drmuso
Responses from drmuso
| Do I need upgraded power cables? You could borrow AC cables from the Cable Company and try different brands that way. The rental fee is 10% of the value of the cables, and you can apply that to the cost of any cables you buy from them. They discount some of their cables. I have ... | |
| What are your go to LP's for evaluating new gear or new tubes? I have a couple Japanese repressings of the Decca The Planets, performed by Mehta and the LA Phil in 1970. The Decca version was one of HP's "Super Disks," and I've used the Japanese audiophile pressings for many years for judging components. Th... | |
| Help me build up a jazz album collection. Can you suggest a must have album? I would also add Smokin' at the Half Note by the Wynton Kelly Trio with Wes Montgomery, as my favorite Wes album. Give the guitarists some. | |
| Help me build up a jazz album collection. Can you suggest a must have album? For Bill Evans, I like Waltz for Debbie even more than the Village Vanguard album which came from the same series of performances. Also, his Portrait in Jazz. I concur otherwise with many of the above suggestions. But an omission is Herbie Hanc... | |
| When to change a cartridge? I think Michael Fremer said in one of his articles that groove wear is something of a myth, especially if you clean your records well and have your cartridge properly set up. I'm amazed how good some of my 50+ year old LPs sound even though they ... | |
| If Bi-Wiring is an option, should I choose Bi-wiring over single banana with free jumpers I suspect some speakers benefit more from biwiring than others; some manufacturers will recommend it. Some cable manufacturers now make special biwired sets, so you have four connectors for each cable, so you only run the two cables--less visuall... | |
| Best Classical Labels for Sound I concur with those who like BIS and Harmonia Mundi, although I do have one BIS CD which has seemed bright. I have one Audioquest CD of 18th Century trios that is fantastic--the three performers sound like they're in my listening room (helps that... | |
| Has it all been worth it? It has been worth it for me. Although early in my audiophile journey I did a lot of upgrading, about 40 years ago I assembled a core system that has proven satisfying. I've had to upgrade parts of it, and particularly I have had to upgrade the d... | |
| How often do you upgrade turntable ? My first decent turntable was a Dual 1019 I bought around 1973. Upgraded about 10 years later to a lower-level Thorens (TD 165, maybe?). Then in 1988 I bought the SOTA Star Sapphire Series III I still use and have no intention to upgrade. I lo... | |
| Dusting gear and turntable I have a custom cloth cover for the dust cover of my old SOTA Star Sapphire. I don't recall who made it, but it's nice not to have to dust the turntable's acrylic dust cover often. I use a combination of my vacuum and impregnated dust rags for d... | |
| Vinyl Lovers-- Cartridges!!!! Do you have a daily driver? I'll second the comments of @billstevenson and @willy-t. I've used Stylast on my carts, and my last cart still sounded good after 1200 hrs., but it was a '90s cart so I thought I'd try something more current. Bought a broken-in Lyra Kleos, and ... | |
| Has this ever happened to you? For me it is more likely to happen when I listen to a particularly good recording. I think many audiophiles underestimate 1) the effects of their room acoustics and 2) the quality of a recording in how realistic their system can sound. I have a... | |
| R2R next? Don't like ESS I can heartily recommend the Denafrips Ares II. I recently moved up to the Denafrips Venus 15, and the Ares has about 90% of the sound quality of the much more pricey (and bigger) Venus 15. I think it's one of the best bargains in the audiophile... | |
| How often to you clean vinyl and the needle? I clean the record before play with a carbon fiber brush, and I use a brush to clean the stylus after each play. I use the LAST stylus cleaning fluid about once a month and the Oznow stylus cleaner about once a month, or when I think the sttylus ... | |
| Do you prefer tall speakers I definitely prefer tall speakers--at least 5 ft. tall. They reproduce soundstage height better than shorter speakers, and once you get accustomed to that, it's hard to go back to shorter speakers, regardless of what other charms they may have. ... |