About Lugnut -- Patrick Malone


Many of us have come to know Patrick Malone (Lugnut) as a friendly, helpful, knowledgeable and kind individual. He is a frequent and enthusiastic contributor to our analog discussion forum. He has initiated only 17 threads, but responded to 559 threads. I would guess that many, if not most, of us can recall a time when Pat replied with helpful advice to a question we posted or helped us track down a rare recording. I have come to love Pat as a friend, and to respect him as a man, and I suspect many of you share those feelings.

Today I write to share difficult news with you. Pat has been diagnosed with an aggressive stomach cancer. It has yet to be determined whether surgery will even be worth it. If surgery is performed, most or all of the stomach will be removed, and Pat would face a difficult and long post-op period in the hospital. The medical course is still uncertain, but will be determined soon. Whatever is decided, it will not be easy or pleasant.

Something may be planned in the future to assist the family. For now, Pat could use some of the friendship he so often and willingly showed us. You can email Pat at: lugnut50@msn.com. You can also mail cards, letters ... or whatever. You may email me for Pat's mailing address. My email is: pfrumkin1@comcast.net.

I hope to spend a few days with Pat in Idaho or Nebraska (from which he hails) soon. Between this news, my legal work, getting ready for family arriving for the holidays, Audio Intelligent, and trying to make plans to visit Pat, my head is spinning. If you email me and I don't respond, please understand that I am not ignoring you, but rather simply do not have time to reply.

Pat may or may not have time to respond to posts here, to emails, or to cards mailed to him. But he has asked me to convey to each and every one of you that he has cherished your friendship, your comradery, and sharing our common hobby on this great website.

As we prepare for our holiday season celebrations, and look forward to -- as we should -- enjoying this time of year, I ask that you keep Pat and his family in mind ... and softly offer up, in quiet moments in the still of night and early morning, prayers for Pat and his family. God bless.

Warmest regards to all,
Paul Frumkin
paul_frumkin
Thanks, Patrick. On the subject of analog rigs, while Doug and Paul's TT/ARm(Tri-planar, not Schroder)/CARt/Step-up are world class, their Pre/phonostage, as you may know, is older and very modest in cost at present and yet the sound was to die for. So I would never sneer at anything w/o hearing it. I have not had much of a chance to hear other high end rigs since I work so much and have become a bit of a loner, but going to the show in NYC a couple of weeks ago and then hearing a really optimized analog front end, it has energized me to do better in set-up with what I have. I've also had less than mind-blowing performance from some well regarded phono stage/cart combos so I have figured out not to pre-judge. I am sure that the Airy 3 will be terrific. I bought the demo Airy2 and now must get it together to get a step-up.
Frank,

If your Airy is not fully broken in then you and your installer are going to be amazed when it does. It's very detailed out of the box but with time it gets so smooth it's spooky. At least that is how my Yatra behaves and the one UNIverse I'm intimately familiar with. Isn't it the quietest "in the groove" thing you've ever heard?

Howard, so I handle being ripped pretty well? Har har. I guess there was at least one benefit to growing up in the sixties.

Swampman, contrary to what Raul says (and I'm not fussing), to my ears, and in every case, I prefer the step up to a high powered phono stage. Some are better than others. Just my opinion but it seems more real. I'm no electronics guru but the way they work doesn't create a much longer signal path, so no loss as far as I can tell. Distortion? Maybe. I dunno. Tubes are more distorted than ss but I like it better. That's all I care about. I go by my ears. I'm sure glad you made this move. You will shit. In case you guys don't know shitting is bigger than having your jaw drop. Tell that to the reviewers.
LOL, Patrick thanks for the smile. As they say in Bahstan; Yaw a real pissah!
Hi guys. Been busy with other things and not posting much.

Thanks to Swampwalker for the visit and his kind words about our system. We just upgraded from Teres 265 to 320 and that's what he heard. The improvement was far larger than we expected, about the equivalent of going from Airy 3 to UNIverse. IOW, huge! I'll post something on my system thread when I get time. We upgraded our power amp a couple of months ago also. I haven't updated that yet either. A preamp upgrade is probably next. Our little c-j PV11 is in way over its head now, :-), but it holds its own remarkably well. We've had a friend's reference quality preamp in our system and decided to upgrade the power amp first. It made a bigger difference. The PV-11 is a remarkable performer, especially since used ones go for $700 or less.

We visited Swampwalker and heard the Airy 2 with our BentAudio stepups in his system. I've never heard a happier cartridge. It just sang and sang. Some kinda magic going on there with his SOTA, OL Silver, Merlins and Joule I guess. It doesn't match a UNIverse, but there was zero sense of that while listening. The music just flowed naturally into the room with a transparent grace and delicacy that was pure pleasure to hear.

Swampwalker was kind enough to lend us his Denon DVD-3910 with full Underwood mods so we could A/B/C against our stock 3910 and our Arcam FMJ CD23. Differences between them? Sure. Worth $2K+ to mod our Denon? Doubtful. The turntable upgrade was 50 times more significant for about the same money.

Cheers to all!
Hi Pat,
I know you get tiered and it’s hard at times to go through all this. It’s no fun not being yourself because the drugs make you crazy, but believe me, your role in Barb’s life along with so many of your friends is huge! I have been seeing a psychologist since we last talked, and I’m beginning to remember how my life affects so many. I complain that living for the sake of others is too hard some times, and that l can’t live my life so unselfishly. Well I have done just that for the past eight years and I do have a lot of people who still need me.
As I have told you, I can not make it much over five hours without a nap, which is both due to my heart and the drugs. I hate it that I’m not me, yet my kids and wife would take this every day over being left alone. I know you get tired, and some days the fight is overwhelming, but we need you around. I personally can not tell you how much your emails have meant to me, you’re a gift that God has provided for me. Your role is great, and I love you. I was very depressed when I wrote you for your help, and that response gave me the strength I needed to make the changes I need to make. Thus the shrink! Keep the spirit as you go through this next treatment, we’re all pulling for you and selfishly I need you.
J.D.