Dusty Chalk

Apparently, I've been in a largely solo piano (especially sonatas) lately. I'm actually really enjoying this Mozart set, perhaps I should investigate the original versions (version I am listening to has a second piano added by Grieg).

You should write a book, a la Ken Kessler's Quad: The Closest Approach.

That was kind of the point.

Oh, hell yes.

I love stories with a happy ending. This is all that matters. And yes, you should get both and decide which you like better for yourself. I am personally a tube-head, but I heard a GSX setup this last weekend that I could definitely live with.

This is actually your best bet. Just start cheap, it will work. It will either meet your minimum threshold for awesome, or it won't. If it does, buy moar music. If it doesn't, buy something else. Do your research though -- more expensive does not necessarily mean moar better. And after you do research, do not resign yourself to other peoples' opinions -- decide for yourself if particular tube sets are better or worse. If you can front the money, the best thing to do is to buy what tubes you can afford, and keep the ones you like, sell the rest (as "lightly used", of course). Hello, my name is Peter, and I'm a tube-oholic.

Mozart & Grieg, music for 2 pianos.

I also didn't like that the 4070's were heavy. Not that they were painful to wear or anything, but you'd move your head, and their static momentum ("objects at rest tend to stay at rest") would keep them where they were (which means that they would move relative to your head). No headbanging whatsoever, in fact, you'd have to move in such a manner that the coefficient of static friction kept them on your head -- once you hit kinetic friction, all is lost. And it didn't take much to crossover from one to the other. This only occurs if you listen for more than 10 minutes at a time. So I just wanted to thank whomever for the opportunity to finally having heard a pair. I'll probably still get a pair (I did like them enough), but they're not the bees' knees.

it'd probably be easier to list the stats you have heard -- which is what (that made you a fan)?

Good luck with that, I'm pretty sure she has it copyrighted, patented, trademarked, and is working on intellectual property rights.

That sound is turtle for, "Goddamnit, my dick doesn't reach."

I've heard both the Audio Alchemy DDE 3.0 and one of the Parasounds -- the 1600, I think. I still have the Audio Alchemy, but mostly for speaker duty. I liked the midrange on it more. Whenever someone says, "I'd prefer a well-designed DAC that only does 16/44.1 vs. a mediocre DAC that upsamples to 24/96", I usually think of the Audio Alchemy. When we tried it in Hirsch's system, it sounded a little rolled off, though, compared to...well, pretty much everything else he had. It's the K501 of DACs in terms of top end/midrange quality (excellent midrange, meh top end). Or perhaps the LS3/5a of DACs. In other words, there are more modern designs that are better, but it had its strengths, and if I had to sell everything else I had, I could live with it.

Nun Moar Blak!

There's a book with a highly stylized illustration of a muscle guy on the cover that's got some good exercises in it. I forget the name, though, and it's not handy. Of course, you can look around on amazon for good reviews. But yeah, exercises, learn the basics, develop your calluses.

ESP950's were not bad -- this is actually the first time I think I heard them. A little rolled off on the topmost extreme highend (compared to Stax und Senns), but that's not a deal-killer. The rest was real nice.

Salmon burger from Harris Teeter's.

I can't.

Am currently listening to 'gumption' music. But that only applies to Reks. Everyone else should actually type shit out. Oh, and fuck convention.

Well, by watercool, I meant liquid cool -- they have special non-conductive coolants to submerse one's entire PC in, I was thinking more along the lines of something like that. Albeit not seriously. The heatsinks weren't serious either.

You could just watercool the whole thing.

Awesomeness.

What about just having a virtual machine inside that runs Windows, just for the CAD software?

You and my cat would get along just fine. I however, consider "only throwing up once" one too many times.

So, it just NEEDS MOAR HEATSINKS?!?!?

Liszt, Totentanz & Piano Concertos 1 & 2, SACD 'gumption'? Why does it take 'gumption' to listen to something?