Where old audiophiles go to...

[DaveyF]

Today, I was talking to the daughter of an old a'phile who is now in his 86th year. I do not know this gent, but his daughter wants me to acquire his 12,000 classical LP collection. The old gent has collected all of his life. Now, he is suffering from dementia and his daughter wants to make sure that this large collection is disposed of. I'm going to take a long hard look at it. Problem is, I just disposed of over 10,000 LP's from my collection ( triples and not so desirables), so I'm not overly excited about this. The other interesting thing is this old gent also has a large system consisting of multi-speakers in the same room as his LP collection. The daughter describes him as a "hoarder". Rather a sad situation, IMHO.
Anyhow, I will probably be posting some interesting classical LP's on line in the next few weeks. If anyone is looking for something in particular, send me a PM, and I will see if it is in the collection.

 

[NorthStar]

Wow Davey, that is quite something! ...Too much Classical music listening, and now dementia!
...Maybe a good thing that he wasn't into Jazz.

* Daughter's not into Classical music I guess.

 

[DaveyF]

Bob, it's the usual story. Daughter isn't into audio or music....and definitely NOT classical. Apparently, this gent was a professional jazz pianist and had a small collection of jazz LP's. The daughter is keeping these for posterity. A little odd that a jazz pianist would prefer to listen to classical vs. jazz.

 

[NorthStar]

... A little odd that a jazz pianist would prefer to listen to classical vs. jazz.

Not really Davey. It happens to me a lot; people around me think that I'm into jazz, but when they come to visit Classical music is playing 90% of the time.
It was a music progression then; very young I was into Classical, then Rock (Rolling Stones, Zeppelin, etc.), then Jazz, then Blues big time, and for the longest time, and Jazz was still there, and regained with a vengeance, Blues always remains, and Classical took over Jazz and Blues for the last ten years or so.

New Age, World, Folk I love too, but Classical is more powerful than anything else, than Jazz and Blues which I love very strongly.
It's in the genes of my soul; classical is much more sophisticated and relaxing; nothing equals a classical piano, even an acoustic bass and saxophone.

I truly believe that if you are fully honest with yourself, your internal self, you appreciate classical music on a higher level than any other genre.
...With time, with years, with listening sincerity.

So I'm not that surprised at all that for a jazz pianist (her dad) is more into classical music now at his age. I'm much younger and I can totally relate; but not his daughter, just yet, perhaps when she gets older, and if her music progression is on the right path of her own emancipation.
It takes time, and for some people much more time; depending of their exposition, during their lifetime, and emotional impact from it.

 

[mep]

My father wants to give me his record collection which numbers around 4000 LPs. The problem is, it's mainly opera music which really doesn't interest me.

 

[microstrip]

Today, I was talking to the daughter of an old a'phile who is now in his 86th year. I do not know this gent, but his daughter wants me to acquire his 12,000 classical LP collection. The old gent has collected all of his life. Now, he is suffering from dementia and his daughter wants to make sure that this large collection is disposed of. I'm going to take a long hard look at it. Problem is, I just disposed of over 10,000 LP's from my collection ( triples and not so desirables), so I'm not overly excited about this. The other interesting thing is this old gent also has a large system consisting of multi-speakers in the same room as his LP collection. The daughter describes him as a "hoarder". Rather a sad situation, IMHO.
Anyhow, I will probably be posting some interesting classical LP's on line in the next few weeks. If anyone is looking for something in particular, send me a PM, and I will see if it is in the collection.

LP collections coming from music lovers often suffer from excessive use. I was recently asked if I could be interested in buying a very large classical LP collection. The owner was a passionate connoisseur, and had several booklets covered with annotations. He had many interpretations of excellent music, most of them in quality recordings. When I inspected the LPs I found they looked excellent for age, no scratches, dirt or fingerprints. Unfortunately we found that all of them had permanent playing vinyl noise and distortion, probably caused by many years of use with poor stylus. No cleaning could solve it, and as it was severe enough to be disturbing during listening, I sadly gave up.

 

[mep]

I'm afraid the same problem would exist with my father's LPs with regards to looking good and sounding bad. I had a better stereo when I was 15 than he did.

 

[DaveyF]

LP collections coming from music lovers often suffer from excessive use. I was recently asked if I could be interested in buying a very large classical LP collection. The owner was a passionate connoisseur, and had several booklets covered with annotations. He had many interpretations of excellent music, most of them in quality recordings. When I inspected the LPs I found they looked excellent for age, no scratches, dirt or fingerprints. Unfortunately we found that all of them had permanent playing vinyl noise and distortion, probably caused by many years of use with poor stylus. No cleaning could solve it, and as it was severe enough to be disturbing during listening, I sadly gave up.

Micro, that's a very good point. Usually, when I have looked at large collections in the past, the condition of most of the records is anything but pristine--both in sound and in overall condition. I am looking at this collection on Wednesday evening and i fully expect to pass on the vast majority and maybe all of it. OTOH, with a collection of this size, I am hopeful that there will be a few nuggets.:b

 

[NorthStar]

It reminds me so much of the flick 'High Fidelity'.

 

[Asamel]

If this collection is daunting for you imagine how it seems to the guy's daughter.

 

[NorthStar]

If this collection is daunting for you imagine how it seems to the guy's daughter.

But she has a totally different perception of it.

 

[DaveyF]

Bob is correct. I spoke to the lady today and she seems to be of two minds...on the one hand she thinks that she wants to dump the whole collection, and on the other, she thinks that it is quite valuable and most of the LP's are highly collectable. The latter we shall see, BUT my guess is that she is not correct. BTW, this is NOT daunting to me in any way.. I have dealt with much larger collections in the past. Last month I was over at a local collector/dealer who has over 90,000 jazz and rock/ pop Lp's. To say that it takes up a little bit of room, is shall we say an understatement, LOL.

 

[NorthStar]

90,000 LPs, wow!

* Just two weeks ago I saw pictures of a house with 250,000 LPs inside! ...A hoarding house! ...It was on e-Bay; someone put pictures of those rooms with all those albums, for sale!

 

[DaveyF]

90,000 LPs, wow!

* Just two weeks ago I saw pictures of a house with 250,000 LPs inside! ...A hoarding house! ...It was on e-Bay; someone put pictures of those rooms with all those albums, for sale!

That's an interesting coincidence, Bob. This old man's daughter told me he is a hoarder and that the place is dangerous to be in since he has stuff all over and no room to even sit down! Apparently the reason for the sale ( well one of them) is that this gent fell over a few weeks ago, could not get up as he was engulfed in stuff--- when the Emergency crew arrived, they had a hard time getting to him in the house Too crazy!

 

[NorthStar]

Not like this guy though: http://vinylfanatics.com/index.php/articles-mainmenu-38/641-hoarder-house-full-of-records

* 68-years old (yours is 86; numbers are in reverse). ...By the way, someone bought his house, and with everything in it!

 

[DaveyF]

Not like this guy though: http://vinylfanatics.com/index.php/articles-mainmenu-38/641-hoarder-house-full-of-records

* 68-years old (yours is 86; numbers are in reverse). ...By the way, someone bought his house, and with everything in it!

If that's what I find tomorrow, i'm running for the door!

 

[NorthStar]

Watch for any kind of disease, plus a deadly kiss from the daughter! ...And not only run for the door, but also to the doctor!

* Dementia, is it infectious?

 

[DaveyF]

watch for any kind of disease, plus a deadly kiss from the daughter! ...and not only run for the door, but also to the doctor! :d

* dementia, is it infectious?

lol.

 

[DaveyF]

Well, I just got back from my trip to see this collection. Unfortunately, it was as expected....about 12,000+ LP's, all of which were in poor condition and all of which were pressings that were not of any interest. Lots of mono stuff in bad condition.
Basically a trash collection..

I did NOT buy anything and wanted to leave as soon as possible due to the "hoarder" condition....Crazy to live like that.

 

[NorthStar]

Bummer!