n_maher

I wouldn't worry about it, I'm guessing most of us could give a shit about how old you are, how you pay for your gear, etc.

Have you ever built anything?

Sweet jebus you could make a living stuffing 10lbs of shit in a 1lb bag. It's an Allen wrench, and perhaps he uses them to avoid being sued by idiots opening the chassis. Or maybe he likes the way they look better? Regardless I'm with the others, that's hardly a lock. If I was a man'f I'd probably use safety screws that require a genuinely special tool and tell customers that if they opened the amp they void the warranty, like every other major man'f does.

Something doesn't sound right there, every tube I've ever come across, low or high-votage, has run hotter than I'd ever want to touch.

Just took a quick peak at Dell's Outlet, seems to me that in the systems I'm looking at that the used stuff is actually more expensive!

Thanks, I'll go have a look there and see what they've got.

*paging Salt Peanuts, paging Salt Peanuts* If it's anything custom I'd plan on a wait time of approximately 12 months.

It's going to be a decision that I can't make for at least a couple of weeks. I also have to make sure that if I choose to attend that I can still make a case for going back in the spring for the big party. It's not a matter of not wanting to go, trust me.

Anyone looking for an SB3 should jump on this fast, assuming of course that it's the wireless version.

I just can't justify using a desktop of any kind at home anymore. Even if the cost is substantially less the old advantages (better display sizes, more processing power) just don't seem to be there for me anymore. Most laptops for a bit more $$ can handle anything I'll need and have huge advantages. The only box-based PC/whatever I'd build at this point would be a HTPC, which I'd really like to do but funds don't permit right now.

I'd probably try and have a look at this. Based on a bit of research that should have the necessary preamp outputs and actually would make a half decent receiver in its own right if you ever got real speakers. I had the 27TX for 6 years or so and liked it a lot.

If I have it it'll come with me for sure.

I don't think that'd work all that well. What you really want/need is something with preamp outputs. And seriously, I'd think you could find what you're looking for used for less than that and get a whole lot more bang for your buck. Odds are that low-end new receivers are not going to have the preamp out option. Where in the world are you located?

I tracked down a copy of the users manual for these speakers online. The 5.1 inputs are designed to be used with a sound cards outputs so what you need to do is find out what the industry standard is for 5.1 output from a soundcard. My guess is that since they are line level signals that each 1/8 connector carries two channels and that it's probably L/R Front, L/R Rear, and C/Sub on the 3, but I'm guessing based on no information. I've never used a sound card's 5.1 output before. If it does work out to something like that I'm sure that you could find someone to build you 3 mini/RCA cables that you could run from your preamp outputs of your receiver to the sub. Then you'd be good to go.

So does it take a bunch of these to get the job done? I can't imagine the speakers/sub doing the surround processing but I could be wrong.

Uh, as far as I know I've built the only one currently in use by jp#'s on head-fi. Not that it's incredibly complex, any DIY'er worth a poo can build a sigma11 set to output 12VDC/1A. FWIW John likes the sigma11 powered mini-dac more than the transporter.

There's also just replacing the PS for the miniDAC, which has been known to improve the way it sounds as well...

Jebus, there's a lot to reply to here.. Yeah, it's mostly a familiarity thing for her. She's always used PC's except for one job she had that used Apple's and she hated them. It's not an aesthetic thing. Also, she uses a pocket pc at work so if I went Mac I'd be forced to run a windows OS anyway which negates some of the benefits IMO. General Mac Comment: I just can't help escaping the idea that I'm paying a premium for the Apple that doesn't really buy me anything since I won't be able to use their OS. The cheapest MacBook Pro that I could configure that I'd be happy buying was going to run ~$2700 w/o Applecare, add that to the mix and you're at $2,928 and I'm having a hard time swallowing that. I guess this is going to take more time than I've got right now. More thoughts later, I appreciate all the input!

What sucks is that pretty much regardless of which man'f you're talking about someone has a story like this. My brother has had a Dell for over 6 years now and it spent most of its travel time in a motorcycle saddle bag. The HP that he replaced it with (not his choice) has been nothing but trouble. Ian has a Gateway that's been a POS pretty much since the moment he bought it, etc, etc, insert man'f name here, etc., etc. So really, I think all you can hope for is that you're one of the lucky ones and if not that whoever you bought it from has decent CS. Unfortunately Lenovo is out from the start since they don't offer a 17" display size (that I can find). And with the 17" Yukonbook Pro running about a 33% premium in purchase price it's really hard not to look into other brands. Also, for her own twisted reasons, the WAF on the Yukon is very bad.

Well it looks like I'll be able to get a pretty decent discount (10 to 15%) off of any Dell that I want through work connection. I'm going to explore that and see how it goes, I'll post the proposed configuration for group mocking in a few days.

One word: Craigslist. Seriously, you can probably find a cheap old receiver that'll do the job just fine for under $100.

Ok, so as I sit here at my now 6 year old computer and listen to it randomly beep and squawk I'm forced to realize that I'm probably going to have to replace it sooner rather than later. I'm done with desktops for home computers so laptop land here I come. Requirements for the lappy: 1. Does not need to be portable, only transportable and fit on my lap. 2. Must be capable of running games like COD2 (and 4 when it comes out). 3. 17" screen for occasional movie watching. 4. Budget is ~$2500, tops. Clearly it wouldn't hurt my feelings to spend less. Dell seems to have some pretty decent deals on business class laptops right now (the Precision M6300 in particular) but I know this is Mac country so tell me how I'm going to sell that concept to my very anti-Mac wife. I haven't done much research yet, so any input is greatly appreciated.

Depends on what you're running for opamps and your power supply. 7 or 8W sounds about right though unless you really tweaked it for speaker use.

it is one of few albums that I've actually completely deleted from my collection. Turd is being kind.