skullguise

That play sucked for MP.....hope he recovers quickly enough. He's a good player.... Even as a Bruins fan, I think they should have metered out a smaller suspension for Chara (2-3 games? Who knows). Yes, Chara is not "that" type of player, and it was a late hit that may not even get called in another situation. But even when a good player makes a bad judgement, there should be some message sent. And that said, for the true "intent" penalties, the suspension should be a LOT stiffer.

Stereo Review had once bascially said speakers are the most important, and everything else sounds the same if it measures well. So I think you're ready to go! Seriously, I think the DX4 is a nice driver, without going nuts in price. I had them in a simple bass reflex tower bought from Lowther America, and drove them VERY nicely with some Wright 2A3 mono's, as well as a Pathos Twin Towers integrated (this was all before we had our child; exposed tubes and sharp and hot class A equipment went away after we did). Slight brashness in the vocal region, but not quite that "honk" that is sometimes claimed.....

Richard Thompson, Dream Attic. On sale at a Border's closing up shop near me.....

HBD, Nate! Hope it was a great day and continues into the night. I still owe you your ATC Conditioner, don't forget it

'Appy Birthday!

Good luck on impending interviews, and impending....romances? I like these types of stories a lot.

Best of luck to both of you, may it work out for lots of joy and lots of money. I started my new job today, along with my new boss and new co-worker! Nice build-out they're doing, hiring several folks. We'll have some messes to clean and expectations to set, but this has already been started by a consultant I know well, and the future looks quite interesting for Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence!

Shoveled. More. Fuckin'. Snow. And went food shopping

Nice haul indeed, Shelly! If H-C is to be known as a bunch of lushes, at least no one can say it's in bad taste! As for me, got my new Altima yesterday....just in time for more snow and removing the "clean" from my new baby.

Happy Birthday, and may you always be safe!

Congrats, Alex! And also of course to the mom and dad! It was great being an uncle before being a dad, not that it truly prepared me for anything.....

Dinny, you should argue that Lawyers HAVE no peers, therefore cannot be judged by others.....unless they like you

Happy Happy Birthday Birthday. Hope the cold gets better, and you have a good make-up birthday celebration Moonshine.

Happy Birthday Dan....may all good things come your way!

Hi, On vacation, but it's at the in-laws, so taking an e-break I think the high's on the Parasound are a bit more extended than the Rega. The mids on both are VERY good, but there is a slight fullness (a weight, spaciousness, but not typical tube lushness) with the Rega that I like a lot. The Parasound has a hint of brashness in the mids IMO, or maybe it's the Rega is missing it. But the details are still there with the Rega, and if it is a coloration, I like it. I think i'd like to listen to some well-recorded piano to judge more about the mids on the two units. So far, based on maybe 15-20 hours (and it was in the store as a demo with music thru it for many days), I prefer the Rega just because it's making me enjoy the music even more than the already-great Parasound. Time will tell if that impression stays; there is certainly some music where I noticed the softer high's with the Rega, but it didn't seem to bother me. If anything, it may take the edge of some poorly recorded digital. I think in the wrong system, the Rega could get boring. TOO much softness will rob the life out of some music. But in my system, it's a really nice fit so far. PS - faux pas in my first impression post: I said it was mostly "objective" and of course I meant SUBjective....

Thanks, Vicki. As it turns out, she literally just bought a pair a few weeks ago, a local store does have them. And she concurs with you regarding the comfort

Good stuff all. And thankls Dan for the glass order. Next week, I hope to have a nice pic of my car Vicki, my wife has some nasty foot problems that flair up off and on (Neuroma). She generally can't wear much of any heel. Do you think these SAS shoes/sandals would be good for her? She NEVER has enough shoes....

Thanks, Miguel. I got 11 1/2 good years out of my Maxima, despite it being treated like crap by the New England weather, various parking lot crazies, etc. I'm downsizing to the 4 cylinder Alitma 4-door, better gas mileage but still a good amount of pep....

Put a down payment on a car....picking up my "new" model year 2010 Nissan Altima next Saturday. 47 miles on it, one of the last three 2010's on the lot. Third car in a row from the same dealer, they treat me well!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, and many happy Ebony Returns

Grand River Buffalo Company - Buffalo Jerky. Mmmmmm....peppery....

Minor updates.....put this into my Stax rig, since the wife complains when I use the speaker rig and she's around. This was compared, somewhat apples to oranges, to my Parasound 1600 DAC, driving the Spritzer-modded 727A/O2 Mk I's via blanced cables. The Rega has only single-ended out. Volume matching was manual, so this is all pretty objective. Music was Alison Krauss Live, Tool Aenema, Propaganda A Secret Wish, and Loreena McKennitt An Ancient Muse. Two things were clear to me: - The Parasound is a heck of a DAC - The Rega is a hecker of a DAC There was an immediacy, especially on vocals, that the Parasound just excels at. But the Rega almost matched it in pure vocal presence, and outdid it in several other areas. I have had the luck to be standing 6-7 feet from Loreena McKennitt when she did an in-store appearance for one of her shows/CD's. Thru the Parasound, there is a purity to her voice that is captivating. Rich, yet natural, with just a hint of the brashness I hear in the studio recordings. With the Rega, it's not quite as brash, but it actually brings me more into her voice, and the memory of that time when I listened to/saw her up close. I think it's the sense of voice in the space that's better with the Rega. The Rega adds a very slight fullness to the mids, a weight that doesn't seem to blur the sound at all though. I have memories of the Apollo CD player, it was a tiny bit on the dark side. This DAC doesn't remind me of that at all. Rich, with a bit of warmth, but no fuzzy details (and compared to the Parasound, a bit more transparent in that regard). I know this sounds stupidly hi-fi, but Guitar and Banjo plucks from Alison Krauss Live stuck out in their detail and place in the soundstage, and really helped to have me bouncing along quite happily. The Rega "PRaT" was certainly in action. Tool's CD was an eye-opener. I got some nice tight and deep bass on my speaker rig, and that continued to the Stax rig. MJK's voice and some little tricky sound effects were pretty wide and deep in the head stage, but very specific in their location in that stage. When I first got Spritzer's modded Stax amp, I thought it didn't do soundstage as well as my old tube exstata amp. However, the Rega does show it to be fairly capable. The edge found in much Tool music is still there, even despite the slight warmth of the DAC. I haven't got a great sense of the highs yet, they do seem a bit rolled off. I still hear some nice air and details, but not as much as other sources (especially the Buffalo's, which can sound too bright and sterile in some systems). Finally, I was playing a bit with the filters. For 44.1 source signal, filters 1-5 are listed as: 1) Linear phase half-band filter 2) Minimum phase soft-knee filter 3) Minimum phase half-band filter 4) Linear phase apodising filter 5) Minimum phase apodising filter Still had some diffculty telling major differences, but in general, it seemed like filters 1-3 sounded most similar, softening the sound a very tiny bit more. Filters 4 & 5 seemed to focus mids a little more relative to the other filters, and didn't seem to have quite the softening effect in the highs. All VERY subtle, but this was my impression. Still have to play more with these. Overall: a very fine DAC, at first blush does most things better to my ears than the Parasound, even when driving single-ended versus balanced out. VERY musical and involving, with a slight warmth but not so laid back as to be dull or dark (I thought the Apollo I onwed was a bit dark, a bit too laid back int he mids for my taste). The warmth seems to extend more towards the top end of the frequency, allowing the mids to be dteailed but still have some bloom or weight. All leads to some very involving listening. Sorry for the all-over-the-place writing, these are based on some quick random things I was writing down off and on.

Dinny, I picked one up this week, went for the 32G as well. New Hampshire had their share. BTW, I paid $299 since my upgrade time wasn't there yet. Nice gift for the wife, I think she'll love it. My wife uses a BB for work, does a lot with it. But she uses an itouch I gave her at home a lot, too, and likes that a lot.

Little bumpage.... Just picked one of these up from my local dealer. Floor model, new condition but had some playing time. Silver, too Plugged it into a second system, comprised of a Panny DVD S47 player, the Rega, a Radii EL84 triode integrated amp, to my Silverline Preludes. Good amount of detail, while still slightly warm sounding (and it's not just the tube amp). Have swapped around the filter settings a bit, haven't got a good grip on them yet, may need to put it into my headphone system to better judge. I like the music this is making, though; it's definitely not going back! Hope to get some time this weekend, otherwise it's not until we come back from a trip next week.