Lazarus,
If you sell your Teres you'll have to change your handle and we'll certainly miss you. Who's ever sold a Teres? But of course you stated your dilemma clearly: why maintain a high end playback system if there's nothing to play back?
Damage from bulk rate overseas shipping? Why choose the cheapest shipping? I don't let sellers ship anything valuable to my house via UPS. They invariably dump boxes in plain view on the porch, usually when it's raining! If you can afford a Teres/SME/VDH you can certainly afford reliable shipping methods. Buy your overseas LPs in groups and ask them to use DHL, Airborne or Fedex.
Vinyl reissues from 16/44.1 "masters"? Blech! Worst of both worlds indeed, you couldn't pay me to spin those on my Teres. Totally agree with you, just buy the CD. Any reissue house that does this without disclosure should be told, very clearly, why you will no longer be a customer. Whether they're doing it out of ignorance or sneakiness is irrelevant to you. Once-burned, twice-shy.
I agree with Twl that noise and grunge are fixable, but I don't know if a RCM will always do it. I do know that hand washing can. Have you tried the famed 4yanx Vinyl Cleaning Method #1? A GroovMaster and the little stiff-bristled brush that comes with it are indispensable. That plus a squirt of Dawn, some filtered water and a little elbow grease can perform miracles. Last night I played a pretty rare used record that I just bought. At first I was heartbroken, it was so noisy I was sure the vinyl was badly damaged. Shocking to think a valuable record had been so mistreated. Off to the kitchen sink for some HARD scrubbing with that little brush. Result? Exceptional silence. The transformation was miraculous. Don't give up on noisy records until you've tried cleaning them by hand, vigorously. A RCM may be too gentle for these desperate cases. It's outrageous when we have to do this on a new record, I agree, but we all know that no amount of work or money can make a digital copy sound as good as a clean LP on a system as nice as yours.
Enjoy the music whatever you do. If you do sell your rig, I imagine 4yanx has enough lovingly cared for records that he would be a pleased and loving owner. (OTOH, I innocently assumed the thingies that fell out of the records he just sent me were only sesame seeds! Who knew?) Go for it David.
If you sell your Teres you'll have to change your handle and we'll certainly miss you. Who's ever sold a Teres? But of course you stated your dilemma clearly: why maintain a high end playback system if there's nothing to play back?
Damage from bulk rate overseas shipping? Why choose the cheapest shipping? I don't let sellers ship anything valuable to my house via UPS. They invariably dump boxes in plain view on the porch, usually when it's raining! If you can afford a Teres/SME/VDH you can certainly afford reliable shipping methods. Buy your overseas LPs in groups and ask them to use DHL, Airborne or Fedex.
Vinyl reissues from 16/44.1 "masters"? Blech! Worst of both worlds indeed, you couldn't pay me to spin those on my Teres. Totally agree with you, just buy the CD. Any reissue house that does this without disclosure should be told, very clearly, why you will no longer be a customer. Whether they're doing it out of ignorance or sneakiness is irrelevant to you. Once-burned, twice-shy.
I agree with Twl that noise and grunge are fixable, but I don't know if a RCM will always do it. I do know that hand washing can. Have you tried the famed 4yanx Vinyl Cleaning Method #1? A GroovMaster and the little stiff-bristled brush that comes with it are indispensable. That plus a squirt of Dawn, some filtered water and a little elbow grease can perform miracles. Last night I played a pretty rare used record that I just bought. At first I was heartbroken, it was so noisy I was sure the vinyl was badly damaged. Shocking to think a valuable record had been so mistreated. Off to the kitchen sink for some HARD scrubbing with that little brush. Result? Exceptional silence. The transformation was miraculous. Don't give up on noisy records until you've tried cleaning them by hand, vigorously. A RCM may be too gentle for these desperate cases. It's outrageous when we have to do this on a new record, I agree, but we all know that no amount of work or money can make a digital copy sound as good as a clean LP on a system as nice as yours.
Enjoy the music whatever you do. If you do sell your rig, I imagine 4yanx has enough lovingly cared for records that he would be a pleased and loving owner. (OTOH, I innocently assumed the thingies that fell out of the records he just sent me were only sesame seeds! Who knew?) Go for it David.