Gifted - The Ultimate Barn Find - McIntosh 240 and an MX110

Barn Find - McIntosh 240

This summer a friend purchased a new home.  It was quite a nice home, large with a barn in the back yard.  We payed the family a visit one summer day to help them move around a few things and help out as much with the move as possible.

While he was conducting a tour of the barn, I see these old electronic "things" on the shelf up high under bird droppings, nest materials and other types of "dirt".  So we walk over and take a look and find a McIntosh 240 Amplifier and a McIntosh MX110 FM receiver/Preamp.  He asked me what I thought they were worth, and I threw out a number that was about 1/4 of what they would be worth clean and working as I really had no idea how much they were worth.  (He called me later on to let me know what he had found them to be worth, I was quite surprised and embarrassed!)  He offered them to me and I offered him money if he would take it.  He said no and I went about loading them onto my vehicle.  

It took hours to clean each of them.  I removed the tubes one at a time and cleaned around them trying to not rub off the tube identification letters that are imprinted on the chrome of the chassis.  It took a very long time as there was bird poop and all kinds of dirt caked on everything.  The tubes were covered with a mess too.  I would estimate a good 12 hours of cleaning for the 240.

Look at how dirty the controls are.

Top view, very dirty indeed!

 Filthy!

 Look at that contrast from the dirt to the chrome!

 Looking quite a bit cleaner now after hours of work!

Fortunately I have a great friend who agreed to help me restore this amplifier to life.  He did tons of research to find out exactly what we needed to restore it properly.  We replaced just about everything electrically inside that we could.  Most of the tubes needed replacing, it has the original McIntosh tubes still in there, but they all tested bad.  I just happened to have some Russian 6L6GC's that I put in there.  I had to purchase all the pre-amplifier tubes as they all tested bad.

The electronic work was on a cool day in the fall.  We worked on it for around 8 or 9 hours, lunch included, before it was done.  I found that I had neglected to receive or order one of the preamp tubes so we were unable to test it that day. He advised it was likely to have worked without all the components replaced and was very confident that it would work just fine when turned on, if it worked at all. 

About a week later I received the tube that I needed to complete the restoration.  I was a bit on the scared side as I hooked it up to some small speakers I have and a spare preamp to test.  I decided since Brian Wilson mixed one or more of the famous Beach Boys albums on a 240, that I would play Good Vibrations as the first tune played by this amp,  I was pretty stoked as I turned it up and sound came from the speakers.  I let it play for a while watching for smoke and checking for anything going on with a flashlight close in case it blew a fuse.  After about 10 minutes or so I disconnected it from the small speakers and my spare preamp and connected it to the main system, the main speakers and the McIntosh C27 preamp that is the control center for my main system.

I turned on the preamp, then the amp and sound came from my main speakers.  It was pretty glorious.  Unfortunately somewhere along the way I blew out my tweeter on my Paradigm speakers, probably while changing connections while forgetting to turn the volume down.  Whatever it was, that puppy is silent, and they are hard to find - at least so far,  Ah well, first speaker I have blown in over 30 years, so I was overdue for a brain fart resulting in cash outlay.  

I have now probably passed the break in period and the sound is pretty terrific!  I am surprised at how awesome it sounds, and the staging and imaging are pretty impressive!  It gets hot and it is pretty cool looking at the tubes glowing, I run it without the cage on to facilitate cooling, and plus it looks pretty cool!

Due to the overall complexity of the MX110, I will be saving for quite some time to send it out to have it refurbished as there is allot going on there with the FM Tuner and a tube Preamp.  So in a couple years I should have saved enough cabbage and will be reporting on that.

That is pretty much it, listen often, reduce that stress.  Music is a big help!

Peace Out!

Jeff

Heat Generated During LP Playback - Does it matter?

I read something a while back and it had been bouncing around in my head for quite some time.  The subject was heat generated during playback on the record surface and the stylus could damage LP grooves if a record is played more than once a day.  A blog post I read asserted that this person would not ever play an LP a second time within 24 hours.  The theory put forth was that the vinyl was heated by the stylus and the stylus was also hot and it would act as a hot knife through butter, so to speak, if the LP was played back too soon and both surfaces were still hot.   It could cause undo damage to our records and promote premature record wear. 

I have some thoughts on this.  First off, I have verified that the record, indeed is warm after playing.  I have also verified that the stylus is also warm after playing.  My thoughts are this theory may have some credibility.  I have even gone so far as to think that possibly even using the stylus on a second LP, or even a second side may have negative effects on the grooves of a vinyl record. 

If anyone has any sophisticated heat measuring devices and can determine the temperature of the vinyl surface and the temperature of the stylus after playback, we may be able to calculate whether this is an actual risk to the longevity of our precious record collections.

For now, I am not playing the same LP side twice within 24 hours.  I am also changing the stylus out on my turntable after each LP.  I am considering in the future playing a single side with each stylus.  I know this is impractical for most people, I am fortunate to have a turntable that allows for switching out and re-balancing of head shells pretty darn easy.

I would be appreciative of any opinions out there, ranging from I am full of shit to full agreement.  I am very careful with my collection and record wear is never welcome in my house!!!  If I am full of shit, I am full of shit erring toward the lofty goal of minimal record wear.


What do you think?


Listening keeps the day just a little bit better.

Jeff

Aftermarket Styli and the current state of affairs for vintage Shure phono cartridges

Aftermarket Styli and the current state of affairs for owners of vintage Shure phono cartridges

Every couple years or so, I usually look around to see what goodies of yesteryear I can use in my system to give it supreme interest to me in my eyes.  This year I decided to look around to see what I could find in replacement styli (phono needles) for my older phono cartridges and maybe pick up a few different phono cartridges in the process.

First off, I am not a paid advertiser nor spokesperson for any of the companies that I am about to mention.  Secondly, I am a hobbyist, not a purist, so my choices for the needles that I rescue and seek out, whether OEM or aftermarket styli for are not necessarily "audiophile grade" phono cartridges.  I am after nostalgia, the feeling of playing something that was the best in its' class at one time.  Not always the pure audiophile experience.

The first cartridge that I decided to see what I could find in the aftermarket stylus world is the V15 RS - arguably a V15, but after doing a ton of research, it seems that this Radio Shack V15 version is a re-branded M97 of that vintage.  A friend of mine has that original M97 with the HE (Hyper-Elliptical) OEM tip on it and it is a very, very nice cart!  I did a bunch of research starting at Shure and looked at their recommendation for the replacement stylus, and sure enough (pardon the pun), the Shure site mentioned that that N97 is the proper replacement stylus for that cartridge.  Upon further investigation, it seems that the aftermarket has a different standard and I was able to find this selection of styli here http://www.turntableneedles.com/Needle-771-DHE-copy-for-Shure-N97HE_p_1419.html . 

I purchased this needle and installed it yesterday.  I started breaking it in with a few records.  The first thing I noticed was it is definitely not built the same way as the original, which I had mounted previously on the V15RS.  The fit was perfect, the way it is supposed to be.  I have read quite a few reviews where the sound just isn't right with the M97 stylus, so I took the chance in thinking that everyone out there complaining was correct.  Was I rewarded, or did I waste money?

When I started playing some really nice pressings of some jazz I really liked the sound!  It is a bit truthful at this point, but I think after a proper break in of 20 or 30 hours of playing it should calm down a bit.  I believe that I have finally found the proper stylus for this cartridge, with a really nice hyper-elliptical tip.  The last time I searched for replacements for the RS, I purchased one that had a elliptical tip as the HE versions at that time were not yet being manufactured, it also did not have the duster attachment  The new aftermarket stylus duster is not spring activated, rather gravity activated, and not as big, but it is there and it protects the stylus, I almost did in the stylus the other day with a too quick hand.  


I did more research and found that a different cartridge, the R47XT, another Radio Shack re branded Shure cartridge was also, indeed a re-named M97.  I found a NIB R47XT with the Original, never played, 5x cartridge, which is a pretty good elliptical cartridge.  So I will be playing this one for a while once I get it and get it mounted and aligned.  I really like finding NIB vintage stuff, sometimes it can be very expensive, but I don't plan to get any more carts for quite some time at this point.  This one was not expensive, coming in at $69, plus shipping for a brand-new cartridge.  I will update this post with how I feel about this cart when it arrives and I have a chance to play it for a while.

Onto my favorite find of the last week's cartridge buying bonanza.  I found something at a good price that I have wanted for years.  People are going to say, 'you got the wrong one..."  You may think that at this point, but wait until you see what I found.  I found a V15 II - from the late 1960s.  I know, it's old, the others were better, etc.  Whatever.  When I am finally done with my romance of vinyl playback article, I will explain why specs don't matter to me that much.  Anyway, I have wanted a V15, and I will have more, this is just my first V15, (unless you count the V15RS, which I do not any longer).  So I picked it up on eBay, it has an older aftermarket replacement stylus on it, so I decided that I needed to look around and see what I could find as a replacement for it.  I was very hopeful that I would find some OEM or a decent aftermarket replacement.  What I found will thrill anyone experienced with Shure cartridges overall, and especially those who have the V15 II.  Check this out...

I found a hyper-elliptical stylus for the V15 II, I found it here: http://www.turntableneedles.com/Needle-771-DHE-copy-for-Shure-N97HE_p_1419.html, I am quite excited overall about the find.  At the time the V15 II was out there were a couple options for stylus for it, as far as I can gather.  A conical and an elliptical stylus, and an "improved" elliptical.  This cartridge was, at its' time the champ for tracking at low weight and high-fidelity LP playback.  The later V15s performance would be better, as it should be with forward marches in technology and manufacturing process improvements.  Well, imagine my surprise when an aftermarket manufacturer is making a HE tip for the V15 II!  Holy moly, I took a look at it, read around, zero reviews. I bought one and I cannot wait for it to arrive to test it out.  HE tips IMHO are the best tips that a MM phono cartridge can have, they go deeper into the grooves and run the walls with more contact that sphericals or standard elliptcials due to their shape, (some of the newer technologies may track the grooves better and reveal more, that I am not aware of nor have tried, so my opinion is only based upon real-life, albeit not comprehensive experience).  So, I cannot wait to try this out and will update this post with some of the results.  I do not know how long these styli will be available, but I am going to grab another one or an even better one soon.  The fact that I did not know this model of the V15, never had a hyper-elliptical stylus like the III and subsequent models did.  So, this should be very cool and elevate the standard of playback in this cart to its' ultimate potential. Which should be freaking awesome!   

The state of the art right now may be the SAS replacement styli that are available out there.  I am looking at the SAS for the V15II, M95ED, M91ED - and they are available for about $150 for the least expensive, but as quite a few of you know these are some of the legendary cartridges from Shure.  I was really quite surprised and delighted to see that really good, high quality styli are being made from really good manufactures to enable those of us who are not in constant upgrade mode to rescue our old favorite cartridges and breathe life back into them again.  It will be a while before I am able to afford these more expensive replacements.  The ones I found for the cartridges mentioned above are in the $75 - $90 range, the SAS cartridges are even more expensive than that, starting at around $150 and ranging to hundreds of dollars, but seem to promise the best in performance for our cherished phono cartridges.  When you look at the technology, it appears the technology is more advanced and should provide better performance than the OEM styli.

The moral of this story is don't give up on your old trusted phono cartridges, you can still take heart in your old cartridges. I have been reading all over the place, industry sites, audiophile sites, manufacture sites, blogs, etc. I have found over and over that unless something electrical happens or the cart takes some sort of physical damage, the cartridge body should and may have a somewhat unlimited lifespan. The stylus shank and the cantilever take all of the abuse and those do not last forever. This is all based of course, on the characteristics of the materials that are used in construction, as nothing is forever. So, if you can find replacement styli for your cart, grab one or two. My thought on the subject is do the research, read around and find the very best replacement that you can find and realistically afford. I paid nearly $90 a piece - a price I would never have thought of paying a few years back. At that time I was buying the $15 replacement styli off eBay. Good enough is not quite good enough for me as I listened and was not quite satisfied with the playback, and because of the type of needle, those carts got limited playback and were relegated to playing less than perfect records.  I am most concerned, in regards to vinyl playback as I think of the size and shape of the tip, the overall tracking force that must be used because I am trying overall to limit to the greatest degree possible record wear while extracting the maximum amount of data that the grooves provide.

One more thing that we can feel good about is while I was doing the research, I was reading quite a few blog posts from 2005 - 2009 where people were having great difficulty obtaining decent aftermarket styli for their cartridges.  They were scooping up the few remaining OEM replacements and dealing with the aftermarket offerings of the day, which were not nearly as good as today.  I am glad to see improvements in the replacement stylus market, as continuous improvement and more product offerings will sustain a market that will be beating down a path to your door; that group is the vintage phono stylus owner, just like me. I am very excited about the current state of affairs for owners of older phono cartridges and I hope the trend continues, but for now, I will be stocking up, just in case.


Peace out, listen more, relax,


Jeff

Time for a little LP organization

I have been thinking over the past couple years that I need to go through my record collection and figure out what I have.  I need to determine what needs to be replaced, what I no longer like, need or want and clean it out.

The time is today when I start listening to most every single record in my collection without a quality rating first off.  I will determine the quality and if I am going to keep it by listening to the record in its' entirety, both sides.  I will then rate it and determine if I want to keep it, or rip a good song or two and sell it on Discogs, give it to Salvation Army or offer it up to friends that I know that still have turntables.  If it has a high quality rating and I like the record, it will stay.  Seems pretty simple!

I have started with the Oldies box.  These are the records that I have in my collection the longest.  I started collecting albums when I was about 16, and at the time I liked oldies, British invasion and psychedelic songs of the 1960s.  That is what a good portion of my collection consisted of when I was a kid.  I have listened to two LPs this morning, Paul Revere and the Raiders - Just Like Us, and Van Morrison - Moondance.  Both great albums, however I find that the 'Raiders LP is in terrible condition, so this copy will go to the thrift store and I will be searching for a new, clean version in either Stereo or Mono. This copy was stereo, but I think the mono records of the early 1960s were what the records were mixed to and re-channeled and re-mixed to become stereo.

I have tons of records in my collection.  I have three oldies boxes with approximately 70 records in each.  To make it easier to determine what I have done and what records I have looked at I am taking notes on my listening, dating and scoring the condition of the record.  If the record is in bad shape, I have a section of my notebook dedicated to records that I need to re-purchase and the LP will be put aside in a special bin. When I originally purchased most of these records, I used a visual grading method, which did not always result in clean sounding records.  This process of listening to most of my records will take quite a long time to accomplish, possibly a couple years.   I have decided there are certain records that I have already rated for quality that are must-keep records, so I may not listen to those except for pleasure listening during this project.

I have decided that certain types of records are out of scope for this project. First, box sets are not going to be included, nor will my 78-RPM collection.  Most of my box-sets are in excellent condition, most appear to have been played once and put on a shelf for the next 20 years.  Also not up for consideration will be my historic, comedy, patriotic and old-time-radio LP collections.  My daughter's records, my Disney records, anything unusual or sealed will remain in the collection too. 

I have been cleaning up and digitizing my CD collection for quite some time now and have sold off quite a few of the ones that I no longer listen to.  I have digitized the rest and have quite a musical library.  I have stored the original CDs in appropriate CD storage boxes that I have acquired at Bags Unlimited. 

I do not collect for the value of the records.  There are quite a few in my collection with messed up sleeves and that is fine with me.  Just as long as there is a nice, clean record in there somewhere.  Collectors would think I am nuts for how my collection is full of these awesome LPs in crappy sleeves.  I have to like a record to keep it, which is why it is time to go through the collection and weed-out those records that I have purchased as an experiment, or to try and find something different out there.  I have dozens of those in my collection; therefore it is time to take a listen and see if I really need to keep all my albums.  I expect to find that I have kept quite a few records that are OK, but I am not crazy about, these will be gone. 

Bottom line is I want a collection of hardly anything in it that is in any but excellent condition and sounds great when played.  Since I have started collecting records as an adult, and over the last 10 years or so I have gravitated toward the VG+, NM-, NM and sealed records for my collection of LPs.  As for 78s I try to acquire Es, which are in excellent condition.  If I like the record, and the quality is poor, I will add to my list the title and watch for it whenever I am scouting for records.  If I find a VG+ or NM copy I will re-acquire it, clean it and add it back into my collection.  I will also be looking for first pressings to replace even my quality records.

I also expect to be getting rid of approximately ten percent of my collection through the changing of my tastes over the years.  There are quite a few albums that I have passed by over and over in the box and may have not played since I was a kid.  Those will be gone!  This seems like quite a bit of work to undertake, and it is.  I expect to enjoy the process quite a bit.  I am sure I will find LPs that I can no longer tolerate in my collection too.  This will take a long time but if I am consistent I should be able to get rid of a couple hundred LPs.  Probably replace a hundred or so in the process as well.

I hope you can get some listening time in and remember to enjoy the music, not just collect the records, which is what I want to remedy.

Peace Out and keep listening,

Jeff

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!

A fictitious rating system I developed

Jeff's Beer Speaker Rating System:

1 Beer - Weak - did these come out of a kids toy?

2 Beer - OK - these would sound OK at a party.

3 Beer - Good - these would sound good just about anywhere, not great, but a good speaker at a good price, not revealing or articulate, but rocks the house down and handles music very nicely.

4 Beer - Solid - these would play very well with great recordings and a perfect room, quite a few of these are reasonably priced speakers, can be revealing and articulate, but usually a great sounding speaker and a good value to own.

5 Beer - Sweet - these would play articulate, revealing and sweet sounding music, source type is nearly irrelevant, nearly perfect sound with nearly any music or source, a nice speaker to have if you can afford it.

6 Beer - OMG - these would knock your socks off, sound amazing, redefine your idea of what a perfect speaker can sound like, it's almost like you are in the room with the performers, the speaker to have if you can afford it.

Spin Clean Record washing system MKII - First Impressions

Good day everyone, I finally did it.  I finally broke down and purchased a record cleaning machine.  I have wanted for years to be able to clean my vinyl properly.  I used various pretty effective methods for keeping my records clean, but I wanted to know how much better it could be after a proper cleaning is done.

I broke down and bought the Spin-Clean record washing system - MK II.  It was at first smaller than I expected.  I took a look at the construction and it is pretty nice.  I was able to determine what all the notches were for and so forth without having to look at the manual, so the design is pretty straightforward.

I purchased the bonus pack with the system because I have a lot of records to clean.  The bonus pack came with extra pads, and extra lint free towels to dry the records with.  I was glad that I purchased the extra towels when I got into cleaning the records. Also included is a 32 oz bottle of the cleaner along with the 4oz bottle that comes with the standard kit.  I will be glad I bought the bonus pack in no time.

When I took a look through the manual I read that it would be best if the towels were prewashed before using them for the first time.  So, I got them in the wash following the directions and got them dried before I started cleaning records.  I took some time to go through the manual while I was waiting for the laundry to complete.

 I realized a short time later that I had forgotten to pick up some distilled water for the cleaner.  The directions say that you can use tap water if you do not have distilled water to use.  With all the junk in tap water, I decided to go the pure route and drove to the store and purchased a couple gallons of distilled water. 

So, I filled it up with distilled water to the designated level and poured the cleaning solution where the instructions told me to do so and I got out some record boxes and decided to clean what I wanted to listen to for the next couple days.

Now it was time to do some cleaning as I pulled the cleaned and dried towels from the dryer.  I had read a couple blogs about getting the labels wet when using the spin-clean.  Before I started I read through the manual so I did not run into any issues.  However, I kept in mind what I read and never stopped moving the record once the cleaning had started, that way run-off would not drip onto the label.  I was successful in keeping water off the labels, but I had to develop a system that would not use up all my towels on the first couple records.  Use a junk record to test your process before you start cleaning the good ones. I cleaned two from the junk pile just in case I had issues.

The instructions say you can clean 20 - 50 records with one bath.  I was able to clean 30 albums and I could have cleaned more, you should keep an eye on how dirty the water gets.  I stopped at 30 records as that is all I wanted to do at one time. The water was not terribly dirty, but I had enough records for the listening tests I planned.

I air dried the records for about 20 minutes after wiping them down until mostly dry before playing or putting them in sleeves.  I started with a piano record that was on the disposal pile to see how it sounded.  I was overall pretty impressed as surface noise was very low.  There was still some, but my assumption is that the record was worn, as I have very few records that I purchased new, and it is possible that it was well-loved in the past and played over and over again.

I then played something I am pretty familiar with to see if I noticed any differences.  I put on ELO Discovery LP.  I used a crappy VG version of the LP that I had on my disposal pile.  I put it on the table and it played very respectively.  I will not say that it eliminated noise or anything like that, but I was pretty impressed with the overall sound quality coming from that somewhat scratched up record.  The noise was significantly low, and the pops and clicks were there from the scratches, but it still sounded pretty darn good!

My records were pretty clean overall, but the water got pretty dirty so the device is quite effective at getting dirt out of the grooves.  One piece of advice that I used was to clean the record with a brush before getting it into the bath.  Loose stuff that you can remove before it goes in the machine will aid you in keeping the water cleaner for more records.

My strongest recommendation if you purchase this product is to read the instruction manual and follow the instructions.  If you ruin your brushes you may do damage to your records, so please follow the instructions.

If you have LPs, and you are on a budget, this machine is for you!  Grab some extra towels to put the records on while you dry them and go for it!  I have seen machines for $600 that make allot of noise and cost allot of money, but don't do any finer job of cleaning a record than the Spin-Clean.  This little machine at less than $150 is a bargain in my opinion.  I tend to take care of stuff so I expect this to last for many years.  I would recommend the bonus kit which has the extra pads, the larger bottle of cleaner solution and the extra towels.  I am still going to pick up an additional set of the rollers and more towels before very long.  I got mine at Jerry Raskin's Needle Doctor - www.needledoctor.com


Seriously Sweet and Effective record cleaning!

Peace Out!

Jeff

Associated Equipment
Technics SL-B3 turntable
Denon DL-110 MC cartridge
McIntosh C-27 Preamp
McIntosh MC250 Amp
PSB Image T-6 Speakers

A short observation on compressed popular music

I sat down and started listening to some awesome FLAC music after I had moved my speakers to a better location which gave me much better imaging of my music.  It was awesome, the sound was great the image was very wide and the instruments seemed to hang in the air.  Until I played some pop music that I have in my collection to see how that sounded.  The image went away completely and it was basically the same loud sound coming from each of my speakers, YUCK!  It is my opinion that compressed recorded music which is designed to only be played loudly, is totally missing imaging.  It sounded flat, like I was listening to a board with music coming out of it.  After I heard this, I checked my system to make sure that everything was in order.  It was.

So, I put on some Dire Straits from a ripped CD, and it sounded awesome, it had imaging that sounded much wider than where the speakers were placed.  So my thoughts on this are, if you like your music to sound incredible (not just loud), venture outside of the popular music available on the Internet, to some of the more musical artists that care about the listening quality of the music they produce, not just how cool it sounds and loud it goes.  Proper imaging adds a third dimension to your listening as instruments and vocalists seem to hang in the air.  Compressed music is nearly totally missing this. 

If you are in doubt as to what music you might like that has incredible sonics, check with that most valued and thought to be outdated - a person at a local record/cd/music store.  Stop buying on the Internet if you are trying to expand your musical horizons, talk to people, but what you are looking for to make your system pop would be recordings in the genre of music you like with excellent sonics.  Go and buy some Cd's or records and check out something different. Listen to the entire darn thing instead of just the popular songs, you may find something awesome.

It's all about the music!

Enough for now,

Enjoy!

Jeff

McIntosh Preamp hopes re-railed by a McIntosh C27

I finally saved up enough to try again to upgrade my aging and failing Yamaha C-70 preamp.  The last time I attempted this, if you read my posts, a McIntosh preamp was destroyed by UPS.  It took three months to work it out and I had a very helpful seller!  The C-70 has been giving me trouble for about the last year.  One of the controls kept dropping one of the channels until it was actuated a few times.  You would think this would be cleared up by using it over and over, it was not.  I hate sitting there listening to music and have a channel drop in volume.  So it had to be replaced, I will try to find a good home for it who is knowledgeable in how to repair such things.  I finally managed to have opportunity and funding intersect and was able to purchase another McIntosh preamp.

Yesterday I took delivery of a 1977-1983 McIntosh C27 Preamp.  It was in awesome condition and I purchased it from a repair facility in the Carolina's.  I took a chance with the seller as they had Zero feedback.  I was pleasantly surprised when the boxes arrived and were not damaged.  The packing job done by them was excellent!  The item was just as pictured, which was clean with no damage and very little of the bubbling paint under the glass.  Like I have said before, I don't play the looks of an item, I play the item, so I am usually OK with a bit of cosmetic issues on the equipment I own. I left the seller very positive feedback and sent him a message thanking him for his efforts to get it to me undamaged.

This preamp seems to be legendary in a couple respects.  It was released right about the time the C32 was in production.  The C32 at that time was the baddest-ass preamp you could purchase, IMHO.  It had equalizers, filters, and a bunch of controls to shape the sound in any way you could imagine except reverb.  Interesting that a C27 would be released at the same time as a C32, since it seems to be released out of sequence.  What I have gathered so far is the C27 is a new technology product for McIntosh at that time and had the "new" controls which would become standard from that point on.  These controls are supposed to give excellent fidelity while lasting much longer than the "old" controls would, which is a pretty long time when I consider my MC250 amp is almost 50 years old!  Instead of putting all those equalizer and filter functions and so forth on this product, it is closer to a purist product.  The variable loudness control is interesting and can be defeated when set to flat, but what it does is enhance the lower frequencies at lower volumes to make up for apparent sound loss at lower volumes.  The C27 is more of a pure Preamp, people seem to love this particular model does as it not come up for sale very often, as a matter of fact this was the first one that I had saw on eBay for sale since I started looking.  Once I did some research, and asked a knowledgeable friend, saw the condition and who was selling it, I figured I could not go wrong.  I was right! 
This preamp has a ton of inputs, two phono inputs, (which was the most important factor for me), two aux, two sets of tape deck connections and a tuner input.  It also outputs to two separate amps in stereo and one in mono too, which I love!  (I am thinking of getting my hands on a mono tube amp and running a very efficient set or a single speaker on to simulate the old mono days). The controls feel awesome and very high quality, very precise, no noise and something you would expect on a very expensive product.  No wonder these things last forever and hold their value!  I paid about what it cost new to buy it restored to factory specs.

I think the speaker connectors are a bit on the strange side, but I can understand.  Quite a few amplifiers of the time only have connections for one set of speakers.  What this preamp does is allow you to connect the output from your single set of speaker connections to the inputs in the C27 and then connect up to two sets of speakers to the preamp, allowing the flexibility of playing and controlling an additional or different set of speakers and the headphone jack from the preamp, (the headphone jack is not active unless you have an amplifier's speaker outputs connected to the speaker inputs on the C27).  Very cool idea for the time, but today I think it is unneeded.  I am probably not going to bother hooking it up, although I have an idea or two on how to use that flexibility to play my Christmas party music without too much grief. 

So far the way it works is very nice and I was able to figure most things out pretty quickly.  I spent some enjoyable evening time reading the owners manual before it arrived so I would be familiar with how the controls worked and the features of this preamp.

I had the Yamaha preamp unhooked and the McIntosh hooked up and running in just a few minutes.  I have the cabinet and it is in awesome condition, but I decided to leave the cabinet in the packing box to protect it and run the preamp in the rack without the cabinet to save space and to increase cooling efficiency as it is in tight quarters.  I isolated it from the cabinet with some home-made vibration control feet that I mention in another blog post.  Overall, I was just happy not to hear noisy controls or strange noises.  When I did some late night listening, the glow of the tubes from my Musical Paradise MP301 MK3 tube amp along with the green glow lettering from the McIntosh had a hypnotic effect on me as I sat there listening to jazz at 130 in the morning.

This morning I am using my McIntosh C27 with my McIntosh MC250 amp and the combination sounds excellent!

I was thinking how I am the budget audiophile and this piece cost quite a bit, and how does that fit with the Budget Audiophile Philosophy?  Well, first off, I had to save for nearly a year for a chance to upgrade. Also, when I look at the fact that this may well be my last preamp, then the overall cost for the next 25 years becomes negligible in my opinion.  It is the value of the item sometimes and not the sheer cost that determine the overall budget fitting properties of a purchase.  This is a long-term investment in equipment that does not go down in value. So, if I ever have to sell it, I am pretty confident that I will receive at least what I paid for it. VALUE!


I will be reviewing this more in the future as I do some critical listening.  I just wanted to post that I finally got my preamp upgraded to something flexible enough to remove a few items from the signal path that I had connected prior to this becoming my main preamp on my main system.

My main system now consists of:
Yamaha RxV-2700 home theater receiver
Musical Paradise MP301 Mk3 7WPC Tube Amp
McIntosh MC250 50WPC Stereo Solid-State Amp
McIntosh C27 Stereo Premplifier
Two Turntables - Technics, JVC
Two working Reel to Reel decks - Pioneer, Teac
Nakamichi Cassette Tape Deck
Klipsch KLF-20 three-way speakers
PSB T6 Three-way speakers
Boston Acoustics T930 - Three-way speakers
Paradign Mini Monitor V.5 - Two-way speakers
Computer running JRiver media software through a Schiit DAC connected to the preamp

Stay safe and get some listening time in!

Jeff

Tube Mania - Musical Paradise MP-301 MK3 Tube Amplifier Review

I just acquired a new tube amp.  It is a Musical Paradise MP301-MK3.  It sounds great, you may be surprised like I was how great 6.5 watts of tube power sounds!  If you have read any of my posts, I love variety.  This amp is right up my alley!

This amp takes tubes.  Two different sets, one set is for power and the other is the pre-amplification tubes.  Both type of tubes can make a difference in how the music sounds.  The maker of this amp has made it quite flexible with both sets of tubes.  Lots of variety!

This little amp takes four tubes, like I said a pair of power tubes and a set of preamp tubes.  Here is a list of the power tubes that it accepts:

6P3P, 6L6, KT66, 5881, EL34, 6CA7, KT77, KT88, 6550

Here is a list of the pre-amp tubes that it accepts:

6SJ7, 5693, 6SK7, 6SD7, 6J8P, 6*8

WOW!

So far I have indulged myself and purchased a few sets of tubes.  I have his this amp less than two weeks and I am on my third trade of tubes.  Why?  I am trying to eliminate the tubes that suck from my growing stockpile of tubes.  I have purchased a set of RCA preamp tubes from the early 1960s.  As much as I would love to use a glass-tube in this application, the RCA 6SK7 tube is rated very high and quite inexpensive! However they are metal tubes and black and not as cool looking as a glass tube with the heater showing.  I was able to get my first set for $7!  They were matched!  I was very hopeful, and when they arrived I changed out the stock Chinese tubes that came with the amp.  I am listening right now to those RCA metal tubes.  The system sounds very good!

So far I have purchased a matched set of Mullard EL34 tubes, three matched sets of the RCA 6SK7s that I mentioned above, a matched Quad (Which is four tubes with the same electrical ratings when tested) of these Russian 6L6 tubes for a really good price, a matched quad of ITT 6SJ7GT tubes, a matched pair of Tung Sol 5881s, a set of Sovietek 6550s.  I find that I liked the RCA so much that I found and purchased two more matched sets.  

So far I have about 40 hours of running time on this amp and from what I hear it will sound even better going forward.  Moving around the tubes has been enjoyable as I get to sit and do some intense listening to see what I feel about the sound of each set of tubes that I install.  

I found these el-cheapo Russian 6L6 power tubes for $15 for four of them, all new and matched!  I was pretty surprised at the price and that shipping was not jacked up to make up for the low price.  Nope, shipping was reasonable, 14-day return policy too.  How could I go wrong with a deal like that?  I got them Friday and put them in place of the Mullard EL34s I was running in it.  They sound mighty respectable with no burn-in time.  I am hoping to find them a good enough sounding tube that I will get another matched quad of these tubes for day to day driving.  Special days I will do some tube swapping. I checked for background noise and these tubes had not raised the noise floor.  I can hear the amp when nothing is running with a very faint hiss.  I am working on eliminating this.

I had a big problem with hum when I first got this amp and set it up.  I was able to get it under control using a method a friend advise I try.  I do not recommend this at home unless you or someone you know is knowledgeable about such things.  I removed the grounding pin from the computer cord that I use to connect this to power and added a three-plug to two-plug adapter.  I started with it in the normal configuration and I still heard the hum, but when I powered it down and turned the plug over and essentially plugged it in upside down the hum was totally gone, replaced with a very faint hiss type sound.  This I can live with until I can reduce it further, but now is the area with diminishing returns occur.  The effort to eliminate that little bit of hiss will cost quite a bit of time, and I have actually made it worse messing with things in the past.

Well, I wanted a variety and I wanted to tinker, woohoo!

I will post a review at some point in the future.  

Keep on Listening!


Jeff


Here is a link to what I now own and am loving so far!  

http://www.musicalparadise.ca/store/index.php?route=product/product&path=59&product_id=54

Update 1/25/15:
This little amp is awesome.  I am running some EL34s in it right now and listening to it in the background.  Excellent build quality, I have had it for a couple years now and have had zero issues with it.  I think that I like the power and sound of the KT88 tubes in it.  I like 5881s, and the EL34s too!  Really worth the money, in my opinion.

Update 12/11/15:
Nightly driver amp, runs nice, trouble-free.  I am running some Tung-Sol 5881s in it now, along with some metal RCA preamp tubes.  It sounds excellent, very reliable and I have used it for probably a few thousand hours easily by now.  I run it every night as my bedroom system, so it gets 6 - 8 hours a night of use.  Still highly recommended!  My only wish is that it could be bridged mono and I could pair a couple up as a stereo system, it would be awesome!

Good thing for cheap RCA cables

Recently, I had an adventure at home.  Actually I am still not quite done getting everything back just the way I want it.  What massive project did I undertake?  I disconnected, cleaned, re-arranged and moved my entire audio system.  If you have read any of my posts you can probably see that there is a ton of stuff to move.  Right now, after four days I have one of three systems completely operational and I am listening to the completed system.  These "three" systems are actually my main system.  I have two other systems in the basement alone. Technically, I only disconnected my main system.  I like a variety!

The disconnect went less nice than expected.  The nest of wires was significant and there were wires tangled up all over the place.  The rubberized coated ones seem to be the most difficult to untangle.  It took me about 2 hours to disconnect and sort through all the wires before I could even begin the task of removing equipment, cleaning it and beginning the moving of furniture.

The re-connect was less difficult, I used short cables wherever I could.  I tried to keep it as clean-looking as possible.  The unfortunate issue that I have right now is I re-positioned the rack about four feet over and some of my cables are too short.  I plan to re-add the Adcom speaker switches that I had used before to switch around speakers and amplifiers.

The start up was slow.  Do to the re-positioning of the system I have to either splice or replace some cables.  I first hooked it up and ran it for a day and thought that I was hearing some noise on the left channel.  So I disconnected everything, re-distributed some cables and power hookups to see if I could clear up the noise.  I replaced the cable from the Schiit DAC to the Yamaha C-70 pre-amp and the noise was eliminated.  At that point, feeling awesome, I hooked up the grounding wire to the pre-amp from the turntable and switched over the the phono input.  The buzzing was tremendous!  I tried moving the ground wire, and moving the power around once again.  No change at all.  CRAP!

So, what did I do?  I turned it all off and slept on it.  Today, when I got home I decided to move the cabinet to the current location from one about 8 feet further away from where it was.  I disconnected all the inter-connects between the devices and the preamp and started over with the shortest cables that I could manage with.  I powered it up and it still had a buzz, so I moved it once again out so I could access everything.  I decided to replace the higher end connecting cables from the two turntables with el-cheapo Radio Shack generic RCA cables.  The buzz was nearly totally eliminated.  I was pretty stoked.

Continuing on toward re-connecting the home theater receiver and the tube amp to everything will take me the remainder of the week to accomplish.  I am hoping not to introduce any more buzz into the system as I add more connections to the mix.

Keep on Listening!

Jeff

How much is too much Audio Gear?

I was just thinking that I have quite a bit of audio equipment.  I certainly have more than most people.  My daughter informed me that none of her friends' parents even have a home stereo, perish the thought.  I use most of my equipment most of the time.  I love having options and systems in different locations throughout the house.  I made a list of the equipment that I have and it turns out to be quite extensive.  I am wondering if I just have too much stuff, or if it is normal for audio-crazed individuals to have a few working stereo systems in their homes.

Here is a list of my equipment as it stands in January 2013:

I have a few amplifiers:

McIntosh MC250 - 50 WPC Stereo amp - Purchased used 2011
Onyko 5.1 Receiver – 75 WPC - given to me by a friend in 2011

Parasound HCA-800-II - 100 WPC stereo amplifier - Purchased used in 2011

Quipu 2.5 WPC stereo tube amp - Purchased new in 2010
Yamaha RX-V2700 - 140 WPC Home theater Receiver - Purchased demo unit 2008

  

I have a few sets of speakers:

Bose 10.2 series II – Purchased new by my Father in 1988ish

Bose 301 series II – Purchased new by my Father in 1988ish
Boston Acoustics T930 – purchased new 1988

Klipsch KLF-20 – Purchased used in 2008

Paradigm Monitor 5 – Purchased used in 2011

Polk T15 – Purchased used in 2011
PSB Image 6 speakers – Purchased used in 2012

 I have a few tape decks:

Nakamichi CR-1a – Cassette Deck - Purchased used in 2009 - rescued
Pioneer RT-1020L – Reel to Reel Deck - Purchased used in 2008 - rescued

Sony TC-377 – Reel to Reel Deck - Purchased used in 2005 - rescued

Teac A-6010 – Reel to Reel Deck - Purchased used in 2010 - rescued

  

I have a couple turntables:

JVC Straight Arm Turntable – Purchased used 2010
Technics SL-B3 – Traded with a friend for a 17” computer monitor in 2004 - rescued

I plan to build a custom turntable using an old garrard mechanism and a Technics arm

I have a few more assorted items:

ADCOM speaker selector switches - Purchased used in 2010
Bose Noise Cancelling headphones - Purchased new 2008
Grado 80i headphones - Purchased new 2012
Hafler preamp - Purchased rebuilt by a friend in 2011

HRT Music Streamer DAC – Burned up December 2012 – Bought new 2009
Mitsubishi 55” rear projection TV – Purchased used 2010

Quinpu tube buffer / preamplifier - Purchased new 2010
Sony  Blu-Ray player – Purchased new online
Sony CDP-C445 Cd player – given to me by my brother
Sony ES 5-disc changer that just started acting up – Purchased new 1991

Sony Reel to reel 3-way deck selector switch - Purchased used in 2010

Yamaha CR-70 Preamp - Purchased used 2010

Yamaha DVD Player – Purchased at a sale at paulsen's audio in Farmington Hills, MI

Zenith Trans Oceanic 3000-1 - Purchased used in 2010

Zenith Trans Oceanic Royal 7000-1 - Purchased used in 2012

I have just purchased a Schiit DAC to replace the burned up one - the Modi

I have a few Record Needles:
Denon DL-160 MC - Purchased NEW

Grado Black - Purchased NEW

Grado Blue - Purchased NEW

Grado Mono - Purchased NEW

Grado 78 RPM - Purchased NEW
Pickering XV-15/625 - Rescued
Shure V15RS (Radio Shack version of the V15) - Original Stylus - Purchased Used

Shure M97xE - Purchased several NEW

Shure M91ED - Rescued

Shure M95 - Rescued

Shure 78 RPM - Purchased NEW

How do our wives feel about all the gear?  I know that my wife does not like it one bit.  My equipment has been banished to the basement regions since we bought our home.  My equipment would not fit very well upstairs and the rooms are not suited to good listening.  Hard walls, hard floors, square in size and not suited well to running wires. 

I haven't even discussed my media collection, hundreds of Cd's.  I have over 100 Reel to Reel pre-recorded tapes, with around 100 more home made and blank tapes to be used in the future.  I have about 150 movies on DVD and Blu-Ray, I hate to think about the VHS tapes I am about to donate to the Salvation Army.  I have around 120 - 45 RPM records, around 80 - 78 RPM records, and around 1500 or so LP's in my collection.  

I also have most of the support gear associated with having the hardware and the software to play these recordings.  I have custom oilers, degreasers, deoxit, cleaners, lubricants, brushes and so forth just for the rejuvenation of the hardware.  I have reel to reel tape splicers, tape and media so I can add leaders to my tapes.  I have head cleaners, head lubricants, swabs and a demagnetizer for the reel to reel decks. I have storage bags for the reels and the records.  I have created custom sleeves for my 78 collection.  I have taken the artwork from nearly destroyed sleeves, and added it to new sleeves to at least preserve some of the information from the original sleeve.  I am adding my collection, a little at a time to Discogs so I have an accurate accounting of my collection.  So far I only have 400 or so entered.  I also purchased boxes for my collection of stuff from bags unlimited, which specializes in preservation.  I am trying very diligently to maintain my collection of gear and media so it can make it to the future for someone else to take care of into the next 50 years after I am done with them.

So what do you think, do I have too much gear?  Like I said I use most of it all the time.  I am playing the record players most days, the reel to reels most months, the amps at least weekly and I change up the speakers using banana plugs or the speaker selector switches depending on the configuration.  I use the TV the least of all the items on the list, but keep it for playing movies.

I am thinking it is time to turn it down a bit so I can listen longer, this will be a post at some point!

Keep on listening as long as you can.  

Peace out and Happy New Year 

Jeff

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

Christmas Music

I have quite a large collection of Christmas LPs, Reel to Reels and CDs.  One curiosity that I have especially when I play an LP is who owned this, how did that scratch get there and what the story of this record is.

When I think of Christmas, I reflect on the good times, the people and the memories.  How many different things each of these records have "seen" over the years.  Some of the Christmas albums are 50 or more years old.  Imagine all the family changes that went on over that time period.  How long did this album sit before I purchased it with the intent of playing it.  How many memories are contained in this record?

I am digitizing some of these recordings and posting them on my YouTube channel called XmasWonderland.  I am finding that quite a number of people are quite happy to see these videos of some of the less known seasonal music.  I have some comments that they hadn't heard that particular song in years, or tell me of their memories.  It is awesome and gave me the desire to post more music on the site to excite other people looking for certain songs.

I have about 250 Christmas albums ranging in quality from Good to Near Mint.  Sometimes I wonder if the album that I am playing has even been played more than once or twice.  One thing that I think about is how many of these were purchased in the bargain bins of the local store and forgotten about.  Or played that first year and their record player broke, or they received their first CD player and the records were filed in boxes in some dark corner of the basement.

The treasures held in these old records are pretty significant.  Some of the music has not been moved to CD, so except for those of us digitizing the songs and posting them, they may wind up forgotten songs.  I would hate to see that, as I am disappointed by the trend of radio stations to have a month or so of Christmas music by playing the same 40 songs over and over again.  When was the last time you heard the Lennon Sisters, or Lou Rawls, or Ed Ames, or Lynn Anderson, Leonard Bernstein, Ella Fitzgerald or Wurlitzer Organ Christmas music, which used to be very popular on the radio stations playing Christmas classics?

I am very glad to have a couple working turntables so I can enrich my holiday season by treating my family to some wonderful Christmas music that at least in my house, hasn't been forgotten.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Jeff