[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
My name is Barry Gordon. You can find out a lot more about me at www.the-gordons.net. My Hobbies are Music, Movies and building things. When my late wife and I designed our home we put in a "Home Theater". The room was desinged as an adult playroom. The video details are front projection at 720P to a 10 foot wide screen. There are twin DVR's, Twin DVD megachangers, A PS2 game system and a Photobridge Hidef media player. The audio side of the room has seven B&W Signature Seven in wall speakers with matching (volume and padding) enclosures plus a 12" Vellodyne sub. The Sub has its own 1200 watt amp, and the other seven speakers are fed by an Outlaw 200 watts/channel seven channel power amp. The audio processor is a Lexicon MC-1 which only does audio as video processing is handled by a DVDO VP50 scaler. The transporter went in last week replacing a Turtle beach Audiotron as the Theater music source. Major difference in sound quality. The Audiotron now feeds the house background music system. The Transporter feeds the MC-1 through its coaxial S/PDIF output. The music is all stored as FLAC or MPG3 files on a server that is in the electronics room of the house. It is up 24x7 and also handles my web site. The FLAC files are from DTS CD's while the MPEG files are from normal CD's. When I get some time I will re-rip the CD's to FLAC. All of my music is stored on the server and can be played via the Transporter in the Theater, Through the Audiotron or Transporter in the Great Room via the house music system, or through a Squeezebox in the Master bedroom. The Slim Server (ergo all of the players) is completely controlled by either the iPronto remote in the Theater or the in wall touch screens throughout the house. In the Theater the library can be displayed on the big screen along with the current playlist and full control is provided via the iPronto remote using the CLI TCP/IP interface to the slimserver. The iPronto actually communicates only with the PC that controls the Theater components which does all of the heavy IR, RS232, or TCP/IP lifting for the whole house. A high quality TelARC DTS CD sounds absolutely awesome in the Theater/Music room. All seven channels are active and the sound is just what I was looking (Listening?) for. My tastes in music run from semi classics (Arron Copland, Boston Pops) to blues in a club environment (Nora Jones, Dianna Krall, etc) to good Jazz. My SO is into Rock so she often exercises the room. I guess thats enough for now. -- barrygordon barrygordon's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7468 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
My name is Matthew. I so love music becuse it evokes the Spirit in us if you know what I mean. zthat's why I'm a praise and worship music fanatic. Only trouble is not mucch out there that doesn't all sound the same, need more synth stuff the christian alternative genre's got some good stuff and yea I do like hymns too. the home i moved into just a time ago has the in wall and in ceiling speakers...i believe them to be from Elan. they sound pretty good and handle some pretty good pushing since I use a sub. I currently have an old Adcom gtp 600 pre amp with a 6 zone HTD 50 W/channel amp. Sounds decent enough to me. zthe only thing I'd like to change is I'm using a pair of Definitive BP-2's for front music on a shelf. I'd like to be able to get ahold of some large floorstanding speakers instead. I'll pupt the BP's back downstairs where they belong with my Denon surround sound system. -- chiefersone chiefersone's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9413 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
So I could toslink to my Adcom GTP600 upstairs and use the RCA outputs from the SB3 to my downstairs Denon receivervia my through the floor RCA interconnect cable? Is this what you are saying? -- chiefersone chiefersone's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9413 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
I'm running my SB3 into an Adcom GTP600 preamp with a 6 zone amplifier and I enjoy perfectly clear, hum free music. I attempted a split of the RCA jacks onthe SB to send a signal downstairs to my basement and immediately upon plugging in the y RCA spiltter humming exists. Has anyone out there spit the RCA jacks without getting hum? If so tell me what cables you used please. -- chiefersone chiefersone's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9413 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
I just registered so here goes. I bought a SB1 shortly after they were released and was totally taken by the experience. I had always been so so picky about sound quality, and here was a piece of equipment that transcended all that. No it didn't sound nearly as good as my CDP, but the difference it made to my musical enjoyment of my music collection was a revelation. It took me a while to get good sound out of the SB1, and then along came the SB2 and the sound quality I could get out of that was suddenly in the ballpark (with mods and an outboard DAC that is). So I am here because I am totally sold on the Squeezebox concept. Enjoyment of music of all kinds (so long as it is the best of that kind) is what I am about, but I also own an audio cable firm called Antipodes Audio here in New Zealand, selling cables starting at USD100 up to USD2000. All made with 99.99% pure gold and silver (no other metals), and all insulated with pure raw cotton and air. I don't believe in heavy use of blind testing. Our cable designs were developed using bursts of many rapid experiments with subjective judgements. Conclusions were drawn from these, and then these conclusions were verified or refuted using blind testing. Blind testing never reversed any conclusions, but did cause us to decide certain conclusions were either not supportable or not material. I have joined this forum mainly because I am hoping to find ways to get even more value out of my Squeezebox and maybe be convinced that my heavily modified SB and outboard DAC can be bettered by the Transporter. -- Antipodes Antipodes's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9563 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
Well errm, here I am, My name is Paul, I am shortly going to be getting married to the nicest girl I have ever met (Christina) and I work as a IT Engineer. I live in England and have an avid interst in Hifi and Music. My system comprises of Naim CDI (CD Player) Sony ST-505ES (Tuner) Slim Devices Squeezebox 2 Exposure XVII (Pre-Amp) Exposure XVIII (Power Amp) (Hi Frequencies - Bi Amp'd) Exposure XVIII (Power Amp) (Low Frequencies - Bi Amp'd) Rega Ear (Headphone Amp) Epos ES14 + Dedicated Stands (Main Loudspeakers) Epos ELS3C (Centre Speaker) Epos ELS3's (Rear Speakers) Yamaha DSP-E800 (Prologic Amp thingy) Panasonic 32 Inch Widescreen telly --- Want Plasma ;) Pioneer DV-575A (DVD Player) Chord and Cable Talk Interconnects Cable Talk and QED speaker cables Merlin Power Cables TCI 6 Way Power Block I have been intersted in Hifi and music for as long as I can remember, my Dad is also a massive follower so I picked up some of his old equipment as time went along and it sort of continued from there really. I have only recently got into the MP3 etc scene when I got a IPOD about a year ago. I was so impressed with the idea and then came that fateful day when I was invited over to a friend of mines. He had recently bought a new box of tricks and wanted to show it off. He said something about a Squeezebox, a squeeze what ?. So I went along and oh my life. I was sooo impressed with the little gadget. Not only was it a cool little toy, but it was also Wireless and the sound quality was not at all bad. I went home and got he usual NO from er indoors. But in the end after, well about 6 months of bugging her, she offered to buy me a Squeezebox for Christmas. Now I didn't want the 3 as it wouldn't fit in the hole in the Hifi rack and at the time they only made the Silver ones which wouldn't have worked in my all black system so I went looking on Ebay for a 2. I managed to get hold of one for a very reasonable price which is wired only which is fine as my computer is only in the next room to the Hifi, so was able to dig a hole in the wall to connect it up. After countless hours of converting the music over to AAC and waiting for Christmas Day to come, I now have the system up and running. Ok so the Squeezebox doesn't really measure up to the Naim CD player in quality of sound, but for ease of use, it is well up there and as I suppose the majority of my listening is done while doing other things, that is not a major problem, and it really is a great toy ;) . Well there is a little about myself. Nice to meet everyone here ! Paul. -- pjdowns pjdowns's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7909 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
Which album is your favorite? --- What music do you like? destinys child fans site http://www.destinys--child.com -- yelena66 yelena66's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9136 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
I'm Adam...(Why does sound like the beginning of an AA meeting?)... I'm an ex-pat brit living just outside New York. I'm a programmer by trade and it's fair to say my life pretty much revolves around technology of one sort or another. I actually recently worked out I've been programming for 24 years, 16 of those professionally - which is pretty good going since I just turned 31. Luckily I have a very tolerant fiance who puts up with all the gadgets provided every so often one of them is pink and has her name on :) > 1. You post about your music experience, your audio experience, what > drives you in this hobby, what brings you to Slim Devices, etc. > Tech-lust also permeates into my musical tastes which are squarely centered around dance & electronica, my 1000+ CD collection is easily 70% in those genres. As a part-time DJ in London a couple of years ago I also acquired a decent pile of vinyl (which is a real bugger to ship trans-atlantic!). Just to be different I also know my way around a clarinet and have dabbled in writing & production (but with no results really worth listening to). I found SD while looking for something to replace my old Audiotron. The combination of the original Squeezebox and the philosophy of the company won me over, I've bought every product they've made ever since. > > 2. You post about your current, past, and future (hopefully!) rigs. > Discuss your room, speaker placement, cables, whatever. > I know right away I don't fit into the audiophile bracket, but that's fine with me. My main system is for 2-channel and 5.1 and consists of: Transporter Marantz SR-6200 Polk RTi 10 Floorstanders Polk CSi 5 Center Polk PSW 10 Sub Mission Surrounds All hooked up with a mixture of Cambridge Audio and Audio Research cables. Speaker placement is a definite problem, but as it's the lounge practicalities (and WAF) come into play. I also have an SB2 hooked up to Swan M200's in the bedroom and an SB3 in my office/studio hooked into my DJ rig (1210's, mixer, Mission bookshelf speakers, Korg midi controllers & PC running Ableton Live & Serato Scratch). > > 3. Say something about your audio philosophy. For example, do you > believe in blind testing or not? Why? > Human ears, like our other senses, simply aren't very good. Pick any one of them and there's going to be some tiny animal or insect which has us beat hands down. What makes us unique is our brain and the way it's able to interpret the data it gets and make sense of it. Thus, whatever we perceive is as much imagination as it is reality - particularly when it comes down to the fine detail at the limit of our range. To me it's a matter of scientific fact that we have meters and sensors which are orders of magnitude more capable than those we have attached to our heads, and to suggest that we can hear (or see, or touch, or smell) something we can't measure is absurd. The key is whether we know -what- to measure and how to interpret those measurements, and of course in many cases we do not. In general I'm a very "live and let live" kind of guy, what someone else spends their money on is their business. But, one thing which really gets me going is people intentionally using non-science and mumbo jumbo to trick people. When I was recently buying a HD video switcher I went for one from a company who demonstrated, via scope traces, that their product introduced less noise and artifacts than the competition. It's the same for audio, if you think you've done something special prove it - don't just ask me to close my eyes and believe. > > 4. Say something about what brings you to the forum and what you hope > to get out of it. A bookmark brought me here, and one day I hope to get out of it :) -- radish radish's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=77 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
highdudgeon;158363 Wrote: > > 1. You post about your music experience, your audio experience, what > drives you in this hobby, what brings you to Slim Devices, etc. > I'm not aaudio engineer or anything like that, although I have a degree in Applied Physics and have studied acoustics and solid state physics. My first job was actually in electronics, but now I'm a CTO of a new company developing consumer products (not competing with Slim by the way!) I know a fair bit about embedded software, 3D and multimedia as well as Internet site development. I also used to do robotics and games. I was into music from my teens and have a pretty decent collection of singles and LPs from the 70's to show for it (Sex Pistols on EMI, early Stiff and of course the obligitory Iggy and New York Dolls LPs.) I also used to be a bit of a plank spanker, although I stupidly sold my Strat in the 70's to buy a HiFi - sorry to all your audiophiles out there, but it was a bad swap. I picked up guitar again about five years ago and now have a couple of electrics (Suhr, Gibson) and an acoustic. I got a SB2 after a recommendation and getting fed up with all those CD cases lying around the place. I don't see that mentioned often on these forums, the sound is great, but it also clears up a whole load of mess from the listening area. highdudgeon;158363 Wrote: > > 2. You post about your current, past, and future (hopefully!) rigs. > Discuss your room, speaker placement, cables, whatever. > My gear reflects a fairly simple approach to HiFi, no fancy cable, classic looks and a neutral performance. I have a Pink Triangle turntable which I bought new in 1978, Copland CD and hybrid Amp and currently running some old Rega speakers - they're next for an upgrade, hopefully to some Anthony Gallo's. Prior to that I had Naim Nait 2 (actually I still have it) and a Transcriptors deck, looked wonderful, but the PT was so much better sounding. highdudgeon;158363 Wrote: > > 3. Say something about your audio philosophy. For example, do you > believe in blind testing or not? Why? > Never bothered with blind testing for my own choices - if it sounds good to me, that's all I care about. I like to compare gear with my own fave test CDs, currently they are "Vaughan Browsers - Family Style", "Persuasions - Man, oh Man", "Yello - Stella" and "Eric Bibb - Spirit and the Blues". I've just added a new one to the list "Rodrigo y Gabriella", some Mexican thrash metal flamenco. Where I do believe blind testing has a place is proper reviewing, as do measurements as they usually provide evidence for what is heard. My reason is simply that those people have the power to influence people's purchases and therefore should accept the responsibility to carry out thorough evaluation of technology. My view on modders is that they definitely have a place, although some of the pseudo science seriously detracts from the credibility of the scene and I personally have some qualms about after market changes affecting long term safety of products (I would doubt that many of the small concerns have got the means or facilities to do long terms soak testing or critical electrical safety testing). For your own home, just buy what you like. highdudgeon;158363I Wrote: > > 4. Say something about what brings you to the forum and what you hope > to get out of it. > I came here to learn about the SB from real users before buying it, now I stay here because I enjoy chewing the fat with interesting people. I'd love a transporter, I don't care much for the looks, but it is the best component out there for networked music playback. If only it had a better remote! -- CardinalFang CardinalFang's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=962 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
Lemme see, hmmm...It was 1966, I was like 7 or 8 yrs old, living in Vietnam. Money was tight, my dad has a Philips tubed reel to reel, I still remember waiting for the power gauge to turn green before cranking it to Play. Not satisfied with it's 2x6 built-in mono speaker, my brother and I took it out of the player, crawled under our dad's wooden desk, emptied out the biggest compartment and spent days turning it into a speaker enclosure, we just wanted some bass badly from that little driver. And bass it did, real nice warm tubey sound! Next come treble, we wanted some treble. My brother got a hold of a microphone, he took the thing apart and lo and behold, there was a nice delicate dome membrane there with fine coil around its diameter. He put a signal to it and whoa...TREBLE! Fine fine treble but it needed a flared cone to bring the level up to par with the other driver. To really be in the sweet spot, we were both crouching under that desk listening... Other equipments came and went...A tubed mono amp that glowed so hot it split open a ceramic capacitor, Soundesign stereo/turntable AM/FM that we listened to Xmas and New Year Top 50 hits countdown from one of the US Army radio stations, we were just glued to it during this time. A Sony TC-366 reel-to-reel with the unique sloped front, sounds great but mechanically fragile, and those damn slipping belts...Ahh, next come Sony Cassette deck (still carry Scott brand). Huge Sansui then Fisher, Pioneer, Marantz receivers driving Pioneer speakers with elaborate wooden grills, remember those?. We spent ALL our money on stereo gears! Then came Advent speakers, wow what sounds, then those JBL with chocolate bar front grills, hey American speakers really kick ass we all felt. Bobbing on the boat to Thailand a year after the war, I think it was 1976, the only thing on my mine was IF I made it to America, am gonna git myself a huge stereo system AND JBL L100 speakers, the thought kept me warm and fuzzy thru the whole ordeal... Forward to 1980, Sansui AU-717 integrated and ESS Heil air motion speakers and Technics turntables, and those wild college parties I was a pest at the local hifi shop, bugging them EVERY wkends, borrowing equipments home. One of which was a pair of Bang&Olufsen bookshelf. Now, these sounded quite different from my kick ass ESS, warmer yet full of inner detail, smooth and I started to wonder about my choice and taste in speakers. During this time, I was saving every dollar for those TDK high bias tape, like $5 EACH And I was making 2.35 an hour! I spent hours tweaking the azimuth record head on the Sony cassette deck, not really satisfied with its playback quality In 1985, owning our home with a decent listening room, I got a pair of B&W DM110, 200W/c Nikko amp, a first on the block with a Sharp vertical loading CD player (which lasted 6 mos and the local Tower Records in Portland Oregon has 3 CD titles $24.99 each!) wow, no more hand washing LPs! In 1986, I made myself a passive volume pot from Radio Shack part and thought it sounded clearer than my preamp (an NAD) but the L/R level tracking was off. The hunt was on for some better pot out there continue even today for me I made my own IC out of either RG59/RG6 Belden solid core coax cables and goldplated connectors from Part Express, solder them wherever possible, Home Depot 12 gauge Monster cable for speakers. I spent no more than $100 total for wires and interconnects in last 30 years. I bought the cute looking Roku 1001 last Christmas and had a hard time liking the sound, which was both hissy and I doubt very much it was bit-perfect digitally, I had to return it. Then came the SB3, wow, now this thing is clean sounding and has a cool bouncy on screen menu. I am hooked! I have about 200 GB of WAV files and backup to external HD. I do not want to re rip these They are extracted from 500 CDs! I also have about 50 SACDs that I havent listened to much, the SB3 totally spoiled me and I felt that it is the best thing ever happened to an audio geek like me. My current setup: SB3>Musical Fidelity A3.24>Alps 50Kohms pot>2 Nakamichi PA7s>B&W 802 Nautilus>Nice! -- empty99 empty99's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3488 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
Allrighty, here we go then... I'm a Dutch guy living in the US, my name is jan. I'm an Oracle DBA, and ride a Yamaha FZ1 (with Holeshot pipe and Ivan's jet kit) when the weather is nice :-) The first single I bought was "Ob la di ob la da" from the Marmalade. Yes, really. Got into music more seriously when I was in high school. Hanging out with friends, that's what we did mostly, listen to music. I started buying audio gear once I got a temp job, stuff like Akai at first, then Kenwood, Infinity speakers. Then when I was 18 I met a guy who build his own speakers, I thought that was neat, so I build some myself too. Big transmission lines, two, the size of a nice bookshelf, 6 feet high :-) Simple design, lots of bass for sure! But I'm not too handy, so they looked like crap and, years later, had to go due to WAF, well, GAF to be exact. That's when the Mission speakers were bought, the 753. They survived until this fall, to make space for the B&W 803. The SB2 has been in my system for a while, spent a lot of time in the bedroom, but is now playing in the living room until the sb4 with AKM dac is introduced... The SB2 is connected with Blue Jeans LC1 interconnects to my Denon avr4800, from there through the pre-out to the Rotel RB1090, also with LC1. The RB1090 uses Blue Jeans Belden 5T00UP to the B&Ws. For home theater I use the Oppo 971, and the Denon, to Denon center and surround speakers. I'm fooling around with the interconnects and speaker placement at the moment. I'm also reading up on room correction, so expect some questions about that soon! AC conditioning is also high on the list to try out... No idea what my audio philosophy is. Just trying to have some fun here, to get some good sound going, without driving the wife mad :-) I'm willing to try most anything, as long as it's reasonably priced! This forum is fun to read and a great place to read up on all kinds of hifi stuff and ask questions. It's always fun to hear contrasting ideas and opinions! I even enjoy the flame wars. Hey, it's all in good fun right! Personally, I don't really care if somebody flames me, really, why bother! That person might be some 8 year old having fun pissing people off, so for me it's water off a duck's back! Don't take it all too seriously! Well, that's about it. If you read this far, thanks :-) jan PS. Favorite music: Steely Dan, Talking Heads, The Police, ABC, Heaven 17, Andrea Bocelli, Doe Maar, Pet Shop Boys, U2, The Cure, Donald Fagen, Joe Jackson, Nina Hagen, Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre... PS2. Favorite quote: All is vain! This morning, a healthy friend; This evening, a wisp of cremation smoke. Ikkyu PS3. Favorite blog: http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/ Gotto to love it, with sentences like this: "The man took one look at capitalism and beat it like a 14-year old boy with unrestricted Internet access." -- jmourik jmourik's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7123 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
I started with hifi in the 70s as a teenager with hand me down tube radios. I wish I still had those old beast but since have moved on to a Naim/Linn system. In my 9-5 life I work in industrial automation and have been a UNIX fan since first exposed to it in the mid 80s. The combination led to an instant attraction to the Squeezebox and its open source software. In making hifi decisions I prefer AB dems vs measurements. While you can measure all sorts of things like SNR, jitter, and harmonic distortion you can't measure if something will sound good. Having said that it is often not possible to dem all the items you'd like and I have bought quite a few things blind. My background in electronics is purely academic, I am useless with a soldering iron and my 41Hz kits remain unassembled. Current system SB3/DAC1, CDX, LP12/P75 into a 52/250/briks. -- gusi gusi's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3801 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
Right where to start :) I love music, that's pretty much where it stops. I like music such that if I went deaf or couldn't hear music again I may as well shoot myself. I listen for at least 2 hrs a day, usually much more. The Squeezebox brought me here. Basically I wanted something to stream my music around the house (which I don't have yet ;) ) and the SB3 proved the best thing for my budget. I originally had a HTPC but that proved too much hassle to do nicely. My current setup is hardly what most people would call hi-fi but it's fine for me and that's what counts. I'm currently crammed in a bedroom but have a Denon AVR-2805 as the amp with KEF Coda 9 speakers, Cable Talk cable and Straightwire Chrorus interconnects. One day I'll have a dedicated hi-fi amp but for now doing things like buying a house and rebuilding my car's engine take priority. I actually listen to most of my music on the go from my iPod nano. This has rockbox installed and the MP3s are ripped with LAME and connected to a pair of Westone UM-2s and I love it. What do I believe? Not in audiophiles that's for sure. I'm from the hydrogenaudio.org school of thought. If you can't hear a difference between something that costs £20 and something that costs £20k then why are you paying £20k just because someone said it's better and they're an 'audiophile'? Doesn't make sense in any way to me. The only reason my server has everything ripped as FLAC is because I have the disc space and it makes converting to any lossy formats much easier as there's no need to rerip. I also don't have the time to care about subtle differences between components if I'm not going to hear them in general use, I have better things to do with my time :) I came to the forum because I bought a SB3. I like helping people out where possible and discussing music/audio related matters. One day I'll have a really good setup for stereo listening but only if it's worth it and I can tell the difference. Other stuff, I go to gigs quite a lot (nothing quite like live music) and the last one was Tool/Mastodon at Nottingham Arena on Friday night. I also play bass guitar too. Mostly into metal and current favourite is Opeth. You can see what I listen to by clicking my last.fm link in my sig. -- probedb Paul. 'last.fm' (http://www.last.fm/user/probedb) 'myspace.com' (http://www.myspace.com/l328nud) probedb's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7825 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
tomsi42;159115 Wrote: > "I fart in your general direction." > > I award you the quotation of the year award ;) Will there be a webcast of the award ceremony? -- jhm731 jhm731's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7685 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
I want to play! So due to the variety of sites I visit and post on (mostly with this name) I typically sign my email and such as "Mr O." In the Eugene linux users group I'm known as the same. Googling me can be scary as I'm mostly on tech sites. My occupation is in computer retail, sales, technician, asst manager, co-owner, and any other titles I want. If you want to know what's the most reliable computer hardware to purchase I'm the guy to ask. As for an OS? Well, linux for me. 8 hours of Microsoft victim support a day is more than enough Windows for me. I wouldn't call myself an audiophile but I am an audio nut. I like good clean sound at any volume. I have a preference for good acoustics be it guitar, drums, or any other instrument for that matter. Instruments are an important part so a little classical here and there doesn't hurt. Some of my favorite acoustics are from Jars of Clay. My audio is part of my home theater as I have a small house and income. Definitive Technology sub/sat all around with only the sub and front L/R playing audio. People are typically floored when they here what these speakers can do for their size. I can really drive home the fact that size doesn't matter if you have the right equipment. 12 & 14 gauge OFHC speaker cables, Monster banana plugs on the ends (the two part twist ons that are near impossible to yank off), Yamaha receiver driving everything, 42" Hitachi plasma, Samsung HD931 & Philips DVP642 DVD players, the Wii, and my SB3. The poor old Sony CDP CA9ES has been collecting dust. Most of my interconnects I've been making myself using RG6 and F-type to RCA adapters. Amazing how well they work compared to any of the Monster cables I've used. Even the sub has more oomph. The bedroom has my SB2, Sonic T-amp, and the speakers that went to my plasma. I'd like to replace them at some point with something small like the Anthony Gallo spheres but not until I have a chance to mod the T-amp. The server sits in the garage and everything is hardwired. Is that satisfactory enough? -- notanatheist notanatheist's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2642 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
cliveb;158876 Wrote: > > Spoilsport. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of > elderberries. "I fart in your general direction." I award you the quotation of the year award ;) -- tomsi42 SB3, Rotel RC-1070/RB-1070, dynaBel Exact, Kimber Kable 4TC and Timbre. tomsi42's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2477 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
Next up here. I am also on the amateur side, not professionally connected to music. My first career was in computer networking and I have had my home wired (or wireless) with high bandwidth since the 80s. I must have tried out 2 dozen different audio streaming products and technologies over the years, and the Slim Devices technology is by far the best. Over the years I have tried out many different types and makes of gear, and still have a lot of it in one room or another. My preference is for tube gear, so that is what has settled into my most frequent listening areas. I am partial to the Audio Note gear, which I think sounds terrific (although I know that some posters here have the opposite opinion). But there are also Quicksilver mono blocks, as well as amps by Audiomat and Spectral in use. Speakers range from Mutine Équations to 1980 vintage Klipschorns to Shahinians. Mixing and matching is fun. I am currently a vintner in Californias Napa Valley. I actually find many parallels between high end audio producers and high end wineries. They tend to be small, stressing quality over quantity. Differences tend to be subjective and often are a matter of style (leaving our flawed products in either space, of course). Price and quality are sometimes linked and sometimes not. The people crafting the products tend to have strong opinions. -- Bob Bressler Bob Audio Note CDT-Two->Audio Note DAC5 + Slim Transporter->Spectral DMC-20->Kassai amp->Audio Note AN Es Bob Bressler's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2217 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
highdudgeon;158363 Wrote: > 1. You post about your music experience, your audio experience, what > drives you in this hobby, what brings you to Slim Devices, etc. I hope I'm allowed to post here even if my stereo is uh...well, somewhat less than high end. I guess I take the word audiophile at face value: lover of sound, and if I had more to spend on equipment I would, but I don't, so I can't. I do love listening music. I have varied tastes. I liked a lot of college/alternative rock when I was younger, but now that I am geezing at 48, much of that sort of music now I find either immature or negative. I don't need any extra negativity right now. So lately, I've been expanding my jazz and classical collections. I've ripped about 450 CDs. I use EAC and AccurateRip and a Plextor CD drive that I sought out on eBay that supports overreads on the first and last tracks. I tag with Tag&Rename. highdudgeon;158363 Wrote: > 2. You post about your current, past, and future (hopefully!) rigs. > Discuss your room, speaker placement, cables, whatever. Before I learned about the Squeezebox, I had my own custom streaming system that consisted of: - A serial device called a Slink-e that routed control messages to and from two Sony 300-disk jukeboxes and the computer. - Two M-Audio Audiophile 2496 sound cards (one for each jukebox) - A VB6 ActiveX EXE that I wrote that ran in IIS and processed messages to and from the Slink-e. - An Access database containing the disc metadata. - An ASP front-end for interfacing the database and the ActiveX EXE - Windows Media Encoder broadcasting a 760kbps stream through the network 99% of the time, it worked great, but it had limitations. First, I needed a computer near the stereo to pick and play stuff. Second, it played real CDs, so my mp3s were out of the loop. Third, it relied on mechanical devices, the CD jukeboxes, which I knew one day would fail, and then I'd be screwed. After I learned about the Squeezebox, I hemmed and hawed. I had put hundreds and hundreds of hours into my custom system, and it was very difficult to let go, but finally, I did, and so far, I haven't looked back! I've always been interested in hi-fi, but I've been restricted by a lack of serious cash to blow on really nice stuff. I build several speaker sets in college, but my first "decent" speakers were a pair of Spica TC-50s I bought about 17 years ago. 8 years ago, I traded up to a pair of PSB Status Bronzes. A few months ago, I added an Outlaw Audio LFM-2. I also built custom bases for the PSBs. When I bought the Spicas, I also bought an ADCOM GFA-535 amp and a GTP-400 preamp/tuner. Recently, I "downgraded" by selling the amp and buying a DENON DRA-535 receiver. I'm afraid that the ADCOM amp sounded better, but I needed a low-level subwoofer output and I wanted a remote to control volume. I made my speaker cables with Carol Cable wire from Parts Express and MonsterCable overpriced, but nice, banana plugs. I'm using Dayton Audio interconnects from Parts Express. I guess I would like a better amp/receiver, but that will have to wait a while. highdudgeon;158363 Wrote: > 3. Say something about your audio philosophy. For example, do you > believe in blind testing or not? Why? Lately, I've been wondering if there's really that much special about an "audiophile"'s ear. I mean obviously, on an objective level, some people hear better than others and a hearing test can determine that, but I'm wondering if it's not so much that one person hears something that someone else doesn't, but that the other person simply doesn't care. I think I am a pretty discerning listener, and I want things to sound a certain way. Little bits of distortion, boominess, etc. grate on me and drive me nuts. But I'll notice something objectionable and play it for my wife a few times and finally she'll say, "Yeah, okay, I hear it ... so what." highdudgeon;158363 Wrote: 4. Say something about what brings you to the forum and what you hope to get out of it. Mostly, I get a vicarious thrill out of hearing about and seeing pictures of others' much nicer systems. Reading the banter on some of the tweaks can be entertaining. highdudgeon;158363 Wrote: 5. No one -- absolutely NO ONE -- is allowed to flame, diss, nag, or anything of this sort in this thread. This is NEUTRAL GROUND. Okay? If you don't like what somebody says, that is fine; feel free to take it up on ANOTHER thread. We will ask SD to make this a sticky. I can be a bit of a smartass, but I don't like hurting other people's feelings. -- jonheal Jon Heal says: Have a nice day! http://www.theheals.org/ jonheal's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2133 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
I'm not one of the regulars, but tend to post here occasionally, so I guess an introduction is in order. My name is Clive, 49 years old. I live in the UK, about 15 miles north of London. My day job is in IT: relational databases, client-server applications, database-aware web sites. > 1. You post about your music experience, your audio experience, what > drives you in this hobby, what brings you to Slim Devices, etc. I used to play drums (so I'm not a musician, although I do have a music O-level), but gave up as a teenager when I heard Bill Bruford and realised I had nothing to contribute to the art. My musical tastes are fairly wide-ranging, but the core of my collection is the stuff I grew up with: 70's rock - mainly that extremely unfashionable prog-rock stuff (Crimson, Yes, Canterbury bands, etc). Most of my in-depth audio experience came courtesy of the fact that one of my closest friends worked in HiFi retail (Studio 99) for many years, so I got to hear quite a lot of gear. I am also a very enthusiastic LP to digital transfer hobbyist. It started out in about 1994, using a Tascam DAT recorder and a 486DX4 PC with a 1.2GB disk (which was about the biggest you could get in those days) with a Zefiro ZA1 SPDIF I/O card, running Windows 3.11. Software for restoration was a bit thin on the ground in those days, so I wrote my own (which is available as shareware - but here is not the place for advertisements). Having finished my own LP collection (well, those albums which I hadn't replaced on CD), I can now be found visiting record fairs looking for albums to feed the habit. Current PC is an Athlon XP2400+, 512MB RAM, 600GB of disk, and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 soundcard. What brings me to Slim Devices? Well, I bought a Rio Karma DAP, which required ripping (some) CDs to disk. So then I started thinking about perhaps playing music from the hard disk into the stereo, and bought a SB2 on impulse to see how it performed. The "paradigm shift" (what a dreadful phrase) was a revelation, and after ripping the entire CD collection into FLAC, I quickly - albeit reluctantly - made the decision to sell my preamp and much-loved Micro-Seiki CD-M100 CD player. They were simply redundant. > 2. You post about your current, past, and future (hopefully!) rigs. > Discuss your room, speaker placement, cables, whatever. My audio history is fairly long and chequered (about 35 years). I've been through the inevitable Linn/Naim phase, which ended around 1993. The Naim 135s and passive Isobariks were sold and replaced with a pair of ATC SCM100As, which I have to this day. I still have the Linn LP12 and Naim preamp, which are used in my LP transfer setup. The current rig is minimal in the extreme: SB2(wired) analogue output feeding the ATC speakers via a balanced line driver that incorporates about 12dB of attenuation. There's a Transporter on order which will replace the SB2 and balanced line driver. Cables? Just basic decent quality home-built stuff: nothing exotic. Room is about 12 by 30 feet, ceiling is 8 feet high. Typical lounge furnishings, so the room is not too lively or dead. Unfortunately domestic considerations mean that the speakers have to fire down the length of the room. There are some noticable dips and peaks in the bass response when playing a sweep tone, but nothing too horrendous. I'm interested in DRC, but at the moment Slimserver is running on a 533MHz PC, so there isn't enough CPU power to even think about it. > 3. Say something about your audio philosophy. For example, do you > believe in blind testing or not? Why? I'm strictly a stereo guy. Friends who have surround sound seem to be constantly fiddling with it rather than just sitting down to enjoy some music. I do believe in blind testing as a means of discovering what physical noise a system makes. I also believe that what the listener actually hears when not doing a blind test is psychologically affected by lots of other factors, such as how they're feeling, the look and tactile feel of the equipment, probably even the badge on it. And I have no problem with someone hearing a difference between two items even though ABX testing establishes that they make the same physical noise. My old Micro-Seiki CD player was probably no better than a host of other players in terms of aural performance, but it was such an exquisite piece of furniture that it sounded better to me than it had any right to. Self-delusion in these matters is human nature; it's not a character flaw. > 4. Say something about what brings you to the forum and what you hope > to get out of it. I first came to the forum to get information and advice. In return, I would like to offer advice to others where I feel able to do so. And I might make the odd flippant comment now and then. > 5. No one -- absolutely NO ONE -- is allowed to flame, diss, nag, or > anything of this sort in this thread. Spoilsport. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries. -- cliv
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
My name is Peter. The furry white dude is Duke. I have never considered myself an audiophile, but I think in relation to my peers, have always had a reasonably good system. (yes, I know, denial is one of the prominent signs...) I'm a longtime lurker on these forums and in particular spend a lot of time reading the threads of the Audiophile section. Born in Alaska, grew up in Minnesota, and spent part of my university days in Osaka, I now live in San Francisco, but keep an apartment in Tokyo where I run Asia Ops for a software company specializing in Storage management and I/O performance. I discovered music in elementary school when my friend's sister came home from college with her boyfried (he had a BEARD and LONG HAIR and wore a TIE DYE!) and he turned us on to Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and the Stones. In junior high, we made the foray into motown and traditional blues thanks to a local music fan who was kind enough to take us to a live concert of Savoy Brown, Mountain, and Iron Butterfly (triple header). I pulled out a joint during the show and in appreciateion, he have us access to his sizable vinyl collection. Marvin Gaye, Al Green, T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters, Magic Slim...they all blew my mind. (My high school friends were all listening to Van Halen and Ratt at the time...) Got my first hifi around that time (Yamaha Integrated amp, Nakamichi 4-head deack, technics turntable with Infinity speakers - hey, I was still in Junior high!). In college, I realized I needed a more serious system and got a Luxman L-430 and KG4 speakers. I think it had the distinction of being the loudest stereo in the dorm. I also played harmonica in a blues band around that time and played the trumpet for 15 years. I don't think I ever had golden ears, and it certainly didn't help matters when I blew out both eardrums in a cave diving incident. Nevertheless, I can hear what I like and what sounds good to me, and I get a rush when things all come together. Since I spend so much time in Japan, I ripped my entire collection, gradually moving from 128K to 160K to full VBR, and now of course FLAC. I picked up some Dynaudio Speakers in Tokyo, and shipped my since retired Lux over, playing my collection through a decent sound card using Winamp. That hooked me on the ease of digital music, and when I started looking into something for the SF home, all the research pointed to SD as they were serious when it came to sound quality. These very forums are what pushed me over the edge. Recently we bought a house here and I needed a second system in my living room. The media room is centered around a Denon AVR-4800 with the KG4's as mains, and SC-1, SR-1 as center and rears and a Klipsch 15" sub. Great for movies, but I wanted something simple that sounded detailed and warm. Finally, about 2 months ago, I decided to ship my Dyns back to SF, and picked up a pair of Portal Paladin monoblocks. I am now in the process of trying to find the sound that gives me the rush on this system through the help of this forum: speaker placement, room treatment, and DRC. After that I am intrigued to try and see if I can hear differences of power supplies and interconnects. I really don't know much about audio and I have no idea whether I am a subjectivist or an objectivist, I just want to listen to good music on a good system. -- ob_kook SB2 --> Axiom passive pre --> Portal Paladin monoblocks --> Dynaudio Contour 1.3 MKII ob_kook's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1383 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
tomsi42;158674 Wrote: > ... the DynaDel speakers are made here in Norway (price: around > 1250 euro). ... Oops! wrong currency rate - the price is about 1500 euro. Still sounds good, though ;) -- tomsi42 SB3, Rotel RC-1070/RB-1070, dynaBel Exact, Kimber Kable 4TC and Timbre. tomsi42's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2477 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
My turn... my name is above. I've been in the recording business for 35+ years spending a lot of time in the late 70s/early 80s cutting master lacquers (LPs) in Hollywood and Burbank. I also spent thousands of hours behind recording consoles recording every possible type of music recordable. I've worked on all types of classic analog gear in my career and navigated to mostly digital in the late 80s. I quit doing music sessions in the late 80s and began focusing on post-production for Radio/TV & Film. The clients were much nicer and the hours were a lot easier on the marriage. I'm also a musician/composer/arranger where I used to score music for Radio/TV & Film projects that would come into our facility... mostly using MIDI, but with GREAT sounding samples. So, my listening environment at home is a little different than what we have at our current studios, but I do have Tannoy controlroom monitors in a 5.1 config. I've had a Transporter for a little over a month in the livingroom, and an SB3 (a bit longer than the TP) in the master bedroom feeding a pair of Genelec 2029b powered monitors via SPDIF. I've got a good selection of DVD-Audio and SACD discs and have digital and surround inputs available on my system to 'verify' surround mixes I'm currently working on. My current Slim server is a refurbished Mac MINI 1.83GHz Core Duo (Intel) with 2GB RAM and an external 500GB FW drive. It sits on a shelf in the guest bedroom with nothing but power and an ethernet cable going into it. I access it remotely using TimbuktuPro and rip files to it by mounting the 500GB drive via the network on my G5. Once the tunes are ripped (I use Apple's AAC @ 256kbps VBR), Slim rescans the iTunes library files and I'm ready to stream. I initially had big issues with syncing and hiccups between the TP and SB3, but did some network testing and discovered the SB3 was much happier by limiting its bandwidth to 320k, mainly due to the wireless signal strength upstairs. Because of my profession, I'd rather not comment on the effects of BLIND TESTING. Music is such a personal, subjective thing. No one else can tell you what's good or what's bad because you have the option of making your own choice!! Thanks, SlimDevices, for an incredible option to re-familiarize myself with my huge music library!! -- Eric Seaberg Eric Seaberg - San Diego [EMAIL PROTECTED] Eric Seaberg's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7896 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
Hi, As my signature shows, I cannot call myself a true Audiophile! Still I lurk in this forum as I am more than interested in good audio reproduction and equipment (as well as any cool gadget in general). I am not trained in any musical dicipline; in fact if I tried to play on an instrument I would be rolled in tar and feathers and run out of town! I love listening to music though, mostly pop/rock/blues - from the 70's till today. With "pop" I am thinking of the popular music as it was in the 60's and 70's - not today's marketing driven drivel. My CD collection is about 1250 CD's, so there is plenty to choose from. I like to go to live venues and try to go one at least every other month; I also go to blues festivals and stuff. First concert was Supertramp in 1979! On my kit - Rotel and Kimber Kable are well known stuff for most of you, but the DynaDel speakers are made here in Norway by a company called "Eltek - Ingeniør Strand" (http://www.dynabel.no) for those who understand the lingo). It is a two-way speakers with a Scanspeak D2905 tweeter, a Seas Excel bass driver (magnesium membrane!)and a high quality filter (price: around 1250 euro). These are placed on solid (and heavy) Empire stands. The Kimber 4TC kables are terminated with WBT connectors. The SB3 is powered by a linear PSU based on a Calex 32005A 5V/3A unit. I also have a Rotel RDV-1050E which is used for my concert DVD's and newly purchased CD's I haven't ripped yet. The sound quality can be described as neutral, well controlled and at the same very musical. Bass is decent; or will be when I fix my listening room's resonance problem! I went for the Rotel kit after comparing it with a few alternatives (with listening tests), as I found that it fits my speakers well and I like the look of the units. Photos of the Rotel amps and the speakers can be found here: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=19817&page=9 Tom -- tomsi42 SB3, Rotel RC-1070/RB-1070, dynaBel Exact, Kimber Kable 4TC and Timbre. tomsi42's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2477 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
I have a dedicated sound-video room with Martin Logan Vantage, Cinema i, NHT dipoles, and NHT ceiling speakers. I have a DC-1 Lexicon, and A Bryston SSC 3 stereo amp for the Vantages and and Outlaw 7500 for the other 5 speakers. We listen about 10' from the 2 ML Vantage speaker which are 7.5' apart. The speakers are 2.5' from the walls and 3' from the front wall. I use a computer for my DVDs to my Pansonic 50" plasma (TT) and Direct TV HR 10-250 for my other viewing. The TV is 3' further back (behind the dpeakres and centered on the wall. The region around the TV is heavily damped with Aurlex. The Cinema i is on the ceiling, centered and rougly in the sample plane as the ML Vantage speakers; i.e. 10' from the listener. I have ripped ~1100 CDs using WMA lossless with error correction. I am now ripping new ones with EAC and Flac. I use Foobar 9.4.1 for serious lisitening with ASIO drivers. Since the SB3 is so convenient I would like to use it in this system. I bought it for my daughter so I am now taking the opportnity to evaluate it and will buy one for oursevels if it meets our critical listening criteria. Joel -- jschnur jschnur's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8734 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
I'm Hugh, yclept inguz. ('ing is an old screen-name dating back to Moo;
it somehow implies process rather than destination, means not ends; ing,
inguz or ng is the 22nd rune of the elder futhark, signifying fertility
inter alia, requiring completion. There's also a meaning of "You're in
a rut, you've got to get out of it, out of it, out of it...", as the old
song goes).
I grew up tinkering with electronics and computers. For a few years I
worked in a hi-fi store (Jeffries), and got a taste of some decent
systems in the shop: Naim to Isobariks never sounded real, but LP12 -
Troika - Audio Research SP10 and monoblocs - Celestion 6000 was
magical. For a long time my own system was Linn Axis and Rega Planet,
to a homebrew ECC83 pre, heavily reconstructed Quad 405 (which is still
in the basement), and Monitor Audio 352 Gold. Which all made a
seriously loud, very warm and really quite detailed sound.
Now I'm looking for the disappearing sound system. Three components:
Transporter, heavyweight LM3886 amp, and Gallo Ref3 speakers. It
borders on the superb. There's lots of music on a PC with 2x400 RAID:
jazz, folk, electronica, reggae, dub, plus a good slice of
old-fashioned down-and-punky rock. I'm playing around a lot with DSP
on the PC, for EQ and room-correction and stereo-dipole crossfeed and
that sort of thing. I think it works; not a panacea for a bad setup,
but capable of pulling anything up by a notch or two.
When the system disappears I can feel the musicians in the room it was
recorded in. This seems surprisingly difficult; it happened most
recently with Don Cherry/Ed Blackwell "El Corazon". I've been spoiled
by listening to some really excellent systems recently
(Wadia/Pass/Hales, Wadia/300B OTL/Avalon, Wadia/Electrocompaniet/Gallo,
tubes to B&W 805s, SCD1 to SETs and RCA field-coil drivers in Tractrix
horns...) and hearing first-hand the effect of cables, damping and
other esoterica. I don't understand how some of these subtleties and
tweaks make a difference, but they do seem to. This audiophilia is a
slippery slope...
--
inguz
inguz's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1139
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[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
In the 3rd brane my name is )(&^^##%*&(*))) but just call me Tom. I have the following: Speakers: Swillsome Audio Amp/Guppies Electronics: Stiff'm Roll'em Design Group XTC cables PhatDevices Incinerator and SneezeBox30 designed by Con Madman Milder Cables Penultimate Power Supply Sinn Sound Drek TT with GrahamCracker Arm Cardinal Phang Light Speed power conditioner (sorry CP) YouvegotsomeNerve Acoustic treatments: Response Depends Tri-Corner Diapers, A-slap Triangles. Room-Loon floor standers BS-C tube traps Per Get-High Dungeons speaker placement suggestions one speaker is hung from the ceiling and the other is upside down on the floor. The results: OMG OMG OMG , astonishing. -- tomjtx tomjtx's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7449 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
Ok, I'll play! My name is Phil, and I'm an audio dealer located in Northern NJ. My screen name is PhilNYC because I used to live in NYC, and I didn't feel like changing my name to PhilNJ on the dozen or so audio forums I've participated on past and present. I first started here on the SD forum as a happy SB2 customer. Became a SD retailer when the Transporter was announced, because I anticipated that it would be a network music server product that would finally perform at a high end audio level, and it has not disappointed. I'm what you call a "home-based" dealer; I operate my dealership out of my home. I've been in business for about 4 years, and I only sell gear that I want to own for myself. That said, I have over 1000sqft of dedicated demo space, with 4 systems available for demo: 1 - Reference System: Focus Audio FS888 speakers, Blue Circle BC3000mkII GzPZ preamp, BC206 hybrid amplifier, Dodson DA-218 DAC and SD Transporter (also an Oracle CD1000 for folks who bring their own CDs to listen to). 2 - Tube System: Focus Audio FS-78SE speakers, Cayin A70T tube integrated amp, Bel Canto CD-1 cd player. 3 - AV System: Acoustic Zen Adagio speakers, Bel Canto ref1000 monoblock amps, Pre2 preamp, DAC3 DAC, modified Sony S7700 DVD player, Panasonic 50" plasma. 4 - Office system: Focus Audio FS-68SE monitors, Bel Canto Pre3 preamp, S300 amp, SD Squeezebox 2 driving Zhaolu 2.0 DAC. Slimserver is running on my eMac, where I have 14 days worth of music (so far) ripped to an external hard drive. I'm an unoffical "co-founder" of a NYC-based audio club called the NY Audio Rave. We use Audiocircle.com as our online home, and we have meetings in peoples' homes once a month. Its via these meetings that gives me the opportunity to hear far more gear and systems than I ever thought possible, with gear shootouts being a focus of many of our meetings. I was a believer in the effects of power cords, interconnects, vibration control devices, and other tweaks long before I became a dealer. I do not believe that something needs to be expensive to be good; I also do not believe that if something is expensive, it is overpriced. I'm willing to try just about any tweak once, but do not use many tweaks in my general audio/music-listening life. That said, I think Machina Dynamica is full of sh*t...! I am also of the believe that there is very little *bad* gear out there, but that system synergy and proper setup plays a huge role in the differences we hear in audio gear. I'm in my early 40s, and I grew up mostly listening to rock, blues and jazz. Played piano as a child and keyboards in a college rockband, but was a jazz saxophonist in high school. At my current age, I no longer play the piano or saxophone...if someone wants me to play music, I now play the stereo. :-) My music taste has evolved as I've gotten older. I will admit that my audiophiling has also affected my musical tastes, finding it hard to listen to poorly recorded music from the 1940s and earlier as well as some of my favorite stuff from the 80s. These days, I'm listening to a lot of guitar-based music (everything from Jeff Beck to Tommy Emmanuel to Kenny Burrell), trumpet (John Faddis, Mark Isham), and world music (Mino Cinelu, Robbie Robertson, others). But I still consider Sonny Rollins and Stan Getz among my favorites. As far as my audiophile tastes, I have gotten to the point where I don't think I could live without a tube somewhere in my system! The Blue Circle hybrid amps are perfect for me, because I can get the warmth and musicality of tubes that I love while still getting enough speed and clarity that the music I love demands. I'm not a "mega-bass" kind of guy, as you can probably see from my primary use of 2-way speakers with no subwoofer. And Ralph Dodson is the most impressive engineer I've met in this industry, so if he thinks Bybees help, I'm all for 'em...! ;-) Anyways, that's me... -- PhilNYC Sonic Spirits Inc. http://www.sonicspirits.com PhilNYC's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=837 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
I'll play. My name is - well, my name is what you see so no need to explain that one :). I've been tracking the squeezebox for a while and only got into it a month or so ago. Experience wise - I'm a bit of a 'muso' having played in many bands over the years. Not really an audiophile - and tend to be a bit bewildered over discussions about cables and DACs and power supply replacements etc. I do appreciate good audio quality though, and have a fairly good studio environment that I have spent a lot of time and money getting to my liking. The thing that keeps me here though is the excellent design of the Slimdevices devices... A really excellent way of listening to my music, and has supplanted my CD collection. Really enjoying Squeezenetwork too - Pandora is just excellent :). -- Paul Shields Paul Shields's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8422 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
Hi, my name is Rob, and I'm an alcho er audiophile. I played trumpet for a long time, and for the past year or two have been dabbling in guitar, but I wouldnt call myself a musician. I got my start listening to LPs of Cream or Pink Floyd or Clapton, in a garage with a bunch of other high schoolers. Solder smoke mixed with other smoke, wafted along on air vibrated by the best stereo in town, thanks to my geeky best friend. He was always building some Heathkit thing or another. Later tended equipment and did the mix for a couple of minor recording bands. This got me fascinated with how an amp or PA might have a particular emotional impact and why. Thats what drives me in audio. I think of it as the intersection of the technological with the psychological. It lends itself to a sort of endless noble quest. Once I got out of college and grad school, I finally had enough money to buy a decent rig: Magnepan II's and Audio Research electronics. Since then I've owned alot of different things. In speakers: Klipsch Cornwalls, Quad 989s, Spendor monitors, Quad ESLs, Martin Logan Sequel IIs, Carver Amazings, a pair of small Maggies, Advent Large, JSE "Infinite Slope", Mordaunt-Short monitors. My current main speakers are a pair of Vandersteen 5As. In electronics I have had a variety as well: Home-built Tripath Digitals, McIntosh both classic and new, Classe, EAR 859, various Audio Research, Conrad-Johnson. When I get back to Montana I will be rotating out McIntosh and putting in Quicksilver mono-blocks. Why am I now involved with Slim Devices? I think its the future. Once you use hard-drive based audio its hard not to think the days of discs are numbered. My philosophy in audio is probably a bit different. I have given up trying to find accuracy or fidelity to live music. I am just in it for the emotional high that a great system playing great music can bring. And over the years, I have come to the conclusion there are many ways to get there. In fact, I often have three systems set up. So when I get back to Montana, I plan on setting up a couple of other rigs in addition to the Vandersteen-Quicksilver system that will be fed via Transporter. Quad ESLs and a pair of ancient tube monos will be fed by an SB3 in the bedroom. In the office I plan on setting up Spendors with a Tripath digital amp fed from the computer via USB DAC. As for the objective-subjective debate. I can remember a time before "Total Harmonic Distortion" was used and before anyone had heard of this thing called "jitter". So I dont think measurements via instruments are anywhere near close to comprehensively describing audio reality. Nor do I think ABX testing is the holy grail. Its my experience that it takes time to really hear and appreciate. I readily embrace the fact that there is a big psychological, perceptual component and I'm not sure how you control for all that without destroying what you are trying to measure. But, being schooled in the social sciences, I know there are ways to tease out objective measures for that which is wholistic and subjective. If and when that happens, we can all live in peace, as the subjective and the objective will have been reconciled. -- atkinsonrr Transporter, Quicksilver V4 Monos, Vandersteen Model 5A speakers. SB3, Quad Tube Pre-Amp, Tube Monos, Quad ESLs. Homemade Tripath Digital amps, Carver ALS (original) Speakers with Outboard Crossovers. atkinsonrr's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7214 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
Why Highdudgeon? Really, because I love opera and it is a wonderfully archaic word. Think of Wotan skulking across the sage, dragging a spear, wearing a hat with pointy horns, and actually trying to be serious and indignant. Anyway, it is a word I like. My name is George. As a disclaimer, I am very pround to be a Slim Devices retailer. My immediate plans, in fact, are to carry this business to Europe and to help place SD products with high-end dealers in central and southern Europe. I am moving to Italy (the Venetto) with my family, where my wife will practice medicine at a hospital in Vicenza, some 45 miles from Venice. We have already been there this fall on a house-hunting mission and I had a wonderful time demonstrating the Transporter on a system that included Sonus Faber Stradivarius speakers. Awesome. I am in my early forties. My educational background is in history and physics, at the graduate level, but fortune (in the sense of accident) led my to the IT industry in my lates 20s. This allowed me to upgrade my first "serious" system -- on a college student's budget -- which consisted of a Thorens 'table, NAD integrated amp, Nakamichi tape deck (remember those?), and B&W bookshelf speakers. The next move up was to an ARC D-100 amp, ARC SP9 Mk II preamp (marvelous device), I suddenly can't remember the CD player, and Canton speakers. I've been interested in audio from an early age, being an avid music collector, musician, and lover of live music. I had been exposed to some excellent systems in my youth. My bought my first system with savings from a summer job after my freshman year in college. From there, it was a slippery slope. Tubes (Quad, ARC, McIntosh, Cary), solid state (Plinius, NAD, ARC, McIntosh, Bel Canto -- twice -- Nuforce, Bryston, Carver, and probably a few others); electrostatics, floorstanders, monitors; CD players, universal players, SB3, Transporter. Expensive cables (Acoustic Zen Satoris, Oval 9's,s etc.) and inexpensive cables (Blue Jeans Cables now, and Apogee Wyde Eyed for digital...I guess that's not so cheap). EQ devices (Rane, Behringer, Z-Systems). Various DACs. Probably the most expensive system I have had in my house was the following: Harbeth Monitor 40s (incidentally, among the handful of very best amps I have ever heard, at any price), McIntosh MC-501s (a vanity purchase; I traded down); Squeeze Box 3 and Lavry DA10. Because of our move, large speakers are not an option -- my new room is too small. I have "downgraded" to Harbeth Monitor 30s, backed up by the same ACI Force subs. The subs are in the corders and the speakers are set up per Allison rules. I am running a Transporter directly into a paid of Bel Canto Ref 1000. The Bel Cantos replaced the Nuforces...I just had too many issues with that company and have had problems with the things. The BC's are probably 99% as good as any amp needs to be. They're up there with the MC-402. The MC-402 sounds exactly like the MC-501s. Stereophile compared the MC-501s to $30K+ Halcros as being pretty much the same. Why a switching amp? Because they are small and runn on US and European voltage. Ditto for the Transporter! Plug for Audio Concepts: they will retrofit the amps on my subs for 220/240 for free. Anyway, this is hardly the best system on the planet and, thanks to the very wonderful but admittedly small monitors, it lacks the body of a system with true full-range speakers (of comparable quality, of course). Audio philosophy: My rule of thumb is to spend more money on tickets to live music and on CDs than I do home audio. To begin with, I have two small children and, quite honestly, my listening time at home is limited (somehow, they have yet to damage anything...that amazes me every day). Having gone through as much equipment as I have, knowing as my audiophiles as I do, and having a background in the sciences (I was even managing editor of a psychology journal whilst in grad school...managing as in I did all the dirty work for the academic editor) leads me to believe in the value of double-blind testing. You need to work with one or more friends or family members to do this, of course. Ideally, you should have a few listeners, too, but that is not necessary. I don't do this all the time, of course, but it is fun to do. Educational, too. On the other hand, I am very much a subjectivist, too. This is about enjoyment, right? I really dig and believe in fine solid state amps for their accuracy. However, I have a pair of McIntosh MC-275s. They are NOT on the same level of accuracy as an SS amp and you can immediately hear this. They are wonderfully warm and rich, though, and I love them for that. My reasons are purely emotional. Above all, my philosophy is simply to have fun, enjoy the hobby, and remember that it is all about enjoying music. That is why I enjoy the Sb3 and Transporter so much and why I believe in Slim Devices. Their products heighten my ability t
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Personal Introductions: Please Make This a Sticky!
Well I seem to be early on the list :) My current set-up is in my signature. I'm not a professional at anything music- or hi-fi-related, although did work in a high-end dealer many years ago. I'm here as I got an SB3 - I used the forum to find out stuff pre-purchase, and quite liked some of the arguments we had. The smaller community is nice compared to some very large audio ones. My audio philosophy is very much on the subjective side. I believe that we have not found out everything we can measure, and that our ears are more sensitive than any other measuring equipment. I don't believe double-blind A-B testing is the be-all as I change into a werewolf the third time I hear a song in a row, although it can be useful. I find that I need to live with stuff for quite a while before deciding what I really think. I subscribe fully to the low power single-ended triode valve amp plus high-efficiency speaker route - I just prefer the sound - it sounds more like real music to me. My system sounds incredibly good and I don't envisage a change to the CD/amp/speakers for many years. I found the stock SB3 lacking, but it's getting OK now with an external DAC; I may do more tweaking. I listen mostly to classical, folk and world music. I go to about one classical/opera concert a week, and see folk or world music about 5-10 times a year. I spend much more on live music than on recorded/hi-fi! Finally I love having equipment that is named after me. Sean should give me a Transporter just so I can have another Slim device remote :) Adam -- adamslim SB3 into Derek Shek d2, Shanling CDT-100, Rotel RT-990BX, Esoteric Audio Research 859, Living Voice Auditorium IIs, Nordost cables adamslim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7355 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
