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I have 12,000 classical LPs which I began collecting in the 1950s, and, yes, I have all the RCAs, Mercurys, and all the EMI pressings of Angel recordings that I found noisy and unplayable. But I am not a "collector." I buy what I want to listen to---for the music, the performance, or the performers, NOT the sound. I also have 9000 78s, hundreds of air-check tapes from sources all over the world of "live" in-concert performances, and, I would guess, about 8000 CDs by now. I also grew up in the Chicago area and had season tickets to the Chicago Symphony concerts under Fritz Reiner in the late 1950s and early '60s. Almost all my Reiner LPs are autographed by Reiner, whom I got to know rather well. (I would go back to his dressing room after his concerts.)