Marky, JD: thanks. I'm so fortunate to have found Lucy again and won her heart. She was the girlfriend of a coworker when I left for Texas in '80 and hadn't seen her since, though we'd exchanged some correspondence over the years. I always admired her but she was my coworker's girl, you know how that goes. A few years later she and that coworker separated, and a few years later she married someone I have never met. She had a really awful time in the second half of her marriage plus a nasty divorce and was never going to be with anyone again or so she thought before we came back in contact. I was so worn down and sad from caring for my parents and being so isolated here in Ohio, and sad from separating from my gal in Texas the year before who was caring for her mother there, and working her important job and was never going to move to Ohio. When Lucy and I met for dinner nine months and two weeks and two days ago something just happened and we've just grown happier and happier ever since, together. Six months ago I knew I was going to propose and it was just a matter of time. The time came. We'll probably have a long engagement so that I can continue to dedicate my time to my Dad for a while and get him set up closer to Lucy when I move in this summer. I feel so good about this that I thank Providence every day.

Thanks Hans!

Right now, cooking and waiting for Lucy to come home and listening to this:

I've entered the Listening Cave and will be spinning some vinyl picked up at HPB&Rs Monday.  Also, after some discussion on the forum about the X Shadow connectors on Steve's DSR cables,  I realized I had a pair going from the CSP3 to my CD Player that I almost never use now a days.  So I put it between the CSP3 and the Torii MK IV.  This first...

Some more fretwork wizardry...

Cool Mark, I think I might have mentioned Lucy as my fiancee once the week before I asked her. Oddly one of Lucy's sisters mentioned Lucy and I were dating about seven months ago to her mother-in-law who lives in Burton, Ohio, the town my Dad was the minister of the church on the square for 27 years. When I went to visit the church a few months later I discovered that the tin-can telephone had been working all that time and I was told that "it's so great you and Lucy are married."

Okay, but I just love this Dylan album so much that I can't imagine a Dylan fan not liking it, but guess so. I'm spinning it again right now and it's like taking a chill pill, in a very good way. He really inhabits these old songs.

Ryo Kawasaki, Eight Mile Road (East West)

OMG. A Dylan Como album. It really IS the end of the world!

Nice !
Wish my S. Rollins albums would turn up.

First disc of the 2 cd/2 dvd 40th Anniversary set remixed by Steven Wilson.

My favorite Tulls are Benefit, Aqualung, Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play. The Steven Wilson remixes are revelatory, I recommend tryiing them in that form.

Thanks Lon,  first I'll pick up some vintage vinyl then maybe a reissue or two.  I've written down your suggestions and put them in my wallet. Mark.

Disc 1

Yes, lately I've become interested in both how Dylan interprets the songs of others, and how others interpret Dylan's songs (or in the case of "Lost on the River," how others build songs around his lyrics.)

Plus my fiancee likes Dylan a bit, which is more than I can say of  much of jazz or other music I might play. . . .

I'm glad you did.

Back to Dad's and classical music. The late Quartets, this time by Guarnieri Quartet.

OK,  I popped in the new 1968 Orange Globe Amperex 6922s that arrived yesterday into the Mono Blocks. I was hoping they might have toned down the cymbals on this Art Pepper set (CD #2)...they don't.  But I need to remember these tubes likely need some hours on them to show their true colors since I believe they are true NOS.  No tube is going to correct Hot mastering...why do so many reissues do this?  Anyway, the music is phenomenal.

As a more fair trial of the new tubes, after Art, I'll play a promo CD of the 1994 recordings of Keith Jarrett's Standard Trio at the Blue Note...10 tracks of heaven.  Mark.

PS...Syd,  I think you may have missed this earlier post...."Syd,  recommend your two favorite King Crimson albums.  I'm not familiar with them but want to listen to some samples on spotify or you tube."

Lon,  I've actually been thinking about trying the 6L6 type output tube in the Torii.  I've done some reading and looked into some cheaper Russian versions...I'll look at those you bought...how much did they cost?  Since I have three quads of the RFT EL-34s, I'm trying to "fix" the high end with resistors in the HR-1s...they haven't come yet.  

In the monoblocks with the Zu Audio Souls, the warmest speakers I own, and Amperex 7308's, I have only very rare issues with cymbals.  When I listen with the Omega Alnico speakers, I use a pair of Amperex Bugle Boy 6DJ8s that do warm up the sound on the inherently brighter high end of these speakers.  I was hoping the 6922s would fall somewhere in between.  When the cymbals aren't playing, the mastering is fine on this Pepper set. Mark.

No, actually I am using the "GE type":

http://www.cryoset.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=22_29&products_id=352&osCs...

When I was researching these something someone said made me consider them over the other type, can't remember now what that was!

They give a dark, almost sullen sound in comparison to the KT66 types, sort of an E34L type of sound but a bit thicker and more reticent on the top than may of those. I like them a bit more in the Mk II than the Mk III, I got bored with them in the Mk III before but I had a different tube complement in at that time. So we'll see.

The overall sound scape is a bit more closed in and less big and open with this tube type but that works well at Dad's with a lot of chamber music played.

This next.  It still seems the 6922's are hotter than my 7308's also Amperex...should this be? or maybe just lack of break in?  Makes me wonder why I mess with something that ain't broke?  Mark

PS...listening to this album, I just think...how could someone not own this music...wonderful...even though it's edited performances.  I've got the full length on vinyl.

You can add the new live Crimson to the list Mark, it`s good.

Complete mood change.
No less a big sound. Incredible stuff.

Next...

Listening to Joshua Redman / Joshua Redman -- great music.

Peter Tosh - Bush Doctor

fantastic arrangements by Robbie Shakespeare, superb singing, great songs, sound is tops...

This morning I listened to the third CD of the Art Pepper Set and indeed the New Amperex 6922s seem to have relaxed a bit...not as harsh on the high end.  I think they would/will be even better with the RCA 5U4G recifiers instead of the RCA 5R4GYs.  Are the 6922's better than the 7308s...No.

This CD now...

Next LP...

I have been reading the owners manual for the Torii MK IV because I wanted to try some of the adjustments.  I hadn't used the reconstructive feedback but with the second side of Dylan it seemed to make things more complex, like there was more information presented.  On the "Kind of Blue" Record Store Day Mono edition, it was too much, I turned it off.  Also those Hot cymbals are back.  I think I need to find a warmer input tube for the CSP3 than the Amperex 7308.

What is reconstructive feedback supposed to do sound-wise?  Anyone else explored this switch on the Torii MK IV?  Will, I know you did.  Mark.