Dusty Chalk

I completely disagree with both of you. If you only listen to part of the music, then maybe, but I tend to listen to the gestalt, so nice bass is nice bass, be it the opening gank on "Sabrina" by Einsturzende Neubauten, or tympani emulating the rumble of thunder in Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite. And impact is impact, be it the electronic opening to Talk Talk's "Happiness is Easy" or the cannon shots in Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. And I disagree that you need Grado forwardness for metal. Metal is typically recorded plenty forward; I don't find myself straining to hear anything when I listened to metal on my Sennheiser HD600/AudioValve RKV combo, much less my current listening setup. I can only suspect y'all are deaf at those frequencies, if you need them slightly raised.

I'll post this in portable audio, since I'm going to talk about my car. My head unit is borken -- it won't play CD's. I suspect it's just an alignment problem, but since it's a proprietary system built by Clarion for Suzuki, I'm thinking I'll probably have to replace it. So I'm having a hard time finding what the dimensions of the unit are without taking it apart. Clarion incorrectly labels it as a Euro-DIN unit, which it's not. Euro-DIN is close to single DIN, but mine is closer to a double-DIN. External dimensions of the faceplate are 3 3/4" x 6 3/4", which is smaller than my understanding of a double-DIN to be (3 7/8" x 6 7/8"). (Car is a 2004 Suzuki Aerio SX.) I want to get the Sony XAV-W1 (SACD/DVD player), which is a double-DIN. So the question becomes, can I shove it in there? It'll probably have to be a custom hack -- tear up the dashboard, get a new harness, jerry-rig it in there, etc. But I'm thinking I've got a couple more years in this POS, so...why not? My car is pretty safe both at home and at work, but I have had it broken into when I've gone downtown to concerts and such, so I wouldn't mind it being removable. Any advice would be appreciated.

I knew that didn't sound right.

Like $50...sort of. Borders screwed up my "Borders Bucks" account, and late on 10/29 informed me that I had two days to spend $40. Combine that with the 30% coupon they put out Tuesday and Wednesday, and I thought to myself, I think I can do that. Although I had to collect all my nickels and dimes and pennies and deposit them ($75 in change) to cover it, as I had just borrowed a small amount to keep my account from going into the red. I really need to learn to manage my money better. I make good money, I just keep spending it. Okay, listened to the first two disks, on the third. So far, so funky. I'm actually liking this better than Bitches Brew, the last time I listened to it.

Maybe we should stuff markl with cotton so that he's further away. Yeah, one criticism I will give Denon is their quality control. Apparently, 2 or 3 of them fell apart at the second-to-last DC area meet (I wasn't there at the time, so don't look at me).

I got all y'all beat -- I got Sony batteries (from the remote that came with my players, several of which are Sony). I also have a Sony DATMan.

Apparently I'm already a member, since I'm a fan of both the CD3000 and the MDR-7506/-V6.

subtitled medley

Someone needs to frankenstein the two drivers together. No, wait, that's the Orpheus.

You may want to try the new model before you totally give up on it. I didn't hear the slightly recessed midrange, but then again, I heard a recabled pair on a balanced max. I've also heard people who didn't like the earlier pair like the more recent pair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1RtZwQOgt0

Half Russian! We need to breed more half-breeds.

*ahem*

Performance Service Plan -- Best Buy -supplied extended warranty which one purchases

I like the black Beyers.

heh-heh-heh...

Awesome.

What does that mean? Is the reason things are cheaper through places like EIFL, audiocubes, and the pricejapan network of retailers because they're being sold domestically (in Japan) and then being shipped to us? Why would that be cheaper than being sold to us directly?

I have a feeling it's also a function of whether or not you're deaf at higher frequencies or not. The people who have the higher frequencies attenuated (without being painful) will prefer the brighter headphones without finding them overly edgy/bright/whatever. Or you could switch to something less laid back, such as the Beyer DT880.

Going to the website, it seems it's still considered class A+, so...WTF?

So far: pretty (I haven't opened it yet). All those people cartoons on the cover have been hammered outwards from the inside. Very textual, but I suspect if I keep it alongside anything else, they'll start to rub off on whatever it's next to.

No, the Mullard caught my eye as well -- but that one I understood. BTW, those pics are really nice pics -- your iPod looks pristine.

Miles Davis, The Complete On The Corner Sessions

Why do you have the specs for the PMD-100 printed out? Just curious.

In mathematical terms, ">" means "greater than", and ">>" sometimes means "much greater than". Anything beyond that is merely exaggeration on the part of the writer, and speculation on the part of the reader. I suspect, however, that it would be like saying "much much much greater than" -- rather childish, although sometimes we do that on purpose for humorous effect, such as "evah" or "!!!1!". You got a problem with that? This is a message board -- if you're going to post publicly, expect responses from anyone. If it was meant to be a private communique with jpak, then PM him. I should go "take the piss". BRB, GGPP.