Відео

I enjoy these behind the scenes videos of small, family owned companies that show the craftsmanship that goes into designing and manufacturing their products. No slapped together products here, each person adds their own 'touch' to the elegance of the components and loudspeakers. Thank you, Ken! 🎵

I was 16 when i first heard Mahavishnu. I had already been a major 70s prog rock fan by that time. Mahavishnu opened me up to jazz and other jazz fusion. Tony and Billy Cobham were my favorite drummers in those days. I'm 54 now. I still love both of them, but I've been gravitating towards Tony quite a bit lately. I still love Billy, but as you mentioned, he's a GREAT heavy hitter, but I think Tony is much more creative all around. Great video and interesting commentary. RIP Tony

Thanks for posting this video. Can you say more or do any of your viewers know how the Japanese pressing of 'Count Down' sounds?...it's a Universal Music recording. Tx!

treviso is in the 'veneto' region, not 'toscana'

Interesting tour of Italian workshops there, Ken. Perhaps you could do one of Pathos amps (Vicenza). I have an old Classic I hybrid amp by them.

Nice, it was like visiting you, in fact I felt like making a conversation of it. I used to carry Handi-Wipes in case I found worthwhile street vinyl, flipping through the LPs hoping for a hidden gem. Found a bunch of 6-eyes that way. And Pablos, I want Pablos, lots of bang for the buck as they say. Ellington? Almost anything, Ray Brown, Miles, etc. Kathleen was very tolerant while I dug through the merch.

The motivations for, and different types of collecting is a very interesting topic. You highlighted some of the frameworks for viewing the collecting behaviour. Ironically it's not often directly discussed by collectors themselves in places like online forums filled with people engaged in "collecting". I'm not sure some participants examine the reasons they collect, they mostly buy to consume. I've done some reading about the theories and psychology of collecting , and as a hobby it has a lot of dimensions; Some social and some personal. Self expression is a big part of it for many people.

Very interesting perspectives, Ken. I guess, super high-end for super rich people is not to be worried about. Here in Europe we are definitely seeing a shrinking middle class thus budget resp. budget spending priorities for higher price level high-end. So, budget spending priorities are strongly increasing challenges for the audio industry. Sustainability, environmental and social contribution, and transparency of these are to become more important in buying decisions, and therein lie some great opps. Family owned quality manufacturers, although increasingly burdened with legislative bureaucracy and taxation, should be more in the focus of responsible buyers who care. Buying products i.e. made in China by an intransparent conglomerate is unlikely to meet above important standards. An excellent leading role model is the Scottish family company LINN. They tick most of the key boxes. Watch some of their music is life videos. I have been there and their presentation is real and honest. Every person I have met in any part of their value chain has been a great ambassador for their brand and values. They constantly invest into their generation business, secure long term employment with low fluctuation, and support their local and national communities by orderly paying taxes. It is a huge opp for those champions to play their cards well, and it is also a call for responsible consumership.

My favorite part of the video is when you say that you have to LISTEN to jazz. I've been listening to mostly Jazz for perhaps 20 years. I started collecting records in the mid 60's in grade school. By the early 70's I was dabbling in Jazz Fusion which somehow lead me to smooth jazz, which lead to jazz. Today I listen to my favorite jazz records over and over again, trying to become so familiar with them that I know them like the back of my hand, like I used to know The Allman Bros at Fillmore East, etc. It takes alot of time to listen to a record twenty times or fifty times, but it is worth it. I can't remember what record it was, but recently I listened to side 1 four times in a row. It was so beautiful that I just got stuck. I thought to myself, damn, that is as good as Electric Ladyland, meaning that it is at the pinnacle. Amazing music.

Just picked up a real nice clean near mint copy for $10 yesterday at a record show

Yet another great vid. Someone once called me a record collector, I said I was not, I listen to records. Maybe it's just semantics, some 30,000 LPs later. Anyway, I am astounded by the prices, I have a second press of the highly desirable Helen Merrill self titled Em Arcy LP, the $ difference between it and the first press is huge, but is the sound quality any different. I do have a first press of Muddy Waters Moaning' in the Moonlight, sounds noisy as all get out,, nevertheless goes for significant bucks. BTW, these two records, like 99.9% of my records were either bought new or used for $3-5. Those days are looooong gone.

Collecting for 5 decades. My vinyl library functions as a time machine.

Great interesting topic, and as always ken ,your the real deal .

Simple answer for me: I buy records because I love music. Collecting is an unavoidable side effect :)

Good essay Ken. Always appreciate your POV. BUT the audio!! Please do some research in better vlog microphone. Audio is important. Don’t want to hears so much room. Thx ☮️

Thanks Ken. What a great topic to discuss and to give us pause to think. Loved it. Keep up the great work.

Fascinating how most collections are very focused on JAZZ and Classic Rock... which unfortunately are not my favorite genres....

For boomers who liked music, there was no alternative to collecting. Concerts, radio & TV only partially filled the hunger. Simple as that.

The French psychiatrist Lacan would say that collecting things is an attempt to cover up the central void in our lives, almost certainly true in my case.

Looks like Gilles Peterson (famous UK DJ) in Billy's Record Salon

I'm selling off some of my "collection" since I'm getting older. I have multiple pressings of the same title and they are the first to go. I can't justify keeping 10 versions of "Who's Next" for example. I still buy more than I sell, oh well.

I'm definitely not a collector in the sense that I need to have everything. Nor am I a completist. Apart from the music, I do have a fascination, always have, for vintage vinyl. I takes me back to the time of my youth or even before i was born. There's definitely melancholy involved. These old records remind me of times when thing were better or less complicated even if that's not necessarily the case. That said, it needs to be music I'm interested in for sure or I could just buy any old record. I don't buy records as an investment but it can be an excuse when I'm about to spend more than I would usually allow myself. Thinking I can always resell it and I'll get my money back. In the end those records stay on the shelf as you would have guessed. Also collecting records seems to be more like a male thing typically.

I've been buying records since the late 60s and Ive never stopped. Ive had a turntable all my life, never went through the "Ive sold my records and turntables and gone digital" phase many have. Sure I had cassette decks and I have digital now but there has never been a reason for me to stop buying records

Great video thanks 👍🎶

I like the way RVG mixed horns in stereo. Reverb on one side, dryer on the other. Engineers today want to put in the middle. Does anyone know engineers today that use his techniques?

Continuously buying records is cheaper than continuous visits to a head-shrink and a heck of a lot more fun and effective.

Sitting here multitasking, well sort of ... got the Yankee game on the tube and Ken on UA-cam. Doesn't get any better than that!

Great editing, Ken! I bought my first 7" in 1978 (Wings, Mull of Kintyre), been hooked ever since. Really love collecting again now, but the prices for re-releases, whilst more affordable than many OG copies of jazz classics, is getting silly. Record Store Day was/is a great idea but the sheer amount of product they put out is wallet-busting... Thanks for all the great content!!

People collect everything. A UA-cam guy collects vintage tobacco lighters , he does nice video on each piece. People collect Cars People collect Guns People collect phono Cartridges ( vintage Koetsu were the best ) The best collecting is the Money collector people ! I bought vinyl from the Long Playing era , most vinyl is poor quality , some vinyl like RR and Acoustic Sounds is quite good but most vinyl is hard to like or listen to. Oh well !! People like Ken Micallef are worth collecting : gems , he's one of the very best !! Tony in Sarasota Florida : a digital music collector

It was the summer of 1976 and my older brother was going to pick up a new record, Chicago X, from his favorite record store across the street from the Symphony hall, in Tehran (when it was free place). We walked in and the song playing was “car wash”, the store, the floor to ceiling speakers and the disco grabbed me at that second. My collection started taking shape the following week, I ended up buying many records from there and working there as a teenager. A couple of years later I moved to Paris, and continued to build my collection, I live in Dallas these days. I surpassed 10,000 vinyl many years ago and stopped counting but my collection started so innocently on that summer afternoon in a world that sadly does not exist anymore.

I'm not a collector I guess, I'm a listener. I want what sounds best and that does not always mean records(you know some of the newly re-mastered ones).

Is sound quality relevant?

Mmmmm

Beats spending money on liquor. 😅

Beats spending money on liquor. 😅

You mention Rainer Bruninghaus…and Jan Garbarek, Paul Bley, Gary Burton…and then fail to mention the magnificent Eberhard Weber, who all played with him Fo’ shame, sir. Nice vid apart from that small omission 👏🤣so many great names, so much talent…ECM was my mainstay for many many years 💪❤️

Fantastic video, thanks!🙏

Tannoy's❓

Vinyls?

I don’t agree that once you buy, you are gone. I have my hi fi. No need to change anything but I spend hours a week watching UA-cam videos on hi fi stuff. The interest is still always there to see and learn about new stuff.

I am not sure but I did not hear this critic use the most important words in Miles's creativity; improvisation, but I heard weird and other dumb stuff. He gave "All Blues" A Lukewarm review I don't trust him!

Nice perspective on high quality products backed and supported by a distributor who cares and is willing to find the right buyer.

Shtriker big band soundtrack is fantastic ❤❤❤

The ending to this video made no sense to me, in fact, it was just getting interesting.

I love Steve's point about how you can choose to spend your hifi money, like a lot of your money, with smaller, well-run, high quality family run companies, anywhere in the world. One of the many reasons I bought Devore Fidelity speakers is that that was where I wanted this big purchase money to go. Not some conglomerate with shareholders. Real people making really nice stuff. Really intrigued by this company Audia Flight, too, by the way!

No hobby has cuntier gatekeepers than high-end audio. Maybe polo. Maybe.

Hahaha, thanks for clarifying that operational thinking. I want to be out, I do not want to be a storytelling slave in Audio. I want to listen to my music I have and maybe a few more albums. I don’t need the best over and over. Just the best for me. Sell your Guru pieces that lack service while superfluous in arrogance to someone else. I’ve been Auditorium23 customer, I know that “storytelling” nonsense. What’s good is good and doesn’t turn bad, aside from use based degradation. Fed up of “you’re not ready”, “waiting for months”, “not contactability”, “religion talk”, “fragile stuff that can’t be repaired, only fully replaced”, single people that are available when selling, but later, no show, or sadly passed away, without proper continuation. High End Business. Naah! Lundahl, Shindo, Verdier, PHY-HP, … How do we move more is your driving too, may not be presented, but it’s p1, otherwise you wouldn’t look at storytelling marketing to keep your customers in your shop.

GM ☕️ from Toronto. I watched the vids from both Jason ( audio junkie) and Randy (Cheap Audioman ) ..great stuff and truly insightful. Thank you. Btw, any plans for coming up to the upcoming Toronto Audiofest?

Great festival at Marciac each summer

Southern France in summer is great for free music. Small towns and villages have a week of music, so you can go from one to the next. The have bands (orchestres) that have a huge repertoire everything from musette which is accordion dance music for the "oldies" early in the evening the moving on to (perhaps) trance towards midnight. Streets are closed to traffic. There is also the national Fête de la Musique 21st June (summer solstice).