An added bonus while searching for a new addition to the audio equipment rack is discovering "new to you" artists or bands. Normally when a dealer inquires as to what band I would like to hear during the audition, the "dear in the headlights" gaze is most present after a few of my musical suggestions. Stevie Ray Vaughan was a recent "new to me" artist discovery and a pleasant surprise. After arriving home from a dealer, a quick search on Amazon, a click here and there and Stevie was in the mailbox a couple of days later - Amazon is truly awesome for selection, service and pricing, our local "brick and mortar" store can not compete.
Sitting back and enjoying Stevie's music this morning, the volume control on the 26 slowly worked its way up to the 2 o'clock position. Looking over my shoulder, Lady Laundrew surprised me as she was also in my Xanadu enjoying Stevie's music - it turned out she was upstairs on the other side of the house and had to come down to see who was playing. After perusing the CD, she left with it to load into her iPod - ahhh it must be young love when you can share your music. Needless to say that more of his albums will be in the mail over the next few weeks and perhaps a trip to our local used record store will be in order to see what is available on vinyl.
While on the subject of vinyl, last week saw an introduction to a Nottingham "Dais" turntable. A great, minimalistic and aesthetically pleasing turntable - all dominated by a huge platter. As the Dais employs a low torque motor, you must manually spin the platter to start it and also to stop it as there is not an on/off start switch. How wonderfully eccentric and corporeal when you hand start 50 lbs of platter - I like it!
Every time I find myself sitting in front of different audio equipment auditions, it is always a stark revelation as to how audio is such a personal taste and what works right for your ears. During the last couple of weeks, it has mostly been tube amplifier/speaker combinations and I would not trade my 28/JBL combination for any of them - yes, very happy with my so called "sand amps." Still must decide on what record cleaner to purchase and get my humble vinyl collection cleaned before the turntable purchase.
Be well...
