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John

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  1. Well, if you stay with audio suppliers, I have been impressed with the Townshend Seismic platform. However it does seem that you will get vastly superior performance, and for less money, if you buy from a lab equipment company instead. Those lab platforms allow you to use scientific equipment next to motorways or even during earthquakes and you can choose a resonant frequency way outside the audio band; I have seen as low as 3hz. Just google 'vibration isolation tables'.
  2. It will never, ever happen. Even 20 years ago, when the difference between lo-fi and hi-fi was huge, the general public were disinterested. Nowadays the difference is small and keeps getting smaller. I spent a year in my weekday flat with access only to the analog output from an iPhone playing 320k mp3s into HK Soundstick iiis. Total system cost $150 assuming one already has an iPhone; sound quality better than most of what I heard in the 80's. Hi quality audio is, and will remain, the domain of obsessives. I am a member of another forum where folk argue about German vs Swiss polishing on watch parts and a forum where people argue passionately about cat food. They think they are normal too and, yes, you do see posts asking how do we educate the average consumer about high quality cat food :-)
  3. Great idea for an article and, as ever, well executed and written up Mitch. Thank you. Given the inaudibility of some of the changes you made, it just makes me think what a waste of time it is discussing the audible difference between two digital streams that are bit-identical.
  4. I would classify myself as a recovered audiophile. No interest in gear at all and kit will only get replaced if it breaks. Happy times.
  5. Good question. I don't know if I am representative but fwiw I use kef 201/2's on dedicated stands so for sure the $6k could have bought some reasonable floor standers. However, in my room I just don't need the hassle of dealing with more bass extension + I hate dedicated listening rooms so my speakers must be in the lounge and therefore within reasonable proximity to a wall.
  6. Can't wait to get the uncompressed version. The new Bowie album really is a hit. Some elements of 'Reality' some of 'Heroes' but really just fresh new stuff; voice sounds amazing too. (in case anyone missed it, the full album is streaming for free on itunes until, the Cd is released later this month)
  7. This is really nice, quirky intelligent pop folk. Gorgeous voice.
  8. With iTunes you can just make a copy of your lossless library at any rate you choose (I use 192k for the car) put the lower res versions in a separate playlist and then dump that playlist onto your SD card or USB stick. (Use doubletwist to copy the playlist).
  9. Loving it! Thanks so much for the heads up. I have been desperate for a mid/hi quality streaming service (mainly for music discovery) but there have been no options available in the UK. Mog is US only and Rdio is crap imo. I have now signed up for the trial at Sony and so far it seems to be just what I need. I read that not all of the catalog is yet converted to 320k but I have listened to a couple of dozen tracks and switching between the lo and hi quality options makes a big difference in each case so I guess I am getting the 320k feed each time. The low quality streams are unlistenable; really bad - like missing the top octave but the hi quality tracks sound great to me. I have not done any critical listening to compare Sony 320k tracks vs lossless equivalents. This might be fun to do; I doubt the differences will be huge. I have what most here would call a mid-fi setup (MBP -> Cambridge 840C -> Exposure 2010 S2 -> KEF Reference 201/2) and I really wonder if I could use this service for more than discovery but actually as a source? Will see how it goes. Cheers - John.
  10. Great post. This seems to be an approach that could be extended. Would you be willing to compare some file formats; e.g. convert your wav file and run the test for wav vs flac vs aiff vs alac (even vs a lossy format, 320k mp3 256k aac etc...). This could shine a light on another of the ongoing debates. Thanks, John.
  11. Eloise, yes that's right basically. A few years old but there is a superb tutorial on ASRC here Asynchronous Sample Rate Conversion - diyAudio which explains how it works and why the residual jitter gets mapped to the data and not the output clock. Importantly it also explains why the residual jitter is much lower than with a pure pll based clock recovery system and why therefore, ceteris paribus, asrc should be the superior of the two solutions when forced to deal with spdif. It's a really good read. John.
  12. I would caution you not to bother. I have purchased a couple of hundred LP's over the last 3 years and I can count on my fingers the number that have really great sound quality. It sounds from your post that you don't yet have a record collection. I would say that there has never been a worse time to get into vinyl. The days of picking up cheap second hand LP's are long gone since everyone knows the value of these things nowadays. To my ears and on my system (ymmv etc) all modern vinyl is crap. From the cheaper back-to-black re-pressings to the luxury goods from classic records mfsl etc, they all sound poor to me. In fact, I don't have a single heavyweight LP (180g and upwards) that gets any playtime. (And yes I do meticulously adjust VTA for the differing record thicknesses). I do have some stunning vinyl. I just played Joe's Garage as it happens and it is amazing but, like most of my decent stuff it was expensive (USD 100) and like all of my discs worth playing it is an old lightweight pressing. There are exceptions; I got a fabulous copy of Pauls Simon's Gracelands from a flea market from 2 dollars but you have to be really lucky to find stuff that way. The good stuff costs a lot. (Actually some of the rubbish costs a lot too). Ignore my rant if you already have a collection but, honestly, I wouldn't advise anyone to start one. At 5k dollars minimum for a front-end plus the same again for a hundred half-decent discs - you might get more smiles from spending 10k on a pair of speakers. - John.
  13. Oh, thanks for that. I have not kept up to date and didn't know about the new one. Will head to the website. Loved the first two albums. Monday's Ghost and that whole city lights project is the equal of anything put out by Dylan / Bowie etc imo. Cheers.
  14. I too see streaming as the most viable option. I get your frustration with airport express. I threw mine out. I have 3 old style apple tv's though and have used them on multiple networks, streamed to them from ipods and android devices with never a problem. You can put files locally on them too should you wish. Audio from the internal dac is actually quite good so you may not even need a separate dac; just join to your amp with standard interconnects. You probably have to get them second hand now (and jailbreak them to allow airplay streaming), but for pocket change and half an hours work you would have a workable solution.
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