Almost back where we were… Grado Sonata 1

Ok. I could not tolerate the old but never used, CrossCoil  Adcom cartridge any longer and I give up. The cart was explosive on some records, with an irresistible drive, but…. on too many albums the highs were so sharp that  I could not play my bright sounding albums. It could be a bad match cart/arm/phono, it’s always possible and I will keep the tiny dynamite not too far away.

I therefore bought back another Grado Sonata, a low output this time around. It’s hard to pin point the differences when there are so many moving pieces, new arm/new phono, and now a new Sonata. One thing clear however is while transient slowed quite a bit, not only can I tolerate the high frequency range, I am looking forward to hear it.  Say what? Yep, first time ever I enjoy the trebles, and that comes from a guy who would have  removed the tweeters out of the speakers with a hammer not even a week ago.  I know the Sonata 1 design was revised, new wood body/shorter wires/and a couple of other things,  and it is  still a warm cart, but with a very pleasing delineations of the high frequency range without ever sounding too sharp. True, I am now using the low output version, but I feel it is quite an achievement and something I truly appreciate from a cartridge I felt I knew each and every nuances.  High frequency range syndrome is over…. hahhhhhhhh………

Adios all!

Broken pickup

Incredible but true, but while dusting off  the turntable, bing, I broke the needle on my pick-up. I froze like a dear in the middle  of the highway staring at the mess.

That was a week after I installed my new phonostage, a modest but super cool little Creek. I figured that if the Creek OBH-15 was playing like a phono costing two times more, there was no point buying a phono playing like a Creek costing two time less?  Ok, so here I am with a new phono, AND a new pick-up. Well, new, sort of. It’s a 30 years old pick-up I was given, never played. I did tried it but I felt the sound was too sharp and I didn’t have the patience to wait it out. This time I don’t really have the choice, I have to live with it.

It IS still way too sharp as we speak and it got about 25 hours on it. I like its neutral tone, it’s clean and powerful bass but when Miles pick his horn, ouch, it realllllly hurts my little hears.  The very top end of the high frequency range can suddenly turn very harsh and based on the fact that I can’t live without having a listen at Miles, a least once a month, the pickup better tone down soon or I will realllllly freak out.

Stay tuned on the sharp pickup, it should be funny.

ps: nope, the sharp tone can’t be a by-product of the phono stage, it was sharper even with the previous phonostage.

Adios!

So much can happen…

Where to start.  So many things are happening for the music lover in me, like the moody Blonde Redhead/Penny Sparkle that I must refrain from listening too much, the new phonostage, the broken pickup, and I pass on a couple. Will get back up to date soon.

Adios all!

Poor sound quality vs piracy

“It’s not piracy that’s destroying the music business but poor sound quality”

It was music to my hears to read this quote in the Financial Times June 12/12, in the Life & Arts section page 19. The man responsible for this clever observation is Jimmy Lovine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Iovine.

That’s pretty much what I have been saying for quite a while, since CD’s poor sound quality has been the numero uno factor behind the vinyl revival. Hopefully, the recording industry will be smart enough not to kill the vinyl format for a second time by pushing prices too high. Sadly, I can see that it is occurring as we speak with popular bands issuing “collectable” vinyl record into the $40 range up to $100. That is plain dumb. If music got stolen because CD’s sounded bad AND were too expensive, we can already dig a hole in the ground if too many vinyl records are priced too high. At $100 for a record, good sound quality won’t be enough.

Really, the music industry will never learn. It’s truly amazing to hear.

Anyway. Adios all.

Sous le stylus/Under the Needle

ACTUALLY SPINNING ON DJ G TURNTABLE

-Miles Davis/Nefertiti. LP recorded in 1967, released on Columbia in 1968. I picked an incredibly mint copy at a local record store for $10. Went back home, played it and freaked. What the heck, it sound like a CD? how can that be? I reached for my other and older copy where the sound was warm, lush, generously filling the space in between the speakers. Either the record was reissued without being labeled as such or the pressing was quite bad. The older copy won by a mile. Davis.

-LOW/Drums and Guns. 2007 LP on Sub Pop record. Boy I love that band. I love the weird, dark depressing tones of the LOW songs. Unique voices, clever and subtil electronic samples mixed with the great Sparhawk’s guitar, supported by the heavy, haunting and incredibly powerfull drums. As usual with LOW, the production leads to a great sounding album. This one is much better than The Great Distroyer, but doesn’t reach Things We Lost In the Fire perfection, still standing right at the top of my record collection in terms of sound quality for a pop album.

Adios all.

The Living Needle

I just got a new needle…

I never tried that one, bio on top of that! Courtesy of my dear friend Mitzi, (always on top of her game), who provided me with the link.

I wonder if it would be a good match to this TT, a Micro Seiki that I saw while perusing local garage sales. I can imagine how stunning the strobe must be, forming the gigantic side of the turntable itself. It is already  spectacular as it is, with the bird I’d give it a 10 on the wow factor scale!

Adios All.

Sous le stylus/Under the Needle

ACTUALLY SPINNING ON DJ G TURNTABLE

Just bought a couple of things in a record collector convention that took place in Montreal on the April 24th weekend. Generally speaking, deals and steals were great and the place was full of vinyl lovers.  It’s always great fun to walk these conventions anyways.

To the despair of my little niece who went over the same rack, I have found a promotional item from Massive Attack, a 1994 release, the Karmacoma song rendered in different versions. Not essential to a MA fan, but a rather rare item worthy of the minimal $1.00 I paid for it.

In the same record bin there was an Autechre 1996 release. Humm, not sure why they put these on the market since it sounds like a jam/research session. Again, far from essential, but a relatively rare item.

Along with the Authechre record I have found a mint George Benson/Shape of Things to come, 1968, on CTI record, also famous for it’s far out record jackets that borders the experimental side of things. I’d say that CTI art direction was incredibly tight at the time, paying extremely detailed attentions to the design of their record jackets. Pretty much the same attention that can be seen today from ECM fabulous creative direction, with a contemporary point of view and a rare coherence. That specific record sleeve was done by Pete Turner,  a famous photographer. These were the good old time where record company were actually paying for creative record jackets. It just came to my mind that Pete Turner also did the Weather Report/Night Passage, 1980, superb record jacket. I can’t help it, but to make a long story short I once bumped into Pete Turner in N.Y when Getty Images bought The Image Bank, a stock agency Pete Turner created. It is such a small world.

Last but not the least, (and also for a $1 CDN dollar), Johnny Mc Laughlin/Electric Guitarist, 1978.  I can’t honestly comment, I barely had a listen at it. I will be back with a few words later.

In the end, I will hardly find better deals for the price I paid for these 4 records.

Adios all.

Great vintage turntable

GREAT VINTAGE TURNTABLE

One of the most beautiful vintage TT I’ve ever seen, theMarantz TT-1000

In mint condition, cleaned and on the look alone  I would have a very hard time guessing it was made around 1983, 1984 (I can’t find the exact date). The link describe the TT in details. It is one of my favorite for sure.

While on vintage subjects, a TT with a different WF (wife factor) pleasing effect could be theNakamichi TX 1000

It has more to do with the utilitarian facade of a Hummer. In regards to technologies, it is something else since the TT was made to correct off center records! (like Keane/Under the Iron sea double LP, where I had to force the center with a hammer, sort of, and was off center by at least .5cm).  Apparently, the Nakamichi replay system eliminate most of the wow, residual noise, and incorrect pitch problems produced by off center records. Off center records are corrected from a laterally movable secondary platter on top of the main platter. Now, how cool is that?

Adios all.

Sous le stylus/Under the Needle-Mogwai

ACTUALLY SPINNING ON DJ G TURNTABLE

-the Matthew Herbert Big Band/Goodbye Swingtime 2003, double LP. Extremely creative, extremely well recorded, and always extremely intriguing in the sense that it is Jazz music, sometimes, modern music with a heavy dose of sampling at some other time. One thing sure, it sounds like nothing the tittle would suggest. First time ever I’ve seen a copy of that record on vinyl, and silly me, I nearly missed it since I hesitated when I first saw it. I was naturally induced to buy that record following the great Bodily Functions (3lp!) that I also had the chance to buy on vinyl. I bought that record the day I choose the wrong street corner to wait for my date. Sorry about that one. Superb record jacket btw.

-Mogwai/The Hawk is howling, 2004, double LP. For once a rock band sound engineer figured a way to get thunderous,  heavy-duty guitars in a way that won’t destroy your hearing capacity for tree days. The guitars high frequency notes are cleverly layered on a deep and very warm sounding space, no matter how high the sound pressure gets. What a relief! No suffering!  Please, Mogwai sound engineer, give this trick to the entire rock community, they really need your help.  The music is great as always and the band in full form. I almost had the courage to enter a club where Mogwai was playing in Montreal a couple of years ago but there was so much smoke coming out of the club that  I was sure the place was on fire. I got scarred and ran away.

Adios all

Sous le stylus/Under the Needle-Massive Attack-update

BTW, I just discovered this, one of the best song of the Heligoland album while not being on the album at the same time… please click:

Martina Topley Bird