OT: Song Suggestions?!! Let's ROCK !

Still have all of the 45's and 33 & 1/3's...play them on a 1973 Thorens table, Marantz preamp + a Phase Linear 400 in a sound-proofed room I built in the basement. You can dry your laundry in front of the (homemade infinite baffle) speakers with that sukka.

I like most all of those ditties mentioned....gotta add "Don't Fear the Reaper" Blue Oyster Cult and "Twilight Zone" Golden Earring.

I must admit that I listen to all of that stuff on an ongoing basis, as well as many classics. I kinda fill my life with music when I am in studio.

trailguy & vince

As an engineer and music lover, I was always interested to quality music but never had the money to go too crazy. Most of my money was spent on albums in the 1970 and 1980's then on CD's after that. I recall fondly the early debates of CD vs. album fidelity and cringe at the MP3/Bluetooth world in general now.

However, I have figured out that, like many from our generation, high frequency hearing loss is common from way too much unprotected exposure to noise and loud music such that I no longer can hear anything over 8K Hz with the 6-8K Hz being pretty weak. Otherwise, my hearing is fine and balanced for the most part with slight overall loss like anyone over 60.

That being said, I have made no investment in audio gear other than portable stuff for quite some time (AV is a different subject and consumed some $'s). My main stereo is from the 1980's and only used on occasion. The arguments about high frequency response of speakers and CD vs. albums is lost on me and of little benefit anymore. To a lessor extent, MP3's and Bluetooth are becoming more acceptable which makes my stomach turn since I know the limitations and easily could hear the differences at one time.

Any of you experience a similar hearing issue that has changed your outlook on gear and playback media?

Mumbo said...
Any of you experience a similar hearing issue that has changed your outlook on gear and playback media?

Yes. I know I don't hear the highs like I used to and I have developed tinnitus over that past few years.

While I like the results of playing music on nice sounding equipment I've avoided going down that rabbit hole of getting the most pristine sound possible as it really can be a bottomless pit that consumes mass quantities of cash.

I originally got into reel-to-reels thanks to hand-me-downs from my dad and have continued to acquire a few, something like 16 of them now, from a 1947 Brush BK-401, the first reel machine on the consumer market, to a Tandberg TD20A-SE, one of the nicer pro-sumer models out there, and LOTS of Akais in between. I think I have 16 decks, all but 3 of which are operational right now.

I am in the process of getting the gear I bought in Germany when I was in the service in the early '70s all back online and have got it all going except for my receiver, a Sansui QRX-7500, quadraphonic. I think I am going to send it out for complete recap, etc. and put it back in as the heart of my system, which, in the meantime, is driven by a modern Onkyo A/V receiver. I have 2 turntables, a Dual 1226 and a Beogram 5000. For playing 45s I use a Sears compact system that was let in a house I bought a couple years ago.

It's really fun to listen to all the great old music on original vinyl, if one was smart enough to keep those old records over the years.

I've heard from more than one person that while digitization of music is adequate, and more or less convenient, there is still a wonderful sound quality in the old vinyl records that can't be matched.

And some of those old vinyls can be worth a good bit to collectors these days, eager to pay top dollar for many of them. So check your attics, blow the dust off those old boxes full of 33 1/3's and 45's, and see if you have anything a music store would love to pay handsomely for!

Of course for general listening purposes, that convenience thing again, the web certainly fills that need when it comes to listening to oldies.

There are a whole bunch of oldies music sites available on the web, of course, both specialized and general, with something for every taste.

For example, here's one in particular that I have been going to every now and then for a good while now, that is especially impressive:

https://www.1959bhsmustangs.com/videojukebox.htm#

It's notable for the huge selection of past pop songs that it offers, any one of them immediately available for viewing/listening (almost all are in video format) with a simple mouse click. It may well have the most oldies songs to offer of any of the oldies sites out there.

And note, if you do visit it, that there are links on the homepage to subpages specializing in 50s, 60s, 70s songs. etc.

So much of the pop music of the last several decades has been so wonderful. It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of those songs will still be listened to and enjoyed a 100 years after they were released.

RamonV said...
I have some hearing loss, probably from sitting so close to the amplifiers at the 1971 or 1972 Stones concert in Tucson. My ears are still ringing from that.
It seemed like everyone's first priority was getting their component set with the biggest speakers and biggest receiver/amplifier. The old Hi/Fi Sales in Mesa would let you bring a vinyl album in and try out their mega-speaker and amplifier room. Now THAT was fun in the early 70s.
I will have to pick the 1971 Stones Sticky Fingers album, and Brown Sugar in particular (the non-politically correct version).

I think I went to that HiFi shop in Mesa back in the early 70s. Being an Airman at Luke AFB, I could not afford the really nice stuff, but I could dream. From HS in the 60s onward, I was the original audiophile maniac. There was another shop in Phoenix where I would take my recording of Also Sprach Zarathustra with Zubin Mehta conducting the LA Philharmonic, which opened with this very pure Low C organ note at 32 HZ, far and few between were the speaker that could do a decent job of producing the "feel" of that note. But they were usually happy to let me play that and switch between speakers, even though I couldn't afford any of them. I also remember listening to Santana at that shop in Phoenix.

When I got out of the USAF in Sept 73, and got back home to GA to finish college, guess where I ended up working? That's right, at the best Audio shop in town, "The Sound Center" in Columbus, GA! JBL, Klipsch, McIntosh, the Giant Bozaks, and of course AR, KLH and all the rest. I was in heaven. I still couldn't afford most of that stuff, but I got to demo it at work and I had the keys to the place. So after hours, when no one else was there, I would go down there and have the place to myself. Or even sometimes when I closed up on Saturday night, I would take some of the demo equipment home to my house trailer, even some of those giant speakers! LOL!

LOUD Hifi, shooting, working on the flight line, and close to the stage for The Who concert in Phoenix Dec 1971, I have lost a lot of hearing, especially the high frequencies. But, though I don't have the good stuff set up anymore( I finally gave in to my wife's complaints about an apparent lack of visible appeal), I can still appreciate that deep bass, that was always my favorite part about good audio equipment. I had some fine subwoofers over the years, capable of producing very low distortion 16 HZ wall shaking note. Or, talk about some great chest thumping bass guitar from The Animal's "We Got to Get Out of This Place" or "It's My Life", and many others. I loved it!

Post Edited (BillyBob@388) : 4/12/2020 9:02:47 PM (GMT-6)

Cyclone, GREAT idea:, AWESOME even. (Thanks for your like reply on my broken record post. )Speaking of that I would play these two songs until they were broken if I still had a record player!
Lots of replies re CSNY, how about Neil Young's ROCKING IN THE FREE WORLD, he even mentions toilet paper at one point!
https://youtu.be/gyt8yc3bf1k

Also how about one more, lots of vote for the Eagles, how about HOTEL CALIFORNIA,

https://youtu.be/ilnlonnxnbq
Especially the line "You can check out anytime you want, but you can never leave"...I'm starting to feel that about this shelter in place at home business!
..and I can listen to them all day, especially now at home so much, I am a native Cali-fornian, and their name is part of my Moniker name,
Wings of Eagles

Post Edited (Wings of Eagles) : 4/12/2020 3:36:50 PM (GMT-6)

WoE - sounds like you need some Allman Brothers to even out your listening...

Take it Easy was one of my favorites but I fell in love with Frampton comes alive. Whole Album was a great listen but a Mantra song of the time was "Do you Feel Like I do". Had the opportunity to see him perform live about 8 years ago. Had seats 6 rows back and the Santa Barbara Bowl. What a great show. Of course there are many, many more songs but that would take so long. So I'll leave it at that.

Wings - The documentary Echo in the Canyon may be of some interest if you haven’t seen it. An interesting music time in southern CA from the likes of the Byrds, CSN, etc.

Wings of Eagles said...
Mumbo;
Ok. Ok how bou this un..cash me outside. pretty sure I had Eat a Peach Album back in the day.
The Allman Brothers "One way out"..they jammin!
https://youtu.be/yj9tweldw_m
Wings

Saw them in Macon, GA about 1973, Marshall Tucker Band opened for them. Went with my younger(by 6 years) and now deceased cousin and his buddy. Good times.

How about "Tied to the Whipping Post" and "Ramblin Man"?

2019Guy said...
I'm voting for the St. Matthew Passion, especially today. Then.... hmmm... the late Beethoven quartets, esp. op. 130-32, followed by The Marriage of Figaro. For something a bit "fresher" you can't go wrong with Wozzeck! Followed by those old standbys Le Sacre de Printemps and the Bartok Concerto for Orchaestra.

Another vote for the Beethoven late quartets (250th anniversary of his birth this year) Also, Schubert's last piano sonatas. The 1970s was an wonderful decade for jazz.

Roy Orbison - In Dreams
Johnny Cash - The Long Black Veil

With you on the 9th, wife and I used the coral for our wedding music. Will add Glenn Gould's Goldberg Variations, listen to both of those in my studio every week at least once. I am still surprised that the world didn't end when Gould died. Sure helped me make it through radiation treatments.

The Phase Linear is just one of 5 big systems I own, all have serious sub - woofers for that earth shaking base, the PL is the only big one with a turntable. I have another smaller setup with a Sansui turntable + desktop pc for transcribing vinyl to cd and a couple more smaller setups in places like the garage.

The studio system is the next big one with 4 Radio Shack Mach 2 speakers and a Pioneer sub-woofer. I rebuilt the Machs a few years ago when the original speaker paper dry rotted. They are rated at 500 W, have a Utah base speaker and an Electrovoice tweeter. As the Pioneer is also rated at 500 W there is less than 1/2 of 1% distortion. Distortion is what gives you the hearing damage. The big flat screen tv system is another 500 W Pioneer with a 7.1 Klipsch speaker setup.

This computer has a very nice 5.1 Logitech system for gaming and listening while working.

In the '70's, I was the only person I knew who got third row tickets and wore my work earplugs to the concerts. Glad I did, have a little tinnitus but my hearing is still pretty good for pushing 70.