HiWire

Foxygen – Hang

Did you know this album starts with Monday Morning?

I'll see if I can arrange a listening session with one. One of my local Head-Case friends has an Esoteric player and he is happy with it. The new EMM Labs (made in Canada!) TX2 transport uses an Esoteric drive. Their DA2 DAC got a good review, but it is a little pricey: https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/equipment-reviews/1081-emm-labs-da2-reference-digital-to-analog-converter And there are the Meitner Audio MA-2, Hegel Mohican, Audio Research CD9, Cyrus Signature transport/DAC, and so many others. Call me old-fashioned, or maybe the jukebox scene from Akira just stuck in my head...

I'm sad about this. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get a UDP-205 (or whether I should buy one) before they're gone. It's the last of the reasonable-priced SACD players with analog outputs. Sony quickly discontinued their $350 UHP-H1 player after the HDMI-only UBP-X800 4K player was released last year. Marantz hasn't updated their mainstream player (the audio-only SA2005) since 2014 and Pioneer's Elite BDP-88FD Blu-ray player is almost twice the price. Marantz's flagship SA-10 SACD player is about $7,000. Esoteric, Luxman, and Accuphase players are somewhere in that stratosphere. I wrote a CD player comparison from a listening session at a local audio store a long time ago when I was shopping for my CD player (I'd love to do an updated one with new hardware and older ears): https://www.head-fi.org/threads/5-players-enter-1-player-leaves-nad-m5-simaudio-supernova-accuphase-dp-75-audio-research-cd7-arcam-cd36.277933/ I have a small DVD collection and I've upgraded to Blu-ray in the last few years, playing them on my Super Slim Sony PlayStation 3 (its Blu-ray video and analog audio output are impressive, but its DVD upsampling quality is average at best) to my Panasonic plasma TV and Arcam stereo. The Oppo UDP-205 seems to be the magic bullet. To get analog output out of HDMI-only players, you can use the $40 boxes you find on Amazon or you can try one of these: http://www.essenceelectrostatic.com/product/hdacc-ii-4k/ But I find the idea of HDMI-analog conversion dodgy at best – my preference goes to manufacturers who are capable of putting together a top-level analog output stage in their digital source along with a quality transport and DAC. It leads to fewer boxes and cables and a reasonable budget that doesn't include power supplies that cost thousands of dollars (Naim, I'm looking at you). I was also disappointed to read that Oppo dropped HDCD support in the UDP players. Some of my favorite albums are on HDCD (the entire Roxy Music CD catalog) or SACD hybrid discs – I'm invested in nearly-defunct silver disc media, although I recently started ripping my discs to Apple Lossless files as a backup strategy. My Arcam FMJ CD36 broke down last month and I had a moment of panic (I've owned it since 2007). I wrote Arcam (now owned by Harman, which it turns out is now owned by Samsung!) and they told me that they were unable to repair this "long obsolete" mechanism. I really didn't want to get rid of my beloved player and I am against disposable products in general. After about a week of inquiries, I was able to find a local shop who repaired its loader mechanism and replaced its belt – crisis averted. Arcam has been heading towards a mass-market product range for over a decade and this was the final confirmation for me. They pointed me towards their new product, the upcoming $1,000 HDA CDS10 SACD player/network streamer: http://www.audioaffair.co.uk/arcam-cds50-sacd-cd-player-with-network-streaming. Their refusal to service my CD36 left a bad taste in my mouth. I invested in an all-Arcam system a few years after getting my CD player (Arcam C31 preamp + P1 power amps) and I think they were the last statement audiophile products from the company. Changes in the market have caught some of the major players out, but I still think there is room in the middle for people with modest budgets. My recent experiences with the Chord Mojo, the Beyerdyamic Amiron, the Focal Elear headphones, and even the Schiit Fulla 2 amp/DAC proved that it's still possible to get audiophile value for money. Additionally, I enjoyed listening to the Focal Utopias and I'll have to try them again. I still believe there is and will be a demand for high end CD and SACD players, though not a large one, and the recent cassette revival proves that obsolete audio formats can return from the junk shops. High-end cassette decks are going for quite a bit of money now, and it's possible that the same could happen to disc players (provided there is a viable parts supply, particularly their transports and loading mechanisms, as I found out firsthand). The refurbished Sony UHP-H1 is selling for cheap on eBay, so I took a chance and ordered one today... I'll let you guys know if it is any good after it shows up.

I've always been curious about this one... Matador is re-releasing the Exile in Guyville on May 4, but I'm not sure if the remastering will be a step forward, backward, or sideways, considering how well the original was regarded: https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/03/liz-phair-announces-25th-anniversary-exile-in-guyville-box-set/ Metric – Grow Up and Blow Away

Pretenders

I've been running 11.2.6 on my iPad for a few weeks. No problems at all so far.

Young Marble Giants – Colossal Youth Styx – Paradise Theatre Minimal – maximal music...

Any news on the new DSHA amps? I'm guessing they turned out to be labor-intensive or prohibitively expensive to put together...

Magic City... I've been looking forward to this one for a while:

Rush – 2112 Prince – Purple Rain ... a little late to the party

I'm fairly conservative when it comes to knives. I've never had the money or the desire for "designer/custom/collector" products, so all my knives are mass produced. Just as an example, you could get the Sypderco Tenacious folder for about $45 from Amazon and you wouldn't have to worry about it: https://www.amazon.com/Spyderco-Tenacious-Plain-Folding-Knife/dp/B007CK1MNU/

The titanium frame makes it worth more, and the blade steel (RWL34) could perform reasonably: https://www.spyderco.com/forumII/viewtopic.php?t=70461 Ultimately, it's up to you if you like the design. You can buy a useful every-day-carry knife/utility folder for much, much less. This looks more like a gentleman's knife than a hard-use knife (e.g., the handle looks slippery), but the materials and fit and finish look good in the pictures.

I bought and read Black Man years ago... it was enjoyable, but I felt like I was missing something. Obviously, I should have read the other books. The book I think of immediately when the transference of consciousness is mentioned is Kiln People by David Brin... highly recommended.

Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan (for really obvious reasons)... I've been meaning to read it for years.

Getting rid of all the ports might allow them to make a waterproof iPhone/iPad (IP68). It's going to be a pain point with A/V gear for a while, though... I can foresee a booming business in XLR to Bluetooth dongles, low-latency wi-fi hubs for mixing equipment, effects, etc... maybe in ten years. Not sure if fiber optics will get a shot before cables disappear.

Keeping it on an i5 and 8GB is basically the best way to keep the price down. You can configure a new one with a 256GB SSD for only $50 more.

What are you using it for? I'd go for the 2TB Fusion drive because it has a larger SSD cache of 128GB... the 1TB Fusion drive might have a 24GB or 32GB cache: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7975498 I'd also go for 16GB of RAM and an i7, but that's just to mitigate the fact that it's a product from 2014. Graphic power is a weak point, but it's good enough to run 1080 resolution. A bit hard to justify at the prices Apple is charging, even refurbished. The strong points are that it has Thunderbolt 2 and you won't have to buy a dongle for Gigabit Ethernet or HDMI. It's probably a good idea to use an old keyboard and mouse... Apple increased the price of the new wireless keyboards and mice.

Bryan Ferry – Bête Noire

I hope the cables are labelled nicely behind all the gear... what a dream studio.

Bojack Horseman... better than a sitcom!

Great article... I think I'm at the opposite end of the writer's spectrum, though, despite the amount of time I spend listening to music. Since I buy music in CD/SACD form, my library is strongly constrained by budget, so I don't listen to as much new music as I should (my collection is also strongly-weighted toward audiophile recordings, which generally means that it is extraordinarily conservative). Instinctively, I know this is wrong because many of my favorite albums have been somewhat random, rather than planned purchases. Still, that Mobile Fidelity SACD of Santana III has my name on it. Even with those caveats, I have no excuses with access to free Spotify, internet radio, YouTube, etc. We are living in an unprecedented age of musical accessibility, and I am not one to complain.

Suzy Wilde https://soundcloud.com/suzy-wilde

I'm loving it so far. They appear to have consciously avoided repeating themselves and some of the stuff has been crazy, beautiful, scary, and unforgettable. It's bittersweet, too, to see everyone getting old and knowing some of the actors aren't around any more (RIP, Miguel Ferrer). I'm going to try and pace myself with an episode a week. This show deserves my time and it shouldn't be binge watched.

I finally got the Blu-ray set for this show (just watched the first 4 episodes). The sound design is by David Lynch... I'm not sure if people with TV speakers are getting everything out of the show. Has anyone else watched it yet? I'm surprised by how many actors Lynch was able to get back. There are some big-name stars, too, but I don't want to put too many spoilers in here.