Today's find!!!

I just picked up, at the SA, a copy of Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams"
soundtrack and Lou Reed's "Berlin"- as well as a "low-rent" 45 minute
blank. I just aboot peed myself finding the Patsy Cline! I've been
looking for it for 10+ years now. I popped it in on the ride home and
DAMN it sounds good. I had always assumed the later Columbia House
tapes sounded bad, but this one is excellent! Nice highs, good lows.
There were a ton of mid-80s country CH tapes, some sealed, but nothing
I'd listen to- mainly MOR "country". A few Merle Haggard, but the only
song of his I like is "You Take Me For Granted", and it wasn't on any
of 'em.

The vinyl of "Sweet Dreams" I have is from RCA Music Service- it's
gawdawful. Blech. It sounds (and looks) like polystyrene- well, the
first half of the side sounds okay but halfway thru it gets bad and by
the end, fatigue sets in and the ears start to bleed. The vinyl itself
is nice and shiny, but upon closer inspection the grooves have an
almost whitish look when the disc is tilted. I'm gonna pitch it.

Does anyone out there have her other "remix" album, "Always", that
they'd be willing to sell, on 8 track or LP???

On 9 Oct 2006 11:49:46 -0700, "Stereo__8"
wrote:

I just picked up, at the SA, a copy of Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams" snip

Rare.

soundtrack and Lou Reed's "Berlin"- snip

Not as rare, but more valuable.

as well as a "low-rent" 45 minute
blank. I just aboot peed myself finding the Patsy Cline! I've been
looking for it for 10+ years now. I popped it in on the ride home and
DAMN it sounds good. I had always assumed the later Columbia House
tapes sounded bad, but this one is excellent!snip

Not true. Later CRC "gray" carts were far better in quality than the
original "TC8s" because of newer dupe line equipment. I've never run
across a newer "gray" cart that wasn't better than the DayGlo orange
original. Example: Chicago's first album was released on the usual
TC8s, and these had the usual frequency response issues as well as
notable distortion. I'd gotten multiple copies, and found each to
have similar quality problems with the dupe process. A later CRC
rerelease was free of all of them and sounds almost as good as the LP.

The vinyl of "Sweet Dreams" I have is from RCA Music Service- it's
gawdawful. Blech. It sounds (and looks) like polystyrene- well, the
first half of the side sounds okay but halfway thru it gets bad and by
the end, fatigue sets in and the ears start to bleed. The vinyl itself
is nice and shiny, but upon closer inspection the grooves have an
almost whitish look when the disc is tilted. I'm gonna pitch it. snip

It's been played on a "nudo" turntable, probably with a worn out
sapphire stylus in a non-compliant ceramic cartridge. Those garbage
turntable/cartridge combinations are responsible for about 90% of the
rejected records I've collected over the years. If you see a whitish
cast to the 45° groove wall surface, it's usually caused by heavy
tracking force, no anti-skating facility and, more often than not, a
worn out stylus. I can always tell when a disk has always been played
on a good table with a good cartrdige...groove wall damage is minimal
in comparison, if there's any at all. Even awful "flea store" disks
that have more fingerprints on them that the Feebs' AFIS system can
clean up and sound almost as good as new, whereas even well handled
records played on crappy "all in ones" or "consoles" with those awful,
record butchering changers will have permanent distortion caused by
groove wall damage.

Consoles may *look* cool, but they are sooo trash. Too bad. I stated
here that I'd love to find one and fix it up with a decent receiver/amp
and magnetic cartridge turntable. And isolate the hell outta the
speakers. I think I saw one on eBay with a mag cartridge turntable.

As much as I love the Velvet Underground, I have no desire to get any
more Lou Reed albums. "Berlin" is blech. I don't like it at all. Eh
well, I have a trader.

The "Sweet Dreams" is a white-shelled cart. I picked up the Merle &
Willie tapes just now- my dad loves them, and he's had some health
problems, so I'm gonna CD them for him.

One thing about the "Sweet Dreams" soundtrack: it sounds good on my car
player and a couple of mid-to-lower-high fi decks but on the Pioneer
the treble sounds a *bit*... gritty. Kinda like the LP. I wish I
still had the cassette, just to compare them. Maybe it's a mastering
error? It's listenable, but not as much as it could be.

An aside comment: I picked up Culture Club's "From Luxury to Heartache"
(the LP done with George all smacked out- not a bad LP though)- I
compared "Move Away" from the LP to the import DVD of "Culture Club's
Greatest Hits". Guess which one sounds better? The LP!! That
surprised me, especially from mid-80s vinyl. Much wider soundstage and
the treble has more detail.

Stereo__8 wrote:
Consoles may *look* cool, but they are sooo trash.

So white-trash, like those who sell them from their vacation shack in
Drums PA.

On 10 Oct 2006 15:22:49 -0700, "The Dummy From Drums"
wrote:


Stereo__8 wrote:
Consoles may *look* cool, but they are sooo trash.

So white-trash, like those who sell them from their vacation shack in
Drums PA. snip

Must be "Triple D"...the Dumpster Diver from Drums!