Voltron

Manitas de Plata -- Manitas de Plata and Friends

Danny Beotch is back!

I don't have a clue what you are talking about but that would be fun! We should talk when you are not traveling and maybe you could have it as a back-burner project I would fund. You get to experiment and I get to have an alternative flavor of amp and a backup. Win. Win. Hope you are enjoying the road trip.

Ironbut really did it! I finally have proper tubes in all locations and he really fixed the damn thing! I tried with some crap tubes because that was all I had in SF and they sucked and there were problems with the sound and drop outs etc. as I mentioned above. I then borrowed a couple mismatched 6sn7s from blessingx and it was better but Ric said one was suspect and he was right. Today I went to Mayberry to get my tubes and I put in all good tubes and the beast is back! It sounds great without any problems, distortion or anything else to get in the way of the sound. I am so relieved and psyched to have this resolved. No more meets for this frail flower and if anything further goes wrong then the KG design is going into play. Thanks again to all who helped but special props go out to the miracle worker in iron.

The Ventoux delivers today, as always. Didn't see any BAs along the way, but plenty of people. Between 500K and a million apparently. Alberto was selfish but wanted a cushion and got it at the expense of an Astana podium sweep and some respect. Radio Shack will be an interesting team. I have to look at the news, but is Johan going to be the director?

McCoy Tyner -- Sama Layuca

I think Mrs. Monkey is smart because "muted" is a great description for the ECD-1's presentation.

Miles Davis -- Enigma: The Complete Blue Note Sessions, 1952-53

Nope, still doesn't sound good. But green tomato relish (basically pickled green tomatoes with onion) is kinda sweet so maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Don't beat yourself up, I can't say anything in Portuguese, except maybe "por exemplo"!

You live in Florida and somebody from Maryland has to send you cigars?

Tomatoe jam does not sound appealing, with or with the "e". What is that Manuel?

Doubting Nelly? Anyway, the more accurate way to put it is that he doesn't always know why it sounds better.

Then why did you buy it? Sorry, but it was just sitting there. You would have lost control of your bladder at Ric's last night, btw. In addition to the 4 Parasounds, he had on display an Audio-gd Compass, my Lavry DA10, the Channel Islands Audio dac, a Pico, and I am quite sure many others.

I wasn't there for the whole thing, but I think it was not double blind at any point.

As I said, it was a brief listen and I just wasn't overly impressed. The WA5 sounded better with WE300Bs from my memory. Others thought the amp sounded great, and I think blubliss bought some Treasure tubes on the spot, so who knows.

Dude, I swear it wasn't me. It was just a coincidence that I was trying to measure your ears when I dropped by yesterday. Bummer, for sure. Maybe JH is targeting anybody who has expressed some interest but is fence sitting.

No "real man" wants a "mini" after all.

It has not yet been sold for 1500, although it may end up there with the full vinyl dropping capacity, etc, which effectively incorporates their pro master SoundBlade software ($1800) and their SonicConsole. FAQ sez: NOTE: Amarra only supports uncompressed PCM files (AIFF, WAV, BWF). Future updates will include support for FLAC and Apple Loseless And the quoted language from an earlier post during the witch doctor discussion said that the will come with v1.1.

People can diminish Amarra by calling it a plug-in or by pointing out that it does not sit well with their technical notions, but the fact is that most everybody that hears iTunes without Amarra and then with it hear the benefit. I had already bought Amarra by this point, but the symposium that Computer Audiophile put on at Fantasy Studios last month demonstrated just how powerful Amarra can be. They had an incredible system for the listening tests with 4 different computer options, 4 separate Pacific Microsonics Model 2s for each computer (talk about drooling), Boulder preamp and amps, and the top Magico 5 speakers set up by the owner of Magico. They went to extremes to do level matching on all 4 systems, to a tolerance of four hundredths of a dB as tested by Paul Stubblebine, and had all other things equal to hear the different systems or to hear Amarra vs. the alternatives, including iTunes, Samplitude, and a super-tweaked UNIX thing. The audience was mostly music/recording/manufacturing professionals, along with a number of audiophile types. There was no doubt in my mind that Amarra was making one of the biggest differences present between the competing systems, but that is my own conclusion and opinion. The more objective test of Amarra's impact was when they tried switching off Amarra in favor of straight iTunes. The audience actually laughed at the comparison and begged for Amarra to be put back on. It wasn't that it smoothed out the sound or made it euphonic, it simply sounds more natural, more like music and less like a digital hi-fi system. How it is done, I don't know. If you ask its creator, he doesn't either, in point of fact. Amarra also switches sample and bit rates and handles more and more formats. If it doesn't handle it (MP3s, for example), then Amarra shuts itself out of the equation until the next lossless track is played. Who among us wouldn't spend $400 for a DAC that kicked ass over iTunes output? It really amazes me that because the product here is software and because there is a Dreaded Dongle involved that people fight it so hard. This new cheaper version is a great idea for people who don't want to mess around with EQ and don't expect to use Amarra for ADC/needle-dropping duties. It will do all the good stuff to the sound and all the rate switching just like the full model, so I don't think a separate demo is needed. Anyway, just my thoughts after having this thing for a few months. YMMV, and all that. EDIT: I was going to call Jonathan today anyway, so I will see if anything I said directly above is not correct, etc. I know you can get a Demo Dongle for a refundable or appliable $50 deposit and would encourage people to try before they cry.

Ry Cooder -- Anthology: The UFO Has Landed

Pretty damn funny.

Man, he could really make it rain for some strippers!

Do you like the sound of those Rob? I heard them in the Woo gear at CJ09 and did not come away terribly impressed. I only heard them briefly, so I don't put much weight on my impression. What amp are you using? I assume you never got back your SDS-XLR, which is a travesty.

Barney Kessell -- Music to Listen to Barney Kessell By

Wow, I owe you an apology Rob. My post was based on mis-reading your comment and filtering it through my memory of a post you made to TheSloth earlier on about thinking this place was supposed to be more tolerant of differing opinions than HF. Reading it quickly at work, I thought you were saying you couldn't make any negative comments about the HD800 here without the pitchforks and torches coming out. I really am sorry for jumping on you unnecessarily. That said, I still don't understand what "marketing" or "hype" Sennheiser did upon the launch of these headphones. They went to CES like everyone else, they put them on their website, and then they released them eventually. Head-Fi and vendors hyped the crap out of them, and even you were pumped up about them early on. But I still don't get what Sennheiser did wrong, and please don't point at John W or whatever his name is because that ain't gonna cut it. Oh, yeah, and STFU about the HD800 until you hear them.