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Posted

With how they are set up (at least here in VA) the earlier you start with the prepaid plans the more expensive they are but they sort of go in 5 year windows. As of right now It would be around 52k for 4 years of in-state tuition at any of Virginia's schools which I am pretty convinced is going to be much less than college in 18 years considering how much the price of college has been inflating over the last 20 years. Even if it isn't and school is free or our kid doesn't get in (he better ;) ) then we can at least get our money back as it's a risk free account. A quick back of the envelope using 18 years comes out with a 5.6% rate of return on the investment which is pretty damn good.

Posted (edited)

Drinking it (see drinking thread) - I am too lazy to return things. Basically I thought it was perfectly drinkable but not worth its price (perhaps it would be better in the $40-$45 range?). In its price range, I would definitely go for Laphraoig 18yr or Springbank 12yr for example. Not the most refined whiskey but certainly not as bad as you made it out to be. smile.png

Edited by shellylh
Posted

With how they are set up (at least here in VA) the earlier you start with the prepaid plans the more expensive they are but they sort of go in 5 year windows. As of right now It would be around 52k for 4 years of in-state tuition at any of Virginia's schools which I am pretty convinced is going to be much less than college in 18 years considering how much the price of college has been inflating over the last 20 years. Even if it isn't and school is free or our kid doesn't get in (he better wink.png ) then we can at least get our money back as it's a risk free account. A quick back of the envelope using 18 years comes out with a 5.6% rate of return on the investment which is pretty damn good.

That's pretty darn good. When I looked into it, there wasn't anything close to that in IL. I should investigate again, though.

Posted (edited)

Drove out to Total Wine and grabbed a Sazerac 18, Noah's Mill, Carpano Antica and and Japanese IPA - Hitachino Classic. Time to make a real Manhattan evil.gif

IMG_8132.jpg

Edited by raffy
Posted

Approved.... but wait, where are the Cherry Bitters? wink.png

Unfortunately, they had a shitty selection of bitters so I'm stuck with regular Angostura bitters for now :(

Posted

So, attending RMAF toward the end of my construction project is proving to be an expensive proposition. Since returning, I have purchased the following:

Squeezebox Touch

logitech-squeezebox-touch.jpg

Arcam AVR360 AV receiver for SF

124_large.jpg

REL R528 Subwoofer for SF, to go with the Gallo Reference Strada R/C/L speakers I bought before the remodel started

RELR528.jpg

And I went temporarily insane and got the Clearaudio Double Matrix Professional record cleaner for my new record cleaning table in SF

Double_Matrix_SE_(01).jpg

Problem is, I am not sure I am done yet . . . :palm:

Posted

I am interested in hearing your opinion of that cleaner. It would certainly look a hell of a lot better than the VPI in my listening room and if it is as fast as they say it should be about perfect.

Posted (edited)

You have vinyl?huh.png?

Nicely done Al, color me jealous. Not only does the Clear Audio record cleaner work great, is not as noisy as the VPI, and it looks very awesomeness.

Edited by Augsburger
Posted

I'm trying to rationalize and justify the bulk of this as being part of our remodeling project. The main TV system was in place for many years, and is outdated, although I will use some of it in Mayberry. The Oppo BDP-95 had already made the old Arcam DV29 redundant and the AV8 has no HDMI or other modern capabilities. i am also picking up a better DVR from Comcast. I also wanted to streamline and make the system more family friendly, so an integrated receiver makes it easy to watch TV, Bluray, or streaming Netflix, and listen to CDs, streaming audio (plus internet radio built into the new Arcam), AM/FM and iPods on this system without messing with my 2-channel setup. Plus, I am keeping my trusty Pioneer Elite 50" plasma(720p/1080i max) that we have had for over 10 years because I still love the picture.

I saw the Clearaudio Double Matrix Pro at RMAF and was impressed by how solid and great looking it is. It is extreme, but as Jeff said it could be an awesome solution to a painful necessity. It is supposed to be a lot quieter, does both sides at once, and even has a de-static brush for post-cleaning. The lack of a platter is brilliant because not only do I hate cleaning on the VPI 16.5 machine but I also worry about sticking the newly-cleaned side down on the cruddy platter. I am going to have a headphone and small speaker setup down in the garage, and the new wine "cellar" with wine/beer/vermouth cooler is close by, so headphone cleaning will be a party!

Posted (edited)

Nice plan there Al. Rolling things into a remodel is good Wife-Approval-Fu smile.png I snuck some lawn equipment in when we bough the lake house under the same premise.

Your sweet purchases have me looking at the Prism DA-2 again..... you inspire me to go crazy. Not going to happen though, I need a new car.

Edited by Dreadhead
Posted (edited)

Dew eet Chris, you already have a car!!! seesaw.gif

I do have another purchase I made with a question. I bought one of these Netgear Gigabit switches:

10353206.jpg

The reason I got it is because I have an ethernet cable running to my AV setup now, and I want to be able to plug the Oppo, the Arcam, and maybe a Squeezebox into it. The other end of the ethernet is plugged into an Airport Extreme (not the latest iteration). Will this work so that the various components can share the internet connection?

Edited by Voltron
Posted

Short answer Yes: the Switch allows multiple devices to share the Ethernet network at up to Gigabit speeds ( speed depends on network network card / port on device, speeds can be mixed)

Longer conditional answer. Yes, If the AEx is acting as the router / DHCP server , then each new device will be allocated an IP address and routing information from the AEx , the switch acting as a port multiplier for the Aex ( you can plug more things into it)

If the Aex is acting as a wireless bridge, to a router located elsewhere, Yes, mostly (The Aex acting as a virtual Ethernet cable to a wireless router) Speed is then limited by the speed of the wireless connection. (more info here)

Note: Audio Data rates are quite low, depending on source.

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