roadtonowhere08

That is beyond awesome. I have always wanted to see it. One day...

Awesome picture! Sheer patience is quite an understatement.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Slower Forum

That too.

Most of it should be for just children. I mainly like it for some time off and to be able to spend more time with my family. I loathe the commercialization of the holidays for reasons I am pretty sure you share as well. Oddly enough, I hate Halloween. I know, that's probably worthy, but I never saw the point of it.

The whole build-up from Halloween to Christmas can be overwhelming sometimes. Afterwards, some people miss the anticipation. Myself, I get driven insane by my kids' constant obsession with pumpkins, skeletons, and pirates for Halloween as well as the Christmas lights, presents, and decorations for Christmas. It is great that they get so excited, but it gets old, because they are the obsessive types (like their parents ) I love the season, but in the end, I am glad to see it go every year.

I have always loved your avatar! Happy birthday. Hope it was a good one.

Fastest. Kids going to bed. Ever! Thank you, Santa! Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays everyone.

Wow, dsavitsk! Great reply. I will go over that a few times to get it, but it's very helpful. Thank you

I reread that page, and I understood about half of it. I have some thoughts/questions if you or anyone else has the chance: 1. Is it safe to say that a "cathode follower" is the 12B4A tube which acts to lower the impedance coming from the 5751 tube to properly drive the transformers in the audio signal? The transformers are used to be able to properly drive headphones with lower impedances like the 32 ohm Grados. In essence, overall voltage capability is lowered (thus total output capability) in order to lower the output impedance. Correct? 2. The 7 ohm output impedance from the Super is low but not super low, and that might be a reason why it goes especially well with Grados? I remember reading someone here (I think it might be you) say that a slightly higher output impedance gives a more warm presentation to headphones, and that tends to help Grados be more lively and warm. A really low output impedance has great control over the drivers, but it tends to overdamp Grados. Is that correct? 3. The first things to wear out in amps are electrolytic caps. I had Dr. Peppard use Blackgate caps in the power supply (and perhaps elsewhere in the chain), because based on what I read about their construction, they would perhaps last longer than regular electrolytics from Nichicon. Aside from the claims of better sound (I doubt I could pass a DBT, and it is not important to me), is there any merit to my thoughts on this? Regardless of whether or not they last longer, would you happen to know what a typical lifespan is on good quality caps in headphone amp roles? I am assuming about 20 years.

Hi All, I have had my MAD HD Super for a while now, and I am very happy with it. I am not very versed in circuit design for audio, but I am curious by nature. Upon first glance, I gather that it is a simple but effective lower powered circuit. Since I know many here are very skilled in this area, I am curious about your thoughts about the design. I have no intention of replacing it; rather, this is me asking for a layman's explanation for how it works and how it compares to other similarly priced tube amps. I have attached the User's Manual in case anyone is interested in looking at it. I have never seen it on Dr. Peppard's website, but his regular HD Manual can be downloaded (along with his newer Super design), so I assume it is alright to post. Mapletree Audio EAR+ HD Super Users' Manual.zip

And if you are really bored, enjoy the back and forth about the above video here: http://hardforum.com...d.php?t=1660393

Thanks all. I appreciate it. I spent most of the day entertaining my three little monsters. Needless to say, I am spent. Props to Voltron for the carryover joke

Ugh, double fail on my part That is the most probable outcome I can think of. I have been thinking a bit about the reactions of the people in the video. Anyone want to weigh in on their thoughts as to how much of the footage was forced and how much was real given that lots of people in that country have lived their entire lives under that man and his father. Could it be possible that a good portion of those people stuck in that country don't know any better and his passing is really that big of a deal to them? I am betting the majority have no real contact to the outside world since they are poor and the IT infrastructure is lacking to say the least. Thinking of all of the things people do out of ignorance (to use the term objectively rather than judgmentally), it's within the realm of possibility, right?

I suppose my sarcasm did not show through well enough. Oops. They were obviously put up to it, and it's an absolute travesty what those people have gone through in the last few decades. I think this can go one of three ways: 1. Son alone maintains status quo and is revered like his father (I am not betting on this) 2. Son is overthrown/ousted by military brass or government rival (Most likely) 3. A civilian revolution (VERY unlikely) As much as I would like the people to rise up and take control, I see nothing at all that would facilitate this. We are not (to the best of my knowledge) covertly helping civilians like in Iran, because there is no grassroots push for change (again, to the best of my knowledge). The people are too poor and beaten down, and the military is much too powerful. I do not see any other country pulling a Libya there; I think it will be more of the same for the foreseeable future. The question is who will have the power.

I hope news of my death goes something like this:

If there are any Tenhi fans, they just released Saivo. As to whether it will be good - it's Tenhi, of course it will be good! EDIT: Yep, it's awesome. All fans should jump on it!

Yep, 27 is too young for most people to be taken very seriously in that kind of power structure. It's going to get very interesting very quickly.

By the way, if anyone has the time, I would really appreciate a link to your favorite complete debate involving him.

Though I never really followed him, I planned (and still intend) to read up on his body of work just because he was a hell of a debater. That's always a plus in my book. I thought this was a good (and fitting) read: http://religion.blog...hens/?hpt=hp_c2

Santa looks more like a hostage in this picture...

Catscratch: better late than never, but I tried that Melechesh album, and I just couldn't get into it. Great musicians, but I was never a huge fan of Black Metal vocals. Been REALLY enjoying the following releases lately: Mournful Congregation - The Book Of Kings Another outstanding funeral doom metal album from these guys! Slow yet very melodic. The title track is a masterpiece. Anyone looking to try out this genre should start with this band as I think they are the most accessible and my favorite. Esoteric - Paragon Of Dissonance If Mournful Congregation is not "hard" enough for you, Esoteric should fill your needs. The second you hear this album, you know who it is. Probably the one band that I love that I have to really be in the mood for to really appreciate, because their albums have a tendency to suck the life out of you. How Greg Chandler manages to create such vocals (despite the obvious studio effects) is beyond me. Pure chaos, folks. Oh, and Void of Silence - Human Antithesis is easily one of my top 5 favorite albums. Damn good album!

Sorry to be OT just a tad, but while I was looking at the Slickdeals thread about the upcoming HD600 deal, I found this gem regarding lossy vs. lossless: "Hearing the difference now isn’t the reason to encode to FLAC. FLAC uses lossless compression, while MP3 is ‘lossy’. What this means is that for each year the MP3 sits on your hard drive, it will lose roughly 12kbps, assuming you have SATA – it’s about 15kbps on IDE, but only 7kbps on SCSI, due to rotational velocidensity. You don’t want to know how much worse it is on CD-ROM or other optical media. I started collecting MP3s in about 2001, and if I try to play any of the tracks I downloaded back then, even the stuff I grabbed at 320kbps, they just sound like crap. The bass is terrible, the midrange…well don’t get me started. Some of those albums have degraded down to 32 or even 16kbps. FLAC rips from the same period still sound great, even if they weren’t stored correctly, in a cool, dry place. Seriously, stick to FLAC, you may not be able to hear the difference now, but in a year or two, you’ll be glad you did." - agenesis (Post #23) Edit: I see this is an often used quote from a while ago. Oh well. Funny anyway.

YESSSS! Esoteric just realesed their newest album Paragon of Dissonance! It got a great review here: http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/46533/Esoteric-Paragon-Of-Dissonance/ I cannot wait to hear it. Circle from The Maniacal Vale was simply crushing!