Whats on your turntable tonight?

Ray,

VPI offers the advantage of a platter that fully supports the LP and is sturdy enough to use as a platform for "scrubbing" the surface of the LP using your preferred cleaning fluid and brush (e.g., Disc Doctor or Records Research).

I've used a VPI Model 17 pretty intensively for 18 years, and it still runs like a champ; they are very sturdily built. Either the VPI 16.5 or the 17 would be a great addition.

OTOH, the manual cleaning process with Disc Doctor works pretty well without a vacuum cleaner. The vacuum cleaner adds a lot of convenience, but a more important key to excellent cleaning of your vinyl is using a good cleaning fluid and and good brushes, like the Disc Doctor. I say this after having been a dedicated user of home brew cleaning solutions with my VPI for many years, and being a DD skeptic. NO MORE! After an experience at Lloyd Walker's house, where he took one of my "clean" records, plopped it on top of his VPI 17 and cleaned it with Disc Doctor fluid using a DD brush, the improvement in clarity was so immediately apparent that I become a convert on the spot and have never looked back.
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Today:
John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman, Impulse AS-40, Speakers Corner reissue (from the analogue master tapes)

Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac

Wild Child Butler, Analogue Productions Original recording, d-to-d. If you like blues and you haven't listened to the APO releases, you are missing some wonderful performances in great sound!

Pettersson, Sym 8, Commissiona/BaltimoreSO, DGG 2531 176. Great music, excellent performance, fanastic recording - this is NOT the typical DGG sound. Recorded under the direction of Robert Wood (Telarc), this recording has a natural soundstage, extended frequency response, very good dynamic range and no obvious mult-miking.

Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Perlman and Ozawa/BSO, DGG. Very nice performance by a young feisty Perlman. Unfortunately, typcial DGG multi-mike mess for sound.

Berg Violin Concerto - wonderful work for lovers of great 20th Century music. From the same LP above.
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Today I installed the 1" Cellular shades as called for by Rives Audio http://www.rivesaudio.com They are insulating room darkening shades. So, I played the standard large orchestral warhorses:
Mussorgsky "Pictures At An Exhibition" (RCA LSC-2201/Classic Records reissue)
Stravinsky "Firebird complete ballet" (Mercury SR90226/Classic Records reissue)
Mendelssohn "Symphony No. 3, Fingal's Cave" (Decca SXL 2246/Speaker's Corner 45 rpm reissue
Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" (Columbia CS 8163/Classic Records 45 rpm reissue)

As good as things have been sounding, the window treatments have taken it to a whole new level. All the residual glare from the 6ft and 10 ft windows is gone compliments of the 1" insulated cellular shades.

Billy Joel - Innocent Man:

Just picked this one up for $1.50 in perfect shape a few weeks ago. Never realized how good some of the Billy Joel albums are. This one is quickly becoming one of my favorite Billy Joel albums.

Ray Brown Trio, "Soular Energy" Pure Audiophile PA-002
Bill Berry, "Shortcake" Pure Audiophile PA-004
(again!)
Whatever Stan Ricker is doing with his revised half-speed mastering process on these Pure Audiophile LPs, the results are simply stunning. I just had to come back to these LPs again tonight both for the superb musicianship and to wallow in the incredible sonics! The inner detail, leading edge transient response and dynamics on these LPs are very special.
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