Turntable Wars- Reviewers take sides

For my money, Bill Firebaugh's Rube Goldberg contraption has been playing very well and making beautiful music in my system for around 30 years now. I feel no need whatsoever to upgrade to a more expensive table. 

jwm ...

Can I get on the time machine with you? I'd love to  hear Bird play live. Can you imagine what that would be like? Bird, Miles and Stan Levey?? Wow! Let's let Stan sit out for a couple of sets and let Max Roach play too. 

My father was really into Jazz so growing up I got to see Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderly, Herb Alpert and Buddy Rich. When I look back I was really lucky to see such great artists. 

Taters, Wow...that's pretty cool !!

Henry, True that HP was at one time operating with no advertisers, but word was that he (and some of his top reviewers) would keep gear "lent" for review for indefinite periods of time, as in "forever".  This creates a conflict of interest, because it behooved him to massage the sources of his megabuck equipment.  This also may have played in to his never quite delivering on a "full review".  As long as he was about to gush over something but hadn't quite done so, yet, it was in the interest of the manufacturer to let him keep it.

HW, Were the 700-lb Clearaudio and the VPI DD turntables both available to HP, in his house, prior to his death?  Perhaps he had a prototype at least of the VPI DD?  Thanks for posting.

And finally, since this thread is more than anything an "airing of grievances", Happy Festivus to all.

I lived in Southern Cal for three years in the mid-'70s and--just going to Disneyland's Jazz Nights I saw Buddy Rich four times, Stan Kenton, Count Basie, Quincy Jones, Melba Moore, Sarah Vaughan, Don Ellis twice, Freddie Hubbard, Maynard Ferguson, Ray Brown, and Ramsey Lewis. At jazz clubs I saw vibist Dave Pike, Louie Bellson & band, Mose Allison, Kenny Rankin, and the L.A. Four comprised of Shelley Manne, Ray Brown, Bud Shank, and Laurinda Almeida. I also managed to see Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, vibis Gary Burton (with Pat Metheny and Steve Swallow), and Stanley Turrentine in Cincinnati.

When I look back on it I can't believe I saw and heard so much great music in such a short time.