R.I.P Audio Fidelity cds

On May 18th in answer to much speculation on the Steve Hoffman Audiophile Forum, an open letter from Audio Fidelity's president Marshall Blonstein was published where upon he outlined the closure of his re-issue label Audio Fidelity originally famed for its gold plated discs and lately its hybrid super audio discs.
The company was formed in 2005 from ashes of DCC which he also had an involvement in which ceased operations in 2001 and utilized the services of mastering engineers Steve Hoffman, Kevin Gray and Steven Marsh who owned a mastering facility.
To be honest this didn't surprise me too much as they had not new titles out nor announcements for over a year which is never a good sign especially as members of Mr Hoffman's forums are very much the prime target for the discs, people who are looking for best sounding cds (or records) of certain 'classic' albums.
Another reason was to do with the hit and miss nature of a number of their titles some sounding little better than original cds from the 80's, others having in explicable errors such as clicks or having mysteriously the highest and lowest volume passages reduced which is the opposite a person spending around $29.99 wants.
Moreover even the presentation suffered from poor quality scans from 'borrowed' lps with no posters with the disc itself in a blurry looking templated slipcase which when compared to budget regular cds looked embarrassing and cheap.
Compared to people like Mobile Fidelity who used sharp images on a mini lp form with booklets that you'd feel proud to own and whose work is often to a high standard, they looked poor so it was hardly surprising I bought more Mobile Fidelity titles because I felt confident placing a pre-order.
In truth I feel they were uncompetitive being pitched at the premium cd market who understandably are also interesting in how something looks as its absolute sound quality so while I enjoyed a number I bought such as the Styx, Rush, Phil Collins, EWF and certain Billy Joel titles I don't feel mournful.
They just lack the quality of the DCC discs from 1992-1999 a number of us bought.

Blogging updates

It's looking set to be a warm week so no doubt I'll be out doors for a period while I recover from installing that equipment I mentioned last week which is working out fine.
As explained at one site (and you know who you are) I have been working on simplifying  blogging as some of you will recall there was this blog with its original titles on one account and my littles on one another each connected to a Google Plus account completely stand alone which meant I needed to log in to different accounts to post and edit each.
We all know that's all under the bridge now as you've accepted me as I am and I tend to keep this for more middles or groan up stuff and keep the littles posts on its own blog  although the odd time I may reblog a post if I think it's of some us to those of you who read this blog.
So what may of been necessary in 2009 - the separation of the two - really isn't anymore  so from now on posts on this blog are coming from the littles account done in as seamless a way as possible to avoid having to change web addresses or remake blogs.
This also ties in with my plan to remove one Google Plus account which really isn't used for the littles blog because I use tumblr much more and frankly I see little activity in the circles to warrant it as again what seemed great in 2011 has moved way beyond a distant second to Facebook when it comes to social media being pretty much dead.
It was only really set up for one person because I tended to post littles stuff from the  big Google Plus account most of the time as I had anyone who may of had issues with that in a circle I didn't post that stuff too and as they left me for Facebook, I've deleted that circle anyway.
Indeed thinking back on it the social media I grew up with Friends Reunited, Experience Project, MySpace, Bestuff and Yahoo GeoCities  in the early days of this blog are either gone or withering on the vine.
After all that, expect a musical post next time around!

Sound changes

There's been a few changes in the 'spare room' system recently with finding using a combination of small boxes was awkward  having to hold down one to adjust anything and then find as one wire moved, the other bit moved  too.
It seemed I was needing less wires and a more solid single unit which wasn't appreciably longer so it would fit on same space

The other thing was although it could play loud at times it would sound 'soft' and beyond which it would start sounding harsh because it's power is fairly low.
Enter a used oldie from the 1980's that had a fair bit more power (25 watts per channel RMS), not too long and relatively short height so the overall form factor was still small being well way from the sort with big front panels loaded with features and flashing lights.

The Rotel RA 820B has inputs for a radio (or portable device), a cd player (designed specifically for their higher output) and circuit for  turntable that uses a Moving Magnet cartridge that can just plugged into it.
Outside of that it has full tape recording and monitoring (see later), a button to put anything in mono,  a volume control and headphone socket, that is just it.

On the rear you have the sockets including a grounding tag for turntables and the + and - left and right outputs that you push your loudspeaker leads into although I found I needed too extend mine a little.

I did mention 'tape monitoring' because some cassette (and open reel) decks actual allow you to hear what is coming off the tape you may well be recording so you know it's recording okay.
One thing the switching box couldn't do is just that and that comes into play with the entry of a circa 1991 three headed direct drive cassette deck by Technics of Japan, the Rs Bx 707.
First off on the record side it has a tape tuning system to make the best possible recordings on whatever tape you have rather than relaying whatever it was set to at the factory enabling you to set it yourself.
The record level meters have a wide scale which can switched to the portion that you use most of the time for greater accuracy.
On the playback side it has the monitoring button so when recording you can compare what you are recording with what it sounds off the tape and can use Dolby B or C noise reduction for playback (and record) which was typical of the period. 
I tended to use either B or if the tape was fairly quiet none as sometimes you can hear the noise reduction especially on tapes made on other machines typically as a either a dulling of the sound or sounding as if the noise reduction circuit wasn't quite keeping up with fluctuations in the tone.
The tapes are loaded by a motorized draw and the tape types are set between types I ("Normal"), II (High Bias aka "Chrome") and IV ("Metal") automatically using sensors.
The motor speed is set by a quartz crystal and adjusted in real time and featuring no belts is extremely steady.

Early 70's favourites

There's a post planned for next Friday which will be published even though by the time you see it I'll be on a train making my way back here.
Recently I had a couple of new discs arrive here - so new they've only been out for a week from announcement - and train comes into it for one act's title.
The Hues Corporation come into it as they were on Soul Train, the black music tv show a lot during the mid 70's during the soul and 'disco' explosion of the summer of 1974 when what was played and danced to in underground clubs broke out to clubs and as I remember vividly even the children's dances in seaside resorts.

As it was the fantastic 70's, that wasn't all, these recording were issued in Quadraphonic 'surround' sound on SQ record and Q8 tape for tape players like Dad's in car one and this disc comprises of their second album Rockin' Soul that contained their smash hit Rock The Boat the title track of which was released in  November 74 as a 45 and Love Corporation, the 1975 follow up that apart from having the title track issued on 45, also contained tracks such as Follow The Spirit that reminds one of the O'Jay's.
The first album contained Freedom For The Stallion written by Allen Toussiant issued in 1973 which I associate more with Edward Bear who covered it in Canada,to  which I have ordered the regular cd in mini lp form. That album had the original version of Rock The Boat that was reworked for the 45 and featured on their second album.
Some artists start out as session musicians, some move to it from being in groups and in Rick Derringer's case he was a McCoy who had a big hit with Hang On Sloopy and a part of the group the Strangeloves who performed I Want Candy but by the early 70's was doing session work for Edgar Winter Group, Todd Rundgren and Steely Dan amongst others.
This lead on the back of that to be given a chance to do solo recording for Columbia.

All American boy was his first successful rock offering from 1973 that had Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo  written by him originally for Johnny Winter and included on their album and it's 1975 follow up Spring Fever whose lead off single was a reworking of Hang On Sloopy is included as like the other these are 2 on 1 re-issues.
Rick managed to get some great session folk playing on these albums  a number associated with to become Eagle Joe Walsh formally of James Gang, who in style this was a slightly more poppier version of which sold well and which I had the 8 track of as a kid.
The chance to get this on Super Audio cd as fan of early 70's rock was too much to miss especially as it too has the stereo and original Quadraphonic mixes we loved back then on the  sacd layer.
For £11.99 each with two albums in stereo and Quad on them they're a bargain.

Taking a breather

There are many things I could talk about this week, the "Windrush Generations" issues with the Home Office and UK Border Agency, Anti-Semitism in the opposition Labour Party, The Lords, EU Customs Arrangement and our Brexit all of which are serious, deserving of thought and indeed having matters of some concern too.
Sometimes though as important as any and all are, somehow you feel overwhelmed by it all and that was both a major trigger in the regressed side of my life and connected to some changes around this blog.
For me the walk down that road wasn't the easiest thing to do and indeed physically walking isn't for me but it was necessary to go beyond that busy core where one could instead focus more calming sounds, smells and warm colours and yes take a breather.
That's what I tended to find in politics from when I was directly involved in it, many of problems stem from not taking a break and thinking through how our aims are joined up to the means so we don't see those unintended consequences of our actions or we're so busy with our words that don't get around to making those actions that help translate ideas into clear-cut action.
There is no place in politics for race hate even though we need to have rigorous debate around migration, international terrorism, world affairs and how as a society of many differing backgrounds we do get along with common set of shared values.
Some problems are caused when the people who knew what went on before are let go before the memories are shared with younger staff so you have organizational loss of intelligence.
Ensuring you have that space between to reflect before acting I find makes a huge difference.

R.I.P Barbara Bush

On Wednesday UK time, it was announced that Barbara Bush, wife of former president George Bush and mother of former president George W Bush Jr. and former Governor Jeb Bush of Florida had died aged 92 years.
It is rare that I make any much reference to stateside political  dynasties not least as someone who wasn't U.S. born such things tend to be off of my horizon but my reasons for include being the mother of two important people in U.S. politics and for playing an important role role in the career of her husband, creating a card index of people he'd met so such contacts and influence could be best used.
The other is what she did in her own right, which is champion literacy and numeracy for people who struggle either as children or adults with them, something having read an account of a person who took advantage of this to learn their fifties to read and write which was so moving showed how her Literacy Foundation helped turn lives around, granting opportunities.
She passionately believed by tacking this issue it would make a big difference to tackling some of the U.S's biggest issues.
Having been a part of a program in this district to encourage Junior children to learn to articulate better and to learn to how to address a debate, not surprisingly I so agree with her on that.
The role of the partner of a President under the Constitution is not so defined  but I feel rather like in her way Michelle Obama, Barbara made a big difference by using that influence for the good.
Rest in peace, Barbara Bush.

Cross-gender play

The subject of how gender divides play and other learning experiences continues to lead for discussions but to me it isn't even  what it is we learn from even that's at issue but how  move on from a position of hostility and almost reverse sexism where anything with a hint of masculinity is bad to one that is more balanced and respectful for all.

This is from a much criticized era, the 1950's the era of the retreat to the kitchen and being #2 to the man of house but actually is really good in that we have an engineering based toy that can and is shown used by girls as well as boys and unusually the girl is show putting a piece together even.
The message is a girl can make things and moreover we have gender co-operation too, where his is allowing her to play a role as an equal.

Yes, she's actually putting a coupling rod in while still being feminine! You CAN do both.
One wonders how many female engineers of the 60's and early 70's took part in those baby steps in getting women in engineering on the back of such cross-gender toys?
Where is its modern day equivalent???
I did have a Meccano set when I was younger but found much of suggested things to make too masculine but this would of been really ideal.
It's not just girls who suffer from the sharp gender signalling that many toy manufactures go along with, it's also gender fluid children who in time of course become gender fluid adults.
It may sound ironic but maybe a return to this kind of toy would be better where we all play together as equals.