Z06_Pilot

I have several. Heart-Dreamboat Annie, Fleetwood Mac-Rumours, Michael Jackson-Thriller and Bad. i have all of these for comparison on both vinyl and CD as well as HD tracks. I think I have all of these in 192. The originals are very good recordings, but IMO the HD Tracks versions are superior in every way.

Would definitely be the Martin Logan Montis setting in my living room. I was a Magnepan listener for 25 years. When I wanted to upgrade my Maggies, I decided to give the Montis a try. Wow. I sit in my listening room, close my eyes, and-the imaging and accuracy is just incredible. I've never had this experience listening to music before-the electronics are gone, it's just the artists, singing and playing right in front of me-a total immersive and emotional experience. And the integration of the woofer into the ESL panel is done so seamlessly. Accurate and resolving-I got both in the same speaker.... And I saved a few thousand dollars by not getting the Magnepan 20.7's which was my intention... Oh, and it's just so cool seeing right through my speakers when sitting in my listening chair. it's like they are not there visually as well!

Depends on my mood. If I want a live concert experience and want to hear all of the different textures of the music, I am on my ML Montis speakers. But sometimes, I literally want the music in my head. It's a much more visceral, personal experience for me.

Hi Guido, Actually, I have only had them for about a month, so I have just been wiping them down thus far. I'm sure i will need to vacuum them at some point due to dog dander-two Golden Retreivers in the house. My hesitation is due to the fact that the manual says to do this with a brush attachment. I call support at ML and they tell me nozzle only..... I already found where there was a mistake in the manual regarding the dB listening level to break the speakers in, so maybe I go with the live person opinion? I am going to wait a couple of months and try to get a concensous over at the ML owner's group forum.... It does give me the willies, since I have owned nothing but Magnepans for the last 20 years until now and the cardinal rule was NEVER let a vacuum cleaner near a Maggie !

OH man, was ED Beta cool or what? I remember the first time I saw 500 lines of rez on the one I owned....wow.... I totally agree that the stupid format war along with those blasted MP3's killed multi-channel audio, and is doing much the same to quality 2-channel music recordings. I remember going on a buying spree of both SACD's and DVD-A's about 5 years ago when I started noticing that several of my online sources either went out of business, or were not getting titles back in stock. So I amased a library of about 300 and I handle them with kid gloves. I even got two copies of several outstanding titles as backups(Eagles-Hotel California, all the Sam Cook 5.1's, Rumours, , Brothers in Arms, etc) They sound fantastic through Oppo's BDP-105

To wgscott, the OP. Absolutely hysterical post...still rolling on the floor....wonderful grasp of the English language to perfectly describe this situation...."marital communication device known as bitter sarcasm"....priceless. I have a wonderful wife who has given me free reign to set up our combination family/2-channel listening/home theater room any way I want, and it's been that way ever since I purchased my Maggie 3.7's years ago. If you know the size of these speakers, then you get the fact that she's a saint. However, she's not exactly meticulous with the dusting wand, and more than once I have found my Martin Logan Montis speakers slightly off axis-and if you know anything about ML speakers, you know it requires 2 weeks of vacation from work for the time needed to get them in perfect alignment. So the agreement is that I clean and dust around all of the A/V equipment. We are too A/V equipment poor to pay for someone to clean our house !

Hi ddhd, wow, this is a blast from the past! I did audition the Gungnir and the Woo side by side for over a week. During that time, I ran music through the Gungnir continuously to help break-in as much as possible(I had already owned the Woo for several months). I had planned on keeping the Gungnir as a 2nd DAC to give a different flavor to certain recordings, but I ended up sending it back. The Gungnir sounded very "cold" to me...very sterile, compared to the Woo. All of my comparisons were done with my HD800 phones and Woo WA22 amp, for consistency purposes. Patricia Barber's new "Smash" album(Jazz), is mastered beautifully on CD, and there are fantastic stand-up bass solos and passages. The bass is just so present and warm through the Woo compared to the Gungnir. Asthetics are a secondary concern for me, but the Woo really has the look nailed. I have the silver version, and it has the "appearance" of being made from a solid block of aluminum...great industrial design. No visible or exposed fasteners anywhere. And a power switch integrated into the chassis itself-very nice touch. I myself like to have a display. It's just my thing. I like seeing visually the sampling rate I am expecting. The remote control is also unique and extremely functional. I appreciate that they seem to have put as much R/D into the look/operation of the unit as with the sound signature. Also, I prefer to use AES inputs when possible and the Woo has it. Again, that's a personal preference for me. Obviously, Jack has the ability to tune the DAC to his amps, and perhaps that's why I like the sound of the WDS-1 so much that I didn't want to keep the Gungnir even as a 2nd DAC.

thanks folks. appreciate the input!

OK, so I am going to take OP perogative here and give myself a bump.....can anyone answer my question here? thanks.....

Thanks, so, is there a guide somewhere that discusses what hardware upgrade options are recommended as well as optimizing the Win 7 OS? thanks.

Ah now this is interesting! I have been assembling my own PC's for several years now. Is there specific hardware I should be looking at from a fidelity standpoint? non-MB USB cards perhaps?

Hi folks, I tried searching various ways for Windows 7 vs. Mac, but can't find anything(maybe my search skills are not up to par). Currently, here's my digital music path: Win7 - JR 18 - Moon Audio Blue Dragon USB cable - MF V-link 192 - AES cable to Woo Audio WDS-1 DAC - Woo Audio WA22 headphone amp - Senn HD800 cans. I notice a LOT of folks have Macs listed in their sigs as their source. I have a brand new Macbook Pro with Retina display. I am wondering if I am missing something by not running all my files via the Mac? I am certainly not trying to beat a dead horse of Mac vs W7. Just wondering if there is some obvious or widely accepted audible advantage to using a Mac instead of W7? thanks Jeff

To the OP, thanks for bringing this one up! Tres Hombres was the first album I ever bought with my own money(cutting grass when I was 11). I have bought it in several improved incarnations over the years, and will try the HDtracks version. I also agree with others that the strength of HDtracks depends totally on the quality of the source material they are given, but I have been very impressed with what I have gotten from them(Hotel California, Rumours, Thriller, etc)

Update on my main speakers....front, 2 channels speakers are Martin Logan Montis...Moved the Magnepan 3.7's to surround duty.

I have never purchased any mp3 files, ever. I do rip cd's to an Apple iPod in 320 and plug into the system in my truck. My head unit controls the iPod, and it's a great convenience. a truck or car is a terrible accoustic environment anyway, so ripped cd's in 320 are fine for me there. otherwise it's FLAC or WAV period