TheSloth

What about this one? http://cgi.ebay.com/Sola-Power-Line-Conditioning-with-Voltage-Regulation_W0QQitemZ7618155636QQcategoryZ11772QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I'm next in line if she says no...

Who is going to explain to me why silver cables have a habit of being 'bright'? Is that simply because the gauge is often too high to save money?

I miss my regretfully sold ESL988's...

Don't you mean stacked ESL57's, gran maestro? I've heard double stacked 57's, but I've never had the pleasure of 3. That must have been a killer setup, but a bitch to keep the stereo image properly focused.

That's true of most people when their ass/arse is on the line.

Quite right - and even with the war, it still didn't have to be that way.

Thanks! I've never really understood this whole DAC world with non-OS and passive I/V stages. I've read about the supposed advantages of such a system, but it is usually surrounded in audiophile buzzwords like 'musicality' 'weight' and suchlike, and little evidence as to why it should be better than a well implimented modern DAC design. Can anyone shed any light?

What do people think of this DAC? http://cgi.ebay.com/TDA1545-TDA1545A-Non-OS-TUBE-DAC-Paradisea_W0QQitemZ9726203340QQcategoryZ14978QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem. Seems like an upgraded Dialogue II.

I think we have similar opinions, however I personally can't really support Bush's actions. Not because I disagree with them - on the contrary, I have supported many of his ideas. However the implimentation has been so lacking in effectiveness and achieving what it actually set out to acheive (Iraq is a fine example, though there are many others) that the detractors are proven right, not by the original conception necessarily being wrong, but by the failure to impliment it successfully.

That's why Presidents get a maximum of 2 terms/8 years only... he'll be gone in 2 years, and it's unlikely that the damage will be irreperable. Though, the next president is going to have a horrible job of getting out of Iraq - I'm not sure there is a 'good' way of doing it, but it has to be done, and that responsibility will not fall to dubbya.

That is an interesting article. Though, I wasn't actually arguing for Bush's policy, but more on the principle involved. Geroge Bush has an amazing way of taking a concept/policy that could be justified from a particular, viable point of view and then implimenting it in such a way as to completely destroy any legitimacy that the original idea could possibly have had.

You might wish to note that, the brilliant man he was, he realised the need to put in the word 'essential' to make such a phrase relevant to a governed society. It is a word that can be interpreted in many ways, but it suffices to say that there is no such possibility (that any human has yet been able to realise...) as a society with absolute liberty. Where you draw the line at what elements of liberty are 'essential' or not is a matter of personal politics, but the word can't be overlooked. We voluntarily sacrifice all kinds of absolute liberties for personal security in any civilised society, and have been doing so under different guises for centuries.

Why, what do you have to hide? I know that it isn't a huge step from that kind of snooping to a big brother kind of world and the objections and concerns at such a move are understandable and completely obvious; OTOH, it is completely impossible IMO in the age of terrorism and war from within to maintain all of the kinds of civil liberties that we have enjoyed for many years now without also providing those liberties to those who might seek to destroy us. It is fundamentally impossible for any internal monitoring system to notice and skip over an ordinary citizen in the process of trying to protect people. It ends up spying on the wrong people as well as the right people, but how would you feel if it had no idea what anyone in the country was doing? Because that is the only way to make sure that your phone call is never, ever, ever sifted through by a government authority. If they don't have the right to snoop through your telephone calls, they don't have a right to snoop through the calls of Al Qaeda operaties in the US either. That presents an impossible, lose - lose situation for the average citizen, but usually one of those losses is less detremental to the quality of their lives than the other. Remember the days when we didn't need firewalls for our computers, and even Windows users didn't really need virus scanners, malware eliminators and even popup blockers? And look how much all of that 'security' gets in the way of the simple operation of those computers - the printer doesn't work because the firewall doesn't understand that it's not a virus, the computer gets so bogged down it barely functions anymore etc. No-one has yet found a middle ground, and I don't know if one is possible and if so how it would work, but turning it all off and hoping for the best certainly isn't the answer...

I did a while back of the Desktop with Max '05 Module/Max DAC/DPS/SA 'over there'. But I would prefer to answer any questions you may have at this point - I have a lot more experience with headphone amplifiers and headphones since I wrote that review. But feel free to search and check it out. I was amazed by it as a system that fitted all of my various needs in one small box.

I rather like the QUAD 909 power amp. Very gutsy, but with a smooth and liquid midrange. That's rather a lot more than $200, but still well under $1k used. That was in an all QUAD system though, powering the 988's. Not wildly good at selling themselves, QUAD - they introduced a whole new line of ESL's at the end of last year, and haven't even put up anything on their website nearly 6 months later...

It's also got that fancy black/gold circuit board with better solder and all that sort of junk. I also believe that it has a better/more stable ground plane and a few other small tweaky things like that (better components here and there).

Now now... though, even Tyll is calling me a 'fanboy' these days so I suppose there's no point pretending any more: HeadRoom Rules, as do Pretzels (oh, and bunnies (those are really spreading all over Head-Fi now, nice one Dusty!)) I have to remember to not use the battery pack while the DAC is powered up otherwise the DC/DC converter will melt, but other than that it should run smoothly.

Well, this is going to be the most modded HeadRoom amp ever, because they are going to shoehorn in a Max DAC for me. I think it's a worthwhile upgrade for $500, considering the other options in that price range.

Hmm. The Max Modules are very neutral now, but the others are slightly on the warm side. It looks like the $399 Home DAC is the best option (got the price wrong earlier), except that I'd still have 1 source, whereas with an external solution I'd have a choice.

Thanks for the clarification about the Ack DAC. I just heard back from Mike - the Max DAC won't fit into my convertible, but the Home DAC will ($349 upgrade). So it's now a choice between changing the DAC to a Home DAC (which is simply a change of the output stage from class A/B 134's to class A 627's (quite a big sonic difference though), or getting something external for not that much more. I think an Ack DAC 2.0 would be very interesting if I could find one closer to $500, but otherwise it's a bit too expensive. The Nixon Tube DAC seems to be the most interesting contender for a new DAC <$500.

I was looking at those. Are there significant sonic differences between the 1.2e model and the 2.0?

Or, what about something to add to the current DAC like a Monarchy DIP 48/96?

Thanks. That seems to be $475 new. Might be a nice way to get a bit of tubeyness. What about simple non-os DAC's like the Dialogue II?

Bump. While I wait for a reply from Mike at HeadRoom, what about all those Chinese DAC's that are being raved about so much 'over there'?