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She & Him

Got the Sigma 17-50 f/2.8yesterday. Loving it so far. I haven't done any tests but it seems to focus ok. I'll have to look at the typical problems that the Sigma's have so I can check that this one is a good copy. It is pretty large already (especially since I've been mostly using the Nikon 35mm DX lately). Glad I didn't get the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 now, since it would have seemed huge. Crappy cell phone pic:

Well, I bought the 11" air: 1.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz,4GB memory, 128GB flash storage,Intel HD Graphics 4000. I also got the microsoft office suite, a year of one-on-one help/lessons, apple care, and a neoprene sleeve. The screen will be fine for my mom as she's used to a small laptop already (13" I think). She wanted something lightweight for travel, and was talking about netbooks, but I know that's not what she wants. I may get her an ipad later, but she wants a computer. I also bought the microsoft office suite and had them put it on, so it will be there when she gets it. The one-on-one personal help sessions will be great because she can use them in Dallas (Apple Store right near my brother), Florida (one near me), or at home, even if the store there is an hour away. I'm excited for her to get this. Talking with my brothers, we all agreed, if she knew any one of us bought it for her alone, she'd majorly stress out about the expense, ruining the otherwise perfect gift. We're all, including the grandkids, going to put our names on it, and I know that the real fun for her will be her telling all her friends,"Look what my kids got me." She's one of those old-school mommas who gives everything to everyone else, doesn't want anything for herself, and rarely gets to be the recipient of something this cool. I wish I could be there when she opens it. Now if I can only stop her from buying one herself in the next couple weeks.......

http://youtu.be/K7dcSr04G8s

http://www.oppo-bluray.co.uk/UserFiles/Docs/PDF/HFN_Oppo%20BDP-105EU.pdf The reviewer is a nitwit, but I noticed this in the sidebar: "However, SACD is now downsampled to 88.2kHz LPCM regardless of whether the Audio Format > SACD Output mode is set to DSD or LPCM (also unaffected by HDMI Audio or Coaxial/Optical output setting)." Not that you would ever hear a difference, but its interesting none the less. EDIT: Wow, those guys are quick over there (avs). Their comments: "That statement represents a profound misunderstanding of what's going on with SACD DSD audio. There is no down-sampling for DSD-Direct-to-Analog Conversion nor for DSD output via HDMI. The concept doesn't exist for DSD. There is, however, the required 50Khz filter in the DAC. For conversion to LPCM, use of 88.2KHz is also not "down-sampling". It is "correct sampling" as it also imposes the equivalent of that 50KHz filter. DSD encoding is subject to quantization noise in the audible frequencies. SACD counters this by "noise shaping" which pushes the noise up above 20Khz at the expense of making it substantially worse up there. This noise is not due to the quality of the recording or the quality of the playback. It is, rather, simply an artifact of using DSD with noise shaping which has to be dealt with. You keep it from getting to the output via the 50KHz filter as part of converting SACD DSD to Analog. However, when you convert to LPCM, whatever is downstream of the player no longer knows the signal contains that DSD quantization noise -- it has no way of knowing the signal came off an SACD disc. So no filtering gets applied. By using an LPCM sampling rate below 100KHz the math accomplishes the same thing -- those high frequency noise components get discarded. Simply put, it is not always the case that a higher sampling rate is better, and converting SACD DSD to LPCM is just such a case." This answer makes a lot of sense given the points raised in that XIPH article regarding distortion issues.