Leaderboard

I think it was sometime in 4th grade when I heard my friend's older brother playing White Zombie and I remember being extremely drawn to it. Walkmen and discmen were my most valued possessions from then on. I remember Weezer's blue album and Gin Blossom's New Miserable Experience being the first CDs I ever bought. I remember my dad confiscating them, along with Pearl Jam's Vs. and Ace of Base, proclaiming I was only going to listen to christian music from then on. That's when I swore my allegiance to heavy metal and led me to heavier, darker music. Tops is still the hearing Vulgar Display of Power on my walkman on a middle school field trip that a friend lent to me. That buzz lasted years and years. Ipod mini was where the audio quality actually started getting good in college. HD650s > assorted 2nd tier bullshit headphones > better dacs/amps > Endgame ATC speakers. Nothing has come close to ATC, though they all had some admirable qualities obviously. For me its about maximizing whatever releases I like, and progear seems to be the best way to do it with the minimum snake oil bullshit along the way. I never cared about soldering techniques, I want to hear the music put to tape during the recording, and they usually used a similar progear chain so that makes sense to my simplistic, uncomprehending mind. I guess I'd rather hate a recording for what it is than love it for what it isn't. Music is human action and I want to be part of the conversation.

Re: That dude falling.

i have no idea what i did today. the music started late morning and here i am. there was some laundry and vacuuming in there somewhere i think.

Personally, I'd take it off, just in case. Also, I'd take photos of external condition but I'm just paranoid.

PJ Harvey - Dry

When I was twelve years old, I was riding my bike around the neighborhood. Suddenly a van pulled beside me and Stiller and Meara jumped out and forced me inside the van. Yes, I was abducted by the comedy duo. They took me back to a rundown house, where another abducted child named Ben was being held. That's right, he's not their real son. I was held for three years before escaping. I spent my time training the rats in the basement, and was finally able to overthrow the comedy duo by a rat coup. My rat leader, also named Ben, after the other abductee, was able to talk the other rats into cornering the comedy duo, but I couldn't talk Ben, the child, into leaving with me. By the time I was able to call the cops, the house was empty, except for Ann's bra, a small amount of rat fur and the John Denver 8 track we had been forced to listen to daily. During my captivity I always told myself that if I ever were able to live a life of my own, I would buy some better audio equipment and assassinate John Denver. I was able to accomplish both goals, and even made the assassination look like an accidental plane crash.

Went to see this: http://www.londontheatre.co.uk/londontheatre/news/ltg14/boa14583.htm Tiny central London theatre seats 100, and a stage the size of a living room. Absolutely awesome to see world class acting that close. Boa is the nickname of Harriet Walter's character - no idea why they did publicity photos with a snake.

Spent all day in my office trying to get rid of papers and other junk so I'll eventually have room to move Tim's papers and junk into my office. My guess is that I have 2-3 more days of work in my office before I can start on Tim's office. The work never ends...

Johnny Marr remaster on vinyl

First thing I put on was the radio, and it was all brimstone and fire -- in terms of how strongly they were warning us against going out and driving in the snow -- looked outside, it wasn't snowing yet, so immediately went and ran the one errand I needed to run today. By the time I got home about an hour later, one couldn't see the streets or parking lots -- the ground was cold enough from the past two days of single digit temperatures that it started sticking immediately, even when being driven on. And I was skidding all over the place, so went straight home and am staying here. Will cook some, clean some, practice some, and laze some. Started with the lazing.

There are still things connected together. Why would bringing the wires outside the box for a moment change whether or not the electrons want to be pampered by Techflex?

Sorry for the troubles with the Speedy, it's a nice watch. FWIW I also had understood that the speck had moved away on its own, but given I'm not very smart and that English isn't my mother language, it's almost a miracle I understand half of what you write.

Haha, no, I mean weather-wise.

its been a while for me, but what if is mandatory. i bought it in 2008 according to amazon, couldn't find it so i just downloaded the mp3 from their cloud thing. ...then promptly bought the shm cd on amazon in the hopes of it being less hot. but either way what if is pretty spiffy. a little bit of everything.

dixie dregs - what if

possible - but I laughed out loud... (at work)

Sauron

You mean, Nevada?

Yo La Tengo | The Sounds of the Sounds of Science | Grado HF2s

HC, the headphone melting pot. Me - love of music started at a young age. I remember listening to (but not enjoying) classical music with my mom from the meager stereo that we had in the house. That progressed to me saving up my summer job $$ when I was 11 or 12 and buying the first CD player that we had in the house. It only got more nuts from there. The first real system I had was an Onkyo Integrated amp and CD changer coupled to a pair of pretty huge Infinity floor standers. I had that system from 16-20 and then things got really nuts. I had a friend that was a pawn shop junkie and we used to tour the seacoast shops trolling for good deals. He found the first, which meant that he wanted to offload his Nakamichi pre-amp/amp setup which I happily adopted. I added a few more bits like dual 12" passive subs in custom cabinets driven by a huge, rack mountable Yamaha pro 2ch amp and Boston Acoustics main channels. I eventually added a second set of main speakers, why who knows, and then swapped the Nak stuff for an NAD integrated and 3-CD changer. I had that rig for a few years but eventually was swayed over to the dark side of home theater. The best HT rig I had was a Pioneer Elite receiver, fed by a unremarkable or at least nothing-worth-remembering DVD player with Paradigm speakers on the front three and a little pair of Boston Acoustics in the rear and an Infinity sub. I think I had that setup for the better part of 8 years or so. I still have the Paradigm stuff in the house, but the Elite was sold and replaced with an Outlaw receiver (1050) to help Ian shed some gear and I currently have no spot for rear channels. If all goes to plan this year we'll put an addition on the house which will finally allow me my first shot in 10 years to upgrade and expand the gear. Where do headphones fit in? In 2002 I moved into an apartment and couldn't really use the HT rig much. I wanted to listen to tunes. I got a pair of Sennheisers for Xmas (from Ian no less), discovered Headroom's website, bought a pair of ER4Ps, then found Head-Fi and as someone who always loved to tinker with stuff got a little more involved in the DIY side of things than I ever thought possible.

Growing up in India, I never really liked Hindi/Bollywood music. The stuff I did enjoy (sufi music by the likes of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan) was considered "too adult (whatever that meant)" for me. I was always a night owl - had a weekly purchase of 4 AA batteries for my flashlight because my sister wouldn't let me read past her bed time so I would pull over the covers and use a flashlight to continue reading. Eventually I got to the point where I needed to stay up to do homework so I was allowed a table lamp. Around this time, my dad got me a Sony Walkman for playing cassettes as a birthday present and my weekly quote of 4 AA batteries went up to 8. Man I loved that thing. Over the next few weeks, I ruined the few tapes we had from listening to them over and over again and happened upon the FM feature. 99% of the stations were playing songs from the 70s and 80s which all sounded like crap to me and then out of nowhere I heard a very slow rhythmic acoustic guitar. Nothing Else Matters by Metallica started my journey into metal and english music in general. I never got pocket money or an allowance as a kid. I was told as long as I had straight A's, I could get whatever I wanted - all I had to do was ask. The requests for basketballs from America and badminton racquets from Singapore changed to cassettes. We had a shitty little Sanyo tape player but I couldn't listen to it at night once my sister was asleep and the walkman sounded infinitely better. The next birthday, I received a 12 pack of rechargeable batteries because I was going through quite a few batteries between the walkman and the flashlight. I listened to the cassettes during the evenings and the one radio station that played non Hindi music from 9pm until I went to bed as that was the only time it ever played english songs. I had a habit of listening to one cassette while reading a novel and I'd only move onto another cassette when I had finished the novel. Till date when I hear a song from the past, I remember exactly what I was reading over 15 years ago - whether I was under my covers during a school night reading when I should have been asleep or if I was sitting under a tree during the summer reading without a care in the world. Last summer, I decided to revisit some of Michael Crichton's novels that I had enjoyed as a kid and immediately the songs started playing in my head. It was a great feeling as it took me back to a time when I thought I was actually being chased by a velociraptor in the middle of Jurassic Park. Back when I thought some day I really would save the world from an island full of dinosaurs. To be 9 again.. When I moved to America at 16, I asked for a portable CD player and was amazed at the ability of this nifty Sony software to fit some 500 songs onto one CD compared to the 10-12 I was used to. At the time I didn't know that it was achieving this by compressing the shit out of the songs but I wasn't as concerned with the quality of what I was hearing. Fast forward a few years and I started looking for a better pair of headphones for gaming which led me to Head - Fi. A year of looking at insane people who had spent more than $150 on a pair of headphones, I purchased a pair of Sennheiser HD 595s and a Little Dot MKV amp. The combo was years beyond anything I had ever heard before. A couple of years later, I found out about CanJam in Florida and it seemed like an absurdly good opportunity right in my backyard. Still remember getting 2 flat tires on my way there. I had never had a job (always had been in school full time) so I didn't have any money to be able to afford a room at the meet and my parent's weren't too keen on letting me go either. Al and Gene, in their infinite generosity, offered the couch in their room and even kicked out Steveio when he passed out on the spot that had been promised to me. At the meet, I listened to blues live for the first time. The Eric Culberson Blues Band also happened to be the first live show and it made two things clear - live music was waaaaaaaay louder than I could handle and I really liked blues music. At the meet, I didn't hear a familiar song but it was a great introduction to all the music that I didn't know was out there. After the meet I went through a few years of gear farming where I bought and sold multiple pairs of HD650s in hopes of finding something better only to realize that I hated every single alternative I tried. Once the 650s were settled upon, I started cycling through amps and only really stopped only I built the bottle head crack and paired it with the inexpensive emotiva dac, that I was done with the gear acquisition syndrome for a while. At least until the Jh16s were announced. Since then things have been fairly calm in terms of gear and a lot more time has been spent trying to find new music and relistening to the music I grew up with. Somewhere along the way I was invited to HC and now I am here, amongst you fine people. Sitting on a comfy couch with my feet up (can't lay down flat because of a massive groin sprain), sipping on some good chocolate milk listening to Ritchie Havens live at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Cheers

I wasted countless hours per day during my teenage years sitting on the bus dealing with traffic jam in Bangkok, Thailand. As a birthday present, my dad got me my first Aiwa "Sound-about" and I've been hooked with portable audio/headphones ever since. I was so amazed that such a great sound was able to come from such a small package and I was able to take my music with me. My first highend phones/earbuds was the Sony MDR-E888 in 1996. I thought nothing will be able to best the E888 sound wise...glad I was wrong. Then I got seriously interested in portable minidisc and discman and started collecting them. Then found Headwize in 1999 and found others who were just as passionate about portable audio/headphone like I do. I still remember fondly that one day I would like to own the legendary Ety ER-4S and Headroom Cosmic and capped off my collection with Sony MDR-CD1700. I should have stopped at the E888.

I had completely forgotten about listening to the 1812 Overture (yup, the part with the cannon) over and over on the family console system as a tiny kid, of like four or five. Or maybe that was where an interest in guns came from. Or maybe every kid back then listened to that record and thought it was cool because of the cannon. I have that record. I don't know if the copy I have is that record or one I bought more recently because of the association. It's on Mercury, if I remember right. Anyway, I'll have to dig it out, give it spin, and see it that's a for-real, proper audiophile cannon shot.

I was born in a country that is no more - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. At that time just about everything was scarce as cavities on hens teeth. So basically if you somehow got something, you surely needed to able to fix it. Have you seen plastic bags being machine washed and then fitted with cotton inlays to keep them go longer? I have. My pops, after he came back from serving in the red army (he was lucky to be dumb enough to tell the conscription commission that he had relatives in US, which saved him from Soviet-Afghan war), scraped up enough cash to buy a Sharp two cassette decker from sailors. That catapulted him to the top of his local crowd of 20-somethings. He was able to copy records, which at that time meant being the local music kingpin. Records were rare and usually came from the same sailors or were ripped from foreign radio transmissions. The main man who did the first copies was called the The Great Audiopirate - if you somehow got your hands on the second copies, everyone would automatically worship you because evidently you were "up-there" pretty high. Usually second tape copies went to high caliber underground discos, then they trickled down through further copying through guys like my dad. The funny thing was that due to the quality of these records being abysmal, many of the older folks don't recognize western music from that time being played from good records - things like cymbals were absent in these records. So when I came into this world I had more music at my disposal than 95% of the other kids. I also had many peers who taught me interesting things like soldering, basic electronics and making explosives (strangely enough that's also a big thing in our family). I also learned to read at the tender age of five, which meant a lot of reading and rapidly widening my worldview through various encyclopedias and Jules Verne books. Yet the affliction of audiophilia came much much later. I've loved music all my life, yet the thought of "better playback" came to me at the age of 23 when I also had the cash to make some of it come true. My mother flew to NY that year and bought a Grado SR80i for me with the money I gave her. The next year I went to study to Iceland...