[US Blues]

Thanks for your help @bcowen, @DACattack and other forum members who have offered great advice on cleaning vinyl.

I think that having just spent out on a Folkvangr, an ultrasonic vinyl cleaner is hard to justify... for now.

I have just ordered a Project record cleaner- the VC S2-ALU, priced at £359 here in UK:
https://www.project-audio.com/en/product/vc-s2-alu/

When it arrives, I will try cleaning my recently purchased copy of Deja Vu and see if that helps the 'crackling' before I go back to the record shop.

I will also buy a cheap extra head shell and cartridge for my Technics turntable, so that I can easily put a cheaper one in with an elliptical stylus when playing older, worn vinyl.
I currently use an Ortofon 2M Black, which has a 'Shibata' diamond stylus.

The tone arm on my 1200G has a detachable head shell.

After you clean your records well you'll be able to hear which ones were cut from digital files, and which ones are pure analog!

 

[Jheal]

Look what I stumbled across on SDE...

Out this week, a 4CD/2DVD set with all the trimmings including a 5.1 mix. Also a 2CD version. Please support your local brick-and-mortar record store.

Also available from Cherry Red records online.

 

[HK_sends]

Yeah, I'm a 'beer bottle is half-full' kinda guy.

Then why haven't you finished it..?
Cheers!
-HK sends

 

[dstrimbu]

San Fransicko, by Michael Shellenberger
Fascinating, non-partisan and data-driven analysis of the how particularly California (but also Seattle and some European cities) is dealing with its homeless problem. Can't recommend highly enough.

On my Kindle and next in-queue, thank you @ArmchairPhilosopher !

 

[dstrimbu]

IiRC Freya S, Jotunheim 2, Lokius have functioning orange LEDs as part of the internal voltage / current references

And Loki Max, too.

 

[Ableza]

Then why haven't you finished it..?
Cheers!
-HK sends

When you find a half-filled beer bottle, always make sure you know what it is filled with...

 

[HK_sends]

When you find a half-filled beer bottle, always make sure you know what it is filled with...

Oh yeah, didn't think of that...
Cheers!
-HK sends

 

[OldRoadToad]

One group I’ve been enjoying recently is The Revivalists. The album Men Amongst Mountains in particular.

Thank you!

ORT

 

[OldRoadToad]

After you clean your records well you'll be able to hear which ones were cut from digital files, and which ones are pure analog!

Personally, I have found that if I..."Uuuuuse The FARCE" I can generally guess on stuff like that there pretty durn good. One other benefit of "The FARCE" is that I can pass "GO" without actually passing "GO" and still collect $200. 'n' Schiit.

ORT

 

[Les Strat]

I have now had a chance to use the final piece of Schiit gear in my system- the Lokius…

One of my favourite albums is ‘Luck of the Draw’ by Bonnie Raitt.

I have owned the CD since it was released.

The recording quality, production and musicianship are all first class.

However, I thought it would be great if I could tweak the high frequencies slightly when listening on my HD800S ‘phones via Folkvanger.

The Lokius allowed me to ‘tailor’ the top end absolutely perfectly (to these old ears).

What a brilliant device!

I always liked having tone controls on my old NAD integrated amp, and now I have a really high quality one dedicated for headphone listening.

Thanks to Jason, Mike and all at Schiit for yet another fantastic product.

Edit: I now need to resist the temptation to add a Loki Max to the balanced outputs of Freya S to my loudspeakers…
It’s only available in black, which might save my wallet!

 

[macdonjh]

I like streaming. I like the convenience, and I prefer the sound. But I'm delighted that LPs and CDs still exist, because I always appreciate it when I have a chance to watch other people enjoy those media types. I don't know, I just get a kick out of other people's delight.

The one thing that I hate about streaming is that it first changed how people consume music, which then, in turn, changed how artists and labels publish their stuff. EVERYTHING is a single now. Some artists have completely stopped releasing albums, they just put out one song at a time whenever it's done. This annoys me to no end, because instead of seeing a single album cover in my library, I now have to wade through a dozen single covers. It's an absolute mess, and I hate it with the passion of a thousand burning fires.

Something I just started doing for my various Best of.../ Greatest Hits.../ Definitive Collection... CDs: I leave the [album] tag as "The Best of...", but change the individual song [date] and cover art to the original release date and album cover art. That way, I only see one album in my Library, but when the various songs are playing I see the art work of the original albums.

I also did this for the Jimmy Page reissue of the Led Zeppelin catalog because the publisher released two versions of the Houses of the Holy cover and six versions of the In Through the Out Door cover.

In the past I've also simply broken up Best of... albums and tagged various tracks as if they were from the original album. Gives me lots of "partial albums" in my library, but I think I have to get over that. I like doing that, though, with classical music. Some of the big collections of various composers have six or more CDs worth of re-released music. Breaking those collections up gives me better cover art in my librarty.

JRiver Media Center allows you to save the cover art image in the song tag, so each song can have its own cover art.

 

[dstrimbu]

+1 as well on a wet scrub/vacuum dry record cleaning machine for used records. Pretty much essential. Won't fix every LP, as with some the dirt that is causing the noise is embedded into the vinyl and/or there is groove damage from being played repeatedly with a misaligned or incorrectly weighted stylus. But IME many have become nearly noise free after a good cleaning. And if you want to go full-on audiophile, you can always add an ultrasonic cleaner later.

Hey @bcowen that's a DIGITAL ultrasonic cleaner. You use it on analog records?

 

[cricket]

Thanks to you guys, I have just discovered Bill Nelson. Amazing how such a prolific artist can fly below my radar for 50 years. Qobuz does have a decent selection of his recordings, and I now have six playlists set up

Since we're discusing recently discovered music, here are a couple of mine:

 

[OldRoadToad]

Since we're discusing recently discovered music, here are a couple of mine:

This is soooOOOooOOOoo COOL! As the King would say,
"Thankyew! Thankyewveruhmuch!"

That guitar is sweeeeet!

ORT

 

[golfbravobravo]

Thanks to you guys, I have just discovered Bill Nelson. Amazing how such a prolific artist can fly below my radar for 50 years. Qobuz does have a decent selection of his recordings, and I now have six playlists set up

.... and a Yorkshireman to boot!!!!