Yikes

Both are up and running in my bedroom system. No serious listening yet (I've heard well broken in K701s before ). I'll drag them into my main system and do some serious evaluations in a couple of weeks. Honestly, I purchased the Oppo because it upconverts to 720P and because it can be set to region free. I seriously doubt that it's any better sounding than the Pioneer DV-563a that it's replacing. In a couple of weeks I'll compare it to the 563a and my Exemplar 3910. So far I like the build of the 970HD and its features.

My AKG K701s have finally arrived (Don?t ask). I love getting new toys. I also received my Oppo 970HD today, so it is really a new toy day.

Source was the EMM Labs DAC and transport. Source was daisy chained through all of Toms amps (and or some of the SP amps) and none of the other amps sounded off. I wasn?t the only person that noticed the ZD sounding bad. Based upon its reputation I would assume that there must have been tube issues. The one thing that I am not saying is that the ZD is a bad design, just that on one specific day I heard a ZD that may have had issues and therefore didn?t sound right. I was keeping quiet about it, but it has been so long since I had anything to add to a conversation here that I decided to jump in.

At the recent NY meet I listened to the ZD with my recabled Sony SA-5000s (70 Ohms) and to be honest it sounded sort of broken. I wasn?t taking notes or anything I just remember thinking something about the system sounded broken. I really wanted to like it, it?s a freaking beautiful amp.

So far, so good. Sounds fantastic, and working flawlessly.

I'd agree that the Studio 60 is a very good speaker. I think it's the best (Performance/Price) in the Studio line. There's also the Revel F-12 to consider. I haven't heard it myself, but there has been enough squawking in the press that I would put it on my list to audition. http://stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/706revel/

God Damn! It?s fucking great to have my reference system back up and running. The player appears to be working flawlessly. I had also sent in my amp for upgrading. So my Exemplar OTL/32 has been upgraded with new Caps and my 3910 has also received new caps. The combination sounds so fucking good, I?m amazed. I?m ecstatic with the sound. My fingers are crossed.

Not really. I've paid for shipping it 7 or 8 times, twice overnight @ $70 each and lets say 6 times @ $40 each = $380 in shipping. Plus the DAS repair price of $160 means that I am out about $540 at the outside I'm out maybe $600. It's not the money that bothers me, it's the 8+ months without my primary source.

I believe that Lemon laws tend to be State Regulated. This means that if you purchased in another State enforcement and using such laws are problematic. The other thing is that Denon does not warranty modified units. Denon?s warranty clearly excludes modified units. I question the veracity of those claiming to have forced major manufacturers into honoring warranties after modifications have been performed (If said warranties are written as Denon?s is). Federal warranty law allows such exclusions if they are specifically stated in the published warranty, which is the case with the Denon warranty. If I threatened Denon with a lawsuit they may have given me a new unit. If they did so they would be doing it to avoid a nuisance lawsuit, not because my threat had legal merit. Exemplar provides the warranty. My unit had just passed the warranty period when the problem cropped up. At what point do you give up with a $6000 player?

This is actually my fourth or fifth Denon player. I?ve only needed service once before, and it was painless. This is my first service since D&M holdings acquired Denon. To be fair it was not Denon that performed the service but a Denon ?Authorized? service center. I sent the player to a service center that was rumored to be good with and experienced with modified units. I believe that it was primarily bad luck. The transport failed. I shipped it out (1). They replaced the transport (long delay for parts) and shipped it back (2). The replacement transport was defective, so I shipped it back (3). After another parts delay they replaced the transport and shipped the unit back to me (4). I received the unit back and the transport worked, but it had developed a new problem, back it went (5). The DAS (Denon Authorized Service) claims ?no problem found?. I had them ship the unit to Exemplar (6). Exemplar tested the unit and also found NPF, and shipped it back to me (7). With the first disc it had the exact same problem. I then ship the player back to the DAS ( 8 ) Not surprisingly this time a transformer broke free and damaged the Exemplar circuits. The DAS claims to find no problem with the Denon circuitry. I have them ship the player to Exemplar (9). Exemplar repairs their circuitry and finds one problem with the Denon section (A misaligned ribbon cable). They then run the player for over a week with no problems observed. Exemplar ships it back to me (10). I get the player and it immediately has the same problem. I purchase high quality foam and boxes to replace the trashed factory box and packing. I ship the unit to Exemplar (11). It?s been on their bench for three weeks. They found several components where it appears that all of the vibrations from shipping damaged solder joints and component leads. They have repaired the problems. They have burned the player and shaken it in an effort to assure no further problems. Exemplar shipped it back to me (12). I?ll report if it?s fixed. FYI ? I believe that the above account has omitted one trip to the DAS, but I?m not positive. Looking at the number of times the units has been shipped is it really surprising that it has had problems? The truth is that factory packing is designed to protect the units for at most 3 or 4 shipping iterations. Factory to warehouse (1), Warehouse to dealer (Exemplar) (2), Dealer to Me (3), Me to DAS (4), DAS to Me (5) (Bad replacement part), Me to DAS (6), DAS to me (with working transport) (7) ? And it?s shocking that by this point the player had developed additional issues? Sorry about the long post. I wonder if anyone even reads the entire thing The great thing is that my player has now earned a free trip anywhere with UPS frequent shipping points

As the source turns. After many weeks on the bench and several issues ?repaired? my player is on its way back to me. This will be the last trip, either it?s fixed or I?ll be given a new player. Either way it?ll be over. It?s been an eight-month horror story. The problems that were repaired were in the Denon portion of the player. John Tucker has been nothing but professional. He has spent countless hours on problems that weren?t his fault. I cannot imagine any other company that modifies player exerting the same effort. The same cannot be said of the Denon authorized repair shop. They basically blamed Exemplar Audio for the problems. Between delays for parts, installing defective parts, and failing to locate problems and returning the player stating ?No Trouble Found? they were grossly incompetent. I?ll be attempting to get some form of compensation from them, but I don?t hold out much hope of succeeding. At least I?ll write to Denon USA to complain. My player will be here Wednesday. My fingers are crossed.

Fucking Anarchist!

By the way, regardless works better. Usage Note: Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Coined in the United States in the early 20th century, it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir- prefix and -less suffix in a single term. Although one might reasonably argue that it is no different from words with redundant affixes like debone and unravel, it has been considered a blunder for decades and will probably continue to be so.

To a certain degree I?d have to agree with you, but it?s a matter of how fucked up and dishonest they are. Under the republican congress for the first time in history specific industries were allowed to actually write the legislation that covered their own industries. The proverbial foxes are guarding the hen house. It?s definitely a choice between the much lesser of evils. I?m not a fan of most Democrats, but I fucking loathe the plutocratic oligarchical neo-conservative religious right corporatists that make up the power base of the Republican Party.

The fucked up thing is that the wonderful Republican administration passed a heinous prescription drug law that makes it illegal for the government (Medicare/Medicaid) to negotiate lower prescription drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry. Talk about a corporate give-away. The Republicans talk about ?Free market? but when it comes down to it they make it illegal for the worlds largest pharmaceuticals customer from negotiating lower prices. The only thing that Bush and the republicans in congress care about is making their fat cat friends richer. Fuck them!!!!! The Bush presidency will go down in history as the worst ever.

Yes certain aspects of our existence should be socialized. The big one is healthcare. The US spends significantly more per capita than any other industrialized country in the world, yet our results are (Life Expectancy) nowhere near the top (close to 50th). Some interesting facts. Medicare is by far the most efficient healthcare system in the US. Medicare?s administrative costs are around 3% whereas the HMOs average around 30% administrative cost. Universal healthcare could be provided without spending a single extra dime. Just by making the system efficient. Under our current healthcare system (Employer provided) well over 10% of the population has no healthcare plan. There are also arguments that having an employer based system is putting the US at a competitive disadvantage with all of our western competitors that have universal coverage. Enough fun. I have to go to work.

Wow! That was astonishing. The author?s amazingly vitriolic opinions are extremely myopic. The manner in which he throws around the word ?socialist? calls into question if he truly understands its meaning. The author confuses Socialism with Liberalism. Pure socialism has largely been discredited and proven to be an ineffective ideology. To a large extent it attempts to go against human nature (Greed), and therefore pisses into the wind. I believe that pure capitalism will also prove to be just as ineffectual. At least laissez-faire capitalism will be. Laissez-faire capitalism embraces greed, somehow forgetting that greed is a cardinal sin. As if the character Gordon Gekko was some sort of prophet. The current Democratic Party is liberal to the extent that they are to the left of the current Republican Party that is seemingly controlled by the Neo-Cons and the Religious Right. I can tell you that I am Liberal and that most of the Democratic Party does not represent my views. If we had a multi-party system the current Democratic Party would not get the liberal vote. They do get the liberal vote because they are more ?liberal? than the alternative. Capitalism and liberalism are not mutually exclusive. Capitalism needs a firm underpinning of government regulations to be successful, basically keeping the honest people honest.

Where's the "Report Post to DHS" button? Remember, big brother is everywhere.

I'm fairly certain that I have the US version of the album. I'm away now, but next week I should be able to get it to you.

Hafiz Hussain Ahmed Pakistan lawmaker Bush "deserves to be removed, put on trial and given a Saddam-like death sentence,? The fucked up thing is that except for the putting to death part I agree with this guy. Bush is guilty of Treason and should be impeached.

On Monday the Boston University Orchestra and Chorus performed Mahler?s 2nd symphony at Symphony Hall in Boston. They nailed the finale. I thoroughly enjoyed the performance.

You wanna talk hot. The most heat put out by any product that I?ve ever owned was my Krell KSA-300s. After two to three hours playing with all of the bias lights lit the amp was too hot to touch, everywhere. It?s a big amp and every square inch was that freaking hot. It got much hotter than my FPB-600?s. Although to be honest when I was using the 600?s I was bi-amping so neither amp was being exactly what I would call taxed. When I had the CJ Premier Eight XS Monoblock amplifiers in my system (130 watts each triode) the room got hotter, but the amps themselves were warm but not hot. I suppose it?s because the tubes radiated directly into the room.

During Clintons last 5 years the Whitehouse received over 2100 subpoenas (for various staff) to appear before Congress. During Bush?s last five years the Whitehouse has received ZERO subpoenas. Talk about NO Oversight.

Miracles happen! The democrats have taken control of the house, and it looks like they will ultimately take the senate. Now let?s see if they can grow a set and hold hearings to exercise oversight over the executive branch. Let?s see if they are capable of reversing this administrations deconstruction of the constitution. I don?t hold out much hope that the Democrats will hold the administration accountable for their crimes. The democrats have run to the middle in an effort to pander to the independents and the ?Liberal Republicans? basically abandoning true liberals (Like me). Conservatives (Republicans) shouldn?t be too upset at the loss. The current Democratic Party is not really liberal, it?s just liberal in comparison to the Neo-Con right. I wish we had a true representative democracy. Our system is a winner takes all system where 51% controls everything. If the Greens got 8% of the vote they should get 8% of the representation in congress, if the Liberals got 15% they?d have 15% of the seats. Coalitions would form and all people would have some representation. With our two party system many (Most?) people are not truly represented. Unfortunately true representative democracy (As used in most newer democracies) was not even invented until the 1860?s.

Let me write this down in my calander. 11-07-2006 @ 3:38pm tkam did some moderating. Hell mustuv frozen over