". I have "Baritone Madness" on LP and it's a decent date. Some of the tempos get so out of control that pianist Derek Smith can't seem to keep up.

Let me understand this... it was smoking and not working. You shut it off, let it cool down and now it *is* working? If this is the case you got very lucky. Most times, smoke=fried component and no amount of time will fix that. If it is now working, it may not for long. All that said, what may have happened is that you got a lot of dust/dirt/gunk in that vent and some of it decided to conduct and created a short-term short. Unplug the amp and open it up. Carefully vacuum the major dust/junk you see. Next, go to your local RatShack and pick up a can of compressed air. Blast the whole thing as best as you can. After, if any more dust clumps show their ugly faces, vacuum them up too. Kevin

Actually, it looks like the original Hello Kitty.

God Jim, I forgot about that one! Looks like the tom cat barfed up a fur ball.

I'm being told that Rotel's new RA-1520 is very nice. Unfortunately, it also lists for around $1,000 dollars. It has 60 watts/chan, a MM phono input, 3 line-level inputs and two tape loops (making 5 line-level inputs total).

I was in Bull Moose Music the other day and I found a cheap(er) copy of the XRCD of Morgan's "Tomcat" so I figured I would give it another try. I've had the Ron McMaster CD for years but rarely listen to it. The sound is very good, much better than the old McMaster CD and if it's a favorite of yours, I would definitely recommend it. Unfortunately, this date has never been a favorite of mine. I never bought into the whole "this sat on the shelf because Blue Note wanted Morgan to get out another Sidewinder" stuff. I always felt Jackie McLean was really off on this date. He has a few flubs in almost every solo, even blowing some obnoxious clams in 3 of the 5 tunes. The playing just sounds loose to my ears. Even Lee seems blasé, often getting behind the beat by more than usual and doing that half-valving stuff all the time. It's almost like he's running out of ideas. Tyner and Blakey keep the date going and for their playing alone, the CD is a keeper. But I doubt it'll get into the player before many of Lee's other dates. Given what I've read about Alfred Lion's standards, I think it's more likely that the overall level of play held this session back rather than a need for another "Sidewinder".

TOCJ-8xxx ? Is this a series I missed? Ahh heck, typo. I meant TOCJ-4xxx - the BN Works series. I really like the sound of these CDs more than any other. The SACDs sound fine too. The only problem I have with the SACDs is the extremely low levels. It's much better than cranked up levels but Hoffman went too far the other way. It makes it impossible to use them in a shuffle player. If you set the volume for a "normal" CD and one of these new Hoffman remasters come on, you can barely hear it. Kevin

Here, we CAN discuss Steve Hoffman's work, both the good and bad aspects of it. On the Hoffman forums, if you even hint at a negative aspect of something Hoffman did, you'll likely find your posts deleted and your account locked. It's actually a bit sad at how much of this goes on. Steve Hoffman's forums are really all about promoting Steve Hoffman and not really about discussing the good & the bad. I like several RVGs. I don't like several RVGs. There are some that have too much midrange. Some that seem to have a lot of high end. But there are some, like Pete LaRoca's "Basra", that simply sound phenomenal. I like the new XRCDs as well. However, in the first batch of 4 (which I bought), I had two of the titles on a TOCJ-8xxx CD and to my ears, they were nearly identical. I even had my daughters, with their young ears, listen to a few tracks and they couldn't really find a big difference.

I got music for Christmas - I finally have speakers from B&W's Nautilus line. I got the entry-level 805s on stands. The guy I got them from had new Diamond tweeters from the current 800 series installed by B&W. They sound beautiful. A little light on the bass (to be expected) but not a big problem with most of the Jazz I listen to. I also got Columbia's "Kind of Blue" box with 2 CDs, 1 DVD, an LP and book.

I'm in. I was just spinning "In Memorandom" last night. Kevin

Technically, a 1955 recording is no longer a bootleg in the EU. It's public domain there. Anyone can distribute it in the EU.

My daughter just sent me a link to the Jars Of Clay's version of "Little Drummer Boy" last week. She said it's the first version of the song she ever enjoyed. I thought it was nice. Then I sampled the rest of the tunes, including this one, and I thought they were just trying too hard to make every tune unique. There's something to being unique, but it doesn't have to be every tune. BTW, if you want to hear some interesting new Christmas music, try Pink Martini's new CD or download Coldplay's new single. Kevin

Of course you can "go wrong". You're talking about running this player's needle across your LPs. If it's a crap cartridge/needle, it might play fine the first time, but the next time you go to play that LP, it might be ruined. The ION TT does not have a very good cart. Haven't you ever ruined an LP by playing it with a cheap needle? Back in the day, I used to loan LPs to friends. After I got back a couple that looked white-ish and realized it was ruined, I stopped loaning them to that friend until he got a new cart.

Personally, I wouldn't use one of these on my records if it was given to me, but maybe I'm just paranoid. I don't even like playing my records on my entry-level Denon turntable because the cartridge is iffy.

Which version of WMP are you using? I'm using version 11.0. If I click the arrow while in the Now Playing tab, all I have to do to get back the panel on the side is click the small arrow under Now Playing and then click Show List Pane and that panel shows back up. Kevin

Unfortunately, Windows Media Player is the only freebie player I've found that includes a graphic equalizer. What's more unfortunate is that it defaults to "on" and if the settings are wrong, you can get terrible sounding music. Still, I use it more often than other players because I like the way it manages my music and I use the EQ often to compensate for poor headphones. FWIW, if the software is playing a CD and not mp3 files, it should sound the same no matter which program you use unless they purposefully mess with the bitstream. The application is not "playing" the CD, the computer is. Software players don't somehow change the D/A converter in your PC. What's likely happening here is that you WMP is still in the default mode of "Rip CD when inserted". It rips to .wma and that's what you're hearing being played back, *not* the CD itself. Shut that setting off. To play a CD in WMP, you click the "Now playing" tab and hit the little down arrow. You should see the CD as D:CD title. BTW, to get that panel back, simply click the arrow next to the "Search" box at the top right of the window.

I have seen this go for a less than this in the past. I have been looking for one for a couple of years now & so far, I missed one with a "Buy It Now" for $120 and another for a little less. Maybe I should use that "Make Offer" link and offer $120? Couldn't hurt to try. Later, Kevin

And Michael Cuscuna was right about those two, wasn't he? They put them out and they didn't sell at all. I remember finding them in used bins all over Boston for a while. The funniest thing was that nearly every time I talked to Michael about upcoming reissues, he would always bring those two reissues up. He wasn't gloating, just reminding me that us Blue Note junkies on the Internet Jazz forums don't represent the normal CD buying public. We're fanatics. You need more than fanatics to sell some of this stuff. Later, Kevin

Rolf - After facing the possibility of losing my wife a few weeks back, I realized that I'd be very, very lost without her. I imagine you're feeling that way right now. Like you, I have two daughters and they were what I leaned on when my wife was in surgery and I continue to lean on them for emotional support as my wife slowly recuperates. Your daughters will be a big help getting you through this. You can help them get through it as well. My condolences to your family. Kevin

There have been many bad movies throughout the years. In recent memory, one of the worst I can think of was "Dragon Wars". It was heavily hyped, with commercials touting it during primetime television for weeks before its release. Luckily, I didn't get to see it until the local library got a copy on DVD. Ugh. What a stinker. The worse thing about it was the comically bad acting. The Mystery Science Theater guys could have a field day with it. Combine really bad acting with a plot with enough holes to drive a bus through and you get a movie that you have trouble watching after about 10 minutes.

Lon - I debated keeping this but it really would be a back up to another back up. I have too many players. The player is on hold pending payment. Thanks for looking, Kevin

NAD T-585 Universal Player $300 including shipping to a continental US address. Alaska/Hawaii and international shipping will be actual cost. PayPal preferred but I will accept money orders from US buyers. International buyers: this is a US unit. 120V/60Hz. This units plays DVD-V, DVD-A, DVD+R, DVD-R, VCD, SVCD, SACD, CD, CD-R, and CD-RW discs. It also decodes HDCD, MP3, and WMA. NAD still has the product page live at: http://nadelectronics.com/products/dvd-players/T-585-Universal-DVD-Player. It listed for $1199 at intro. I bought this unit a few years back for a second listening area and it has performed like a champ. Unfortunately, I had to convert back that area back to a bedroom so I no longer need it. It probably has a little over 100 hours on it, with almost all of that being SACD on a two-channel system. I hooked it up to my main listening area the other day to verify the multi-channel capabilities and everything works great. This is an excellent sounding player. The guts are identical to NAD's Master Series M55, which listed for $1800 at intro. This is a lot of player for little money. Thanks, Kevin