Larry Jaques wrote:
On Sun, 07 Aug 2011 04:40:08 GMT, "Harold & Susan Vordos"
wrote:


"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...

On Sat, 06 Aug 2011 08:27:35 GMT, "Harold & Susan Vordos"
wrote:


"Jeff R." wrote in message
u...
snip----


Jeff R.
(prefers Ortofon to Shure, anyway)

Heh! Just happened to notice your sig line. Any comments on Supex?

I was always an Audio Technica kinda guy. Crikey, how many decades
has it been since I subscribed to Stereo Review mag? 4, I think.
You guys brought back fond memories of times before my tinnitus, when
my hearing was good enough for me to be a foolish _audiophile_.


I've had tinnitus in my left ear for at least 15 years, and now it shows up
(occasionaly) in my right ear. Left ear doesn't ring all the time, but far
too frequently. Surprisingly, you get used to it.


My ears are the same as yours, but switched. My right is the noisiest.



Don't know that I'd call myself an audiophile---but I've had good sound gear
since the mid 60's (a matter of opinion. Not everyone thinks McIntosh is as
great as I do). I really love our JBL speakers, too, although there's no
shortage of people that may not like them, either. Not my problem.


I miss the stereo setup my buddy had in Phoenix 40 odd years ago. I
barely remember what components it had, but the Marantz (3300?) preamp
really stands out in my mind still. It took all the hiss and pops out
of the records we played. His McIntosh tube amp and JBL or Altec
speakers were great, but that preamp brought it all together. I'd
never listened to a $6k system before and I stayed in awe of it for a
year. Another friend did sound systems for bands and conventions, so
his "home" stereo in the aircraft hangar was a pair of Phase Linear
700B amps and 2 pairs of Altec Lansing Voice of the Theater speaker
systems. I wore earplugs and muffs when I was over there. It was the
first time I -felt- a song more than heard it, a wonderful experience!
It's like the first time you go to a funny car meet and can feel the
crackling of their exhaust in the stands, while the smell of the
nitromethane fuel tickles your nose. Muffs and plugs are required for
this experience, too. You feel both in your _bones_, and they grin.


I've not been to a funny car meet but have been to a tractor pull where
the show stopper was a 37 litre RR Griffon powered beasty, apart from
the glorious noise you could feel it through your feet as well.



In spite of my less than stellar hearing, I still consider music to be one
of the most important things in my life. I'm far from a musician, but I
enjoy listening, and do so regularly. My taste in music has slowly
shifted---which is likely to be expected, much as one matures and weans
themselves from eating Pablum. Where I used to listen to rock and roll
(ahhhh! The good old days!) as a youngster, my listening pleasure shifted
towards jazz,


Ditto, but I like a different jazz than you. And I recently
re-purchased all the early Led Zeppelin CDs. They're timeless.
I think their blues music was tops.



You really needed to get new ones as the early CDs were poorly mastered
in the rush to get everything to CD. A mate and I compared an early LZ
CD to the vinyl version and the CD was appalling.

made all the easier when the Beatles invaded what was, then,
to me, sacred territory---the realm of rock as we knew it here in the
States. By then folk music had already made a change in the listening
pleasure of many, so conditions were ripe for me to make a switch. I never
got accustomed to the Beatles, and were it not for some of the great tunes
Lennon & McCartney wrote, many of which have been played in a jazz idiom, I
likely would have still had considerable contempt for their brand of noise.
They were, single handedly, responsible for my immediate cessation of
listening to rock. Aside form occasional visits to an "oldies" station, I
have never returned. Don't miss it, and I don't miss Pablum, either.


I still cringe when I hear Top 40 on the radio, which I never listen
to any more. Farkin' commercials and fartin' announcers, I swear...



Along the way, I was introduced to classical music, although through jazz.
Walter Carlos, on the Moog synthesizer, produced his album Switched on Bach,
about the same time Jacques Loussier was releasing his Play Bach series of
albums. Pierre Gosset, too, had released an album that had classical
overtones, which helped me start listening more and more to classical music.
I now favor classical, although primarily the baroque. Still listen to
plenty of jazz, although my favorite is still the cool, west coast sound.


Define "cool, west coast sound" for me, 'Arry.



So then, to me, listening to the stereo is still a top priority.


Yeah, I put on tunes to make doing the dishes a light and pleasant
chore.



The house
we're building (almost finished) was designed around the stereo system.

Yeah! It's important to me.


Ah reckon! titter So, what did you do differently in building the
house to enhance the sound?

When I'm depressed (very seldom nowadays) I crank up some old tunes
and rock out for an hour or two. My Bose 501 woofers went, but some
automobile 6x9s fit the space with a backer board, and they sound fair
to middlin'.

--
We are always the same age inside.
-- Gertrude Stein