An awesome decision by my parents, ca 1979

A very long time ago my parents made a very wise decision. Instead of purchasing a car when I had just received my drivers license, they bought me a stereo instead. During that time those all-in-one stereos with the cassette deck, record player, 8-track and tuner were very popular, (I just dated myself). They broke with the trend and decided instead to purchase separates. A Pioneer receiver, an SX-450 if anyone cares, a BSR turntable and a set of Kenwood 2-way speakers. They bought it at Tech HiFi, which has since gone out of business. I have the original receipt hanging on my wall. It was a great system, sounded great, but more importantly that modest little system ignited a passion for music that I have to this day.

I have never been without a stereo since that day and pray to never be without one. I listen to music quite a bit and get great pleasure from it and profound stress relief. The original stereo - long gone, but I have a nice system that I have built over the past few years that sounds quite nice. I celebrate August 29th each year to this day and call my Mom and say thanks!

Thanks Mom, Thanks Dad!

Analog, collections mortality and posterity

Good day everyone, I am writing today about leaving my extensive analog record and tape and music playback collection to my daughter one day.  It is a sad reminder that our time on this planet is limited.  We have to think about what is going to happen to our collections and equipment at some point.

I have been playing records with my daughter since she was about 4 years old.  In the past two years or so I have taught her how to mount, clean and start a record playing.  She is very careful with the records and Cd's she plays as I have taught her since she was very young the proper handling of media.  She is about to turn 11 and loves music and we listen to music throughout the house and the year, she also has a LP and CD collection of her own.  Christmas time is special as I have about 200 Christmas albums and we try each year to get through them all!

I have been wondering what the best way to get my collection to my daughter, as my wife will want to throw out, sell or consign all my stuff if I pre-decease her.  How can I ensure my collection, in its' entirety gets to my daughter without being thrown out in the meantime?

Do I make out a will and specifically mention in there that my collection goes to my daughter and is not to be destroyed, parted, sold off, thrown out or put in a storage locker?  I am not sure.  I do want my collection to stay together and make it to my daughter in the future sometime.  I am hoping that someday my collection will make it to my great-grand kids and I have great hope that there will still be record players in 40 years due to the recent increase in popularity of turntables and companies making LPs again. 

Here is a little history of me and my audio hobby.  I grew up in the Detroit metro area and I received my first stereo around my 16th birthday.  It was a gift that I received from my parents around the time I received my drivers license.  My parents were smarter than they realized as that kept me satisfied for a number of years and I did not purchase an automobile until I was nearly 20 and out of college.  That first stereo was from Tech-Hifi!  I received the most inexpensive 1978-79 featured system the SX-450, with the Kenwood 200B speakers with the BSR three speed semi-automatic turntable.  It may have been inexpensive but it certainly was awesome! 

The first new record that I bought was the late 1970's stereo re-issue of the Beatles American release of Meet the Beatles.  I still have this record and play it from time to time.  During those years when I lived at my parent's house, I acquired about 150 records, mostly from used record stores.  My favorite when I was growing up was Sam's Jams in Ferndale, MI.  The store was about 20 miles from my house, and when I had money I would hop in the car with a few friends and head out there to buy mostly .25 records.  Gas was .79 cents a gallon which at 9 miles a gallon made it a $4 round trip.  It was awesome, and if I found something that I really liked, I might spend as much as $1 for a record, but that was pretty rare.  I still have most of those records and play them once in a while.  They were mostly oldies records and some rock and roll.  I took a bunch of years off from collecting records, then once I got a decent turntable working, which was around 2005-06, I started purchasing used records on Ebay.  I now have approximately 1500 records, quite a bit of Jazz, Christmas Music, Blues, etc. 

As much as I loved that early stereo and wish I had not given it to some girl who either sold it or destroyed it, my current stereo is much nicer though.  It is the culmination of 20+ years of assembling the parts.  I have a couple items that I purchased when new.  I have a Sony 5 disc changer that I bought for the high price of $500 in 1991, and it is still running, I also bought new a pair of Boston Acoustics T-930 speakers in 1988, which I have re foamed a couple of years ago.  I also have some used equipment that I have assembled; a McIntosh MC250 stereo amplifier, a Yamaha RX-V2700 home theater receiver, a nice little flea-watt tube amp and 4 sets of speakers.  The Boston Acoustics, a pair of Paradigm's reference monitors, a Pair of PSB Image T1's and a pair of Klipsch KLF-20 speakers for my main system, and two pair of Bose speakers in my other systems some 301 series II and a pair of 10.2 series II, and a pair of Polk's for my computer room system.

I had a working turntable for a couple more years after I moved away from home in the mid 1980s, then the needle went bad around the time I moved in with my to be first wife.  At that time I had limited finances so I could not purchase much, I got a new pair of speakers to compliment the Kenwoods when I moved into my apartment and a replacement stylus.  I had a working turntable for about another two years or so.  When I got divorced, I moved the stereo to my new house and at that point the record player went into disrepair.  I purchased a JVC tuner and amplifier from a friend and gave away my original system, which I am still bummed about to this day.  I kept my record collection though and moved it around with me for the next 20 years.  I got married again, and we moved in together and my entire stereo was stored, OMG!  My current wife does not like the looks of stereos and especially hated mine.  With the large Boston Acoustics speakers, and the sub woofer that I used to have it took up quite a bit of the room and the wife wanted the room for her decorative stuff.  So reluctantly, I stored my stereo for a year and a half, I was miserable and didn't realize how much until I decided that I would hook my stereo back up around Christmas time 1999.  I put in a CD of Christmas music and listened to my then JVC integrated amp and those Boston Acoustics speakers and the beauty of the music brought tears to my eyes.  I then realized what I had been denying myself for a couple years.  I left it hooked up through the time I was at that apartment, through the next apartment until we bought a house.  My wife said my stereo could not be setup on the main floor due to space issues.  I agreed with her and hooked up what I had in the basement. 

At the time that I had this setup; a JVC 5.1 channel receiver, the Sony 5-disc changer, the Boston Acoustics speakers, which was around 10 years or so ago in the basement and I wanted to upgrade.  I mentioned this to my wife several times during a 6-year period and each time the response was that we didn't need it, what goal does this satisfy, this is not what we need, no, and so on and so forth.  I was getting frustrated as my system was old and starting to act up, the JVC receiver would make noise and you could get the high-pitched noise to stop by smacking the top of the unit.  I searched for a while after being fed-up with being told no time after time, so when I found a great deal on the Yamaha home theater receiver, which was a demo at my local hifi dealer, I jumped on it and brought it home, I had to sneak it into the basement.  When I hooked it up, I realized that it was too powerful for the Boston acoustics speakers I had for all those years.  This was around summertime 2007, I realized that it was time for new speakers.  So, I started looking for a set of speakers that I had been denied by her when they were in production, a set of Klipsch KLF-20's, I considered buying them while they were in production, but the wife said no.  By the time I found some I had been saving for quite a while and in late 2008 was able to pay cash for them.  I then had to sneak them into the basement so my wife wouldn't see these giant speakers coming into the house as I had them shipped to work.  It was difficult but I was able to get them down there.  The story is the same for the PSB and the Paradigm speakers, I saved up, found great deals, paid cash and snuck them into the basement.

I am very blessed with the equipment that I have assembled over the years.  I also have two turntables, a belt-drive Technics and a direct-drive, straight-arm JVC turntable and three Open Reel decks.  A Pioneer, a Teac and a Sony.  I have acquired a good archival cassette tape deck, which is a Nakamichi.  I have a 55-inch HD TV that the wife also hates.  She will not come into the home theater area of the basement to even watch a DVD.  My daughter and I love to use the stereo and the home theater!

I have over 300 Cd's and over 100 reel to reel tapes that need to make it somehow into the future.  Now do you see what I am concerned about?  I would like my daughter to have all this stuff.  Should I be concerned, or just let my collection be dis-assembled and sold off to the highest bidder in an Ebay auction, or sold as part of an estate sale?

What do you think?  What would you do?  Any suggestions?

Keep on listening!

Jeff

Oh CRAP!

I blew it!

I did it, oh man, I bought the pre-amp that I have been looking for.  Not specifically this one, but close.  I have wanted this brand of equipment for years and years and now I have found an affordable (reasonably and relatively inexpensive) McIntosh Preamplifier.  I am currently running a Yamaha C-70 Preamp, which is AWESOME and will see duty in my office system.  It has been acting up, so I may take the opportunity to get it over to my good friends’ house and clean it up a bit and replace some of the inner electronics. 

So I was on EBay and did a search for McIntosh C and chose newly listed, I see this beauty, and it’s within my price range.  It is not perfect, it seems to have a crack on the glass and a little bit of the paper inner label material seems to be peeling away.  I will see what it will cost to get it re-done once it becomes noticeable, or if I have other work done to it.  I am going to check with my friend and see if he recommends that this unit be sent out before I even hook it up to ensure it is working properly.  I currently have a MC250 Stereo Amplifier, and found out that I just happened to purchase its’ matching pre-amp, the McIntosh C-28 Preamplifier.  They were in production at the same time.  There are two solid state amps they made at that time, one had meters, and it is the MC2105, a very cool looking amplifier!   The other is the MC250, which doesn’t even have a power switch!  It has no meters, no lights, only two RCA inputs, two special inputs, the speaker terminals and two volume controls.

The C-28 has lots of goodies that I cannot wait to play with.  It has two phono inputs, and I will need both, it has dual tape inputs, an aux input and a tuner input.  I will be able to use this unit and have a few inputs and outputs available for expansion.  It has tone controls for each individual channel which allows for sound balancing the speakers.  The volume works independent of all tone and balance controls and just equally increases or decreases the volume the same in both channels at the same time.  It has a few equalization features, but I mostly listen to music flat.  I will have a closer look when using the C-28, but I think I am losing the ability to record from one source while listening to another.  That is a feature that I love that the Yamaha C-70 has.  Other than that, I expect it to be a very nice addition to my stereo collection.

Why did I upgrade?  Well the C-70 has acted up a bit and has me questioning its reliability lately.  So I have been watching eBay while warming up and babying the Yamaha.  I ran into this at totally the wrong time, and I had to scrape together the funds from various sources to make it work.  I can’t wait for it to arrive.  I will be chatting with my friend this weekend and will seek his advice.  Watch for postings regarding the C-28.

Keep listening,

Jeff

Postscript: 

The preamp was damaged in shipping.  I am in negotiations with UPS as it will cost a few hundred dollars to repair the unit. The technician thinks I have a cracked board.  The glass was shattered and when it was operated it made some scary noises.  I am going to try and keep it and do the repairs, as this equipment is high quality and meant to last.  McIntosh also still makes the replacement glass.

Posted 3 weeks ago

Postscript:

UPS wanted the preamp back, so I had to settle for a refund.  I am not very happy and it will take me quite some time to find another preamp that I want at the same time I have the $600 to spend.  I will just keep using the C-70 Yamaha preamp until it fails and forces me to upgrade.  I may purchase a couple good phono preamps and find a nice preamp that does not have phono inputs, but has tons of other inputs.  Only time will tell.  It is sad that idiots at UPS cannot read a box when it says FRAGILE on it, and have to kick, drop and destroy stuff that people have paid money for. 

The turntable itch

I have been recently infected with the itch to change up my turntables.  I have two vintage turntables that I use as daily drivers.  Neither of them are high-end; remember I am the budget audiophile!  I have a belt-driven Technics SL-B3 turntable, this table has an interchangeable head shell system, it was built around 1980. I brought this one back from the junk pile, I traded a 17" monitor for it.  This thing was very dirty, the belt had melted to the platter.  I restored it, cleaned it, lubricated it, got a headshell a new belt and brought it back from near-death.  I also have a direct-drive JVC L-F210.  This table is a direct-drive straight-arm table from around 1982, it also has the interchangeable head shell system. 


Each of my turntables have it's strengths and weaknesses.  Both have interchangeabe headshells, albeit both are different styles of headshell.  The JVC sounds brighter than the Technics, which has a nice and rich sound.  I have each one of them for a reason based upon preferences and performance.  The question is, what do I replace and with what?


I have been looking around the Internet and have been toying with the idea of purchasing a used turntable of a higher-grade than what I am currently using.  I have also been looking at some of the new turntables available.  What are the considerations I must think about as I start the pursuit of a different turntable?
On the surface purchasing or replacing a turntable seems pretty easy, right?  Do you know which direction you would take with each of the listed choices below?  Which would be your primary consideration?

• Belt-drive, Direct-drive?
• Interchangeable head shells or one pre-mounted or permanent?
• 33, 45, 78 or 33,45?
• Automatic, Manual or Auto-return only?
• New or used?
• Build a custom-made turntable from parts?
• Price

I have found several good, used turntables.  Dual 1219 and 1229 would be nice turntables to have, although not necessarily an audiophile pick.  I was looking at a couple Garrard's from the 1970's and they look pretty good.   These models have the fixed head shell so I cannot interchange needles on them. As much as I would like either of them I will probably steer clear until I have one perfect needle that I wish to live with on one perfect turntable. (as-if...).  The cost of these can range from less than $100 to more than $300. I thought about Technics, but in order to get a better turntable, I would have to buy a 1200.   Shipping is another problem, over the years I have had about a 50% success rate with having turntables shipped to me.  Half have arrived either broken, smashed or not working as intended.  I hesitate to have anything shipped to me except in original packaging, with shipping insurance or a guarantee.


I have looked at some new turntables, like the Rega and the Project turntables.  I like the way they look, they get great reviews, however there is no way to swap the headshells on the affordable ones, (if you consider $369 - $700 afordable).  I found a Thorens which is in current production that has the removable headshell, 3-speeds and auto return, very nice, but over $1200.  I tend to avoid the Stanton, Numark, Crosley and the remainder of the budget, entry-level or USB turntables.


What about a custom-built turntable from parts?  I have an old Garrard with a very heavy platter that spins forever, it has that funky, antique astatic needle with vibration pickup arm. It is not audiophlile by any stretch of imagination, (YET!).  I have acquired a couple tonearms from broken turntables that I have had in the past and online and I plan to use one.  The arms that I have all use the interchangeable head shell setup for which I have about a dozen needles ready to go.  To make this a reality, I need to have a base, or plinth designed which will house the motor assembly and the electronics, and needs to be heavy enough to deal with the vibration that it will encounter and big enough to house everything under the covers.  I will remove the old tonearm from the turntable, move the motor, base and platter assembly to the new base.  Then, drill the appropriate holes in the turntable base to accomodate the new tonearm in the desired location.  When I design the base I will be emulating the shape and size of my Technics table, so I can use the geometry from it to correctly place the tonearm for similar alignment and playback performance, (hopefully).  The speeds available on my home-made turntable will be 16, 33, 45, 78rpm, which makes this table quite flexible.  I have needles mounted on headshells for special records that I will be able to play on the home built table.  I have a 78 Cartridge, a Mono Cartridge and a couple spherical ones for playing crappy records.  I will be able to change to any of them I want to use for the record I wish to play.  This is one of my favorite parts of havinig a turntable is having multiple needles, see my post on multiple needles and the benefits.


I think I will be building the custom turntable as it offers the most fun for me, it also offers the most flexibility for playback.  I think the challenge of making all this work properly will be quite fun and enlightening.  As for the cost, it will probably cost me a couple hundred dollars to get the right piece of wood for the plinth and have it shaped to fit the turntable base I intend to use and hold the tonearm in the correct location with a nice finish.  A dozen hours on the base, another few hours drilling and placing everything where it should go.  100 hours of playing records to test it, tweaks here and there until I get good sound or better, fun, fun, fun!  The final table should be something fun to watch and listen to, while it will probably not be audiophile grade, the grade it will get for fun should be an A+!

The needles I use are:

Technics SL-B3, SME interchangeable stylus system

Pickering V-15 - PD07-C spherical stylus - tracks crappy records
Shure V15 RS - original stylus w/stabilizer brush - only used with new or perfect records
Shure M91ED - aftermarket stylus
Shure M95ED - aftermarket stylus
Shure M97Xe - original stylus - with stabilizer brush - tracks warped records
Grado Prestige Black - original stylus
Grado Prestige Blue - origina stylus - reference - perfectly aligned and very honest
Grado Mono - original mono stylus - only for playing mono microgroove recordings

JVC L-F210, straight-arm standard interchangable stylus system

Audio Technica - Model unknown, came with turntable
Shure M91ED - Original stylus
Shure M97Xe - original stylus - with stabilizer brush - tracks warped records
Pickering XV-15/625e w/d700 aftermarket conical stylus w/brushmatic - tracks crappy records




What would you do?  Which table should I replace?





Do some listening today!

Jeff

Posted 6th May, 2012

Who needs more than one needle?

I do!  Right now I have two turntables; neither are glorious, but both work very well for me.  I am a budget audiophile, not someone with tons of money laying around to buy gear.  I have 12 headshells with cartridges mounted and currently in service.  None of these cartridges that I currently have cost anything close to $100.  I have maybe 10 cartridges that are not mounted that I will swap in and out when I feel like listening to something different, or the need arises. 

Why different needles?  Well, each model and brand of needle sounds just a little bit different.  Some are bright, which means they have lots of treble, lots of high-frequency music; some are a little less bright and have more bass response, which is the boom in music.  A few are sweetly in the center and go with the flow, some cost hundreds or thousands of dollars.  Others are special needles for special types of records.  I have a 78 Cartridge, specially made for the wide grooves of a 78 record.  I also have a mono cartridge, and it is not just the two channels of a stereo needle joined together, it reads the grooves differently than a stereo needle does.  I have one model, the Shure M97xE, which is still in production, mounted on a headshell for each of my turntables.  This cartridge is a great performer at a reasonable price, ($60 - $90 depending on source) and has a brush that cleans the surface of the record, but also acts as a shock-absorber.  I had a record with the strangest warp that none of my other needles would track, so I mounted the Shure and I was able to track it with no issue at all.  I have a needle that is conical/spherical in shape, now these will play scratched up records quite well due to its shape and the way in which it reads the grooves.  This is opposed to Elliptical needles which are quite honest and quite a few are brutally honest with deep scratches.  However, on perfect records, I believe the elliptical sounds better and causes less record wear.  So, if my records are 78, I have a needle for that;  mono, yep; crappy scratched up records, got that covered too, so what are the rest of them for?

I have needles that I have rescued from old turntables that I have owned over the years.  Some have been good performers, from the 70s and 80s and I hung onto them.  I have kept what I thought I would need for the different types of music that I listen to, found replacement or NOS styli for them and "rescued" them from the trash-heap.  I use my Pickering 625e for playing jazz and symphonic music mostly as it has a dark character in my system.  I use my Shure V15RS for archiving perfect recordings because it is a Shure V15 and a very excellent performer.  I use the Shure M95ED and the M91E as general purpose, light-wear needles, when I want a change and want to hear things a bit on the bright side, these both track at about 1gm, which is quite nice on record surfaces.  I use the Shure M97xE as my daily driver, it will track anything and has a very nice sound.  I use my grado blue and black prestige cartridges when I want brutally honest sound.  I have gotten both of these aligned very nicely, so they will play a perfect record beautifully, but a crappy record like hearing a cat-fight at 2am. 

To sum it all up, do I need more than one cartridge per turntable, probably not.  However, I figure why should I limit my choices in how I hear a recording to just one or two different ways.  This way I can choose a cartridge based on how I want to hear a particular recording.  I have actually changed cartridges during play if I felt that a different, better sound could be achieved by switching out the cartridge.  If you have a turntable that has a removable headshell, and you are feeling brave, go out on ebay and get a spare headshell or two, check to be sure you are buying the correct model, they are not all inter-changeable.  They cost usually less than $25 each, go out and purchase a new cartridge on needledoctor.com and mount it up.  If you do not know how to mount a needle, check youtube for videos on it.  Follow the directions, those colored wires mean something.

:)

Keep Listening!

Peace out!

Jeff

Originally Posted 25th April, 2012

New and Improved budgetaudiophile.blogspot.com

I am forced to re-do my blog due to some error.  I have decided to rename my blog to budgetaudiophile.  Here is the text of my prior blog post:

Hey everyone!  My name is Jeff and welcome to my Blog and my first Blog Post.

I enjoy listening to analog recordings. I like the LP format,  I also enjoy reel to reel or open reel tapes.  However,  I also listen to digital formats too!  I am not here to debate the pros and cons of digital versus analog.  I just simply prefer analog for the experience.  The analog experience is a bit more involved than the digital one.  For one thing, when was the last time you cleaned a CD?  Looked for scratches?  Cleaned the CD Player lens?  Seems strange to be asking those questions?

Well, when playing an analog format there is a ritualistic series of events that are taken to get the very best sound possible from that analog source.  Let's take a LP record.  First, it is housed in a sleeve within the outer sleeve.  The record must be removed very carefully to prevent adding scratches or fingerprints to the surface.  Then it must be placed onto the spindle on the turntable.  Ready to play yet?  Nope, not yet, or I may still not get the best sound from the recording!

Once the LP on the turntable it is time to do a simple cleaning.  I use an anti-static carbon fiber brush to remove the dirt from the grooves.  Once I have finished, I take a look at the record, I look for finger prints, scuffs, stuck dirt or anything else that may interfere with the playback.   If I find any offending dirt, it is time for a deeper cleaning.  I use a record cleaning solution and a series of velvet brushes.  I use the Smart line of products to clean my records and have 4 velvet pads to progressively remove the moisture from within the grooves once I have cleaned the record.

Is it ready to be played yet?  Probably, but is my turntable ready?  I use a stylus cleaner to remove dirt from the needle.  This dirt builds up with each play.  Are we ready yet?  Maybe, is the record Mono or Stereo?  Do I have the correct needle mounted?  Once all those questions are answered I am ready to go. 
A different, but similar process would be experienced using a reel to reel tape player.  I clean mine nearly each time I play them.  The decks need lubrication and cleaning to be in top working order.  The heads not only need to be cleaned, but every once in a while the heads on the tape deck need to be demagnetized. 

These "rituals" are probably why analog playback devices lost their general market appeal over time.  Too much fussing around for some people.  When you look at a digital format, either CD or computer delivered music you click a button perhaps on a remote control and it plays immediately.  If you don't like it you press or click to go to the next track.  With analog you have a couple options, lifting the record needle and carefully moving it to the next track, or with a tape player, you can fast forward the tape to the beginning of the next track; once you find it. In the case of the analog listener, quite a number of people actually play the entire tape or record in one sitting.  I think this adds to the relaxation factor when listening to music to hear the entire thing.  I find it too much of a hurry to listen to a song for 12 seconds and fast forward it if I do not love it.  Sometimes an artist is actually trying to say something in a deliberate fashion song after song on a "album".  I think people that just download one song or fast forward through digital media are missing out on the jewels hidden amongst the most popular songs of a collection. 

I will post on here once in a while with whatever I feel like discussing.  It may be a new record or tape; it may be just to rant or discuss something. 

Just keep listening!

Jeff

Posted 25th December 2011