Vintage Vinyl Saturday - Brenda Holloway

Here I showcase this rare original pressing of Brenda Holloway, Every Little Bit Hurts LP. Released by Tamla Records 257, the first of Berry Gordy Jr's record companies. The second being non other than Motown records, named of course after it's home of Detroit, the Motor City. Released in 1964 this highly collectible LP features Brenda's mature vocals beyond her years. It's surprising that this super talent didn't reach mega star status. 

Very cool Tamla label with the record and Globe.
Truly an incredibly well produced album with crisp detail and full vocals. An artist with great improvisational skills and a wonderful ability to weave through a song effortlessly.
If your starting a LP collection this is one not to miss!

Stars with their LP's

Record Collectors like myself are usually intrigued by other individuals collections and the equipment that they listen to them on. Here is an eclectic group of Vintage Sound lovers enjoying their own collections. Thanks for the tip C.

Sansui 7900Z - Monster Receiver

Just arrived is this stunning monster receiver from the great Sansui Corp. Built in '81 this receiver truly is a "monster" measuring a full 22" x 14" deep. It packs 120watts per channel and although not sonically punchy at lower volumes she really opens up when you get here pushing the watts. Sansui was a real leader in the receivers of the vintage era. Incredible eye candy! Nice full scale spectrum analyzer and also linear output LED's. Interesting beep alert as you scale the tuning up or down and it LED on the analog scale travels every 8/10th of a MHz with your digital read out. A neat looking feature for sure that I have not seen before.

One of the great features also is the 2 Phono inputs. Next to the output LED's there is an interesting slide light for volume levels. Quite unique also. This is a vintage audio unit that will run for years and fit into any system with it's classic look and nice details.

Monday Night Album

Playing Sniff'n' the Tears - Fickle Heart LP














 

Count Basie/Joe Turner - The Bosses

There are some LP's in my collection that stand out in both dynamics and performance. Vinyl is the main media that I listen to and when the recordings are responsive and the musicianship reach a level that separates it from others I must hear it over and over. True audiophile sound.
Here is a 74' recording of Count Basie and the traditional voice of Joe Turner. True "Bosses" of the early Jazz era that defined music still recorded and covered today. Basie's Piano voicing on this LP are brilliant and I'm blown away by the effortlessness sound of his licks. Vintage sound that only vinyl can reproduce. Recorded in the historical Pablo records Studio in California, you must pick this up to add to your collection of great vinyl. Of course try to find this original Pablo pressing. My favorite track is Since I feel for you. When a record is this poetic and warm it needs to be shared with all audiophiles!

Sony NR-335

Vintage Sony units truly define an era. 

These 70's modules are by far trend setters of their day.

Here is a somewhat rare cassette Dolby B noise reduction unit from that era. Not to be confused with Thomas Dolby although he was equally innovative! Remember, "poetry in motion" moog music! Interesting fact... He won an achievement award 1998 for Internet music downloads. Interesting because his hits were prior to Internet down loadable content. 

Back to Dolby Labs gem...
It is encased in a true wood cabinet and sports the two massive VU meters so characteristic of the day.
This is a museum quality piece that should be appreciated.

Here are some specs

Built-in Headphone Jack
Two Mic Input Jacks
Two Professional VU Meters
Two-position Mic Attenuator Switch-reduces level of input to minimize input distortion
Tape/Source Monitor Switch
Built-in 19 kHz Filter Switch-eliminates FM multiplex interference
Two Playback Volume Controls - Ultra cool
Two Record Level Controls
Built-in 400 Hz Oscillator for input/output balancing.

Bravo Sony!

Sansui AU-4400

A mid 70's Integrated gem from Sansui. Rated at a conservative 20 watts per channel this solid amp has the beautiful clean image that made Sansui so great back then. Interesting thing about the 4400 in this series is that they didn't offer the popular black faceplate as in the others available at that time. Ah but silver faces rocked! No bells or whistles...just simple elegance.

Here is the link to some history if your interested.
http://www.sansui.us/PG_AU7700_Series.htm

The Royal Ballet LP's - Vinyl Collector's Treasure

I picked up not one but two Vintage box sets of these uber rare collections of Swan lake performances from the 60's. The sets have the most amazing books with them. The print quality is awesome and includes fly sheets with full song list and credits.
This is a magnificent (2 LP) album, that should be in every record collection. In effect, it is the "highlights" of all the most famous Romantic ballets in a leather bound spine with a canvass cover. Exceptional!!!
The sound is exceptional in every way, and particularly outstanding in outer detail and dynamic qualities. The sound is also BIG, and the instruments actually seem as large as they are in real life.
A rare, original pressing of this album sold on eBay last month for $1,000

I guess a phenomenal catch!!!

The Archive

    Here is a true vinyl collectors story. Just think of the endurance of this man's passion. 

Here's the math...

• Ok so he is 69 years old
• Let's guess he started collecting vinyl records at 16
• So 53 years...
• 1 million LP records(not even including his 1.5 million singles) Jazz records, Rock Records, all records
• 364 days (hoping he took Christmas off)

That is 19,292 days by 1 million LP's = 51.835 vinyl records a day!
 Ok some days he got boxes of 100's other days none so it's a good average!

Nearing his last days you can see he simply wants recognition and the vinyl to live forever! Bittersweet ending to a lifelong pursuit. Amazing record collection!

An Audio Friend

With regular arrivals of components like Braun, JBL, Thorens & Marantz to name just a few Lloyd Naftolin's blog Seventies Stereo is one that I continually follow. He has great passion for quality audio and showcases some real finds.
A visit not to miss if you love vintage equipment!