Contrastique

Sweet to take your kids on citytrips even though they're relatively young. We plan on visiting a lot of cities because we thought like, when we have kids that will be a bit more of a problem. I'm thinking the first couple of years the holidays will be more like, having more space around you where you can walk in pretty nature, that sort of stuff and then when they grow a little older take them to other places, like more crowded and big. I like your approach though, very thoughtful. But (luckily) for now I don't feel the urge popping out these small ones ... haha

Well, I changed a setting in System Preferences; sound ---- input ----USB codec instead of built-in I believe it was first and the distortion is actually gone now. At least I don't hear it anymore while before I heard it with A LOT of songs. Pretty nice as I no longer feel the urge rippin' my hair out Thanx Grawk for the heads-up. I'm gonna wait with that till I have something to go balanced with though...Lot's of parts still missing

HaPpY BiRtHdAy!!!!!!!

So, we just booked our holiday...1 week to Berlin, hopefully we can get the week after that off too but that's not very sure (we both work for the same company). I'm so happy we have our vacation planned finally! At least one week of not having to think about work yihaa! So how 'bout yours...??

Nice, I just located a distributor for Apogee in the Netherlands. Emailed them for the nearest dealer so we'll see...On their site they advertised with

Portishead - Third R.E.M. - Up Radiohead - OK Computer Radiohead - The Bends

Thanx

Jitter crossed my mind as well and did some reading on it but the descriptions on jitter seem kinda vague, as the discussion often ends up in audible / not audible. I am still not sure what it is. The good recordings sound pretty decent but other stuff makes you wanna scream, so it could be an it's-in-the-recording-kind-of-thing. Classical piano often gives me distortion and that's really weird. Have to look further into that by ab-ing some stuff. I assume it's not a problem that I have my iPod connected via usb and play the music through iTunes with the Behringer connected to my amp...? Thanx Grawk for looking into that

Well, you probably don't know them but here we go.. Cafe Sjiek: small restaurant with a simple and honest menu. It's good. Steak tartare is one of my favorites or whatever kind of fish they have on their card. People working there are very nice, ambience is really great and natural. Great to hang out their on saturday night, first eating and after that just stay, drink some more wine and have fun with my bf and the peeps who work there. Mediterraneo: best Italian restaurant in Maastricht. It's just that its price makes you not go there every week Italian not like pizza's and pastas but really GOOD stuff. Lamb is absolutely awesome there and so are the carpaccios with truffle / tartufo (whatever you call it there). Toine Hermsen: best restaurant in Maastricht, period. They have a classic french citchen and they do a wonderful job. All the tastes are so refined and match so perfectly, an amazing experience dining there. Again unfortunately too expensive to hang out there too often but that makes it all the more special when you go there.

Ah yes, I was already wondering how you did it since you use the Apogee with the Balanced Tooelaudio. You're talking about the CM-DBX Direct Box Tranformer which retails at about $300, right? Good to know that won't be a problem! Thanx.

Like...? I fixed some with EQ-ing but EQ in iTunes sucks. Adds distortion in some songs but with EQ off it just doesn't sound right. Edit: The distortion is also there when EQ turned off so that's not it...Strange as with some songs I really haven't noticed distortion before. I've read up about that Apogee and it sure sounds like good value for the money. I think I'll get this in the not so far future. That way I can leave the Behrinhger out of the setup. It just doesn't have balanced outs...I would like to have a balanced Beta so I can play around with balanced in the future, do I need a balanced source for that? Not necessarily I guess but are there cons?

Thanx. I didn't know it was a DAC but when having a headphone out it logically must have a DAC. If it's that good it might be worth checking it out especially looking at its price. Have been fiddling around with this Behringer-thingy some more listening to David Gilmours On An Island and jeezzz, the CDP sounds LOADS better. So I decided to do some eq-ing in iTunes and see if I could fix this. I have sort of but still the CDP does a better job. With the Behringer you keep this digital coldness to the sound (don't know if that makes sense..) and the vocals sound more far away compared to the CDP. I prefer them more upfront but okay. It's a whole lot better than the Behringer with the eq off because I seriously thought something was very wrong with the music.

Congrats!!! Joyfull years is what I wish to you both! Enjoy life

Well, I'm not sure how this thing stacks up to rest being mentioned here but I bought a similar device today. I called my local electronic shop today to see if they had something according to these specs and they did. It's the Behringer U-Control UCA202 for € 38,- which is cheap. So I bought it. Anyone any experiences with this thing?? http://www.behringer.com/UCA202/?lang=ENG I hooked it up just now and one thing that stroke me is that the highs have a shrill sound to them (don't know how to call that exactly). Have to listen to it some more though. BUT I can listen to all my music again which is absolutely great and it's a hell of a lot better than when using the Ipod with its crappy DAC. Thank you for mentioning that HAGusb!!

The Hagusb uses usb 1.1; would that matter when streaming lossless files? I tried searching for some comparisms between the devices but not much came up,, nothing conclusive anyway. How about the M-Audio Audiophile USB? Or would that not be much of a differ compared to the Transit? It doesn't have to be very expensive as it will be a temporarily solution anyways...

Wow, that's even cheaper and does like the same (except for the 5.1 blabla)?

Shoit...too late for an edit. Well, i think it works as hoped for. Just one thing...they also talk about the Waveterminal as a better qual option so that means it doesn't just stream the music but does upsampling as well (realtime..) which has its own effect on the sound it reproduces or have I totally lost it now...?

WOWWWW I just checked that Hagusb thingy....if this things works as I think / hope it does...wow..this could be an option for now as I'm struggling with my CDP. We cleaned it and it worked fine but the last few times it hangs in the first 3 songs, skips parts of songs etc..really anoying. So, just to clearify; I can connect this to the USB of my Powerbook and stream the music to the Optical input of my amp??? If that's really the case I WANT ONE NOW!!!

Hmm, on second thought...no...I would feel the urge to sell my Larocco...not good...lol

It's available from Macophot. Rollei IR400 or something. They still make the film and Macophot has it in stock so it's easy to get it. One of the few manufacturers of IR-film...maybe even the only one...not sure. Ebay has a lot of filters indeed. Have to see what I do. I leave the IR films to the last as there are more things on my list Ow school, well I already finished one school, started on another and got my higher degree in photography and 2 yrs ago started on my specialisation grade, which just means working on a specific topic you get to choose and finish it after 2 yrs. The topic I chose is something I will be working on my entire life so it's really no biggie. I don't need that 3rd paper.

That's interesting indeed. Have to drop by soon then. I still haven't found the perfect opppurtunity to shoot the ATP but I'm desperate to see how they will do. Also bought some IR-film but still have to get a filter. unfortunately my filtersize is 82 and that makes it very expensive..but analogue so rulezzz! Too bad the new darkroom is still not up and running, we have a leackage in the cellar and the plummer has to pay us a visit first before repainting everything. Lack of time is a killer but hopefully soon we'll have like 2 weeks off and can fix those things. APUG is in any way more valuable than the school I'm attending now. Thinking of quiting it. I've spent 7 yrs studying it and I'm getting real tired of it as it doesn't satisfy me anymore. But we'll see....

Wow, you saw the post before it got deleted....sorry Forums take up a good lot of your time if one's not careful enough haha! I don't visit APUG very often though, useful stuff there but also a lot of snobbery. I just go there when I want to read up on stuff that I'm interested in. Been quite busy lately as well so had not much time exploring the new film I got in: Rollei ATP-V1 with the RLC developer. Today I also got a gift from an older man who visits our shop regularly; he gave me a package of the Technidol!! It's about 20 yrs old but so are some of my TP's so we'll see. Ow, sorry for the off topic chat, peeps....wait...we're in the lounge...okay...

Yeah maybe something for the future. I probably won't use a CDP when I get my MBP some day... Thanx Aarvark for the pics. I have no idea what it all means what you can see on the inside but I thought the BelCanto was smaller but it actually looks pretty big on your pics.

Hmm, but would that mean you still use the DAC inside the Ipod? And when you can control the Ipod itself with a remote wouldn't that mean it actually still uses the amp inside the Ipod? If only they made an optical out on the Ipod....

Haha lol indeed! I stalked first and he stalked back