Sidney Crosley

Finally picked up some second-hand Wharfedale Diamond 10.1 speakers, replacing my hand-me-down Bose 201s. I was kind of in shock at the difference they made - I'm still running a vintage JVC TT, but everything sounds clearer, bigger, bolder, and just generally better. I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical of expecting too much, but the improvement is noticeable. I'm excited to see what happens when I upgrade my turntable...

Yup. There it was. Cheers!

Did anyone get emailed the stream of the album? I ordered the day after it was first posted, and have gotten no word about an album stream...

I ordered the first bundle, not fully understanding what daegor just clarified, and mostly with high hopes related to some of Dine Alone's roster that doesn't feature current or former members of Alexisonfire. I don't know if I will get subsequent bundles, but what I'm hoping for is that perhaps if some Attack In Black-related vinyl shows up (please Dine Alone!), I will gladly be here trading anything in bundle one for some of the other stuff.

www.bonesbybenhowardonvinylexclusiveonlytothiswebsite.com

I have Prime right now, technically Amazon Student, which comes with six months of Prime. I haven't been in school for 8 years, but my University of Toronto email account still works (and forwards to my current account), and that was all they needed for six months of prime for free. Otherwise, not really worth it. It only works for Canada - for US, you still have to pay exchange prices. Prime is totally not worth it in Canada otherwise - nothing is as cheap as what you can sometimes find on Amazon US, and you don't get all of the extra perks like in the US - TV shows, storage, streaming, etc. In some ways, it's kind of a shock that the price is the same as the US (or, at least in current US-CAD conversions, slightly cheaper in Canada). What I found before Prime though, was that I would occasionally put more than $25 in my cart by ordering something that I knew was out of print, and then after purchasing, cancel the order on the out of print record (or let it just sit there and not get fulfilled). They still seemed to send the other in print/in stock records. Also consider that on Amazon, third-party sellers can only charge $3.49 for shipping of an LP, which means sometimes you can get good deals outside of Prime. I don't know if this is still true, but some sellers located outside of Canada wouldn't charge tax, meaning that if your record was $30 or so, the shipping price is actually cheaper than the tax you would have paid. I know that last year I got the Clash boxset via a third party seller on Amazon for $135+3.49, no tax, and sent via Royal Mail from UK, so no additional UPS/Fedex brokerage.

I just listened to this recently, and you're totally right - great album!

I wish I could start to do this, but I live 2 hours or so from the border. By the time you factor in gas money and time, it stops being as worth it. But otherwise, you're totally right - half of the money on records is usually spent on shipping. Only Germany sometimes has cheap shipping rates (one LP under 500g can usually be sent to Canada for 3.45 Euros unregistered, which works out to about $5 or $6, which is about a third of the cost for me to send one LP from Toronto to Newfoundland...). If there are any Toronto area folks who are looking for a cheap way to ship out (unfortunately not receive packages), I use a place called Chit Chat's Express, who are based in Markham, Mississauga and Pickering, and basically fill a truck with stuff to send USPS and drive it across the border. Means I can send media mail to anyone who buys from me on Discogs/Ebay. They also have some decent rates for international and Canada (but not really that good...).

A brief conversation in the Hayden thread got me thinking about the fact that with the Canadian dollar gone to shit, there aren't a lot of opportunities for Canadians to get reasonably priced vinyl from the US or abroad, so it may be time to look domestically. I know for some people, going to record stores is usually the best bet, but I don't always have time for that. So I thought I'd post a thread for labels/distros that have reasonable prices and non-exorbitant shipping. Please add some yourself. Distro: Chisel Records - http://www.youvechangedrecords.com - all records are $10 except for co-releases (e.g.,Constantines reissue) - highly recommend the Weather Station albums, Shotgun Jimmie, Marine Dreams, and Daniel Romano (of Attack in Black) Arbutus Records - http://www.arbutusrecords.com - label for Grimes, Sean Nicolas Savage, etc. and all albums are $20 including shipping Deranged Records - http://www.derangedrecords.com - punk/HC (Tranzmitors self titled LP on this is my fave of theirs); most LPs are $9-11, shipping is appropriately calculated ....more posted soon. Please add more!

Anyone pick this up? Thoughts?

Also check out this site: http://www.usaudiomart.com/ Kind of a Craigslist for audio equipment. A lot of high end stuff there, but a fair amount of (very good) vintage, and has a feedback system, which Craigslist is sorely missing.

As someone who is in the midst of a process of replacing vintage/hand-me-down equipment with newer audiophile stuff, I can tell you that it definitely doesn't need to be that expensive or prohibitive. I replaced an early 90s Kenwood receiver with a second-hand (4 year-old) NAD amp that I picked up for less than $300 US. I was kind of shocked at the sound difference, even in spite of using an old JVC TT with a lousy cartridge. I've committed to picking up some Wharfedale Diamond 10.1s tonight for under $200, which will be a big step up from my dad's old Bose speakers (which aren't terrible, but are also very much not good...). I think if you start to look carefully, and replace with care and caution, you can start to put together a very decent system without breaking the bank. For some of the folks on the forum, it would seem that upgrading is done in time, but I will guess that outside of some people all buying the same $1000 turntable (see the other recent post), a lot of people on this board have found a lot of contentment with a variety of setups. I personally have had the itch over the past few months to upgrade, but I have had the same vintage TT on and off for more than 12 years (I will admit I made a Crosley mistake about 8 or 9 years ago, but not surprisingly, it didn't last very long). Take a look for good deals on 'modern audio' equipment that has good reviews. You'd be surprised what you can find...

Good for Americans, sucky for us Canucks trying to buy music from pretty much anywhere else...

I was planning to pick up and I can ship using super cheap courier rates (basically, they send a truck to the US and ship media mail). PM me if you want me to do that to ship for cheaper (goes for other peeps too).

Part of my problem with this all along is that I don't really think anyone who pledged actually cared about the restoration of an old carousel. in fact, I give to a few charities, and none of them ever have to do with fixing circus shit that isn't even in my country. Honestly, even if this was a benefit for TBA I'd be more into it...

Yesss! I'm excited for this. So Alone was surprisingly good (the previous two were underwhelming). Not the same as his early stuff (Everything I Long For is probably one of my top 3 albums of all time), but fun nonetheless.

Jimmeh.

Fuck, the more ridiculous things FJM does, the more I love him, and am so pumped for this album. His newest gimmick: a fake music streaming system called SAP, which intentionally shares horribly compressed (and vocal-less) versions of his album so that people can listen to the 'essence' of the music and decide whether they want to buy the album. "popular albums are "sapped" of their performances, original vocal, atmosphere and other distracting affectations so the consumer can decide quickly and efficiently whether they like a musical composition, based strictly on its formal attributes, enough to spend money on it" http://www.fatherjohnmisty.com/sap/

Nobody listens anymore these days. It's all about brain-implanted DACs. That's the real way to get the true sound...

That's actually kind of totally awesome (not you having a blood disorder, the who singer meeting bone marrow donor signups). But weird that a live album is showing up on vinyl...anyone know if this is a recording from the 90s or newer?

http://www.clickhole.com/article/16-incredible-gifs-we-would-make-if-we-knew-how-296

They're a synth-pop duo from the 70s, who were directed by Ron Howard.

One of the few advantages of living in Toronto...local pickup option! Hooray for half the cost of buying stuff not being shipping cost. I picked up the bundle too, moreso with the hopes of what the next couple of records will be (not really an AOF/C&C fan, but have friends who will likely want this first one off of me). Justin, any chance there's some Attack in Black goodies in this first bundle? Pretty please?

I just run my Dyson over a bunch of records on the floor. That's the correct way, right?

Can anyone confirm hot dog colour?