[Vision2020] New York Audio Show 2013: Colleen “Cosmo” Murphy's "Classic Album Sundays"

Tue Jul 16 16:37:44 PDT 2013

I of course did not mean that the vinyl audio system described approaches
"200,000 thousand dollar" price, which is 200 million!  Yikes!
I'll blame this on the by the second computer Internet disconnect warning
on the library computer...

Tube amplifiers!  I bet your amp sounds sweet!  Tubes are still going
strong in the world of music and audio, and preferred by many music lovers,
though some modern solid state designs approach the musicality offered by
tubes.

When I was a Moscow High student in the 1960s, I hand built a tube
integrated amplifier kit, then hand built another one of the same amp kits
for a friend.  Easy to do, if you can do basic soldering and follow
instructions carefully, with a well written instruction manual.

I foolishly sold the amp while in high school for a low price, having been
deluded by the specifications worshipers that sold state amps were much
better than tube amps for music reproduction, because they achieve lower
levels of some kinds of distortion as measured on the test bench.

When in high school I also had a belt drive Empire turntable and cartridge,
completely manual except for magnetic tone arm pick-up at the end of a
vinyl album, to lift the needle off the record.  The platter was
meticulously machined, thick, heavy and well balanced, the diameter of
which equaled 33 1/3 long playing vinyl, the belt driving the platter on
the visible outside circle of the platter, with the motor off to the side
suspended so it was isolated from adding vibration to the platter or tone
arm.  Changing speeds required hand moving the belt to another gear!  The
tone arm was balanced so that you could easily play records with the
platter not perfectly horizontal, which if I understand correctly is
possible by making the weight at the pivot in the back perfectly equal on
both sides.  Stylus pressure was applied by a spring, not a movable
counter-weight, but as I recall there was no anti-skating adjustment.

I wish I had that amp and turntable still!

Here is an example of a tube amplifier offered in kit form way back when,
for a mere $84.95.  To buy an amp like this now would be a bargain at 1000
dollars (
http://www.musicdirect.com/p-13615-jolida-jd302crc-integrated-tube-amp.aspx)
though manufacturing in China has kept prices lower for some
manufacturers.

http://heathkit-museum.com/hifi/hvmaa-100.shtml
-----------------------------
Anyway, here's more from Colleen "Cosmo" Murphy's ":Classic Album Sunday"
website.  I've posed the same basic question to many people about listening
to an album with absolute full attention:

http://classicalbumsundays.com/about/
When is the last time you listened to an album from beginning to end? And
sticking it on in the background while working on the computer, talking on
the phone or doing chores around the house does not count. I mean sitting
down and giving the album your full attention. For many of us, it has been
awhile.

Hearing is like breathing and smelling – it does not require an active,
directed effort; we do it subconciously. When we want to look at something,
we direct our gaze toward the object; when we want to touch something, we
must reach out. In short, we have to focus our attention. Hearing, however,
is different as we constantly hear 360 degrees around us. We can hear
things going on in the other room while we chat to a friend whether or not
we are trying to listen. We cannot shut our ears and therefore we often
take our sense of hearing for granted.

Active listening takes effort. It requires us to slow down and completely
stop other actions which is very difficult in this age of hyper-reality. We
are used to multi-tasking at all times – texting or tweeting while we are
out with friends or talking on the phone while we make dinner. It is rare
to focus on one activity and that is what active listening requires.

Actively listening to a whole album from beginning to end involves a fair
amount of concentration and requires us to set aside some time. We have to
commit ourselves to the task and in our day of the MP3 single download
where we are used to the quick sound bite, this can be quite a feat. As
Hermione Hoby stated in The Observer, “It’s hard not to develop an aural
antsiness when YouTube is there for the flighty browsing, iPods for the
impatient shuffling. Meanwhile, Spotify and every other streaming service
allow us to take for granted a song being there for our ears when we demand
it. In short, our restless listening might mean we’re in danger of becoming
careless listeners, too.”

Over the past few years my husband and I have achieved super-geek status by
slowly assembling an audiophile sound system. The cons: a hole in our
pocket. The pros: listening to music with friends and rediscovering our
record collections. We recently had our friend James over on a Sunday night
and after dinner we sat down and listened to Brian Eno’s “Another Green
World”. The last time I truly listened to that album in its entirety was
nearly two decades ago but it sounded just as fresh – maybe even better as
it is such a rare occasion to have the opportunity to shut everything else
out to solely concentrate on the music. It was somewhat meditative and
definitely therapeutic not to mention artistically beneficial.

Our friend Greg Wilson had a similar realisation and has started “Living to
Music”. On the first Sunday of the month, people are encouraged to sit down
with friends and listen to a selected classic album. There are suggested
guidelines such as having time for small talk before the listening session
gets under way and turning off all mobile phones (Yes!). Of course, these
are all suggestions and it is hoped that is will cross-pollinate with
people starting their own listening movements and selecting their own
classic records.

My husband and I sat down and listened to Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the
Moon”, the second album chosen by Living to Music. We had the Mobile
Fidelity version which is part of their “Original Master Recording” series
which featured half-speed mastering by Stan Ricker. Whilst listening to
this amazing recording, it just seemed rude not to share the audiophile
experience with others. It also seemed like a good idea to have more of an
exchange regarding the selected album with other people.

With Greg’s nod of approval, Cosmodelica started a monthly London listening
session called “Classic Album Sundays: A Communal and Audiophile Listening
Experience”. So far we have covered The Beatles’ “Abbey Road”, Kate Bush’s
“Hounds of Love” and De La Soul’s “3 Feet High and Rising”. In the next
couple of months, we have David Bowie’s “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy
Stardust and The Spiders From Mars” and Stevie Wonder’s “Innervisions” and
there are many more fine albums lined up for the rest of the year.
To get updates on future Classic Album Sundays events, please become a fan
of the Classic Album Sundays on Facebook
------------------------------------------
Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett

On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 2:23 PM, Darrell Keim <keim153 at gmail.com> wrote:

> If they do, I'd like to meet then Ted!  I've got a very nice sounding
> handmade tube based system, I even have occasional "audio get togethers"
> with another friend.  But neither of us has anything like that.  It is fun
> to see the best systems, like that one.  It is also fun to see how good the
> sound can be for a fraction of that cost.
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 2:07 PM, Ted Moffett <starbliss at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Famous music devotee, dance DJ and audiophile, Colleen Murphy is shown
>> below with a mind blowing vinyl stereo system, used at the NY Audio Show
>> 2013...
>>
>> In one photo she is posed with the vinyl record cover of Talking Heads
>> "Remain in Light"... Once upon a time I had superb Japanese import vinyl
>> copy of this album, which sounded fantastic.
>>
>> This stereo system approaches the 200,000 thousand dollar price range...
>>
>> I wonder if anyone in the Inland Empire owns a system of this
>> sophistication...
>>
>> Colleen's website regarding her "Classic Album Sundays" events. which are
>> offered internationally, described as a "communal and audiophile listening
>> experience:"
>>
>> http://classicalbumsundays.com/
>>
>> -------------------------------------
>> http://www.stereophile.com/content/classic-album-sundays
>> Classic Album Sundays
>>  By Art Dudley <http://www.stereophile.com/writer/86> • Posted: Apr 14,
>> 2013
>>
>> Colleen “Cosmo” Murphy, the record-store clerk-turned-internationally
>> known DJ-turned-analog impresario, has set out to change the way we listen,
>> one roomful at a time; based on my experiences at NYAS 2013, she is bound
>> to succeed. I had heard that Ms. Murphy is as sound- and music-savvy as she
>> is lovely, and I can only say those observations don’t do her justice.
>> “Today, music is treated almost as aural wallpaper, as a cheap commodity,”
>> Murphy bemoaned in her opening remarks before spinning the Japanese vinyl
>> version of David Bowie’s *Hunky Dory* on a truly grand system, including
>> a Spiral Groove SG1.1 turntable with Centroid tonearm and a Lyra Atlas
>> cartridge; a VTL TP 6.5 phono preamp (with integral step-up transformer);
>> VTL’s TL 7.5 line-level preamp and Siegfried monoblock amps; Wilson Audio
>> MAXX 3 loudspeakers and Opus series cabling from Transparent. (When I
>> visited the Classic Album Sundays room, early on the show’s first day,
>> exact pricing details weren’t yet available; suffice it to say, everything
>> was rather expensive.)
>>
>>  *John Atkinson adds: *Colleen played classic albums all weekend,
>> following *Hunky Dory* with Talking Heads' (in photo), John Hiatt's *Bring
>> the Family*, The Beach Boys' *Pet Sounds* (in mono), Kraftwerk's *
>> Autobahn*, Steve Wonder's *Innervisions*, and ending the Show with the
>> truly classic *Forever Changes* from Love, on a new, superb-sounding
>> reissue from Rhino. I took in two of these sessions and it was a buzz being
>> in a room of attentive audiophiles listening to an album in its entirety.
>> You can find the Classic Album Sundays calendar at Colleen's website<http://classicalbumsundays.com/>.
>>
>> ------------------------------------------
>> Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
>>
>> =======================================================
>>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>>                http://www.fsr.net
>>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>> =======================================================
>>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20130716/a4498bfe/attachment.html>