guzziguy

If you can come up with just a few more bucks, there's this! http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?intatube&1202448642

8 regulation hockey pucks. Perfect for Santa Barbara.

Bingo! In all the audio forums in which I've participated, I've seen many people search for the perfect sound by agonizing over minute differences between equipment, by constantly "upgrading" their equipment and by trying all sorts of "magic enhancements". Yet I've found that nothing effects the SQ nearly as much as the SQ of the recording. A badly recorded CD played by the latest APL NWO and comparable equipment will sound worse than a similar but well recorded CD played through a modest, but competent system. In other words, the best upgrade one can do is to buy well recorded software. Unfortunately, it seems to be difficult to find well recorded software of artists we like to listen to. Also, this doesn't mean that I don't think that my eXemplar Denon 2900 isn't the best digital source that I've owned. Of course, this is all my opinion. You can have yours too, even if it's wrong!

Gee, I thought that paying $18 for 8 pucks was high. Actually, it was 8 bucks for the pucks and $10 for shipping and "handling". Thanks for the suggestion though. If the pucks don't work out I'll seriously consider the APCD2 discs.

Yep. First place I looked. I also stopped by Big 5. They at least had hockey sticks and floor hockey pucks, but no regulation hockey pucks. It's not surprising considering that the nearest ice hockey rink is in TO (I think), 60+ miles away. Sports Authority had no hockey equipment at all.

Thanks for the suggestion. The tiles are somewhat irregular so it would be difficult to get a slab to lay on them and not rock. I just ordered 8 hockey pucks. Not surprisingly, it's impossible to find them in Santa Barbara, CA.

I need to find some footers for my speaker stands so that the spikes won't damage a tile floor. I've used quarters in the past but they have problems. Does anybody have a favorite footer that they would like to recommend? If not, I probably will go with the Head Case approved "Hockey Puck footer". Thanks in advance.

Belated happy birthday!

It's ok. He has a hard hat!

Mine was in jest too. Still, it might be interesting to hear what he says.

Who? Me?

Maybe Head-Case should become a sponsor of Head-Fi. Then you would have a link on every page!

My stuff is all back up to normal, except for the PMs of course. I have 47 messages where the latest is 12/2006. Oh well, it's better than nothing.

Happy Birthday!

Of course, "loads of money" is pretty subjective. But if I had loads of money, I'd try to duplicate neilvg's setup. It's the best I've ever heard. It has nothing to do with a Denon AH-D2000 though.

Yep. Mikhail makes such an adapter for Singlepower amps. You'd need to ask him if it would work for your amp.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, even if you don't celebrate it!

A Head-Fi member told me about it. So it's his fault that I'm here!

Hi Pete, Whatever happened to the comparo? Did you and David get together? I'd really like to hear both of your thoughts on Matt's latest creation. I had Matt do his magic with my E5. It's the one on his web site. While I was waiting, JP's price get lower and lower and I finally bought his eXemplar too. I figured that I'd do a shoot out and the winner would go into my headphone system and the "loser" would replace the Ah Tjoeb in my spearker system. The eXemplar arrived first but had a problem. While the rest of the machine would power up, the transport and front panel would not. I opened it up looking for an obvious loose or broken connection and could not find one. Eventually I sent it to John Tucker for repair. The loose connection was under the transport. While it was there, I got the opamp and analog filter upgrades. While I was waiting, the E5 arrived. Unfortunately, the transport was damaged. I sent it to Dr. Art and he fixed it for a total of $20 including shipping. After reinstalling the transport, I was able to burn in the modded E5 for about 150 hours before the eXemplar came back. The modded E5 is definitely a large improvement over the stock version. The bass is much more present and extended. It also is better in the details. I was sure it would win the comparo. Then I listened to the eXemplar. It was no contest. For me, the eXemplar does everything better than the E5. It has better timbre, attack, decay, extension, ... So the eXemplar stays in the headphone system and the E5 gets relegated to the speaker system.

PM sent

A Christmas Idea Apple announced today that it has developed a breast implant that can store and play music. The iTit will cost $499 or $599 depending on cup size. This has been hailed as a major breakthrough because women are always complaining about men staring at their breasts and not listening to them.

Happy Birthday John! Have a great one! Thanks again for setting up the meet on Saturday and for your hospitality. I had a great time. Johnny don't need no Analog Room tt.

I got up to SJ on Friday and then spent the evening with JP. The Englander seems to be his favorite place as that's where we went for dinner. Not being a beer conoisseur, I drank what JP did. What all did I drink JP? I seem to remember Pliny as being one of them. All were quite good and I only had a small headache Saturday morning. I showed up early at the meet with JP. Almost immediately two other members showed up, Mikeymad and Iron Dreamer. The four of us set up the tables and chairs. JP then set up the fan to remove as much of the lingering odor as possible from the morning work out class. The fan worked and Zocaro turned out to be an excellent place at which to hold a meet. I suspect that many more meets will be held there. I was amazed at some of the systems that showed up. At $6K, I had one of the "budget" systems there. I didn't get to hear everything but really liked everything I heard. I had friend show up for his first meet and spent a lot of time helping him. Being the social butterfly that I am, I also spent a lot of time renewing old acquaintances, making new friends and talking with most everybody. Eventually I packed up and left at 5:20 and got back to Santa Barbara at 10:10. I was pretty out of it yesterday and it turned into a "lost" day. So here are my late impressions. Ori's prototype amp/dac combo: Ori was showing a prototype desktop SS amp/dac package that he'll have available in a couple of weeks. The prototype wasn't exactly the same as the advertized finished product in that it had a pot whereas the product will have a stepped attenuation. He was driving it with a cheap ($100) DVD player. I didn't recognize the cable between them. I listened to it with both my mod'ed K340s and my Darths. I was surprised to find that it was easily able to drive the K340s. The music through them was coherent and well integrated. So many amps at this price level just do a poor job driving them. I really liked the sound through both headphones. This set up would make for a great work setup. I made sure that my friend heard this too. I think that Ori has a real competitor on his hands. Voltron's "Tower of Power" I first listened to this right after he got it started and before it was really warmed up using his (I think) Sennheiser HD-650. I heard the classic "Sennheiser Veil" and moved on. Later I talked to Al about it and he said that not only was the amp not warmed up, but the EMM combo's clock was misconfigured too. So I listened to it first through his balanced HD-600s. Wow, it sounded great. This was the first time I've liked listening to the high end Senns. I also tried my K340s and they sounded great too. I did side by side comparisons and slightly preferred the Senns. Not enough to go for Al's set up though! MikeyMike's ES-1/Marantz/Omega 2 This was a really nice system. This meet was the first time that I really have been able to listen to high end electrostatic headphones. It has all the advantages of good electrostatic transducers and few of the disadvantages. In fact, I would have considered this a contender for best system at the meet. That is, until I heard ... NeilVG's ES-2/APL NWO Mk 3/HE-90 This is the best headphone combo I've every heard in my short (1.5 years) headphone career. Everything sounded right to me. It was quick, dynamic and bass was very present but not overwhelming. I got to hear the HE-90s and Omega-2's side by side on this system and way preferred the HE-90's. They just sounded much more life like to me. Details and timbre were so life like. Attack and decay were "right" too. If I win the lottery any time in the future, I'll have a system similar to this. In the meantime, I'm still very happy with my system. I really didn't think that my tiny point-and-shoot camera would be enough, but thought "what the hell, let's try it". I have the picture and will post it and others in the near future. Thanks Peter. I value your opinion highly. I am a mid-range freak and this system really does it for me. I may tire of it eventually, but feel no urge to change it at the present time. These DB's are more bass heavy than the other two pairs that I have heard. I'm hoping that I can get it to sound more like the other pairs, either with more break-in or by further modding it. I'll tape over the ports as you suggested and see what that does. Again, I had a great time at the meet. I suspect it will be a long time before there is another meet with such high end systems. Vicki, you really should have come out!