Circuit City went out of business, but those guys (it was always guys) trying to sell you $100 A/V cables because they had gold connectors must’ve gone somewhere. I actually laughed at one who tried to upset me on HDMI cables.
A lot of the blowhards wouldn’t piss on $100 cables. In their mind, you have to spend at least $20,000 on a cable. I’ve seen cables up to $75,000. For an RCA audio cable. I’ve spent $40 on cables, but I have to draw the line somewhere. I’d rather buy a new Corvette.
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They went to work for Monster Cable’s marketing department selling $150 power strips.
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I had a buddy that had more $$ than he had sense that had a dedicated listening room with Magnepan Tympani IV’s powered by some tube-riddled McIntosh amp (with no cover so it looked really cool). I thought it was pretty neat that you could hear someone in the concert hall stifle a sneeze like it was right next to you when listening to Brahms or Bach until I found out the cost for the setup. Then I was real happy with my Acoustic Research speakers and Denon amp.
I restored another old Kenwood receiver. It was their first solid state receiver and had excellent if haphazardly arranged electronic components. I especially liked it because it had a “tape head” input along with the normal tape in/out. I’ve been looking at a Crown 700 tape transport only (no tape pre-amp) so I thought it would make a good office system along with an old Techniques TT.
I got it perfect. It sounded great and everything worked. It was sitting on the floor in a spare room when I stumbled in one night looking for something else and stepped on the selector switch knob and broke it off. This thing is like a bird’s nest inside and it will be a nightmare to replace, even though I found a replacement switch on Ebay. So…the office system is on hold.
Magnepan has a relatively new model called the LRS which are outstanding ribbon speakers, for like $650/pair. Which is totally reasonable and doesn’t take 1,000 watts per channel to drive them. The new McIntosh MA352 hybrid (200 wpc) is $6,500, but the slightly less powerful MA252 gives you 100 wpc for “only” $3,500.
All of 'em I guess. All I know is that those cool blue lights are gone.
The dial lights are easy to replace…they’re fuse-type bulbs that just pop in and out like replacing a fuse. If they are the indicator lights behind the “AM”, “FM”, “AUX” etc at the top, they are bi-pin bulbs that have to be unsoldered and soldered back in, so they’re a little more challenging. If you’re going to replace them, I’d recommend going with LED bulbs in warm white, which most approximates the color of the original. Also, there is a piece of vellum diffuser paper behind the front plate, which gets pretty brittle and yellows over time. That’s what makes the lights on the old units look more sea green than blue. I’d recommend replacing that too.
Thanks! I miss those blue lights.
Does everything else on it work? If so, replacing those lights and a little polish to the chrome will make it look like a million bucks again.
It works fine. I never use the radio, and only really use the phono input and the auxiliary for a bluetooth receiver.
I’ve been listening to versions of the songs in the Real Book on YouTube. It’s kinda the great American song book, in fake book form for musicians. There’s a list of the songs here: https://www.halleonard.com/product/240221/the-real-book--volume-i--sixth-edition. I’ve been diagraming chords I don’t know as I go through, with useful designations like G-flat 7(13), which is a lot of work, but there are an endless number of variations of the songs available. The listening has been fascinating. Here are some I came across this morning, of Jerome Kern’s All the Things You Are. It’s not new, but much of it is new to me.
I recently discovered that someone had uploaded a bunch of performance videos from a band I used to see regularly back in Lahdahn. A former bricklayer, who earned himself the nickname “Fast Freddie” for his bricklaying skills, he toured the country with brand of “new town” soul.
Not just a writer and performer, he was also something of a ranconteur:
He was also soulful and respectful of soul music’s legends:
Please though, whatever you do, don’t click on the “Mind the Gap” video. Old Freddie >>> New Freddie.
I have been finding that I am really enjoying live recordings during this time. Maybe it is the isolation. I a drawn to good harmonies so I am have been listening to a lot of
Lone Bellow - great live band who doing live streams during this time on Sunday Night.
Johnny Swim (Husband/wife team - wife is daughter of Donna Summer)
Drew & Ellie Holcomb - Kitchen Covers - talented couple doing acoustic covers from their kitchen… everything from Hank Williams Sr to Outkast.
No worse than Lily Allen.
Not casting an opinion either way on vinyl, but I suspect that CD sales are being eroded by digital downloads rather than a move back to LPs.
It’s both. Obviously, digital downloads have eroded CD sales, but vinyl sales have boomed as well. In 2006, there were about 900,000 vinyl records sold in the US. Last year it was about 20,000,000.
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Digital music is great for ease and convenience but if I’m going for the tactile listening experience, it’s vinyl.
BTW, I’m currently listening to the new Kansas record, The Absence of Presence. As in right now, while enjoying a gin and tonic.