Yikes

There's a Welcome PM? I guess I predate such niceties.

I bought a 3 board set for an eventual KGBH build. Now all I have to do is find the money to afford having it built, and someone to do so.

Of course WTF does NPR know.

The NPR reviewer specifically mentioned that Rubicon wasn't for multitasking type viewing, if you can't give it your attention that it would be extremely difficult to follow. So I suspect that it's not mindless tv.

No DVR? With all your toys, that's just embarrassing. I recorded both and plan on giving the show a chance.

ASGARD!!!.....uhhh, shit, doesn't really work here, does it. My choice would be a KGBH by a small bit over the WES. I find the KGBH a little more dynamic, whereas the WES is a little mellower. I only have the Jades so I can get by with a loaded GES, but the GES doesn't cut it for the OII. Nice to have such a difficult decision

The rDAC might be interesting. They claim to utilize a patented Dcs asynchronous USB technology which is at least an alternative to the Gordon Rankin backed drivel. The Wavelength DAC's conveniently omit a SPDIF input so no comparisons concerning the asynchronous USB's claimed superiority can ever be made. Arcam's rDAC will allow such comparisons, and I applaud them for doing so. Still it looks like a piece of shit (cosmetically), and the specifications are a little sparse. I had heard that it is going to be a little more than the $500 that someone stated, I thought I read $500 - $700, but I haven't been paying attention. Now I might start paying attention, with the wireless option it might be a much more affordable alternative to my PWD with Network Bridge.

The beta bridges have shipped. I'll likely receive mine next Wednesday. I did receive the software for the iPad that I'll probably install this weekend. Need to buy and install Twonky on my server too. Should be interesting.

Actually, untrue. made a deal and sold my Audio-gd Phoenix. Gotta pay to live. I don't get unemployment compensation. So the toys gotta go. Good thing I got me a lot of toys

Absolutely freaking nothing, same as yesterday, same as tomorrow. Sigh..... Unemployed rut.

You have no idea how lucky you guys are to have a choice. Where I live the same company owns the Phone, cable, and cable Internet providers (PenTelData) WORST service and prices anywhere, I fantasize about how good Comcast is. Fastest (Best) cable Internet - $70/month 13 Meg down and about 1.5 up, but get this a limit on primetime data usage (5pm - 1am) of only 50 GB (less with cheaper plans) and NO provision to pay for extra usage. That means that if you go over they make you get a commercial account (which for 13 Meg/1.5 Meg and over 50 gig is literally Many hundreds of dollars). I will eventually be forced to move because of how fucked up PenTelData is, they are that bad.

I bought a piece of Schiit, I decided to keep the Schiit Audio Asgard. It really drives the HiFiMan HE-5LE Really well (Better than any of my other Amps!) so for a paltry amount it's a keeper.

Getting ready to summon up the gumption to watch the Blu-Ray of the Ten Commandments. So shall it be written, so shall it be done. Has anyone else developed problems watching movies that you formally liked, but have since found out that the Star/Director is/was a Tool so it all of a sudden becomes less watchable? Charlton Heston was a major right wing tool, so I now enjoy his movies less. The same can be said for the absolutely Loony Mel Gibson.

For anyone attending and interested. I will have a Schiit Asgard there for auditioning, now the Schiit is really going to hit the fan. It's been what, a month and the Shit puns are already getting tired. Now we'll see about the amp

It was/is, but that doesn't mean that it's not a worthwhile product. I bought one, it's not bad. It's small and easily packed to travel with a laptop. It doesn't take the place of a serious amp or DAC but for $99 it's a nice little bundle of utility. It was a perfect recommendation for my Brother. He bought one, liked it and bought another for his girlfriend. So I've been directly responsible for 3 of them being sold. Honestly, for casual listening it's more than acceptable. I'm using it on my computer rig at the moment while waiting for my Music Hall 25.2 to be modified by Exemplar Audio. Although the idiots claiming it drives HD-800's well are...well..... Idiots.

If I didn't already have a Duet in the Bedroom and the PS Audio Network Bridge on the way for the living room I'd be all over this. I'm tempted to put the Duet in.... ah..... the Bathroom?

installed a new Kitchen faucet. To be honest I don't fit underneath the sink too well, needed four people to grab my feet and pull real hard to get me dislodged.... Pop!

Made me laugh out loud, thank you.

Are you seriously saying that if we can't measure it that we can't hear it? I'd say the opposite: If we hear it and can't measure it perhaps the measurements are what's lacking. I hate fucking objectivists, they notoriously want to have it both ways. "Show me measurements that show that there are differences" then when presented with certain measurements that do show differences (albeit small differences) they loudly proclaim "There's No way that a human could possibly hear such a small difference!" I don't listen to measurements, nor do I listen under double blind conditions, so I don't give a rats ass about these methods of evaluation. If I enjoy my music more because something is more attractive (if this was the case I would have kept my Bel Canto Ref 1000 Mono's) then so be it. My enjoyment of music is my only objective. I am more likely to give something a chance if it is a Technically Sound design, or if it's attractive, but this doesn't account for why I end up with less attractive or technically less sophisticated designs. What got me going.... Oh yea... Measurements. There are measurements that show that certain electronic components do change with a certain amount of use. Capacitors for sure and I'm sure that there are others.

Sorry - Does not meet the minimum order requirements. Oh ... and I don't have anything to do with Siltech any longer, except that is for still owning a bunch of it. It's great sounding cable, I will lament its passing from my system when I finally sell the last of it.

The issue with the Asgard is that it is so reasonably priced. It'd be so easy to pull the trigger, and for what? the price of a dinner at a nice restaurant.

Sorry, my point isn't keeping track of whether something is better before or after it "Breaks-In", my emphasis is whether or not I enjoy listening to something once it has settled in (meaning that its sound is no longer changing) Once I've had a piece for long enough I evaluate it against my other equipment (or how I remember other equipment or live music to sound). At that point I decide if it's worth keeping. Does it really matter what something sounds like when brand new if IME a products sound typically changes to some degree after being played for a while. A product can not stay new forever, so what it sounds like when brand new has little meaning to me. After 30 years of buying, auditioning, and selling high performance audio I know that most products do experience a settling in period. So When I seriously audition anything I prefer that it have several hundred hours under its belt. I also make sure that it has been on and powered up long enough for everything to be up to normal operating temperature. It's just how I roll. YMMV

Close enough? How close is close enough? That's a subjective evaluation. Ultimately I'd like to hear something as broken-in as humanly possible. I've had products that took in excess of 5-6 hundred hours to settle in (rare), and I've had product that experienced little change after 40-50 hours, There's no way to know for sure. iME products that flow decent amounts of current (Class A amps and such) can take less time than those that don't. All that being said I hesitate concerning the Asgard not primarily due to insufficient break-in time, but because I hate getting swept up in the FOTM fever. The Asgard is cheap enough that unless it outright sucked I'd end up keeping it, and using it as a spare, and or eventually gifting it to a non-audiophile friend. I enjoy giving decent sounding audio equipment as gifts. I've gifted Grado's (both cartridges and headphones), Amplifiers (CIA and Creek) and even cables.

They're not shipping the Betas until July 26th (supposedly), so I don't think that they'll be shipping at that point. Late august, maybe. Since the beta is primarily for the Firmware if things go well the beta testing could only last for a few weeks, but at this point that is just conjecture.

I'm not saying anything about the Asgard, but IMO break-in and cables do make a difference, sometime fairly significant. That's why 15 days trial is not quite sufficient. I have found that some products continue to evolve well after 250 hours. So IMO a 15 days trial isn't long enough to determine if the Asgard is a keeper.