Hopstretch

^^^ I was just going to go on tiresomely about kristalweizen!

I do feel bad for them. Their US agent is as nice a guy as you could hope to meet and they were really, really good about a resistor issue with the MkIVse that affected me and a few other owners on HF. No fuss, took it straight back and sent me a new one -- and I was the third owner of that particular unit and said so. This looks like last-minute panic after a few early-production models went up in smoke. The designer was saying on their forum quite recently that it would be passive-cooled only.

Drifting off topic here, but when I lived in DC I used to patronize a sushi bar where the chef was a huge Burgundy hound. His theory was that they particularly complemented umami-rich dishes. My theory was that since he was selling some great stuff at very fair prices, I wasn't going to argue with him!

So rice wine > rice beer? I'm a sake ignoramus and no way in Hell am I touching Diet Anything.

Very diplomatic. I like it just fine in the right context -- very cold, at the sushi bar.

Sorry to keep derailing this thread, but I found a shot of those ICE Blocks' internals if anyone's interested.

See Smeggy above.

ftfy

Happy Birthday from your favorite band.

If I hadn't spent all my money on headphone shit and active monitors...

Which you can now get for $1,299! Seymour ICE Blocks So sexeh...

Looks like you were right about the heat issue. The first ones have started to arrive and, according to the HF thread, they now have (loud and crappy) cooling fans shoehorned into the case.

But where's the fun in that? Obsessing is the secret sauce.

It's not rather good, or it's not being modern? Or both?

Everyone thought it, but you had to say it!

Says so right down there at the bottom. Enjoy the dregs of your early thirties. All downhill from the next one, take it from me!

Continuum transfunctioner.

I'm already double-banned. Don't get me in deeper.

I believe it's generally customary for someone to say "dew eet" at this point in the proceedings?

HD700! Be there, go square!

Here is some data that may well be relevant to your negotiation.

Off the top of my head, USB out to a DAC-1 Pre feeding a pair of Dynaudio MC-15 would not suck at about $2,500. Or the Stello DAC and amp stack plus some Audioengine A5s plus the Headroom stands to put them on for <$2,000. Mix and match as desired. I can't particularly tout my own system as it's a bit messy. I have the equipment in a shelf off to the side and just the speakers on the desk. There's a thread here where everyone chipped in with advice for me that might help you out, too.

Many have been tempted by the great design of that package. It's super sweet. But you can also do very nicely for a lot less money if you don't absolutely need everything to be that perfectly squared away.

Don't forget to count the channels!

How much did the amp change while you were gone? Night and day?