jp11801

Ok choice time, either I go new $699 mini (4gb ram) or 13' MacBook pro with 4gb ram upgradeable to 8 gb after ram prices drop. The new mini would be cheaper of the two but I'm maxed at 4gb ram. The pro allows me to sell the netbook I use for patio listening/travel. While it is argueable that more than 4gb ram is overkill I recall 64mb of ram being overkill 12 years ago. Am I missing any obvious advantage/disadvantage between the two I'm thinking about?

you know that just about sounds right, 4gb is probably enough I just like to always have more ram than I need as I recall the days of going from 32mb to 64mb and being amazed.

Stretch sell the phono pre and take the funds for the duet add em together throw in a few extra shekels and you are golden! Who was it said "One box to RULE then all"? Shamelessly working on a Men at Work "remastered" 12 inch three track single I picked up in the city. Sounds good if you like the men down under

we need you to take one for the team and pick up a ULN-2 or ULN-8 and start NDing your LPs:p

Nate depending on the max ram available on the new mini I may be ditching mine. The models right now do 4gb I am hoping they bump that to a max of 8

Is that an Origin Live Silver arm on that deck? The Gyro is a nice TT and a neighbor has a real fascination with them. He restores and tweaks these. That table is so beautiful it makes my sony ps-x7 camera shy.

yes, please get to work on it :jbl::jbl: seriously I'd take one of your bullet proof power supplies as I swear they made the apogee mini dac moar better

The Metric Halo ULN-2 is the bargain of the century for $1700 (without the DSP installed) $$2400 with DSP. You'll only need the DSP if you plan to use it as a phono pre, want to mess around with EQ or plan on recording stuff with it. Great DAC but Dinny you've gone this far, sell off your DAC harem and get a ULN-8.

Where are Gary and Xenia damit! They are the final missing link Mike thanks for setting this up, I'm in for dinner and music Friday night

The Audioengine powered speakers are ok for casual listening

x2

You have a low threshold for being stood up for...

he needs it so the other kids will like him

you can DIY the RAM but it involves two putty knives, a steady hand and removal of a few things prior to getting to the ram. Not a hard job but the reward is saving $80 or so vs lunching your mac mini. I've done it successfully twice but not so with a fan replacement, that effectively killed the Mini. Check out you tube and a few of the on-line tutorials to see if this project is for you. The newer minis max at 4gigs of RAM and that is just past the threshold for amarra at 3gigs. I am considering a used G5 tower as the max RAM is higher, I can get my HDs internal and have multiple firewire connections all internal. Also future upgrades like a SSD HD will be easy to perform.

Dusty as a home albiet crappy musician I've done home recording and understand what DSP is, thanks for explaining it though for context for all that are in the thread. I'm at a loss as to my inabilty to articulate that Amarra is not a playback engine it is a program that links iTunes with soundblade. Soundblade as any recording program does contains DSP tools that can be implemented by the user but for recording and mixing but in this playback mode are not used.

Not at all , the "this program is doing something, I don't understand it, therefore it is DSP" is flawed. This program Amarra uses a preexisting program soundblade for playback, this program is primarily used to record and edit music. It just so happens it sounds great, it was not developed for sound play back for audio nuts. The arguement that it must use DSP to sound the way it does is (IMHO) used to dissmiss the software. I would not care if it did use DSP but other than volume control, which every playback engine I've seen uses, oh and the mini player does not use there is none per the designer. We can all randomly speculate if we like though, I guess, but can we not state speculation as fact?

It looks like a USB thumb drive, laptop users use an extension if you fear breaking it off.

So you believe that what you know is all there is to know, that's fine. I think we'll find out more about digital playback and what effects it in the near future. Here is where I can lose totally credibility, so what the fuck, at RMAF in Philip O'Hanlen's room they had they crazy Tibetan chant bowls from Synergistic there. They demoed them in and out of the room and the effect was staggering. I was in a room full of 12 people and unless we were all hypnotized the impact was real. I say this to you simply to say while it is reassuring to think you know all there is to know unfortunately it is probably not true. I for one thought the bowls were bullshit after a friend told me of the same experience. After all how could it possibly make a difference but it did. I simply do not know all things and how they make an impact but am open to the possibility if demonstrated to me.

If the program that records your song and also is used to edit and mix your song is also used to playback your song , I'm not sure how this is less accurate than using itunes:confused:. To my knowledge you are the only stating they are using DSP, if you have proof then state it if not I'm not sure why you get to continue repeating you theory. You continue to throw stuff against the wall with no basis of proof. Odd that many high end computer rooms used Amarra at RMAF and two of the guys that run the Tape Project and are award winning engineers endorse it as well:rolleyes:

What Amarra is, is pretty straight forward and has been stated many times over, they are simply using their pro audio program Sonic Blade as the playback engine and Itunes as the GUI. Amarra is just the interface that allows this. This program and their other software packages are in many major studios, if it was BS it wouldn't be in use in so many studios. So far no one has been able to explain (that I have seen) why different programs sound different upon playback but they do. Wave Editor, Bias Peak, Amarra, Itunes and songbird all sound different. I have no idea why they sound different but they do, I highly doubt only one is bit perfect. I too hate the dongle but have gotten used to it, it would be a deal breaker on a laptop for me even with the extension they provide.

24/96 drop of the blue label bizzare label pressing still primitive live sound but nice

I love this record!!

yes but only because I got to know them through Al's and my purchase of their hardware. I do think you can buy direct from the website as well.

my short time with the DA11 at RMAF left me with a very positive impression of it, DEW IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have the Amarra software and it is not an immediate WOW factor but very noticeable when taken away. What I hear is a more natural (realistic tone) better soundstage definition also a wider stage front to back and side to side. It seems to make my digital sound closer to top end analog. I'm going to go with the full version at it is going to have integrated needledrop software in future releases.