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Yes, I like the Bel Canto designs. This is a Hifi2000 Pesante box of 2U and I used the typical heatsinks of 63.5mm high with 5mm PCB spacers. I only made some low quality photos with my phone I mounted the power LED behind the icon

Oh and back on topic. It was never about the music for me. Not really true, but someone was about to say it

Leonard Cohen -- Popular Problems

It really depends on where you live. Down near Oxford it was 7C (45F) and a stiff breeze today. But get further North and it is like Graeme's link. By further North I mean three hours drive. It is no joke that you can get four seasons in a day at a fixed place, or four seasons simultaneously separated by a couple of hundred miles. The real killer for us is where the jet stream ends up. If it kinks up above the UK it brings in warm air from southern europe, which usually means loads of rain at this time of year and warmer temperatures. But if it kinks off the south of the UK it pulls air from Russia and Scandinavia. When that happens I've seen it go down to -20C (-4F) overnight and a couple of feet of snow. Very unpredictable weather here in the tiny UK. The other weird thing is that we have more tornadoes in the UK per land area than anywhere else in the world. Say what? Yup - we get on average 100 tornadoes . Not many by comparison with 1,200 in the US, but the area of which those are distributed is much larger. Ours are also less destructive - nothing like the monsters I've seen in documentaries in the US - but the odd one can destroy a row of houses.

This thread is superb.

I have no idea whether you can get this in the US, but House of Fools. This is a BBC comedy show with a live audience in its second season, written by Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, and is unique, weird and absolutely hilarious. Has me in tears every week. If you like Monty Python, you'll like this.

One of my friends from high school bought an HD580 and either Mete42 or Pimeta. When he told me how much the amp/hp cost I thought he was genuinely crazy. But he also had a Saab 93 Viggen as a senior so I chalked it up to him being nuts/rich. Driving his car was a hell of a lot better than what that setup sounded like with my teenage angst music. RIP Saab To expand one of his friends told me to get Grados. There was a hifi store in the Manchester mall (maybe Nate/Todd knew it? Cambridge Soundworks possibly? I think this was before the mall had a Best Buy) that let me demo them. I didn't think they sounded amazing either, but for $60 or something I bought them and eventually really liked them. Sort of interesting that he pretty much got me into enjoying driving and hifi. Two damn expensive hobbies. Latest purchase was the most expensive one I've made yet; TD4001 drivers....

i remember reading in car audio forums back in the day, people putting the gas station vacuum to the side of their (empty) MDF sub boxes and having a piece of paper follow it on the other side. this is kinda sorta that

Wait, you're not dissin' Shatki stones, are you?

Wrong I can send you recordings taken from the brain stem showing how dissonant distortion is amplified and consonant distortion is minimized.

In this day and age when you can buy a basic CNC for around $500, I don't know why anyone would get out a jewelers saw.

Clearly they are hearing it wrong then, right? I refer to this as the "tin ears" postulate in my manifesto.

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.

some unexpected snow here, looks like it will surpass expected totals. still coming down heavy

Love this thread. I think I got into things because I've played music on and off since I was 7 (piano) and then switched to saxophone (12). I remember having a Sony shelf system with a CD carousel and dual tape deck. It's one of the ones that looked like a stack of real components and real bookshelf speakers instead of the crazy nonsense they got into later. It was great for the bedroom, and I'd have music going in my room all the time, even when I slept. For the go, I remember back in 1990, I had a Sony WM-FX33 walkman. It had a 2 band equalizer and radio, and I loved it. I remember listening with the stock headphones in the backseat of my parents' car. It sounded good when I was 9, but I wanted more, of course. Fast forward to the mid 90s and I $$$ saved up from birthdays/Xmas. I remember going to Service Merchandise and getting either a Sony D-365 or D-465 (whichever one was 200$, b/c 200$ was bonkers in the mid 90s for a 14 or 15 year old, and my mom thought I was crazy.) I wound up getting some Koss Porta Pro Jrs for 20$ (price matched a mistake somewhere else) from Camelot Music, and my mind was blown. I was hearing stuff out of albums I'd never heard before and that's when I realized I was into headphones. I remember the CD player was supposed to get 10-12 hours of battery life off 2xAA, but I would buy the Energizer Lithium AAs which wound up getting 20 hours (was already into throwing $$$ at the problems as a teenager.) I moved on to an Aiwa CD/MiniDisc/tape shelf system that got me into my early 20s where I got into home theatre with a Kenwood 5.1 HTIB which was highly rated at the time. A car audio buddy of mine help me set it up (tape measures, protractors, everything) and that system wound up being better for movies than anything other than demo rooms. i haven't had a 5.1 setup in almost 10 years, and I'm mostly just headphones at work now, but I still love this stuff. I wound up going through "60$ DVD players that compete with 2000$ CD players" phase, and now through some good trades and some goodwill finds, I have some Rega Jura speakers, Wharfedale Diamond 2 bookshelf speakers, a NAD receiver, a Luxman integrated amp, a Marantz tape deck, a Cambridge Audio 640Cv2, and some other stuff. Most of it sits unused, sadly, but Tidal at work is keeping me spinning bits for hours a day, 5 days a week. Hmmm... now I want to hit up some thrift shops for an old Walkman. **BRENT**

More background, after Magnets Bulbs and Batteries. I got interested in audio at about age 15 or so, having been given a record player at age 13 (with vinyl-clashing autochanger) and was not that satisfied with it. Not having much money, I walked into J G Windows music and hifi store in Newcastle on Tyne (UK) and asked if they had any Saturday jobs. Still there, and doing the same sort of stuff http://www.jgwindows.com/pages/Contact-Newcastle.html. It turned out yes they did have a place for a Saturday lad, so I got my very first paid job in 1972 (oddly enough the same year that NAD - New Acoustic Dimension started in business), My job was selling hifi gear, which I was not too shabby at. But the really big advantage was that I could buy anything in the shop at cost price - so a third off. Hifi gear, records, televisions, musical instruments. It was at that time I bought my Thorens TD150 (still have it, 42 years on) and SME 3009 pickup arm (still have it). Bought lots of records, from Classical to heavy metal and everything between. I built my own amp and speakers. That rig went through my entire university life with me and did not miss a beat. But in my first year, I was in digs (ie living in someone elses house for money) and thought I'd better get a pair of headphones, and found a pair of Koss PRO4AA second hand in a local shop (now in Southampton). They were very good, with fluid filled ear pads - but they were crushingly heavy and it felt like you head was in a vice. Eventually I upgraded to a (second hand) pair of Koss ESP6 electrostatics. They were a real revelation in clarity, but boy oh boy were they heavy. The HV and step up transformers were in the earcups, and fluid filled ear pads again - you needed total dedication to wear them. I went through several different loudspeaker/amp combinations, going active at one stage with the first of Linkwitz's designs, but using transmission line bass units - this in 1978-ish. But my move to high-end came at an audio show in London (the Heathrow Penta show) in maybe 1985. I walked into the Meridian room - and Meridian at that time were importers of Mark Levinson. So they had their CD player into a dual mono ML with external power supply, into ML class A monoblocks and Quad ESL63's on stands. They were playing Brothers in Arms, something I knew very well. It sounded like a completely different piece of music! At the time I was using the first generation Philips CD player, the TD150 etc into a Quad 34 pre and 405 power amp and a pair of KEF speakers - but the Meridian room totally and utterly demolished it sonically. I just HAD to have something that came close. So I've been though Krell, Audio Research, Magnaplanar, Martin Logan, Podium, Quad ESL57 over the years, and have now settled on homebrew power amps (8 channels) and active LX521's - by Linwitz. And there it is going to stay apart from inevitable tweaks for a good long time (knock on wood!).

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.

I grew up on one of the country's best NPR stations, WGBH, and my parent's love for Steely Dan and the like. The transition to HiFi and DIY came when I went to college for EE and had to share a dorm with two other guys. Cool though they were, headphones were the preferable choice. When I started digging and realized I needed an amp, I looked around and thought: "Hey, I can build that!" Went to a meet the next year, got praise on my build, hosted the next two meets after that, and now here I am. Edit: why is my post always the first on the second page?

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 that one at my college suite my senior year, would play it on an Onkyo receiver driving (forgot) speakers and a Phase Tech subwoofer. The cannons would literally cause the sub to dance a bit, but it played it pretty damn well. One of my suitemates was a transfer from Norwich University and said it reminded him of "home."

My parents’ Zenith furniture console with built in automatic turntable and 8 track tape, and ‘high fidelity stereo, letting you experience music as if you were there.’ So cool. My all in one Sharp console with automatic turntable, lit up tuner, cassette, and two speakers that I had to connect to the console. Then my upgrade to JVC ribbon tweeter speakers hooked up to said all in one console. So cool! Going to the library as a kid and recording (pirating) many records onto cassettes. Luckily the RIAA didn’t come after us for A MILLION DOLLARS (in best Dr. Evil voice). Normal, Chrome, and … Metal. Later, DBX. Very cool. Subscribed to Stereo Review and Audio magazine and read them cover to cover every month. Visiting Audio Consultants in Evanston in college, wandering around with no money, and pushing the auto reverse button on the Nakamichi Dragon, making the cassette pop out, flip around, and go back in. So very cool. Subscribed to Stereophile Magazine and read it cover to cover. I remember enjoying an ad for a place that sold headphones and headphone related stuff. I couldn’t understand why people would spend that kind of money on headphones, but the ads were so funny and self-effacing, that I’d look forward reading the ads just for the fun of reading the ads. ‘Because we’re headphone people!’ (That’s not quite right, someone help me.) Getting an NAD receiver and KEF bookshelf speakers as a med student. Still have them today! A little cool. Visiting a high end store in Columbus, OH and seeing/hearing a four tower speaker system, the Infinity Beta. Two towers of tweeter and midrange ribbons and two towers of dynamic bass drivers. Life changing cool. Having a small salary as a resident, and mastering the art of finding high quality used equipment. I bought a 15 year old Krell amp from Saturday Audio Exchange and drove to Wisconsin to buy a pair of out-of-business-old Apogee Centaurs off the newspaper classifieds. Fantastically cool. Ah, memories!

You must've filled up his senses, Tice

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.

My Dad taught me to build simple circuits as a kid. I remember little pieces of perf board and the smell when you hit your finger with the iron (which I must have done a lot, if I can remember it all these years later). In high school I had a little system with a reel-to-reel tape deck and a turntable and electronics that became incrementally better over time. That must of been the first onset of audiophillia. But the thing I remember most was not having music for a while. When I moved to Florida, there were no apartments available. The vacancy rate in the whole city was a percentage point or two. I rented a condo from a colleague. He was selling the condo (or trying to. A common joke at the time was "what doesn't fit, an insurance salesman, the clap, of a condominium?", the punch line was "the clap" because you could get rid of that.) In exchange for really cheap rent, I had to treat the place like a hotel room - minimal clothes in the closest, none of my furniture, no stereo - so he could show it at any given moment. I stayed there for about six months until I found a "real" apartment. The thing I missed most and wanted as soon as I got to my own place was my own music. It wasn't long after that that I felt I could afford better speakers. I went up and down and up and down Federal Highway with a copy of Heart's 'Dog and Butterfly', visiting every audio shop repeatedly. I guess that was it.

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...

Ah yes - Clive Sinclair. Back in the day (late 60's early 70's) and always trying to minimise costs he would acquire hundreds of thousands of reject transistors free. His team would then test every one to find the few that actually worked OK to use in his products. The reject transistors were used in the foundation for his driveway.