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The Vinyl Community's Mazzy Loves You!

Have you discovered "The Vinyl Community" on YouTube yet? If not, you are in for a treat!

I discovered in only a few weeks ago myself, but am addicted. I don’t know how it started, or by whom, or when, or if it actually can even be said to have a start. Cosmic, ay?

Anyway, one day while perusing YouTube I stumbled upon a video in which the subject started the video by saying "Hi VC". VC?, I thought to myself. I soon learned that was short for Vinyl Community, and what The Vinyl Community is: Music lovers from all over the world posting videos on YouTube in which they talk about LP’s (vinyl for you youngins), their LP collections, new LP acquisitions, etc. As the group name would suggest, the focus is on LP’s, but other formats are occasionally peripherally discussed.

The nature of VC participants is as varied as any large group, their musical tastes ranging across all genres. Some members focus on music of no interest to myself, others have a personality I don’t care for. But I have found a guy who is by far my favorite: Norman Maslov. He refers to himself as Mazzy, and I love his videos! He was born (in 1954) and raised in San Francisco, relocating to Seattle in 2014. He is smart, witty, entertaining, knowledgeable, well spoken, and has what is imo great musical taste (his favorite guitarist is the same as mine: Ry Cooder).

He has made hundreds of videos, their topics wide-ranging. He says he doesn’t consider himself an audiophile, but does appreciate good sound. His system is a Rega table (I don’t think he mentioned the cartridge, proving he really isn’t an audiophile ;-), Oppo universal digital player, Denon electronics, and B&W speakers. Not too shabby for a non-audiophile! One of his videos is a tour of his house, his systems, and his collection.

And what a collection! The largest Beatle library I’ve ever seen, enough to fill an Ikea Kallax 6 X 6! He has about 6,000 LP’s total, and what looks to be a couple thousand CD’s. His taste too is wide-ranging, including the Rock he was raised on (The Beatlles, The Byrds, and The Kinks his three favorite bands), but also Jazz, Folk, Blues, Country, Lounge, Pop Vocalists, Soundtracks, just about everything but Classical (though he has referred to his Classical CD’s in a drawered-cabinet, I don’t believe he has done a video on the genre).

He has done videos on Audiophile labels and their reissues, artists retrospectives, individual albums, many "theme" topics such best 1st albums, great cover art, 10 best albums of a given year, best albums of a genre, album rankings of a given artist or band, all kindsa stuff. Then, he has a series of "Whack-A-Mole" videos, in which he reaches into his shelves and pulls out 5-10 albums blindly, then discusses each. Very entertaining! He ends each video by saying "Mazzy loves you", hence this thread’s title. Next time you’re on YouTube, do a search of "Norman Maslov", and enjoy!

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5 responses Add your response
seanchau
47 posts
 
Yes.  I am fan of the VC community on youtube.  There is another guy called "45 RPM Audiophile" and "Bob Bradley."  A lot of good content out there.  I enjoy watching Mazzy.
slaw's avatar
slaw
20,429 posts
 
Watched Mazzy a few times and he's growing on me.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24 OP
9,449 posts
 

@seanchau: Yup, Michael (45 RPM Audiophile) is a fave of mine as well. He's a hardcore audiophile with a very nice Einstein system (from front to back). His LP focus is primarily on new audiophile reissue pressings, and he has reviewed LP's from Mofi, Analogue Productions, Electric Recording Co., Speakers Corner, Intervention, Classic Records (long out of business), Blue Note, all the major reissue labels. All the Neil Young 180g reissues as well.

But also new releases from small labels like Acony (Gillian Welch and David Rawlings), anything featuring audiophile-grade sound quality. It was from Michael that I learned of the unique plastic outer sleeves offered by Vinyl Storage Solutions. Michael is a very likeable, charming guy.

@slaw: The one thing Mazzy does that disturbs me is "pinching" between his thumb and first finger the outer edge of an LP when he pulls it from the inner sleeve (to show the vinyl or record label). Isn't that the first thing we learn not to do when we become an audiophile?! But Mazzy is more a music lover than an audiophile, which is fine with me.

His musical taste intersects with mine only somewhat, he liking the San Francisco bands he grew up around far more than I. But he loves Ry Cooder, The Kinks, and The Byrds at least as much as much as do I, so I forgive him. ;-) It's fun when he mentions shows he attended that I was also at, like The Who at The Fillmore Auditorium in 1969, wherein they performed the entire Tommy album.

seanchau
47 posts
 
@bdp24  Thanks to you and your recommendations.  I have been really enjoying my vinyl journey.  Since our last conversation, I have upgraded my turntable, cartridge, and phonostage (twice).  I now have the Brinkmann Bardo with Benz LPS with Allnic H1200 Phonostage.  And I also got deep into audiophile vinyl collecting.  

I really enjoy Michael's system as well as his collection.  My collection consists of mostly blue notes, mofi, analog production, and speaker corner.  It's a wonderful journey so far and thank you for your recommendation last year.  I also got into active crossover with the Marshant.  Just curious do you recommend First Watt with Maggies on the mid range panel?  I have a set of monoblocks for the lowend already.

Sean
bdp24's avatar
bdp24 OP
9,449 posts
 

Nice LP player @seanchau! I too have been buying a lot of Analogue Production, MoFi, Speaker’s Corner, Intervention, etc. records lately. At $35 a pop, it doesn’t take long to spend a coupla grand! But used LP’s are surprisingly cheap in my area, often $5-$10 in VG+ or even NM condition. I had to buy another stack of the Ikea EKET shelving units to make more room for LP’s.

A lot of guys with older Maggie’s (Tympanis and .6 versions of the MG3 and 20 series) use Marchand crossovers to bi-amp. I was set to buy one myself when a First Watt B4 came up for sale. With the Marchand, as you know, you need a card for the filters you want. They’re pretty cheap, so that’s no problem. Marchand will even make you non-textbook filters for speakers that require them.

The B4 has adjustable filters (on internal jumpers) that provide extreme flexible: 1st/2nd/3rd/4th-order (6/12/18/24 dB/octave), in 25Hz increments from 25Hz to 6375Hz. There is a gain control for each channel, switchable between the high-pass and low-pass filter outputs. The B4 is of discrete build, no OpAmps or IC’s. Nelson Pass is no longer offering it as a factory build, only as a kit. I haven’t seen one for sale in a coupla years, so don’t hold your breathe!

Eric

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