Dusty Chalk

Yes, absolutely. Try binaural music. Then speakers are the ones getting the spatial info and cues incorrect. 'Detail' and 'Soundstage' are two quite different things. At the same volume level? You must either have had a really crappy headphone rig (which I doubt), or...I don't know. That's the only explanation I can think of. I have had the exact opposite occur -- I hear the new things on headphones, not speaker systems. And I've heard some pretty nice speaker systems (probably the high-point of my speaker listening was having the Dynaudio Special 25's driven by Musical Fidelity A300^CR, MF A308 CD player, and I forget what pre I was using. It did sound sweet, and I did hear things to a great level of detail, but I don't remember hearing anything new. Equivalent at best. And I think I tended to listen louder on speakers (which should overcome my "background noise" argument). Just because they sounded so good loud.

Yes. MHO -- why does one need both dynamic and electrostatic? Team minimal would mean, to me, having one rig, more or less. Maybe one rig (one work rig and one home rig for those of us who don't do transportable) and one portable rig. I don't know about the type of gear criteria -- when canman sold everything for his K1000 and Pass Labs F3 was it? -- I think he qualified. If all I had was my Kenwood Micro-System and a pair of Audio-Technica A100Ti's when I had those, I think that would have qualified.

Have there ever been any ribbon or planar headphones/earspeakers? What kind of driver is in the K1000?

I don't disagree that speakers are superior on spatial information, but it's not less important to me. When I was talking about detail, I was talking about raw information. I still think headphones reveal more detail than speakers will at the same listening level.

I don't know -- I get much more detail out of my headphone rig than I do out of most speaker rigs I listen to at the same volume, due mostly to lack of background noise. I think the headphone rig merits the better source.

When the fuck did that happen? Was I asleep? They've been worthless for years, how long have they been not worthless...worthful...worthy of consideration...Did they change management or something?

No, after some more careful reading, it appears I was thinking of Linn's "Silver Disk Engine" technology, but that's not the transport, but rather the chip software that controls the transport and other digital aspects of the player. This page seems to imply that they at least used to:

It is? What changed?

Wait a minute, were you being...? Damnit!

Our == "Head-Case", not "you and I". I'm not the only one with a sarcastic bent around here.

I don't remember if it was Linn or Ayre, but one of them make their own transport that is supposed to be really good. It's ironic that of all transports, Sony is the one having problems, considering they are the ones that championed the SACD format.

I'm a huge fan of the Planet. Not the last word in detail, but it's got everything else in spades (prat, impact, bass, euphony, analog-y-ness...and most important, listenability -- I actually had a pre-2K Planet for the longest time as my primary player).

Stereophile has a 5% discount + free shipping code for the AudioEngines.

Well, it's a good thing they have bacon dispensing machines now:

Well...given my/our history, your assumption -- however incorrect -- was not entirely unwarranted. I, of all people, probably need [sincere][/sincere] tags (the counterpoint to the [sarcasm][/sarcasm] tags).

Oh, so you didn't get to #10? One of my favorites.

24. 14 was very difficult for me -- took me several hours.

Jesus this game is addictive

Nice impressions; I like fast/impactful/detailed. Which Rega?

Yes, that is what I meant -- extant DAC now, upgrade DAC later.

If I understand it correctly: amp now, DAC later? Makes perfect sense.

Cat food Kitty litter Kind of like buying tobacco and ashtrays at the same time.

I know, but its strength is in the accuracy of its ripping, not in the accuracy of its burning. I suspect that in burning, it's no more accurate than anything else, but I'll gladly be proven wrong. And I believe I was one of the people to mention its burning capabilities, so that wasn't meant to be a slight against EAC -- I use it primarily as well.

Except that the question was specifically towards burning, not ripping.

How is that any different from voiding your warranty?