[quote user="DrWho"]...but I think most of that revolves around the lack of reliable DRM and the fear of lost profits. I'm of the opinion that piracy is one of the biggest problems in the industry today, but I don't think it's the actual piracy itself as much as the music industry's response to the piracy that is causing all the problems...[/quote]This is the problem. After the present "record companies" bite the dust (re: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid

[quote user="Oblio"]Call me a luddite, I don't think I'll ever get into the downloading. I want media ![/quote] If I could download media and directly burn a real CD (i.e. without digital compression artifacts), and then print nice CD covers from the download, I'd probably download more. Right now, that isn't available. But note: used CDs on Amazon are holding down prices. I've invested in a disk resurfacer ( http://www.amazon.com/DSR-R1-DVD-Repair-Machine-Kit/dp/B000GX31G6

Hey Richard, Just reach in there and pull out the wires to the strobe light, then your problems will be 90% solved. I use an Empire 398 and a little piece of paper with strobe speed markings that I download for free off the web to periodically check the speed. "Close enough" for LPs... If you want to hear it absolutely on pitch with no wow or flutter, then go buy CDs... Chris

[quote user="Groomlakearea51"]...That's why I finally got rid of my last Thorens years ago. If it was not one problem, it was another. LOLOL!!! They are very good, but it seemed like every year or two it was something else; belt, motor not spinning up to speed within a reasonable length of time, parts and competent technician availability, etc...[/quote]The old Empire 98/298/398 TTs are built like tanks--and I dare say--don't have those problems. There is nothing that I can see

Perhaps if California allowed modern electric generating plants and windmill farms to be built and operated to match their consumption, they might not be so worried about plasma HDTV power draw... Chris

[quote user="Oblio"]So would you recommend this device?[/quote]Yes. The only recurring costs are the foam pads that stick to the polishing wheels and the different compounds that are used to polish to a mirror finish. I bought an extra supply of these a couple of years ago when I bought the machine. I still have ~2/3 of that stock, and it cost ~$30 extra to stock up. I don't use the machine that often now that the kids are off to college...and the only disks that cannot be recovered

I nominate Mallette to be the first judge.

[quote user="Coytee"] I put a dial indicator on this yesterday and it seems the runout is about 6/1,000'ths of an inch...I've never yet seen a measurement saying how 'out of round' the platter can be so I'm now left wondering if this is good or excellent (or terrible). [/quote]I believe that center-hole runout and disk balance on most records is probably a lot bigger than that (probably 10x). The issue should be platter balance on the spindle post - see if the platter

[quote user="John Albright"]Good Music IS getting hard to find. Both well played and well recorded.[/quote] In the same spirit as the "Right This Minute" thread found on this forum, I'd like to see a new thread entitled something like "High Quality Recordings", the recordings of which the membership here owns or has heard. The sticking point, of course, is who is doing the judging on what is high quality. I'd be okay with folks that can screen for "profiles"

[quote user="maxg"]The thing is that vinyl has the huge advantage of being the medium of choise through the golden years of music production when production companies were still competing to make the best possible sound[/quote] I'm not sure that I can agree with that statement- I think that distinction went to reel-to-reel tape in terms of reproduction quality IMHO, but that is another topic. Were we discussing CDs here? I did notice that DVD-As disappeared fairly rapidly. Chris