Miscellaneous

Earlier this week, I was trying to order the Apex Peak/Volcano from Todd's website and I couldn't change any of my personal information (including password, address which happens to be incomplete for some reason). I just gave up and decided that it probably meant that I shouldn't get the P/V right now. Anyone have similar problems? Do certain browsers work or do I actually have to use the phone to make an order.

Interesting item for sale found on Ken Rockwell's pages... of all places. Some cool pictures included in this .pdf http://www.kenrockwe...ube-factory.pdf Quote from the page... "My buddy who founded and owned Groove Tubes retired, and had bought all the original GE production equipment used for certain kinds of audio vacuum tubes. If you'd like to bring tube production back to the USA (or anywhere else), here's your chance to do it, with the original equipment! Interested? Phone or email Raffie at Industrial Odds & Ends at (818) 253-5692."

So evidently the remote just crapped out on the TV/DVD player. Any ideas for under 60 bucks or so for a decent one?

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…

What do you guys think? First Impression Music's Ultimate Disc | Computer Audiophile (don't skip the PDF)

Some of you know stuff about car audio -- Samich? I forget who else. I'm going to be living with this car ('03 Lancer ES, non-Evo, non-wagon, non-anything really, completely entry-level) for a while, so want to upgrade the sound system, but don't want to spend thousands of dollars doing so, as it already has > 120K miles on it, and I'm about due for a car-totalling. So the current system sounds crap. Lots of distortion, doesn't go loud well at all. Replace the whole system (including the head unit)? Buy a new car? Or go piecemeal: sub first, head unit and speakers next. I'm not a complete dumb-bass-head when it comes to cars, but poprock just doesn't sound ri…

I'm thinking of getting one for my HDTV, but I'm confused. What does it actually do when you play a dvd? If the dvd is widescreen will it just resize the actual picture part to fit the screen, keeping the ratio but getting rid of the bars and giving a higher resolution? Or is it someting else?

The obvious solution to using US voltage electronics in Japan is a step up transformer. Or a different AC adapter if that's possible. But say I wanted to use this in Japan. Is it doable without a step up transformer? The IEC inlet on top right says EMI Filter 115V/250V~ 50/60Hz

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.

I know near nothing about amps to power speakers - i just use my Marantz 2226 and be done with it. But these do appeal to my vintage tooth... http://stereos.about.com/od/amplifierreviews/tp/classic_tubes.htm

When I was in SFO last weekend for the meet, I bought a pair of Vibram Five Fingers KSOs at In-jean-ious. I had gone up there with the intent of trying a pair on and possibly buying some, and when I got to the meet, it turned out that Icarium and his whole posse were outfitted with them. Their good recommendations didn't hurt to seal the deal. Anyway, the 47s fit me well enough, so I bought a pair in black. I've been wearing them exclusively ever since. They are totally fucking awesome. They do look kinda funny though, and in black, they look like some sort of water shoe, so be prepared to get shit from your friends. And people who don't give you shit have 1,000,000 quest…

My niece wants a video camera for her birthday. What should I get her? She already takes a lot of videos with her phone (has been for a couple of years) but wants something a little more professional. She originally asked for a camera but is mostly interested in videos. She's turning 15 but is pretty careful with her stuff. I assume a dedicated video camera will be much better than a DSLR? What about this? https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1109405-REG/panasonic_hc_v770_full_hd_camcorder.html

I've just finished recording all of our old family VHS tapes to the computer and now have about 90 gigs of video which I need to (mainly) trim bits (blanks and tv show popups) from and to make into chapters for putting onto DVDs. Windows XP had that crappy movie maker thing but Windows 7 doesn't seem to have it. I was wondering if anyone had a recommendation for a (free) bit of software which can do what I'm after. The videos are all recorded to MPEG-2.

This many buttons requires a new thread. Who's buying a Blackmagic ATEM Mini Extreme ISO? https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/blackmagic-atem-mini-video-switcher-goes-extreme

Anyone know anything about Fossil Watches? Good/bad/indifferent? Relic? I was initially looking for an LCD/analog watch of the likes of this, but ended up falling in love with the looks of this one, due to (a) its almost all-blackness, and ( the cool use of the wood, and the way the numbers drift outside of the face. Who knows, maybe I'll get more than one. I'm thinking of getting this one, too (again, due to its almost all-blackness), but I'm worried that the red "throb" might be visually distracting. Thoughts? Anyone know of any other companies that make that analog watch on an LCD face with the "throb"? I'm a high-tech guy, so I should have a high-tech watch. I'm…

Hey folks, I find myself in need of a couple of webcams now that my relationship will be long distance for the next 9 months (one for me, one for the gf). I simply don't know very much about webcams and am not looking for anything out of the ordinary but I was still hoping someone could share an experience or two just to give me an idea. The cams won't be used for anything beyond basic web chatting (gchat and skype probably). Need sound for both as well, but I assume that comes standard with most. Budget is probably no more than $50 per webcam. Here's one that intrigued me earlier today. Thanks much for any/all help.

So I was bored and started looking at 300B amps, and came across this: http://jacmusic.com/Yamamoto/html/Amps/A09/description.htm Does this pass the non-shitty 300B amp test?

This is a little outside the "normal" world of audiphilia, but I have a pretty vexing problem. The right side transport of my Pioneer CMX-3000 is acting up. It can't read most CDs, regular or CDR. I am afraid the drive is failing and I'll have to ship it back to Pioneer. Before I go that route, I'd like to try cleaning it. I haven't owned a CD cleaner in more than a decade. From what I recall, they're not all created equal. Any suggestions on what brand name cleaning discs I should look for? I'm additionally worried in that the last disk I used (ca. 1994) was an audio CD with a brush on it. It included frighteningly cheerful music and a 1950s-style voiceover telling m…

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?

Their new amp, the Bosangwha, is beautiful (to these eyes.) However, it is a $4000 pair of monoblock chip amps. I like them because they make unique products, and because they have honest-to-goodness innovations like the gaincard. I dislike them because they fuse arrogant bullshit like tea ceremonies and heritage pottery with audio equipment, and are ridiculously priced. You can DIY a gaincard for about $150, and while I understand a premium going to the R&D, a 20x premium seems a little steep. They're free to charge whatever they like, but still... So my question is, does the wrong outweigh the right, here? Lots of companies make mediocre products that a…

Interesting article over on NPR's website ( read it whilst they are still around ) . http://www.npr.org/2011/03/05/134256592/whatever-happened-to-the-audiophile EDIT: add tiny url for tapatalk users http://tinyurl.com/4o8hcxj All the usual suspects are present and correct So, where have they gone or, are we all just here? Lively comments thread. The other place gets a mention

My phones setup is in its early stages. I have a Cambridge Audio DACMagic (c.1993) going into 404LE and SRM-T1. There is a Meridian 518 jitter-buster before the DAC, and the digital source is usually my Macbook, and sometimes a Sony CDP-750 from 1988, which I love for it's incredibly fast track access and associated number pad. The problem is, I feel ill after not very long listening to it. A headache which is kind of metallic-toothachey... I don't think I am running it too loud. I suspect the problem is that the source combination is just way too crappy for the Staxes, which of course I know. Even the 518 can't save the DAC. It is probably a minefield of jitter, di…

Same photo, five different interpretations. Some changes are obvious, others are more subtle. Which one do you like best, and which one do you think is the most accurate representation of the actual real life scene? Something to think about and keep in mind when we're out listening to gear, doing comparisons and so forth.

Hi to all I am a regular over at HF and I recogise many of the posters here. I lurk here a bit, but only once previously had the inclination to post. My question relates to burn-in. As stated in the thread title, why does burn-in only ever improve gear? I have posted this over at the other place a few times, but of course it gets ignored. Now I'm not so sure about the whole burn-in thing personally. I've never really had a 'wow' experience. There is teh real chance that I'm just too deaf to hear any difference. I can understand why drivers might need some time to loosen up, but electronics? Anyway.... back to the real issue at hand here... Given the scenario w…