Kevin Bresnahan

Over on the Steve Hoffman forums, someone posted a link to join yourmusic.com at $4.99 per CD with no shipping and handling. I just followed it and it appears to work. The link is: http://a.chtah.com/a/hBBnRfiAT9DbEAT9NMMAEY28iSa/ym1 FYI, I have the Dylan box on its way to my house for $79.84!!!! Later, Kevin

Pioneer's website is www.pioneerelectronics.com The DV-45A is at http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/prod...1_35168,00.html. I don't know if they make this same model for 220 Volt/60 Hz but I'm guessing they do. Kevin

There's an uncertainty about all high-rez formats, including the recently-introduced Dual-disc. The biggest harbinger of the future of SACD has been Sony... the inventor of SACD. They stopped making them. What message does that send? Who knows? But most people assume the worst. FWIW, UMG (Verve, Ploydor, A&M, Geffen, Impulse!, MCA, etc.) is aggressively putting out SACDs. I'm very happy. In fact, I think I'll isten to Derek and the Dominoes tonight. BTW, word around the 'net is that Pioneer is moving out the Elite DV-45A in preparation for deleting it. Supposedly, it can be had new for around $300. This is a great player for that kind of money. Later, Kevin

My SACD of "Live At Massey Hall" from BMG has "old style" artwork in a "new style" case! The biggest difference is the width of the hinges on the cover. The older style cases have a deeper hinge than the new. I can tell the difference by the spines. The old style has less space for the spine. Funny thing: the latest batch of SACDs from UMG ("Layla", "Lush Life", "Coltrane/Hartman") all have what I've been calling the "old style" case! Later, Kevin

Ebay should just dump their damn feedback system... it's broken. It's supposed to be used by the buyer to assess the seller. Instead, because of the current feedback "hostage situation", no one can leave negative feedback. It's tit-for-tat all around. In most transactions, I've stopped using feedback altogether. My feedback really doesn't mean anything to most eBay sellers... the majority are decent sellers. Good sellers with a lot of positives don't get a lot of people scrolling through their feedback looking for the negative comments. They scroll right over all the "Great to do business with" comments. One more positive is pointless. Buyers look for the negatives. For the record, I stopped right after a couple of auctions where the seller "demanded" positive feedback. Neither transaction was smooth enough on their end for anything other than "neutral" but their E-mail made it clear to me what would happen after my feedback. As for negative feedback, I have never been able to do it. Ever. In one case, I would have loved to leave a pile of dog doo doo in the guy's feedback because of his selling tactics, but he held back on his seller's feedback so I knew he was just daring me to nail him. Instead, I left neutral feedback and the guy still used the feedback area for a nasty reply (with a positive feedback... weird). I am certain that my neutral rating saved me from a negative feedback. Why should that scumbag get away with this? Because ebay let's this happen, people will continue to be screwed by this guy. Later, Kevin

Be careful Reinier... there are 2 types of SACDs cases and they are not compatible. The ones Fantasy use have a locking mechanism. Others do not. Acoustic Sounds sells the non-locking version and I believe they ship outside the US. EDIT> In looking around the web, it appears that the maker of the locking SACD cases has a website and they do ship to the EU. The URL is http://www.superjewelbox.com/. Kevin

Well, we do have some characters here! Happy birthday my friend.

The Bill Evans is the Fantasy SACD. They carry a few. The CCR discs are standard CDs, not the SACDs. Kevin

I got a few. "The Simpson's Christmas 2" "Stars Wars" trilogy "The Young Ones - Every Stoopid Episode" "The Simpson's Season 5" "Larry Bird: A Basketball Legend" Kevin

There's a copy listed for sale at Euclid Records. Good company to do business with too. While you're ordering it, add "Burn Brigade" to your order. I actually like that one a bit more. Later, Kevin

I just picked up Knepper & Pepper on CD this past weekend. Knepper could play that's for sure. The thing about these Bethlehem's from Japan is that they usually sound phenomenal. The group of re-mastering engineers who do these is probably the same guys who do the Blue Note TOCJ discs. They do a great job regardless of the source material. I'll have to look for this one. Later, Kevin

RIP Ken. Nice guy to deal with. We lost a great resource with his passing. I bet I bought more CDs from him than just about anyone. Kevin

I just ordered a bunch of vinyl from Euclid Records. They list tons of great titles and their prices are reasonable. I've bought CDs from them in the past. This will be my first LP order so I wonder how well they pack the discs. Shipping was only $4 for 5 LPs. My only caveat is that their on-line catalog is also their store catalog so what you order may not be on the shelf when they go to pull it but this is only a minor inconvenience. Also, I spent a few hours at Integrity 'N Music just outside of Hartford. Tons of great vinyl but not in the greatest condition. They had a copy of McCoy Tyner's "Cosmos" for $6.99, which I thought was reasonable. I bought a Mickey Tucker Xanadu date with Ronnie Cuber on bari. I hope the bass isn't too whiney on this... I hate that 70's bass sound. Later, Kevin

Yum Yum! Merry Xmas Yall.. And those of you living in the northlands, watch the booze if you're going to be driving home from a party.. I'm lucky(?) in that my wife's sick and on meds that forbid alcohol so I have a designated driver. Tonight, me and my firend Art will be sampling a bunch of nice beers. I have to watch myself... it wouldn't be a good thing to fall asleep on their couch. Well, as long as I stay away from the rum & egg nog... Later, Kevin

Merry Christmas from the Bresnahans! I hope you all spend some time with friends & family. I am looking forward to opening up all those CDs that I've bought myself over the last 6 months. It's gotten to the point where I've almost forgotten what I bought! Here's this year's yule tree in the Bresnahan's NH house. Later, Kevin

Where can I get my hands on some of these sealed Xanadu LPs? I've seen them listed but not in a while. I'd love get a set of the live Montreux LPs so that I can test out my new turntable. Later, Kevin

I put various at the end but at one point, I had them under 'V' for various. I've only had few that were hard to file. The Sonny Clark Memorial Band was a tough one (I finally chose 'S'). Fourplay is a another. It feels like Jordan's band but it states "Fourplay" on the spine, so it goes under 'F'. Does everyone file The Three Sounds under 'T' or does anyone file them with their Gene Harris discs? Am I the only one who continually mis-files Maria Schneider's discs? I am always finding them all over the place among the 'S' discs. Later, Kevin

Albany's not too far from Northampton, MA. In the basement of Thorn's Market of downtown Northampton is Dynamite Records. Decent vinyl selection but a bit overpriced. A bit further south in Hartford is Integrity 'N Music. Should be about 40 minutes from Dynamite. Make a day of it. Integrity is better than Dynamite. BTW, I'll apologize in advance if Dynamite has shrunk their Jazz section again. The place has been going down hill since Dave Hart left. Good luck. Oh yeah, and if you feel like taking a long trip, Stereo Jack's in Boston is worth the trip and the Jazz Record Center in NYC is too. Bring a thick wallet to the JRC, they're too expensive for my wallet. Later, Kevin

While these are generally considered high resolution technology, they're not technically SACDs. These Classics discs actually utilize DVD video technology to reproduce the audio using the 24 bit/ 96 kHz decoder that's in every DVD video machine. They're one step "below" DVD-Audio technology. I use quotes because there are some fans of the sound of the audio from DVD videos. I have several of these Classics DAD discs. I find some of them to be a bit bright for my ears. Mobley's "Roll Call" is one of them. I prefer the TOCJ CD to the DAD. In fact, I think I'd even say that the US RVG CD sounds on par with the Classics DAD. FWIW, if you like the sound of these Classics DAD discs, grab all you can find now. They've been deleted and Classics does not plan to make any more in the future. They've switched over to SACD. Later, Kevin

Re: Mapleshade The thread at Jazz Corner discussing some of Sprey's dirty moves is here: http://www.jazzcornertalk.com/speakeasy/sh...read.php?t=4740. In this thread, Jazz artists Frank Kimbrough details what Sprey has done to him. It is not rumors or heresay. Later, Kevin PS: I'll paste in one of Frank's quotes to save people from opening my link. To quote Frank Kimbrough from the thread: "This label has been given too many passes - they routinely mislead their artists, and though they have paid mechanical royalties (after a couple calls from an attorney), they illegally deduct them from artist royalties in a "profit-sharing" arrangement which Sprey charmingly presents to the artist as a plus, but of which there are never any profits. I speak from experience, having done 15 sessions there between 1986 and 1992, most of which remain on his shelf. My latest indignity involving the label was having to hire an attorney in order to have a CD on which I appeared withdrawn from their catalog. It was released without my permisson, and I was never paid for the session (nobody ever is) or notified of its release, and never even received a copy of the CD. It was a CD by a saxophone quartet whose names weren't listed on the cover, but mine was, as were the other "accomplices" (this from the jacket), even though I only played on one 2 1/2 minute tune....misleading at best. Their "audiophile" recordings are done using two $50 PZM mics from Radio Shack, tweaked by Sprey's cronies from the Pentagon (he gave us the F-16 and A-1 bombers, and was a designer of anti-tank artillery). If you have a fortune invested in stereo equipment they may sound pretty good - otherwise we're talking pro-walkman quality, and no better. His sound absorbing materials include buckets of lead pellets, and I've been at sessions where the plywood sheet he puts over the drummer's head to direct the sound fell in the middle of a take - luckily the drummer wasn't injured. These guys are strictly bush-league, and in my opinion, a class-action lawsuit waiting to happen. My advice to any musician considering a deal with them is to run as fast as possible in the opposite direction. And if you're a consumer who thinks that buying CDs on this label supports its artists, think again. I could go on, but I think I've made my point."

This is the second person to recommend Mapleshade recently. I have to interject that the guy running Mapleshade is an absolute thief. I will not give that guy another cent of my money. There was a thread over on Jazz Corner with several Mapleshade recording artists who have been and continue to be ripped off by that guy. I'm boycotting them. It's too bad because Norris Turney's "Big, Sweet & Blue" is a great date. Later, Kevin

Guys, I am not fond of "tube-like" either. In fact, I avoid using the term. In the case of my Rotel, these words are not mine, but rather the words of the many Internet posters that discuss these things. I spent a long time reviewing the on-line write-ups before dropping the $$ on this and the words most used by users of Rotel was "tube-like". I just happen to think this receiver sounds very good. To heck with "tube-like". BTW, you guys must go nuts when people use the terminolgy like" SACD is the closest you can come to vinyl sound". Later, Kevin

I have a feeling that the yourmusic.com website used the wrong pictures for those 3 titles. They have the same stock # as the BMG standard CD versions. If they arrive and they are the MoFi SACDs, please let us know ASAP. They won't last long at that price... I'll order them in a millisecond. Later, Kevin

The search for audio nirvana among us audophiles will likely never end until they close the casket cover. SACD is a very inexpensive way to get someone just starting out into audiophilia at a very high-end starting point. If someone moves from a cheapo HT receiver to a super-expensive tubed amp, they will likely perceive a lot less benefit than by simply hooking up an SACD player. If this SACD also improves their RBCD, like my Pioneer DV-45A did, than it's a double upgrade. FWIW, I switched from Denon to Rotel and I hear very little difference, even though Rotel is considered more "tube-like". I may have passed by my ability to reach audio nirvana. My ears are still aging and as this process continues (with the help of that Foghat concert in 1975), my hearing will continue to degrade. But I'm still enjoying the heck out of my SACDs. Back to Mike's reasons for this thread... Mike, why not try a cheapo machine to see if you hear anything? Go to your local Best Buy and buy a Pioneer 563A. Should run you around $125. If you like the sound but want to step up, join the crowd. You'll be running alongside me and DrJ and Lon. Later, Kevin

I order mine from Bull Moose Music in Salem, NH. They have a website as well but I've never used them. They list APO SACDs for $20.54 each, which is a pretty good price. Sure, it's not $11.99 like a standard OJC but I really believe you owe it to yourself to pick up at least one (I'd recommend Adderley's "Know What I Mean?"). Later, Kevin