HiWire

A pleasant surprise for a Monday evening:

Asia – XXX

Miles Davis – Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (soundtrack from Frantic / Lift to the Scaffold, a film by Louis Malle)

Röyksopp – Melody A.M.

Julia Fischer – Russian Violin Concertos Outstanding

Shpongle – Tales of the Inexpressible (Nothing Lasts is my favorite Shpongle album, but I forgot how good this one is)

Most likely because there's nothing much to say. It will sound great to most people but they don't want to cannibalize their UDP-205 audiophile sales. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more reviews of the UDP-203 and 205 after the New Year.

The UPD-203 is out now – they've released the stats, etc. on the product page. The transport, DACs, user interface, etc. are all updated. First review (not much about audio quality): http://www.techhive.com/article/3151112/home-bluray/oppo-udp-203-4k-uhd-blu-ray-player-review-a-class-act-with-awesome-audio-capabilities.html The UDP-205 is coming out in early 2017.

Pixies – Trompe le Monde

There might be something wrong with the site's certificate. I didn't get a warning, but it was slow to load.

Yes, those Naim guys are so culty. My Google search immediately found a thread where the moderators silenced discussion of his stuff.

I was skimming some hi-fi magazine this weekend and I noticed the announcement of this product. Teddy Pardo is mostly known for his aftermarket power supplies for Naim products. Does anybody have experience with this amp or his other boxes? There's very little useful info on the product page (e.g., gain or power), and no reviews yet.

Tei Shi – Bassically

The Airtight Garage by Moebius (Jean Giraud)

Lost in the '80s... Fleetwood Mac – Tango in the Night Prince – Dirty Mind

Looks like the BDP-105D is discontinued. I've given up on HDCD, so I'll look forward to reading reviews of the upcoming UDP-203 and 205. There's very little information about their audio sections, but I'm hoping they've been improved (not that there's anything wrong with the 105's output).

Kate Bush – Hounds of Love

Yup... ordered a set of replacement pads directly from Koss and it was 5 bucks... free ground shipping, too.

Grado flat pads aren't the only ones that crumble. I found a trail of telltale black bits coming from the Radio Shack foam pads on my old Koss Sportapros this morning. Time for a replacement.

Neko Case and Her Boyfriends – The Virginian

Shivaree – Who's Got Trouble?

Nightmares On Wax – Smokers Delight

So good/bad(?) I'll just leave this here...

It still comprises a huge amount of music buying, though. I can always get the mass-market cases from Staples, but I was wondering if people had alternative choices. Looks like there isn't much demand for high-quality jewel boxes any more. I was impressed by the scratch-proof coating on my Blu-ray discs so I started wondering if anyone was investing in improved CD quality... looks like the only market for that sort of thing is in Asia, specifically Japan.

Carl Cox – At the End of the Cliché