There's an Audiophiliac/Steve Guttenberg imposter scamming my viewers, DON'T respond! I don't do giveaways or ask for money (except for my Patreon).

Hey Everyone, Thanks so much for the supportive comments. Since a few people have asked for details about the system(s) I have, I thought I’d write a bit (perhaps way too much) about that. As you heard my whole thing is that it’s about the music more than the equipment, so I played a bunch of good but bad sounding music for Steve while he was here. That didn’t really work out though because Steve’s musical taste and mine differ, so I think he probably threw up his hands thinking well, not only do I not like this music, I don’t like the sound Yale likes so let’s not even get into that :) I have two main systems in my house. My main system is one that I am very happy with, and hence never listen to. Then I have another system that I experiment with and change stuff out of and use to mix records together, which is something I sometimes do for fun. This is the one I listen to mostly at this point. A couple more pre-ambles: the gear was something I never wanted too many people to know about because it wasn’t in demand and I liked it that way. I pretty much got all my stereo-interested, but novice, friends to buy similar (if not the same) stuff after hearing my system as it was findable and not expensive. That's less true today. And since I never listen to the main system anymore (I know this makes no sense), it isn’t sounding as good as it used to as things slide around. I listen to music (almost all LPs) at work all day and my wife does not enjoy the music played at the same volume as I do. So, if I am not going into work, or if my wife is away, or I have friends over, then I’ll listen at home also. I had tube gear before I went on this particular stereo odyssey. I had a Leban integrated amp and BMW 802F’s. (I had Dynaco tube stuff and a Cary tube preamp that expired.) I read an interview with another small label owner and he had a Thorens 124 turntable which got me interested in those, (I talked about that first encounter with idler wheel turntables in Steve’s piece). Then I met Jonathan Weiss from Oswalds Mill Audio. He makes million dollar stereos, the idea for which came from working in movie theaters as a kid and listening to music on those vintage tube/horn theater systems. (I am not going to buy or even in the position to buy one of his systems though he now makes some much less expensive gear). In his kitchen he had a Voice of Music amp. It was the only piece of equipment in his house that he hadn’t made himself. (After reading this he will probably throw it out :) ) Voice of Music was the world's largest maker of record changers. Mostly made to be put in consoles and sold in department stores. They made some stand alone tube era stereo equipment as well, so the stores could sell stereos to those few customers that didn’t want a console. I bought one of these integrated tube amps, they were around $300 to $400. Around this time the whole Japanese Jazz Kissa movement really started getting traction outside of Japan. These are the Japanese bars where you go to listen to the owner's collection of jazz records, often on vintage American or English stereo gear. I had a friend who owned a dance club in Brooklyn (Nowadays) and he had just missed out on a pair of Altec Model 19’s on eBay that he wanted to use in a listening room he was thinking about. I found him another pair in Scranton, Pa., and we drove out to see these. I realized my architect wife would never go in for speakers this size in our house. But seeing the model 19’s got me interested in owning horn speakers and after some research I discovered that Altec had made a more home sized speaker called the Model 14. People seem to love these and I bought a pair. The speakers, along with the Voice of Music amp, was revelatory. I like vintage sports cars, they are not as good as modern cars (they're not even that fast, any of today's family vans are as fast as a sports car from the 1960’s), but the vintage car creates a connection between you and the drive you are on that is almost never replicated in a modern car. No air conditioning, suspension that needs more careful driving inputs, etc etc etc. All the drawbacks to the vintage car are actually what I like. And the same is true of vintage stereo equipment for me. Tube gear that sounds ’tubey’ is a perfect compliment to horn speakers that are a bit bright. Slow sound, like slow food is how I think of it. Not detailed, but instead emotional, not clean or distortion free, in fact the opposite, but a very large, involving, soundstage. DJ System Two Idler Wheel Turntables EMT 930 - a Japanese Magazine wrote that this is the best turntable ever. I’m sure that’s not true, but it is a thing of beauty. Gates B77 - an American broadcast turntable with a stick shift. What’s not to like. Cartridge Denon 103 - (NOT 103R which I don't like). Amp Line Magnetics LM 217 IA - getting into tubes is such a great journey. As I said, I like tubey sounding amps, so I started with EL 34 tube amps, they do everything well and a have enough power. Then I heard so much about and got into 300B amps which have a beautiful midrange bloom to me. It’s all an exploration, so I bought a 45 tube amp which has never sounded good with the speakers I have (but I hold out hope it will with something). And now for this system I have this Line Magnetics 2A3 amp. It took a while breaking in before the Tannoy speakers I have in this system sounded good with it. By the way, the Fisher 300B you see in Steve’s pics, (not a 300B tube by the way) is an amp I bought that I really like, that is a ‘spare.' Speakers Tannoy Cheviot - These are not horn speakers but they are vintage and they are single driver. Very big sound, they don't sound good with every amp, but when you get the equation right… JBL 4312 - i used these when the Tannoy were sounding "enh" before the amp broke in. I like something about these but not enough something to use them much. Mixer Condessa Lucia - This is about the most expensive piece of equipment I own. My family bought it for me. Before this I had average sounding DJ mixers and hence did not use the dj system to just listen to records. Now I do. This is one of those pieces of equipment that you have to order and it takes four or five months for the guy who makes them in Austrailia to make you one. It is not tube but it has many of those qualities. In other words it has a sonic character. Tube Phono Preamp Sun Valley EQ1616D - This is one of those pieces of equipment that you read a Herb Reichert review of and you think, oh man I have to have that. I thought it sounded a lot better then the Auditorium 23 preamp I had that was specially made for the Denon 103, until I realized I had hooked up the Auditorium 23 wrong! “Home” system Thorens 124 Voice of Music 1428 😂 Altec Model 14 Heeb phone preamp. A couple of listening notes, since I am not an audiophile 😂, I don’t just sit and listen to records. I don't believe in or have a sweet spot to sit, in fact just the opposite. And as you can see from the pictures of my house, the Tannoys are even behind our dinning table, not optimal. Music is part of my life as are the stereo systems. But we live in one (admittedly large) room, and my wife is very design conscious so everything is a balance between what i can get away with. Thanks for listening.

Yale was a pleasure to listen to, a breath of fresh air this community needs. Thank You Sir

Wow!!! Yale really nailed two things 1) It's really about the music and not the equipment. 2) Comparing equipment is foolish. Everything is different, not better. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU YALE for being so refreshing!!! Most guys I know are equipment geeks, spend a fortune chasing the holy grail (which does not exist) and are pretty shallow when it comes to music knowledge. They clearly listen to their systems and not the music but good luck having it admit it. Just follow the money is all you need to know.

Hey Steve, I'm thrilled you chose to speak with Yale. I knew him when I worked at NMDS in the eighties and had the privilege at that time of assisting him in the studio with two of his Icon realeases: John Zorn's The Big Gundown and Scott Johnson's John Somebody which were both Incedibly innovative and goundbreaking records. I fully share his unpretentious viewpoint concerning audio equipment and his frustration with older listeners who reject out of hand anything produced with modern technology like auto tune. After 35 years we're both in the same place-he as a curator of and myself engineering and mixing contemporary music recordings. Although we don't predict the future, we know what we like to do and we stick to it.

I think the distinction Yale was trying to make regarding audiophiles vs. music lovers is that audiophiles let the quality of the production/recording steer what they listen to, whereas a music lover finds a way to ignore all that and judge it for the music... I have since acknowledged myself as an audiophile since I fit into the first camp.

Yale was a hard guy to interview at the start, he gave short answers and let the flow of the conversation drop too many times, but as time when on he got better and opened up more. Kudo's to Steve for steering the conversation.

Super interesting person. Thank you for finding him and interviewing him.

Another terrific interview, Steve! Thank you! ...and thanks to you, Yale for allowing us into your home and sharing your thoughts and feelings about music.

When you interview someone who gives one word answers, listen intently to where they perk up a bit - they will in essence TELL you what they want to talk about! Follow that lead for a more interesting interview. You did get to that place eventually and he warmed up to the discussion at that point. Good job, Steve!

Great interview Steve. I love this line... "New equipment is good for you because you get to hear all your records in a new way". 👍

I've been fascinated with Yale ever since I read about him in the Dusty Grooves coffee table book. Had no clue on top of Luaka Bop, he was somehow also involved with the New Music Distribution Service too. Wow, what a life to live. He helped release some of the greatest records ever made.

Great interview. Thanks, Steve and Yale! 👍🎶😊

That was a super fun and interesting interview. Thanks Steve

He is such a great person to listen to. I felt inspired when he said that he does not compare equipments anymore. Very refreshing.

Love it. Best interview yet and I agree VERY strongly with a lot of what he said. Thanks, Steve.

There certainly is a lot of discussion here on the comments on being or not being an audiophile. I guess the title of Steve’s show would let me know people would be invested in this term. I wasn’t trying to be negative about audiophiles or those who consider themselves that. But like many words, their exact use and meaning is nuanced. For me an audiophile wants you to check out their equipment and sometimes uses records/music they feel sound good on that equipment to demonstrate it. Some of you might feel the need to call me an audiophile and that is totally fine. As I said, it’s not what I call myself because I don't own any….wait for it….. Diane Krall LPs. :) As for the monosyllabic answers in the beginning of the interview, I wasn’t mentally prepared for Steve to ask me about the beginnings of Luaka Bop. In a funny way, (not that I get interviewed a lot), I have told that story a lot: about how Luaka Bop was an outgrowth of David Byrne getting a solo record deal and his making mix tapes for friends of music he was interested in and had discovered for himself. I feel we’ve stayed true to that mix tape origin, as a label whose releases are really mix tapes for friends.

Always great to listen to and learn from Yale ! Great feature.

A real breath of fresh air. We - that is I - really needed that. Thanks Steve. Greetings to you and yours.

Horns baby! Thx for another Steve!

Another great interview, another that gets, or I get, that it is the music! Not what or how we listen. I am glad for others that are happy with their systems. I am happy with mine and enjoy on older and newer. Keep them coming. Thanks again Steve!

This interview brought back memories of the "new sounds" I used to listen to years ago . all the labels and musicians that I have almost forgotten now. Thanks for taking me back.

Wow! What an interesting fellow! I would have loved to have lived 1/2 of the adventures he's had! Fascinating. He has worked with some icons and man, he has a lot of beautiful and interesting gear. I love what he said about streaming. I agree that vinyl is the way to go, but streaming is so versatile and a great option for many folks to listen to any and all music in world. Really learned a lot.

This was great Steve….it got me thinking about "the overview"…."the bigger picture"…it gives perspective and makes me LOVE the gear that I have, the music that I love to listen to and also…AND finding MORE great music! It’s a great time to be a music enthusiast!!! 👍🏼

Totally awesome interview, Steve. This one should be in the Steve Guttenberg Greatest Hits!

There's so much substance and history here. Amazing!

He's an audiophile, more than many people. Nothing wrong with it.

Ha! Didn't expect this dude to drop "Geggy Tah" in this interview! I saw Geggy Tah in concert, opened up fro Rusted Root at U Albany

Steve made a good point in saying that people are skewed one way or the other - music lovers who focus more on the gear vs those who's focus is more on the music. I'm not sure there is a perfect balance. Steve once admitted that he sometimes listens to a piece of music more for the way it sounds on his system. I've done the same thing, and it's something that some audiophiles are shy to admit.

Terrific conversation. Fun time.

Cool guy and he had a lot of interesting thoughts about the industry, streaming, gear, etc. Really enjoyed this!

I woke up on a day off and just randomly rolled through your videos looking for more great records…ended up on David Berns friend! DUDE! 🎉

So he is a music guy first, I like that. I worked with the Talking Heads after they first appeared at CBGB's as a trio, Just David on acoustic 12 string with Tina and Chris before they were signed. Before the second set I want out to smoke a jay and Bianca, Bowie and Eno had taken my table (yes CBGB's once had tables in 1976) so I sat down with them. They were cool about it. It was a rainy night, the place had a few dozen people up front and the bar was empty.

He lost me at “ I love auto tune”.

Really appreciate Yale’s perspective. Great interview, Steve.

Great point about new perspectives with new equipment.

Nice video! I've been a fan of Luaka Bop for awhile so it's nice to see good people behind it. I find my thoughts on gear in a very similar way. I love nice gear, but it's truly about the music for me.

Great interview with Yale, whom is very interesting and made some good points. 1. It’s all about the music. 2. Gear is different. 3. Like me prefers the sound of vintage idler turntables. That was very interesting and entertaining, thanks Steve.

Another nice one, am a fan of that label. Just listen to Susana Baca. Saw her at SOB in NY once, then again at Lincoln Center Outdoors. Wow.

great interview. of course I was all over the NMDS period. I really respect and agree with his angle and comments about production and post-production! and what a body of work!

Great interview! More please.

Great guy, great interview!

Another seriously thought-provoking interview with yet another very interesting person. So much in play here. :)

Wonderful stuff. Thank you Steve!

People that say they don't consider themselves an audiophile because they're all about the music rather than the sound, so why don't they just have a $5 clock radio to listen to their music through? They always seem to have a lot of gear or at least fairly decent gear, yet always say it's not about the gear. Well give the gear away then if it's just about the music, I've never understood this hesitancy to call yourself an audiophile. To me an audiophile is someone who simply would prefer their music to sound good rather than crap and actively strives to make that happen, you don't have to constantly be striving for the best or "perfect" sound to be an audiophile. This guy says he's on a search for an emotional attachment to the music, that my friend puts you firmly in the audiophile basket. That's why audiophiles buy the gear they buy.

Damn that was such an interesting interview...and Luaka Bop here I come.

Yale may prefer the sound of turntables with an idler wheel, but I still have nightmares, as a manner of speaking, of the idler wheel of my Philips gramophone in 1971. It slipped, it rumbled, it rattled or failed completely. I really prefer the direct drive of my Technics SL 1500C. It operates flawlessly in complete silence.

Steve, so excited for your forthcoming auto-tune album

I like this guy. I’m not a fan of the word audiophile. I don’t call myself an audio file, even though technically I probably am. I just always thought of music is part of living, like eating sleeping and breathing. And I like it to sound good. So now in my “maturity” when I can afford stuff that sounds pretty freaking good, I can listen and compare the sound in all our rooms and spaces that have audio stuff I’ve acquired over the decades. And all that gear sounds pretty freaking good too! And I have and have grown to love that Floating Points/Pharoah Sanders LP. Took a while, but very tasty!

What a cool dude..great interview!

A really good conversation. It is all about music.

Idle old school turntable = higher rumble. It’s like loudness control. Very easy to tell when you have subwoofer and calibrated room, easy to notice how it goes wild. Shut sub off and the speakers feel beefier and like you don’t need subs. Good tweak.

Wow Carla Bley Life goes on. So much sweet sweet texture.

Nice to hear Yale’s perspective of music streaming from a working music producer. Too many people believe buying individual albums is what makes a musician money. But having people from all over the world stream your music is a better way to get paid, in addition to performing live concerts.

Very interesting interview with Yale, very sympathisch person. Thanks

Great interview.

I appreciate Yale's position that his interest is primarily the music and equipment is a tool to enjoy recorded music. A valid perspective shared by the majority. I am an audiophile. For me it is the equipment, and the music is a tool to enjoy the equipment. Not to say I do not love music and have specific preferences. But I'll listen to really well recorded music before over a track from an artist I really like but recorded poorly. I enjoy the audio illusion best when playing great music that is really well recorded.

Wow !! that was very entertaining. Interesting to hear his take on auto tune and streaming revenue. Thanks Steve for another great interview.

Steve with your interviews I learn more and more each time. Incredibly interesting. Keeps for myself engaged. Thanks.

First of all: love your channel! My point is, that we all dont know how the music sounded during the recording; so we all dont know if the speakers play it in the right way. (excuse my lousy english). I have a Rotel amp and cheap Audio Physic speakers and they sound fine to me. I like to spend my money in new records not in new gear. I`m in the team Yale. Greetings from Germany

Excellent, Steve! One of your most engaging shows!

"Are you now, or have you ever been, an audiophile?" 😀

Let's get the rest of the Jim White albums out on vinyl!! #lukabop

BMW 2002 Turbo model in the background! :^)

What a great interview. When a Hi-Fi reviewer interviews an underground label that is unknown to many people and has put out so much good music (more interesting than most main stream productions) it demonstrates class. But I feel that this has to be part one of a two-episode interview as we didn't get to dive into all the beautiful gear that Yale has on his shelves or hear about his favourite records. Please come back to this Steve 😀

I completely agree with Yale - the music comes first.

my fave answer to date to the question, "are you an audiophile?"

Great interview Steve. Listening to Yale was quite refreshing, especially his experiences with streaming, as the usual narrative is that streaming is awful for artists & labels.

"the equipment excites me" "but its all about the music" Ah.... The audiophile in denial. A classic. Always makes me laugh. Its fine to love both. Get over it. No one cares.

I completely agree. It's all about the music. Music 2stt, the gear comes 2nd. Most of us cannot afford the high end gear anyways.

Some equipment is better than other equipment to my ears. Yes, pieces of equipment sound different from one another, but that observation is a different issue.

In my opinion that is the best answer that anyone can give with regard to the definition of an audiophile.

Yale is very nice looking.

This guy was awesome!!!

This vid seemed like a Seinfeld episode that never aired.

Yale’s definition of audiophile was spot on.

Great interview. A mensch.

He’s an audiophile:)

Nice conversation Very Interesting perspective,but I think he is in the majority of Music Lovers

I'm an audiophile and unapologetic about it. I'd grant him his exemption for the term audiophile. He's pretty close, but if his interest in gear is merely a means to an end and not really ever the primary focus, then I'd accept his definition of himself. I would have labeled him an audiophile, but an atypical one. But if he doesn't think of himself that way, then so be it.

WOW... this guy speaks to my Heart! - He's the 3rd Group who CELEBRATES the music. .... He loves Equipment, and He loves well-made Media, but they are NOT THE STAR (this vinyl or $12,000 Grado) - It's the MUSIC 1st and foremost above transport or chip in a box that should be the hunt we chase and hope to catch. I like this guy & I need to find his CDs in the future. - m.

Also Steve if we can’t hear the words or whatever…basically we are all searching for reproducing WHAT THE ARTIST INTENDED , Brilliant editing by the way.

Finaly a man who got it right.......................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This guy is funny. It’s only about the music, not the gear. Buuut I experiment with all this gear in pursuit of a certain sound. 😂

Yale puts it exactly as it is: it is all about the emotional experience...not about the technical or commercial..

VEry interesting interview. I love his take on gear (vintage for digital) and his perspective on the record industry in the streaming era.

Good, but would be so much better to include video of his system and room.

This was so good!

Listening to hifi without being an audiophile, This man just enjoying life without any bullshit or controversy and toxicity of the community.

One of the interviews I’ve enjoyed the most in this channel. It’s all about musicality. And Yale is so relaxed about it! It’s about enjoying the things we like. For someone in her/his 60s it may be a system that brings back memories of how we listened to music in the 70s and 80s. Of course we want quality but we shouldn’t lose track of the most important aim: musicality.

There’s just something about vintage gear that makes me happy. It’s like a warm hug from an old friend.

There are two ways to look at auto-tune. It can be another instrument that adds something to the performance the mix or it can be an artifice used to cover imperfections in a performance or most destructively to the art to enable untalented performers for commercial purposes which would be why anyone, who’s main interest in music is financial, would promote it.

Vintage sports cars and hi-fi..... perfection.

Great perspective

I originally had a Dr. Feickert turntable. Got tired of constantly having to adjust it, so traded it in for a Rega P10. Sounds as good or better to me, is as Plug and Play as possible and lets me just enjoy the music.

Oh he nearly lost me at Auto Tune. It’s like comparing fine art to painting by numbers, I almost left the building.

If you use your system for films rather than just music, the audiophile label makes sense.

The comment about autotune merely cements the fact that Yale is first and foremost a producer.

What a wonderful interview. I really like this guy! I kinda agree with him on a lot of what he says. As cool as all of the tech is on its own merits, the goal of the equipment is a means to an end, i.e. enjoying the music. Great one Steve!

Personally I like David Chesky's answer to are you an audiophile? I will steal that and use it for myself from now on. Yes I'm an audiophile and if I could afford it I would have houses all over the world and have different hifi systems in all of them. I think Darko has a good way of putting it as a music first audiophile (that really is what Yale is) Music loving audiophiles don't want to be lumped in with guys who only play music for the sound.