Too cold to listen to my vinyl :(

Some of you may not know this; my entire vinyl collection and turntable is setup on my enclosed back porch. It's air conditioned in the summer, but in the winter I either have to fire up my kerosene heater or plug in a small electric heater to keep warm. Right now, it's 9F(!) degrees outside and the porch temp is currently 41F degrees. Some heat from the house does warm the porch up, but not enough to beat back the cold since the porch is not as insulated as the house. The wrap-around windows on the porch also add to the cold getting in. When I do fire up the kerosene heater, it may take a few hours until the temperature settles to a comfortable 72F. I get about 10 hours of run time from a gallon of fuel, which isn't bad, but kerosene prices have been creeping up lately.

Plus, my Zyx cartridges absolutely HATE the cold. The cantilever suspension toughens up and the playback sounds thin and harsh until it fully warms up, which can take a while. All of this makes filming Youtube videos or recording/listening to my turntable a pain the the butt during the winter months. I would love to move the turntable inside but I don't have the room right now.

Later this week the temperature is supposed to warm up a bit so I should have a chance to get out there and finish filming a few videos I was working on. One of the videos is Boston's 'More Than a Feeling' from a Friday Music 180g reissue. Friday Music releases are generally decent (with the exception of Queensryche - Empire) and the Boston reissue surprised me.

Boston - More Than a Feeling (180g Friday Music reissue - Rega P25, Zyx R100H, ARC PH5)
http://www.vinylaudio.net/forum/music/Boston_Feeling.mp3
On my last trip to the record store, I picked up so much good stuff I can't wait to make some videos and post them on Youtube. It's been 6 months since I posted a new video on Youtube, so I'm long overdue. 

This year, with a new camera, new tripod and a bunch of new LP's, my goal is to upload at least one new video each month - hopefully more. 

Haha yeah I can see that. My music room is also exposed to low temperatures during winter, and here at the Alps foot, winters can be quite rigid. I didn't notice any change in the Denon 110 behaviour, but I have two cheap Persian style carpets on the floor that work as bass frequencies dampeners, and when it's cold, the fibers in the carpets shrink back, absorbing much more bass, and thus turning down the general listening volume. I have to turn up the volume knobs about 2 or 3 marks, compared to summer and hotter periods. And once a week I have to clean the carpets with a dust buster to open up the fibers.

I'm waiting for the Boston video I have a USA first pressing, very disappointing...the drums on More Than A Feeling are basically muted

Here's another track from the Friday Music reissue:

Boston - Hitchin a Ride
http://www.vinylaudio.net/forum/music/Boston_Ride.mp3
Today is supposed to warm up to the mid 40's, so the porch should be easy to get toasty warm by mid afternoon. 

I tried playing a record yesterday with the porch temperature around 63F and on certain mid to upper frequencies I heard some distortion. I tried the Ortofon Omega cartridge on my Technics SL-235 turntable and it sounded OK. Seems like some cartridges are more sensitive than others.

So far, we are having a mild winter with no snow. We did have a freak snow storm at the end of October that knocked out our power for 6 days, but nothing since then. It really sucked running the essentials in the house with a gas generator and relying on a kerosene heater to keep warm.

Speaking of Kerosene, I better head out and fill up the jug today! I used the last of it yesterday.