Hopstretch

How about one of those orphan Maxes? My sister is very attractive and quite, ah, accomplished I'm told.

And yet even these allegedly-crappy planar designs were universally and consistently preferred over just about every "conventional" dynamic speaker in the test. I'd say that makes the result more, rather than less, striking.

They're some sort of omni, aren't they? I was thinking of the Def Techs as the only conventional dome + cone design. I also thought the planar mafia was down on the latest generation of Martin Logans as generally crappy?

Yeah, only one "liked" speaker in any category with a dome tweeter. Oof.

Hey Pete, I got an email from Outlaw today saying they're doing 20% off and free shipping. That would get you to $560 for a new pair of their 2200 monoblocks, which are pretty sweet and seem to be a favorite over on the Hoffman forums.

Aragon 4004 would do the job nicely at the price.

We've beaten this "new modules" bush about on a couple of threads and I think it's pretty well established that there aren't going to be any, unless Justin has changed his mind very recently. I can't help you with comparisons Dan, as I don't have the experience, but can say that I find the GS-1 very pleasing as both an amp and a pre-amp. As far as lead times go, I was quoted eight weeks and got it in twelve -- which isn't exactly instant gratification but also isn't even close to a Singlepower-style runaround.

Aerial 5B? You'll have to be quick on Audiogon, though, as they don't last.

Nate, if it's any consolation Verizon is putting the same squeeze on. I got a notice in the mail yesterday that both our cable and Internet rates would be going up more than 10% in January. On the other hand, they do consistently deliver the speeds they promise and the broadcast quality is good.

Sorry to disappoint.

Nipples.

My efforts are usually a little more free-form. Eating Bucatini all'Amatriciana.

Nice! I've always liked the vaguely Soviet retro-futurist look of that thing.

I wonder if Exemplar will be able to mod the new player. Does the 5910 keep its video functionality after surgery?

It's the same VP as the 983, which is now totally sold out everywhere, incidentally.

Then you deserve to suffer! By the way, it looks like the U.S. MSRP on that Denon is going to be $3,800 -- same as the current 5910 -- which is a little more realistic than the previously-quoted number. This would be a nice-looking HT stack...

Does anyone use device remotes? Universal or gtfo. The Oppo reps at CES were apparently telling people that the lack of DVD-A stickerage on the demo box was because the licensing hadn't been worked out yet, not because of any hardware limitation. Much could yet change...

I wouldn't think that scamming on gun forums would a long-term occupation.

Jealous. I have an RS-1 and was on the list for the first batch of RS-20s, but ultimately couldn't justify the outlay over my other audio/video priorities. I think you'll be waiting a long time for a DSD pre-pro.

I don't think it does. It's still pretty unusual for someone to go from consistently dealing legitimately to suddenly ripping people off left, right and center. I'll be interested to hear the details when this is all settled.

The official Amazon app is up. Like I need to be able to spend even more money there on the go. The take-a-photo-of-anything-and-we'll-figure-out-what-it-is-and-send-you-the-link-to-it-in-our-store feature is quite cool.

Yummy. Way too expensive, though. It has the exact same video section as the $1,400 Denon 3800 Blu-ray player, which leaves you with $5,000 over for a separate hi-resolution audio setup.

$222 at HeadRoom.

I have one. It's well made and sounds good with HD650s, though I agree with Dan that I wouldn't buy a new one at the asking price.