Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 26, 2008 6:24:39 GMT -5
Here it is, 2008, and I don’t even own an I-pod. Which shouldn’t come to much surprise. As I don’t know too many people in my age group, and older. Who own one. I have never been one, who has to have the latest gadget on the market. Heck, it was several years, before I bought a DVD player, after they had been introduced. Only because, I did not think the technology would last. After witnessing the demise of the laser disc, and earlier disc players. The ones that had a plastic shield over them. Similar to a floppy disc. Of course I did not think the CD was going to make it either, but it dominated the market. I’m sure people probably felt the same way about, the first phonographs. The cylinder machines, were more though of as a curiosity, then as a serious machine.
I have always, enjoyed recorded music, and the various machines. I found the cassette player to be a fascinate ting machine. Especially, since I could make my own recordings. Granted they would not have the same quality, as pre-recorded ones, but it was still fun. I still own a couple of cassette, machines. Then in 2006, I got into antique phonographs. When I bought my first Edison Disc Phonograph. Antique phonographs, gave me a new perspective on recorded sound. Here is a machine, that can play back sound, without the use of electricity. That blew my mind, and still does. So, just because, it’s outdated technology. Doesn’t mean we should give it up.
I’m not saying I would never own an I-pod or even an mp3 player. It’s just that I have been content with what I have. Plus the cost of one of those deveices, still costs a bit. I shouldn’t complain. After all I did spend, a good deal of money on my first cylinder phonograph. The I-pod, does deserve it’s place in history. After all, it has made it easier, for people to take, their music with them. Try, carrying a Victrola sometime.
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Post by larryh on Aug 26, 2008 7:50:34 GMT -5
I too have usually held off till the last minute to purchase something new. Unfortunately with the increase in difficulty of operation the newer items also have a "fear" factor involved.. Fear that I won't be able to figure them out.. I still don't know how to work the remote most of the time and if something goes wrong with a telephone or computer, I am lost.. We must be in a similar age range. My first fascination with mechanical machines was always rooted in my amazement at what they could do without electricity. We also share another interest in the Cassette machines. It was one of the formats I embraced for the same reasons, being able to easily record and playback music, especially in the car. Now if I could only figure out how to transfer that to the net it would be fine, but I can't. Something about the utter simplicity of the old machines appeals to me. I hate getting a 50 page book to find out how to answer the phone.. I just want to say hello and good by. I think a clever manufacture could wipe up with some newer type products that only need a few simple dials or push buttons that are easy to understand to operate. Nothing worse than these new products with all kinds of little tiny symbols that I haven't a clue as to what they mean trying to get it to work. Yes mechanical is better in many respects.
Oh yes, as to tapes sound.. I have found that the LP's I recorded have vastly superior sound to anything I had purchased ready made. Much more depth and body to them, actually can't tell them from the original records. I have a good recording deck and use the best quality tapes, no complaints there. I still do have to check the manual though to see what sequence the buttons are pushed to make it work.. some things never change.
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ultona
Full Member
It's Not Easy Bein' Green
Posts: 164
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Post by ultona on Aug 26, 2008 7:58:12 GMT -5
I have an Ipod that I replaced a few months ago with an Iphone (a phone and an Ipod all in one!) and I love it. I can use the phone (which I hardly do, unless somebody calls me on it), listen to my 78s, DDs and even cylinder transfers I've done in the car or with headphones, take photos, email, check the boards, ebay or whatever I want to with it. Pretty cool if you ask me and a lot easier than hauling 2000 78s around along with a machine to play them on in the car or at the office! ;D
Don't get wrong, though, I love my phonographs and records and when I'm at home those are what get played!
Sean
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Post by larryh on Aug 26, 2008 8:01:44 GMT -5
Sean,
If I could figure all that out I would probably love to have them also, but so far I can't! Glad you could though..
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Post by wifijeff on Aug 26, 2008 9:33:11 GMT -5
An mp3 player is convenient for storing masses of music in older performances where messing up the audio with a compression algorithm optimized for pop is not a big deal. I love having all of Wagner and Strauss, and lots of Meyerbeer, in live performances (put out by Mike Richter on CD-ROM and easily loaded onto mp3 players). Mp3, etc., really eviscerate many high resolution audio recordings, though.
I feel that a really good compromise is to use the mp3 player with a nice old-time early 1920s radio horn, and save my Stax electrostatic headphones for higher end audio.
Jeff
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Post by larryh on Aug 26, 2008 10:09:26 GMT -5
Jeff,
Interesting that you should bring up using an old radio horn for sound reproduction.. I recently brought that up somewhere? I too wondered if there wouldn't be some way to rig the old horns to work with new amps for instance? I thought of using one of the tiny 8 ohm speakers such as radio shack has for sale and putting it into the little pot at the bottom of the speaker stand and see what happens.. I would be interested in what method you use to accomplish this?
thanks Larry
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ultona
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It's Not Easy Bein' Green
Posts: 164
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Post by ultona on Aug 26, 2008 10:13:14 GMT -5
I feel that a really good compromise is to use the mp3 player with a nice old-time early 1920s radio horn, and save my Stax electrostatic headphones for higher end audio. Jeff Now you're onto something Jeff! I've been waiting to get the Brunswick radio part of my BR-260 rebuilt with then intention of loading up my no-longer used Ipod with nothing but 20s and 30s dance band/jazz/vocal stuff and building one of those AM transmitters so I can play it all through the Brunswick. I've heard a setup like that and it sounds great! Good headphones are essential for good listening for certain. I only need to wear them (I have a nice set of Sony Professional MDVRs, I think that's what they are!) for transfers and noise reduction on 78s. You really hear what noise you're removing (and leaving) a lot more clearly with 'phones on. Sean
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Post by wifijeff on Aug 26, 2008 12:15:56 GMT -5
Jeff, I would be interested in what method you use to accomplish this? thanks Larry I purchased a "working" horn plus driver on eBay (they seem to have a lot of these, not always "working" for sure), and while waiting for it to arrive have gotten my recording equipment supplier to make me a simple cable. My sister is a ham radio person and she asked her groups about it, the advice is that with proper resisters it should work. I.e.: I'll let you know next week! Jeff
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Post by neophone on Aug 26, 2008 12:20:31 GMT -5
Gents, A friend gave me an ipod a few months back and i've only used it three or four times. I still can't figure out how to load more music into it! Funny thing is I used to have a CD Walkman type player and before that a cassette one. I wouldn't go anywhere with out a stack of cassettes. I bought tons of vinyl EP in the early eighties and would make my own "mix" tapes, I had special one for bike riding, driving to work &c. Then when found out what to older music similar to what I heard in old movies, cartoons and the occasional radio broadcast was and where to get it I started buying tons of CDs, mostly many of the Chronological Classics series. From those and old CDs I began making make cassettes again for myself and friends. I was great fun. But I always disliked the fragility of cassettes. I never took the next step-burning CDs. Of course now it's know that home burned CDs aren't anywhere as long lasting as their manufactured brethren. (An those aren't indestructible either. ) Once I got a few decent phonographs and a good base of recordings my listening habits changed. I would someday like electronic copies of many of my favorite recordings but I strongly favor the original and I'm less likely to want to listen to music while "out & about". Unless of course I'm going visiting and will sometimes bring a portable and small stack of chosen record along. Or an afternoon up the park with a few nice Red Seals and fox trot or two and a good book. (Yes Paul I have carried a Victrola! Heh Heh! Even a VV-50 is heavy after a short while. God love those old time picnickers!) Larry, I used to be the fellow my family called to figure out the electronic gadgets. I was a whizz at setting up what we now called a rack system, those cables were a snap for me. Now forget it! I don't know if things are more complicated now or more likely after a certain age we generally have a harder time learning new things, particularly electronic things! ;D I have an Mac Mini and it comes with some sort of little remote control that's set up like an ipod. I haven't a clue what the damnable thing's really good for or how to use it! ;D so it's at the back of a drawer with all the other modern indispensable thing-a-ma-bobs that are supposed to make life so easy. Ha Ha! (Heck, I bought the new Apple keyboard over a month ago and I still can't type correctly on it!) Regards, J.
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Post by larryh on Aug 26, 2008 12:41:09 GMT -5
John,
In the old days of wires it was at least reasonably straight forward. Attach one at the source and one at the amp or speaker and you had what you wanted. Once they started all the complicated programing I lost my ability to find my way though it. As a side note I used higher priced cassettes to record my things on for the most part and have rarely had any problems. When I used to get cheap copies of radio shows from people and wanted to play them though those build in players like in Thomas Radio Reproductions, it would end up in disaster as well as in car stereos.. But with decent tapes I have almost never had a problem in the car. I gave up on the Thomas type radios an the cheap player. I did pick up a very fine small GE with tape player clock radio. It has amazing clear sound and has never harmed a tape. Quality when it was good in the old days was superb. Today quality seems to be rather in short supply.
I have a rather interesting upright RCA late 30's Radio that I installed a new speaker in. I have a few times hooked it to the amp and played the tape deck though it. It has great sound. My trouble is I just don't have a decent place to put that set up with everything else going on in this little house.
Jeff,
That sounds interesting.. I tried to ask a fellow that seemed to know about early radios and he said the old type speaker coil was designed to run on a completely different type of power supply? that was why I gave up on it. I still think a small 8 ohm speaker that my amp would play would work, I may try it for an experiment.
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Post by MT Phono on Aug 26, 2008 13:55:04 GMT -5
I find it hard to believe that any music lover doesn't own an iPod or equivalent. I have a 60Gb version that holds nearly 800 complete CDs, 25 full length movies and a bunch of TV shows. And it fits in my pocket (and still has memory left)! What better way to bring your music collection along with you?
Owning an iPod certainly doesn't take away the novelty of owning antique phonographs. Ipods are the culmination of technological innovations and changes begun by Edison, Berliner, Bell etc. The way I look at it, the iPod is what all the engineers of old dreamt of creating.
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Post by neophone on Aug 26, 2008 15:31:18 GMT -5
Larry, Yes the "programming" causes me no end of trouble. I'd still be using a television with actual dials if it wasn't for the now antiquated DVD and VCR I need to watch old movies. I hit a wrong button on that remote and it takes me fifteen minutes to straighten it out. I always preferred chromium tapes and they were very hardy, but getting tossed around in my backpack when bike riding or sitting in a hot car all afternoon while I was at work, not to mention general manhandling takes it toll after a few years. MY CD cases are a wreck from carrying them back and forth to work. The CDs themselves held up better than the cassettes except for the European ones I have that bronzed. MT, it's strange I used to have music on when commuting always and I've always liked music at work when possible. At home for many years I spend hour listening to talk radio, but now I have music on nearly constantly. I sometime use Live 365, It's a great resource! Somehow, I've completely fell out of the habit of listening to music on headphones. I've used the ipod a few times I've taken the train on a longer (one hour) trip, but other than that it seems more of a pain nowadays. Regards, J.
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Post by larryh on Aug 26, 2008 16:50:32 GMT -5
MT,
Ah what a difference 20 years makes. Your of an age where things electronic and computerized seem the norm.. For those of us who were used to turning a dial to get the station we wanted its just sometimes very frustrating, and frankly as John said, impossible at times for me to understand the instructions. I have no doubt that it has great advantages and really I have considered it for recording and playback, but untill I have someone in the area here that understands them and can patiently show me how it all works, then most likely I will do without. I am sure there are plenty of school children that could run rings around what I know.
I have some qualms about something as addictive as this computer for all its advantages. Between listing some things on Ebay now and then and checking with and answering emails in groups I belong too, I rarely do any of the things I used to enjoy during an evening. In fact in the few years I have had this computer I have only found a few times to even watch a movie I owned or rented. It just doesn't work into all the things I want to check and do. Thats good, but I am wondering as others have if a life revolving around a computer screen no matter how many neat things and people we find, isn't somehow abnormal when it dominates you time.
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Post by neophone on Aug 26, 2008 19:12:31 GMT -5
Larry, Oh Boy-I'm with you! The computer IS a time vacuum! hours seem like minutes sometimes. It's very easy to get lost on-line. This summer I've gotten caught up in Youtube. Some fun and entertaining stuff but where does the time go? I do miss my dials, knobs, toggle switches and the hum of vacuum tubes sometimes. But I do love my VCR & DVD players, I get to watch my old movies when I want. International House anyone? ;D My parents and my sister and brother-in-law both have the satellite dish and when I visit either house I have to have them turn on the set for me if I want to watch something, I've only mastered the channel changer and the volume. Since my father got the new wide screen set I can't even figure out how to shut off the closed captioning! pitiful HUH? But I sure know how to wind up a Victrola and change a needle! ;D That's all we need! Regards, J. P.S. That's funny, how many of you still refer to the T.V. as a television set?
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Post by wifijeff on Aug 27, 2008 8:05:00 GMT -5
It isn't a television set? A modern speaker, even small, driving the horn is much too good. By the way, I recall that there is a fancy modernistic gizmo called the "phonophone" that lets you play an iPod through a horn. It runs $500 (!!!!) and is made of white ceramic, it strikes me much like a lucite-and-Swarovski-crystal studded spitoon, not only tasteless but it misses the flavor of the object. If my eBay horn doesn't work, I'll try the Gakken Tube Radio kit that comes with a horn and some kind of driver. In fact, I'll do the kit in any case! Jeff (edited tags to show image-J.)
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