Whats on your turntable tonight?


For me its the first or very early LP's of:
Allman Brothers - "Allman Joys" "Idyllwild South"
Santana - "Santana" 200 g reissue
Emerson Lake and Palmer - "Emerson Lake and Palmer"
and,
Beethoven - "Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major" Rudolph Serkin/Ozawa/BSO
slipknot1
Rushton, What's up with the new amp stands, I would presume, for the Atma-Sphere mono blocks? I’m all-ears. Did you and your fellow audiophile wife (lucky guy) get down to some SERIOUS comparative listening this holiday?
Presently I have MA-1 Mk2.3 Silver editions on Rock Maple laminated cutter blocks (18x24x2.5") with granite (18x24x4") slabs below and Bright Star Isonodes between. Lots of folks say the granite rings when used directly below amps, with this current arrangement we only hear the maple and it is nice tonally. The combination of materials seem to best decouple the amps from the hard wood floors of my old house (circa 1926) as the amps are located in near proximity to my Coincident Total Eclipse speakers that are on brass points. I've tried many different setups and nothing else cuts the resonance to the amp chassis. Let me know what you glean from this new arrangement.
Cheers! Foster

I'm playing Chad's Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants 45's tonight followed by a beautiful copy of Yusef Latef -Eastern Sounds on TransAtlantic UK. Yusef and I share the hometown of Detroit and I had the distinct pleasure of seeing (and hearing) him at our historic Detroit Orchestra Hall years ago. Very nice!
Hi Foster! We've been thinking about amp stands for some time, but have never moved forward until now. We're testing out some of Lloyd Walker's amp stands: 3" maple butcher block and Valid points. For a picture, see the 2005 Brutus Awards article at Positive Feedback Online (scroll down about 10 screens, with comments and more pics about 18 screens down).

We haven't compared these to any other alternatives, but the improvement has been so instantly apparent and so material, that I don't expect to pursue other options. Ann and I used the last 6 minutes or so of the 45 rpm Classic reissue of the Mercury/Firebird as our principal listening test. About 10 seconds after I dropped the needle, we looked at each other and said "Oh, yes." The rest of our listening has simply confirmed that first 10 second gestalt take. We're hooked. Lloyd has worked his magic again.
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Foster, I forgot to confirm that this is for the Atma-Sphere MA-2 amps, as you surmised. We also have an older home with thick oak flooring. Our speakers (Eidolons) are also spiked using Walker Audio Valid Points on resonance control discs, to very considerable improvement over the stock spikes. At this point, the 3" butcher block is sitting on some special variation of sorbothane that Lloyd has found to work in some applications better than he ever expected. We plan to next experiment with replacing the sorbothane with Valid Points on resonance control to see what change occurs.
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Tonight:

The Who, Who's Next (Classic Records reissue in great sound.)

The Doors, Morrison Hotel (German 180 gram reissue, mastered by Willem Makkee)

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Gershwin Songbook, Volume 4 (Speakers Corner reissue)

Bach, Cantatas (BWV 1-4), Harnoncourt/ConMWien, Telefunken SKW 1/1-2
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Has anyone listened to the Queen: "Night at the Opera" reissue from EMI? Half-speed mastered, 180 gram. Does anyone know who mastered this or where it was pressed? The master tape is only mediocre, so I'm not prepared to pay the premium price for the oop DCC reissue of this, but I'd love to have a better sounding copy than my old domestic US pressing.
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