humanflyz

John Coltrane - Live at Birdland on vinyl, finally.

I had Alex balance my L3000s when I had them, but that was with a V2 version cable, not the latest. Sonic memory's being what it is, take the following with a grain of salt: I don't remember any drastic improvements, other than slightly more control in the bass, which wasn't a problem to begin with. My system back at the time was an Esoteric DV60 fed to a GS-X, then to the L3000s. Then JP# bought my L3000s, so you can ask him all about it.

Calexico - Garden Ruin

Luckily, the seller is local and will deliver the table and help me set up as part of the deal

Thanks for all the advice guys, and I'm definitely not a tweaker by nature. I just want to get the table set up right at the beginning so I don't have to fiddle with it down the road.

I'm getting ready to buy some accessories for my incoming turntable, and while I have a list in mind, I would like some recommendation/suggestions since this is my first time entering the analog world. I know I need the following: 1) stylus force gauge: probably will get the Shure one, unless there is a compelling reason to get a digital one? 2) Spirit level 3) Record mat: I have no idea how to choose which one to get. 4) Brush: Again, there are a ton of options, and I don't know where to start. 5) Record sleeves 6) Test record 7) Cartridge alignment: there seems to be different alignment systems for different arms, so any information? Record cleaning system: I will probably hold off on this initially, though I do plan on getting a Nitty Gritty/VPI down the road. Anything else?

Thorens TD 320 with a Sumiko MMT arm, mounted with a Sumiko Blue Point Special cart from a local seller, who will deliver and help me set it up next week. Finally, I get to play those records which are just sitting around right now, doing nothing.

Sigur Ros - Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust I felt this album was underrated by critics, as I didn't see it on a lot of the year-end lists (speaking of which, anyone wants to start a HC year-end list thread?). Sure, it's not as mind-blowing as the first time I heard Sigur Ros, but even a "standard" Sigur Ros album offers more transcendental moments than most other bands do.

Portishead - Third IMO, 2008's best album

AudiogoN ForSale: Nottingham Horizon with Benz I've never heard a Nottingham table in my life before, but this deal looks decent. I remember Mike and someone else here had Nottingham tables, but it's a table much higher up in the product line, but does Nottingham have a family sound?

AudiogoN ForSale: Sony PS-X555Es turntable I'm tempted to pick this up since it's a good price, but I'm not sure about the lack of original packing. What do you guys think?

OpenTable just released an iPhone app: I handily recommend it for reservations on the go. And also Google Mobile just updated to include the voice search feature. Although I'm not sure how good it is, since the two times I tried asking "where is the nearest Starbucks" turned out to be "worst fear starbucks." Hmmm...

Anyone?

I don't think I have acidic sweat...

Maybe it is just me, but the only time I use the SE530s are when I'm in the gym. I thought that for what they cost, they should be at least durable enough for that.

I'll send it in one more time since I'm still under warranty. But once it runs out in February, I think I'm going to get something else.

Man, I think I'm done with Shure products from now on: the right bass driver on my SE530 suddenly failed for no apparent reason, so now there is only bass coming out of the left earpiece. And this is the pair that was sent back to me after the wiring to the right earpiece became loose and lost signal.

$50? Are you fucking serious? You did it for the money?

Steve, with all due respect, I will have to disagree with your claim that redistributing wealth is the same thing as socialism.

If you know something to be blatantly wrong, why should you tolerated? Why should a math teacher "tolerate" a student's opinion that 2+2=5? You can't go from making an empirical claim (different opinions exist) to making a normative claim (that because different opinions exist, we should treat each and every one of them as equal or equally true).

Mike, I personally don't think it's a strictly a problem that a politician's personal religious beliefs find their ways into legislation he drafts....so long as the legislation is justified on non-religious grounds so that non-believers can accept it without having to commit to those very religious views.

While I'm mostly sympathetic to your argument, I think it falsely assumes that religious authority can be neatly separated from secular authority. While this assumption, in my opinion, largely holds for Protestanism, I don't think it applies for religions that claim to override any and all secular authority.

Yeah, I was very pissed off: I voted absentee just so that I can vote "no" on that prop. And here I thought Californians are among the more "tolerant" people in the country.

There is some correlation, albeit weak, between greater turnout and being more informed (as far as I know during my four years of being a political science major), so you have a point there. But to me, this is a better alternative than what we've had before: dogmatic ideologues on both sides dominating the discourse/voting. These new voters might not be as well-informed, so they are probably more easily influenced; on the other hand, they probably won't carry as much ideological baggage. Sure there is a risk of demagoguery, but that's a risk inherent in democracy. I am willing to take that risk if it could possibly lead to the expansion of reasonable, intelligent political discourse/action from citizens.

Those college kids might be naive, and they are most likely going to have their expectations dashed when they come to realize that Obama is just a politician (and I don't mean that in a derogatory way). But I don't see why their current infatuation with him is dangerous in any meaningful way. Even if they were to be disabused of their unrealistic hopes and expectations, they are still much more engaged politically than their predecessors a generation or two ago. I'm all for more engagement, and if Obama is what it takes to draw these people to participate, then so be it.