fordgtlover

This guy is so full of shit. I had a quick look over at the USPTO. Monster Cable's Trademarks are for audio and computer cable use. As for their wide Trademark portfolio - there are 8 live Trademarks for 'Monster Cable'. I could only find 1 under Noel Lee. Where the fuck does it give rights to Monster Mini Golf? If he wants to have exclusive rights to monster minigolf why doesn't he file for it? Of course, if it were to be granted it would quickly be revoked for non-use. I'm pretty sure the USPTO does not encourage every asshole company to thrust their corporate loins in the face of small businesses that have similar names yet trade in completely different goods and services.

Weird Al fans are gonna love that.

Has anyone heard the OPUS DAC with poor recordings. Is the presentation 'ruthless'?

Thanks for the information. Just to confirm, the comment about tube warmth was quoted from the article. It was not my comment.

Sure, the source first mantra requires pristine material, but much of the music I like is simply not available as high quality recordings. As a result, I need kit that is sympathetic to source deficiencies. I couldn't think of anything worse than buying gear that exposed so many flaws that I ended up hating my music. I have been toying with the idea of buying an OPUS DAC, but if its presentation is ruthlessly revealing, it just wouldn't work out for me. Perhaps I've been hiding under a rock or something, but I haven't seen too many really useful reviews of the Twisted Pear DACs.

The part I picked up on was the following statement. I wonder if others feel the same about the Opus DAC. The Opus's strengths are in its spatial presentation and rendering of distance between instruments. The tubes do add a touch of warmth to the presentation, which is probably needed as this DAC pretty much strips everything from a recording and throws it into the soundscape. It's great if you've got a high quality recording, but on discs that have been butchered by recording engineers or those containing low quality digital samples the presentation is ruthless.

Australia says WTF

I've only built a few SMD boards, and used the 'apply solder to one pad and tack down the part while holding it with good tweezers' approach. Fortunately, I've had pretty good success with it. I have just finished soldering up two Bantams and happily managed to avoiding screwing up the PCM2702. I was more than a little reluctant to take on the bantam because of that chip, but my confidence has lifted from these builds. I have one more to build. Hopefully, I can nail all three. My view is that this is a fine little DAC for the money, and bang for buck, there are probably few DACs that compete, but it is fairly basic sound. I'd say the two things that stand out to me compared to my primary DAC, which is a modified ebay DAC, is a lack of dynamics and some detail. The Bantam reminds me of the first DAC I used, the Silverstone EB-01. As I recall, the views on the EB-01 seem to be that people thought it was OK for the money, but the sound was pretty basic. Given that the Bantam is about 1/3 of the price of the EB-01, I'd suggest that it's a good buy as an entry level DAC.

I have no idea why, but I found this response even funnier than the drive/derive post. Good for a laugh (unless boomana wasn't joking)

Very cool. Thanks. It works from Australia.

I'd throw a vote in for the Seasonic s12. Works great and is pretty quiet. My only experience with Antec PSU was a few years back and I simply wouldn't bother buying another one to try. Personally, I'd avoid an 80mm PSU fan these days.

Here are a few more piccies

I know that you've already pulled the trigger on your purchase, but I'd throw a vote of confidence in for a Hitachi. They are nice drills to use and the batteries hold their charge well.

I find ibuprofin usually works pretty well. If the pain doesn't let up after a few days, a good hard massage might be the ticket.

Terrible pun, but still I laugh.

While I have found a few quite nice merlots, I prefer merlot blends; shiraz, cab sav etc. As a single variety wine, my preference is shiraz or cab sav.

I've had a range of drives in different machines over the past few years from Lite-On, LG, Pioneer and my current drive is a Samsung. They all seem to work fine. DVD burners are mature technology so they should all pretty much work OK. I think they are mostly disposable these days. Here's a link to a recent poll over at cdfreaks.

Just bought a Rotel RCD-855 CD player off ebay.

Sounds like any 'possible' benefit might be offset by an increase in risk. On another matter, Women's basketball. USA and Australia are playing tonight for the Gold medal.

The Australian TV commentator was commenting on the odd - and seemingly insecure - way that the USA team were holding their baton. Rather than holding it in their palm with all of their fingers wrapped around - as would be the traditional way - they appeared to be holding the baton with the ring and little finger under the baton and the middle and index finger holding the baton into the palm. Presumably, this would offer less grip with a wet baton.

I don't know what time it was on, but I missed it Hopefully I have it recorded, but I read the result anyway - no big surprise. I can't see anyone standing in the way of the USA team.