Hopstretch

There's a petition you can sign online to try and get FLAC support in iTunes, much good it'll do. I'm pretty much wedded to the Mac platform, so I went the whole hog -- iTunes, ALAC, FireWire interface. Insert smug, purist assertion of inherent superiority here.

Yeah, I think even at the undoubtedly premium price they are going to sell a few of those stands. Probably two to me, eventually. Thanks again for all the input. I'll keep thinking about it and keep checking out the various "For Sale" forums. Maybe something will jump out at me one of these days. Just to clarify, this will be my one and only system for both headphone and speaker listening. An outbreak of small children has rendered big towers and living-room cable spaghetti a thing of the past.

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the War Room!

T-t-t-time s-s-s-suck!

Thanks for the kind offer of the loaner DAC, Tyrion, but I'm sorted on that front with the Duet. I may yet go for the Headroom stands, for aesthetic rather than ego reasons, though. As far as speakers go, I remember reading something by Ethan Winer -- the guy who runs Real Traps -- that compared acoustic measurements of a bunch of pro audio and consumer monitors. He found differences mainly between 2kHz and 4kHz, which is a primary source of perceived treble harshness. The home gear generally had pronounced (presumably intentional) dips in this range, while the pro gear (not surprisingly) tended to be flatter. Even within the different groups, though, there was considerable variation. Dynaudio's pro monitors, for example, were down over 10dB at 3.5kHz, probably why they are almost invariably described as "smooth." As usual, it all comes down to personal preference in the end. I'm still trying to nail mine down.

Love mine. Breakout cable royal pain. Nate fix. Message ends.

Let's have both, please. The Internet, in your can.

I'm pretty sure the MC15 is the same speaker as the BM5 from their pro line, with some plastic feet and a 20% markup. As you point out, one nice thing about pro monitors is they usually do have options to adjust for awkward placements like right against a wall or flat on a mixing console (or desk).

I don't want to have to swap jacks. I just want to flick a switch. Is that pathetic? It is, isn't it? I blame society.

I had a couple of kids and started hiding in the basement more. Then I found out I could still hear them. Then, headphones.

Arghh. As a sucker for good design, I really, really covet those ridiculous frigging $500 speaker stands. If the Headroom Home Balanced had line outs, it would be game over.

Right, that's why it's a moot point. Wasn't intended as any comment on your decision, just thought it was worth tacking on here since a few other people had expressed interest in the Macbook revision.

As much as I'm tempted, you said it yourself before: great, but not a great deal. Nate, I do like the speakers just fine straight from the Duet but I think the headphone amp comes up a little short with the 650s.

Moot point now, but this will be a nice update if it's legit. Still want a 802.11n multitouch tablet for Web browsing in bed, though!

A couple of thousand. Soft constraint, but less is better. I'm not chasing the last 0.0001 percent.

Yes, this could go in any one of several forums, but the amp/preamp choice is probably the heart of the matter, so here it is. I find I do almost all of my listening -- headphone and speaker -- at my desk now, so I'd like to upgrade my current (and, I admit, quite adequate) setup to something with a little more polish. I'm very happy with the Duet and the Senns, so those probably stay. Source is Apple Lossless from the iMac -- secondary goals are simplicity, reasonable component footprint and (again, I admit) good looks. So far I've looked at: -- SE tube head/power amp (Cary SLI-80) to passive monitors (Dynaudio Audience, Totem Rainmaker or similar) -- SE tube head/pre amp (Zana, ??) to active monitors (Dynaudio BM6, Quad 12L etc.) -- New balanced firewire DAC (Mini-DAC) to balanced SS head/pre amp (GS-X, B22, ??) to active monitors. Would be buying used as much as possible for budgetary reasons, which obviously limits choice somewhat. Any thoughts appreciated.

If you're set on an active monitor setup, you could check out the Dynaudio BM6MKII or the Adam A7. Both would probably sell for a lot more outside the pro audio channel. Adam has also just come out with a more consumer-oriented small monitor called the A5 that is getting a lot of buzz. Suspiciously reminiscent (I wonder how much thought went into that model designation) of the very popular Audioengine A5, which is a truly excellent budget choice in this category. If you are just going to run your soundcard straight out to your speakers, I would probably go with the Audioengines and save your money for music. You are not going to get the (frankly incremental) benefit of the higher-end speakers without an external DAC.

Woke up really hungover. Downhill from there. With my share of Aerius's friend's life savings, I'm going to buy Advil.

I'll be in line, though I wouldn't say that early Bad Seeds material is really crying out for a surround mix.

One train of thought following Apple's recent results -- which sent all the analysts into conniptions because of lowered gross margin projections -- is that they are about to start aggressively cutting prices on their laptops to try and cement big market share gains in that segment. See below from one of the more reliable Street guys. If you can wait a few weeks, you may well save some money.