Asr

The Gathering - How to Measure a Planet. I was expecting something metal-ish based on what I've read about this band, but this album is more like trip-hop? Not that I'm complaining, but kinda weird.

/shakes fist at the hotel for not offering an airport shuttle. Seriously, they're that close to an airport and don't have a shuttle? What kind of operation are they running? Well, not that I can really make it anyway even though I'd like to meet Fitz (and others too of course). Have to start recuperating the gaping hole created by hitting up 1 meet per month over the last 4 months sometime....

1 bottle each of Bushmills Irish whiskey, Disaronno Originale amaretto, & Belhaven Twisted Thistle IPA, for a special occasion. Have to say they're pretty good. First time trying an amaretto and I immediately liked the flavor. Also picked up a 6-pack of Fat Tire, a standard favorite. Also: pair of Cardas male XLR to female RCA adapters (for use with SPL Auditor) and Pico Slim.

Incidentally that's my schedule, you could split with me if you want.

Out-of-production Bill Evans' Waltz for Debby XRCD at Elusive Disc for $50: https://www.elusivedisc.com/prodinfo.asp?number=JVCXR-0220 "Only a few copies available!" Yeah and I just got one of them. Elusive Disc also has the last batch of The Beatles Mono Box Set at $199 right now: https://www.elusivedisc.com/prodinfo.asp?number=EMICDB99451. Lower than even Amazon's price....

The loop output can also be used as an input (in which case the Input jacks act as loop out instead). http://www.head-fi.org/forums/6090529-post437.html

If I saw a 50lb raccoon, I would hit it. Er, I mean with my car.

Prompted by the DOTU, I call shenanigans on this! How can anyone play "just about any musical instrument competently"? Can you play violin, piano, trumpet, sax, trombone, guitar, and the percussion kit? And can you also play harmonica, didgiridoo, and that trick by blowing across glasses that are partially filled? Can you? If not, well your dubious claim just fell flatter than a pancake and I daresay this kind of ridiculousness will not be tolerated! Oh and it's ok to be scared to post on HC. You never know when a shovel might come swinging out of the darkness headed in your direction.

HeadRoom is selling the HD600 for $299 (includes free shipping), not a bad deal to get them new: Sennheiser HD 600 - Audiophile Headphones | HeadRoom Audio

Next up, an HC Qualia 010 Loaner Program.

Beyond Twilight - Section X. I like this CD, some really cool metal. The riffs are bad-ass.

So I'm seriously contemplating buying a turntable now. (Well not "now" per se but at some point in the future.) Already have some vinyl and it's likely I might add some more eventually. As I know next to nothing about turntables, been doing some preliminary research and it looks like I'll need a turntable w/ tonearm, cartridge, and phono pre-amp - any parts I'm missing? I'm also confused about MM vs MC cartridges, what's the benefit to each? The brand I'm considering is Clearaudio if that matters, for no reason other than aesthetics. (The aesthetics of every other turntable brand don't really appeal to me for one reason or another - I've looked at VPI, SME, SOTA, Pro-Ject/Music Hall, Rega, JA Michell, et al.) Trying to decide between the Performance SE, Emotion SE, and the new Concept but the variety of cartridges available is throwing me for a loop here....

Not really a huge fan of IDM specifically (as a lot of it is really repetitive and hence boring) but I like it in small doses. My IDM collection is horribly incomplete though and is missing a lot of the stalwarts like Aphex Twin, Autechre, Boards of Canada, Squarepusher, and The Orb - never got into them back in the 90s/00s, maybe I'll rediscover them now. I do like Photek and Source Direct. Klute is also cool stuff (not to be confused with another non-electronica band of the same name). Ambient > IDM for me overall, I just like the freeform "floating" sound that requires absolutely no critical listening to enjoy. Hard to find good ambient electronic though. I'd post the artists I have stuff by, but I tend to forget what I own and would need to be in front of my CD (and MP3) collection for a refresher. Oh and synths > acoustic instruments, definitely. The whole idea of synths + sampling allows for a creative freedom that IMO surpasses what can be done with real instruments.

Disturbed - Ten Thousand Fists

Waveforms of the first 7 tracks from Valleys of Neptune attached. Mastering looks to be ok from this perspective. Sounds pretty good too.

No but my setup did include the SPL Auditor which he also fawns over for some inexplicable reason.... Nice quote in the sig btw, incidentally that's the thread I was reading.

If he was imagining me naked, I wonder what would've happened if I had mock-flirted with him..... If Skylab and HPA are HF celebrities then that's something I definitely do not want to be.

Hey Grahame, when are we getting the video? I was reading a thread over at HF that Acix posted in which reminded me, that guy is just as annoying in real-life as he is online. Er scratch that, he might actually be more annoying in person. I kept trying to avoid him too but he kept hounding me. I thought he'd left at one point but he was still there! That guy definitely ranks as the most annoying person I've ever met at a meet. Top creepy stalkerish moment of the meet: Acix watching me listen to my setup.

Symphony X - Paradise Lost

Chapter Sonnet S CDP > Chapter Precis 250S int amp > Penaudio Charisma ($4K) Chapter Sonnet S CDP (Diana Canton CD on top) April Music Stello CDA 500 Audes Blues floorstanders Mastersound Evolution 845 int amp April Music Eximus CD5 Triode TRV-CD4SE CDP & unknown amps > Acoustic Zen Crescendo Triode TRV-CD4SE CDP Triode int amp (model not noted) AXIS Voicebox S Mistral DT-307CD CDP > Napa NA-208A int amp > Napa NA-208S bookshelves Oracle Delphi MKV turntable w/ SME tonearm and Thalia cartridge Raysonic CD168 CDP > Nightingale PTS 03 pre-amp > Nightingale Onda 50 monoblocks > Nightingale Concentus CTR2 Nightingale Onda 50 TW Acustic Black Knight turntable > Thoress phono stage, line stage, & 300B monoblocks > Horning Aristoteles TW Acustic Black Knight Cary Audio 306 SACD Pro > SLP-05 pre-amp > CAD 211 Thunder monoblocks > System Audio Explorer ($5.8K) Ayon Audio electronics > Legacy Audio Focus SE floorstanders Ayon Audio electronics > Lumen White Artisan floorstanders DH Labs w/ Greg Hovsepian (Sales & Marketing) (guy wearing glasses) May Audio Marketing's supply of audiophile CDs - Audio Fidelity Gold corner (Redbook CDs, XRCDs, & DVD-As on other tables) Blacknote CDP 300 > Goldenote Demidoff Silver Plus int amp > Rosso Fiorentino Fiesole (mini-monitors) & Volterra (floorstanders)

Hey, we all had to start out somewhere, right?

CD/stereo boom box, and I plugged in an AKG K271 Studio directly into the headphone jack. Circa 2005. I also had less than 20 CDs up until early 2006.

self-pic on Daytona Beach rental car on Daytona Beach (after being pushed out of sand trap) Raffy's choice of beer at Ella's Raffy, Jeff, & Gene Mike, Vicki, & Matt up-close with Matt Jeff & Gene Whataburger really exists?! (it does in Starke, FL)

If a moderator could remove the "Florida Brewers Guild Beerfest 2010" from the thread title I'd appreciate it, as I'm going to post only Axpona-related stuff in this thread now, since I posted in the other Beerfest thread (and will post there again later). Axpona show impressions The best word I can think of to describe Axpona is: lackluster. When I saw the venue hotel, the first thing I thought was: it was small. It was practically right on the riverwalk and not too far away were several far more imposing hotels which made it look especially shabby. On the inside though, things looked better actually - there was lots of interior space, roomy conference rooms on the main floor with lots of spacious halls, and 2 additional floors occupied by vendors (the floors weren't fully occupied though). I was there only Friday (afternoon & evening) and foot traffic wasn't very high. If I wanted to, I'm sure I could've listened to more than 1 track at each vendor system but I didn't for time reasons. It was overall a slower feel than the chaos of RMAF, which was nice, but I'm sure the vendors were disappointed. I was glad to discover some new music from Diana Panton (really nice female vocals) and Terry Cade (also female vocals) while making the rounds. However, as I've discovered at this kind of audio show before, I found it routine for vendors to be playing music that was in no way challenging for the speakers. Hence, most speakers sounded great playing the pedestrian jazz, classic rock, or female vocals. Once I sat down to swap with a CD of my own though, wow! It's like instantly losing respect for the speakers and what sounded good before was just a cover-up for the flaws! Speaker impressions (not in any particular order) (pics to come later) - Haniwa HSP1C07 (mini-size - in-wall?) ($12K) (forgot to note source & amp) (photo not taken) Bad-sounding speakers. These did not reproduce the scale of Julia Fischer's Bach Concertos very well and were also very tinny-sounding. It was almost like listening to tinker-toy speakers. - Penaudio Charisma ($4K) (bookshelf) > Chapter Precis 250S int amp > Chapter Sonnet S CDP These were pretty good. They were initially playing some music I haven't heard before (Diana Panton) which sounded pretty good, and then I played Alison Krauss' New Favorite which went surprisingly well. The soundstage wasn't very large but bass went deep enough to hear the bass notes. Its price seems kinda high though. - Horning Aristoteles (floorstander) ($15K in show configuration) (source: TW Acustic Black Knight turntable | amps: Thoress phono stage, pre-amp, & 300B monoblocks) I requested the vinyl copy of Robert Plant & Alison Krauss' Raising Sand for this turntable-based system (it was the only music on LP they had that I was familiar with). I've never really listened to vinyl before and it sounded pretty dang good. However, I couldn't really discern a major difference between the CD and the LP (track used was "Trampled Rose"). The speakers sounded fine but nothing grabbed me about them. There was a slight bass sinkhole and Alison's voice wasn't pushed forward that much. There was really good instrument separation though and the soundstage was pretty wide too. There was also a CD player in this system so I also played Porcupine Tree's Deadwing. It went ok but didn't have too much thrash and/or power and I wanted a lot more grunt to the mid-bass. - Koetsu Rosso Fiorentino Volterra (floorstander) ($11.95K) > Goldenote Demidoff Silver Plus int amp > Blacknote CDP 300 These speakers were pretty impressive and had extremely physical bass. There was initially some type of percussion music playing on them that had some really highlighted drums and every impact felt like a physical attack. So I requested Massive Attack's "Inertia Creeps" to hear what it would do and it did not disappoint. The bass was powerful and the belly drums were whacked really well. I suspect the results would've been even better if positioning were more ideal (they were kinda far from each other and the listening chairs were also kinda far away). - System Audio Explorer (floorstander) > Cary 211 Thunder monoblocks > Cary SLP-05 pre-amp > Cary 306 SACD Pro I played the Bach Concertos track #8 but these speakers effectively crashed and burned. Ok they weren't terrible but they didn't really gel the orchestra together that well and the solo violin lacked intensity and power. - Napa Acoustic SAG-350 ($3.7K) & BOW-A6 II ($2K) (floorstanders) > Napa NA-208A amp > Mistral DT-307CD CDP These two pairs of speakers were both ok, but the SAG-350 clearly beat the BOW-A6 II. I started listening to the BOW-A6 II which was ok but felt kinda "small" in its presentation and a little bit thin, and insta-switching to the SAG-350 resulted in a wider soundstage and more body to the sound. It was enough body that I listened to "Inertia Creeps" here too, and the SAG-350 did a good job but not as good as the Volterra above. Granted, it did nothing wrong but it didn't sound very fast and didn't whack the belly drums that well, and the male vocals weren't very deep. - Acoustic Zen Crescendo (floorstander) (forgot to note source & amp) These did a good job with Alison Krauss' New Favorite track #2 - good clarity throughout and decently fast. However, they didn't exude too much power at the bottom of the rhythmic double-bass and they weren't very dynamic-sounding. Not bad though and I'm pretty sure the positioning was less than ideal. - Axis Voicebox S (bookshelf) (forgot to note source & amp) These were ok for bookshelf speakers. With the Alison Krauss, treble detail and speed were good. Not a whole lot of dynamic range though. - Nightingale Concentus CTR 2 > Nightingale Onda 50 monoblocks > Nightingale PTS 03 pre-amp > Raysonic CD168 These speakers instilled awe. The room was pretty big and they more than filled it and were able to play at very loud volume (apparently the rep didn't mind the volume regardless of music) with no audible distortion. I was inspired to try Bach Concertos track #8 and was blown away - these speakers almost perfectly matched one quality that I routinely get with my Plinius CD-101/BHSE/Stax OII system, which is a heart-racing, pulse-pounding sensation on the solo violin as it modulates in intensity and volume. I thought it was amazing that I found speakers that were able to do this as well as the OII does, because honestly it blew me away and the pulse-pounding factor practically left me dizzy, it was that surreal. I really could not pay attention to any other aspect of the music, it was that awesome. Oh and they did have pretty nice bass too, as I found out next when the vendor rep switched the music to something else.

It took longer than expected to get from Jacksonville to Tampa for this Beerfest thing but man it was worth it. First, a recap of the weekend events: Thursday 3/4: my travel day out to FL. Picked up my rental car and went to the hotel (did not stay at the Axpona hotel or even within walking distance of it), which turned out to be literally right next to a movie theater. Since I had time I went over there and saw Shutter Island. Not a bad flick but I hated the ending. With a passion. (I would've vastly preferred it going the other way.) Friday 3/5: Went to Axpona and hung out there from roughly 2 PM to 7 PM. More to come on Axpona later. Also explored the surrounding area a bit (the hotel was right next to the St. Johns river and there was a long riverwalk that had to be at least a couple miles). Saturday 3/6: Woke up a little too late to get an early start down to Tampa for a super-leisurely drive so I ended up scrambling down there. On the way down Hwy 95, I decided I had to see Daytona Beach so I took the exit and instantly regretted it - there were craploads of motorbikers crawling all over the place which brought traffic to a near standstill. It took forever to finally escape the traffic. (Turned out all the people were there for something called Daytona Bike Week.) I kept seeing signs for "Beach Access" on my way out of town and was wondering wtf what it was all about so I decided I had to look. Because who doesn't want to see the beach, right? As that turned out, apparently you can drive your car on the beach in Daytona! (During low tide, of course.) So here I was, kinda blown away and thinking it was really cool, driving on the beach while watching the waves lap up practically right next to me. And then it was that I drove into a sand trap and got completely stuck. Tried gunning the engine which did nothing, then I tried the ole Neutral-and-push but my feet could not get traction on the sand. Then I started to panic. I next tried to dig out the sand with my bare hands....but that did nothing either, the car was completely stuck! I started walking back to the beach access entry and had just barely started out when a jeep of 4 guys was approaching me. They were all big and tough-looking which was sort of intimidating and I prepared for the worst - but they were all really nice and offered to help me out. One of them got in the driver's seat and the other 3 got behind the car to push it and voila, the car was out! Needless to say, I did not stay around much longer and headed back up to the road. By the time I finally made it to Ybor City it was around 4 PM and the beer was flowing! Matt and I went over to eat some Alaskan fish tacos which were really tasty. I then proceeded to drink around 7 or 8 glasses of beer (lost count so I'm not sure) and by that point I was still feeling fine but couldn't drink anymore. (I think the glasses were about 8-10 oz, not sure tho.) We assembled the crew that included Mike, Gene, Vicki, Jeff (VPI), and Raffy and went out to dinner at a cool place that was also pretty tasty. I had 1 more beer there that completely and totally knocked me out, to the point where everything turned into a blur, I had to sit down, and I was even shivering! (It was totally scary too, have never experienced anything like it and I thought I was going to either pass out or die.) But eating some food and drinking some water seemed to help because within an hour I was amazingly back to normal and was able to drive to my hotel. Sunday 3/7: Woke up late again which was not good and I had to scramble even more to catch my flight back up in Jacksonville. I took a pretty risky gamble and decided to catch a view of the Courtney Campbell Causeway (across Tampa Bay) which was really nice. Then I headed back up to the airport and on the way saw something called Whataburger which reminded me of a conversation at the recent NorCal meet about the merits of In-N-Out vs 5 Guys vs Whataburger, so I decided I had to try it, and I have to say it was pretty dang good, definitely one of the best ones I've had when it comes to fast-service burgers. I finally got to the airport with literally like half an hour to spare after going through security (got there about an hour before boarding time). In other words, way too close for comfort, but that said, all the racing against the clock was pretty exciting. So the weekend went by in a blur (some of it literally) but overall it was a blast and the highlight for me was definitely the beer, and getting my rental car stuck in the sand at Daytona Beach. It was fun to hang out with the Florida crew again even if that last beer did knock me out good and I sorta lost track of what exactly was going on. Matt saw me getting wasted though so it was all good. Pics to come later and I've got stuff from Axpona too.