tkam

For me it's 009 > 007 mk1 > 007 mk2. Ever have that experience where you hear speakers or headphones and immediately go "these are the ones!"? I get that with the 009 every time I use them. They check all the boxes for me and IMHO are a pretty big step up from the 007. I haven't heard the Omegas so outside of those I think the 009 are the best phones money can buy. The mk2 have some advantages over the mk1 - like the lack of the stax "fart" noise and I actually prefer the bass on the mk2. However the mk1 are the more natural sounding phones and are more balanced across the full frequency range, there's something a little artificial sounding in the upper registers of the mk2. Note: mk1 - sz-1 serial, mk2 - sz-3 serial (so really mk2.5)

gremlins and pixie dust

Nate, you could fix the problem for a HTPC by going to 802.11ac it offers a pretty big increase in range compared to 802.11n

I decided a while ago that I wanted to get a small pc to use with my headphone rig and also as an HTPC for watching the occasional movie on. My recent acquisition of a new dac, the Auralic Vega and it's ability to do hi-rez pcm and dsd over usb made this more of a priority. Now normally I'd just go ahead and build something like this myself as I've built well over 100 desktops/servers over the years. After considering that I didn't want to spend my time dealing the tight spaces of really small cases I decided to buy something fully assembled. Naturally I did keep a close eye on parts cost vs cost of the assembled system, if the difference was high enough I'd just build it myself. After doing quite a bit of research I settled on the Echo II from Puget Systems. It's small enough for my needs, has enough room for the components I wanted and is dead silent. The price was also pretty fair, only about $200 or so more than if I had built it myself. Here's the final spec list: Case : Antec ISK 310-150 MB : Asus H87I-Plus CPU: Intel Core i5-4570S Memory: 8GB Storage: Samsung 840 Pro 128GB SSD (OS Drive) and Western Digital Scorpio Blue 1TB CD/DVD: LG Slim 6X Blu-ray burner Onboard video HSF: Zalman CNPS8900 (silent cooler) I've dealt with a lot of computer companies in my lifetime and I have to put Puget right up there with the best of them. The order process was simple and the build process was very fast. I put my order in on a Friday and it was shipped the following Tuesday. Probably the most surprising to me was their order status page. It's by far the most detailed order status I've ever seen for a pc or well any product really. I could spend all day explaining it but it's easier to just show you. See the attached PDF for full details. I do want to highlight a few parts of the build process that impressed me. First, my build was coming without any OS since I have plenty of Windows copies around. Now despite this, they still go through the process of doing a temporary OS install to run all the benchmarks and tests the results of which are uploaded to your account page for you to see and download. Second, they take photos of not only the system (including thermal images at idle and fulll load) but also take a screenshot of every bios screen so you can have a reference for what settings they are using. I probably sound like a bit of raging fanboy but it's rare to deal with a company that puts this much effort and level of detail into a pc build. It was a very refreshing experience and oh yeah the pc works great so far. It's more than powerful enough and really is dead silent. I can only hear it if I put my ear right up against the power supply fan. puget-order.pdf

If it wasn't clear I believe this only happens w/ the Extreme. Other amps are fine.

For those of you worried about the new Kinect needing to be on all the time: From IGN: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/05/ask-microsoft-anything-about-xbox-one Q: Since Kinect must be plugged in for the Xbox One to function, what happens if your Kinect breaks? Like if it falls off the top of your TV onto a hardwood floor or something? Will the console cease to function? A: WHITTEN: Xbox One is designed to work with Kinect plugged in. It makes gaming better in many ways – from the ability to say “Xbox On” and get right to your personalized homescreen, to the ability to control your TV through voice, Smartglass and more. Kinect allows you to search for your content, instantly move between games and your personalized dash and more with just your voice. Kinect helps you pick up and play by automatically knowing which controller you have in your hands. No more need to interrupt your friends game or navigate through multiple UI screens to sign in and tell the system which controller you are holding. It will even bind the controller to the console if its currently unbound – no searching for special buttons! Of course – these are just a few of the system wide benefits of having Kinect. Games use Kinect in a variety of amazing ways from adding voice to control your squad mates to adding lean and other simple controls beyond the controller to full immersive gameplay. That said, like online, the console will still function if Kinect isn’t plugged in, although you won’t be able to use any feature or experience that explicitly uses the sensor.

Happy Birthday!!!

RIP Denver. Sorry for your loss Mike, losing a pet is always hard.

I actually kinda like the wood look, but really the best part about that build is the company name: Flux Lab!

Selling a demo model for full price is pretty shitty. KG I hope you at least got in at the initial lower price. The price increase that occurred was just a change in the MSRP - dealer costs stayed the same. No idea how common that sort of thing is in the audio world but it seems kinda shady to me. If they had announced that the initial price was a limited time thing that's fine but I don't believe that's the case here.

Thanks everyone!!

Nice to see Homicide and BSG on the list(s) though both should be higher, especially on the EW list. How BSG is only #8 on the EW sci-fi list is beyond me.

You ought to try Linux Mint, it's Ubuntu without the stupid ass "Unity" interface.

Congrats on finishing the build and nice pics! Those heatsink temps don't seem bad, not sure about the transformer temps though - hopefully someone who knows more will chime in soon.

From that same audigon listing above, can't say I've ever seen the tubes sticking out the bottom thing before.

Wait, we weren't invited? Congrats!!!

Wow. Just Wow. I didn't think it was possible for anything to be built worse than the APL stuff.

Tyll, I'll be interested to hear what you think of them.

Happy Birthday!

Or just buy the download version of the game and don't buy the disc.

R.I.P

Last time I checked the specs of the Xbox One are pretty darn close to identical to the PS4 and it does include the Kinect so you are getting more hardware for the extra $100 not less....

http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/update No real surprise to me, but I guess good news for the folks freaked out by the potential DRM stuff. The two main points made: An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360. Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.