It's that time of year again -- the Music Direct catalog is here! Tweaks, treatments and tonmeisterly tidbits galore! I'll try not to duplicate anything I covered in last year's roundup and try to find some new goodies.
The cover is a big letdown after last year's surreal camping trip. This year, we just have a cute audiophiless with her sweater sleeves pulled coyly over her palms, adjusting her $700 Grado Reference headphones and enjoying the $40 MoFi vinyl pressing of Alison Krauss' So Long So Wrong, playing on $12,000 Avid Acutus turntable and a small army of Musical Fidelity electronics (X-LPS Phono Stage, $400; X-PSU Power Supply Upgrade, $400; X-10 Tube Buffer Stage, $400; X-Can Headphone Amp, $400). Bor-ing. If it wasn't for the Avid, she'd barely be in decent used-car territory with this stuff. (Though she does get bonus points for spending all that money and still not being able to drive speakers.)
Weird-looking turntables are in this year. The $10,000 VPI HR-X and the aforementioned Avid look like four soup cans with a tonearm. The $19,000 Clearaudio Master Reference AMGB goes above and beyond by looking like six soup cans with a linear tonearm (not included). So there.
King of the turntables appears to be the $29,000 Walker Audio Proscenium Gold Signature, which knows its market well -- it looks like a tube amp with a platter. It uses "air-bearing technology for both platter and arm" for "vanishingly low friction." And it's a value, too -- the record clamp is included.
Many tears are shed over the demise of the Shure V15VxMR cartridge, but never fear -- there are still plenty of options available for the determined Luddite. We'll skip the boring Grados and Benzes and go right for the gusto -- the $13,000 Clearaudio Reference Wood. What's so great about this cart? Glad you asked! "The reference model in the Clearaudio cartridge line. The Insider Reference is lusted after by audiophiles everywhere! Every customer who owns one tells us its (sic) worth every cent!" That's every last word the catalog has to offer on this product. It's good because... we say so. Moving on...
Complete your analog "rig" with a $6,000 ASR Revised Phono Stage. This baby can run off batteries for 60 hours on its "massive outboard power supply" or icky AC power if you insist. You will "find youself dumbfounded at the hidden detail you have been missing from your favorite slabs of vinyl."
There's a wide array of record cleaning products, but my eye was drawn to the $1700 Air Tight DT-01 ORB Disc Flattening System. It looks like a waffle iron you put your warped LPs into, and they come out nice and flat! Cool!
Finally, the ultimate analog tweak is the $2200 Clearaudio Accurate Power Generator that makes sure the power your analog gear gets is segregated from your icky digital components. Plug your turntable, phono stage and preamp into this puppy (unless, of course, you're a real man and use a battery-powered phono stage, as above). "Mobile Fidelity uses an Accurate in their reference mastering playback system, shouldn't you use one in yours?" Answer that, smart guy.
The digital stuff isn't nearly as much fun, and there's only four pages of it. Esoteric has a couple of $13,000 CD players, but I know everyone's itching to get to the tweaks so let's move on.
Sadly, there isn't much new I didn't already cover last year. Best rookie is the $70 Walker Audio Vivid treatment kit for better-sounding CDs and better-looking DVDs. The catalog quotes "Bound for Sound": "After applying the Vivid to the recording, I nearly came out of my chair and applauded! Better picture, better sound, better everything -- a keeper!"
There's also the new official MoFi gold CD-Rs. At only $95 for 50, you can now make "permanent, flawless copies" of your favorite MoFi Gold Cee Dees! I wonder how Dave NightGort feels about that.
Just for Luke, Music Direct now offers $200 Shunyata's Venom Outlets. "All contacts are silver and rhodium plated inside an oversized chassis for increased airflow. Cryogenically treated in Shunyata's computer-controlled lab!" So rip out those $50 hospital-grade outlets and upgrade to these cryogenic wonders today! Your ears demand it!
And remember, "just because you have a Tos-link connection doesn't mean you have to suffer from squashed dynamics and flat soundstaging!" Grab a 1 meter Audioquest Optilink-5 for only $450 and enjoy "even greater fidelity and dynamic range."
Spend $160 on a set of eight Cable Elevators and stop obsessing about the fact that your cables are touching your yucky floor. "Produced by a leading manufacturer of porcelain isolators," these gems are "coated with a non-conductive glaze to further reduce noise and a special non-slip foot for added stability with today's heavier cables." Music Direct's customers report "tremendous increases in clarity, tonal accuracy and dynamics." Mmmm, glaze.
Never fear, Shakti Hallographs are here! For only a grand, you too can experience a "stunning increase in realism and imaging" by putting hat racks in your room.
We'll wrap up with some "budget tweaks" to bring your order to a nice, round number.
- An Arye/Cardas IBE Enhancement CD will tune your system "on a weekly basis by removing built-up magnetism" for $20.
- Get a Gutwire Notepad for $25 and you'll receive a "small black bag filled with a heavy, viscous, non-toxic polymer" which "absorbs vibration, unwanted resonance and EMI/RFI." Slap these on anything you see that looks like an audio component and get "cleaner highs, a more detailed midrange, better bass definition and more precise image placement."
- The Acoustic Research TDS Sound Enhancer "improves the time domain performance of your system, increasing phase accuracy." Just slap one in a tape loop or between your pre-amp and amp, and enjoy "wider, deeper soundstage, cleaner, less glaring highs, and more air and ambience surrounding the musicians on the soundstage." Apparently they weren't selling at $200, so now only $45!
I've gotta order something soon -- I'm afraid they won't send me any more catalogs if I don't.
Ryan
2005 Music Direct Catalog
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Rspaight
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2005 Music Direct Catalog
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lukpac
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Just for Luke, Music Direct now offers $200 Shunyata's Venom Outlets. "All contacts are silver and rhodium plated inside an oversized chassis for increased airflow. Cryogenically treated in Shunyata's computer-controlled lab!" So rip out those $50 hospital-grade outlets and upgrade to these cryogenic wonders today! Your ears demand it!
Should I wait for $1k *pure* silver outlets next year?
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD
