Whats on your turntable tonight?

A favorite teacher of mine in high school was fond of gently pointing out my errors in papers I submitted. He had various sized stamps with the word "BONEHEAD!>>" on them that he would use to subtly mark my papers. The more egregious the error, the bigger the stamp. I think the biggest I saw had 1" block letters.

Well, last night I just awarded myself the 5" tall BONEHEAD!>> stamp as I managed to snap off the cantilever to my beloved Magic Diamond cartridge. Oh, was it ever so easy! and ever so quick! A moment of carelessness, a misplaced waive of the hand, and zip - gone! Snapped clean off.

We're ordering a replacement, but vinyl will sit quiet around here for a while until the replacement arrives. Take what lessons you will for your own purposes, my friends.
.

OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!

How many of you have had an LP in your collection that you thought was just mediocre until you played it on some different equipment?

This just happened to me yesterday as I listened to the Khatchaturian "Gayenah Ballet" listed in my post above. I'd always enjoyed the music on this LP, but consistently thought the sound quality was indifferent, if not decidedly disappointing: muffled, indistinct, completely lacking is resolution and transparency. Definitely not what I expected of a Bob Auger engineered mastertape! I remember being sooo disappointed when I first got it years ago.

Well, not any more...

In listening to this LP last night for the first time on the current turntable, what I now hear is a very low-level signal encoded on the disc (typical of many English pressings), but with incredible resolution, detail, soundstaging and harmonic integrity. The former turntable simply was not capable of resolving the magic that was really on this LP.

For me, put this in the category of "lessons repeatedly re-learned..."
.

DANG! Rushton, my deepest sympathies go out to you on the cantilever mishap. Perhaps a great test of ones caricature to not start jumping up and down cursing at an inanimate object like Yosemite Sam from the WB cartoons. I must admit I would have failed the test and commenced to shoot’in something! (at least verbally). Ouch! To hear you reflecting on a more whimsical moment in time when what you did or more importantly, didn't do had seemingly lesser consequences shows perspective.
And yes there have been albums lately I find to come alive with my current TT set up and the tube amps. I formerly had SS and as good as it was it never revealed the sense of depth and texture, almost aliveness that is in my living room today. So many recordings have fleshed out to become a real sonic landscape and emotionally connect us with the music that I couldn’t list them all. One thing that has remained in the system though is my Linn Sondek Lp12 from 1983. Now sounding better than ever with a new Akiva cartridge. After hearing your story I will try to remember to be focused, focused, focused when at the ready to spin some wax. Hope to hear that your up and running soon.
There is an interesting irony in that your beloved Magic Diamond cartridge brought you closer to the Khatchaturian "Gayenah Ballet" just before you lost it. Best regards

Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" 180gm 45 rpm. Christopher Cross "Sailing" (never knew this album was recorded so well) and Illinois Jacquet