postjack

I've never listened to Porcupine Tree, what's their story? Prog metal? I don't really like the Mars Volta because while their compositions are interesting, I feel like that, ultimately, they don't really go anywhere (no real theme, lack of cohesion, IMO of course). Is Porcupine Tree anything like them?

Yup, 5687s, and those are Tung Sols, came with the player. More opportunities to do a bit of rolling, I'll be trying out my RCAs and Sylvanias there as well. jpak I just got through listening to The Downward Spiral and it sounded of course fantastic. The redbook mix, however, also sounds great. I'll have to do some more listening before I make any real comparisons. Listening to Van Cliburn's Tchaikovksy's Piano Concerto 1, this sounds really amazing. I think I can safely say I definitely do prefer the SACD of this to the redbook. I also just listened to another DM sacd (violator), and I have to say, my initial impression is disappointment. The mixes sound drastically different then the redbook, and they are kind of loud. At this point I prefer the original redbook masters, but who knows, maybe I'll warm up to the new ones. Still have Music For The Masses and Speak & Spell to listen to.

Bought a Sony Modwright 999es second hand over at HF. Just got it in today! I've only listened to a few SACDs I purchase to check it out, but so far it is pretty magical. Couple of pics: Dedicated power supply: Only immediate impressions are that vocals on SACDs (depeche mode sofad, roxy music avalaon, harnoncourt mozart's requiem) seem much more real. Everything sounds wider, more rounded, all the various instruments seem to have a specific place they exist in. Very cool. The Mozart sounds wonderful. Looking forward to doing an AB test with the redbook FLACS of this through my DA100. The DM sofad I have mixed feelings about. The mix is very, very different then the original CD release. Not sure if I like it or not. More listening will tell, plus I have other DM sacds to test out. Roxy Music is spot fucking on. This album sounds absolutely fantastic right now. So airy and lovely. Just wanted to share the joy.

Those are such fantastic looking sources. Congratulations.

http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD580-Stereo-Professional-Headphones/dp/B00005S8KM/sr=8-1/qid=1170801777/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-0918350-2474444?ie=UTF8&s=electronics HD580s on the super cheap. I bought my K701s from NS&L a few months back. I sold them because they are definitely not made for people with large heads. Biting strap of doom, ouch! But I do still have the free t-shirt they gave me! I also got a free t-shirt for buying my Velodyne Front Row CRT speakers. Not as good a shirt as the NS&L, IMO. The NS&L shirt is black and appears to be made of a more substantial material. The Velodyne shirt is a thinnish white shirt. It has on it in a light blue font: BASS by Velodyne. Anyway I think free t-shirts are kick ass, especially when the product you are buying is already the cheapest it can be found on the market. NS&L has the lockdown on K701 prices, and then they are like "hey man have a free shirt too" and i'm like "fuk yeah dude free shirt." Same with Velodyne. You by the CRT front row system direct from them for $200. $200 for five pretty good quality speakers is cheaper then buying a crappy HTiB. And then they give you a free shirt. True the shirt is not as good as the NS&L shirt, IMO but still it is free clothing.

Sounds very cool! I honestly wasn't expecting an album this quick. Seems like "With Teeth" just came out.

Thanks all for the responses, I can rest easy at night now.

At the risk of being made fun of a bit , I have to admit to you all that I've had concerns with my power situation. I've done some searching and reading around here and elsewhere, and it seems that power conditioning and other power solutions could help to improve a system if that system is in an older home. Well my home is older, and my primary concern is that all of the outlets are NEMA 1-15 ungrounded two prong outlets, so I have to use one of those three prong to two prong converters in order to hook up most anything into the wall, and then those are running through some inexpensive surge protectors. Here are some pics: So should I consider either installing NEMA 5-15 grounded outlets, or some kind of power conditioning solution, or should I just relax and goto best buy to buy some old Ministry albums? Thanks all.

I ordered the Julian Bream, the Schubert, and the Heifetz. I'm still a classical amateur, but I have liked all the Living Stereo releases I've heard.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_4309162_1/002-0918350-2474444?ie=UTF8&docId=1000051701 on the cheap, if anyone is interested.

Still it seems like the only new music I follow is hip-hop. Adding to the list: Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury I cannot get enough of this album. The lyrics are pretty typical "I used to slang rocks now I rap" fare, but the flow is great and the attitude is spot on. Its hard not to have the right attitude when Pharrell and the Neptunes are sprinkling the best beats of 2006 all over the record. 100% Neptunes produced, the beats are just sick, sick, sick, sick, nasty. Unfortunately the album is mastered compressed and hot as hell, but thats just something I've learned to tolerate with contemporary popular hip hop. I would love to have an instrumental version of this record.

If you didn't care what happened to me...

I once received and accepted a second chance offer on a Montblanc Meisterstuck 146. I'd already verified the authenticity of the pen in the pictures to the best of mine and the folks at Fountain Pen Network's ability. Before accepting I asked the seller why I got a second chance, and she replied that the auction winner was not in the US and her auction clearly stated she would not ship internationally. So I accepted, and got a fantastic pen for well below the MSRP, and below typical used prices for this pen. So not all second chance offers are scams. But the above auction looks sketchy as hell. A scammer should at least have the decency to get a few positive feedbacks through shill accounts selling items for 0.99.

Cool. You think any of us will actually listen to the same songs?

"This group has no charts. Group charts are calculated weekly for groups with more than 15 members." (emphasis added) Does this mean we need 16 members to have charts generated?

This last.fm is pretty cool, easy to setup as well. One thing I missed from iTunes is the auto-production of charts. I'm sure this is possible with foobar somehow, but last.fm makes it easy. Just 4 more members and we get group charts...

"knock knock - who the fuck is bangin at my door - is it abstract commercial or hardcore?" gza genius, respect.

Those are some wild looking interconnects.

I love it.

Thanks all for the recommendations, I'll check them out. Sloth, the LC1 was the cable I was considering going with this time.

Looks like I'll be getting a new source (Modwright Sony 999es), and as such I need some longer ICs to run from the source to my PPX3. I'm thinking in the length of 5-6feet, from one side of my desk to the other. I've used Blue Jeans Cables before and they are fine, but I was wondering if there are any other ICs worth checking out in that range. Just give me a couple names and I'll do some research. The world of IC's is dense and scary. Here is a pic of my listening area to better give you an idea of what I'm doing:

Absolutely! I have been surprised at how many pen folks also enjoy audio.

Well somebody got it.

Oh shit man, I love a good bit of suffering in my SFF, its just the paralyzing self-pity and the corresponding total self-absorption that I have a problem with. When the author uses a character's reflections on their past excessively, to the point where it is either filler or a plot distraction. I also see this as an insult to the reader. If a character was say captured in a war and made into a slave, where he worked in a mine breathing fumes and getting beat and shit for 7 years, the author doesn't have to remind me every chapter about how pissed off and fucked up in the head said character is because of his long enslavement: I can infer this quite well on my own. Any fans of the New Weird fanatasy writers? China Mieville, Vandermeer, Jeffrey Ford, etc.

True about Williams, I just have a hard time dealing with the whininess while it is occurring. There are sooo many fantastic SFF books out there to choose from, so I choose not to spend my reading time on books with whiny characters -- even if that whininess goes away after a few hundred pages. See also Kate Eliots Crown of Stars. I couldn't get through book one with the female lead's "woe is me" mentality. I mean true, she was a slave to an evil priest who beat and raped her, but I like my heros to cowboy up and go apeshit on their antagonists instead of feeling sorry for themselves and letting those feelings spiral down into inaction, which results in a stalling plot device that makes me queasy. "i would save my friend from the evil dragon, but my fear of my abusive relationship is preventing me from taking action, so my friend will die and I'll have something else to beat myself up over" I'm stoked about Diamond Age. I hear it deals more with nanotech then with VR/cyberspace, which is cool because I am not the biggest fan of virtual worlds in books. I did finish Eifelheim last night, all in all this was a very cool book. Not perfect, and a bit tedious in places, but the characters were wonderfully written, and by the end I was feeling great empathy and emotion for them. The basic plot (no spoilers) is that our first contact with aliens actually occurred in a small german village in the middle ages. Really the most fascinating part of the book was reading about how people viewed religion and science in that era. They had no conflict studying science with religion - all religious scholars were required to be rigorously educated in mathematics and science - the humanities were NOT taught. The people of course were extremely Christian, but wouldn't accept "because God willed it" as an answer to any scientific question. Therefore, there was no real conflict between religion and science. They would be puzzled, for example, by todays creationists. Good read if you are in the mood for a rather densely written, but short lengthwise, historical story with aliens. Not sure what I'm moving onto now, maybe the Stephenson or maybe more of The Dresden Files, which I'm hooked on.