Oh, and BTW, I am new here, but not to Internet forums or audio.

I have to admit that a lot of the childish postings on this thread have given me pause as to whether or not I will want to hang out here or not.

Having read this entire thread from pg. 1 to 11 in one sitting, I have to say that Buddha comes across as interesting and thoughtful (and articulate) member of this forum, as well as being quite a character, which I always like. SelfDivider and Coffee-N-Tunes also had some nicely thought-out posts in this thread, as well as many others, e.g., BillB and MRLowry, providing the voice of reason and civility.

Mssrs. MF and Glotz, OTOH, have not left such a favorable first impression.

Welcome.

I used to know a Stephen Scharf from Portland Maine, a very talented community activist, tax expert and local political mover and shaker...any relation?

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I used to know a Stephen Scharf from Portland Maine, a very talented community activist, tax expert and local political mover and shaker...any relation?

No, I'm a molecular biologist with a background in human molecular genetics, and Six Sigma Black Belt working for a biotech company in the Bay Area. I also help to teach Voice of the Customer and Design for Six Sigma best practices in my company. Away from work, I ride bicycles and motorcycles, and I am one of the track photographers for Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and Infineon Raceway in California. I cover all their pro motorsports events for them.

My photo web site: http://stephenscharf.com

Welcome to the forums...often an interesting place, though the posting goes slow some days

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My photo web site: http://stephenscharf.com

An impressive portfolio, Stephen. I especially liked your architectural photos. Welcome to the forum, and don't be put off by the raised voices. We all share a love of reproduced music.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

Hi John,
Thanks for the nice words. I particularly enjoy doing the architectural photography.

Regarding what this forum is about, I was deeply into audio (no, not audio, music) many years ago, but got out of it for a long time. I only recently returned to this hobby in the last two months, and in the process, re-discovered the joys of listening to vinyl....what had I been missing all those years?

Anyway, I've been reading The Stereophile once again (I used to read it way back when it was a small, no-ad publication by J. Gordon back in the late 70's and early 80's), and have been enjoying reading your articles. In particular, I like your and Bob Reina's sensibilities from what I've been able to glean from the last few issue and legacy articles.

Anyway, no worries on the raised voices. I will be posting my musings and miscellaneous ramblings here from time to time.

Regards,
Stephen.

BTW, I just bought a pair of Era Design 4's in September based on your review of them in 2006, and of course, listening to them in detail. Nice product.

Welcome again.

Your photography themes (archetecture, landscapes and motorsports) match my own, but you've really taken it far. I'm getting serious again after decades of doing little and getting mildly serious again in 2006 with vacation photography. (I'm now going full frame with a Canon 5D MkII and appropriate lenses).

Anyway, enough about me, your portfolio is wonderful. I see that you invest early mornings to get the stupendous lighting.

Dave

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Hi John,
Thanks for the nice words. I particularly enjoy doing the architectural photography.

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Hi Stephen,

You might consider joining the Bay Area Audiophile Society. You can find membership information at http://www.baasnotes.com. We just did a grat four-DAC comparison session at Casa Bellecci-Serinus in Oakland.

jason

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Hey Buddha,

I'm overseas right now and so I haven't been following forum threads in a while. I came across this thread and having read all the replies, arguments and counter arguments, I don't think you have anything to apologize about. In fact, I think it's MF who should have thought better of his first post, much less follow up with subsequent posts, which contributed nothing in terms of furthering his arguments or providing useful content.

MF wants respect, well, respect cannot be demanded, it must be earned. I have yet to see ANYTHING posted from MF on these forums that deserves any kind of respect. He is self absorbed, egotistical, childish and condescending. There is no thought given to his arguments, there is no respect given to other posters. As Tony Soprano once said: "To get respect, you got to give respect." Personally, I find it very difficult to respect someone who comes off as a belligerent prick.

John, I am absolutely amazed and appalled that you would provide excuses for this type of behavior from one of your writers. Is he a little baby that he can't handle a bit of criticism and so the baby's ego had been bruised a bit? Whaaa, my eyes are full of crocodile tears. Let me break out the world's smallest violin!

I find it ironic that the majority of people in here have not stuck the issue at hand (the effectiveness of the Furutech demag unit), but continued, after a lack of posts from the "instigators" to cease and desist the behavior they so deplore. Again, here is an example of a regular that will act equally as bad as MF in this forum and accuse those people of the same behavior, with a lot more of an insulting demeanor. I have every right to be in here as anyone else, and I'd rather listen to MF or JA, than any one of the "authorities" that troll this site. Ramble on about all the terrible things I said, and then blame yourself twice.

Hi dc,
Many thanks for your comments.

I think you will be very, very pleased with your 5D MkII....it looks like new 5D will once again set the bar for all others with respect to image quality. I have a friend who has a 5D that I have used from time to time, and I am very, very impressed with the file quality from that camera. There is something very special about 5D files. The new MkII looks to take that even further. I shoot with a trusty 'ole 1D MkII.

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Hi Stephen,

You might consider joining the Bay Area Audiophile Society. You can find membership information at http://www.baasnotes.com. We just did a grat four-DAC comparison session at Casa Bellecci-Serinus in Oakland.

jason

Hi Jason,
Thanks for the tip; I was thinking of joining BAAS. I will now, and hopefully we will meet in the near future. I live nearby in Castro Valley.

Cheers,
Stephen.

I have just joined the site, and was curious to people's opinions on the KoB anniversary edition. Apaprt from a couple of posts at the start of the thread, the other 100 or so are arguments about colour of vinyl, effect of demagnetizers on LPs and so on .. ie anything but comments on KoB. Isn't there a way to move out of topic discussions to a new thread, giving them an appropriate title?

Fwiw, in case anyone cares, I was disappointed with the LP. The Classic Quiet SVX one is significantly better. Surely for an anniversary edition they could have at least try to better that, if not go the 45-rpm route as in the fabulous Acoustic Sounds re-releases. A missed opportunity

Welcome Zeb.

We need a thread enforcer around here. Are you interested in the job?

Dave

(No need to shout, Mr. Fremer). I have no opinion on the benefits of demagnetizing LP's. However, I don't know how to interpret the anecdotes you've provided. How can you be sure that your enthusiasm about demagging LP's didn't sway your listeners to hear differences when none existed, or to exaggerate a minor difference to the level of "profound difference"?