Kevin Bresnahan

Unfortunatel Weizen, you & I may be one of a few who have had good luck with this model. Most people's CDR 765 decks have long since croaked and I don't think I could recommend it right now. Best bang for the buck right now is probably the HHB CDR830 BurnIt and the Tascam CD-RW750, both of which seem to go for around $550. Another one with a decent reputation is the Denon CDR-W1500, which is also around that price but may be easier to find in a local shop. I hear that the cheap Sony decks in the local big box stores like Circuit City and Best Buy are really bad, although I've not personally used one. FWIW, I only my Philips CDR-765 audio deck for needle drops to CD-RW. I then extract the audio to my PC hardrive, clean it up with this great, inexpensive program called Click Repair, and then burn it with my PC drive. Kevin

http://www.toolhaus.org/ All the negatives in one spot, even if they get retracted.

While I think the "ballbusters" that Jack refers are part of the problem, I agree with Jim that a seller should leave feedback once he receives payment. The buyer's end of the agreement is done. Because sellers like the one Jim has are holding feedback "hostage", Jim will likely NOT leave a deserved negative to this seller. Who does this benefit? Not future buyers, that's for sure! I also think seller's should be able to show eBay when a buyer leaves a negative for no reason and get it removed. The thing is, eBay wants nothing to do with policing their feedback. BTW, I just heard back from eBay. They will not remove any feedback from this lunatic cruisetunes. So, I do nothing wrong and yet I have some asshole telling people I'm under investigation for Internet fraud. I'm just glad he writes in all caps with a "foaming at the mouth" intensity. Most people will read his comments and say, "What a jerk". I'm still worried about the sellers who cancel any bids from someone with a negative. Of course, eBay doesn't worry about that either. All they really care about is that they get their money. FWIW, before I bid on this CD, I did research cruisetunes. He had a few negs, but they were years ago... probably right about when he stopped leaving feedback first. Once he started holding feedback hostage, his negatives stopped. The system is protecting him. The only reason he left me a nagtive is because he knew the listing was expiring. The doofus didn't know that once he leaves feedback, the window gets extended another 30 days. He should have just let it die and his "great" reputation would have remained intact. Kevin

Unfortunately, there are many sellers who automatically cancel bids from any buyer with negative feedback. It's another aspect of eBay's broken feedback system that they refuse to acknowledge. FWIW, I filed a complaint with eBay over the negative with respect to the claim that there are "fraud charges" pending. If I read their feedback policy right, referring to an "investigation" is grounds for removal. I do hope I get lucky with this. I really don't understand why this seller left me a negative on the eve of the listing expiration. Did he think that he could leave me a negative and that I'd be unable to repsond? Once feedback is left by either party, the window for feedback on the other side gets extended by another 60 days. He thought he could leave this zinger and leave me no ability to zing him back? Duh. Know the policies buddy. Instead, I have to deal with this weirdo for another 60 days. He should have just let it die. Kevin

Nope. eBay has already told me there's nothing they can do. They're absolutely useless. Worse than useless because they allow crappy sellers like this get away with smearing good buyers who've done nothing wrong. I am seriously thinking about my eBay purchases. I keep reading about people getting stiffed like this and I guess it was only a matter of time for me. I really don't need these headaches. BTW, I did leave a negative for this guy. At this point, it's really all eBay left for me to do. They actually think this loser will ask me for mutual retraction. Ha! This seller is nasty. He really did report to the deputy sheriff. I called the Waynesville deputy office and explained the situation. They asked if I wanted to file a harassment case against him for unwarranted police involvement. This guy successfully petitioned eBay for my personal info too so I am now expecting the harassment to continue. I'll probably start getting 2 AM calls now. eBay sucks.

I just received my first negative from an eBay seller. I won an auction for a rare CD that he listed as 'near mint'. I get the thing in and I find a torn and creased booklet. He wouldn't even discuss a refund. I had to use Paypal (and our own Stereo Jack's appraisal) to get a refund. Now today, the last day he could, he leaves ME a negative. The seller is cruisetunes Avoid this seller like the plague. He even tried to file a police report. I can't begin to describe how bad this guy is. Any others out there we should know about?

I was instantly reminded of Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life". If I laugh at this, does it mean I'm a sick puppy?

:party: Happy birthday Jim! I hope the workout from all that carpentry doesn't tire you out too much to properly enjoy the day.

So just how is someone supposed "to give you credit"? Do they market the thing as the Litchfield Jazz Festival, idea by Allan Lowe? The Allan Lowe Litchfield Jazz Festival? Allan, you come across pretty strong here on the forums a lot of the time. If you are the same way in person, your own agressive nature may have turned off that organizer. It might be that simple. Also, by your own admission, you made some enemies in the CT jazz scene. Since the organizer is likely to have to rely on the entire jazz community in the area to get this festival off the ground, she had weigh using you and alienating a lot of the local jazz educators or cut you out and avoid that problem. Put yourself in her shoes. FWIW, I won't be going back. I went last year and 1) it's east of nowhere and 2) if you're not under the tent, you cook in the sun. Worse, they don't allow umbrellas. Fair-skinned folk like me who aviod the sun at all costs can't survive for hours on end sitting in the broiling sun.

newegg.com is the best place to buy computer hardware. They have 12 internal Lightscribe drives available right now. I actually just installed a Lite-On SHM-165H6S burner last week. Now all I need is some media and I'll give this a try. BTW, if you order from newegg.com, I'd avoid the OEM stuff if you can. Works fine and is cheaper, but is often unsupported because it was not made to be sold outside of a system. I bought the retail version and it was only $4 more. Worth it just for the software. Kevin

In the last two days, we've gotten 14 INCHES of rain here! 14 INCHES!! And yes, my basement leaks. Woke up this morning to >3 inches of water. It almost got my oil burner. It's so bad, my wife and I are considering moving... to another house in town with a dry basement.

Rip it to your hardrive using any tool you want (I prefer EAC) and then open the .wav file with Audcity, a freeware program from www.download.com. You can edit out the silence and re-save the modified file.

The rainbow LP has a messed up soundstage... totally whacked stereo image. The fullness of the arrangements did not come through well on this LP at all. The CD brings this large ensemble into the light. The big brass fills are really fills, not just background noise. It's a much more enjoyable session on CD.

I'm going the Thumper route here... "If ya can't say nuthin' good, don't say nuthin' at all".

Is this the going rate for this set? Sigh... I guess I will never get it. No, this is actually pretty cheap. There was a time when this used to regulalry get $400-500 on eBay. What Tony's selling it for here is a good price. This box, along with the Shorty Rogers set, seem to be the rarest and command the biggest bucks. Kevin

The rumour is that Concord does not hold those rights any more. Supposedly, they reverted to, or never left the estate's control. I've been trying to get someone (like Mosaic) to reissue those dates for years. Kevin

Are you talking the original LP or the Connoisseur LP? I had the original LP and I agree that the CD sounds much better. However, I read somewhere that the Connoisseur LP sounds good and I've been looking for a copy for quite a while to see if this is true. You can save me further searching if you're saying it's not worth it. Kevin

Why does this article seem to get reprinted every three months or so? The consensus seems to be that Gerecke's research was shoddy. His only goal in writing this report seems to be getting people to buy mag tape back-up units. He does work for IBM, after all. I have several CD-Rs of data from the mid 90's. I have music CD-Rs from then too. If you use decent CD-R media, you'll be fine. Kevin

I have two of those trés expensive Fantasy DVD-Audio discs, the Hampton Hawes Trio and Art Tatum with Ben Webster. They sound great but I can't really tell if they're better than the XRCDs. The XRCD of the Tatum date is pretty incredible to begin with. I have to say that the best DVD-Audio discs are in the rock genre. Neil Young's "Harvest" may be the best sounding disc in my entire collection, if you like Neil. The Eagles' "Hotel California", Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours", the Doors' "LA Woman" and Yes' "Fragile" all sound great. In all three cases, it's probably the best they'll ever sound, since any new CD remasters will likely be max'ed out and sound like dog doo. The recent Talking Heads DVD-Audio reissues (on DualDisc in the US... yuk) *all* sound phenomenal. If you want them, order the CD/DVD-Audio combo packs from Amazon.co.uk. Also, you might not know that Donald Fagen's newest, "Morph the Cat" is available in a CD/DVD-A combo. It sounds very nice in 5.1. Kevin

KVM would work fine. They usually have a hot switch on the keyboard to throw the switch. Belkin makes the best out there. You can find them at CompUSA, Staples, etc. Another option is if you have a monitor with analog and digital inputs, you can feed the PC video into one and the Mac into the other. The only drawback to this would be that you'd have to have two keyboards and two mice.

I've been playing some vinyl lately. Just the other day, I opened up this really cool LP I found at Stereo Jack's Shelly Manne's "Rex" with Lew Tabackin on reeds. Hey, for $1 sealed, how can you pass that up? Track 3 has a nice quiet section... POP!... POP!...POP! Vinyl looks perfect. It's brand new. What the... It's always easy for me to remember why I jumped on the CD bandwagon. I'll keep spinning vinyl, but CDs will likely remain my preferred media. Kevin

No need to apologize but there's also no need to butcher my name. I assume this is your idea of humor. It was mine too, when I was 12.

This thread is confusing as hell! akanalog, could you please do us a favor and *state* which seller you're complaining about in each post? At one point, I think you're complaining about CD Hut and the next it seems like maleanator... or is it jazzhut? It would be easier to follow your stream-of-consciousness posts if you stated which seller it was. BTW, complaing because the seller ships registered mail strikes me as dumb. The seller ships registered mail to guarantee delivery of your CDs and you're unhappy? I suppose if the seller chose unregistered and it failed to show, you'd have a complaint for that too? At this point, I still can't tell what happened to the eBay deal that started this whole thread. Did the 3 Black Saint CDs you ordered from CDHut arrive or not? One last thing: what the hell is the reference to "japanese poor house company import reissue CDs" got to do with anything else in this thread?? As I said, this thread is confusing as hell.

I started poking around today to see why there is no release date yet. I'll let everyone know what's up as soon as I find out. None of these CDs was called "Baghdad", were they? Kevin

Jim, go to http://www.x-raypc.com/download.php and download x-raypc.exe. Run it and click the button that says Online Analyzer. Look in the column labeled Triage. If anything says "Bad", click it once and then click the little trash can. Let me know the names of anything that's "Bad"... I'm curious if this is the same download trojan virus I just cleaned off of a friend's PC called "Vundo". Kevin