His(and Kevin Grey's) ears suck!
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Different strokes; I like the SH forum for music, records, and music history. (It also has a good visual arts section, with a number of knowledgeable participants on film and tv history and technology). Not as gear-centric as the ’Gon. I don’t see any need to bash any forum; they all serve their audiences differently. (And some of Hoffman’s work is pretty good, sonically, in my estimation). PS: I found the thread on SH- Taters, the comments were directed to the new format, which other 'Gon users seem to have carped about here as well. |
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The Steve Hoffman music forum is the best out there. Especially if like me you want historical information and you're a Beatles fan. The problem is that we fans seemingly can't agree on anything when it comes to sound quality. To compound things we sometimes get carried away by anticipation and fall for the emperors new clothes syndrome. Eventually though a kind of consensus does emerge. |
California is Communist?! Don’t let the folks in Orange County (just south of Los Angeles County) hear you say that! It’s Republican/Reagan country, almost like Texas (aside from Austin, of course ;-). In Northern California, San Jose and Cupertino (where I grew up) to be exact, you have Apple and eBay, not exactly redistributing the wealth. The house directly across the street from my childhood home---a ranch-style 3-bedroom, 2-bath tract house---just sold for $1.4 million! Now, if you’re talking about San Francisco and Marin County (where the rich hippies, like The Dead, live) you may have a point. The Hoffman site provides a lot of great musical information, but Steve himself has made claims for some of his work that is provably false. Claims about original tapes used as sources for some of his reissues, for instance. When you’re doing great work, why the need to inflate the claims? |
Rodman9999 sez ...
Please explain your comment. I know Kevin Grey. I've been to his studio several times. I'm familiar with his reissues through Cisco and Impex ... many of which I have both the originals and the reissues Kevin worked on. As audiophile reissues go, I'd say Kevin's are among the best, especially when considering natural sound and lack of excessive digital reverb. Not trying to start an argument with you Rodman, just curious as to how you reached your conclusion. Thanks ... Frank |
@oregonpapa - Not certain why I looked at this thread again, but: I own a number of older(circa early Eighties) audiophile(ie: Nautilus/MFSL/Crystal Clear/Sheffield/etc) vinyls. One example, my Nautilus, ’Rumours’, got a lot of play, demoing the speakers at my shoppe. It was always well cared for, but- I thought I’d try a new/remastered pressing. I bought the Hoffman/Grey, 45 RPM version. My old pressing presents(to this day) each instrument’s/human’s voice, as a distinct entity on the sound stage with clarity and lifelike dimension(an excellent mix). ie: One of my customers(a young, professional studio drummer), while auditioning a pair of my speakers, exclaimed, "WOW! I can count the rivets, on the Ride!"(during, ’Dreams’), which was one of my more gratifying moments, as a speaker builder. Suffice it to say, their’s(outside of Stevie’s voice) was a muffled, indistinct, blob of sound, in comparison. Regarding the Jimmy Smith/Midnight Special album: Kenny Burrell’s Sax put me in the venue(guitar and drums- nice), while Smith’s B3 sounded like the crew forgot to remove a few shipping blankets, from over the Leslie. There was a third album, but- it’s been close to a decade and memory fails. The nicest thing I can remember now, is how easy it was to sell all three, after advertising them as, "VPI cleaned/LAST treated/played once to archive". I considered adding the term, "archive" as accurate, since I’d firmly committed the experiences to memory. The buyer was very happy. I’ve been scrupulously avoiding anything with which they’ve been involved, and not had a bad reaction to any purchased recording, since. Sorry, if I seemed loquacious and(of course) YMMV(seems it has). Happy listening! |
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sfseay99 posts05-11-2018 9:52amThere are more whiners and cry babies here than on most other audio forums Too many "snake oiler's" here compared to other forums. That turn off "potential" younger generation audiophiles. When they see things like $200 for a fuse, or $400 for half a dozen little 1 dime size stick on "room conditioners" or $2k for an IEC power cord. Cheers George |
I have two complaints about the Audiogon forums, or more accurately about the people who post here. First, there are too many people who post emphatic, seemingly authoritative comments who do not have actual first-hand experience to back up their opinions. Too often comments really boil down to “I have the XYZ amp and I really like it, therefore it is the best.” Second, there are too many people who offer pseudo-technical explanations for what they hear when they don’t have the engineering knowledge necessary to draw those conclusions. Some examples: all attempts to explain why cables sound different from each other; all attempts to explain why one type of mounting platform or footer sounds different from another type; and comments that attribute a component’s sound to one or more measurements which usually is just parroting the manufacturer’s claims. The Steve Hoffman equipment forum is hardly perfect but it has more diverse opinions and there is a higher percentage of posters with in-depth experience than at Audiogon. For example there are some threads at SH forum on Audio Note gear that are simply the best resource I know of regarding AN equipment. |
+1 Shadorne. I haven’t liked any of SH’s reissue masterings. I don’t know why he seems to have the reputation he does. Plus his “reviews” of equipment on his forum seem directly related to which mfrs have given him long-term loans. Other than Hoffman himself, the equipment forum is pretty decent in my opinion. It’s at least worth a look every couple days. |
I’m fairly new to Audiogon. There is much to like here but I find the downsides compared to other hi-fi forums are two fold: 1. The propensity for click-bait thread titles, which would go away if people ignored them, but unfortunately the click-baiters know their game too well. Recent examples: “High end is dead?”, “Isolation stands: snakeoil?”, “What matters and what is nonsense”, “beware the audio guru”, “Integrateds:why do they all SUCK?”, “Cartridges: complete scam?”, ”ClassD=Trash?”. Come on Audiogoners, just ignore these click-baiters, they don’t deserve a response! 2. The other downside is the propensity of certain people to bicker and bitch to each other. Yes this happens on reddit all the time, but other hifi forums keep things civil. There is no need to insult other people, even if they ARE wrong in their belief that mains power cables don’t make a difference ;) It’s a shame the forum does not allow photos, but other than that it is clean, intuitive, and easy to use. And the email daily updates are great, no one else does that. |
This now somewhat dated thread, as I noted in my original post above, is misleading; the post on the SH Forum was complaining about the then "new" format of Audiogon. Remember- we had a few complaints ourselves about the changes on these forums. There's usually little purpose in dumping on other forums. I participate here, and a on a few others, including SH. Strengths- good info on particular rock pressings from back in the day; some very knowledgeable people on non-audiophile pressings. Lot of younger members there too. Granted, they aren't using big league equipment, but there is very little snark b/c the board is heavily moderated. And, as here, people are willing to help troubleshoot a problem. Steve is actually a nice guy if you get to talk to him one on one. As to people's taste in different masterings, that's part of the fun. Steve's version of Aqualung is one of the better masterings of that record in my estimation; his cut of Way Out West (with Kevin Gray) at 45 rpm is impressive too. The fact that you are making the comparisons between different pressings/masterings says you know enough to make your own decisions. Enjoy the holiday weekend if you have it. Lot's of time for listening! |
"There are more whiners and cry babies here than on most other audio forums". Sad but true. Not so long ago Audiogon used to be the greatest Hi-Fi forum, especially on High-End analog, turntables TAs and cartridges.Many great reviewers and long-time contributors, true experienced audiophiles and music lovers on (analog) audio whose little stories were so fun and informative to read and learn. Now we have legions of arrogant novices, snake oilers and all kinds of besser wissers trying to be so darn smart here. It´s just the curse of that damn faceless monster, Marxian liberalism that allows everybody do anything he desires. Without any consequences, responsibility to others, not to mention shame. Ah, that freedom and right to be anonymous. It´s all BS. Marx is the biggest scam artist of all time. This thread is just another symptom of that cancer that eventually will destroy great forums, and whole civilization in the end. Unless we want to stop it. Dear moderators, do you really want to allow our own Audiogon suck ?No. It´s time to act. |
