hammer193

new cart to buy for my LP12 ? I have an Ittok ll, Lingo 4, project tubebox ds2, bryston b100sst, castle avon 5 & Rel T9i. I have had my TT looked at by a couple of trusted techs and it seems the suspension is nearing kaput as the belly occasionally scrapes the record. I will ease off the tracking to maybe 1ish grams, currently 1.75. So, any suggestions for a new cart in same price range as an Adikt will be welcome.

Greetings. Occasionally the belly of my Adikt cart scrapes the intro of a 180g record. Today I raised the Ittok arm a few mm and it has alleviated the issue, there anything I’m missing here ? The arm still looks horizontal when playing so the adjustment was slight. It seems to be pretty logical and an easy fix but would appreciate some thoughts.

My Bryston B100 sometimes makes my ears hurt. The Project DS2 phono stage helps but I’ve had a bug in my head that i should just plug my old Sansui AU7500 back into my main listening system and be damned with the cost of the Bryston & Project phono stage. So I did. I expected the Sansui to sound like honey compared to the Bryston ( the Sansui sounds great in my other room ).... but it sounded like muddied water so I plugged the Bry & Pro back in and I hear wonderfully clear crisp sound, my how a quick backwards step can make what i’d been tiring of sound fresh again .. whats the deal with that ?? any ideas ??

My first hifi was an all in one TT, tapedeck & CD player Teac in about 1988. Many moons later about a month ago was when i finally just thought “no more “ I was told “ we need to talk about the Linn Karousel” Wasn’t so much that but the realisation that I already love the sound I am hearing, love the aesthetics, placement & our living room. Years ago I was told by an unknowing mentor “ trade in your cars, buy boats, sell your houses but no matter how much money you make don’t trade in your wife “ I will now also add that I am happily married to my hifi until death do us apart.

No one criticized an engineers ears education nor mentioned poorly recorded albums.

I can’t hear any degradation in the signal so the Loki is only a plus for me.

I recently bought one of these. I own some ‘shrill’ pressings of albums i want to listen to. I just switch the Loki from bypass to my preset preferences for these albums ( similar to a loudness switch on older amps ) and boom... shrillness gone. For me it is a ‘break glass in case of emergency’ component but for what I want it to do it is perfect.

I second that

I dunno, I’ve been to my fair share of gigs, small intimate Jose Gonzales on a stool to numerous festivals, the Cure @ SOH last year, stadiums concerts etc, im usually shitty with someone in the crowd or my legs are tired from pogoing or pissed off that the Cure was at a seated venue, I love listening at home, bugger being there, my couch & drinks are much better. I only get the feeling or yearn for it listening to cool jazz, Chet, early Miles etc, thats when I like to close my eyes and go 3d and transport myself to those smokey places !!

My professional work requires a great deal of photography to be either taken in-house or commissioned. I find photographers have similarities with audio enthusiasts in that they can be loosely separated into the ‘artists’ who are all about the picture, composition, lighting etc and the ‘techys’ who are all about the equipment and how it functions. My daughter took one of my wife’s old film cameras to the beach s few years ago and without meaning to took some fantastically over exposed photos by pure accident. I am also a martial arts instructor and a number of years ago a new student on their membership form wrote in the ‘ why do you want to learn martial arts ‘ wrote because he wanted the magic !! With all of our concerns of being ‘audiophile’ let’s not forget the magic of music & it’s reproduction !! Dudes, sometimes it’s like they are in our living rooms with us !! That’s f’ing magic !!

I had a great conversation about wine with Steve @ Challengehifi last year. I love music, wine & food. I have a wealthy family member who has shared with me amazing wine on top of my overseas jaunts. I still to this day believe the ‘best’ wine i have ever had was in 1999 in Florence on my honeymoon in a small out-of-the-way trattoria, it was a carafe of house red for 40 lira ( about $4.00 ). I think music appreciation is sometimes about more than just vibrations, sometimes it’s the whole ‘vibe’ surrounding it too, hifi is just a component, a favourite song can be great heard in anywhere in anything....for me anyway.

I liken vinyl playback to cooking or anything else i guess where u put in some effort. I can happily spend an evening getting up and down choosing what to listen to (vinyl) spinning & sometimes cleaning and having a lovely time. When i listen to digital i fear developing a fat arse & guts just sitting there... but thats just me and my enjoyment of incidental exercise. Nor do I believe music is JUST about the ‘sound’ but a more holistic experience.

Dude, I agree 100%

Do you get this sorted ?

he’ll probably start drinking now in anticipation .... nothing like a 2 month bender !!

If you are ever in Port Elliot SA, give me a hey and we’ll set it up ?

With my records i just always slipped the vinyl into the plastic open to the right, then into the paper sleeve open the the right, then into the cover open to the right the into the outer plastic sleeve open to the right so i didnt have to do much but shake it out before a play. Since being convinced ( by my experience ) that audiophile pressings are ‘generally ‘ the bomb I’ve now begun a 90degree thing where i have to rotate every insertion 90 degrees so the openings are never in line I’m beginning to wonder if its worth the hassle?

Spent boxing day with my father in law & family. He is an old folk singer from the 60’s, beatnik AF, still rocking a goatee, smoking rollies and drinking goon box, Jack Kerouac as they come. Massive jazz head, has every Miles,Chet, Bird, Coltrane etc etc from the day, first pressings all the way. Man .... F**k he stacks that s**t on top of each other after a play out of their sleeves, vinyl on vinyl, on the table, floor where ever the hell. I was in fits of anal retentive hell seeing all of this precious vinyl treated like crap, he doesnt give a toss...... but he LOVES every second of it, he’s there, he’s seen half of them live, he has stories about them in person. Im starting to think my preoccupation with cleanliness, respect for the medium, using my green Linn tape to ‘masturbate’ my Linn stylus to keep everything so clean to resolve the music has made me a boring f**k and i might be better off getting pissed & smoking and having a wow of a time ??? well i do do all of that but maybe i should just relax and stop the paranoia about a few pops and clicks ??

Dude, I love Homeland but c’mon ....

I very carefully took my LP12 to audition a new setup ( a bit back to front i know but it was easier than stuffing around with auditioning at home to begin with ) some time back and one of the ‘techs’ at the hifi shop didnt think the TT was setup correctly so he tinkered with it a bit, he had 40 years experience with TT’s so i let him, “it’s just physics” he told me. Long story short, after taking it back to our local Linn dealer the LP12 sung again... it may be common sense and just physics but take it to someone who works with LP12’s every day is my advice.

Just back reading and noticed your comment. I was in my mates car driving back from a basketball game one night and he had some cool jazz on. I was never interested in jazz at all, the closest was a Corduroy CD from the 90’s acid jazz phase.The next day i was at a record shop and bought a copy of Dave Brubeck take five. Now about 6 months on i must have bought 50 albums and keenly listening to as much as i can to inform new purchases. Jazz was a great discovery and hope you might enjoy it as much as i’m finding it.

I lick my guns but only after arm curls

and i forgot chilly evenings listening to My Bloody Valentine ( so sorry Kevin) and driving listening to The war on drugs

I like to listen to the Sundays when its raining, Chet Baker in the morning, Dean Martin when cooking Italian, Emma Milan or Astor Piazzola when I get the pizza oven burning, Brian Jonestown massacre or Silversun pickups on hot sunny hazy afternoons, New Order early evenings, Miles late at night, Jay Z & Kanye or Snoop when i’m feeling gangsta in my shelltoes or Whitney when im watering the garden with the back door open, Boney M christmas album or About a boy sound track at all times Christmassy, Renegade sound wave Left field remix or PWEI me no fear the reaper when i want to head bang, Top Gun soundtrack or Survivor driving around with the “ragtop down so my hair can blow “ , The radio dept when i’m just kicking around the house, Enya when its foggy, and the art of noise moments in love when i want to be blown away by a seemingly 180 degree sound stage, what are other peoples specific tunes depending on the weather or activity ?

I hear you !! I like that, I agree !!