Jazz for aficionados

Audiophile:
a person who is enthusiastic about high-fidelity sound reproduction.
(webster).

Music has nothing to do with it. CD players are just too simple. Insert disc, hear music. Minimum involvement. Nothing to ’fiddle’ with.

On a Steve Guttenberg episode, an audiophile ’admitted’ that he was interested in sound, not music. He said his wife liked music.   Steve said, "you are the first to admit it".

Some just like the gadgets. Once I understood this, all became clear.

Cheers

There is nothing that irritates me more than guys in the "Analog" forum. When these "newbies" buy a record player and wonder why their records don’t sound so hot, those guys act like they don’t know what’s wrong, when they know full well that if you don’t have a big buck high end rig, CD’s sound better.

Back in the early 90’s I had just put in a good 3 years auditioning and putting together my dream system in my newly remodeled listening room. Had a nice CD player and thought I was done when reading Robert Harley’s Compete Guide to High End Audio and got to the chapter on turntables, wherein he says this is the foundation of a high end system. Still.

Really? How? No way.

But out in my garage was my old Technics SL-1700 just sitting in a box. Still had my 1970’s vintage Kenwood integrated with its built-in phono stage. So I dug it out and hooked it all up. It was around this time that I noticed the cantilever on the Stanton 681EEE cartridge was bent. Dang. Oh well, pliers. Kinked but straightened I put on one of my records.

Out from my speakers came this rich full sound so much better than anything I had heard from any CD anywhere in my searches. You coulda knocked me over with a feather.

Wife comes home that night, hears music, gets all interested asks what is that? Tom Petty. No, I mean what is it? What do you mean? It sounds so good. She was right. It did sound good. She had no idea. Could not see it was a record. The turntable was down on the floor, out of sight, so of course it had to be CD. That was after all all we had. When she came in and had a look she was as amazed as me.

Okay so let’s review:  
1970’s DD turntable.  
Bent cantilever.  
Patch cords. 
1970’s phono stage.  
Grand total $700 new, or about $0 at then used prices. Before the Technics started appreciating. Beat CD, according to double- no, wait! triple blind testing.
Anyone says you need to spend a lot to sound good, either no idea what they’re talking about, or they’re talking ideology not sound. Or both.

Millercarbon, your ears are 180 degrees out from mine and millions of other people who trashed their old TT's and sold their records.

I didn't sell my records but trashed the TT. Without going into a lot of detail, I am presently waiting for a spare $600 bucks for 2 NOS tubes that are the only one's which suit my phono. Correction "Upscale" raised the price to $350 apiece.

Analog nirvana comes at a steep price; a price that puts me temporarily out of commission.


I am absolutely positive that what you presented would not meet my requirements.

@frogman 

Back atcha' on the Herbie Hancock.  I have spent little time listening to HH's jazz funk.  When it first came out I wrote it off as him cashing in.  Amazing how much I knew in my 20s.  

Listened to Actual Proof via the link you supplied.  Enjoyed it.  The music is much more complex and substantial than my younger self thought. Quite a few commented there about Mike Clark's drumming...and rightly so, I think.  Quick quick quick and light handed (if that's even possible in a funk setting).   

Just recently stumbled onto HH's "VSOP Quintet" on the live double album, VSOP (1977).  Was amazed at the performance of Maiden Voyage that opens things.  Freddie Hubbard in particular lights it up! in his soloing.  But circling back to jazz funk, side 4 contains two HH jazz funk compositions...Hang Up your Hang Ups (from Man-Child) and Spider from Secrets.  

Here's Spider from the VSOP Live.  Kind of a slow build so patience required.  The drummer is James Levi (not Mike Clark).  Nice work from Herbie at around the midway point. 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2J2w9enLZ0