Asr

My CD collection is puny compared to most of you guys. I did a rough estimation and have about 330-340 CDs. Clearly I need to buy moar. + 0 SACDs and 1 DVD-A (the one included with Massive Attack's Collected). 2 LPs (from ChiUniFi 3). About 30-40 more LPs in storage that I got from my parents. (Not sure it's enough to fuel a purchase for a turntable as most of it is classical music.)

Erin Boheme - What Love Is

I don't particularly envy anyone else's music collection but it is nice to see the kind of music that's devoured by everyone here. It helps me find new music sometimes. (For a long time my CD collection was more than 80% electronica/trip-hop - with the diversifying I've been doing lately it might be at almost 50% now.) I've seen some pretty high prices on out-of-print MFSL and DCC Gold CDs on eBay. I don't know if the people who actually buy those are just crazy or obsessed, or both. I personally draw the line at $60 at most on out-of-print audiophile CDs and if I can get something lower, so much the better.

Violet Indiana - Roulette Indeed!

The ones below 3500 sound the best.

Fluke - Risotto

I received: Diana Navarro - No Te Olvides De Mi Dulce Pontes - Best Of Dulce Pontes Thanks to Torpedo for these very interesting selections, looking forward to listening later.

Elusive Disc 10%-off sale: (deepak will like this one) Music Direct 10%-off sale:

Yay for snow right before Christmas! (It's not Christmas without snow dammit.) There'll be moar snow pics here later too, there always are: http://www.9news.com/life/community/galleryphoto.aspx?plckPhotoID=14e021dd-d568-494e-8691-3e5ab860a294&plckGalleryID=063512f6-9b68-4d97-9eca-28caf2578dad

Clearly my will is weak when it comes to moar music. Alice Cooper - Killer [Audio Fidelity Gold] Deep Purple - Who Do We Think We Are [Audio Fidelity Gold] Hank Mobley - Soul Station [XRCD] Jennifer Warnes - The Hunter [Cisco Gold] John Coltrane - A Love Supreme [Deluxe Edition] Madeleine Peyroux - Bare Bones Megadeth - Countdown to Extinction [MFSL] Opeth - Ghost Reveries Pearl Jam - Ten [import] [Japan] R.E.M. - Murmur [MFSL] R.E.M. - Reckoning [MFSL] Radiohead - The Bends Rush - Permanent Waves [MFSL] Ryan Adams - Cardinology Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger Santana - Abraxas [MFSL] Sonny Clark - Cool Struttin' [XRCD] Steely Dan - Aja [MFSL] The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds [Audio Fidelity Gold] The Beatles - Mono Box Set The Cars - Shake It Up [MFSL] The Eagles - Hotel California [DCC Gold] The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico [Deluxe Edition] The Who - Tommy [MFSL]

I checked out the flight options which are unexpectedly cheap. So can I assume the location will be a hotel and will also most likely have an SFO shuttle? It might be tricky juggling this with Axpona the following weekend but I might just join in also.... Also I think the year is off in the thread title.

Don't you have quarter-modded HD414 pads?

I got mine today. More than anything I wanted to know what was inside and I caved after only a few minutes. The music looks extremely interesting but I didn't cut open the shrinkwrap, going to wait until the 25th. Have to save something until then.

Ok so I completely forgot about a 1TB external HD that I already had that was lying around under a pile of junk. Naturally I tried it right away with my Pico DAC/amp and it works just like I was hoping it would. Thanks for all the info regardless, much appreciated.

^ I'd do that if I could, but my laptop uses the obsolete ATA-66 spec which limits the pickings (and sizes possible). I'm using a 100GB ATA-66 now, the biggest that I was able to find on eBay that also spun at 7200rpm (5400rpm is too slow for me). Which is kinda why I'm considering a new laptop for the upgrade to SATA.

I'm running pretty low on space on my laptop due to all the music I've been ripping to FLAC lately, so I'm left with two options: (1) get a new laptop, or (2) get a nice big external HD. (The internal HD is already at maximum possible with my 4-year old laptop - couldn't find any ATA-66 drives that were more than 100GB that were also 7200rpm.) For cost reasons I'd obviously prefer to get an external HD but that leaves me with a question. Is it feasible to run a USB external HD and a USB DAC at the same time? Should be technically possible I'd think but I was wondering if anyone has actually tried it and if there might any big latency issues that would make it less than ideal.

Elusive Disc has their final shipment in of The Beatles Mono Box Set and right now it's at $199.99, the lowest price compared to Music Direct, Acoustic Sounds, even Amazon: https://www.elusivedisc.com/prodinfo.asp?number=EMICDB99451 Unknown how long the lowered price will last though. And if you order within the next hour (by 6 PM EST today) you can also get free UPS ground shipping with code FREEUPSG.

Audio Expo North America - AXPONA: Home Page For the uninitiated, see the link above for info on Axpona. It's pretty much an audio show that Stereophile is sponsoring in the Jacksonville area. Axpona was actually advertised at RMAF '09 and a couple weeks ago I finally booked my flight. This time I fully intend on doing some touristy stuff in Florida, since I didn't get to do anything touristy the last two times I was there. I take it March should be a good time of year for that? So will anyone else also be there? Anyone know if we could convince these guys to do a headphone display room?

Not much left right now after the last snowstorm but the weather here is very variable and it could snow again at anytime. I hope it snows again soon.

I sent yours today and was told at the post office that today was the cut-off for First Class International for delivery by Christmas. So I sure hope it gets there in time, sorry for procrastinating. And I hope mine arrives by 12/23 too, because the company I work at is going to be closed 12/24-1/1. Probably should have given you my home address instead....

Drew @ Moon Audio has a pretty nice Christmas deal going on that he sent out via newsletter: And both Elusive Disc and Music Direct have free shipping until 12/15:

The differences that jumped out at me the most were primarily in the aspects of speed, soundstage, and energy. The APL/Philips 1000 may be a teeny bit slower than I'm used to and the soundstage did not feel the same, though I couldn't pinpoint exactly what was different about it. There was also a bit less overall energy to the music - more than just simply dynamics, I felt there was marginally less reaction to individual instruments' volume surges to make them stick out from the rest of the mix more. Please note that I didn't actually compare the Crystal Cable to a stock cable and I'm not sure exactly what any aftermarket cables offer over the stock cable (if anything) since I've never compared any. The improvements in the HD800 that I heard can be contributed to anything that was in the system (or the sum total of everything, more likely the case). I was moreso describing what I heard with the HD800 only with a Crystal Cable single-ended versus balanced in different systems, compared to what I've been listening to lately (OII/BHSE/Plinius CD-101).

I wrote one version of my gear impressions for HF here: http://www.head-fi.org/forums/6216594-post33.html Below is another version for HC. (Though I might copy this to HF later at some point.) HE5 orthos (amp: WA22, source: Ayre QB-9): So apparently I listened to Wayne's HE5s instead of Colin's. I wanted to check these out to find out if I could possibly toss my Qualia in favor of them, and I came away unsure. The HE5 sounded pretty dang good though, and was also really comfortable too (reminded me of the Beyer DT880 in that aspect), but compared to the Qualia it wasn't quite what I was hoping for. That said, the pros that jumped out at me: fast, clear-sounding, a very "separated" sound that wasn't overly separated (closer to the HD800 than the Qualia IMO) and overall a very very good sound that's really not bad for its projected $600. I might end up buying one anyway at some point just to try it. I liked it more than the HD800. It certainly had more bass quantity than the HD800, and more treble quantity too. However, the bass wasn't entirely to my liking though I can't really put into words why. All I can say is that it's not my preferential AT AD2K-type bass. Not that the HE5 lacked in bass extension though, it was actually really good in that aspect and didn't disappoint me on reference tracks by The Crystal Method and Massive Attack. But the HE5's treble was a bit grainy on a few tracks - as in, sometimes cymbal strikes (and other sorts of sounds, including vocals) literally sounded like they were being "granularized" like sand. The HE5 is still a promising headphone, and I'd like to check it out further in my own system. JH13: As I said on HF, the JH13 is really useful in a meet environment - since it isolates really well it can easily be used to monitor amps and even sources, and it scales well enough that it's actually useful for that too. On the Luxman P-1 it sounded very good with a wider soundstage than I've heard before and good strong bass output. The Luxman's gain was a bit high for them though. It also sounded good on the WA22 but less so - not quite as clear-sounding but there was more mid-range and mid-bass that made it sound more engaging. The machine hum that the JH13 picked up on the WA22 was pretty quiet but definitely noticeable - but not a distraction once music was playing. Luxman P-1 (source: Exemplar/Denon 2900): I also tried out this amp with the Grado HP1000/HP2 and Senn HD800, both of which it seemed to do a fine job driving. I don't know if it's an ideal amp for either headphone though, I'd need more amp experience with both headphones. And the HD800 sounded better than previous HD800s I've heard with improved dynamics, clarity, and bass/treble strength, so I suspect the P-1 does something right. Pico Slim: I did not listen to the Slim but I looked at it up-close and Justin has yet another outstanding product on his hands. SQ aside this thing is amazing - it's really thin and incredibly compact, more compact than a standard cell phone. I'm not sure I have an actual use for one myself since I have a Pico amp/DAC for my laptop and I prefer to listen from my MP3 player directly in ultraportable situations, but given the amp's digital attenuator I figured it couldn't hurt to try it when it comes out since my favorite headphones right now are all low-impedance. Senn HD800 re-cabled w/ Crystal Cable (sources: Exemplar/Denon 2900 and Ayre QB-9): I tried this single-ended on Alex's setup (Exemplar + Luxman) and balanced on mine (Ayre + Woo WA22), with Crystal Cable on both (there was an extra Crystal balanced cable lying around). It sounded good on the Exemplar & Luxman setup and improved on the Ayre & Woo - the bass sounded more powerful and there was more body to the sound. There was a slight loss to the treble balance though. Between the two systems I preferred the Exemplar & Luxman. The more I listened to the HD800 it more it reminded me of my OII/BHSE in a few ways (I thought there were a few parallels between the two headphones) but at the same time it also pointed out to me how it wasn't the OII. In my experience at home, the OII more accurately depicts the size of a recording's soundstage, while the HD800 added an artificial soundstage to everything I played. The OII is also very smooth-sounding but at the same time exposes a surreal level of detail that's completely unforced - the HD800 wasn't quite as smooth-sounding and in a lot of ways it seemed to be forcing the detail that it's able to uncover instead of letting it naturally happen. Woo WA22: This amp is proving to be quite a capable performer - it did justice to the HP1000 and K701 at ChiUniFi 3, and at this meet it did justice to the AD2000 (I have plenty of amp experience with my AD2K by now) and it also seemed to do an effective job with the HD800. With the AD2000 there was no obvious lack of speed and the amp delivered plenty of knock-out mid-range, mid-bass, and lower bass. It more than met my expectations as far as electronica/trip-hop, prog rock, and metal. This was all with the 7236 power tubes though, I have no idea yet how the stock 6AS7 tubes might perform. I suspect this amp may also pair very well with the HD800 for those who like the HD800, though it might take some tube-rolling to achieve one's ideal sound. Zu Essence: Many speakers I heard at this year's RMAF were not great. I know that placement and room acoustics plays a big part in how speakers sound though, so not all speakers can be instantly written off at an audio show especially when those two issues are the biggest detriments in any hotel environment, the SoFla meet included. So just because I thought the Zu Essence were actually really good doesn't mean they'll necessarily be as good in all setups - well actually, they should be even better when properly set up inside a home, given the setup issues at the meet. That said, even in the less-than-ideal setting, the Essence still belted out plenty of sound. The listening chairs were about 7' from the speakers and the speakers were also maybe 7' from each other. They threw a convincing soundstage though to me they didn't "disappear" quite as well as a pair of Monitor Audio RS8 that I heard last year, though they still disappeared well enough. They sustained volume properly with no audible distortion, and they carried enough mid-range power for a confident & assertive portrayal of a variety of rock music from the 70s (Steely Dan) and the 90s (Pearl Jam). I did have a few minor nitpicks but instead of sharing them I'll just say that the Essence is a fine pair of speakers and my nitpicks could very well be rectified by a change in either placement/layout, room acoustics, amplification, or source components, or all 4. (Plus I'm not sure they're valid nitpicks anyway given that I didn't get to hear more music on the Essence, and they have a ribbon tweeter too.) boomana's BHSE/OII (source: APL/Philips SACD 1000): I wanted to find out only one thing on this setup: since I also have an equivalent BHSE and OII, how much does the source really play into the setup? Answer: about as much as I expected, as I heard some interesting differences compared to my setup. Vicki's setup sounded very good in all respects and she too has a very fine system.

Leftfield - Rhythm and Stealth. Haven't listened to this one in a long time, forgot how cool it was.

The epic snowstorm from hell rolled through here 2 days ago and it was awesome. It was as cold as being on top of a mountain and I loved it. Around here snow rapidly melts though (something about living right at the base of a mountain) and it's already almost halfway vaporized (it stopped snowing last night finally).