I will have to check out Watchnet.com. WUS is where I hangout mostly. I also check out Timezone's Sales Center.

Pre-order of "The King of Limbs" CD

Edited February 22, 201115 yr by Dreadhead

I sure hope Posty isn't wrong about this beast.

Also got some new [used] Gallo Strada speakers to go along with the Oppo:

One of these:

And a pair of these:

All in Dusty-approved black on black.

Edited February 22, 201115 yr by Voltron

Nice and nice, Al.

(makes non-English sounds of mesmerization and envy)

That is almost exactly the system I intend to put together. Only difference being I intend to go either 4.1 (4 stradas and a sub) or 4.2 (2 Stradas and 2 Reference 3.5's).

I do thoroughly approve.

Refurbished Mac Mini, Mac wireless keyboard and Magic Trackpad for the music room.

Damn, Al.

Edited February 22, 201115 yr by Salt Peanuts

Thanks guys. I am intrigued/confused by your 4.1 or 4.2 system ideas, Dusty. Is it for video and audio? Why no center channel? I am excited to hear the Stradas and want to audition the 3.5s soon just for fun. I may well get a Gallo sub but I want to hear them without it first. I had a 5.1 with Dues (and then a Reference Center for center) and Ref 3s without a sub, and then I tried the Gallo Subwoofer amp with the Ref 3s but didn't think it was worth the effort. Anything will be better than what is left: just the Reference Center.

Nice setup Mike! Mac Mini is the shiznik for music.

Refurbished Mac Mini, Mac wireless keyboard and Magic Trackpad for the music room.

Welcome to the Mac Mini club sir.

Well done, Al.

Me: Mountain Hardware Alchemy softshell jacket - bought last week, arrived today, in mostly dusty-approved configuration.

Welcome to the Mac Mini club sir.

Thanks Al and Jim. Jim, I think you inspired this way back at the Champaign/Urbana meet. I just take a long time to catch up.

I am intrigued/confused by your 4.1 or 4.2 system ideas, Dusty. Is it for video and audio? Why no center channel?

It's for everything -- unlike you, I have a very compact space, and also very little need for speaker listening. So largely, it'll be for those few times I don't feel like putting headphones on, video when I want surround, and audio when I want surround (I do want to get around to hearing the Katatonia disk, the King Crimson disks, and the Porcupine Tree disks in full surround). In other words, it's for those few times when I want speakers over headphones, and when I want to listen to surround.

Why no center channel? Because I don't feel the need. I also feel it solves a couple problems. I followed the professional side of surround for a while, and there just never seemed to come to any consensus. Some of them mix the center channel as a fully separate channel, some of them mix a little bit into the front lefts and rights, and some of them mix quite a bit into the front lefts and rights. If you "phantom" the center channel, these all get "equalized" (in the non-frequency sense), which actually is a better solution, IMHO.

There's also the height positioning issue -- you can't get it at the same height as the front lefts and rights without some sort of compromise. Phantoming solves that problem, too.

These would be fine for non-video audio, but since I do intend to also do video...

And invariably many people get different center channels than their fronts, and you can then never quite match the voice. That wouldn't be an issue with you or me, obviously, since sound is sufficiently important that we wouldn't make that compromise, but...you'd be surprised.

And then there's amping -- do you know that the only difference between most players and a pre/pro is level control? You can usually do all the rerouting including phantoming and the whole "large"/"small" (include sub frequencies/don't include sub frequencies) on most players? So then you would only need two stereo amps (and if you didn't have level control, two stereo preamps), which are fairly easy to match.

I know it sounds kludgy when I say it like that, but I really don't see the point in the decoding circuitry being in both the player and the pre/pro or receiver. You end up never using the stuff in the player, most of the time. In which case one should just have gotten a BDP-80.

Which actually is another option -- just a BDP-80 and a receiver for speaker/surround listening, BDP-95 for headphones, and take the BDP-83SE to the office.

Fluevog Michael Angels (wing tips) on clearance for $89

Nice snag on the Oppo Al! Being a very satisfied BDP-83 ownwer, I know you'll be very happy with it.

Those Gallos look sweet as hell too!

I probably should have just gotten the BDP-93, and I am actually re-thinking my order. I don't really need the dedicated 2-channel audio output, although I am thinking of using the Luxman P-1 as a means to watch TV with headphones and for others in the family to listen to music on headphones more easily. In my setup I will be using the Arcam AV8 simply as a preamp into the McCormack HT-5 5-channel amp. I may add a Gallo at some point, as I mentioned. The HDMI output will only be for video into the plasma.

don't compromise, al, you'll regret it later

OK, thanks. Good enough for me.

And you're probably right.

8 GB of RAM to upgrade the Mini when it arrives.

don't compromise, al, you'll regret it later

yep.

We are such a group of enablers, but I agree.

8 GB of RAM to upgrade the Mini when it arrives.

Baller!

We are such a group of enablers, but I agree.

True, true.

A bunch of this

And an underground fence.

I installed an underground fence for my first dog. He played along for a short time and then just jumped through it and laughed as he did it. That was when we installed a real fence.

We have a real fence also. At 6 months she can easily jump the four foot sections. We are having it installed as it includes a guarantee for containment. We'll see.

Wow. Maybe you can dig something to make the jolt a bit stronger.