Voltron

You might figure out that Harley is a pretty serious reviewer from the fact that he is editor in chief of TAS and has more than 700 audio equipment reviews published, as well as books, etc. I understand your comment to an extent, but you have to read the context of his article and you pretty much understand what he is getting at. Plus, there can be some lame comparisons made, but when somebody like Harley says it it the best Redbook playback he has heard, that is saying a lot because he has heard and reviewed everything. You can take it all with a grain of salt if you think he or all of the audio press shills, etc. And Andrew is right, Harley is a bit of twit. He was ultimately comparing the $5K Alpha dac to the $12K Spectral CD player, which is a very tough comparison for the DAC. I actually did this exact comparison at a store in Berkeley. The Spectral does one thing incredibly well, and that is play the shit out of CDs. It is not hi-rez and it does not have a digital input but the sound from CDs is nearly unbelievable. The Alpha does more things, is hi-rez, and sounds great. It did not sound as good as the Spectral on CDs, but then again it sounds great and way better than most things in the price range for CD playback. Add to that fact that the Alpha is much more suited to hi-rez and with that is sounds simply fantastic and you have a lot more to offer for the money. Of course, I am still curious to do a much more thorough comparison of my Amarra Model 4 or JP's Sonic Model 302 against the Alpha because the first time at CJ09 was messed up and inconclusive. I may try to get an Alpha for the August 9 meet.

Lago di Como, Italy

Bowerbirds -- Upper Air

Can't somebody do a lolsquid with that pic?

You mean by JP#s carrying it up North or some such?

Harry "Sweets" Edison & Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis -- Simply Sweets (needledrop)

Happy Anniversary Nate! Great weekend.

That was supposed to be in the listening thread. Oh well.

$4500 preorder and $4990 normal retail.

The Jayhawks -- Music from the North Country: The Jayhawks Anthology

No, I don't think it is a typo. The review even mentions that the prototype has 10 tubes but the final will have 11. Jack Wu told me recently that they had achieved a breakthrough of sorts in their last prototype that made the amp better. This version of the prototype is supposed to be headed my way soon for the Aug. 8 NorCal meet.

Why, I wonder.

So shut the fuck up already!

Two separate albums. Sorry. Both are great, though, and the McBride is one of the best new jazz albums in years. See what are you listening to for the album arts.

That is the album I just bought yesterday, so July 21 came a little early this year. I know the 45 RPM vinyl is still coming out at some point, and I think there is an SACD, but the CD was in the store yesterday.

Bob Mould -- Life and Times Christian McBride & Inside Straight -- Kind of Brown

I guess I am curious about all these graphs and things, but I am listening to mine right now and they are really kicking ass. I am actually using the Moth 300B speaker amp with banana plus to XLR adapter. I was trying the AKG K340s that came with the adapter and they sound like pathetic hollow images in comparison. The HD800s are not a dead-bang sure thing best cans in the world, but they can sound simply fantastic. This aint a bad way to power them, I must say. Listening to Bob Mould and Christian McBride's new albums and I gotta say it is good shit. Sitting on my porch in Mayberry with a beer by my side doesn't hurt, either, of course.

Same guy, Laine. He is very cool and has some gorgeous guitars. You gotta get this new album. The impressions above are all on the P-1

Hey Tao, good to hear from you. The mids are where a lot of the PS1 magic resides and the weight, roundness of tone and real presence to the music is what I like so much with them. I need more HF2 time in general but the mids and the overall presentation are at least similar. They lack some of the body but I agree with morphsci that they have a similar feel, especially compared to other Grado options. I have a track I like on Dave Alvin's Black Jack David album that has a lot of deep vocals and instruments and real weight, and I was definitely impressed how well the HF2 did with that song. I also agree they are not like HP1s to my ears.

I was putting the HF-2s up against the PS-1 last night and the HF-2 held their own up to a point. No PS-1 killers, these cans, but they still sound great especially for the money. The PS-1 has more of what I like and the instruments sound more true. The music was Anthony Wilson Trio, a jazz group of guitar, Hammond B3 organ, and drums. The hollow-body guitar sounded really nice from the HF-2 but putting on the PS-1 gave the body more body. I could hear better the tone of the guitar and weight of the notes was greater. The bass is good on HF-2 but the bass on these PS-1s with Equinox recable has always been my favorite presentation so the HF-2 did not knock them off that pedestal. I will listen some more from the Luxman P1 and then later maybe from the TTVJ FET-A.

Guitar Centers are everywhere and they have a fair selection of headphones and IEMs but they are hard to audition there. In SF, there are good hi-fi shops with headphones and amps to try. Audio Visions on Pine Street is the best, and it has multiple cans and headamps on display. Harmony Audio Video on West Portal Avenue has the Grado lineup including the RA1 amp and several preamps that you can probably listen from. Music Lovers on Bush Street has great gear but I cannot recall headphones being there. Cheers.

Anthony Wilson Trio -- Jack of Hearts This is a really cool album that Joe Harley produced and played during his talk at CJ09. Two track analog FTW!

It was super fast today and would have been faster if the yellow jersey hadn't made it back into the leaders group.

These is a really great TDF so far! Not sure Lance is speaking to Contador at the moment, but tomorrow is going to be killer on Tourmalet. I wish it was ending at the top but oh well.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o76WQzVJ434]YouTube - HELP HELP I'M BEING REPRESSED[/ame]