Inner Tube really helps my system sound better

I recently was given a Kenda 12" children's bicycle inner tube by a local dealer to try under my Rega turntable. I took it home, thinking at the time it was a lot of high-end audiophile dealer hoo-ha, but when I tried it, I found that was quite an improvement in the sound of my system. When placed directly under a turntable, the improvement is better transparency and inner detail, more defined bass, improved "air" and spaciousness, and overall, a more natural presentation of the music...more "musical" as it were.

Advise on this real world format decision

I basically understand the pros/cons of non-compressed, lossy, lossless. For iTunes purposes, with just ONE household computer (iMac) serving 4 iPods of various capacities (1 g, 4g, 20g, 60g), my compromise has been ripping to 320kbps MP3. Any higher than that really compromises the library sizes as carried by the iPod users. Also concerned (rightfully?) about cross-platform usage as follows...

Thanksgiving week with Maria Schneider

Thanksgiving week with Maria Schneider

Maria Schneider and her 18-piece orchestra play their annual Thanksgiving week gig at the Jazz Standard starting Nov. 25 and continuing till the 30th (except for Thursday, when the club is closed), and if you’re in the tri-State area, you should reserve seats now, as her shows usually sell out. Regular readers of this blog may recall my previous ravings about Schneider. A former student of Gil Evans and Bob Bookmeyer, she is the most sumptuous jazz arranger on the jazz scene today, having absorbed her teachers’ penchant for lush stacked harmonies and added a flair for Latin rhythms, a propulsive sway, and a dry wit. Her pieces are lyrical, even rhapsodic, but also taut, even muscular. Much of the band has been playing with her for over a decade, to the point where they’re nearly Basie-tight. Her most recent CD, <I>Sky Blue</I>, topped my 2007 list of best jazz albums (except for Charles Mingus’ previously unreleased <I>Cornell 1964</I> concert-recording). I’m told she’ll be playing many songs from it and from her 1996 album, <I>Coming About</I>, which she’s just re-mastered and re-released. All of her albums are on the ArtistShare label, the artist-owned music collective, and are available only through her website, mariaschneider.com.

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