Hopstretch

Morrissey -- Bona Drag

Can't imagine why those never really caught on.

I assumed you were high. Big Country -- "Chance" (OK, it's half a minute too long, so imperfect good song.)

That's what she sa ... ah, forget it.

Nice to see some pics starting to come in. Looks like a great time!

Jesus, you roll more tubes than Dom does spliffs.

The Beatles -- The White Album (Mono) Getting the Quads up off the desk on Mike's old HR stands has changed their sound quite a bit. Still well within the pretty-fuckin'-sweet portion of the audio spectrum, though.

It appears that you will be the designated rapporteur.

Nah, I just hose it off occasionally. Fnarr fnarr. Thanks Mike. Food for thought there. Made me wonder if it's a good idea to run the tube amp maxed out at all. Presumably that's going to be stressing the magic bottles more than having them loafing along while the SS pre works harder?

You kind of have to see this one through for full, uh, effect.

One nice little enhancement in the latest version of iTunes, smart playlists that allow nested options. Much more useful!

Oops.

It was the Computer Audiophile symposium rig. A Look At The Inaugural Computer Audiophile Symposium | Computer Audiophile

Keith Richards -- Talk Is Cheap (MFSL)

See below for current setup, complete with some castoffs from Mike that just arrived today. I'd be interested to hear more about this mod for the 12Ls, Dusty.

HAS ANYONE REALLY BEEN AS FAR AS DECIDED TO USE EVEN WANT TO GO LOOK MORE LIKE? Obviously.

It's the continuing desktop clusterfuck. Like an arse, I decided to add an analogue source as well, so I needed a preamp. Thought I'd run it active with the headphone amp on the tape out and the powered monitors on the pre out. But it turns out there's a wicked hum in the speakers that way. Passive, though, it's beautifully quiet and transparent -- so the bodge setup right now is both sources into the pre, line out to the headamp and loop through that to the speakers. This appears to work fine from a SQ perspective, but still begs the original question about where to be setting the levels. The simple answer, I guess, would be to sell the lot and buy a Zana and be done.

Audio theory question. If you have two components with separate volume controls in your signal chain (in my particular case a passive pre-amp and a headphone amp), what would be the preferred method of setting the playback level: Max out pre, use amp pot; max out amp, use pre pot; half and half (or whatever other proportion you fancy)? In practice, using an SPL meter to crudely level match, I can't discern any particular difference in sound quality. But I'd be interested to know if there's a rule of thumb.

Cocteau Twins -- Milk & Kisses

Mine's easier listening!

Beck -- Sea Change

TLDR.

More likely the extreme magnetification of those drivers has teslatized its component moleculites.

OK, not USB, but I bet this little setup sounded quite nice for a "mere computer rig".