Just wanted to share my thoughts on our listening session!
It was really great hosting Al. Me thinks Al sells himself a little short and really is a very perceptive listener; he (and Gary) made an excellent point about having both top notch digital and analog front-ends. I'll take the blame for not spinning any classical discs as Al had previously expressed his fondness for R'n'R. The only mistake I made Saturday was starting off with the 45 rpm of
Elvis Presley '57 that set a near impossible standard for everything to follow!
But we played some damn good rock LPs including Dylan's
Freelwheelin', Cat Stevens
TFTT, Pink Floyd
DSOTM, Paul Simon
Rhymin' Simon and
Graceland, Lou Reed
Transformer, Neil Young
Live at the Cellar Door (arrived that day), a 45 rpm test pressing of Shelby Lynne,
etc. On the jazz side, we did some 33/45/tape comparisons of Benny Carter
Jazz Giant and Kenny Burrell
Midnight Blue. Indeed, it seemed these comparisons, really showed off the dynamic ability of the analog recordings and the turntable/arm/cartridge/phono section combo (IMHO especially the dynamics of phono section.) Now I might be wrong but the tape highlight of the day was the Cyndee Peters
Black is the Color cut from the recently released Opus 3 sampler tape (now also available as a 1 or 2X DSD download for a mere $13.) Then we finished up with some audiophile faves including Imada's
Now,
Mallets, Melody and Mayhem as well as Ameniya's
Summer Prayer.
As Al reported, I just sat there and let him enjoy himself. There was no need for me to sell him on the sound of the analog front-end; it sold itself.
And as I said before, I'm always happy to help someone else spend their money!
It seemed to me out of all the things Al was hearing Saturday, he was most impressed by the information and detail retrieved from each and every recording. Not to mention, every recording really sounded very different.
Anyone other WBF members in the area or passing through are more than welcome to drop me a line and come by like Al!