CarlSeibert

>>>>envy<<<<< I heard the Berkeley this week on a very nice speaker setup. It sounded superb. A little ways beyond superb, actually. The rig sounded like very good analog, like really good tape. It was driven by a very generic Dell desktop that couldn't have cost much more than half what the Lynx card that was in it did. Now, that's kind of like one hand clapping, since I haven't heard the Berkeley with any other computer to compare. What's worse is that there are those who say the PCI Lynx sounds better than the PCIe one. Which means you either buy the Lynx with less street cred, OR the one that will fit in either PCs or Macs. Damn. But disclaimers aside, the cheapie PC/Lynx arrangement sure did play tunes through that DAC. -Carl

I had 90 downloads a month for $19.95. When they tried to get everybody to "upgrade" to fewer downloads for more money a year or two back, they said that as long as I kept my account in good standing, they would honor the 90 downloads/$19.95 deal. So I was grandfathered from then to now. Now, I never really took them literally, (I don't know why not, actually) but literally, they are now breaking their word and I'd be a little less miffed if they were a lot more polite about it. -Carl

Those rascally Russians......... -Carl

I'm in. -Carl

I think I'll stay with them for one more cycle, to see what happens, download fifty tracks worth of "hits" and kiss them goodbye. -Carl

The disquiet over Last.fm's founders making for the door added to the mess at eMusic makes this a crappy couple of weeks for online music services. (Although HDTracks advertising the Plant/Krause album in 24/96 would count as a piece piece of good news.) Anyway, for those who haven't heard, eMusic signed a deal with Sony for all or most of the more-than-three-year-old content in Sony's library. That pissed off their die hard "indie" customers. At the same time they announced a price hike that amounts to just a hair under or over 100% for their oldest and most loyal customers. If that wasn't enough, their communications were a PR train wreck, and if anybody had missed the message that they've become full-fledged corporate scumbags, the crowning glory was censoring a bunch of blog comments that contained references to a Twitter hashtag (#emusicfail, for those who just can't wait) that was being used to protest the affair. Here's the blog in question: More of the good stuff at 17 dots and an item on the Twitter affair: Emusicfail stories at Techdirt. The price increase puts an album from eMusic in the same general price range as full-resolution music delivered to your house on little plastic disks from "New and Used" at Amazon, and comes in a time when people are hurting for money and are looking for recurring expenses to cut. Add in the "abandonment of indie music" perception, and I doubt I'm the only customer they'll lose. So why are they trying the shed their oldest customers? Pure stupidity is one explanation, of course, and there's a fair bit of evidence to support it. Or maybe the new Sony deal changed their cost structure enough that those old plans - which must have been profitable at the time they were sold - are seriously underwater now. (eMusic, of course, denies that the price increase and the Sony deal are related.) Maybe they're doing so poorly overall that they feel the extra pinch would bite harder than blowing off a lot of continuing revenue and goodwill. Who knows. Personally, I was very enthusiastic about eMusic for years, but you know, it's probably time to stop cluttering up my collection with 192 KBS MP3s. -Carl

So they have a few things to learn ......about headphone meets, proper trade show manners, and, ah lets see, how audio works. WTF. -Carl

Given what's happening/happened to eMusic, this is not at all good. -Carl The eMusic dustup is probably worth a thread. I'll go see if I can find a link...

I haven't had exactly the warmest impression of Monster since this episode... Blue Jeans Cable Strikes Back - Response to Monster Cable — Reviews and News from Audioholics Funnier than all get out that that the victim turned out to be an ex-IP lawyer. But not really so funny. A buddy of mine was put out of business by a frivolous IP lawsuit. If you're little, you're vulnerable to bullies. -Carl

No! Not the vinyl! Don't give away the vinyl!

Wow. Al, I thought I didn't miss TOO much, and then it turns out I missed almost everything on your impressive list of missed gear and more. Maybe three days is the ticket. (Assuming I'll miss the last half of the last day due to crappy flight times again) I thought the Woo WA5, with Jack's new digital gear and the HD800s was pretty cool, too. That combo was the best sound I heard. (Of what I heard, of course) The 800s were very interesting. I get an inkling they could turn out to be for headphones now what the Nikon F was to cameras in 1967, if that makes a damn bit of sense. The F was the reference point for everything else. It wasn't the best 35mm camera on the market, but it did an exceptional job of just about everything. It was widely available, expensive but not ridiculously so, and it became something of a standard in many circles for a long time. In my brief experience with headphones, there hasn't been a product like that. Now whether having a semi-universally accepted benchmark in an industry is actually a good idea is a notion that could be debated for a while..... For any of the CanJam crew within the sound of my voice - thanks again for a great weekend! -Carl

We use Transmit and CyberDuck at work. Transmit is OK, but over-priced for what it is. CyberDuck IMHO is an unintuitive PITA. Some people really like Capt FTP, but I haven't really used it. Lately I've been touting Filezilla. It's free and Open Source. It's available for most all platforms and no platform's version is crippled. (It pisses me off big time when developers do crappy versions for Linux or Mac or whatever.) The people who maintain it are really conscientious, and hey, it works. It's not terribly pretty or fancy. It's a graphical FTP client is all. -Carl

Have never heard these drivers, but there's something about planars in general (my old Apogees, for instance) that I just can't get away from. -Carl

Vision test: Voltron 1 Carl 0 -Carl

At the office we have lately (past two or three years) been using the Sennheiser cc510 or cc520 (one ear or two ear versions of the same thing) and we've been quite happy with them. At my desk, I have a ghastly-expensive Plantronics, complete with a bulky amp. It works fine, but so do the Senns for less money and hassle. I wouldn't go that way. At home, I have a one-eared sound tube-style GN Netcom - dunno what model, but ca. $100 - that works very nicely. Both the Senns and the Netcom are compatible with phone desksets with built-in amps. I assume they would be compatible with a computer soundcard. It looks like Dell sells the Senn cc520 for $120, so that must mean that they do work with soundcards. -Carl

The MP3 sounds fine, so indeed, it doesn't matter. Of course, that also means, why go to the extra trouble? It's just the journalist in me. I want to know. What WERE they thinking? -Carl

It COULD be a needle drop. But normal people clip off leadins and leadouts when they separate the tracks. There is one track where there are a couple of faint ticks. And a bit of surface noise on another. A little too perfect to be sloppiness. Too subtle to be a canned effect. There's got to be a point to it. Although maybe it's only on Adams' head. -Carl

The MP3 download that comes with the new Ryan Adams LP (Cardinology) has leadin/out groove and surface noise effects. Maybe I don't get out enough or something, but this strikes me as pretty strange. There must be a story behind it. Does anybody know? -Carl

Friday, after business lunch/meeting downtown and short nap. P, can generally be talked into helping..... -Carl

I just booked my ticket. See you there. -Carl

If you squash the dynamic range down to 10 db or so in mastering as is the fad nowadays, the music is hosed regardless. One of vinyl's advantages is that a lot of it was pressed in the dearly departed past, before that stupidity got out of control. Or maybe it's just that we don't play the really crappy pressings. -Carl

Vicki - from your sig - Cain and Cain Abbys? Single drivers? Is there a subversive sub-culture you aren't a member of? -Carl (who has Metronomes)

The truly scary part was when the group serenaded Bonnie with 'Happy Birthday" TUNEFULLY. You guys are the best. Let's form a support group so nobody wimps out on LA! -Carl

Oh nooooo! Oh well, look at the bright side - maybe this time it will stay broken long enough for somebody to find the parted connection. It sounded great at Mike's -Carl

I imagine you could make a more or less perfectly performing headphone mimic a lesser one. But if you had a more or less perfectly performing headphone, why would you............. -Carl