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You can't have it both ways. If you're writing reviews that are read by "thousands" and you are receiving discounts on the products you review, then that is a material connection to the manufacturer that must be disclosed. And you're not doing this for free. If you receive a discount, then you are in fact being compensated to the tune of the amount of said discount. People may be making buying decisions based on your reviews (for better or for worse). Accordingly, you have a duty to disclose anything that might affect the credibility of your review. Fortunately, this is all rather easily solved by simple, clear, conspicuous disclosure. When people balk at such disclosure, I get very, very suspicious about motives. But who cares what I think. The FTC on the other hand... I recommend familiarizing yourself with the FTC's 2009 guidelines on endorsements (attached hereto) and the recent guidance it disseminated regarding same. The FTC has made it very clear what the rules are and how to comply. I'll get you started. Example 7 concerning Section 255.5 seems particularly apt to me: Example 7 (section 255.5 disclosure of material connections): A college student who has earned a reputation as a video game expert maintains a personal weblog or “blog” where he posts entries about his gaming experiences. Readers of his blog frequently seek his opinions about video game hardware and software. As it has done in the past, the manufacturer of a newly released video game system sends the student a free copy of the system and asks him to write about it on his blog. He tests the new gaming system and writes a favorable review. Because his review is disseminated via a form of consumer-generated media in which his relationship to the advertiser is not inherently obvious, readers are unlikely to know that he has received the video game system free of charge in exchange for his review of the product, and given the value of the video game system, this fact likely would materially affect the credibility they attach to his endorsement. Accordingly, the blogger should clearly and conspicuously disclose that he received the gaming system free of charge. The manufacturer should advise him at the time it provides the gaming system that this connection should bedisclosed, and it should have procedures in place to try to monitor his postings for compliance. I've written reviews in the past. Like you, I also have a day job and do it for "fun." (Though I sometimes get paid cash money by the publication.) So these rules apply to me, as well. I try to disclose as much as possible any material connections; it is always on my mind for the simple reason that I don't enjoy misleading people. And I think I can probably improve on it, as well. Ignore this stuff at your peril. ETA: Also, I'm curious what your policy is regarding the resale of the gear on which you receive a discount. If/when you sell such gear, do you set the price based on retail or the price you paid? In other words, do you try to turn a profit? My personal policy is not to accept more than what I actually paid. However, I guess if it were some sort of collector's item that had an unforeseeable increase in value, I could see reaping the benefit of that. 091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf

dac1541 is going to be the giant killer. r2r,sign/magnitude, fully balanced, and dsd for a price that is less than half of a yggy

I would definitely try to find a used NAD M51.

I can bring the L3 instead of the Dynalo MKII as well...but Tom will bring the T5 to the meet so I may still bring it.

I'm a bit loathe to post this, but I have had some interesting and positive experiences. There's a lot of buzz around about various USB tweaks to extract better sound from PC or Mac audio. It was cheap enough that I decided to jump into the fray. I started with a Uptone Audio Regen, and immediately heard sonic benefits. So I looked for various other devices, and ended up with an iFi iUSB 3.0 (used at work with my Chord Mojo), iFi iPurifier 2, Audioquest Jitterbug, and just tonight a previously-unknown-to-me product called the Intona USB Isolator. A lot of marketing BS floats about, along with some science, pseudo- or not. Everything I have tried so far, though, HAS had some improvement in at least some areas. Not all improved enough to enjoy....the iPurifier 2 did some nice things, but sucked some air and life from the music. I haven't yet really tried the Jitterbug enough to judge it fairly. But I have had such positive experiences with two products that I wanted to mention them: The Uptone Audio USB Regen, and the Intona USB Isolator. I believe the iFi iUSB 3.0 is doing good things at work, but hadn't tried the Mojo without it, so can't quantify. And I'm not in the mood to sit there and try things mix and match. Some people with a lot of time on their hands have been playing around with multiple devices, putting one before the other than switching sequence, etc. etc. I just want more simplified plug and mostly play. As of now, I have the Intona in my speaker system, and the USB Regen in my main headphone system. In each place, they make a nice difference in clarity and things like soundstage and imaging. More music just seems to come through. Thankfully not so expensive; range from ~$50 to $300. USB Regen was under $200, Intona USB Isolator $258 shipped from Germany. Both have made, IMO, much more improvement than perhaps any other component that costs that little. I've been reading about the USB Isolator's ability to work well with good basic USB cables, negating the need for the uber-expensive cables that don't make as much a difference. Just wondering if anyone has played around with these types of tweaks.....or cares

http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/invasion-of-the-hardware-snatchers-cloned-electronics-pollute-the-market?utm_source=Tech+Alert&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=TechAlert_04-27-17&bt_ee=sh1zjBeSTthbdS5Ya3cm1EBcWVv+zVvgSddq0Vd/Z3ryKcrB43L8D38BCW0qApww&bt_ts=1493314569249

i booked the Sonesta ES Suites Atlanta

Have you tried simply turning the spring inside the earpads?

Head-Case sized box of cigars

High end as in probably worse than the cheap shit? Yeah no...

I think I like the c4686 with two LEDs and a 9 volts battery current source.

I think we're going around in circles on this. Here's my argument. We can roughly model the roll-off at higher frequencies as a capacitor. So let's say the BJT current source is equivalent to a 300 kilohm resistor and a parallel 2 pf cap, whereas the MOSFET current source is like a 15 megohm resistor and a parallel 2 pf cap. The MOSFET impedance will start to bend over earlier in the audio spectrum because its DC resistance is higher to begin with, and the BJT will look flatter over the audio spectrum. At the highest frequencies they will both look like a 2 pf cap so they will eventually meet. BUT, within the audio spectrum, the BJT will burn up more signal current because it has a lower resistance, so the output device will have to work harder with the BJT than the MOSFET, and therefore will cause more distortion due to the output device working harder. Again, if we model the headphone as a resistor and capacitor in parallel (the resistor being there to model the fact that we're using energy to make sound), then the output device sees the headphone load (resistor and capacitor) and the current source (resistor and capacitor) all in parallel. The amount of signal current it has to generate depends on the the resistors in parallel and the capacitors in parallel. The higher the signal current generated the higher the distortion. If the current source "resistance" is higher it wastes less signal current in it. If the current source "capacitance" is small, the amount of signal current it uses to swing the capacitance doesn't really differ much from that needed for the headphone alone. The cascoding of the MOSFETs ensures that this extra capacitance is on the order of a few pf, much less than that of the headphones alone, so it really doesn't make much difference. The ideal current source has infinite impedance, and wastes no signal current, so it should be sonically invisible. My gut instinct is that the less signal current it uses, the less sonic imprint the current source should have. A flatter impedance may result in a more consistent sonic imprint, but a higher impedance should result in a lesser sonic imprint, so my argument is, higher is better.

Sadly I can't stick a nice big 80mm or 120mm fan in there as it is way too big for the case I want to use. Only a 40mm or possibly 50mm could be squeezed in, as the internal case height is 60mm and there's always additional stuff going on at the edges to hold everything together. The 40mm Noctua I was looking at, based on Marc's advice, is rated for 17.9 dBA and seems to get good reviews. It's also much easier to drill smaller holes in sheet metal 35mm or 1 3/8" seems to be about the max for normal unibits, just right for a 40mm fan. What's the best way to drill large holes bigger than 1 1/2 inch anyway?

So the guy is going to attend the Atlanta meet that Colin and Brent will also be attending. I told Brent to offer "Shill-an" a 40% discount on a kick in the ass.

BTW; everybody who gave me shit on my opinion of the Utopias can look forward to a Llama eating their favorite sweater, because I paid for a hex from one of the witches in Macbeth. Note that I didn't give a time table; given enough time, a Llama eating your favorite sweater is a given.

Planted 10 different tomato plants, 5 pepper plants, and a cucumber, a melon, and a zucchini. Should have some good stuff starting in a month or so.

The Suribachi. A tempura fried burger with wasabi cole slaw and Sriracha sauce. And some whiskey donuts of course. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Here's a new layout I'm working on. It's a GR HV/LV, Bias and Delay circuit (with LED flasher) all on one 4 layer board (3.5" x 5.5"). The pass devices can mount to the bottom plate or a heatsink. Mostly SMD parts and uses the GR78/9xx modules. Once tested I'll make this all available.

a room full of amplifiers?? ask birgir. how about 3600 square feet of amplifiers.

I expect to now be able to spend significant amounts of time on new designs

i have turned in my retirement notice, so my file server probably won't be up for more than a couple of weeks, get copies now. i have a complete backup and will be moving to my own domain soon.

Sweet! Seriously I'm happy to pick up.

Me! I'll grab em, would make nice classroom instruments.

Sure. My kids are going to get older. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

Arganese CL3. Very decent, after 9 years in my humidor. I got about three inches of ash, but that fell off while I was trying to take a pic, of course, so all I have is a pic after the first 15 minutes. 120 minute smoke.

Is this a Danny B meet? That guy even still around? :evil: Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Little of Column A, little of Column B?