Dusty Chalk

Following that theme: Free Bird Green Grass and High Tides Made in Japan Lots of occasional Jethro Tull songs (Heavy Horses, No Lullaby, Dark Ages, Flying Dutchman, Pibroch (Cap In Hand), Baker St. Muse, Minstrel in the Gallery...) Lots of occasional Genesis songs and tuplets (Home by the Sea/Second Home by the Sea, Behind the Lines/Duchess/Guide Vocal, Duke's Travels/Duke's End, Dodo/Lurker, In The Cage/Medley [from Three Sides Live], Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers.../...In That Quiet Earth/Afterglow, etc.) -- but you'd have to rip them that way (which I'd recommend anyway, since since when do you listen to them otherwise, anyway?) Live versions of Talking Heads songs (Life During Wartime is practically an aerobic workout just watching David Byrne run around the stage, Born Under Punches from The Name of This Band is..., also: Houses in Motion and The Great Curve).

You know, when I am king, I'm going to declare National "Bah Humbug" day -- and then the national drink will be some variant of a black and tan. Went back and looked -- you're right (of course) -- but I could've sworn I remembered that at least one year, they caved in to pressure and called it a seasonal brew.

But...but...but...less gear to hide! I'm not trying to talk him out of it -- didn't you see my "separates vs togethers" comment? LOL, someone's been drinking. Man, I wish I could drink. Has the Anchor SeasonalMerry Fochin' Christmas Brew come out yet? I need to grab a six.

That's just disturbing.

Yeah, variable as opposed to fixed, thereby rendering the preamp moot.

Brain lapse -- I knew that. They've even started making integrated amps with built-in DACs. Yeah, one of those would probably be fine, too. Especially if it has a USB or Firewire connection that matches whatever you've already got. I was reading the new Benchmark review in the current issue of Stereophile in which they deliberately chose USB 1.1 because (a) it's perfectly sufficient for uncompressed 24/96 stereo, and ( it forced them to use their own drivers, allowing them to make it bit perfect.

So you're a computer-as-source guy? That's fine, as there's been some discussion of CDP's with digital inputs (read: DAC with a built-in CD player) and variable analog outputs. You don't need the CD player, but unfortunately, there's even fewer DAC's with variable outputs. So I would still recommend either that (DAC or CD/DAC w/variable outputs), or a DAC and a preamp (separates vs. ...uh... "togethers"). You really want bang-for-the-buck, I highly recommend active speakers. If you get a small pair of monitors, you may need to flesh them out with a subwoofer, but those exist. So either a 2.0 or 2.1 setup.

Sounds to me like you need to rethink your whole system. Yes, speakers are most important, but I think you should upgrade your system all at once. I understand the hesitancy to go "all out" while living with your parents, so I would recommend active speakers, driven by CDP with variable outputs and be done with it. There's all sorts within your budget -- did you know that Wharfdale make monitors (active speakers)? Look at these prices! You could, of course, spend more, and get more, but the Wharfdales sound surprisingly good -- give them a listen if you can. Did you want to be able to play anything besides CD's?

I believe the one I see pretty much every weekend (actually, it's more like every other weekend) is a Faroudja professional-level upscaler that looks pretty damn good, but is several years old technology at this point. It's probably comparable to the Faroudja upscaler that Masterlu mentions in his first post. You may also want to look at the Lumagen HDP, as it's several hundred dollars cheaper (US$1199), and looks like it has been the recipient of trickle-down technology (though don't hold me to it, as I have not yet confirmed this) -- notice how it has "SD and HD per-pixel motion adaptive deinterlacing" listed as "newly added"? Dew et -- it will revitalize you DVD collection, and render upgrading to HD moot.

Double-facepalm! Late night celebrity facepalm! Vintage celebrity facepalm! I pity the facepalm! Alright, I'll stop.

Not true -- it depends on the algorithm. Entry level gear will have generic algorithms, whereas I've seen some gear (one in particular) that upscales so well, that most everything -- other than direct-to-HD such as Leno and Sports Desk -- looks just as good as the upscaled counterpart. Just as the MSB upscaler might sound different than the dCS upscaler (for example) to some ears. This one is supposed to be pretty good.

Pfff.

Sounds like pimping to me.

Gorgeous! I should've listened to it at the last meet, I forgot what it sounds like.

It's fun watching it all in sequence. I've done that at least twice now.

Nice! Your collection overtook mine overnight, maybe...(double-checks)...I have about 200.

It should've been free delivery.

Why would you do that? Last I heard, electricity flows both ways -- I realize that ground is different from an active signal, but it still strikes me as putting it through copper part of the way, and silver the rest of the way -- is that necessarily wise, if one has access to silver both ways?

Pfff.

Still on the thought of transmission lines -- how about something like this? (Two links in "this".)

Well, I don't like to speak for him, so maybe you should PM him, but I haven't heard anything to know that his opinion has changed. Though I believe his experience is with their most high-end cables.

AHHH MONEY! Money is not our GOD! etc. I'm not exactly rolling in dough, but if I had a budget for vinyl, this would be on there.

Paging Hirsch...Hirsch to the white courtesy telephone please...

You should try cleaning them first. I have a lot of vinyl from when I was a kid (and adolescent, and post-adolescent, and young adult) -- and I treated them absolutely terribly. I tried playing them on Hirsch's rather nice rig after cleaning, and you couldn't hear a spec of dust. I think the needle even found the portions of the record that I hadn't completely worn out.

That almost sounds like compression -- what amp are you using again?