Author Topic: ET & Elvis Costello Have a Cup of Coffee (or Two)  (Read 9192 times)

Antares

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Re: ET & Elvis Costello Have a Cup of Coffee (or Two)
« Reply #90 on: April 13, 2022, 06:38:47 PM »
You said you throw up some 20-minute songs, so you could party while the record spins. Were any of them ever Echoes?

My best friend, and the guy who got me into the station was a huge Floyd fan, so I'm pretty sure it was at some point.

One Wednesday night, he was doing the 6-10pm slot and the the deejay after him called him to tell him he was stuck in NYC and wouldn't be back in time to do his show. My friend announced it on the air and told his listening audience that he would spin for as long as he could, but wasn't sure how long after 10pm he'd go. I heard this and called him and told him I'd come in for the 10pm slot. He tells me that seeing as how I was coming from home to do the show, he'd stay and we'd do the show together, if I could stop and get food. He had a bottle of Jack Daniels and a liter bottle of Coca-Cola. I said sure, and started to drive to the station. A few minutes go by and I'm listening to his show on the way in, when all of a sudden, he lowers the volume of the song he's playing and voices over with the mike "Bring ice, bring ice, bring ice."

We still joke about it to this day.

Another time, the same thing happened with a deejay following him not showing up and this time, he had to be somewhere after his show. I call him again and tell him on my way up. He tells me he has to leave in 5 minutes and did I think I could get there in 20 minutes? I said I could so he cued up Atom Heart Mother by Pink Floyd and I asked him to cue up on the other turntable before he left, Close to the Edge by Yes. I lived about 20 minutes away so I was cutting it close, but if I could get there before the Floyd song ended, I could just do a quick intro over the protracted intro of the Yes song, and then I would have time to grab a few albums out of the stacks and go from there. I made it to the station in 20 minutes flat, it was about a 2 minute walk up to the studio and I got there with about a minute to spare.
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Antares

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Re: ET & Elvis Costello Have a Cup of Coffee (or Two)
« Reply #91 on: April 13, 2022, 06:53:19 PM »
I never smoked weed in the studio but I did a show or two on acid.

That would have been weird. Did you have trouble discerning the controls or maintaining focus on what you are doing?

That would be me. In the spring of 1982 a new deejay started at the station and he had the most ass kicking weed. One Tuesday night, I'm prepping for the Front Page show I was doing that night, and a few of the other deejays came into the studio to listen to my show. We smoked a bit of this new weed and I always just went off script and winged it in regards to the history of the band that was showcased that night. That night it was The Moody Blues and I start the show by telling the story of how Denny Laine had left the band and Justin Hayward and John Lodge had been added. Suddenly, my mind went blank. I froze. I couldn't re-gather my train of thought and there was close to 30 seconds of dead air. I'm just sitting there, almost catatonic and I can feel sweat dripping down my back and it felt like the walls were closing in on me in the studio. I killed the mike and started the turntable I had the first song cued up on. I look over and all of the deejays are staring at me in abject horror. There was nothing worse that having dead air, and I just was sitting there in silence. They all tried to rebuild my now shattered confidence, but the damage was done that night. I just played straight songs for the rest of the show, no talking at all. They each took a turn doing the ID, because I was in almost paralytic shock. From that night onward, I never smoked weed again before or during a show.
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Eric/E.T.

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Re: ET & Elvis Costello Have a Cup of Coffee (or Two)
« Reply #92 on: April 16, 2022, 08:17:59 PM »
I have never done a hallucinogen, so all I have is my imagination, and it seems to me like it'd be hard to do a radio show lol. But I wouldn't know. I feel like magic mushrooms are in style right now, as are the big boxy speakers of yore, which leads me to ask:

What are your preferred stereo speakers? What speakers/styles do you remember growing up? I'm moving, and when I move I have saved for a nice home theater, but I also want a screen-free stereo room to listen to my CD's and hi-res with a quality stereo amp, as opposed to a receiver. Companies like JBL, Wharfedale, KLH, and Klipsch have all put out updated versions of some of their vintage speakers from the real glory days of hi-fi stereo, and I'm trying to figure out which ones I'm most into. I'll have to go listen to them some day, but the JBL L100 Classic are known to play rock, hip-hop, electronic, and pop with a huge presence, so that might be where I go. So expensive, though.
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Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: ET & Elvis Costello Have a Cup of Coffee (or Two)
« Reply #93 on: April 17, 2022, 04:04:24 AM »
For a stereo. Decide how much money you want to spend. Pick out a few CDs of music you like to listen to, choose a variety of types of music. Find a good audio store that will let you try out different combos of amp and speakers. Take your CDs to the store. Tell the sales person your budget and the type of music you are interested in listening to. They will hopefully pick out a few options try them out with your music and pick what you like. Word of warning do not listen to stuff outside your price range temptation is a bad thing.

This was the process I followed. I went in with a budget of $1500 to $2000. The store offered me a few option across the price range. I listened then asked about a sweet looking pair of speakers. I listened to those at the end, because I was curious. I walked out having spent $4500 (the better speakers were pricey). Still 20 years later I am very happy with my purchase.

Eric/E.T.

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Re: ET & Elvis Costello Have a Cup of Coffee (or Two)
« Reply #94 on: April 17, 2022, 09:34:21 PM »
I was just sort of wondering if anyone had any emotional attachment to a brand or model. I was thinking of the vintage-style speakers for a separate room, just to be engulfed in stereo sound from time to time. The main listening spot will be a home theater system, and yeah, I'll have to go see the dealers to figure out exactly what I want, though I have some ideas of brands I'm interested in from previous visits.
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Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: ET & Elvis Costello Have a Cup of Coffee (or Two)
« Reply #95 on: April 18, 2022, 09:06:00 AM »
I tend to go with how the speakers sound rather than the look. I do have a nice pair of 30+ year old Wharfedale bookshelf speakers that my aunt gave to me when she upgraded, which are a lovely old school look. At the moment they are in a cupboard until we move into our new house (which is still at least a year away, sniff sniff), when they will go into my office.

Antares

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Re: ET & Elvis Costello Have a Cup of Coffee (or Two)
« Reply #96 on: April 18, 2022, 09:48:09 AM »
My system:

Adcom pre-amplifier
Adcom amplifier 150 watts
Sony CD player
Sony FM receiver
Cambridge Soundworks M50 speakers
Hsu Research HSRV-10 Sub-woofer w/integrated 50 watt amplifier

The sub-woofer allows me to crossover at various frequencies, of which I crossover from the main speakers to the sub-woofer at 35hz. The bass doesn't bottom out on the sub-woofer until it tries to go below 10hz., which is comparable to cannon shots. I paid $1,000 for that sub-woofer back in 1995, and because my wife and I weren't married yet, it was my money and she couldn't say a word. When I first played a film through it, the Knights charging scene from Braveheart, the whole apartment shook. I turned to her and said, "That's why I spent $1,000 on that speaker!"  ;)

Your pre-amplifier and sub-woofer are the key to having a stellar music system. There hasn't been much advancement in mid-range and tweeter design, so you can save money on your bookshelf satellite speakers and put the money saved into an ass kicking sub-woofer. You mentioned not wanting a receiver. That's the right way to go. A receiver has usually a pre-amplifier, amplifier and FM radio crammed into the frame. Quality has to be cut to make it all fit inside. You'll absolutely love separates in your system. I bought those first two pieces listed above in 1991 and they still are going strong. If cost becomes slightly prohibited, you can sacrifice the FM that would come with a receiver and go with an integrated amplifier. It will cost less than separates and the drop in sound quality is barely noticeable. But go for the separates, you'll be glad you did.  ;D

I used to own a Yamaha Digital Surround Sound Processor, but it died a few years back. I didn't replace it because I never was really into the surround sound process. It's great for films, but kind of distracts when listening to music. I could bypass the signal by hitting a switch on the processor, but I found the circuit that filtered it, screwed with the overall sound as it passed through the unit.

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Eric/E.T.

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Re: ET & Elvis Costello Have a Cup of Coffee (or Two)
« Reply #97 on: April 18, 2022, 09:04:09 PM »
So Antares, do you watch TV and movies with that system, as well? I've been conflicted about whether to have two separate systems, or just watch TV and movies through the stereo system. Were I to go one single system, it'd be movies and TV through the stereo, and not music through a stereo mode on a receiver. (One exception I've explored was connecting my front left and right to a power amp (or mono blocks) and connecting those through the pre-outs on a home theater amp. I would trust a Marantz receiver as a pre-amp and home theater receiver, but I feel like it's not powerful enough for me to really bang out my music). I'm sure Dave might have something to say on this, as well. Then again, I might be overthinking it, as I'm starting to think you can acquire a lot of good sound for a lot less than I've been thinking about spending. I like the tips of separate amps and what you really need out of a speaker. A couple of brands I've listened to and enjoyed (and can afford) are Emotiva and Parasound. Both have a wide enough selection that I could switch out/upgrade over time, but have solid points of entry quality and price-wise where I likely wouldn't even have to do that.

I haven't actually had a home theater system since the early aughts, when I bought a Sony HT in a box system for my DVD player for $300, my first credit card purchase that I paid off so fast because getting the bills in the mail scared me, and used it in my mom's basement during summer breaks from college. I never even used it at school. I had a two-speaker all-in-one Pioneer rig with 50 CD changer in my dorm that absolutely pounded, though was not of what we might consider the highest of quality now, then later got a 2.1 JBL alien looking thing for my computer later on...and used my TV speakers for TV and movies. Still a big tube TV with speakers you could see. Now, they might as well not even put speakers on TVs.

BTW - researched your bookshelf speakers, Henry Kloss was in the lab for those, as well as the original KLH Model Fives. Must've known what he was doing. Also noted the Hsu Research sub, that's a brand I've heard a lot about, though I haven't heard any of their models. SVS is another sub brand that I've heard a lot of good things about, too.
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jdc

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Re: ET & Elvis Costello Have a Cup of Coffee (or Two)
« Reply #98 on: April 18, 2022, 11:51:14 PM »
So Antares, do you watch TV and movies with that system, as well? I've been conflicted about whether to have two separate systems, or just watch TV and movies through the stereo system. Were I to go one single system, it'd be movies and TV through the stereo, and not music through a stereo mode on a receiver. (One exception I've explored was connecting my front left and right to a power amp (or mono blocks) and connecting those through the pre-outs on a home theater amp. I would trust a Marantz receiver as a pre-amp and home theater receiver, but I feel like it's not powerful enough for me to really bang out my music). I'm sure Dave might have something to say on this, as well. Then again, I might be overthinking it, as I'm starting to think you can acquire a lot of good sound for a lot less than I've been thinking about spending. I like the tips of separate amps and what you really need out of a speaker. A couple of brands I've listened to and enjoyed (and can afford) are Emotiva and Parasound. Both have a wide enough selection that I could switch out/upgrade over time, but have solid points of entry quality and price-wise where I likely wouldn't even have to do that.

I do two seperate systems in the same room and managed to overlap a few places.  The HT has a Nvidia Shield as well as a Oppo UDP-205 connected to a Denon flagship receiver that can do 13.2 channels.  Currently configured as 7.2.4

The audio system uses a fanless PC as well as the same Oppo player  connects to a custom built preamp and amp based on a Nelson Pass design.  The Oppo Blu-ray player acts as the DAC for the PC (I have a separate Teac DAC but decided to sell it and simplify a bit).

Both systems share the front two speakers (Focal full range) but I have a switch to toggle which Amp powers the speakers. Some audiophiles make scoff at the speaker switch, you can could change which cables connect to the speakers at any one time but that is trouble as well as potentially dangerous if you turn something on if not connected to the speakers and create a short.

But age is catching up a bit or too much exposure to loud music when I was younger. I’ll likely scrap the HT next time I move and go to a reasonable good sound bar and keep a seperate music system.

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