jp11801

anyone heard these carts compared to the shelter 500/700/9000s? I have lusted after some of the ZYX carts for a whie but went the shelter route as they were easier to demo. Maybe once I am out of debt I can give these a try or is there a case to sell the shelter and pick one of these up are they that good?

Craig built the Zana and my amp with caps he had custom spec'd from his Moth days he was about to run out on the last batch of Zanas. He went back to get more made and the price tripled for them hence the increase in price. These are the two large caps that stick out of the top of the amp.

Happy Birthday, we'll raise a belated pint or three at Can Jam, hope you had a great day

I would second Nate's suggestion to get a tan and check out amps at the same time in Florida for CanJam08. if you can get a listen to the Zana it's one of my favorites although with the rise in cap prices the amp may be above 2k when you are ready or is you go to CanJAm get a listen to Boomana's SP Plat Extreme, it is not the garden variety SP and sounds great. I am not sure I'd go 2k on solid state I think you can get a more musical and detailed sound out of tubes at that price range. Others may disagree though.

88 and 94 proof but I took the bottles word for it

I would like to see the actual evidence I have scoured Dan's data and have not seen evidence to substantiate your spurious claim snake oil salesman, next you are going to tell me that cables make a difference maybe it's the gin talking but show me the proof

welcome to headcase but really man get some good headphones and ditch the no midrange, glary highs and fatiguing GS1ks and get something good like an old school rs1, hp2 or ps1 for god sakes man

well 27 days since I bought the duet and I still think it's tops, I am just about ready to sell off the cosecant the little dac really competes at levels far above its pricepoint and I would say it safely would compete with dacs in the sub 2k range and potentially above. The dac lacks the last bit of body some of the uber dacs or cdps have but I would safely stack this up against the transporter, dac1, cosecant, mini dac... the only thing I wish for is just a touch more body but still it has more than the previous mentioned dacs except the cosecant which loses on points for bass depth and tightness (I hate deep but ill defined bass and don't mind giving up deep bloat for less depth with definition and speed) . I am looking forward to the Mayberry on Acid meet to see what the peanut gallery thinks although I am convinced that people's minds are clouded by price and form factor when listening to gear at times . I am convinced that if you put a hornet in an amp case with glowing tubes and matched it against a hornet in normal clothes people would overwhelming choose with their eyes. Which goes back to this dac in that I believe the mac only, small form factor and sub $500 will lead to comments like . It's good for the price or lacks refinement... because people inherently listen with their eyes. I can't wait to match up the pico and the duet out of my Mac mini rig/Eddie Current HD2 to see how these two stack up on the dac front. I believe the pico may outperform the duet from a headphone output standpoint but the dac sections I dunno?

I would wholeheartedly recommend the exemplar to anyone at it's current audiogon price it is a steal, nothing in the $1500 will touch it for redbook. The sacd/dvd-a is just ok but the redbook is where the exemplar shines

I am remain impressed with the duet in my rig and feel that the apple only core audio is most likely the reason for the great sound and low cost. This is one product that breaks the price paradigm and show you don't need to spend $2k to get great sound. To me the sole quibble is the klonky breakout cable is a PITA for home audio use but is a small price to pay for the duets price to sound quality ratio. For $1300 you can get the mac mini a 750gb hard drive and the duet and have enough space for over 1500 cds

well the one and only time I heard the new Grados was at the meet I held in San Leandro. I have a vintage brown leather pair and FooMe brought his new RS1s and there was no comparison to either of us. I felt a little bad telling him I thought they were way off the money but he readily agreed that the new ones sounded off. To me they were muffled sounding like a blanket was cast over the music. I am pretty sure he sold they pair quickly and tacked down a vintage rs1. That said it is a personal choice as to whether the oldies are worth the scratch. Having heard the brown leather and next series after that the black leather no serial # they sound alike to me and are a much better value on the used market. I would not buy a new pair of these after hearing what they used to sound like.

the volume scheme on the software is set up as attenuation at max you are at 0db attenuation and as you lower the volume knob on screen it shows how many dbs of attenuation at that setting

I set the volume for max there is a knob on the unit as well as a screen interface for volume I just tried it with front row and yes it works

Aaron having been to your house and seen the pawn shop of gear you have piled up...

ok here it is a cosecant/pico/duet throwdown

Al has a bad case of the stutters

I am going to have to disagree with your positioning of the mac mini. It comes bundled with ilife 08 made specifically to handle home entertainment from apples mac mini page "Live the digital life in stylish simplicity ? up to 39% faster.1 Just 6.5 inches square and 2 inches small, Mac mini lets you have more fun with your music, photos, and movies, more quickly and more easily. Enjoy them up close or far away with the included Apple Remote. The most affordable way to Intel Core 2 Duo, iLife ?08, and Front Row starts at $599." so Apple highlights music, movies, photos and a remote to me that is a home media server? YMMV

I really want to hear these hopefully they will attend MOA

super hemps from Omega Audio are 37hz to 18k I would not call that a severe limitation in the frequency extremes http://www.omegaloudspeakers.com/superhemp.html/url]

to me the duet has deeper bass, potentially better detail and images better than the cosecant and the cosecant provides vocals and instruments in the midrange with more body and warmth. Mike you and I see the duet in different terms or are describing the same thing very differently. I see the duet as faster, maybe more dynamic and brighter but you has described it as warmer. I would not classify this dac as being warm at all it reminds me more of the ayre cx7e fast detailed , great image but maybe just a touch thin in the mids (or accurate and I have become used to mids thicker than natural?) Either way I would unconditionally recommend the duet to any mac user who is looking for a great dac under 1k that punches far above its class. By way of tech data this unit is said to use Cirrus CS4272 dacs I know nothing about then other than they are a 2003 design according to the Cirrus page. Anyone know anything about these chips?

I'm not kidding but I may be stupid but I do not see it as a breakthrough office audio device, you can laugh at me if I buy one 1/1/09 [mod edit] changed to reflect author's real intentions...

yes I lust after car crashes my secert is out you got me, hey will the wadia also interface with my police scanner I use to track down these car crashed so I can hear the dispatch is 24/96??

Billy as usual your post confuses me as this product is meant for HOME ENTERTAINMENT HELLO isn't Wadia a home audio company, if not the home where is it meant for if you say the office I am going to crap myself laughing as the press release talked about how easily it fits on a racj space meant for a HOME the comment about China was in reference to people wondering how a company that can't make a remote for less than $200 can make this for $349. It was not a knock on potential sound quality. In closing Billy Wadia is a HOME AUDIO COMPANY and the market for a mass market price point item would be the home. Billy you may not be aware of this as an independent business person but most people in the working world work of a cube dude so the office market is really small. Seriously just for a minute think about it most everybody has a home stereo as opposed to the extreme few that have office stereo rigs. Yes the numbers are higher here duh because we are a site made of of audio freaks that do shit the average person would never do. The comments about options are not stupid have a point rather than by this years audio equivalent of a furbie why not buy something that has actual value. I am a huge advocate of the mac mini as an A/V hub for Home Entertainment and fully believe a mini is vastly superior and flexible to this adaptor. I was really inclined to just ignore your post but lust like a good car crash I couldn't just walk away

I did technically cheat though I bought a guitar on the 1st after having the meet to buy the guitar cancelled on the 31st but the money came out of the atm on the 31st??