JA forwarded this to me: 13 Reasons Why We Shouldn't Go Crate-Digging.

Funny, and oh so true. Except they are making new old records these days.

Oh, my aching back.

Hi

Ive just paid $60 for the newly released box set of albums.

This is not music, its art !! Forgetting that the albums sound better the overall package of 4 fresh albums in a box set with 4 sleeves and a great 24 page colour full size insert just adds so much to the experience of listening to the music.

Albums are just so much more emotionally linked to music than any silver disc or memory device ever will be, it just feels right to put on that big black disk watch it rotate and see the stylus tracking, it feels as if your part of the process not just using an Ipod

I am an admitted newbie looking for advice setting up a new 2.0/2.1 home system primarily for audio. I have a pair of nice speakers--paragon acoustics radiant (smaller company, no longer in business, has Dynaudio drivers). I am looking for an appropriate set up to power them--amp or integrated receiver/amp (I think).

Priorities:
Sound
Budget
ease of running source from Mac as well as CD

the specs of the speakers are as follows:
Paragon "Radiant" speakers

i wondered if anyone is now using this cart or has experience with it they would like to share. i just got the chance to get one at a really good price, so went for it. i can resell if i don't like it. the seller was moving way up the food chain. i am coming to this from the benz mc silver (which i will keep). are there any generalizations as to how the clearaudio products sound vs. benz products?
thanks for any input.

tom

Related to my most recent post regarding optimum sizing for in-wall backboxes, I have now turned my attention to another issue that we must resolve. I am putting an addition on my house. I would like to minimize the sound transmission through the common wall (formerly an exterior wall--now interior)between the addition and existing house. I have the luxury/flexibility, now, to insulate and/or apply different products to the wall framing to accomplish my objective. The room in the existing house is a "family room" that will be used for home theater/tv/...

In my opinion there are two albums that are the best of the best of jazz: one is All Blues by Miles Davis the other Blue Train by John Coltrane. This week Columbia released the 50th Anniversary box set of All Blues and although it is pricey at $80 it is worth the price of admission.

Hi

For various reasons ive swapped my Quad pre amp for a NAD C 162.

The problem i have is that i cant get sufficient power from the phono stage, it sounds really weak and pathetic. Im using a Clearaudio Virtuoso MM cartridge that on paper puts out 3.4 mV. It worked fine into the Quad but now im just not getting gain, ive tried a Cambridge audio phono stage that introduces 39dB of gain and connected this into an AUX port and it sounds even worse. I tried the MC input of the C162 thinking at worst id over drive but this sounded even worse and quieter than the MM input.