What vinyl are you spinning right now??

[sidewinder]

French Muse pressing. Saw this exact group (minus Abbey) in 1979, when this one was their most recent release. Great to be reminded of it.

Edited June 15, 2021 by sidewinder

[Kevin Bresnahan]

7 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

Still thinking it through. The fact is my old one was a fairly cheap starter ProJect and, sentimentality aside, it is time to level up. Probably going to go for a direct drive option. Any recommendations welcome, as I am no tech expert.

Inexpensive decent direct drive turntables are a bit of a rare breed these days. Depending on your budget, there are a couple of Technics direct drive TTs and Cambridge Audio's Alva TT is a nice-looking option... except that it has a non-defeatable phono preamp. There is an inexpensive Pioneer direct drive built for DJs, but I don't have any idea about its quality. Other than these few options, the major players have mostly gone belt drive. No Pro-Ject or Rega direct drive TTs. VPI makes a direct drive TT but it's $15,000.

7 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

perhaps it is time to start getting acquainted with the Steve Hoffman crowd…

Have fun with that. You'll have one poster will post something as an absolute and then the rest of the posters will take sides and gang up on anyone who doesn't agree with them. Belt drive vs direct drive is like "Tastes great/Less Filling" for those people.

And don't even get me started about some of their recommended accessories. There are a lot of snake oil advocates over there.

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, sidewinder said:

 

What was your impression of that one? I was following Maynard in real time back in the day (jazz-rock/horn bands/high school stage bands all at once, it was like the early AACM days of self-discovery for clueless white teenagers...but at least for some of us it was an entry ramp onto a much bigger, longer, and meaningful road into...everything else), and this one seemed like it had passed a point of no return in terms of "show" vs "go". But then he kep crossing that line further and further. Maybe with hind sight this one would be less egregious than it seemed at the time? Maybe?

Or maybe this is one to give to Lot's wife?

[Rabshakeh]

Ha ha. It is an impenetrable place.

I have been advised that an AT LP120 with an upgraded stylus and a bit of soldering to bypass the inbuilt pre-amp (I have a fancy Rega) should provide a cut price alternative to a proper Technics. AT stuff comes up in a "second hand shop" (let's call it) near me quite often, and I was sizing that up as a cut price option. Am I being silly? The Rega 3 or the ProJect that MJazzG mentioned were my more expensive fall back options. Whatever it is needs to be robust enough to handle marauding toddlers.

[sidewinder]

27 minutes ago, JSngry said:

What was your impression of that one? I was following Maynard in real time back in the day (jazz-rock/horn bands/high school stage bands all at once, it was like the early AACM days of self-discovery for clueless white teenagers...but at least for some of us it was an entry ramp onto a much bigger, longer, and meaningful road into...everything else), and this one seemed like it had passed a point of no return in terms of "show" vs "go". But then he kep crossing that line further and further. Maybe with hind sight this one would be less egregious than it seemed at the time? Maybe?

Or maybe this is one to give to Lot's wife?

It’s a bit of a mixed bag with a definite commercial slant but overall I like it.  McCartney’s  ‘Jet’ for example was never going to be a modern jazz standard. Having said that, I think the band has been well captured and the trumpet pyrotechnics always impressive. I think there is one killer cut - ‘Superbone Meets The Bad Man’ which finishes off side 2, with a good outing for Bruce Johnstone (who I think was a hang over from the Ernie Garside UK band) on baritone.

I think ex board member ‘Deep’ is on drums on this LP !

I saw Maynard here in the UK with an orchestra similar to this one about 5 years later and have fond memories of it. Maynard played quite a bit on superbone that night.

Edited June 15, 2021 by sidewinder

[Kevin Bresnahan]

14 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

Whatever it is needs to be robust enough to handle marauding toddlers.

No turntable can "handle" marauding toddlers. A toddler grabs your TT arm with a record on there and your options are: stylus is toast, record is toast or both are toast.

FWiW, I just bought a turntable for my secondary listening space where I needed it to be able to on a shelf - so no traditional cover. I bought a Denon DP-400 (~$500):

I swapped out the stock cartridge for an Ortofon 3M Black (~$750) and I have a very nice sounding turntable. With this funky cover in place, it's safe from my dog's tail, but a toddler could still reach into that opening where the stylus resides. BTW - that cover doubles as a cover stand, It actually works well:

 

[sidewinder]

27 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

Whatever it is needs to be robust enough to handle marauding toddlers.

I just ban them..and dogs ...

Edited June 15, 2021 by sidewinder

[JSngry]

2 minutes ago, sidewinder said:

It’s a bit of a mixed bag with a definite commercial slant but overall I like it.  McCartney’s  ‘Jet’ for example was never going to be a modern jazz standard. Having said that, I think the band has been well captured and the trumpet pyrotechnics always impressive. I think there is one killer cut - ‘Superbone Meets The Bad Man’ which finishes off side 2, with a good outing for Bruce Johnstone (who I think was a hang over from the Ernie Garside UK band) on baritone.

Yeah, I remember that cut, they saved the one "real jazz" cut for last, like, ok, this last one is for us (and for all the longer time fans). Bruce Johnstone always came to play!

[sidewinder]

4 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Yeah, I remember that cut, they saved the one "real jazz" cut for last, like, ok, this last one is for us (and for all the longer time fans). Bruce Johnstone always came to play!

Absolutely right. If the whole album had been at that level, it would be a classic.

[Rabshakeh]

This is great advice. Thank you all.

Currently on the way to the DIY shop to get a hammer and some 2x4s. The toddler will love his snug new home in the back yard, and in the interests of childcare we will let him in for meals and musical education.

[sidewinder]

[Clunky]

I had a P3 about ten years ago. It was an easy TT with a good neutral sound, No doubt it's design will have been tweaked further so it'd be hard to go wrong with one. I currently use a VPI Prime which is whole other level in terms of cost and mass.

[Rabshakeh]

8 minutes ago, Clunky said:

 I currently use a VPI Prime which is whole other level in terms of cost and mass.

One day...

[Brad]

8 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

Still thinking it through. The fact is my old one was a fairly cheap starter ProJect and, sentimentality aside, it is time to level up. Probably going to go for a direct drive option. Any recommendations welcome, as I am no tech expert.

perhaps it is time to start getting acquainted with the Steve Hoffman crowd…

I upgraded a couple of years ago from a basic ProJect to a ProJect X2.  Quite happy with it, plus you can play 45s on it, which comes in handy with labels like Music Matters or Analogue Productions. 

[JSngry]

11 minutes ago, Brad said:

...plus you can play 45s on it, which comes in handy with labels like Music Matters or Analogue Productions. 

Or Atlantic!

[Brad]

7 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Or Atlantic!

All of them. 

[clifford_thornton]

7 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

Thanks! The P3 is one of the ones I am sizing up. I didn't know the Linn LP12 but will check it out.

I just bought a P3 with an Elys cart and love it. Hard to beat for the price.

[sidewinder]

Wasn’t originally going to get this as I have the (then globally rare) CD but I wanted it on vinyl. First impressions - they did a really nice job, admittedly pricey over here but it does include facsimile poster, concert programme and booklet. The music and performance of course is superb. Sound is nice and crisp, matt sleeve is sort of like old style Impulse.

Edited June 15, 2021 by sidewinder

[mjazzg]

50 minutes ago, sidewinder said:

Wasn’t originally going to get this as I have the (then globally rare) CD but I wanted it on vinyl. First impressions - they did a really nice job, admittedly pricey over here but it does include facsimile poster, concert programme and booklet. The music and performance of course is superb. Sound is nice and crisp, matt sleeve is sort of like old style Impulse.

Yes, I tempted by that too

[sidewinder]

1 hour ago, mjazzg said:

Yes, I tempted by that too

Worth getting. This cut has lots of ‘presence’ and the quality is up there. I never heard last year’s vinyl version but this looks to be a better quality issue all round. Even the Hoffman Board RSD review thread is raving about it !

What you get on this one is more of a straight transfer from tape, warts and all. ‘Grandmixer DXT’ (whoever he is) who did the processing on the original issue is short-circuited. The sound to me has more presence and ‘air’.

Edited June 15, 2021 by sidewinder

[Kevin Bresnahan]

4 hours ago, sidewinder said:

Wasn’t originally going to get this as I have the (then globally rare) CD but I wanted it on vinyl. First impressions - they did a really nice job, admittedly pricey over here but it does include facsimile poster, concert programme and booklet. The music and performance of course is superb. Sound is nice and crisp, matt sleeve is sort of like old style Impulse.

I still think it's absolute garbage that they now know that the initial release was messed up but rather than send us this new cut free or offer some sort of discount for those of us who spent the money up front, they come out with the corrected version, give it a new subtitle and stand there with their hands out. Screw them. I don't care if this sounds like Monk is in the room with me, I ain't buying this.

[sidewinder]

Mono version

[sidewinder]

[sidewinder]

Pacific Jazz DG stereo

Drummer Doug Sides resident and gigging over here in the UK !

Edited June 17, 2021 by sidewinder

[Brad]