Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

driver100

ab348 said:

My previous 2014 ATS had a CD player, an extra-cost option mounted in the glove box. I never used it even once. My current ATS does not have the CD. 

Who wants to carry around and load CDs? They have gone the way of the dinosaur. Kind of crude compared to Sirius or USB stick....or streaming.

driver100

nyccarguy said:

Deck construction - before:

Where is the after?

fintail

No CD player in the new style E-class, I think S lacks one too. I haven't bought a CD since maybe 2006 (come to think of it, that one was a gift).

abacomike

fintail said:

No CD player in the new style E-class, I think S lacks one too. I haven't bought a CD since maybe 2006 (come to think of it, that one was a gift).

No, I don’t have a CD player in my S450.  Even if I did, I don’t have any CD’s any more.  All my music is on my phone or on my hard drive in the car.  I also have a copy of all my music on my PC.  I buy all my music from iTunes directly on to my phone.  When I back up my iPhone to my iTunes App on my PC, all my purchases are transferred.

nyccarguy

@driver100

When construction is finished, I’ll post the after pic

tifighter

I have a Spotify premium account. It's $10 a month. Back in the day, I probably bought a CD a month, so for a little less than what that used to cost, Spotify gives me access to something like 30 million songs, and lets me listen to complete albums whenever I want on whatever device.

My only complaint is they haven't figured out how to stream music to my record player yet. Jeez, Spotify, wake up already...

qbrozen

jmonroe1 said:

sda said:

I can't seem to win with this Dodge. Keep having to stop and wait for a tool or a missing part.

For example, Removed the cam today finally and got the new one in. It was then I discovered the new one is a single-bolt design vs my old 3-bolt, and they failed to include said bolt in the kit. WTF? I have an email out to Edelbrock now to find out the specs of the needed bolt. 

That is extremely frustrating. Are you rebuilding the engine? Have you determined why it over heats? I tip my hat to you for your persistence and mechanical ability.

Thanks. It was just 2 days ago I figured out I have the wrong valve springs too. OYe.
I'm not rebuilding the bottom end. All in all, including previous work, I will have swapped out the following:
carb
intake manifold
cam
timing chain and gears
lifters
valve springs
valve covers
water pump/t-stat
bigger aluminum rad
headers replaced manifolds
rebuild steering rack
power brakes replaced manual
added air con
added retro stereo
replaces ignition wires
replaced door cards and window sweeps and door handles and locks
repainted emblems
rechromed rear panel (gotta get that to someone)

I don't know the overheating problem; however, I suspect it is a timing/distributor issue. I believe total timing is way out of wack. I have recently purchased an adjustable timing light so I can really dial it in when I get to that point.

WOW, that is lot of work and expense. IMO, they haven't yet made a Dodge that is worth that much effort. Just curios, what is an "adjustable timing light"? My tried and true Craftsman that I bought in the early 70's, either flashed or it didn't. There were no adjutments but maybe cars that don't have distributors require that kind of a beast. It sounds like you have found a money pit but I wish you luck with it. jmonroe

You can adjust when it flashes. So rather than guessing how far before TDC the mark is when it flashes, you can adjust the pulse until the mark is back to zero and the digital readout tells you how many degrees before or after TDC it is. What is silly about the Dodge is that the timing marks only go to 10 degrees BTDC, yet you need around 30 "all in" around 2500 rpm. No way to measure that with a standard light other than guesstimating or going ghetto and putting the timing tape on the damper.

It didn't NEED all of this work. I chose to do 90% of it. 

stickguy

Bradd, I can see why you wanted a new deck. That one doesn't look all that safe, besides being on the small side.

nyccarguy

stickguy said:

Bradd, I can see why you wanted a new deck. That one doesn't look all that safe, besides being on the small side.

The stairs you see that are unsafe just became unsafe after this past winter.

andres3

qbrozen said:

I can't seem to win with this Dodge. Keep having to stop and wait for a tool or a missing part.

For example, Removed the cam today finally and got the new one in. It was then I discovered the new one is a single-bolt design vs my old 3-bolt, and they failed to include said bolt in the kit. WTF? I have an email out to Edelbrock now to find out the specs of the needed bolt. 

IMO the car part aftermarket is a broken industry where terrible customer service rules.

andres3

berri said:

I think the cd thing is a racket by the music industry. Make cd's obsolete and pretty much force you to pay subscription fees monthly whether streaming or satellite. Whenever money slows down, the industry comes up with a way to force you to buy the music again - 8 track to cassette to cd to today. The car industry needs room for bigger LED screens, but honestly, how much of a that stuff do you actually use very frequently? I suspect it is cheaper to dump the cd player and replace it with a slightly bigger screen, so more to do with cost savings than music changing on their part. You are going to buy the vehicle at some point regardless, right? I'm kind of surprised the car industry hasn't turned around and offered the cd player in an out of way place at a huge option price really.

Please don't give Audi/VW any ideas! While my '14 Audi had a center CD player, both the '16 Audi TTS and '17 VW Alltrack relegate the CD player to the glove box compartment hidden away and pretty much "discouraging" its use, but I use them anyway because both cars have great sound systems.

stickguy

I have a ton of CDs still. Never use them. eventually I will start burning them to itunes again. Sounds like a good retirement project. Have not bought a new one in years. Also have not bought music online in years. Pretty much just listen to XM and hear the new stuff that way. Almost never listen in the house (sometimes out by the pool) but mostly stream Pandora for that.

jmonroe1

qbrozen said:

jmonroe1 said:

sda said:

I can't seem to win with this Dodge. Keep having to stop and wait for a tool or a missing part.

For example, Removed the cam today finally and got the new one in. It was then I discovered the new one is a single-bolt design vs my old 3-bolt, and they failed to include said bolt in the kit. WTF? I have an email out to Edelbrock now to find out the specs of the needed bolt. 

That is extremely frustrating. Are you rebuilding the engine? Have you determined why it over heats? I tip my hat to you for your persistence and mechanical ability.

Thanks. It was just 2 days ago I figured out I have the wrong valve springs too. OYe.
I'm not rebuilding the bottom end. All in all, including previous work, I will have swapped out the following:
carb
intake manifold
cam
timing chain and gears
lifters
valve springs
valve covers
water pump/t-stat
bigger aluminum rad
headers replaced manifolds
rebuild steering rack
power brakes replaced manual
added air con
added retro stereo
replaces ignition wires
replaced door cards and window sweeps and door handles and locks
repainted emblems
rechromed rear panel (gotta get that to someone)

I don't know the overheating problem; however, I suspect it is a timing/distributor issue. I believe total timing is way out of wack. I have recently purchased an adjustable timing light so I can really dial it in when I get to that point.

WOW, that is lot of work and expense. IMO, they haven't yet made a Dodge that is worth that much effort.

Just curios, what is an "adjustable timing light"? My tried and true Craftsman that I bought in the early 70's, either flashed or it didn't. There were no adjutments but maybe cars that don't have distributors require that kind of a beast.

It sounds like you have found a money pit but I wish you luck with it.

jmonroe

You can adjust when it flashes. So rather than guessing how far before TDC the mark is when it flashes, you can adjust the pulse until the mark is back to zero and the digital readout tells you how many degrees before or after TDC it is. What is silly about the Dodge is that the timing marks only go to 10 degrees BTDC, yet you need around 30 "all in" around 2500 rpm. No way to measure that with a standard light other than guesstimating or going ghetto and putting the timing tape on the damper.

It didn't NEED all of this work. I chose to do 90% of it. 

Thanks for the explanation. It sounds like that gizmo is pretty accurate.

jmonroe

cdnpinhead

jmonroe said:

I have seen that treatment performed twice.
jmonroe

For whatever reason, this post was part of your old profile, with the ~8300 posts. Over the next couple of pages the jmonroe1 handle appears. Doesn't much matter, since we are able to avail ourselves of your wisdom and the never-ending abuse of driver regardless of which name you're using.

iluvmysephia1

The Mrs. and I just checked in to the Days Inn in Lordsburg, NM. Someone's checking in that is driving a fancy, schmancy Maserati. Looks sharp and it's in a deep shade of blue. We're on the way to Tucson to meet up with our son.

It would be cool to go see Bisbee, AZ, on the way to Tucson on I-10. Bisbee is home to the Copper Queen Mine, Copper Queen Hotel, the Stockyard Tavern where you could order up and place stocks around 1895 and stick around, have a few whiskey's and watch how your stock does. Bisbee, for a while anyway, was the biggest town between San Francisco and St Louis.

venture

andres3 said:

venture said:

A picture of the hood of my Legacy after washing it.

3 Subaru's in the fleet! Must be serving you well!

I'm relatively new to the Subaru experience.

The Cross Trek is my daughters. The Forester is my wife's (her 3rd one).

I got the Legacy when I was looking for a replacement for the AWD Fusion. I didn't want a SUV and if you want a sedan with AWD might as well get a Subaru.

venture

roadburner said:

andres3 said:

Not to beat a dead horse, but I've learned in my middle ages here that learning about the motivations of humans can be beneficial in understanding their viewpoints and world-view.

As such, I wanted to ask the knowledgeable among us:

What do you think is the NHTSA's motivation for misleading the public about speed being a factor in the causation of collisions & fatalities? They resort to grouping drunk driving speeders with regular speeders instead of separating drunk driving from speeding statistically.

In my view, no one in their right mind would combine a drunk that speeds and crashes with a normal speeder. To do so suggests an evil plot in my worldview. I have no credibility given to the NHTSA due to this.

How about you? Is it a "shock and awe" campaign where the truth doesn't matter?

I'll only make one comment; the only thing that would surprise me is if NHTSA and the Safety [non-permissible content removed] DIDN'T use statistical trickery to get the numbers that they release- and which are then breathlessly repeated by media droneswho would never think of questioning their validity.
To quote David E. Davis Jr., I possess the "Kentuckian's healthy mistrust of government."

I told this story before so here's the condensed version:

When working on a particular stretch of road I would always pull the accident statistics. Many times there were an unordinary amount of "excess speed" causes. I asked a state trooper why and he said something about when they don't know what caused the accident they check the excess speed box. Makes sense since they have to check some box, but misleading.

imidazol97

iluvmysephia1 said:

It would be cool to go see Bisbee, AZ, on the way to Tucson on I-10. Bisbee is home to the Copper Queen Mine, Copper Queen Hotel, the Stockyard Tavern where you could order up and place stocks around 1895 and stick around, have a few whiskey's and watch how your stock does.

Bisbee is also the setting of Sheriff Joanna Brady activities in books by Janice Jance. Lots of local color is contained in the book as Sheriff Brady goes about solving crimes and living her everyday life. Actually I'd like to visit that area.

I subscribed to Arizona Highways long ago. It contained beautiful pictures of Arizona. It would have been nice to see them in person.

graphicguy

qbrozen said:

I can't seem to win with this Dodge. Keep having to stop and wait for a tool or a missing part.

For example, Removed the cam today finally and got the new one in. It was then I discovered the new one is a single-bolt design vs my old 3-bolt, and they failed to include said bolt in the kit. WTF? I have an email out to Edelbrock now to find out the specs of the needed bolt. 

Q...you’re showing an amazing amount of patience. But, it will all be worth it when it’s finished.

ab348

imidazol97 said:

iluvmysephia1 said:

It would be cool to go see Bisbee, AZ, on the way to Tucson on I-10. Bisbee is home to the Copper Queen Mine, Copper Queen Hotel, the Stockyard Tavern where you could order up and place stocks around 1895 and stick around, have a few whiskey's and watch how your stock does.

Bisbee is also the setting of Sheriff Joanna Brady activities in books by Janice Jance. Lots of local color is contained in the book as Sheriff Brady goes about solving crimes and living her everyday life. Actually I'd like to visit that area.

I subscribed to Arizona Highways long ago. It contained beautiful pictures of Arizona. It would have been nice to see them in person.

Recently this pic posted on Shorpy.com showed part of Bisbee in 1941. The "family liquors" signage fascinated me. Also some interesting pre-war cars to try to ID:

graphicguy

I bemoan the exit of the CD slot. In Acuras (as well as some others), they served as a playback device in my car for hi Rez audio. I have a bunch of really good, multi-channel disks on DVD-Audio and DTS. Now, in the current Acura, the slot only plays regular CDs and DTS disks. So, I keep my DVD-Audio listening for home.

I don’t know about planned obsolescence, but if you look at the trajectory, ‘50s through the ‘70s saw analog vinyl rise. Late ‘70s through the ‘80s it was the cassette tape. Mid-‘80s CDs happened along through the ‘00s. From the time the iPod/iPhone was released (2010 or thereabouts), music on a small device became a reality in conjunction with peer-to-peer file sharing (music files, mainly).

Currently, the streaming services are in their heyday. But, once again, vinyl has made a comeback presumably because it sounds better (no real proof of that).

So, each format had about a decade of popularity, some had more longevity and popularity than others.

I’m sure if you had told the music industry that planning the obsolescence of the CD (which, in part, led to peer-to-peer music sharing like NAPSTER), they never would have planned it. That leads me to believe it was just technology marching on that caused all of these new formats.

pensfan83

My CD collection is easily in the thousands spread across mostly classic rock and 90's alternative. Only 10 years ago I still kept a binder of about 100 CD's in the car but as @graphicguy notes with the advent of music streaming and digital storage I haven't played a CD in the car in years.

snakeweasel

andres3 said:

I think the cd thing is a racket by the music industry. Make cd's obsolete and pretty much force you to pay subscription fees monthly whether streaming or satellite. Whenever money slows down, the industry comes up with a way to force you to buy the music again - 8 track to cassette to cd to today. The car industry needs room for bigger LED screens, but honestly, how much of a that stuff do you actually use very frequently? I suspect it is cheaper to dump the cd player and replace it with a slightly bigger screen, so more to do with cost savings than music changing on their part. You are going to buy the vehicle at some point regardless, right? I'm kind of surprised the car industry hasn't turned around and offered the cd player in an out of way place at a huge option price really.

Please don't give Audi/VW any ideas! While my '14 Audi had a center CD player, both the '16 Audi TTS and '17 VW Alltrack relegate the CD player to the glove box compartment hidden away and pretty much "discouraging" its use, but I use them anyway because both cars have great sound systems.

I have to ask, is the CD player single disk or multiple disks. If single disk I would agree being in the glove compartment does discourage use but not so much for multi disk players. The sebring has a six disk CD player and when I used to use it (now just play off the phone) I would only change disks only a few times a month.

nyccarguy

@qbrozen

I have a very good customer who is a complete MOPAR Encyclopedia. He recently placed "top 5" at MOPAR Nationals in Ohio. I told him about your overheating problem and what you have done to the Dodge so far. He came up with a few suggestions (which you may or may not have tried):

-Timing should be set to 35 degrees Top Dead Center
-Distributor should be pointing to the #1 Cylinder (it could fit on properly, but be off 180 degrees)
-A tooth on your distributor could be off
-Make sure the firing order is correct in the distributor cap
-Make sure the timing chain is lined up properly
-Aluminum radiators require special "Aluminum Compatible Coolant."
-Your distributor gear could be in wrong
-Thermostat could be bad, old, or incorrect
-The Heads/Valve Springs/Cam all have to match up (High lift cams require different valve springs)
-The Damper needs to be lined up
-The line on the harmonic balancer needs to match up with the timing chain
-Have you replaced the head gaskets? They need to be installed correctly (left & right). If they are installed upside down, they will fit, but maybe block a port.

He had a few questions that I couldn't answer regarding your over heating issue:

Does it run hot when you are idling or when you take it out on the road?

Does it run hot & bad (sputter, sound like it is choking...) or just hot?

When you bought it, did it run correctly? Was it overheating when you bought it? Has this over heating issue started when YOU changed something?

If you have any, specific questions, I'll be glad to call him and ask him for you and will show him pictures if you'd like to send me (he doesn't have a cell phone or email).

fintail

Neat pic. My guesses on cars, from left: (van in background unknown, maybe a Model A) - dark two door car is a 33 Chevy, light colored coupe is a ~35 Dodge or other Mopar, sedan delivery is a 37 Chevy.

Edit, just noticed the cars at right. Sedan looks like a 33-34 Dodge,front clip of car at far right looks like a "standard" 39 Ford.

Here's the same area today:

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.4412584,-109.9129512,3a,90y,50.65h,74.55t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s40SlGK1_-2GA1tmkVtU9fA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

ab348 said:

Recently this pic posted on Shorpy.com showed part of Bisbee in 1941. The "family liquors" signage fascinated me. Also some interesting pre-war cars to try to ID:

snakeweasel

graphicguy said:

I bemoan the exit of the CD slot. In Acuras (as well as some others), they served as a playback device in my car for hi Rez audio. I have a bunch of really good, multi-channel disks on DVD-Audio and DTS. Now, in the current Acura, the slot only plays regular CDs and DTS disks. So, I keep my DVD-Audio listening for home. I don’t know about planned obsolescence, but if you look at the trajectory, ‘50s through the ‘70s saw analog vinyl rise. Late ‘70s through the ‘80s it was the cassette tape. Mid-‘80s CDs happened along through the ‘00s. From the time the iPod/iPhone was released (2010 or thereabouts), music on a small device became a reality in conjunction with peer-to-peer file sharing (music files, mainly). Currently, the streaming services are in their heyday. But, once again, vinyl has made a comeback presumably because it sounds better (no real proof of that). So, each format had about a decade of popularity, some had more longevity and popularity than others. I’m sure if you had told the music industry that planning the obsolescence of the CD (which, in part, led to peer-to-peer music sharing like NAPSTER), they never would have planned it. That leads me to believe it was just technology marching on that caused all of these new formats.

I don't think it's planned obsolescence but rather progress marching forward. As technology advances old tech becomes obsolete and the technology that replaces it will also become obsolete as technology progresses.

As for vinyl sounding better some actually did. It really depended on the quality of the production and how new the record was. DMM (Direct Metal Mastering) records had absolutely excellent sound quality that matches anything today. The main issue with vinyl is that everytime you played a record the needle would cause wear on the grooves that would eventually reduce the sound quality. Back in the 80's and 90's when I got a LP the very first time I played it I recorded it on cassette and used the cassette to listen to music only playing the LP to record it when the cassette went bad.

imidazol97

snakeweasel said:

The main issue with vinyl is that everytime you played a record the needle would cause wear on the grooves that would eventually reduce the sound quality. Back in the 80's and 90's when I got a LP the very first time I played it I recorded it on cassette and used the cassette to listen to music only playing the LP to record it when the cassette went bad.

Didn't the light touch cartridges using elliptical needles with diamond tip really reduce the wear on the slopes of the groove?

PF_Flyer

Tidying up the phone and almost forgot I took this when I was out at the Edmunds offices in Santa Monica. I kind of like the matte finish in white or silver. I'm not so sure about lime green matte

ab348

The music industry fought the changes that emerged with the internet and digital distribution tooth and nail. Remember digital audio tape recording (DAT)? Back in the 90s it was seen by the industry as The Great Satan because it could make perfect copies forever, etc., and they got the US Congress to pass a tax on DAT media. Then Napster came along and they fought that. They seemed totally incapable of adapting to the new tech for a long time. Add to that the decline of radio importance in popularizing music and artists, the decline in album purchasing which severely cut into the profitability of labels, and the music industry is a shell of what it once was. That was the result of their lack of any planned strategy to deal with the changes, hardly planned obsolescence.

fintail

Another thing that I think said a lot about the industry was, at least in my day back in the 90s, you'd often get one or two good songs per album. Now you can just pick songs rather than buying the whole album.

iluvmysephia1

Both of my latest automotive loves, the 2017 and/on Nissan Sentra SR Turbo 6-speed and the 2013 and/on Ford Focus ST 6-speed, actually have CD players. I'd rather have them than not, though I play music off my flashdrive about 90% of the time these days. I can hold 54 albums on the one I bought and I've got about 20 albums on there now. I've still got 10-15 CD's stored in cubbyhole's in the 2011 Kia Soul but have been considering removing them soon. I could use those spots to put other things, eh?

snakeweasel

imidazol97 said:

The main issue with vinyl is that everytime you played a record the needle would cause wear on the grooves that would eventually reduce the sound quality. Back in the 80's and 90's when I got a LP the very first time I played it I recorded it on cassette and used the cassette to listen to music only playing the LP to record it when the cassette went bad.

Didn't the light touch cartridges using elliptical needles with diamond tip really reduce the wear on the slopes of the groove?

it might of but I don't think it was much of a reduction. No matter what you needed a certain amount of friction to cause the needle to vibrate properly to get good sound quality.

snakeweasel

fintail said:

Another thing that I think said a lot about the industry was, at least in my day back in the 90s, you'd often get one or two good songs per album. Now you can just pick songs rather than buying the whole album.

While an album might contain only one or two popular songs that made it onto the radio. But they often had some hidden gems that you would like but never seemed to make it to the radio.

roadburner

venture said:

I told this story before so here's the condensed version:

When working on a particular stretch of road I would always pull the accident statistics. Many times there were an unordinary amount of "excess speed" causes. I asked a state trooper why and he said something about when they don't know what caused the accident they check the excess speed box. Makes sense since they have to check some box, but misleading.

One area where I know that the numbers were distorted was in DUI accidents. If a passenger was intoxicated then an accident was classified as: "alcohol involved."

henryn

I can’t remember whether I have told this story here before, so here goes.

Back around 1977 one of my coworkers gave me a 1970 Dodge Challenger convertible. It had been sitting in his garage for 2 years, the story was he paid a shade tree mechanic to rebuild the engine and it was “never right afterwards”. He was getting married, his new wife wanted to park in the garage, the non-running convertible had to go.

The paint was in bad condition, the carpet was shot, but the top still seemed okay and the tires were at least holding air. I borrowed a trailer, loaded it up, and hauled it up to the small town in East Texas where I was born and raised, about 75 miles north of Houston. My father had his own independent service garage, and allowed me to use his facilities. It took very little to get the car started and running, the old 318 V8, very reliable. But it had a strange overheating problem. Very strange indeed. I fooled around, trying to figure it out, and the passenger side head cracked. Really unusual, my father with more than 30 years experience had never seen anything like it.

I pulled the engine out and started tearing it down for a complete rebuild. Lo and behold, when I removed the water pump I found a freeze plug in the circulation hole or port on the passenger side behind the water pump. The side where the head had cracked. Obviously, the shade tree mechanic had inserted a freeze plug where it did not belong.

I’ll bet even the “car doc” would have had a very hard time diagnosing that one without tearing down the engine.

graphicguy

I had a pretty nice analog set up with one of my first “real” jobs that paid “real” money after I graduated in the ‘80s. I think I probably had $4,000-$5,000 in that rig, which today is....what?.....$10K? Maybe $12K in todays money.

I had a nice Carver amp driving some Magnepan speakers with a Thorens turntable. My whole living room was considered the “stereo room”. I think I bought the first CD player in the little town I was living in at the time. Cost easily $1,200, but after I heard a demo, it was a no brainer. No pops, clicks, hiss and a signal to noise ratio better than anything I had ever heard before. I still remember the first disks I heard were.....Paul Simon’s “Graceland” and ‘Till Tuesdays “Welcome Home”. I was stunned.

I spent the next 10 years replacing my vinyl with CDs. Some of the remasteres were good....some not so much, and the vinyl was better, even with the hiss, pops, cracks and poor signal to noise.

A colleague at the time, had even more money invested in his vinyl system....two Conrad Johnson monoblocks, QUAD ESL speakers, a Linn turntable with a cartridge that cost $1,000 alone (remember these were ‘80s dollars). He spent more on cables than I did on my wardrobe. It indeed sounded spectacular.

He came over to listen to the new CD player I had. He bought the exact same one I had the very next day and began selling off his analog system over the next year.

Ah...the memories of being young and frivolous. Priorities changed real quick after that....wife....kid.....no more stereo expenditures.

Mr_Shiftright

roadburner said:

venture said:

I told this story before so here's the condensed version:

When working on a particular stretch of road I would always pull the accident statistics. Many times there were an unordinary amount of "excess speed" causes. I asked a state trooper why and he said something about when they don't know what caused the accident they check the excess speed box. Makes sense since they have to check some box, but misleading.

One area where I know that the numbers were distorted was in DUI accidents. If a passenger was intoxicated then an accident was classified as: "alcohol involved."

A fair number of accidents are related to driver competency level and that's almost impossible to blend into the statistics. For one person, a speed of 85 mph is a big nothing; for another person, it's potentially lethal.

tifighter

graphicguy said:

I had a pretty nice analog set up with one of my first “real” jobs that paid “real” money after I graduated in the ‘80s. I think I probably had $4,000-$5,000 in that rig, which today is....what?.....$10K? Maybe $12K in todays money.

I had a nice Carver amp driving some Magnepan speakers with a Thorens turntable. My whole living room was considered the “stereo room”. I think I bought the first CD player in the little town I was living in at the time. Cost easily $1,200, but after I heard a demo, it was a no brainer. No pops, clicks, hiss and a signal to noise ratio better than anything I had ever heard before. I still remember the first disks I heard were.....Paul Simon’s “Graceland” and ‘Till Tuesdays “Welcome Home”. I was stunned.

I spent the next 10 years replacing my vinyl with CDs. Some of the remasteres were good....some not so much, and the vinyl was better, even with the hiss, pops, cracks and poor signal to noise.

A colleague at the time, had even more money invested in his vinyl system....two Conrad Johnson monoblocks, QUAD ESL speakers, a Linn turntable with a cartridge that cost $1,000 alone (remember these were ‘80s dollars). He spent more on cables than I did on my wardrobe. It indeed sounded spectacular.

He came over to listen to the new CD player I had. He bought the exact same one I had the very next day and began selling off his analog system over the next year.

Ah...the memories of being young and frivolous. Priorities changed real quick after that....wife....kid.....no more stereo expenditures.

I had a Thorens table I bought off of ebay probably 15 years ago. Slowly rebuilt it over time and it sounded great. Sold it recently; the values have gone up.

thebean

@graphicguy, wow, I haven't thought about Magneplanar speakers in a long time. I almost bought a pair of these in the early 80's. Bought some Klipschorn speakers instead and man were those some monsters. The Magnaplanars sounded good, but I couldn't get past the different technology. My loss. Also loved my Nakamichi cassette deck.

roadburner

henryn said:

I’ll bet even the “car doc” would have had a very hard time diagnosing that one without tearing down the engine.

Nah, he would have solved the problem by just looking at it...

iluvmysephia1

85mph out on the open road ain't nothing but on I-5 near Seattle it is. People pulling out of the left lane into the middle lane in front of a speeder is one accident waiting to happen.

roadburner

graphicguy said:

I had a pretty nice analog set up with one of my first “real” jobs that paid “real” money after I graduated in the ‘80s. I think I probably had $4,000-$5,000 in that rig, which today is....what?.....$10K? Maybe $12K in todays money.

I had a nice Carver amp driving some Magnepan speakers with a Thorens turntable. My whole living room was considered the “stereo room”. I think I bought the first CD player in the little town I was living in at the time. Cost easily $1,200, but after I heard a demo, it was a no brainer. No pops, clicks, hiss and a signal to noise ratio better than anything I had ever heard before. I still remember the first disks I heard were.....Paul Simon’s “Graceland” and ‘Till Tuesdays “Welcome Home”. I was stunned.

I spent the next 10 years replacing my vinyl with CDs. Some of the remasteres were good....some not so much, and the vinyl was better, even with the hiss, pops, cracks and poor signal to noise.

A colleague at the time, had even more money invested in his vinyl system....two Conrad Johnson monoblocks, QUAD ESL speakers, a Linn turntable with a cartridge that cost $1,000 alone (remember these were ‘80s dollars). He spent more on cables than I did on my wardrobe. It indeed sounded spectacular.

He came over to listen to the new CD player I had. He bought the exact same one I had the very next day and began selling off his analog system over the next year.

Ah...the memories of being young and frivolous. Priorities changed real quick after that....wife....kid.....no more stereo expenditures.

I'm still using a 1990 vintage Rotel RCD-855 in my system; I love it.

fintail

I don't think 85 is possible near Seattle unless one is out late at night. Get away from the city, and left lane campers become like pylons.

iluvmysephia1 said:

85mph out on the open road ain't nothing but on I-5 near Seattle it is. People pulling out of the left lane into the middle lane in front of a speeder is one accident waiting to happen.

fintail

So then if you are lucky, 3-4 good songs, and maybe 8 mediocre forgettable songs. Now, I can just buy the ones I want.

snakeweasel said:

While an album might contain only one or two popular songs that made it onto the radio. But they often had some hidden gems that you would like but never seemed to make it to the radio.

jmonroe

cdnpinhead said:

jmonroe said:

I have seen that treatment performed twice.
jmonroe

For whatever reason, this post was part of your old profile, with the ~8300 posts. Over the next couple of pages the jmonroe1 handle appears. Doesn't much matter, since we are able to avail ourselves of your wisdom and the never-ending abuse of driver regardless of which name you're using.

I explained this before but for some of the other slow ones in here like you, I'll do it again.

When Edmunds did their not so seamless system change, I decided to just sit on the couch in the family room and use my dumb phone to sign up to the new Insider thingy and not go upstairs to do it on my PC in the office. For a while I thought I paid for that laziness but not really.

Let me back up for just a minute. Even before the Insider thingy, Edmunds had an incorrect email for me that I tried to change at least a dozen times over the years with no success. Finally I just gave up and when something glitched either with my hardware or Edmunds old system and I got the "Howdy Stranger" pop up page, I just had to remember the incorrect email address and enter it along with my user name. It always worked and I got in here so I just kept doing it like that whenever something glitched.

Then came the glorious change over so I figured once and for all I'll use my correct email but of course I'd use my same user name (@jmonroe). Sounded very logical to me but now Edmunds gave me a pop up box saying someone already had that user name (and I knew who that was) so rather than fight it I chose @jmonroe1.

Now for some confusion. When I went to the office later that day and logged in here, I see that Edmunds still recognized @jmonroe (the one and only original). Knowing now what happened when I did the switchover with my phone, I just let it alone using the old adage, "if it ain't broke don't fix it".

I know that sooner or later my PC or Edmunds will glitch and probably won't recognize the @jmonroe guy anymore so I'll have to go with @jmonroe1 on my PC also when that happens. But until that happens you'll see me both ways.

Also, even before the change over, Edmunds changed my mug shot and then changed it back again. If you guys remember, the original @jmonroe mug shot was a smiley green faced guy but now I'm a smiley red faced thing. The mug shot assigned to @jmonroe1 is a blank staring red faced guy with glasses. FWIW, neither of these mug shots look like Dean Martin. BTW, I see your mug shot has also changed. So much for seamless.

So there you have it. At least for now, when you see @jmonroe you'll know I'm posting from my PC and when you see @jmonroe1 you'll know I'm posting from my phone.

Don't blame me for this. :@ :@

jmonroe

jmonroe

henryn said:

I can’t remember whether I have told this story here before, so here goes.

Back around 1977 one of my coworkers gave me a 1970 Dodge Challenger convertible. It had been sitting in his garage for 2 years, the story was he paid a shade tree mechanic to rebuild the engine and it was “never right afterwards”. He was getting married, his new wife wanted to park in the garage, the non-running convertible had to go.

The paint was in bad condition, the carpet was shot, but the top still seemed okay and the tires were at least holding air. I borrowed a trailer, loaded it up, and hauled it up to the small town in East Texas where I was born and raised, about 75 miles north of Houston. My father had his own independent service garage, and allowed me to use his facilities. It took very little to get the car started and running, the old 318 V8, very reliable. But it had a strange overheating problem. Very strange indeed. I fooled around, trying to figure it out, and the passenger side head cracked. Really unusual, my father with more than 30 years experience had never seen anything like it.

I pulled the engine out and started tearing it down for a complete rebuild. Lo and behold, when I removed the water pump I found a freeze plug in the circulation hole or port on the passenger side behind the water pump. The side where the head had cracked. Obviously, the shade tree mechanic had inserted a freeze plug where it did not belong.

I’ll bet even the “car doc” would have had a very hard time diagnosing that one without tearing down the engine.

I agree with you about the @cardoc but I'm sure he'd be the first to tell you that you created that problem because a "professional" wasn't used to do the work.

jmonroe

snakeweasel

jmonroe said:

I have seen that treatment performed twice. jmonroe

For whatever reason, this post was part of your old profile, with the ~8300 posts. Over the next couple of pages the jmonroe1 handle appears. Doesn't much matter, since we are able to avail ourselves of your wisdom and the never-ending abuse of driver regardless of which name you're using.

I explained this before but for some of the other slow ones in here like you, I'll do it again. When Edmunds did their not so seamless system change, I decided to just sit on the couch in the family room and use my dumb phone to sign up to the new Insider thingy and not go upstairs to do it on my PC in the office. For a while I thought I paid for that laziness but not really. Let me back up for just a minute. Even before the Insider thingy, Edmunds had an incorrect email for me that I tried to change at least a dozen times over the years with no success. Finally I just gave up and when something glitched either with my hardware or Edmunds old system and I got the "Howdy Stranger" pop up page, I just had to remember the incorrect email address and enter it along with my user name. It always worked and I got in here so I just kept doing it like that whenever something glitched. Then came the glorious change over so I figured once and for all I'll use my correct email but of course I'd use my same user name (@jmonroe). Sounded very logical to me but now Edmunds gave me a pop up box saying someone already had that user name (and I knew who that was) so rather than fight it I chose @jmonroe1. Now for some confusion. When I went to the office later that day and logged in here, I see that Edmunds still recognized @jmonroe (the one and only original). Knowing now what happened when I did the switchover with my phone, I just let it alone using the old adage, "if it ain't broke don't fix it". I know that sooner or later my PC or Edmunds will glitch and probably won't recognize the @jmonroe guy anymore so I'll have to go with @jmonroe1 on my PC also when that happens. But until that happens you'll see me both ways. Also, even before the change over, Edmunds changed my mug shot and then changed it back again. If you guys remember, the original @jmonroe mug shot was a smiley green faced guy but now I'm a smiley red faced thing. The mug shot assigned to @jmonroe1 is a blank staring red faced guy with glasses. FWIW, neither of these mug shots look like Dean Martin. BTW, I see your mug shot has also changed. So much for seamless. So there you have it. At least for now, when you see @jmonroe you'll know I'm posting from my PC and when you see @jmonroe1 you'll know I'm posting from my phone. Don't blame me for this. :@ :@ jmonroe

Ok it's cool, just as long as we don't start seeing jmonroe2, 3, 4 and so on. 

snakeweasel

fintail said:

So then if you are lucky, 3-4 good songs, and maybe 8 mediocre forgettable songs. Now, I can just buy the ones I want.

While an album might contain only one or two popular songs that made it onto the radio. But they often had some hidden gems that you would like but never seemed to make it to the radio.

But the thing is you won't know what songs you like until you listen to the whole album. If I just went by what o heard on the radio and what my friends liked I wouldn't have half the songs in my library.You gotta kiss those frogs.

jmonroe

snakeweasel said:

jmonroe said:

cdnpinhead said:

jmonroe said:

I have seen that treatment performed twice.
jmonroe

For whatever reason, this post was part of your old profile, with the ~8300 posts. Over the next couple of pages the jmonroe1 handle appears. Doesn't much matter, since we are able to avail ourselves of your wisdom and the never-ending abuse of driver regardless of which name you're using.

I explained this before but for some of the other slow ones in here like you, I'll do it again.

When Edmunds did their not so seamless system change, I decided to just sit on the couch in the family room and use my dumb phone to sign up to the new Insider thingy and not go upstairs to do it on my PC in the office. For a while I thought I paid for that laziness but not really.

Let me back up for just a minute. Even before the Insider thingy, Edmunds had an incorrect email for me that I tried to change at least a dozen times over the years with no success. Finally I just gave up and when something glitched either with my hardware or Edmunds old system and I got the "Howdy Stranger" pop up page, I just had to remember the incorrect email address and enter it along with my user name. It always worked and I got in here so I just kept doing it like that whenever something glitched.

Then came the glorious change over so I figured once and for all I'll use my correct email but of course I'd use my same user name (@jmonroe). Sounded very logical to me but now Edmunds gave me a pop up box saying someone already had that user name (and I knew who that was) so rather than fight it I chose @jmonroe1.

Now for some confusion. When I went to the office later that day and logged in here, I see that Edmunds still recognized @jmonroe (the one and only original). Knowing now what happened when I did the switchover with my phone, I just let it alone using the old adage, "if it ain't broke don't fix it".

I know that sooner or later my PC or Edmunds will glitch and probably won't recognize the @jmonroe guy anymore so I'll have to go with @jmonroe1 on my PC also when that happens. But until that happens you'll see me both ways.

Also, even before the change over, Edmunds changed my mug shot and then changed it back again. If you guys remember, the original @jmonroe mug shot was a smiley green faced guy but now I'm a smiley red faced thing. The mug shot assigned to @jmonroe1 is a blank staring red faced guy with glasses. FWIW, neither of these mug shots look like Dean Martin. BTW, I see your mug shot has also changed. So much for seamless.

So there you have it. At least for now, when you see @jmonroe you'll know I'm posting from my PC and when you see @jmonroe1 you'll know I'm posting from my phone.

Don't blame me for this. :@ :@

jmonroe

Ok it's cool, just as long as we don't start seeing jmonroe2, 3, 4 and so on. 

Hey, they're just numbers. If Edmunds doesn't care why should we?

jmonroe

pensfan83

snakeweasel said:

But the thing is you won't know what songs you like until you listen to the whole album. If I just went by what o heard on the radio and what my friends liked I wouldn't have half the songs in my library.You gotta kiss those frogs.

Agreed. Some of my favorite songs were never considered hits but I liked them more than some of the songs that were played routinely over the airwaves.