forbigger

agreed. but i just wanted to make sure that my trip is worth it from the aspect of photo taking, enjoying the view/hike is also equally important though. the only way to ensure that is to look at the picture. like buying audio equipment, you either based it on audience the gear or read the reviews. in the context of this, reading the reviews is same as looking at the pictures that people took. another thing is, to get around in US within pretty much last minute can be very expensive. so have to choose the location wisely. Plus, i dont get to choose when i can come. I come only if theres a business trip and timing wise cannot be determined. I rarely comes in autumn or spring which is a shame since autumn or spring is the best time. Summer if you ask me is considered the worst timing of all four season for picture taking. thats my dilemma btw, nice pics you have there.....what gear you using if i may know

irondreamer - will give yosemite a second shot. I will always believe there's much more than just what I've seen. thrice - mesa verde actually intrigue me. but from the pics I've seen, theres not that many good spot for pict taking there. I may be wrong though

Iron dreamer - Im very sure if you venture off the beaten path, you should find a remote place worth visiting. A park the size of Yosemite sure would have the those path. Yes, I went in summer, in fact about 3 weeks ago and all I got is a standard tourist experience which left me as I said above, bit disappointed. Problem with Yosemite is that those off beaten path is not highlighted at all in leaflet of the park. Seems to me the leaflet is designed to give an easy walk through to public. Unlike Zion, all of the hikes are featured on the leaflet with level of difficulty frm easy to advance. So the visitors have a range of choice on which hike they wanted to do. Appreciate if you could pointed me to the right direction on some of the more remote but breathtaking view area of the Yosemite. Of course with a hike that wouldnt risking my life doing it. Gotta agreed with you too that fall/winter should be freaking awesome in Yosemite. Its just that it freeze my balls during the winter

Thanks Cat. thats very informative. Is Valley Of God can be seen from Page ,AZ as well? I remember i have distant shot of the rock formation from Page. Will scout these places on the internet for my after work winter places to explore

Im from South East Asia. Indonesia to be exact. I traveled like twice or more to US every year. And for the past 1.5 years I've made friends who is a semi professional photographer and knows his way to get around in West coast and its surrounding area. So when my job is done, I usually spare between 2-3 days to explore. Its surprising that I havent been to Grand Canyon at all. The staple for every tourist into US. I just dont have the desire to get there for stupid reason because its just too commercialized and common. Regardless, I will put GC into my long term bucket list...... Im going to put The Arches in my short term bucket list. I'd love to go to Denali as I've seen some utterly fantastic shot of the place. But I would like to explore West first like California, Nevada (which I'm based at during my every travel), Utah, AZ, all the way up to Ohio. Then start to mid west. Expenses to Denali I heard is prohibitive thus I'm holding it. For me Denali is like the 009/BHSE setup in our world....... also there's this pro-photographer goes by the name of Marc Adamus. He had a paid outing for photography and charges like $1.5k for 4-5 days excursion. He will bring us to the places off the beaten path and take some of the not so common shots

Folks, I'm a non US citizen but travels to US most of the time. Since I took up photography hobby (outside the headphone), I've been exploring the national park/conservation area on every visit. Here are my thoughts in general: 1. Yosemite : Crowded. Not many good spots for hunting (photography wise). You turn your head anywhere its this Half Dome. Most of the spots are easily a within short hike except Half Dome (which I dont have the stomach to climb). Overall I'm a bit disappointed with the park. But seems to me this is the most visited park in US. The gift shop is huge. Maybe come back in winter for some awesome shot. 2. Zion : Like this one. Been there once. Lots of hike and nice spots to explore. Havent got balls to climb up to Angel Landings though. Would love to be able to explore the Subway one day. Clean, easily accessible, lots of nice spots to take pictures. Definitely come back one day to explore the Subway. 3. Antelope Canyon : Love this. Easily one of the easiest spot to produce a "professional grade" photography for newbie like me. All you need to tinker with W/B. Easy hike and fantastic view/surrounding. But for me this is a "one time visit is enough" spot. For those shutter bugs, try to visit on weekdays or else forget about shooting. 4. Death Valley/Race track : For me race track is a total let down. Blame the weather, not the place. Even though the place it self is nothing to shout about and the travel to get to race track is quite long. Contrary to what I read, you dont need an SUV or 4x4 to get there. Any regular sedan is good enough. I went there @the height of winter in the middle of freaking night to try to catch some star trails but the moon is giving us her full strength so no good. In the early morning theres no cloud so the trip is pretty much wasted. Death Valley is a huge National Park (2nd biggest, CMIIW), lots of place to explore, minimal hiking but some phenomenal view and shots I've seen is from Death Valley. No time to get to the salt bed or dunes due to the storm. But would like to come back again. 5. Red Rock, Vegas : its hard to believe you could find such a sanctuary only 30 minutes drive from hustle and bustle of Vegas. Park is dirty. Quite a numerous hiking trails. Went as far as Calico Basin. Didnt have time to climb to Turtle Head. Nothing special here but worth a trip if you want to get away and find something different from Vegas. My short term bucket list : The Wave, Monument Valley, Oregon - beach front or forest with its water falls, Death Valley Dunes and salt lake, The Subway @ Zion. Long term : Yellowstone, Montana Very long term : Denali to shoot/see Aurora Borealis. Please share here on your experiences if any of you have been to any of my bucket list. Also any other National Park/Conservation area you guys been to.

I have officially relegated my Bladelius Embla to transport in my setup of BHSE/009. This DAC tame the brightness of 009. And it polished the sound too making it much more listenable without sacrifising any good traits of 009. The sound are much more refined now. Not that bladelius dac section is inferior to this neko, its just a synergy between this neko and the rest of the system thats better. Wes, i dont care what people say about all other dac ,async shit or whatever, yours are champion for me in my setup. Anyway, how long you have to take to upgrade the DAC to Mk2? Mine is Mk1. Appreciate your response. Thanks

Lenovo Y580 for $899. Just snagged this. To replace my aging MSI. Its a steal for this price. A beast really. deals2buy.com for the coupon. If you go direct to Lenovo, they charge you $50 more. What sucks is that there's tax on all states because the rep said Lenovo have a representation in all states. Found it kinda hard to believe though...... http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/laptop/ideapad/y-series/y580/

lol, got all the transparency i wanted , so i guess additional transparency wouldn't matter anymore @tari,thanks but i'm not much into wireless streaming since my listening station at my working quarter is more or less stationary. just wondering only......

yeah......didnt think of that. would the sq be compromised you stream it wireless like that?

Yup. Up to 32 bits 192 khz

Oh yes, 6moons reviewer said that this is the most analogue sounding DAC at the time of the review. I cannot comment since TBH, I have no idea how analogue sounded like compared to digital To add, Embla cannot be considered a full fledge media center as it can only stream music through a wired ethernet port. It cannot stream wireless

Ok folks. I went to the store at HK to audition this Media player and the store owner told me that his display/demo unit is for sale at a very tempting price. After some intense negotiation, I walked away with it. This is one heavy beast. 12kg or around 25lbs extremely well build. The unit I have is the basic version, 32gb CF, no touch screen with CDP built in (TEAC drive). There are 3 different versions. Standard : no cdp, no internal memory, usb input from computer and usb input frm external storage Basic : The one I have Classic : bigger internal storage up to 2tb (I believe its 1tb mirrored to each other), touch screen, pre amp section, 2 more additional filters (one hardware which is kind of separate DAC section itself and another software modified section which is based on this DAC). For more tech spec, please refer to the 6moons audio review http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/bladelius/embla_2.html The CDP can also rip CD inserted to the internal or external storage. The error correction software is done by this Swedish company http://www.moceanlabs.com/ To increase the storage I'm currently using a docking station with 128gb so that to keep the concept of "no moving parts". It sounded better compared if I stream it from computer (which is self explanatory). I pair this DAC with BHSE and 007 and 009. I tried not to got overly excited with the new toy syndrome (and I suck big time at describing sound), but here's my impression SO FAR (bear in mind I did not do a comparison with the DAC I have in hand now - Neko D100 and Stello DA100): Overall : It's a very neutral DAC. Very faithful reproduction. With a hint of brightness on upper mid. With 009 : Some recording, it can be unbearable at slightly high volume. Like some of the folks, I found that 009 is a bright headphone or at least brighter than 007 so on the condition described, I found that the upper mid can be unbearable. With 007 : Perfect. The hint of brightness actually helped this headphone to lift some of the "curtain" that sometimes can cover this headphones. Although the bass still did not extend as deep as 009 but I can listen to it longer than I can with 009. This DAC make me prefer 007 to 009 on my setup. Now I wonder if the 009 will get more or same listening time to 007 (mk2.5 btw) What I like about this DAC is the all in box solution and I don't have to use computer for playback anymore. One slight complaint is that fr Basic version all the interactions are done through remote control so if you have to scroll to find a song in a say 300 folders collections, it can be quite a chore compared to computer playback with eg. foobar. But outside from that, its a perfect one box solution. I wouldn't buy this thing if it's full retail price (between $5-6k for my config). But for the price I got it for. It's a steal.

thanks Wes. Do you mind to divulge it here in the forum regarding the upgrade cost? Im sure some of the members here also own the Mk1 and may want to upgrade to Mk2. And I'm sure the mods here wouldnt mind too Back to my questions above, no impression or comments from all of the folks here? Guess its a nay for the first and second choice

sorry to bring this back up again. dont feel like making new thread. been reading lately a lot about m2tech evo (plus the PS and reclocker) or audiophilleo. will this improve my rig over my current trends audio ud10.1? fyi, i cant audience these converter so its either i pull the trigger and face the consequences. options are: evo the whole lot (usb/spdif converter, psu, external clock) : around 1200 audiophilleo 2 + dc psu (pure power is the fancy name): 1k OR just buy battery and charger fr the trends audio : around $40 amd run with dc hoping (fwir) a better sq anyone have listened or experience this? appreciate any thoughts. rig remains the same as stated above comp -> usbspdif -> coax -> neko mk1 or stello da100 -> balance -> bhse -> 009/007

hi Ken, may try going down this route......the more i read this music server thing, the more i believe theres a cheaper alternative to achieve the same objectives through cheaper means

Maybe the below link + external hdd or ssd + DVD drive to rip CDs + $20 dbpoweramp software connected to my existing dac would make an equally good solution? http://liliputing.com/2012/05/more-fanless-netbooks-could-be-on-the-way.html

Thanks fr the link. Didn't know there are so many choices now. Briefly skimmed the website, most of the music server took existing files. Very few that Have capability of ripping it directly frm the built in cd. But again, will look more into it. This thing has becoming more and more interesting

I did audience it briefly when I tried out 009 before purchase. The seller uses this as source. With a mere srm 323, it blew me outta water. Can we use external storage connected to the unit fr additional storage? If this can be done, it will be perfect

I swear to God I won't buy anything else if I can afford this http://www.bladelius.com/products/bladelius/media-players/embla.html Never heard of this brand. Anyone has?

whale, u reminded me. i use 404le with kgss on neko, its good. best way is to try. thanks i think the difference between mk1 and mk2 on d100 is the power supply ? fwir

thanks folks. as always ,sound advices.......will report back once i got the bhse

thanks. but i have to hook it up with the usb-spdif converter. i do have trends audio converter. has there been a better converter lately? i heard this thing is a jitter factory......

Folks, been out frm this stuff for more than 1 year UNTIL Justin reminded me to pay up the balance for the BHSE. TBH, been considering for a refund since already quite content with what I have now and moving onto other hobby. But as soon as Justin posted the finished amp as per my order @the other site, my heart melted. Got drawn again into this mess. Currently I'm running KGSS+007mk2 with Stello DA100 on USB and been a happy camper for the last 2 years. With the arrival of BHSE (and the departure of KGSS), you guys think I have a reasonably good source? For the past 1 year the improvement of DAC seems very tremendous to me, theres W4S, NADM51, Eximus, Audio God Ref 1 to 7,, PSA PWD, and the list goes on. That makes my mid range Stello looks like a doorstop now. I did try out Eximus DP1 yesterday at some local meet and got away impressed. But at 3k ,bit too steep for me. I have a Neko D100 but i dont like the sound as its too dark due to lack of gain (which I believe is fixed on the mk2) and its been collecting dust. Question now is that say if I shelled out another 2k to upgrade my source, would it be a vast improvement over my meager Stello DA100? OR should I be left content with it? Thanks all in advance for the inputs.

i seen lots of people use 5d for landscape. what would be the advantage of 5d vs 550d in relation to landscape photography ? i know its FF and the iso handling is very good In the meantime, exploring with waterdrops and got the following (i think its quite nice for first attempt). Appreciate any CnC IMG_9630 by ruetamA Images, on Flickr IMG_9685 by ruetamA Images, on Flickr IMG_9830 by ruetamA Images, on Flickr