[How to make people think You're A Shill]

Art helped me with my E5 repairs. He mailed an E5 replacement transport. I swapped the transports and the source worked flawlessly thereafter.

I for one am not trying to argue that what Art does is necessarily a bad thing, only that his claims of being completely impartial are dubious.

[How to make people think You're A Shill]

Art,

Quick question for you. Have you ever received indirect compensation from Cattylink for your services? I'm talking discounted products, etc. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the answer to that might be yes but I'd like to hear you state something for the record.

[Vibeke Leaves Tristania]

This would officially qualify as piss pour timing on her part. I guess it's worth saying that at least they got the album done with her vocals.

[How to make people think You're A Shill]

I think this officially means that the case has hit the big time!

[Soldering Station - which one?]

I've only used the Hakko but it is a very nice piece. It heats up in about 10 seconds and seems to have very good recovery even during heavy use. I don't think you can go wrong with either and the price difference is only about $10 from what I found during quick searches.

My 2

[Cost no object - best closed headphone, past or present?]

If it were me, faced with this dilemma and the advice given so far I'd have a long think about custom IEMs. They should be more comfortable than universals from a "stuffed in the ear" perspective and something like the UE-10s or maybe something from Westone might be just what the doctor ordered. On the plus side you wouldn't need a uber-powerful amp to get the best out of an IEM either. Just my 2

[Help, my toaster isn't turning on]

And it's working. Thanks Nate! I owe you a beer.

Happy to be of service!

[Help, my toaster isn't turning on]

Grawk,

I assume that you checked the IEC inlet to make sure that it doesn't have a built in fuse. It might not be the most obvious thing and I don't know if Mikhail has ever used inlets of that type. It might looking something like this.

Also, it could definitely be something like the switch. If you've got a DMM it should be pretty easy to check the continuity at the switch (with the power disconnected for safety of course).

Let us know what you're able to check.

[The Great Dac search]

If anyone in this thread is still looking for a killer source they should jump on this. I spent some quality time with Mark's ECD-1 last summer and man, if it weren't for the fact that the Beta22 has literally bled me dry I'd be all of this. As it is I'm turning over couches as we speak.

[My New Headphone Stand]

Looks beefy!

[Ti OPA827 (and possibly 2827)]

Actually, there wasn't much discussion of it other than one person had gotten a hold of a sample and tried it in a PIMETA and said that to his ears it sounded very similar to the 627. I don't take a whole lot from that statement other than the fact that I'd very much like to hear more about the chip and what it's capable of. I don't think anyone considers the PIMETA the ultimate test rig. So I say bring on the chatter.

[Ti OPA827 (and possibly 2827)]

There was a thread about this on that other headphone forum a while back and the few people that studied the data sheet agreed that there were marginally better specs compared to the 627. The one downfall that I see is that it does not appear that TI will produce the chip in a dip8 package.

[Happy Birthday Thrice!]

Happy birthday!

[Full size speaker help]

If you're able you should take a trek down to http://www.ensemble-av.com/ in Nashua. I've dealt with them in the past and they've been great and they carry higher-end stuff like you're looking for.

And a quick note about sub-sat setups, if you've got a laptop you can pick up a mic, download some software and tune the crossover in the sub to be pretty seamless.

[Full size speaker help]

I'd prefer to keep this strictly 2 channel; no subwoofer.

Not to nitpick your decision but why? I would think that if ultimate fidelity is the goal while keeping costs "reasonable" that a great solution would be two speakers and two subs.

Really, I'm just hoping that you'll take a flier on Outlaw Audio's new speakers and put them with a pair of the LFM-1's.

[Bit of an AKG buying spree: electret-dynamic systems on the way]

Nate is your beta22 balanced?

Unfortunately not, my wallet has limits.

[Bit of an AKG buying spree: electret-dynamic systems on the way]

Nate,

Really anxious to hear about your beta22 when its done.

That makes two of us. The last of the components should ship tomorrow which means I can start in earnest casing it up in a week or so. Shouldn't take all that long as I'm keeping it fairly simple. I have been listening to it air-wired on my bench (hell of a soldering rig, let me tell you) and what I've heard so far does not bode well for my wallet. I see a source upgrade in my future...

[Bit of an AKG buying spree: electret-dynamic systems on the way]

I'm with humanflyz, with the K340's in order to get a balanced presentation I had to listen louder than I was comfortable. At that level I thought they sounded pretty damn good, but not so much better than my HD650s that I wanted to figure out how to make them sound good to me at lower levels.

All that said, hopefully we can get you both a K1000 and K340 audition with the beta22 when it's done. It should be a freakin' beast.

[Some power questions]

Ventricular fibrillation - A low-voltage (110 to 220 V), 50 or 60-Hz AC current traveling through the chest for a fraction of a second may induce ventricular fibrillation at currents as low as 60mA. With DC, 300 to 500 mA is required. If the current has a direct pathway to the heart (e.g., via a cardiac catheter or other electrodes), a much lower current of less than 1 mA, (AC or DC) can cause fibrillation. Fibrillations are usually lethal because all the heart muscle cells move independently. Above 200mA, muscle contractions are so strong that the heart muscles cannot move at all.

DC will kill you not A/C

if your wet and playing with 110ac your fucked, your in poor health..your fucked, if you cant let go and the breaker does not trip...oh boy your fucked hardcore.

Ok, so now you're saying AC can kill. You started in this thread saying AC voltage can't kill Billy, that's a stupid and irresponsible thing to say, especially if you're a licensed electrician. I'm all for you sharing your knowledge but some of the things you've stated in this thread are asinine.

[Some power questions]

grounded in terms of a separate third wire you mean? if then no your wrong..most buildings are wired with two wire (hot,cold) and no separate Ground wire..

Billy, the grounded, 3 prong plug was invented 80 years ago so it's not exactly new science. And an metal box in your wall does not equal a grounded outlet. Your tester is a piece of shit if it thinks it is. Perhaps Dr. Gilmore can step in here and enlighten your further.

[Head-Case last.fm group]

Figured I'd join just to help out, even though very little of my listening will be able to be tracked.

Two more to get to 15.

[IC Recommendations]

And how many hours?

Looks like an exercise in getting pissed off to me. Can you imagine getting 90% of the way through a 1M coil only to kink it and ruin it? Sure, it's the tits to look at but you can't tell me there's anything functional about that coil.

[The Great Dac search]

you guys gotta tell me about the meridians... i know nothing about them and usually assume they are old and no longer good.. that's why i pass them up.

Well, the way I was looking at it was it's the same DAC as the 508.24 which is a pretty damn highly regarded source and what I also would have liked to play with was the balanced outputs . I was also looking at the 563 18bit DAC that's listed on the Audiogon but it's priced a bit high for a stock example. Although the few reviews I found that mentioned it absolutely loved it. For ~$300 I'd probably take a flier on and may still put in an offer if it sits for a while longer. More and more it's looking like I'll be using the SB3 as a transport almost exclusively so unless I can find a player with a digital input a stand-alone DAC really is the way to go.

[The Great Dac search]

Ugh, I missed what was probably a pretty good deal on a DAC yesterday. There was a Meridian 566 DAC on the 'gon that had been upgraded to the 24bit DAC (same as the 508/24) that ended up going for $600. The DAC mods alone are ~$1000, I checked with Meridian two days ago!

[How to break a digital camera?]

The flash on my unit is absolutely horrible so.... I don't want to leave dents in the camera from dropping it. Another option I've been thinking of is putting something like 16v into the power suppy instead of the 3v it needs. I would like to know what I might expect results wise from doing that (ie. will the ac adapter still work, will fuse blow etc.).

Biggie.

I used a 24V when I cooked mine and the adapter continues to work fine. I mean, in theory that should leave the camera disabled but aesthetically undamaged. I've never seen a fuse inside a digicam and I've had two or three apart.