About Lugnut -- Patrick Malone

Swampman,

I've been through the type of treatment your wife is getting an it's much more difficult to endure than what I'm doing. Besides, whether you believe it or not, your role is more difficult than hers on several levels. Bless you for being a good husband. If you ever falter DO NOT hesitate to contact me and I'll prop you back up. I sense that you are like my wife and I admire you for it. When I talk about the light at the end of the tunnel, I'm speaking about death. For your wife, it's cure. I need to remember the light even if I can't see it or else I'll be overwhelmed when it returns brighter than when it left. For your wife it is a goal for living, something to reach for. When I say that my chemo is pretty benign it's a true statement. I have few side effects. Stoned and tired today and tomorrow I'll be just like yesterday...okay.

St. James Infirmary is THE SONG I was talking about at dinner last night and Barb started to cry. It is the most wonderful music I've ever heard on every level. I've been meaning to order the 33 rpm version for myself by the same folks that did the 45 rpm set. I would trade a large pile of my best records for that one song if I had to make that choice. Amazing how one song moved me so much. IMNSHO, this is the best song ever recorded by anyone, ever. I must admit that I'm surprised Doug and Paul own it being classical lovers that they are. I'm also really glad you went over there too. They are great guys and I love them a lot. Doug has been a big help for many of my analog questions. Paul, bless his heart, wrote one of the most important emails I've ever received and I will be forever greatful to him for doing so. Hearts this big are a wonderful thing to experience.

As far as my analog is concerned I'm home free right now with the Yatra MK II. The opportunity to upgrade to an Airy 3 (I'm going silver wire) with the silver mounting plate is a no brainer. My only concern is getting the darn thing broke in so I can fully enjoy it. I wish I had the cash to burn so I could hire someone to play records 24/7 until it reaches the magic hundred hour mark. Wouldn't that be a fun job? This turntable, cartridge, tonearm stuff with all the setup and bits and pieces needed to make it happen right is like some weird brotherhood. We are together but we are separate also. What I have found is there is more than one way to skin a cat. If I were to offer any criticism of us as a group it would be that we possess a learned narrow minded-ness. My analog front end would be rejected out of hand by many as being unworthy until they actually listened to it. Sure, if it were gone I'd probably buy something else but mainly to gain a little more acceptance from the group as a whole rather than any real sonic leaps in performance. It's like trading in a Sportster for a Fat Boy. Of course, the Fat Boy is a real Harley as if the Sportster isn't. Yeah, right.

Jeff, you are doing something more important than you realize. You are here and take the effort to let me know. This should be a Mastercard commercial. Priceless.

Pat-

As always you know yourself, Barb, Amanda, and Scott are in our thoughts and prayers. (just a reminder) I will try to give you a call soon and see how that "read" of yours is coming along...

I will tell you this after I got a call last week from my dealer. I too have the ZYX Airy 3S-SB, and my dealer installed it on my new TT setup last week and called me after the initial couple of hours he spent setting up the table, arm and cartridge to tell me how the sound kicks a.. I mentioned that I heard the Airy 3S-SB needed a good 80 hours from what I read to "come around" and he laughed and said I wouldn't worry at all if it didn't change a bit. This was his first ZYX he had set up and was very impressed - out of the box. So - hopefully that is good news to you, and hopefully it will also be quite enjoyable out of the box for you as well!

Talk to you soon & God Bless

Pat,
If you have concern that your post is difficult to track, don't. You're coming in loud and clear, in fact more so than ever.
Lots of love to you and your family, friend.
Howard

Thanks, Patrick. On the subject of analog rigs, while Doug and Paul's TT/ARm(Tri-planar, not Schroder)/CARt/Step-up are world class, their Pre/phonostage, as you may know, is older and very modest in cost at present and yet the sound was to die for. So I would never sneer at anything w/o hearing it. I have not had much of a chance to hear other high end rigs since I work so much and have become a bit of a loner, but going to the show in NYC a couple of weeks ago and then hearing a really optimized analog front end, it has energized me to do better in set-up with what I have. I've also had less than mind-blowing performance from some well regarded phono stage/cart combos so I have figured out not to pre-judge. I am sure that the Airy 3 will be terrific. I bought the demo Airy2 and now must get it together to get a step-up.

Frank,

If your Airy is not fully broken in then you and your installer are going to be amazed when it does. It's very detailed out of the box but with time it gets so smooth it's spooky. At least that is how my Yatra behaves and the one UNIverse I'm intimately familiar with. Isn't it the quietest "in the groove" thing you've ever heard?

Howard, so I handle being ripped pretty well? Har har. I guess there was at least one benefit to growing up in the sixties.

Swampman, contrary to what Raul says (and I'm not fussing), to my ears, and in every case, I prefer the step up to a high powered phono stage. Some are better than others. Just my opinion but it seems more real. I'm no electronics guru but the way they work doesn't create a much longer signal path, so no loss as far as I can tell. Distortion? Maybe. I dunno. Tubes are more distorted than ss but I like it better. That's all I care about. I go by my ears. I'm sure glad you made this move. You will shit. In case you guys don't know shitting is bigger than having your jaw drop. Tell that to the reviewers.