HiWire

It looks like Engadget has the scoop (Head-Fi hype aside) on these cans: http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/11/v-moda-m-100-audiophile-headphones-hands-on-interview-val-kolton/ I wonder how they'll compare to my brother's new Beyerdynamic DT 1350's.

There's a sale on Pinnacle S-FIT MON 450 bookshelf speakers at Dell.ca today: http://accessories.d...s1&sku=A4335773 At $150, they are $200 off list price. They are passive, so you'll need amplification and speaker cables. I can't find any published reviews of these specific speakers, but the Dell reviews are positive.

Thanks – I'll give it a try as soon as I get longer cables. Also, Looser101 and I discovered that the power amps pick up a hum from the AC jack due to the unshielded 47 Labs wire. The hum seems to disappear when the preamp is turned on, though. We'll experiment in the future with a longer run of 47 Labs cable (routing it away from the other components and power cables) and also with properly shielded interconnects. I'm going to get some wood blocks to get those power amps off the carpet, as well. They never seemed to get warm with the loads we were running through them. We listened to a variety of music: Alison Krauss & Union Station: Live Massive Attack: Mezzanine Alice in Chains: Dirt Jane Monheit: Taking a Chance on Love Dire Straits: Brothers in Arms Santana: Abraxas Roxy Music: Avalon Eagles: Hotel California Rebecca Pidgeon: The Raven Imelda May: Love Tattoo Chromeo: Fancy Footwork The New York Voices: Sing Sing Sing

Looser101 came over today to help me set up my speaker system. It's a random bunch of silver boxes strung together by copper wire and hooked up to budget speakers (translation: Arcam CD36 -> Arcam C31 -> Arcam P1 x 2 -> Acoustic Energy Aegis Two; interconnects: 47 Labs Stratos, speaker cable: Kimber Cable 4TC, power conditioning: PS Audio Duet): It sounds really good. Also, it turns out I'm going to need some longer cables. And a nice rack.

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/oppo-announces-two-new-blu-ray-player-models/ (The Absolute Sound — they'll probably ask you to register on their new site)

Now I want a DSHA-1... at least to review. I'd also like to compare it to the Apex Hi-Fi Arête.

Still, I hope it sounds better than the 95, too. Not that I have anything against the 95's sound quality.

Thunderbolt?

I hope they're keeping HDCD playback.

I ended up getting 47 Labs Stratos wire and Eichmann Copper Bullet Plugs for single-ended interconnects. For speaker wire, I got short lengths of Kimber Kable 4TC.

I miss the Eggos (Sony MDR-D777SL Altus HD).

Reviews have to come from a reputable source to be taken seriously. The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy: http://www.nytimes.c...l?smid=pl-share

Thanks, acid. I'll probably start with the cassette adapter – it seems to be the simplest and cheapest option, at $14.99.

I've never had a good feeling about the radio transmitter method. My dad got one and it was a pain in the ass. It feels pretty ridiculous to be looking for cassette head cleaner in the 21 century.

Thanks, guys. I'll check out Crutchfield. So far, it looks like a showdown between Alpine and Kenwood receivers. In the meantime, I've got a Sony cassette adapter in my Amazon shopping cart.

My "new" old car has a cassette player/AM/FM radio and I have no cassette recorder. Does anybody have recommendations for in-car CD players? A multi-CD unit is probably unnecessary for my needs, and the same with video. I don't think I'll need a new amplifier or speakers, but I'm also completely new to car audio in an audiophile sense. I've always stuck with the stock car setup to save money for my home listening. Should I just get a cassette adapter to connect my iPod shuffle/PCDP instead?

Thanks, Todd – I really missed this place!

Yup

I confused the + and - loudspeaker wires with the interconnect count. This is what happens when I Head-Case while I'm supposed to be working.

Hang on, though. I have two Arcam FMJ P1 monobloc amps running one channel each. Don't they only need one balanced interconnect cable from preamp to monobloc one and another from preamp to monobloc two? That's what the picture and the manual seems to indicate.

So... is 4TC half as hard to terminate? [drum roll] Thanks, I'll be here all week. Try the fish...

I'll look into room treatments. What are your opinions on Kimber Kable's 4TC speaker wire? It's been suggested along with 47 Labs for interconnect wire. Also, the monoblocs might be closer to the speakers than I imagined, so the speaker cables' length could be less than 6 feet. I am thinking of terminating the single-ended interconnect with Eichmann Copper Bullet Plugs and the balanced interconnect with Neutrik NC3MXX-HE cable connectors. The speaker wire will go directly into the binding posts. Also, the cable count is changing again because it was pointed out to me that balanced cables don't need to come in pairs. So that would be 1 pair of single-ended interconnects, 2 balanced interconnects, and 2 speaker cables.

Balanced it is, then. Yes, 10 x 10 is a challenge... I may have too much system for the room.

Sorry, I mistyped that and edited it in between when you read it and now. By my count: 1 pair - CD Player -> Preamp 2 pair - Preamp -> Power Amp 3 pairs = 6 interconnects. Also, I'm thinking about hooking up a PS3 and/or an Oppo BDP-95 for Video/SACD/HDCD, along with a possible upgrade between my headphone amp and the source which would mean even more cables (4 to 6 pairs in total). I hope it doesn't become a crazy, tangled rat's nest that actually needs the shielding cable vendors tout. My initial plan was to have a simple, clean system with minimal equipment. Adding all these extra boxes will also mean another PS Audio Duet for power filtering...

A slightly technical question: should I use balanced cables going from the preamp to the monoblocs? The CD player only has single-ended outputs, but the Oppo BDP-95 I am planning on getting has balanced outputs. None of the cable runs are going to be particularly long... I envision the separates stack as one rack eventually, so the interconnects should be 3 feet long or shorter. I've never really understood the benefits of balanced cable runs at the "budget" audiophile scale, but maybe this is one more jump I'm going to make while building this system. Also, my listening room is very small, at 10' x 10', so the speaker cables won't need to be too long, either.