Synergistic Red Fuse ...

^^^ Charles ...

You are more than welcome. Its a pleasure sharing music with someone who I am confident is a true music lover.

I see a great divide in this hobby and its been evident to me for many years. There are those of us who will sacrifice a lot financially in the quest to get us closer to the music. And then there are those who consider their stereo equipment to be some kind of exotic jewelry that they can show off to their friends.

I have thousands of recordings in my collection, and I suspect that you and a few others posting here do as well. On the other hand, I've met so many folks who have systems costing in excess of 100k, with a paltry collection of, at most, 100 recordings ... all of which are of the "audiophile" variety. You know, typical would be Patricia Barber; totally drenched in artificial digital reverb. To each his own, I guess. 

You and I, and others like us, can listen to a 60 year old recording of Zoot Sims and be blown away emotionally through his talent. The folks on other side of the coin, however, wouldn't be caught dead with that recording. "Eww ... there's a "tick" on the third cut of side two!" :-)

As for me, I'll take the music every time. 

Glad you appreciate what I sent you. It means a lot to me. 

Take care ...

Frank

Charles ...

When I burned the Zoot Sims CD for you, I also burned one for myself.  I played it tonight in its entirety.  I find it pretty amazing that a mono LP that is almost 60 years old can be that involving and have such great sound. Sim's big, fat, voluptuous tenor is right there in the room. A real toe tapper for sure. 

By the way, I installed five of Herbie's tube dampeners on the tubes in the preamp yesterday. All I can say is WOW!

Frank, 
It just is another example of how two very different audio systems can yield such similar musical/-sonic results. With the exception of the Black fuses our speakers, source, electronics and cabling share no overlapping brands. What we have in common is the goal of constructing a system that emphasizes and serves the beauty and emotional power of music. 

That’s all I want from my system and based  on your numerous comments on your captivating  listening experiences at home, you most certainly have achieved that as well. Yes a 60 year old mono recording thats full of musical beauty and communicates straight to the soul. Toes tapping and head ah bobbin, absolutely 😊. Full bodied,rich and fat tenor sax tone, oh yes Zoot and company were in the house!
Charles 

Anybody else here use an autoformer or transformer passive preamp? My ASL TX-1 is a big part of what what makes my system sound so good. I can't imagine going back to resistive volume control.

Charles ...

On that Montgomery Brothers CD I sent you ... I listened to that last night as well. What I could clearly detect was that it was recorded from two different sessions. 

I discussed this album with my friend Robert, who knows more about recorded music than anyone on the planet. He even puts Michael Fremer to shame.

Robert knows my collection as if it were his own. Robert said that he thinks the album was recorded and used only by radio stations and was never released to the public. In all of our years of collecting records, this is the only copy either of us has ever seen. I've been looking since the early 70's for a cleaner copy with no luck at all. Not even on Ebay or on Amazon. I do have another Montgomery Brothers album with some of the same music, but no Buddy on vibes. 

By the way, I know you like vibes. Do  you have anything by Milt Jackson on the old Roost label? They were from the mono era and they sound fantastic.  They were reissued as "twofers" about 30 years ago and the transfers are superb. Good BeBop played by a very young Milt Jackson. Quite different from his later recordings when he was playing with MJQ. 

Frank