Miscellaneous

Do you guys have any recommendations for a good headset? I'm tired of making Skype phone calls from my integrated MacBook microphone so I'm looking for something that will make my voice sound good to my interlocutors. Thanks!

Just went to look at audiogon and I'm sure not in Kansas anymore. I don't have alot of time at the moment to navigate through the site, but everything seems to be a link to other sites. I'm not entirely sure the 'gon is up and running.

Did anyone order any music from Grooves Inc: http://grooves-inc.com? I ordered a CD that no one else seems to have but they had in stock, and now I am being quoted "The order will be ready for dispatch in about 20-22 working days." This makes me worried, if they had it in stock why does it take them 20 day to dispatch it.

I have a guy (overseas, who has good feedback) interested in buying my cd player from agon. I was wondering if anyone has used this or knows anything about it http://escrow.com/ Thanks

So I'm slowly putting together a computer, and I'm thinking about the soundcard, and I read this blurb in the lastest "Maximum PC" about the Asus Xonar Essence STX, which claims one of the highest SNR (124dB) I've ever seen on a card (yes, yes, I know you can't hear it, whatever) -- anyone familiar with this card or with this line of cards? Looking through NewEgg, they have others that they claim have low noise floor/high SNR (E.G. Asus Xonar DX). Any other recommendations? HT Omega seems to be rated pretty highly over there, too.

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…

I'm not much of a photographer, but the cameras in this article in the NY Times that can shoot 30-60 frames per second seem interesting. Definitely could be useful for kids/sports/nature stuff.

They are quite cool looking, not sure if anyone up here ever tried them, but USD 15k, wow, that must be something, considering they going to make 120 of them only... McIntosh Reissues Classic 60s Amps, Price Adjusted for Inflation — Reviews and News from Audioholics

Hello. I'm new to this forum & wanted to say hi. Well, as the title of the thread asks, does anyone know of any good audiophile stores in the Philippines (Manila specifically)? I will be going there next week, so I thought I might have the opportunity to check out some cool gear while I'm there - stuff that might not be released in the US or stuff that I could find at a really good price. Any suggestions or pointers would be great! Thanks in advance!

My Pop has asked me to recommend a home theater for him. $10k budget including HDTV. Any ideas, suggestions. Anyone with similarly priced setups out there?

My trusty Sony a100 bit the dust the other day and it's well out of warranty at this point so I figure it's time for a new camera. I'd like to keep the cost under $1k (body only or w/ kit lens). While I liked the a100 I'm thinking it might be a good idea to go with a Canon or Nikon this time due to the large of amount of available lenses and their seemingly better performance at higher ISO levels. Any suggestions/recommendations are appreciated

So I've been a long time Norelco user and I have one that I've reasonably liked... but the blades are pretty dull and replacements aren't cheap and it's an old model. Thinking about jumping ship to Braun as most of my friends that go electric seem to prefer Braun. Looking at their top of the line with self cleaning et all.. it's ~220 on Amazon.com Any people have experience in the Braun/Norelco dealio? Yeah I know manual is superior and all that, but I'm not particularly hairy and even though I have to make a lot of motions I only shave 2x a week and it's still pretty speedy.

I am not sure if I can post this, but here is the link to this article, which I found very interesting to read Stereophile: Tim de Paravicini: King of Tubes Now I am wonder what kind of balanced output configuration my Unico have, because of this: "Lots of people have made so-called valve CD players with a couple of token tubes. Most of them don't actually address the problem correctly, because a lot of them, if they're going to offer balanced outputs, actually go back into op-amps to do the balanced output configuration. So they've got this token tube doing not very much". Here is some article about Unico and how it works with output thing http://www.audioenz.co…

My wife bought a Formosa model S4104 guitar. She bought it because it's signed by Stevie Nicks. Just for kicks, I decided to see what Formosa guitars were about. Google returns no useful information. Does anybody know anything about Formosa guitars?

I've been considering the purchase of a pair of C-pads for my ms2i's but am have trouble finding any opinions of them or descriptions of how it changes the grado presentation. Do you or have owned a pair? How did you like them?

This was fun last year, lets try it again. I discovered the DL-103 this year and it became my favorite cartridge. The same DL-103 went dead less then a year later, which is distressing. Hopefully the next one will last longer. As accessories to the DL-103 I purchased a Cinemag SUT (currently on loan) and a Hagerman Bugle. I also purchased a Bottlehead Seduction from thrice. I still own both these phono stages. I bought a digital stylus force gauge, which is awesome. I sold a Grado PH-1 phono stage somewhere in there, and at some point I owned a Grado Platinum, Grado Sonata HO and Grado Sonata LO, can't remember if that was 2008 or 2007. I bought and sold a be…

Pretty cool link I've found on H-F, it's a bunch of A/B tests to measure how well you can hear distortion. The tests are simple and well-made and you can compare your results with the average of the other participants at the end. Audibility Of Distortion

Just in case anybody missed this on the other site, the story of the Mullard Blackburn factory Me loves my XF2's...

I'll start. Father Postjack (since he's clearly the priest in this arena) I have sinned, I said no stats in '08. I bought 3, and should have kept the Lambda/SRM combo.

I'm a moderate photography fan. I've had a couple of good reflex cameras for 35mm film, but since digital took over film, my only digital camera is a Canon Ixus 50 which makes OK pics. I've been considering to get a decent or maybe more than that digital camera, but there are so many options... All I know is that I'd like to avoid huge cameras (my favorite one was my Pentax A1) and now with digital LCDs maybe a reflex isn't that necessary. I started to look at some options and then the Leica M8.2 came out as a compact, versatile and probably great quality one, which would allow me to swap objectives. The problem is the price. At about USD6000 just the body and USD1300…

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

hey y'all I was just looking around, trying to figure out how loud (objectively) I listen to my music. I saw spl meters, and was wondering if those worked for headphones, like the HD650. If those do work for that application, which meter should I get? I was looking at the Radio Shack brand one, or this one: [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Extech-407730-Decibel-Digital-Sound/dp/B000EWY67W/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_cart_2]Amazon.com: Extech 407730 40 Decibel to 130 Decibel Digital Sound Level Meter: Home Improvement[/ame] Let me know what's what. Thanks

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…

Anyone have any experience here? Kinda tempted by the 3M MPro 100 (which appears to be running $300). With VGA and composite could be good for laptop/iPhone/Touch use.

Hey guys, a friend of mine wants to send his AudioTechnica phones back to Japan for service. Does anyone know what to put on the customs declaration? What is a safe description and value? Thanks in advance