Miscellaneous

hey all, This forum is great. I'm new to the audio world, and its been fascinating me for a while since I innocently stumbled upon head-fi when researching new headphones (ended up spending 6 times more than I originally wanted to...). Then I found this forum, and I've been casually reading through some of the posts for a while now. Besides tempting me to spend money I don't have, it has also kept me highly entertained. So I decided to join. I'm not going to pretend to know much about anything, and I don't plan on posting that much for fear of instant insult barrages (you guys are all asshats ). Just so you know how much of a newbie I am to this audio world here…

I saw a thread similar to this over at Steve Hoffman forums, thought it might be fun revisit the changes our rigs went through this past calendar year, and talk about our goals for 2008. Around January of '07, I was running a Singlepower PPX3 Slam. I thought tubes were the answer to all my problems. My source was a Sony Modwright 999es, and I thought SACD was the king of all music mediums. My preferred can was the HD650. In spring I discovered two things that changed my rig forever: vinyl and the RS-1. I was not really impressed with the SR60, SR225, or SR325i, all of which I had owned, but I sensed something cool was there, so I picked up a used RS-1. I've tried l…

I ask because the AKG K1000 uses one configuration (i was told it was this anyway): 1 - left channel live 2 - left channel earth 3 - right channel live 4 - right channel earth Which I duplicated when i reterminated my Ergo AMT and made a Hirshmann adapter: pin 1 - no connection to headphone pin 2 - dotted line - left channel negative (2) pin 3 - unmarked inside - left channel live (1) pin 4 - no connection to headphone pin 5 - unmarked outside - right chennel live (3) pin 6 - continuous line - right channel negative (4) ...and duplicated again when I replaced the panel and connector on the TakeT H2/TR-2. Except that the TakeT H2 paperwork, and …

These two make look innocent. But, they are interconnect chewing machines. One of them chewed up another pair of my irreplaceable siver/ gold alloy hybrid IC's today. I just sent Zach a pair of Gold alloy IC's they chewed completely through a few weeks ago. Before that they dined on a couple Oehlbach Senn cables, a pair of gold alloy, a silver hybrid and yet another gold alloy. Can anybody think of something I can put on the cables to discourage this behavoir? Nothing poison .... but something that would taste really bad.

etc...

Anyone here used one in their rig before? Seems to be a budget favorite at Steve Hoffman forums.

Who has heard or owns them? Pretty premium price...I'm fairly eager to know how they sound...

I found the ESI MAYA 44 USB at 33% off normal price here in Norway and I do need a ADC of good quality with my mini mac, does anyone have any expericence with it (http://www.esi-audio.com/products/maya44usb/)? I don't care much about the DAC, as I have a Pico comming and a Stello DA100 next to me. I know that I really want the new Apogee, but I spent a little too much lately, and the Maya is quite a lot cheaper...

Would an EMU 0404 fit the bill on this? Then again it would be nice to spend a little more and get a unit that could also act as a nice external dac and/or headphone amp in a pinch. It doesn't appear that the Apogee MiniDac has inputs though.

Just a quick bitchfest. TTVJ states that "All Fedex Express orders placed before noon on a business day will be shipped the same day." Smells like lies to PJ. My order placed on Sunday still shows as "pending", and my credit card has been authorized. And I paid for overnight shipping so the package would arrive before my vacation. So I've sent them an email explaining that now we'll have to totally rearrange our plans, unless of course they did ship out the package today and just didn't tell me. I had the package shipped to work, and I am off Friday, and I am NOT fucking coming into work during my vacation. Well okay I will come into work to get my package. But I w…

Ah fucking shit. I don't need this right now. It has been dropping calls like crazy, now it won't connect to the internet for more than a minute at a time, text messages don't work, I spent an hour on the phone with advanced tech support with Sprint, and even tried a hard reset, setting it back to factory defaults. No dice. Pretty much the antenna connection is physically fucked. Upside of this is that it's an excuse to upgrade. The tech set me up with an Exchange service ticket, so I'll have to go to a Sprint store service center and see if I can just plop down $55 towards another phone. Since the 6700 is discontinued, I think I'll get either the HTC Touch or the Mogu…

Or how I discovered that the right channel of my HT receiver is toast... So I finally had some time to myself tonight and figured that I would undertake the task of building and installing new speaker cables. Built the cables in about 45 minutes and was feeling pretty good about how things were going. Installed them in less than 10 minutes and I settled in to give the system a quick once over. Fired up the Outlaw 1050, ran the test, no right channel. Figure something must be wrong with the new cables, break out the DMM, nope continuity tests fine. Decide to try the cables in situ, cable tests fine with L channel. Decide to see if problem is limited to front Right, nope…

Who has experiance here? I've been in the market for a lil while, and since I'll be sitting about 2-3m away, I figure the resolution isn't that important since I'll be in the 40-44" range. Most likely in the lower range. Well, that's according to this chart atleast: http://s3.carltonbale.com/resolution_chart.html Now, I've pretty much ruled out LCD due to it's trailing and blacks. I know there are fan boys out there who will dispute otherwise ("the only time it's noticeable is when you have a huge pioneer elite, blah blah blah"), but I think the difference is fairly marginal, on any of the TV's I've looked at. I like the idea of LCD being lighter and less ene…

it's another afternoon to evening in the city by the bay. I'm going to class, getting out of discussion, when I see a beautiful tree against a lit stone building. The sun is going down... I prepare, set up, click, hold... and when i get back home, I realize it was too slow... the image isn't as sharp, i'm shaking too much. I meet a group of friends at a restaurant, I take pictures as they come in, but they wink too much when my flash goes off. The light around it isn't bad, but being indoors is a disaster for this lens. I tell my camera not to flash. I get two results, either it's kinda dark and the guy sitting next to Teresa (my subject) isn't even visible. Or...…

I got my wife the Canon digital Rebel XTi and a Quantaray 70/300 lens for her birthday about a month ago. She needs a case and nothing at Wolfs is cutting it. Any leads to where I can find a nice one?

My Denon Integrated is getting very unreliable due to bad connections in the source selecting mechanisms (noisy and one channel cutting out intermittently). I was looking at an Onkyo A-9555 digital amp. Dont want to spend more than about $350 for a really good sounding integrated for use in the den (secondary system) playing cds through bookshelf speakers. Any thoughts or sugestions? Also need a CD player for this rig, as the Denon CD player just died.

Has anyone seen the DVD? If so, is it any good?

For the type of music I listen to - 70% Baroque chamber 20% orchestral and 10% new age -, I am finding my current equipment almost lacking. FYI, Denon DCP-150 > CEC HD53R > Ultrasone Edition 9. Perhaps I have been misinformed in how to properly develop a rig, since I was trying to go all portable and dropping $500 on a vintage PCDP, another $1000 on a full-sized closed headphone with tons of isolation and foldability, and $400 for an entry level AC-powered amp, just to get in the game. Yes the amp was bought while Head-fi was down - buying in the dark for kicks, and before I discovered head-case. I recently discovered that my current CEC HD53R amp isn't exact…

one I have been an enthusiast of luxury snack items for awhile now, but nothing has yet trounced the cream puff as my favorite indulgence. The process of obtaining a box of Beard Papa's cream puffs and then transporting it to a suitable place to be sampled slowly is a holistic experience. Each retail location is different than the next, so it would be useless to describe the environs and aura of each- but note that they will almost always reside in upscale urban areas devoid of such undesirable establishments as OTB betting or check cashing stations. The staff will be light-hearted, energetic, and above all- enthusiastic. To be employed at beard papa's, one nee…

I dont know if this has been done already but I think its always interesting to see what music people use to audition gear. So mine are: The Beach Boys - Sloop John B (a capella version and the regular stereo version) Wilco - Jesus Etc Ryan Adams - Winding Wheel (MFSL) Justice - Let There Be Light Daft Punk - Around The World Jedi Mind Tricks - Genghis Kahn Vince Guaraldi Trio - Linus and Lucy Mozart - Requiem Mendelsohn - Violin Concerto in E minor Chopin - Piano Concertos 1 and 2 Probably some I'm missing but what do you guys like to use?

My old Sanyo PLV-Z2 has been showing its age. Rather than dump another $250+ into a new bulb I decided a new projector was the way to go. So I just ordered a brand new Sanyo PLV-Z2000 . It is suppose to ship today, which means that I should have it by tomorrow, or at the latest Wednesday. It's exciting! but it will start a round of upgraditus. First up a HD-DVD player. For a little review go here http://www.projectorcentral.com/sanyo_z2000_home_theater_projector.htm

Hi Fi system,half price ( for those in the UK).Don't know if it's still available http://www.walrus.co.uk/sechand/supersys.htm

I was in a camera and photography-gear shop recently and noticed that they sold vacuum boxes. Apparently many photographers use the boxes to store their camera bodies and lenses. I bought one to try out. Repeatedly pulling a handle pumps air out of the container. I think it's useful to store electrostatic headphones and other gear sensitive to dust and humidity.

woot.com, a popular one day deal site, has a power conditioner for $134.99 shipped today (11/14) only. A great deal considering the cost of other power conditioners! I'd buy one but I'm a student and have a small budget.

Just looking for some recommendations for good CD-R that I could use for burning music, since most of CD-R's I buy are crappy generic ones I use for data-related purposes.