Dusty Chalk

No, but if you can track down a GW Labs DSP, it'll downconvert.

No, but you may need better, moar linear, less jitter-prone RAMses.

Anathema, Hindsight -- there is something about metal bands doing non-metal music that often turns out really interesting to me -- as in, can keep my interest over more than one listen. This one has definitely grown on me. I will have to admit to not "getting" A Natural Disaster when it first came out -- I really dig the material from that one now. Other interesting bands that have really "broken out" -- Ulver, The Gathering (I'm specifically thinking of Home, in their case).

It's not rocket science...or is it?

Hope you're having a good one!

Go for the cheddar. (Mission: Impossible theme) Me: sushi. Spicy tuna roll is spicy (and not very tightly rolled).

Other than the dance numbers, of course. Yeah, I that album. Sent from mah Droid

I'm surprised larry fast's pink notes isn't mentioned on that page. Sent from mah Droid

I lollered -- the ending caught me completely off guard. I'm forwarding that to my (xbox) gaming buddies. Sent from mah Droid

Do it. The one they did to me was two $200+ charges on the same day, and one of them didn't even end up being mine, I don't think. (It ended up getting canceled, and the shipment I received ended up matching the one charge.)

So...Autechre?

There's power in poo.

My favorite guys I ever met were God Lives Underwater -- totally entertaining fellows. They're a lot like what I am online -- just lots of tangents, silliness, disposable humor, and whatnot, and you wonder how they get anything done. The person I was with (the real journalist -- I was just a hanger-on) had to throw out the interview, she said there wasn't enough in it, and it wasn't worth the hassle of editing. I laughed. She later fired me. In hindsight, I probably deserved it (wasn't exactly qualified).

I think I even picked it up from CMJ:NMM.

Yeah, I used to, but they pinned me a few times too many, timing it such that my account went near zero, or in one case, negative. (They charged me twice.) That was kind of the last straw. Yeah, yeah, I know, I should have more room on the card. I suck at that. Trying to get better. Haven't gone negative in months.

Yeah, sorry if that was condescending -- it wasn't meant to be. It just sometimes bears repeating when we get too carried away discussing minutiae such as what chips are used, upsampling, etc. -- just to bring the focus back to what really matters.

The Ocean, Heliocentral (instrumental version of Heliocentric) -- quite dig. Will have to investigate this "post-metal" genre further.

Sure, why not. I mean, I'm a big fan of the old MSB Platinum DAC that Justin used to haul around, which is also a ladder DAC, IIRC. Here's the thing: I'd rather have a really good 16/44.1 DAC for 16/44.1 source material than a mediocre upsampling one, but if I have 24/96 material (or whatever) -- which I do -- I, personally, would rather hear it at its original bitrate and bitdepth. That said, I have had good luck with (another MSB product, the Link DAC III) upsampling as well. Perhaps because you're starting with a signal that's closer to the analog signal before the analog stage, that makes it easier...somehow...? Again, making stuff up, because I don't know the real explanation. All I know is that I like the sound. What really matters is that it's a well-designed DAC with a well-designed output stage more than anything. And that if you have other source material than CD (16/44.1), that it handles it well.

And again. Recommended if you like...? Required if you like...? Racially Inquisitive Yearners of Lore?

Thanks for the note -- I canceled my subscription because they kept charging my card without checking first, which they were supposed to do, so I'd rather just buy them manually. Can someone let me know what the latest batch of titles are, so that I buy the right ones? Or is there a resource somewhere? I swear there are days that the only thing that gets me through them is the music.

Maybe he's going DIY. Waits for the inevitable, "yes Dusty, we know you like to extend your own penis, we get it" jokes to start.

Sony released these back in April: The MDR-RF4000K: Also, the MRD-RF810RK (which looks to already be superceded by something). What caught my attention was one particular spec: 2.4GHz. That's the digital transmission. So I'd be curious if anyone heard this, or if we have a serious contender for a wireless headphone yet.

and "...harder..."

My stance on this is well known, but I'll repeat it since you asked this question out loud -- I don't know whether or not the actual frequencies above the known human cutoff (which is age-dependent, amongst other things) can be heard, but I, for one, believe that their effects can be heard, albeit very subtly. My guess (purely talking out of my ass at this point, but when the mind does not have enough information, it makes stuff up -- it abhors a vacuum of knowledge) is that it does something to the phase of the signal, which the ear is known to be pretty sensitive to. Or something like that. Another guess is that once most of the harmonics in a triangle, square, or clarinet wave are heard, the mind's ear can hear a triangle, square, or clarinet wave, respectively, and therefore any discrepancies between what it thinks it should be hearing, and what it's actually hearing (what I call "negative hearing" -- not necessarily being able to hear to the level of detail of being able to know what's missing, but just the binary, "it sounds right"/"it doesn't sound right"). In all reality, it's probably some typically human complex combination of those things as well as others I haven't even figured out myself yet (IMO, again). That said, upsampling isn't at that level of technology that it's going to correct phase, if the original information isn't there, so it's not going to fix that, though it may fix other things. Which is why keeping that information from the source to the point of delivery is more important than upsampling is at this point. That said (yes, another one, on top of the other one), how much information is really there? The answer is almost none. Which is why (a) so few people can hear the difference (on top of just plain not caring or not being able to hear it anyway) and ( it doesn't matter all that much. Pretty much everyone else on this board disagrees with me, and I honor that, but every once in a while, my frustration at not being able to explain my side of things that I have to try and express myself again. I'll try not to get too heated about it this time.