Miscellaneous

And the Fire is official. Out November 15, 2011. "GDGT's Ryan Block notes that the WiFi-only Kindle Fire is merely a "stopgap" product, hence its pre-holiday release. Writes Block, "[M]y sources tell me the second-gen Kindle tablet [...] will be out in Q1 of 2012 -- yes, that soon."

Thought some of you might be interested... Stereophile: Naxos Blu-ray Breakthrough

I thought we were having some light hearted fun in the "Is this the anti head-fi forum or what?" thread, only to see it locked very quickly. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't get any kind of malicious sense from those last several posts, just some fun loving, lighthearted ribbing. I noticed the same thing in another thread recently. Are we jumping the gun too early and censoring like the other site? Just my own viewpoint.

I've been thinking of expanding and moving my office rig. At the moment I face the back of my office (back to windows) with my rig set up as Headroom style rig using the Headroom stands. For pretty much my entire day I fact the back corner of my office looking at the computer screen with my back to the window. As a result, I rarely use the actual desk portion of my office furniture. Here are a few pics of the layout and one with a crude drawing of what I am considering. Current layout: Proposed future layout: I question whether this is overkill. I already have the speakers, I would just need stands. Either the low gain beta I have in my office now or th…

Hey all- So I need some advice. My pre (99) only has one set of preouts which is currently running to my power (909), and I need to get my sub back in the system somehow. At first I was running the power with the Quadlink and the sub with the regular preout, but the Quadlink really does sound as bad as everyone says it does, so thats not an option. The sub can be run with either interconnects or speaker wire, and it has outs for both. So this leaves me with three options: 1. Use a Y-splitter from the pre. For some reason this feels like a bad idea, feels like it would degrade the signal. Anyone ever done this? 2. Run interconnects to the sub and then from t…

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…

Hey, I'm from Aus. As such, most of our gear operates at 220-240v, which limits my 2nd hand amp purchasing options. So the questions is, is it worthwhile using a step down transformer? What are some of the cons, that I could run into?

I was at the Verizon store, trying to undo a Verizon mess-up (what else is new?). It gave me a chance to scope out my next phone, upon which I will be placing a large emphasis on *good* camera performance, as I tire of carrying a real camera to various casual events. My prime candidate, the Samsung Galaxy Camera, was heavily disappointing. It was MUCH larger and heavier than any phone OR compact camera I've owned, not to mention the ugliest. It's like they literally took a phone and camera and fused them without weight or size savings. The 21x zoom lens was not bad even zoomed all the way out as far as IQ and focus speed, but it looked ludicrous when zoomed out. …

Folks, My apologies for using this public forum for a private request. I was wondering if someone here could ask NwAvGuy (creator of ODAC and O2) to contact me. I tried contacting him, but his blog contact-form is full. We have a project at MIT that may relate to his work. My private email is: tom [at] findthomas [dot] net. I would be so grateful if NwAvGuy could reach me. Thanks in advance. Tom Hardjono @findthomas

Hey guys, Just a heads up of a post I saw on Facebook. For a small company in a niche market, that kind of loss can threaten being able to stay in business. Avoid crazy deals and no buying off the street or in back alleys/white vans.

My partner and I are thinking that we may want to buy ourselves a new tv for Christmas (probably 50"). Right now we have a Samsung 40" 720p LCD. We have been pretty happy with it but I think it is time for a step up. We have a lot of windows in the living room but do most of our watching at night. Any suggestions? How is Sony vs Samsung?

I was just washing some sheets and heard some noise in the washing machine. There were two AA batteries in the washer that got in with the sheets. They were submersed in water. I took the batteries out and they seem to be ok - no obvious swelling or tears. Will the sheets be ok to use after washing again? Should I do anything to the washing machine? I guess I am worried that some battery acid might have leaked out.

Nate, this is for you for the upcoming La Nina winter. $2600 Meyer Home Plow

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

link My attitude on "less than an hour a day of listening" (which seems to be the takeaway on Facebook, although it should be "...less than an hour a day of too loud listening...") is this:

I'm wondering if I would be in a better position by buying a USB memory (64GB around 200$) or a new iPod exclusively for the car at 275$. I have no experience using USB stick for listening to music files and I'm a bit concern for the sound quality. Presuming the USB device will be more cold resistent if left (forgot) for a longer period of time in the car, I dont want to sacrifice too much for the sake of durability. Have you any idea on wich one will be ahead in this comparaison when using large files (lossless exclusively). Thanks in advance, Amicalement from the North....

So my daughter is sitting in her bedroom in a rented house while away at college listening to music on a Apple Hi-Fi boombox. Suddenly there is a loud pop and sparks are flying from the power cable to the boombox while the room goes dark. She pours her water on the carpet which ignited from the sparks and called me. The boombox was plugged into a cheap multiple outlet surge protector along with a curling iron and hair straightener neither of which were turned on at the time. The incident caused the house panel circuit breaker for the outlet to trip. Any ideas what could have caused this? She wasn't touching or moving the boombox in any way when the incident happened a…

Link to Audiokarma thread

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.

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…

Anyone know of a portable sound recorder that lets you rewind and playback events from a live recording while still recording the main track? This is an ability that may help me when expressing my thoughts in discussions, it will be voice recording and on a budget of £200 ($300) or less. Something digital with inbuilt speaker would be what I'd need. Douglas p.s. I won't be able to converse much

Any good ones to recommend for a ground floor bedroom? Thanks.

I've got a Studer amp to keep my Stax menagerie under control via the SRD-7 Spritzer. It has always had quite marked mechanical hum when run at 240V (Australia's mains voltage). I have a 240 -> 110V transformer and the Studer is able to be configured to almost any possible mains voltage via a rotary switch and with a change of fuse. Did that. NO FREAKIN' HUM! $2.50 for 2 new fuses! Love it.

Was sure whether to post here on on music forum but...6 of 1, etc. So what's the dif in SQ and overall value between the Gold cds (mofi, dcc) and xrcd? Just heard about xrcd in ad from exclusive disc. Some interesting stuff there so I was wondering.

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.