Sennheiser HDV 820

[AnotherJohnson]

It was his nephew. John.

https://gradolabs.com/company/timeline

Here’s a pic of the old TT and arm.

IMG_0704.jpeg (89.54 KiB) Viewed 3342 times

[admin]

You may be right. I'm not sure of the lineage, I just know they have the last name so I may be mistaken on the exact relation. But still in the family.

Now that is a classic turntable if I have ever seen one.

[AnotherJohnson]

You may be right. I'm not sure of the lineage, I just know they have the last name so I may be mistaken on the exact relation. But still in the family.

Now that is a classic turntable if I have ever seen one.

It’s in the timeline link. John bought the business from uncle Joe.

John had Jonathan and Matthew, so they’re Joe’s grand nephews.

The TT was unusual even for its day. It was not sonically special. I’m guessing it was less than $30 msrp. A cartridge was probably $12.

[AnotherJohnson]

My first pair of headphones were bought at Radio Shack (Realistic, their house brand). Probably early 60’s. They were stereo, which was pretty new. I also bought an 8 Ohm junction box to hook up to the external speaker terminals on the big record playing console. The headphones and junction box were probably about $10 … about 12 hours worth of minimum wage.

[AnotherJohnson]

Other people have no doubt figured this out. I think I figured it out many years ago, but then forgot.

Tonight I decided to listen to some challenging cuts on the headphones. Specifically I’ve been listening for detail, and
Vocal clarity, separation of layers, vocal and instrumental timbre. CD via the Ruby. No stream to obfuscate the sound.

As an example, Paula Cole’s “This Fire.” It’s always s challenge for any speaker and room.

On the headphones the bass on Tiger isn’t event stressed. Vocal layers are clear on every cut. The headphones don’t give you the visceral feel that comes with a great presentation via great speakers … but they do give you confidence that you’re hearing the artist’s intended mix.

I’m thinking that a good way to evaluate a recording or a speaker/room combination would be to listen to it with the Sennheiser setup. Then move to the open room. You should notice both the good and bad aspects of the difference.

[AnotherJohnson]

One of the wooden Grado Lab tonearms is on eBay right now. They’re asking $595 for it. They have a spelling error in the description that may cause a search to fail. “Tornarm.”

In my opinion, this arm is worth $0.00 unless you have the table missing the arm, or unless you are an avid Grado or general tonearm collector. Then it might be worth a hundred bucks.

If this sells for even half of asking, it just confirms what PT Barnum believed … there’s a sucker born every minute.