blubliss

Wow, that does look cool!

Thanks for the thoughts so far.

My sister wants me to help her with ideas for a simple system under $500 or close. She will use her Ipod. I think she also has an airport express? Here is what she said: i want something that looks good (minimal design) and, of course, sounds good and can connect to my ipod. i don't really have a home system - just a small bookshelf stereo that i might get rid of. She is definitely not an audiophile. Any thoughts appreciated.

Another audiophile myth conquered: Must have expensive IC Bought some Vovox cables (Link protect S) from Lava Cable and the Synergisitc Research Apex ICs (10x the cost, 20x if your looking at retail) are up for sale 2 days later. I think the Lava Cable guy buys bulk and just terminates the Vovox. Vovox is a Swiss company that sells both Pro and HiFi cables. The HiFi ones are quite expensive, probably for the discerning audiophile who must spend more money . Check out their website. Pretty lame that they charge for matched cables . I learned of the cables at Computer Audiophile, someone was talking about them in the forums. I like them a lot. I may try their direct S cables too which have less shielding I think?? Lava Cable - Vovox

I like crystal

Saw this at CA http://www.avantgarde-acoustic.de/download/files/1210261650482320926f9e1.pdf Avantgarde Model 2 DA

Off topic a bit. I just bought 2 of these for simple computing tasks, would probably not work for an htpc. One is running squeezeserver for my music system and it is perfect for that. Wakes in 5 seconds when i push play on the Duet remote. I tend to agree with this, using big silent fans (Nexus, etc.). I just tried the Zino and i did not like the 50mm fan noise so that got sold. You may want to consider mATX because that will be easier to cool and be more powerful than mini. The minis are close to powerful enough for HTPC but adding peripherals defeats the size advantage. Check out this site for great info: Home Theater Computers - AVS Forum

Jp, i just went from wav to flac because in a blind test there was no difference. I did this with a friend who was a professional musician and has a great ear. That's one audiophile myth I conquered.

I think you can by a slim blu-ray later and pop that in too.

Dell is probably out of the Blu-Ray, there have been some major delays for the Zino, lots of chatter at AVS forum. I jumped on a good deal earlier with 20% Bing cash back (which I don't have yet and will believe when I get it. But, I will be letting this unit go. While it is awesome for the HTPC, the 50 mm fan is just a bit loud in my environment. I am pretty sure it won't bother most people. Pars, I offered the Zino to 1 other guy who will let me know today. I would be willing to pass along an awesome deal if you are interested. Shoot me a PM. Zino: 6850 processor/4330 discrete video/3gb ram/320 gb HD/ no blu-ray or wireless card. I paid $415, waiting for $75 BCB. Awesome deal.

I have 2 studios, AIX (5.1 & 7.1) and MiCasa (7.1). Going to get a movie theater in January which should be very cool.

I will when I get my ES-2 back, but it has been at a repair shop for some time now. The headphone soundstage does not matter.

So I finally got around to plugging the Smyth into my reference 2-channel system. I had to get a cheap RCA > XLR box (to make the levels correct) since the Realiser is unbalanced. Short story is, wow, this is pretty amazing. I am only using my measurement done in a 5.1 studio and the SDS/R10, but I have high hopes when I measure a reference 2.0 room it is gonna be awesome. I think the headphones do impart some sonic signature but I am primarily listening to the room where the measurement was done. Truly amazing technology. For anyone stuck with headphones, this may be a viable solution for recreating a speaker environment. For movies and headphones it is unbeatable.

I just wanted to post this nice experience I had with Vanns. I noticed when the item I bought was posted above with a link to Amazon, the price had gone down $100 since I bought it one week ago. I wrote to Vanns fully expecting to be denied a refund and here is what they said: "Thank you for contacting Vanns. While we do not have an official price protection policy we do offer that if the price goes down on our website within 15 days from the date of receipt we will refund you the difference. This is done as a courtesy to our customers because we do not know when our prices will change. I have given your information to our accounting department to refund you the difference of $100. This usually takes 2-3 business days and the credit will be issued to the card you used to place the order with. Please let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks and have a great day!" It's nice to do business with a company like this.

I got mine through Vann's, the one mr. veloaudio pointed to above.

Too many brown outs in the last three weeks, so.... APCAV Product Technical Specifications: S10BLK

Forget the meditation, this works for me .

That is a very deep question upon which I will need to meditate several hours to give you a plausible answer . I support this statement (wham is actually pretty lame). The slicing of the beast Tenderizing The innards-stuffing

too many

You'll never know mwahahaha.....

Before (during construction) After Small one

We make a really cool looking fake turkey out of wham & raw egg (so it sticks together) here in the ashram. Mmmmmmm.........faaaake turkey.

Correct, I have bought many things from the outlet and never had a problem. I always add on coupons that come out regularly, for like 10-20%, so it's an even better deal. But, people snag the good stuff quick. People used to run scripts there to put things in the basket as soon as they appeared, then it was really hard to get the best stuff. Dell made it a bit tougher now. Have to enter a code to add stuff to your basket. My latest deal was a netbook for about $235 delivered with quite nice specs. Really??