Dusty Chalk

Absolutely not a deal killer. Again, he's just trying to make more money from you (and you're correct in recognizing that he should have brought it up before now). Just buy some racquetball balls and cut them in half. When you can afford them, go back and buy some brass cones, and decide which you like better -- it's that whole coupling vs. decoupling argument all over again. If you have something ultra-solid, you want to couple to that, otherwise you want to decouple (oversimplified, and IMHO). Decoupling will almost always help (unless you happen to already have had a very nicely coupled setup), hence why I recommend the racquetball balls.

I think you're confusing soundcards with video cards. While this is certainly true of video cards, it's a lot less true of soundcards. If my understanding is correct, the only offloading to soundcards that the computer does is the settings at the driver. (E.G. 'TruSurround', on my M-Audio Sonica, can be turned on and off by the Sonica Control Panel, but there's zero awareness by any other audio application that this is going on.)

Shouldn't this be in the 'What are you smoking?' thread? J/K...

What do you mean, 'missed out' -- aren't they all still in print? You can't necessarily get the metal boxes like I got, but you can still get them in the taller thinner size, neh?

Dead Can Dance (the first album) still sounds like ass, but it's DSD MFSL ass!!!1! Starting with Spleen and Ideal, these sound great.

Sure, gopher rhett. No, they do not take $600 stands, I got the same pressure to buy $1K stands when I bought my ~$5KMSRP Dynaudio Special 25's. I didn't. All of a sudden that really nice salesman stopped being really nice. Fuck 'im, pretty much. There's more overhead in multi-hundred-dollar speaker stands. They're just going for that "in for a penny, in for a pound" mentality, and trying to milk every last cent out of you. Just stand your ground. A good pair of decent stands will work just as well. Sure, the $600 may be better, but we're talking seriously diminishing returns here. And yes, you would still need some way of controlling the volume. E.R. (I kind of like that name a couple months back), for example, had variable outs in his source, so if this was him talking, all he'd need is that. Your Denon will not, so you'll need at least something like the Creek OBH-22 or a Musical Fidelity A3.2. Or the like. And yes, you will need cables. You won't be able to listen to your gear without them. I just don't think you necessarily need his cables. He might be giving you a good deal, who knows. Hard to tell without knowing what exactly it is you're getting. OTOH, if you've actually heard the system in its entirety, and that is exactly what he's selling you, and if you have the dosh, then by all means, gopher rhett.

Does it come in black? (6700, but nowhere near as much disk space nor RAM)

Oh, we have our own skeletons in our own closet.

I've only heard ATC's briefly in the store, but they impressed me as one of the good brands. Of the few people I know who own any (on the internet, as well as one can know anyone on the internet), I've not heard anyone who's been anything less than completely satisfied. That said, sounds like he's trying to get the camel's nose under the tent. Also, they sound like they're just outside of your price capability, and you certainly don't need $3K worth of cables and stands and whatnot. He's trying to get you to buy into a package, when all you really need is the speakers. BTW, just to throw some counterpoint against what Jacob said, I am definitely not a source-first type guy. I'm of the mind that your system is only as good as your weakest link -- which is what I think is what he was trying to say when talking about the B-52. So if your source is spectacular, and your headphones are spectacular, you really shouldn't chintz on the amp, and if you can't afford not to chintz, then perhaps you ought to think about the word, "compromise" a little bit. Conversely, if you have spectacular amp and headphones/earspeakers, then your source better be up to snuff as well. And that's not even beginning to visit the specter of synergy, which is why I recommended getting the 2900 and living with it for a bit. Personally, I like deep bass, and think that if you're going to spend $4K on active speakers, you should get full-rangers (and no, 70Hz down 2 db and 45 Hz down 6 db does not count as 'full-range'). You can probably get a decent $1K amp and maybe something like the Gallo Reference 3.1's or Quad 22L's, which are both very good, just to get you started.

All of them, apparently.

I think a lot of us have that, it's called, "being on the internet" -- if you see words misspelled often enough, you begin to forget what is correct. And to answer for Jacob -- yes, the whole point in upgrading your source is to find something better than the DAC of the HR. If you use the digital, you're not even hearing those improvements that you've paid for. Well, most of them.

Goddamnit, they sold out.

Okay, a couple more are definitely top 10 material: Camille, Music Hole -- goddamn I love this woman. She takes one record from Todd Rundgren (A Capella) and centers her entire career around it -- and writes some damn catchy tunes in the process, taking it to a whole new level. I love the sound of her records, since they're so vocal-centric. Opeth, Watershed -- what a perfect name for a record. "...A critical point that marks a division or a change of course; a turning point..." This is not just another Opeth record. It's not a complete departure that Damnation was, and it's not the completely blistering slab of blackness, like Deliverance or Morningrise. It's got something that not even Blackwater Park had -- it's got variety. It's all over the place stylistically, and it's not just change-change-change like some metal bands do, there's madness here, but it's a madness with which I resonate. This could well go down as being my favorite Opeth record.

I'm watching Jay get banned again.

Two-parter, "Loose Ends" is free from iTunes this week (until Monday).

Actually, everything in that picture used to be silver, until the fireplace dumped soot on it.

Act I is out. It was apparently hard to download initially.

Well, I wouldn't go that far, but I think you're finally getting it.

Uh, I started cheating, and Google told me that the site may harm my computer. So, uh, visit at your own risk. I ain't going back, myself.

Pfff. I got stuck on page 2, but ended up liking the music.

My dad once told me a story: an obscure computer stopped working, so they called in a specialist. The guy came in, looked around for a long time, pulled out stethoscopes, took off panels, put probes in, but hadn't done anything yet. After an hour of this or so, he took all his diagnostic equipment off, put the panels back on, put his black bag back together, put the computer back together, then went over to it, and kicked it. It started right up. The people were overjoyed, "send us the bill". He nodded silently and left. A couple days later, the bill showed up, for $10,000. "What?!?" "You said send you a bill, I sent you my bill." "Uh, could you at least itemize the bill?" "Sure." A couple days later, a second bill came: Kicking the computer -- $30. Knowing where to kick the computer, $9,970. I don't think Mikhail is off wildly spending those tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, I suspect he's using it to get by, wastes too much time doing R&D when he should be doing QC and warranty work, and buying gilt electroplating and obscure tubes. I doubt he could return the money, but I bet he has enough that, were he to put his nose to the grindstone and fix and deliver all the amps, he probably could. The question is whether or not his nose is going anywhere near the grindstone.

No, he is ultra banned. It's not like a double-negative, it's uber-special-super-secret-handshake banned. It's okay, I'm with the banned.

...with apologies to Soul Coughing.

So Friday night is downtown? So we should probably stop telling humanflyz to go to the Shady Grove metro stop, huh? Look like Dupont Circle is the closest metro stop.

No, his stance on transactions that stem from head-fi have always been to help as best he can, but not to get legally involved. (To oversimplify -- he can correct me if he wants.) That's what this amounts to, essentially. And as Nate said, that's not to say that he doesn't have any pull, and it would be good of him to give Mikhail a call, and..."Yo, WTF?", but he certainly does not need to, as KG said.