Dusty Chalk

I rejoice!

I bought my pair from TheSloth, so he should pipe in here, too. Short: dang, they are nice. Keepers. I really like their sound signature -- the crossover is pretty close to inaudible, which leaves a very sweet and only slightly forward midrange -- female vocals like Camille's Le Fil sound exquisite on this. Very slight upper-midbass/lower midrange hump, and no extreme low frequencies whatsoever -- I will eventually be integrating this with a sub. Very slight, it took me months to even hear it. Upper frequencies have nice extension, although not the best "air" I've ever heard, certainly adequate, and not erring on the rolled-off side at all. I listen to mine nearfield (on either side of my monitor) and quiet in my humble-sized office, so don't have as much of a concern with higher-frequency room acoustics, but the room might be contributing to the upper-midbass hump.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81vnTjv7GB4]Star Wars III: A Lost Hope[/ame] "Boobie?"

Things that aren't available on vinyl sound better on CD.

Ditters. I cringe.

Dell Dimension 9200 w/Q6600 quadcore processor My second Windows computer in 6 months, I think. Now I have to decide which of these is going to be the dedicated studio computer, and which one I'm just going to take on the internet -- probably the quadcore will go in the studio, I think.

Cool. Congrats. Don't suck.

Not right now, I just bought a computer. It was more like I pictured you trying to set up a 6.0 surround configuration.

Why three? Or rather, six?

Anyone have any predictions? Or how about actual knowledge? SACD has firmly entrenched itself as a niche market...and getting "nicher". Are either HD-DVD or BluRay going to carry high-res audio, either high-rate PCM or DSD? (Can you tell I just read in this month's Stereophile the "As We See It"?) I WANT MY HIGH-RES!!!1!

Made me click.

Saw Hot Fuzz last weekend -- it was great. This movie needed to be made -- my only question is, why wasn't it made sooner? I loved the Woo tribute part (amongst many other tributes).

What do you want, an announcement from Audio Technica about the latest Japanese import headphones?

Well, no, only one of the "good guys" would acknowledge his mistakes and help us who are barely keeping up to keep up -- so my opinion of him only goes up for recognizing it. But yes, he makes so few of them, he's still a hero.

This story ruled. You rule, for telling the story, and for being its perpetrator. Here's what you should do -- get whatever bag you want, then make a stencil with the LV logo, then get a can of spray paint that will paint in as fine a line as you can, and spray "FAKE" on it in big bold letters. EDIT: No, even better idea, "NO REAL THAN YOU ARE". Or perhaps just, "LEGO". I would so like to do that. In fact, now that I've thought of it, I may just have to do that. Except, of course, in all black -- black bag, black stencil, black spray paint. I know just the bag I'm going to start with, too. (I already have it. It was part of a 4-piece set I got at CVS for $25.)

I've heard nothing but good things about their speakers, and one of their speaker designers is a really good guy -- responded to an email to me directly, a newb.

Happy birthday!

What decoding, audio? I already explained how if you go over the digital connection, the player doesn't need to do the decoding. And I did say that if the upscaling was done in the player, it was important, but if you had a TV or outboard unit, and you weren't going to use your players internal upscaling, then its upscaling didn't matter, and I stand by that. Also, HDMI/DVI can carry both digital and analog video signals, which is why I kept saying "digital" instead of HDMI. It'll definitely make a difference if you use the analog signal portion, but will make much less of a difference if you use digital and do not use the players internal scaling. Not "no difference", but "much less of a difference". Same as a CD transport makes a difference if you use an external upsampler and DAC. I doubt you'd be able to see the difference. In terms of TV's, I've heard good things about LCOS, but that's a projector. Ask around over at audioreview.com forums -- they have some good HT people there. A lot of arguing, but there's a small handful of very active, very helpful people. More for video -- their audio expertise seems to be separated into the hardcore planar crowd, and the high-middlin' Paradigm crowd.

Another point -- if you're going digital, the quality of the picture on the DVD player is bordering on insignificant (think transport->DAC). I mean, you still have to watch the video processing -- Faroudja, etc. -- (think upsampler on the transport side), but if you're going to use the digital output of the HDMI/DVI/whatever, and your television is going to have the line-doubling processing -- or if you're going to get an outboard model later, AND you're going to be using the Denon Link (or HDMI) for the digital audio (HDMI passes digital audio -- make sure your individual unit will pass higher-res digitally), then you could probably get the exact same quality with a PS3.

Oh, and we were going to get the Focal Sib XL for work -- looks like they discontinued the Sib XXL (the full-ranger in that line). But I think that was because we had like a $2K budget left for the speakers. Focal has something good at most every price point. Perhaps their Profile line? I would also look at Dali -- they have a lot of good things at a variety of price points, and in a variety of styles. As does B&W, Spendor, Quad (I love my little 12L actives)... Gallo! I get to listen to these just about every Saturday, they're really wonderful speakers. Of course: listen before you buy!

Denon uses a proprietary link -- I think it was Pioneer that calls their proprietary i.link -- called "Denon Link". It looks like all Denon receivers from the 3806 up have it, as well as all Denon DVD players from the 2930 up. (Just search on "link" within each page.) ...which doesn't really make sense to me. They should make one that doesn't have any of the DTS or HDCD etc. decoders (I.E. a "transport only" version)...but it would still need to do video. The Pioneers are also good -- StevieO loved his. EDIT: Here is a link to a Denon Link press release. A thought: no need to modify the analog outs of the DVD player, as you won't be using them.

I don't know if Pelican is up your alley or not -- they're more famous for their larger stuff and their durability, but they do make the occasional Attach?: link to their medium cases, and at a fraction of the price of the LV, a veritable bargain. They also have small and micro.

No. You could always get a good DVD player and the LG HD-DVD/BluRay player later, if you decide it's worth it.

Their (Outlaw's) prepro's are excellent bang-for-the-buck, but Hirsch is not entirely happy with the amp. You should probably pm him and point him towards this thread for his own take on his own opinion, I could be wrong (as he still uses it, so he can't be entirely unhappy with it, but also remember he's spoiled -- he's used Electrocompaniet and stuff in his stereos). I would think you would be able to do better with an i.Link linked Denon DVD player/receiver pair, or Pioneer digitally linked DVD player/receiver pair. And since home theaters almost always go with a sub, you don't need full-range speakers except for maybe the front left and right, since you want them for nice stereo (I'm a big fan of full-rangers rather than a 2.1 setup, but a 2.1 setup can be nice as well, if it's properly set up). I'd go with SVS or HSU for the sub. I'm going to be getting a SVS sealed design for the office, eventuallly. (SVS and HSU are subwoofer companies.)

I'm still liking pico or picoAmp or nanoAmp, I completely disagree with the DIY slant -- I don't hear it. But even so, considering Justin's roots, I don't see it as a dealkiller. How about Amplette or Ampette? Or if you want to give it a Russian slant, amprushka or ampichka. Or how about just David, has that been offered up yet?