Introduction

[Fast Forward]

Hello my name is Fast Forward I,m Glad to be here for the second time I am also a member and Moderator on Vintage Audio with the same Avatar an a member of AK but use a different Avatar,I have always owned Cassette Decks,and last year decided to Jump up and Get a R2R a Teac A-6300 which had all the bells and whistles i was looking for auto reverse,,large reels,,large VUs,,,,As for Cassette Decks I presently have a 1976 Nak 600,2head bought new and Onkyo TA2600 3Head,,At present I don,t Have any Pics of my equipment or my listening room but I,ll get some up ASAP:)

[Des-Lab]

Unlike certain other web sites that don't even have the gonads or the decency to respond to a friggin' e-mail, here at TapeHeads, you don't have to be shy about where you came from, what other sites you use, or even your avatar (which I like by the way. Anything that shows the Maxell reels is ok in my book). If the only reason you are using a different avatar is "out of respect", shit, don't sweat it dude. Use any avatar you like. As long as it's nothing tacky or risqué.

Oh, and by the way. Thank you for [re]joining. All active memberships here are welcome and appreciated. You won't find any oversized (and empty or stone solid) craniums that take the position that it's a "priviledge" to be "let in". Christ, this isn't the Blue Blood Hills Country Club, where there is a twenty year waiting list. It's just talking about tapes. Even my own wife calls me the infitessimal tape 'nerd'.

Of course if you do something stupid, then I might have no choice but to make some...err...membership changes. I don't go looking for reasons to do that. I'll wait and see if they come to me.

As of this writing, there are 46 members here (I have two of them).

Wonder which one of them is the AK "Mole". I KNOW one of them is here.

[Web Police]

Welcome to Tapeheads. :)

[Fast Forward]

Unlike certain other web sites that don't even have the gonads or the decency to respond to a friggin' e-mail, here at TapeHeads, you don't have to be shy about where you came from, what other sites you use, or even your avatar (which I like by the way. Anything that shows the Maxell reels is ok in my book). If the only reason you are using a different avatar is "out of respect", shit, don't sweat it dude. Use any avatar you like. As long as it's nothing tacky or risqué.

Oh, and by the way. Thank you for [re]joining. All active memberships here are welcome and appreciated. You won't find any oversized (and empty or stone solid) craniums that take the position that it's a "priviledge" to be "let in". Christ, this isn't the Blue Blood Hills Country Club, where there is a twenty year waiting list. It's just talking about tapes. Even my own wife calls me the infitessimal tape 'nerd'.

Of course if you do something stupid, then I might have no choice but to make some...err...membership changes. I don't go looking for reasons to do that. I'll wait and see if they come to me.

As of this writing, there are 46 members here (I have two of them).

Wonder which one of them is the AK "Mole". I KNOW one of them is here.Des did we lose any members when you had to re-due the site,? It looks like we lost some posts ,,I use a different avatar here and on Vintage Audio because I like it, and while I sincerely respect and thank the members from the other site who helped me along the way I have no respect for the evil kabal that flames or bans members for speaking the truth or who,s opinions differ from theirs

[Des-Lab]

It's hard to say for sure. But one name that *IS* conspicuously absent thusfar is Marc White. I haven't seen or heard hide nor hair from him lately. He was on the original site but hasn't yet rejoined. So I don't know if he's on hiatus (for whatever reason) or signed up incognito and has yet to announce himself or what. Membership count was approximately 45, give or take a few at the time of the prototype TapeHeads site shutdown. We are up to 51 here as of when I looked (though *I* have two names: Administrator, which I use to maintain the site and then "Des-Lab", which I use to participate in it with. Plus, that's the moniker everyone knows me under.) I know that *MANY* of the folks from over there made the jump. But it looks like there are and were quite a few lurkers. So I can't say for sure if all of them came, or only some with a combination of new names, or what. I do know that there are quite a few from AK that I would *LIKE* to see join up and participate here that haven't. Hopefully they'll find this site and decide to join. I too enjoy mingling with quite a few of you.

Now as for AK, well, I can go on about that all day long. By now, most of you should be familiar with what went down. If not, I'll try and summarize it again soon (or else you can PM a few people who are intimately aware of the story). I too share your dim view of certain parties over there. But I can't honestly say that I lost respect for the ENTIRE SITE. That's not at all true. They are, by any measure, very big and filled with a lot of useful information. Most of their members (at least the ones I've interacted with) are really cool.

There are four people there specifically I have grievances with. And I'll say who they are and why because 1) it's protected by Free Speech and 2) Tapeheads is my site that I own outright and I'll say whatever the damn well I want.

1. "Grumpy". He is either an owner or partner in the site. I have yet to determine who, exactly founded and owns that site. But that particular point doesn't matter. He is a very high ranking admin/mod there. He was the one I repeatedly sent e-mails to asking for both clarification of what happened to as well as an apology for "any ill will I may have caused and/or rules I *may or may not have* broke. I didn't ADMIT to anything. But I did offer to extend the olive leaf.

I must've sent at least three or four e-mails. I figured anything over that would begin to border on harassment. I thought if after that he doesn't respond, he's not going to. And sure enough, that SOB, smug behind the cover of Internet anonymity has yet to respond to a single e-mail. Not even a simple one paragraph "after reviewing your case....." courtesy reply. Nothing.


2. "Jcmjrt". He is the Turntables and Tape moderator. He's the one that actually issued the ban. I cc'd every e-mail to him that I sent to "Grumpy". Again, not a single one was returned. So he too can go f*** off.

3. "LBPete". I actually met this guy in person. Not long after I first joined AK, I got word that there was a "meet" taking place not far from me. So I decided to go. I hauled one of my X-2000R's to show off. I also paid the [voluntary] $5 entrance fee to cover the cost of renting the place. I brought a handful of tape items as giveaways-some really nice stuff too I might add. Probably almost $200 worth if sold on Ebay. Not some useless junk laying around like some other people brought.

At first, this guy seemed kind of nice. Kind of an older guy, I'd say mid to late 50's. Pretty thin. Full [but thinning] head of gray hair and short gray beard. But that impression was a false positive. When I first arrived and introduced myself to him, what were the first words out of his mouth? Did he say "welcome"..."nice to meet you"...."thank you for coming"?

F*** no. The first words out of THAT SOB's mouth were "so how about them door prizes you promised"?

How flipping gratuitous can you get? In hindsight, I SHOULD have just turned around and walked away right then and there. But I was "in the spirit". So I came and set my stuff off, met a few guys, looked at the gear, and so forth and stuck around for awhile. It actually wasn't a bad event at all.

A short time later, I approached mister "LBPete" and suggested that maybe he hold a few door prizes NOW, since people are going to be coming and going all day and why penalize them and stack the deck in favor of everyone who stays till the end of the day.

You know what that cocky ass said? "No. I don't think so. I think I'll stick to my original plans". He just had a real condescending attitude. Like "how dare you question the genius of my plan". Real arrogant disposition if you ask me. So in other words, he's a perfect fit for the site. As long as you parrot and go along with whatever he says and ask no questions, he's a nice guy. Total epitome of the blatant hypocrisy of the site: they preach 'good karma' seemingly every chance they get.

Well excuse me guys, but isn't 'Karma' just The Golden Rule under another name? You know....what comes around goes around....treat others the way you'd want to be treated....you know...that kind of stuff? Sounds to me like they can preach it. But fall just a tad bit short when it comes to actually PRACTICING it.

And last one, #4. is "Fisherdude". He is the Dollars And Sense moderator. Now let me qualify this. I did not ever actually have any sort of direct run-ins with him. We debated a few times, sometimes getting a little hot. But nothing that I would consider to be "bad". The thing is, I suspect him to be in cahoots with Jcmjrt. But it's only a hunch and I have nothing more to back it up with. It was in the Dollars/Sense forum that I made the post where I asked if a discount is valued more than the actual item? Of course all hell broke loose. It's the post I believe to have been the REAL reason I was kicked to the curb. And while "Fisher" may not have played a direct role in my banning, he may have been complcit just the same by defending the folks for whom yes, as a matter of fact, the discount IS more important. Which, from what I can tell, describes a LOT of people there. I read all of these stories about all of these alleged "scores". It is my opnion that the vast majority of these stories are just that. Stories. Either grossly exaggerated or outright fabrications. Think of the proverbial 'fish catch' story wherein that "monster that got away" gets longer and longer every time it's told.

Now let me just qualify one other thing in their defense. Yes, I was once suspended. I can't remember if it was three days or for five. But that's not important. What matters was that I, in fact HAD broken their "rules": I was, quite openly, selling those Reel Cleer reel-to-reel cassette tapes. It was totally transparent and I made no attempt to hide it. After a couple of days, someone noticed, and I was handed the suspension. I then did what I had failed to do before: Read the 'terms and conditions'.

They busted me dead to rights. I had no case, no argument, and no defense. I sat and waited out my 'sentence'. Then I came back and never brought it up again. This, despite the fact that I was basically GIVING the tapes away for a dollar apiece plus freight. I wasn't actually MAKING ANYTHING dollarwise on them. I was simply moving them at my cost as a favor to some of the folks there who had missed out on the same bonanza on EBay. So no harm, no foul, right? But they didn't see it that way. So...whatever. Their loss I guess. I guess they would've preferred those very same bargain hunters pay full pop ($10-$20 apiece) for those tapes. I've heard the mantra "rules are rules". But c'mon. Cut me a little slack here. Like I said. I wasn't profiting the least bit. Sure, speeding *IS* illegal. But what police officer with any type of heart would ticket you if your wife was in the car in labor?

Then, when I posted the "how to do a splice" topic (at the request of several AK'ers no less) and, about a week later, decided to sell some of the splicing blocks on Ebay, they interpreted that as a veiled shill to try and sell. I suppose, if one was grasping for straws and had an axe to grind,*MIGHT* be able to construct that argument in such a way as to be believable. BUt I never hinted at it nor posted a link to the auction. So you tell me. Where is the 'steer'?

But you see, it was the concurrent "discount" discussion that really had their feathers ruffled. They no doubt took an offensive view at what I thought was a factual discussion that was unravelling some of the 'core values held by a cult' unmasking a lot of hypocrisy and foolishness. And I "slipped up" by posting the Ebay auction that gave them the only reason they needed to pull the plug.

So there you have it.

And seriously. What's with the Second Grade classroom "rules" they have about how "you must never question the actions of the moderators"?

Are they f***ing kidding or what? They might be a good site in many ways. But they sure as shit aren't walking on water in front of a bunch of 8 year olds. But that's the way they seem to treat some people.

If only someone....ANYONE from there would, at the very least, acknowledge one of my e-mails and admit the truth about WHY I was REALLY banned, and perhaps, also admit that some of what I'm saying does have some truth to it, I'll stop with the cyberbeating once and for all.

But they know just as well as I do that their titanic egos simply won't allow them to concede any of those points. So yes. It will remain open season for AK potshots basically indefinitely.

Why not?

[Fast Forward]

I believe Kamkari was the founder of AK but got turned it over and bowed out last year,,As far as advertising and selling of product, there,s a member who advertises his business in his avatar,I don,t really care but lets be fair I,ll make one last comment, they flamed and banned a 16 year old kid for what maybe just stupid posting as far as I,m concerned but I,ve seen hundreds of stupid posts a lot by the same guy,some i find amusing and reply some I just ignore,,,seems to me after looking at pics of AK fest the site could use an injection of young blood most of the members don,t remember what it was like to be 16 and maybe a geek ,I don,t live or die by my stereo system it,s there for me to enjoy and the knowledge of stereo gear should be shared not flaunted,,enough said :)

[Jay Pemberton]

Wow. I'm not on AK all that much, but that bit about their moderators putting themselves above question, hence above accountability to anyone and everyone who are members there, is just wrong. Whew....I must have been lucky there so far.

Glad to be here though!

[braxus]

Yah I got a warning once or twice at AK. Told Matt about it too. But Im really taken aback they haven't banned me yet for advertising Matt's site so much on AK, even if they did delete that one post on the site blatently advertising it in the header. Its like in most of my posts lately. I guess they don't have a good enough reason to do so yet. The only other forum I really like on AK is the McIntosh forum. I've also been on the speakers one and the vintage amps one. But at least here I know Matt will hear me out. There they will cut you off without discussion.

[Des-Lab]

Wow. I'm not on AK all that much, but that bit about their moderators putting themselves above question, hence above accountability to anyone and everyone who are members there, is just wrong. Whew....I must have been lucky there so far.

Glad to be here though!

And you just touched on the point that I was getting at, but had esacped me at the time I was writing the above: Zero tolerance rules. Basically when you adopt that position, you are, in essence, removing the ability (or necessity) to actually THINK when you do that. Is it any wonder such policies almost always end up creating more problems than they solve? And that most people with any sort of brain and common sense sees that policy for the counterproductive, knee-jerk reaction that it is?

The folks at AK should have been THRILLED that I was "selling" those tapes for a dollar apiece. Where else you going to find that? If you didn't stock up on them when they were being sold for that price, you're going to pay upwards of $5, $10, or more apiece for them now. So you tell me where the logic to the suspension was. Coming from a site that worships "scores", "markdowns", and "discounts". That's a perfect example of a situation that highlights the absurdity of "zero tolerance" rules. Which are really, as you said, zero THOUGHT.

But anyway. Welcome to TapeHeads.

[Des-Lab]

Yah I got a warning once or twice at AK. Told Matt about it too. But Im really taken aback they haven't banned me yet for advertising Matt's site so much on AK, even if they did delete that one post on the site blatently advertising it in the header. Its like in most of my posts lately. I guess they don't have a good enough reason to do so yet. The only other forum I really like on AK is the McIntosh forum. I've also been on the speakers one and the vintage amps one. But at least here I know Matt will hear me out. There they will cut you off without discussion.


Yeah. Aren't they just a great bunch over there with their open mindedness? I'm going to harp and harp and harp on them over the hypocrisy of their "karma" (or rather, the lack of it) for as long as it takes. Until someone finally comes clean about the fact they are talking out of both sides of their ass, I'm going to keep going and keep going. I'll probably be doing it forever. Because I'm sure that their hubris prevents them from acknowleding some "tape geek". But not to worry. Most of them seem to be guys that are pretty old. I'll outlive most of them anyway.

And as I told Brax and others. Say whatever the hell you want about them here. You think that *I* don't already know how they are?

I told you. I'd lay money on it that as soon as they got wind of this site, at least ONE of them is in here as a mole. Just to keep watching. They won't say it. And "he" won't say it here. His/their membership will be extremely passive and their participation will be limited to the "hello" and "me too" variety if they say anything at all. But their attitude is unquestionably a manifestation of insecurity and/or paranoia and I guar-an-flipp-ing tee you they have a "plant" in here.

So be that as it may. Let "Grumpy" or "LBPete" or whoever from there sign up HERE as "Klondike_555", or "Real_Fanatic", or whatever the hell pet name pseudonym they want. I don't really care. In fact, I'll welcome them. Because I'll welcome just about anyone here. And they'll be tickled pink because of all the attention I'm giving them. It's a win-win for everyone.

So like I said. What are they going to do? Ban you THERE for something you said HERE?

I really doubt it. I'm not saying they won't (because they would know that doing so would just validate everything I've been saying), but I just can't imagine anyone being THAT idiotic. But I have been fooled before.

So Brax. You should be OK. Just don't do anything "stupid" like I did and question one of their CORE values. But after me asking if they value a discount more than the actual item, that would be a REALLY tough act to follow.

[Jay Pemberton]

If you're just letting the tapes go for what you had in them, only trying to recover postage and hassling atop that, you'd think they'd appreciate that as 'spreading the karma'! Heh....

I guess it's a good thing I didn't mention, much less advertise, anything to do with services in upgrading certain tape machines and mixers and whatnot.

Thanks for the welcome too!

[Fast Forward]

I use a Different Avatar here than AK because I know how they are,I don,t want to get drawn into situation that would cause me to tell some Administrator to go F--- himself and get banned,I still find Ak is a good source of Knowledge for turntables and wish we could lure Howard to join his knowledge of turntables and cartridges is outstanding