About Lugnut -- Patrick Malone

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.

LOL, Patrick thanks for the smile. As they say in Bahstan; Yaw a real pissah!

Hi guys. Been busy with other things and not posting much.

Thanks to Swampwalker for the visit and his kind words about our system. We just upgraded from Teres 265 to 320 and that's what he heard. The improvement was far larger than we expected, about the equivalent of going from Airy 3 to UNIverse. IOW, huge! I'll post something on my system thread when I get time. We upgraded our power amp a couple of months ago also. I haven't updated that yet either. A preamp upgrade is probably next. Our little c-j PV11 is in way over its head now, :-), but it holds its own remarkably well. We've had a friend's reference quality preamp in our system and decided to upgrade the power amp first. It made a bigger difference. The PV-11 is a remarkable performer, especially since used ones go for $700 or less.

We visited Swampwalker and heard the Airy 2 with our BentAudio stepups in his system. I've never heard a happier cartridge. It just sang and sang. Some kinda magic going on there with his SOTA, OL Silver, Merlins and Joule I guess. It doesn't match a UNIverse, but there was zero sense of that while listening. The music just flowed naturally into the room with a transparent grace and delicacy that was pure pleasure to hear.

Swampwalker was kind enough to lend us his Denon DVD-3910 with full Underwood mods so we could A/B/C against our stock 3910 and our Arcam FMJ CD23. Differences between them? Sure. Worth $2K+ to mod our Denon? Doubtful. The turntable upgrade was 50 times more significant for about the same money.

Cheers to all!

Hi Pat,
I know you get tiered and it’s hard at times to go through all this. It’s no fun not being yourself because the drugs make you crazy, but believe me, your role in Barb’s life along with so many of your friends is huge! I have been seeing a psychologist since we last talked, and I’m beginning to remember how my life affects so many. I complain that living for the sake of others is too hard some times, and that l can’t live my life so unselfishly. Well I have done just that for the past eight years and I do have a lot of people who still need me.
As I have told you, I can not make it much over five hours without a nap, which is both due to my heart and the drugs. I hate it that I’m not me, yet my kids and wife would take this every day over being left alone. I know you get tired, and some days the fight is overwhelming, but we need you around. I personally can not tell you how much your emails have meant to me, you’re a gift that God has provided for me. Your role is great, and I love you. I was very depressed when I wrote you for your help, and that response gave me the strength I needed to make the changes I need to make. Thus the shrink! Keep the spirit as you go through this next treatment, we’re all pulling for you and selfishly I need you.
J.D.

Mornin' everyone,

Barb and I returned home late yesterday afternoon from our Portland, Oregon trip. We had a lot of fun and made some really good memories as well as friends. Varidian and his wife (Marty and Liz) joined us for dinner twice during our stay and one night we went on an adventure together in search of live blues but ended up listening to jazz. I shopped hard for some hardware and harder for software being successful in each department. Of note is how much fun I had at Echo Audio. Kurt, the owner, is very accomodating and a lot of fun to work with. He didn't hesitate a moment to hook up several speakers for me to audition on two separate visits. I ended up buying some Tannoy monitors, stands and a used equipment rack for a system I'm building for a friend. I recommend this store for anyone that wants to be treated well not to mention the very fair prices for quality used audio gear. The record stores, which are many, are a mixed bag. I ended up buying twentyone records and one old Vogue 78 rpm picture disk. A couple of the records I purchased were ones I'd been looking for for some time. One was still sealed and the other was in mint condition.

The trip kicked my puny ass and I'm dog tired. Still, it was fun. Portland is really pretty and a very vibrant town. It struck me as very interesting how casual everyone dressed. More so than any other place I've ever been. It rained a lot during our stay and just about nobody bothers with umbrella's, except visitors. Public transportation is free and very organized as well as clean. With only a little planning it's easy to organize a day and find all the stops. The food is great and the place is Emerald City/Wizard Of Oz green. I sure understand the attraction it has for young folks. There is so much to do and the area definitely has a young persons cultural attitude. It was nice to come home to dry, warm weather and a slower pace though.

Paul's travel plans are being modified as I write this. He has had a number of things come up within the last week making it impossible to arrive today. I hate to see him pay dearly for last minute flight changes but am anxious to see him. We'll just have to see how this works out.

This is my scheduled week off of the chemo schedule and I'm glad. I do have a CT scan on Wednesday morning. Dunno if it will tell any more than what my body is telling me. I'm without any cancer symptoms at the moment and willing to stop the treatments. No, that's not exactly correct. I'm anxious to stop the chemo. I'm tired of being tired and maybe if I get some time off now I'll have more energy when Steve and I go to Albert Porter's June 3-6.

Gotta run. The day is getting hectic already. My buddy's turntable and amps arrived so I need to clean off a work area and take an inventory of all the bits and pieces and check for shipping damage. Peace to all.

Pat