Jfrech: I agree this is a good thread. In the past I have always gotten help on A-gon, on issues as mind-numbing as component and electrical system grounding. For that I thank all of you. Some chat groups I have been part of (cars in particular) always seem to degenrate into a pissing contest, and here, even if there is disagreement, people seem pretty thoughtful. (I'll also email you separately because I'd love to talk about Austin). Peter, the SME and the Mini II sound like things I'll want to explore. Thanks for reminding of the SME and the Magicos, well, I have not heard them. I remember when the original big speaker came out, followed by the Mini, and at the time there were few small monitors at that price point. JohnnyB- will also check out the NEAT if I can; for what it's worth, the horns I am currently using don't allow a nearfield experience and the need to have a big triangle for speakers and sweet spot is part of the space problem I am concerned about.
I won't dump anything just yet. The equipment, once it gets broken down, will likely go to my dealer/friend to store, and if I say 'sell', he can do so. If I say 'ship' he'll probably just come on down to help me set up.
Rtilden: Yep, to cull, I'll have to go through them all. But, you'd laugh if you saw how quickly I was cutting through the stuff in our basement.
Learsfool, I took you seriously. My suspicion is that once I start culling, I could get rid of alot, and maybe I just separate into a few categories, box them accordingly, and know that if and when I decide to get rid of some, they have already been pre-sorted. Some are just stupid: like the complete set of RCA food themed records : Music for a Backyard BBQ will stay with me given my destination, but Music for a Chinese Dinner at Home, well, I don't think I need it. Flamenco Table Dancing cut Direct to Disc? Not alot of nuance. That Billy Holiday record recorded at an active airport, where you can hear planes taking off in the background? Not her best performance.
What about all those Harry Pearson list records- some of the Mercury's I'd keep. I think I have almost all of the Lyritas, a few I listen to. I bought all the MF half speed masters at the time they were released: Abbey Road, LZII, DarkSide, along with a bunch of other audiophile half speed masters, Direct to Disc, etc. Some of them aren't musically that interesting, although they may have audiophile value. Tons of old RCAs, Deccas, etc. some of which I'd keep. I should probably catalog them at the same time i'm going through them, but that's not likely to happen.
