got tinnitus

Hi All Hopefully someone has had the same experience... My Mac Book Pro (itunes/Amarra hifi) and Lacie (d2 Quadra v2) Firewire hard drive have performed well for the past 3-4 years but last night when playing an album, about 2-3 songs in the album stop/starts and the spinning beach ball of death appears and it's means a shut down of itunes. The fault happens with itunes only and Amarra. Playing directly off the Mac Book (i.e. no external hard drive used and itunes only) and it's rock solid. Is the Lacie on the way out perhaps? TIA James

+1 on the small active speakers...but with a sub as well. With a sub in there you can tune the amount of bass-to-taste.

Agreed.

Even though they're a piss-take, does Steel Panther qualify as Glam?

As Eloise intimates, often it's the long term listening that is the true test especially when it's apples vs apples (in regards gear in a similar price bracket). There has been times when I've tried a piece of kit and 30 seconds in I knew it was a no-go... Saying that, this experience tends to be at the, er, budget end of the spectrum. Once you get into the high-end, this is where subtleties come into play which requires more than a simple A/B shoot-out over a couple of beers!

+1. I felt the optical from my MBP was painting everything with the same brush strokes: swapping to Halide's The Bridge bought back the magic. The Bridge is limited to 96k but that's fine with me as most of my music is CD rips. The big plus with The Bridge is it's all-in-one so no extra cables to buy.

Thanks Mitchco, looks like some good reading there. I simply use the i-phone meter but had it calibrated with a UEi meter, so it's close enough for domestic use.

90db is plenty loud enough and for an hour or so exposure there is no real risk of hearing damage, unless it's every day then there can be cumulative damage.

A perfect example is Sleigh Bells' use of brutal compression and distortion.

Yes sir, I have tinnitus Industrial damage. A few too many years as a live music soundie. Some people are susceptible to tinnitus. I have mates who've been in rock n roll for 30+ years and they don't have tinnitus. However their hearing is starting to suffer!! The ringing isn't out of control or all that bad (like, it doesn't affect me getting to sleep for example) but I do need to be careful about exposure to noisy environments.

Yes. Just to check the volume isn't too much over 90dbA during a listening session.

Jay You're right on the cross rate.... I was way off. Still used to 1:2 we had for many years!

Naim has a relatively low quiescent consumption so I leave most of the boxes on 24/7 or if I do power down when away for a few days, I'll leave the DAC on. Lights are all CFL and our induction cooking hob have all helped reduce the power bill in recent times. We're in mid-winter here so the heat-pump is running 24/7. The power bill for the last month was $225.00 (about US$110.00). Family of 4 and I work from home so all in all, we're running pretty lean on consumption (appx 40kWh per day).

Naim has a relatively low quiescent consumption so I leave most of the boxes on 24/7 or if I do power down when away for a few days, I'll leave the DAC on. Lights are all CFL and our induction cooking hob have all helped reduce the power bill in recent times. We're in mid-winter here so the heat-pump is running 24/7. The power bill for the last month was $225.00 (about US$110.00). Family of 4 and I work from home so all in all, we're running pretty lean on consumption (appx 40kWh per day).

MDJ Ideally 2 discrete circuits is the way to go. The second one for use with switch mode power supplies, video gear and the like. Assuming you have access to a second circuit, your primary circuit for your 'A'-gear won't need any filtration. Filters and conditioners almost always have an adverse effect on your systems musicality with the worst effect being squashed dynamics. Unless of course your mains delivery is especially corrupted then a filter/conditioner could be the lesser of two evils. Best thing you can do is to daisy-chain x-amount of wall outlets and plug the gear straight into the wall sockets.