Dusty Chalk

I'm beginning to come to some conclusions about the A950Ltd -- it's pretty damn good. In fact, it's exactly what I wanted it to be -- a poor man's leatherhead (and without the leather). It's got nice prat (though not as good as the L3000's), it's not quite as clean (background isn't as black), it's not quite as resolving (but I am not exactly a detail freak)...but damn if it doesn't do a lot of things right. For example, when listening to most music, I'm hearing the same amount of bass, though it's not going as low, it's only on certain recordings that I can really tell where it's going. The opening bass note in the left earcup on Rob Dougan's Furious Angels ("Prelude") is clearly audible on the L3000's, but on the A950LTD, it's inaudible unless I'm straining to hear it (not including compensation for the differences in sensitivity). But switching to Camille's Le Fil ("Au Port"), the bass certainly sounds right. So they must have compensated for the missing lowest frequencies by bumping up the bass just a little bit, but they did it just right, to the point where I can not hear the difference under most casual listening, which is exactly what I wanted. I'll be getting the A900Ti in a month or two, and we'll see where it goes from there. Setup: most listening has been done on Rega Apollo -> Pure Silver Sound interconnects -> Singlepower Supra++, with some done on SACDMods -modded Denon 3910 -> Xiang Sheng 703B, with little attention paid to power. Tweaking consists of your mama touching me at night. Dac-Ah has been ignored, since it was distorting -- I returned it to its owner to send it off to Pacific Valve to have it fixed.

Marc -- I have to admit to being of two minds on the subject. On the one hand, yeah, I fully anticipate a day when "Running Man" is going to be a reality -- at which point, the use of steroids is going to seem like a minor infraction compared with other rule-breaking. On the other -- what about Babe Ruth? Shouldn't he get kudos for doing what he did without the use of steroids? I fully embrace the asterisk. Good thing, too.

Yeah, but some of those entries are only there because of second-hand evidence, I.E. hearsay. For example: "Marc was aggressive the other day, therefore he must be on steroids*." *Either that, or he's drinking Coca-Cola. I don't understand why anyone wouldn't want an asterisk next to their name -- it's like getting a gold star. EdipisReks -- can I get an asterisk next to my name?

Alright, I specifically said not Photoshop -- I fully admit that it is superior to anything else on the market, bar none. End of discussion. Don't make me get out my...oh, right, I don't have a banstick...well, don't make me take my shoe off. I can peg you from clear across the room.

Here's the thing -- half the time, when one makes a payment with PayPal, there's a small lag before the payment clears (unless one has chosen "instant payment"). I don't think 24-48 hours is an unreasonable amount of time to wait, considering eBay gives one 3 days to make contact, much less arrange payment. But from the seller's perspective, as soon as you said, "do you mind waiting until tomorrow", you put the negotiating ball back in his court -- he can now do whatever he wants, including decline the whole sale. Especially if those things weren't discussed. Now, you were asking about etiquette, so I answer the question: was it polite to do so? No, seller should have responded with "payment must be within 24 hours" if he was going to hold you to that, I.E. if he was hard up for the money. I suspect you were first in line, and he got a better deal between the two messages, but that's entirely supposition.

Jesus Fucking H. Christ -- first episode of 2.5 was basically a rehash of the last episode of 2.0. The cut off the beginning (they synopsized it during the "Previously, on Battlestar Galactica..." portion), and embellished a bunch of scenes with additional lines, but it was essentially the exact same fucking episode. Goddamn, that was annoying.

I know! I fully realize I am completely in the minority on this -- and it's not like I got burned out on the song, neither. I just don't think it fully measures up to the rest of the album. I'd much rather hear "I Zimbra" right there or something.

You know how it goes -- the album would be perfect if it weren't for this one track, or these two tracks, or whatnot. (This is actually just an excuse to get rid of some of my favourite albums from my insanely long list.) Deep Purple, Who Do We Think We Are? -- fine up until "Place In Line", which totally drags things down, and doesn't get much better with "Our Lady". King Crimson, Red -- would've been fine if they had just put something more "Fractured"-like instead of the unorthodox improvisation of "Providence". Talking Heads, Remain in Light -- this one pains me, because I really don't understand my dislike of "Once in a Lifetime", but I just don't -- I can listen to the rest of the album practically on infinite repeat, including the seemingly out-of-place "Seen and Not Seen" and "Listening Wind". I even enjoy the dirge-y "Overload". And don't even get me started on side 1 -- it's one of the greatest album sides of all time. Alan Parsons Project, Tales of Mystery & Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe -- there's nothing wrong with "The Fall of the House of Usher", it just goes on a smidgen too long, and breaks up the momentum that the album had going at that point. Those are just some of mine. I'll post more later as I think of them. Yours?

I was just trying to offer alternatives within the specified price range, just in case all the slave labor at nateJeans Cables were busy, dead, or dying.

Well, never buy anything via mail-order from Barney's, they suck. Cancelled my order after telling me that if they couldn't find it in the warehouse, they'd check the stores. I happened to know for a fact that it was at one of my local stores, so once they finally got their collective head out of their collective ass (there's an image for you), I went across the street and got it. So yes, I now have my fucking watch, no thanks to Barney's NY, but thanks to Co-Op Georgetown (although they weren't perfect either -- they tried to sell me the wrong watch the first time, after they were called and told to put the correct watch on hold for me). But it all worked out in the end, and I didn't miss my meeting with my boss' boss' boss, so all is well. Moral of the story is, don't buy from Barney's mail-order, check their website and see if you can find a local store first. If not, try to find one near a friend. It really is absolutely perfect. The hands aren't black, but then I wouldn't be able to tell time at all, so I think some color is okay.

Audioquest entry level cables Straightwire entry level cables

No, 2.5 first. It took everything I had to go to bed last night after that (end of last episode of season 2). Oh, and that was Lucy Lawless?!?!? I didn't even recognize her.

I'm not reading this thread for fear of spoilers, but I just finished watching season two. I'm tempted to quote Lee "Apollo" Adama -- "You have got to be frakkin' kidding me." Fucking cliffhangers.

The problem is, it looks like Monster cable.

So I was leant a Dac-Ah for no other reason than to get my opinion. There seems to be some sort of distortion on it (I'm listening to Camille's Le Fil, and it seems to show up on her voice and the bass, and any other prominent sounds like that) -- is this something that will go away with burn-in, or is there something wrong and needs to be fixed. I forget which exact version it is, but could find out if it's important...or is this something that needs to be diagnosed on a case-by-case basis?

Yeah, that's probably +/- 10 feet.

Optimally, headphones would have lemo connectors or something, and you could change the length to suit your needs -- for example, there are times when I am in front of the computer, and don't want to move -- in which case 6 feet is fine -- then there are times when I want to listen in bed, in which case 20' would be more appropriate, and so on. Because we all know that extensions add additional connections, which are bad, right?

13.1233 ft

Yeah, you really need to hear it. And I'm not sure it's so much that I'm not the target market for the sound -- I actually did really like it -- so much as most of the music I listen to didn't do well on them. Most of the music I listen to really benefits from having full-frequency extension in both directions. But when I was listening to music on which it really didn't matter so much, I really liked them. Not enough to own, but if I ever win the lottery, I'll probably have at least one single-driver speaker setup.

Look at the bright side: at least it didn't bite your nose. It could have been even worse, it could have had laser beams attached to its head.

Can you describe some of these? I've not heard of a single one of them.

You should also try: Epica, Sirenia, Within Temptation, and Lacrimosa (LichtJahre, albeit a live album, did come out in 2007, though I haven't heard it yet).

I think what threw me was the long hair and the guitars in the background -- long hair + musician == hippie dude. PS Cute kid, Dan. I can has RMA?

You know, if you let your eyes diverge while staring at that wallpaper (like you would if you were looking at a stereogram), it develops a kind of a three-dimensionality.