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Best Pressing Shootout: The Clifford Jordan Quartet, Glass Bead Games
Boy, did I pick the right place to live! Last year, I was spending all my extra cash on multiple copies of the same record to feed my mania for comparing pressings. Then one day last year, early in the lockdown, I looked out my window to see a familiar car — a very distinctive…
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Best Pressing Shootout: Azymuth, Águia Não Come Mosca — 1977 Original vs. 2019 Mr. Bongo Reissue
There is a moment in a story by I. B. Singer — I can’t remember where exactly, and maybe there are several of them — where he says that at a certain point in his career, it wasn’t about writing stories anymore. Once he had attained a certain fame, once people saw the kinds of…
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Best Pressing Shootout: Tago Mago Take Two: UK Original vs. Celluloid French Reissue vs. 2014 Remaster
Since I moved from my headphone-based system to my loudspeaker system, I’ve been revisiting a bunch of my Best Pressing Shootouts. Well, I’ve become tired of all the red fonts I need to use for those — and in the case, I’m adding a totally new pressing into the mix. So rather that a “Revisited,”…
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Palare: the hi-fi AF “Externalized” Lingo 4
Okay, enough griping about the Lingo 4! The one I have runs quietly, holds its speed, and sounds great. So why mess with a good thing? Well, obviously, I just can’t resist. Rationale for Externalizing the Lingo 4 I don’t really understand why the electronics of the Lingo 4 mount internally in the deck. The…
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LP12MF Review: Linn Lingo 4 Power Supply, Take Two
If you’ve been following this blog and my LP12 Modification Frenzy in particular, you’ll know I’ve had some issues with the Lingo 4. I bought one in December of 2019, then found that it had a ticking motor when I installed it. Unsurprisingly, the noisy Lingo 4 did not sound better than the Mose Hercules…
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LP12MF Review: The Linn Karousel Main Bearing
I’ve covered the nitty gritty in my previous post on the Karousel: what it is, how it’s different (and not) from the Cirkus it replaces, its dimensions, how to install it. In this post, I’ll add a bit more information I’ve learned in the meantime and then jump straight into praising this bearing — which…
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LP12MF Review: Stack Audio Serene Baseboard
This latest installment of the LP12 Modification Frenzy features the Stack Audio Serene Baseboard. You can read all about the installation of the Serene in this previous post. TL;DR I didn’t need the Stack Audio Serene Baseboard to sound better than my previous setup, which was no baseboard. What I needed it to do was…
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LP12MF: The Lingo Saga
I have had plenty of time to contemplate this post. In that time I have come up with many possible titles. Among them: I Hate Linn (nice and simple) How I Got Gaslighted by Linn (an attempt to work in contemporary… lingo) In Which I Realize I Have Been Inadvertently Advertising for the Most Loathsome…
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LP12MF: Installing the Stack Audio Serene Baseboard
A while back, I contacted Theo Stack about trying one of his Serene Baseboards (£150/$185). I’ve been curious about the Stack LP12 upgrades for some time. I was particularly interested in their approach to vibration damping. Many of the upgrades I’ve tried during this LP12MF of mine follow a “maximum ringing” philosophy — or simply…
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LP12MF: Installing the Linn Karousel Main Bearing
I’ve been highly skeptical of the Linn Karousel. As I discussed in my post on the Tiger Paw Tranquility magnetic bearing support, I just couldn’t make sense of what was supposed to be better or different about the Karousel, which made its high price of £750/$975USD hard to stomach. But I’ve heard such good things…
