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daglesj

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  1. Indeed. <br /> <br /> No one likes to know they have paid $500 for $50 dollars worth of bits do they?<br /> <br /> Often however, they do.<br /> <br /> When you look at the number of parts in a $500 laptop/amp etc. and then look at a device like this you have to wonder.
  2. Here is a pic of the gubbins inside one of Russ Andrews Silencer power filters. I could never detect a difference. Thats why after a few years I ripped it apart to make sure it actually had something in it.
  3. I just want the straight techinical facts rather than the usual Hi-Fi BS "depends which way the wind is blowing" excuses routine. I want to know which conditioners (from £30 to £3000 say) work positively at a techinical level and then I can make a choice from there. I dont want the usual 'Hi-Fi voodoo' routine. Not interested. Shame we'll never see it as I reckon most conditioner firms would never dare submit their designs. Great if you supply test data though.
  4. Never understood why mains conditioners havent been lab tested. I would have thought with the right measuring gear you could test the mains from three different locations - House in the city. Cottage in the country. House in the suburbs. Test and measure the mains from a socket in the living room and then plug in a conditioner and then measure the effect it has and then check whether or not it would have a positive or negative effect on a technical level. I would have thought with the right gear this would be perfectly possible but I've never seen a proper technical review of any mains conditioner. What are they afraid of? In the PC world we get plenty of PC Powersupply testing with their filtering and power outputs. I always look for the ones that give the cleanest and most stable power delivery. I can get that info easy. The world of Hi-Fi shirks away from being debunked once again?
  5. I use a few of these around the house. I got them for nothing when we decommissioned a few £50000 video conferencing suites. They cost around £40 a go. Interesting tale about these is that the Chord Company used to sell them with just a label and a plug socket on them. Chord Clearways they were called and they got good reviews in the Hi-Fi press. However, the cost for that label/socket was an extra £200 to you squire! Nice work if you can get it. They stopped selling them when that snippet of info got out. I mainly run my PC off them as I find clean filtered power works wonders for a happy PC. No real effect on my Meridian gear. I still claim that Meridian gear is pretty much immune to tweakery. http://uk.farnell.com/roxburgh/pmf6/filter-in-line-6a/dp/1101097 http://uk.rs-online.com/web/search/searchBrowseAction.html?method=getProduct&R=6727023 Look familiar? http://www.sonicsoundaudio.com/product_info.php?cPath=376_92_122&products_id=276
  6. Essentially echoing what I said. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/that-sata-cable-saga-the-aftermath/9382 Couple of good comments too. It's funny but I typed "new SATA cable standard" into Google and found nothing but links to this article. We often get new SATA controller standards but no news on any new cables. That would have been flagged ages ago by the tech sites. Maybe he was getting muddled with USB3.0?
  7. If the SATA cable in the picture of his article is one of his super SATA cables then they look very much like the Akasa shielded cables I use. I bet the Akasa cost only a fraction too. These old guys may know their turntables but they really know jack about modern computer based kit. It shows....badly.
  8. ...that audiophile Hi-Fi whether you like it or not is more and more an 'old farts' hobby. Yes I expect a few folks saying "hey I'm only 21 years old!" but I stand by my opinion. Most of the named reviewers in this industry are patently 'old farts'. Nothing wrong in that, however, they are still thinking in the analogue world. They cant let go of the foibles of analogue and keep on applying them to the digital world. They could get away with it back then. But now it just looks seriously misinformed and out of touch. They need to embrace a new philosophy (not that new really, 20+ years old) but then they would be struggling to find the other 1500 words for their 2000 word review. Sad really. Oh and I often swap out my SATA cables. But only for the Akasa ones with the nice retention clip on them to make sure they dont fall out. Thats the biggest performance improvement you can get from changing SATA cables.
  9. Been using my QNAP for nearly a year now. Was simple to setup and worked a treat. First thing I did (as I do for any computer gear) was hunt for new firmware and software and that all worked very nicely.<br /> <br /> Using Seagate 1TB 5900rpm drives for all my data needs.<br /> <br /> I'm always amazed with folks that buy expensive gear and never think to look for updates and soldier on using the old software. Also the QNAP forum is a great place to get help if you need it. You will get help there unlike some forums like Seagates etc.<br /> <br /> Been using it for streaming movies, music, storage, Joomla, SQL server, web test server, print server you name it. Its never skipped a beat. Transfer speeds on my modest network are around 35MBps. <br /> <br /> Even the girlfriend uses it and likes it.<br /> <br /> I would recommend QNAP over 'toy' NAS boxes from the major HDD manufacturers.<br /> <br />
  10. .....I just couldnt bring myself to spend anything more than say $10 on any USB cable. I couldnt spend $90 on a USB cable knowing that the core components cost 75 cents and the rest is garnish.
  11. "daglesj - You could really add to this conversation by listing the six USB cables you tested and how you tested them. You are implying that USB cables are meant to be used for transferring data, does that not include music? Also you mentioned the cables " behaved pretty much the same." Is it fair to assume the cable did not behave exactly the same or you would have used a more precise term?" I used half a dozen cable that I had collected over the years. Some were short, some were long, some higher or lower AWG ratings, some had ferrites, some were thrown in with $1 Ebay items, some came with expensive digital products. I tested them transfering data from a HDD through a data transfer benchmark. The differences between all the cables were minimal. I really laughed hard at the phrase "You are implying that USB cables are meant to be used for transferring data, does that not include music?" Re-read that and have a think about it. What exactly is going through that cable from a PC to the DAC? Folks please just stop adding hifi voodoo to cheap bought in products so manufacturers can sell you a $1 USB cable for $100+. Yes there can be differences in different cables but thats due to nothings perfect. The fact is you need to stop buying $1 worth of bits for huge sums of money. No USB cable should really cost more than $15 at a fair price I reckon. Most of that would be labour and only if hand soldered. Use whatever cable you like but stop letting folks rip you off. Thats just the fact that annoys me. Folks getting ripped off. I remember when I first came here in the early days folks were were quite sceptical and wary. Common sense was rife. Now it seems as the site has got more successful and I guess ad revenues have gone up and better relations with the manufacturers have been setup I see a far less scepticism and more encouragment to buy such inflated items. That concerns me. Will we see another oppo/Lexicon scandal happen here?
  12. Hmm when I tested half a dozen USB cables for what they are used for - transfering data, they all behaved pretty much the same.
  13. ....I'm amazed this way of using music ever took off.<br /> <br /> Makes me just want to pick up the CD and play that.
  14. If you just want the core OS then the starter/Basic edition would do fine. However the Home Premium and above will add in the Media Centre functionality...but a lot of other stuff too. If you just want the basic OS for use with other audio software then less is more in my opinion. Getting hold of the starter/basic editions could be tricky. OEM only I think so online order only. I got my Windows 7 DVDs three days early so wondering what to do with my three copies.
  15. "Second if you have a Mac then you have the option of adding Amarra software which is generally (but not universally) commented to take the Mac to a level beyond any other playback system." Ooooh now thats a very bold statement. lol
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