So This Really Is The End....


Hi All,

Just thought I'd take a minute to share. Since 1976, I've been a customer of a  record store in the University of Cincinnati area called Mole's Records. The store has been in existence for over forty five years. Tonight I've just come home from the party celebrating its final day. I'm sure the party is still happening but I decided to exit, as a flood of memories leaves me with the need to pause and reflect. Whenever I would catch a show at a small venue called Bogarts (Todd Rundgren, Butthole Surfers, Warren Zevon, etc...) I'd first stop in and B.S. with the owner. As a teenager, I never really had any money so I wasn't buying records or CD's until the mid 1980's but that was all -right by the owner and I know I was just one of many who would do the same thing. The store was small but they had a good distributor and I could buy boutique audiophile CD's and vinyl like; Audio Fidelity, MOFI, Analogue Productions, record store day releases, and used originals. If they didn't have it, then I could typically place an order and get it within a couple of weeks. My last purchase was the Analogue Productions Hybrid SACD of Steely Dan's 'Two Against Nature'. Great sounding mix by the way! Of course, we still have record stores in this relatively small mid-western town but Mole's was the oldest store still in existence. And I have to honestly say, I'm not exactly sure how these other record stores can financially make a go of it. I'm now at a place where I'm totally relying on  downloads, internet orders and Qobuz. Anyway, just feeling sentimental so thanks!

 

goofyfoot

Thanks for your very interesting post and experience...

I come from acoustic room well tuned to headphone by fate as i said... And i never dare to compare my 9 past headphones to my acoustic room... Except the last... Happily it beat my room optimized on many acoustic factors if not all... But my Speakers so good they were in my dedicated room they were not 20,000 bucks speakers ... Gave me 20,000 bucks speakers and any headphone will bite dust because i will tune the room for these specific speakers... But it takes a year of listening session everyday to did it .... I will never did that  again... Life is too short...

The father of my wife a wealthy business man sold all, retire, bought a farm learned how to keep herd of sheeps, learn all about them, even basic veterinary, cooking,  anything  and when he knows everything, he sell the farm after 7 years...

Then he goes making house  alone, or adding section to some in their old style,  not for money but for fun... Samething. he stop after it would be no surprize, except he did my house before retiring definitively...The house i just sold...

Myself without money for an acoustician for sure  i learned basic acoustic by experiments, it takes a year non stop... It was sonic heaven and new fun each day ... I sold the house and i will never invest so much time to do it again... It was fun learning to do it... i will not begin that again it will be no more fun because even if i know how to do it, the time span for the tuning will not decrease...

i stumble on an headphone and learn how to make it as my liking... It takes 6 months because this is the hardest headphone to figure out it right... it is not a ready out of the box one you buy and all is at his optimum level ...

i never tried very good costly IEM... It is too costly to buy 10 of them till i was satisfied as i did with my 10 headphones... And IEM did not had the same shell/room to optimize... I could not modify them for improvement... Then probably to be satiasfied i will be in the obligation to buy many more than 10...Or very. very costlier one... I dont have this money now... And anyway i am more happier than ever for sound quality... Even a real upgrade after computing it will cost me 15,000 bucks... But i can live without anyway...

thanks for your interesting story...

i wish you my very best from my heart ...

@mahgister i haven’t listened to headphones for years, now … only because I’m a single adult male and was able to spend an absurd amount of mooola on a real cool pair of big speakers.

I was way into headphones before I grew my business and got to a point that I could part with the bucks. I remember what a weird, or at least real awkward initial sensation it was to have something shoved down INside my ear canal … at first. And I need to say, my advice is: if you can bite the bullet and force yourself to every day for two weeks, I promise you the day after you will miss them and want to stick them back in so you can listen.

That’s my headphone story. I used to ride a very cool ducati ST2 when I used them and ❤️ed combining long riding sessions with long listening sessions. I’m talking about 500 miles a day, with very high quality tunes the whole way. I do miss it.


The headspace thing, which is akin to soundstage with big speakers, is sort of a different ball game all together. There’s the real advice, right?
I used to use a very soft rubber tip that had 3 flanges that gradually seal off the canal as it slides in. Called a Triple Flange. It makes it possible to easily pressurize the sound field consistently, perfectly, every single time you listen. Now that I’ve been into my big speakers as long as I have, I’d say that part can be equated with having a perfectly controlled and precise soundstage every single time.

I’ll have to do a lil research later, but I think I paid a relatively small amount for my first pair of IEM headphones. And as it turned out they were one of the best for the money audio purchases for me, period.

Especially for well recorded classical or Progressive Rock.

 

Hard to beat for the bang to buck ratio.

Being stationed at Wright/Patterson AFB near Dayton, I heard the name "Bogart's" a lot but never saw a show there. Did see a few at Riverfront Coliseum but mostly went to Hara Arena in Dayton. 

 

As for the record store, all things must pass but the memories live on.

Wow, I didn't realize Moles was closing I definitely got a lot of my vinyl from there and from wizards in ozarkas. I spent many days down in Clifton buying records and then we shoot up to Reading to hit up record alley and everybody's. Streaming is convenient but it's just not as much fun as standing in that record store finding something that was either rare or hard to find. The good news is there's still a lot of record stores in the area plaid room records in Loveland and spinal groove in Milford still have a pretty good collection of vinyl and seem to be making a go of it. 

You are absolutely right about that SACD by steely Dan it is awesome Good luck in your endeavor to find new musical buying options if you get a chance definitely swing by some of the ones I mentioned.

@mrskeptic I saw the one and only Grateful Dead show at Hara Arena. Also saw Buddy Rich and Mel Lewis at Gilly’s. Anyway, Bogarts is a small venue on Short Vine. I've seen some good shows there.