boomana

I'm pretty lucky, and have often preferred the company of those who married my brothers to my brothers. Awhile back, I lived with someone for nearly ten years, and his mother hated me on principle for not being Jewish and living with her son, though she admitted she preferred me living with him to marrying him. She refused to acknowledge my presence or even use my name. I was referred as "the painter" since I was painting our apartment when we first met, which was nicer than the other words she called me before. Even when I'd answer the phone, she'd always say, "And who is this?" Mind you, this went on for years. I was uninvited to most family functions, even if others invited me, and when they'd visit us in NY, she would talk as if I wasn't there and ignored anything I said, including simply asking her if she'd like something to drink. It was so nuts, it became funny. It was really hard for my ex, though, as she was really brutal with him over me. The strange thing is that we actually liked each other, and were somewhat similar in personality. I now live a few miles from her and her husband, and since breaking up with my ex, had lunch with her a couple times. She would never acknowledge her outrageous behavior toward me, but starting trying to do nice things for me, buy me little things for my apartment when I first moved to Florida, and even invited me to their club for Thanksgiving one year (I declined). I haven't seen her now in a couple years, but have no bad feelings about her, only feel a little badly for her. Besides, she's now happy and has a nice Jewish daughter-in-law (who sadly hates her, whereas I at least liked her) and grandson. Life goes on.

oops. So much for reading what I type. Guzziguy is correct.

I like my Lector enough to be way too curious about the 7T, but fortunately, every time I go to a meet an put my Denon up against a slew of other fine players, I'm really of the opinion that for redbook, the Exemplar Denon 2900 can't be touched in its price range, especially if bought used, which mine was. The two cdps I most spent a concentrated time comparing the Denon to in the past year were the Esoteric DV50 and SA10. I preferred the Exemplar to the SA10 (though not for SACD), and equal to the DV50 (very similar sound), but they were at different meets, in different setups, and I'm hesitant to make declarations when I'd really have to live with one or more to get a better sense of what I'm talking about. To know that they are close enough to even be hesitant to say which is better is revealing to me. I am, however, entirely confident is saying that I think the Exemplar 2900 represents the best of hi-end mid fi for cdps. I think Purk scored one recently for $1100, which is an insanely good price. John Tucker is not offering a few upgraded caps and whatnots, and if I weren't so lazy, he have mine now. Unless I win the lotto, though, I'm happy enough to not want other. The Lector 0.6T is almost half the price of the Exemplar Denon, both new and used ($3500:$1700 and $1700:$900 - what I paid), and I keep wanting to sell it, since the Denon's really the better player, and all I need, but I can't. Every time I put it on, there is something quite wonderful, organic (gawd I hate saying that, but it's the closest I can get to what I hear) and so damn right with the music, I just get happy. Compared to the Denon, it is not as detailed, and it lacks in resolution. This is most noticeable with R10s, and K1000s where the Denon really shines. I prefer it with my favorite headphones, even the 650s. The difficulty I'm having is that I prefer the Lector with my speakers. There is something about the combination of Lector > SP Extreme Platinum > FirstWatt F1 > Cain & Cain Abbys that is exactly what I want to hear, in an unexplainable way, since I both know and can tell you why another player is better. It's just more enjoyable. I wish it weren't. I used to have an Eastern Electric MiniMax, which I really loved as my first decent cdp. The Lector is similar in price on the used market, but even though I didn't have them at the same time, the minute I first turned on the Lector, it was clearly the better player to my ears, and with a slightly (not much) warmer tone (no, don't think tubey, even if a tube player). I just realized I haven't had my Lector out since I picked up the Bailey sub. Thanks. I know what I'll be listening to on Christmas morning!

Happy Birthday, Ken!

Wayne's been waiting for something like two years for one he bought used and had sent to Mikhail for upgrades. You might want to make plans for CanJam without the ES-1.

These things happen in Florida all the time, especially around hurricane season. I've lost electricity for two weeks at a time. People do amazingly stupid things when they're not prepared (and many rarely are). They start thinking this might work...People also bring their generators and grills inside after three months of daily tv blitzes every year warning folks not to...and die.

Is the dac going to make a trip to Mayberry? The problem I had in Florida was the same I had with the Cosecant. I wasn't familiar with the amps they were connected to, so other than being able to say it sounded good, it was hard to distinguish, especially in the short time period in a noisy FL meet, what part of what I was liking. I at least know John's HD2, though it's been tweaked since I heard it last, and Mike's old Woo5, which I've now heard a couple times, will be there again.

Nice pictures, Nate. I'm actually jealous. It reminds me of growing up in Michigan. The places I've lived and loved most were in a farm house in the middle of the Green Mountains in VT, and in Boulder, CO (suburban, but had a huge, very private yard with a sweat lodge in the back and fire pit). I miss the smell of the woods and the silence of winter. I'm still not sure how I got to Florida.

I did know that, but having extra weight was never even close to an issue until a couple years ago so I never paid much attention, ate well, worked out, rode my bike a lot, never worried about a thing, and then.... At first, I liked carrying some padding, and still do (I do not want to be skinny), but as my metabolism's shifted with age and a more sedentary lifestyle, I have to relearn everything. Sorry about blabbing on in this thread, but I'm really very excited about learning and changing things up again, but this time, to suit my age. I know far too many women in their 40s and 50s who are too busy trying to be young, and then fail miserably at being healthy (since they're obsessed with something they no longer are) and are definitely not happy with themselves. I plan on growing old gracefully. I just need to learn what that really means and since it's all new, it's fun. I was going to go into work to day for some OT, but it turns out they don't need me, which is great. I have a stack of recipe books next to me now, and I'm going to design a damn tasty 1750 cal (proper ratios etc) daily meal plan for the next few weeks.

Post pics!!! It's 78 and sunny right now, but I'm headed off to work.

The whole eating thing is really starting to become interesting to me. I've almost always had a healthy diet, and know a lot about nutrition being a pretty strict vegetarian, but as of today, my trainer up'ed my calories again to 1750, which is almost friggin impossible for me without moving into junk food territory, but her plan is working where mine was not. After slightly less than two weeks with her and her husband, my love handles and tummy are gone, my face is thinner, and that's just about it, but I'm impressed. Right now I'm eating oatmeal with vanilla protein powder, cinnamon, and an apple.

I actually like just the powder shakes (vanilla). If I were using it as a meal replacement, I'd add some things, but since I'm not, I don't. Before I was put on this fairly strict, though in an opposite direction of what I'm used to (more food) diet, I'd make smoothies in the morning for breakfast with some powder, frozen berries and half a banana...yum.

Ouch. That's gotta make you nuts.

Congrats on your new player, especially after doing all you did to find it.

Who wants to put money on jp numbers not being able to keep his commitment to buying no gear in 2008? I'm waiting to see what creative loopholes he can find.

How about palm face? No?

He sold his K1000s (and all his headphones!) is now left to begging from poor neighbors. It's a sad day for the tall, skinny, soon-to-be drunk on Monday, scary, white dude from Florida (except for the fact he got some kick-ass speakers to listen to as compensation).

Yeah, I'm picking up some OT to offset x-mas purchases. I'm going to work tonight and pretty much staying there till Monday. I'm off on Monday, though.

Mike, just tell me which headphones you want and they're yours. btw, my lunatic brother and sister-in-law are threatening to show up. He's the one whose hobby is collecting high-end watches. When he comes to Florida, he usually brings around 5-10 to trade or sell with dealers in the area. I don't know if you're still interested in checking them out. Some of them could pay off my mortgage, but even the more reasonably priced ones are unique and beautiful. Since he's an artist, a nut, and a small-time collector, he has really good taste with an eye for rare quality. He's also a walking database of watch info.

Awww. My baby's all grown up now. Congrats. Look forward to hearing your impressions (no Umbrella song please).

Seeing the pic you posted the other day, I'm getting all nostalgic for snow. Don't know how I'd be thinking about it if I were shoveling my driveway today than walking outside in my shorts and t-shirt. Sure looks pretty.

I can just imagine every apartment building in Manhattan equipped with one. I wonder where in Japan they plan on installing the first one.

Jamato8, or something like that, is reviewing the Predator as something quite different than I and others seem to have heard. He also says it's different than the one at Florida, which may be true, and claims the Florida one had only one day on it, which I know wasn't true. I do know that the one Ray brought to NY was supposedly different than the one at our meet and that one had only one day on it, but in what way or how different, I don't know.

I'm too old to have ever got into the rave thing, which is maybe why I don't get the trance/techno thingy. Here's the type of shows I was going to in my early twenties. It might explain the rather large difference in taste: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAEwn92Osh0&rel Just remembered to put Bad Brains on the playlist.

It would be mean except a) it's true, and he has some amps coming his way that trounce anthing I have or will hope to have in the next few years