CarlSeibert

More extended treble than the HE-500, perhaps? The headband and yokes make them look like a more finished product. I guess that matters in the marketplace. FWIW, the headband on the HE-500 has never bothered me. Actually, ugly has never bothered me either, since it's more or less the midpoint of headphone aesthetics, which range from odd-looking to fugly.

That's kind of my point. There has to be two versions. The "loud" crap actually makes sense in the circumstances it's intended for. It's gonna take the mastering engineer, what five minutes, to render out the file immediately prior to compressing the life out of it. And there's the super duper premium version. Not much incremental cost. (I'm assuming here that the engineer takes a coffee break while the render happens.) Then you have to have a way to differentiate the products so you can sell two different versions and most of the money you get for the incremental premium version goes straight to the bottom line. I don't see why the labels would fight that. (Except maybe if they're total douches, which is a real risk.)

So we can have good masters done on high res (which ain't gonna hurt, worst case) and shit for the masses, and there's a differentiator and that's cool and the gang as far as I'm concerned. Without a plausible differentiator, no such thing is possible. I have zero problem with that. It's cheap, easy incremental revenue for the labels. All we need is for them to actually do it. Go Neil!

I could only do about 20s of that video. Would someone please kill that person?

I think he meant "under". So I bought 'em. Thanks Ric. Now I just have to keep them out of the spin cycle. )

Discovered that I sent a pair of Apple earbud-microphone thingies through the wash. They still work but they sound like shit. Which is pretty much as-new condition. Amazing. By the way, does anybody know of an example of this sort of thing that actually sounds reasonably good but is still cheap - under $50, let's say?

Doug, are they doing the thing where you have to show up at the DMV with a sheaf of paperwork, including things like a notarized birth certificate and a bunch of household bills (but particular ones, and they don't seem to want to share which ones)? In Florida, they had the wait time down to a dull roar after the big immigration wave, so they instituted this new silliness, which affects applicants on some sort of rolling basis. Now, it's an ordeal, even if you're not one of the unlucky ones. You have to wait behind people who are waiting forever only to be turned away. The free floating frustration makes it all the more special.

I had one of these million years ago and enjoyed it. Inexpensive, and with replaceable styli no less.

Oh bloody hell. I can't get the board to embed an iframe code for a video to save my life. So here's the URL. Note the excellent use of a shovel, (paging Dr Reks) as well as some of the best quotes in SOTs that I've heard - ever. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-victim-ran-into-the-street-buck-naked-bro-20140313,0,410409.embeddedvideo

Way cool site. I didn't know such a place existed. Too bad it's in French, translated to Googlish.

If we're talking FLACs here, I'm becoming real interested in how the store will work. If they really have the catalogs of the big three in at least full res and a semi significant portion of them in high res, that would be a huge win. It should be borne in mind that once the physical CD goes away, the only way to buy full res music will be, well, maybe this store, niche places like Acoustic Sounds, and LPs. Considering the efficiencies involved, maybe the market is big enough. And once you've done away with the physical disk, there's nothing to say that 16/44.1 needs to be the standard anymore. Maybe crappy 256 Mbps MP3s become the wares for the likes of Amazon and iTunes and fine upsacle stockists will move the easy to differentiate hi res files. Maybe 16/44.1 becomes pure legacy.

That's pocket-able.

Judging by the size of the fingers in the picture, the thing is huge by mobile standards. Still, as a device to carry around the house, it's a reasonable size. Just as long add it doesn't need an amp or an external DAC strapped on to make it sound ok.

Introduction is to be tomorrow, sez the LA Times. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-neil-young-pono-music-20140310,0,328753.story#axzz2vVcooNkY The most interesting grafs - from the bottom of the story because the world is upside down: Young has noted that all three major music groups -- Warner Bros., Universal and Sony -- are participating in the PonoMusic online music store. The PonoPlayer will have a list price of $399 and be capable of storing 1,000 to 2,000 high-resolution digital albums, according to the PonoMusic statement. Players will become available to reserve on the fundraising site Kickstarter as of March 15. “Our goal was to offer the highest quality digital music available from all the major labels with the world’s greatest sounding, user friendly portable music player,” said John Ham, CEO of PonoMusic in the same statement. “We’ve achieved our goal.” Charlie Hansen, CEO of Colorado-based Ayre Acoustics, which developed the PonoPlayer in conjunction with Young, said: “We will always be grateful to Neil Young for changing the landscape of recorded music.”

CNN sells Zite to Flipboard http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/05/technology/flipboard-cnn-zite/index.html No good deed goes unpunished.

Is anyone else annoyed at the changes to the opening sequence and main theme music in season 2? In season 1 it gave me chills. Now, mild flu-like symptoms.

Happy Birthday Naaman!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday Steve!!!!

Happy Birthday Jeff!!!

Notice the here to fore unspoken reference to a free month of the new service. Nice of them to mention that. Assuming they can actually make the app work, of course.

Whaaaa! No south Florida dates.

Jacob, Chris- ouch! Be as pain free as possible. Grahame - powerless but dignified. Your hurricane survival skills are up to spec. Knucks - exactly friggin' right. Todd - Bonnie's a vegetarian, too, but she's indulges in the occasional bacon as well. Just bacon's awesome power, I guess.

Happy Birthday, you Gen-Y-er, you!!!