New Store: Music to my Ears

[OldiesButGoodies]

Motivated by fellow headfi geek Craig I visited Music to my Ears,  Mark Mawhinney's new store in Babcock Blvd.  The place is a blast to visit,  highly recommended.  The store has two sections:  vinyl and headphones/DACs/TTs. The vinyl side has used and new vinyl,  the used stuff is reasonably priced and all the LPs that I checked were in great shape and clean:

Audio in Pittsburgh by Jose Sifontes, on Flickr

The center-of-room shelves are used records,  the shelves on the walls are new stuff.  Lots of MoFi and OMR pressings:

Audio in Pittsburgh by Jose Sifontes, on Flickr

The other side is all headphones, DACs, and turntables.  I did all my headphone listening on an Hugo Chord DAC connected to a Moon Audio CD player via coax:

Audio in Pittsburgh by Jose Sifontes, on Flickr

There were other geeks there with their laptops and CDs,  some brought DACs as well,  testing can after can:

Audio in Pittsburgh by Jose Sifontes, on Flickr

The highlight of the visit was testing  Focal's Elear cans:  amazing sound for $995 (the store has a large selection,  including Audeze, Beyer Dynamic, Focal, Grado, Fostex, etc.):

Audio in Pittsburgh by Jose Sifontes, on Flickr

There is a large selection of Rega and similar turntables,  plus a bunch of phono preamps: 

Audio in Pittsburgh by Jose Sifontes, on Flickr

Also visited the audio showroom upstairs,  where I drooled over the sound produced by a pair of Magico S3s (220 pounds each) and the usual crop of cool speakers:

Audio in Pittsburgh by Jose Sifontes, on Flickr

Fun place to visit and drop a few bucks on vinyl,  cans, etc.

OBG

[geoffr]

Nice review, thanks.

[MacGeek]

Is the original store still upstairs, in the back?

[papabearjew]

BJ and I will have to make a road trip.

[scorpio333]

Great review, you should get a discount. I need to check it out sometime.

[OldiesButGoodies]

Thanks all - the old store is still there.  Mark gave me a good price for the Triton 1s, so I guess this is partly my way of saying thanks.  But the new store truly is a fun trip for anyone in our hobby.  I forgot to take pictures of the walls of headphones. 

I tried an Adcom GFP-750 preamp in my system today.  Holy capes batman,  a good pre can make a huge difference!  I had to pick my jaw off the floor and reattach it.  Did not buy it because seller and I could not agree on price,  but now I know what my next upgrade is.

 

[schwarcw]

Gotta love the MoFi rack of vinyl!

[Sir Thrift-a-Lot]

Has anyone here spent any time with a few of the new MFSLs?   I see a lot of ads for them that say "played once" and it makes me wonder if they are just average and not really better than the standard pressings.

[RuralTom]

Has anyone here spent any time with a few of the new MFSLs?   I see a lot of ads for them that say "played once" and it makes me wonder if they are just average and not really better than the standard pressings.

I'd guess that a fair proportion of the 'played once' crew isn't exactly speaking truth, and another chunk doesn't have the equipment to hear the difference in quality.  Heavy on the first group, but I don't know and haven't heard any newer MFSLs.
 

[Sir Thrift-a-Lot]

I'd guess that a fair proportion of the 'played once' crew isn't exactly speaking truth.
 

As much as the cynic in me wants to believe this, why then are they selling recent reissues that they almost had to have bought new?   I assume that they were familiar with the material and aren't selling for that reason.

Has anyone here heard more than a couple new MFSLs?

[scorpio333]

I have not heard a single one. The price of them suggest greatness. The internet backs up those claims. I have my doubts so I never ponied up for one yet.

[MacGeek]

The few I have heard sound decent, but not what I remember.  What I can't determined form the on-line stores is if the discs are 1/2 speed masters, like the old days.  All I see is references to180/200 gram.  Not even 45 RPM.

[schwarcw]

I'd guess that a fair proportion of the 'played once' crew isn't exactly speaking truth.
 

As much as the cynic in me wants to believe this, why then are they selling recent reissues that they almost had to have bought new?   I assume that they were familiar with the material and aren't selling for that reason.

Has anyone here heard more than a couple new MFSLs?

I have a few of the newer and older ones.  The thing about MFSL vinyl is their vinyl has been quiet for a long time.  That and they have consistently good pressings.  Not perfect but very consistent in quality and sound.  I have had good experience.  I returned maybe one out of ten?

[Sir Thrift-a-Lot]

Are they still using translucent Quiex vinyl?   I am so over the 180 gram thing.   I never bought a new 140 gram record with a warp.   It seems like the 180s have them all the time.

[RnR]

180g doesn't do anything for me..  Though, I don't have any older 180g, all newer stuff.   My best sounding records are pre-90's, thin floppy 1st pressings

The store is cool though.  I dug thu the MoFi and Acousic Sounds rack (was pressed for time) but ended up grabbing a B-52's S/T that was put out by Mofi.  Interestingly enough it was one of the ONLY ones that didn't say "pressed from the original master".  I questioned it and the vinyl guy said it (b-52's s/t) was the same as all the others.  I went home and read about it, and apparently the original metals were destroyed somehow. 

Worth checking out.