Article: Computer Audiophile Turns 10 Today!

[PeterG]

Congratulations, Chris!  You've brought a HUGE amount of happiness to the world by teaching so many of us how to master a wonderful new domain.

[EarlB]

Congratulations and Thank You!!

 

 

[JR_Audio]

Congratulations Chris, also from my side. Great. My best wishes for you for the upcoming future.

[Superdad]

Funny, I still have your very first business card Chris--from our first meeting in the Hovland Company suite at CES Las Vegas, January 2008.  We were showing the prototype of an ahead-of-its-time/ahead of the tech CD data player/DAC/music server, with Ethernet input and credit-card-size Linux module.  It never made it into production, but you sure enjoyed asking questions about it.  John Swenson did not attend with us that year but the digital parts of the piece were all him.

 

Flash forward many years and I could not be happier to have found community here at CA.  Yes this place and its populace have been very good for our business, but for much longer I've enjoyed just being another enthusiastic audiophool exchanging ideas, tweaks, and music with everyone.

 

So I raise a mouse to the next decade of The Computer Audiophile!  Who knows what this fascinating and musically rewarding hobby will look like in another 10 years.

 

--Alex C.

[One and a half]

A privilege to be a member of this site exchanging such a pool of talent to enjoy our hobby.

The ignore list tends to grow, but dwarfs the number of good people on this site.

 

Congrats on the 10 years and many more to come!

[JS21]

Congratulations and thank you. 

I've certainly learned a lot here. 

[Doak]

Congrats Chris!!

This spot has been a godsend in allowing me to move up the learning curve of "computer audio" at a much accelerated pace.

Much of the musical pleasure I am now experiencing would not be there w/o this place you've built.

Many, many thanks to you and the entire community.

 

[KDinsmore]

Excellent! Love the site and break that bottle open!

[wgscott]

Congratulations!

 

Think about how much everyone's hearing has deteriorated in those 10 years.

[Superdad]

1 hour ago, wgscott said:

Think about how much everyone's hearing has deteriorated in those 10 years.

 

I try not to.  Actually, my hearing is still good, it's my tinnitus that has gotten worse.  

[elcorso]

25 minutes ago, Superdad said:

 

I try not to.  Actually, my hearing is still good, it's my tinnitus that has gotten worse.  

 

Hi Alex,

 

The same over here, thanks some blood pressure medication.  Magnesium supplements of good absorption help.

 

Try listening to music to the rhythm of tinnitus. That's what I do

 

Best, 

 

Roch

[Deyorew]

I have been following this website since early 2009 when I first started dabbling in a computer based music server. The site has definitely  progressed more than I have since I still have the same server!  Congrats Chris, it's been fun tuning in every week to this site to see what the latest reviews and technology has to offer.

 

Big announcement? My guess is an online store with all the companies you have great history with.

[The Computer Audiophile]

12 hours ago, Superdad said:

Funny, I still have your very first business card Chris--from our first meeting in the Hovland Company suite at CES Las Vegas, January 2008.  We were showing the prototype of an ahead-of-its-time/ahead of the tech CD data player/DAC/music server, with Ethernet input and credit-card-size Linux module.  It never made it into production, but you sure enjoyed asking questions about it.  John Swenson did not attend with us that year but the digital parts of the piece were all him.

 

Flash forward many years and I could not be happier to have found community here at CA.  Yes this place and its populace have been very good for our business, but for much longer I've enjoyed just being another enthusiastic audiophool exchanging ideas, tweaks, and music with everyone.

 

So I raise a mouse to the next decade of The Computer Audiophile!  Who knows what this fascinating and musically rewarding hobby will look like in another 10 years.

 

--Alex C.

Hi Alex - Yes! That's why I included an extended bullet point above, talking about the Hovland product and mentioning you :~)

 

 

• January 18, 2008 - My current favorite products [from CES] are ones from Resolution Audio and Hovland. At the high end is the Hovland unit. This unit was still a prototype, but after talking to Alex Crespi, Vice President at Hovland, they are closer to a release date. As I said previously, Hovland will get everything correct before releasing the product. Currently the Hovland unit is on track to be one of the top items in this category. It will pull content from your computer running iTunes. This of course leaves the computing choices up to you. Hovland is not a computer manufacturer or software firm. They made the smart choice to leave that stuff up to Apple and others. This unit will also have a very nice DAC that has been refined meticulously. If I remember correctly Hovland also has quite a bit of memory in the unit and plans to offer upgrades via the Internet. Of course the unit will support some form of meta data, album art etc... from the Internet. Along with a bunch of other features the unit looks marvelous and has rock solid build quality. I can't wait for the final product to be released.

[ssh]

I love this site. I seldom post, I visit often. Congratulations, and thanks.

 

Joe Sodd

Minneapolis

[Boy Howdy]

Chris:

Cool.  Useful and interesting effort.  Hope you've been having fun.  I have.

Thanks,

Mike

[astrotoy]

Chris, Congrats!  My first encounter with you and CA was at the CA Symposium at Fantasy Studios in the Summer of 2009, where I also met the sponsors Tim Marutani and Meier Shadi who started to answer the question, how to digitize my record and tape collection!  Your generosity of time and knowledge has been of immeasurable help over the years.

 

Larry

[Forehaven]

Good job Chris, I knew you'd pull it off!  Congrats man!

[PorkChop]

Hindsight is a curious thing.  When CA premiered, looking back it seemed "obvious" that digital audio would be a huge part of everyone's listening future.  There was Napster and some awareness of mp3 having different bitrates that supposedly affected audio quality.  Yet nobody was digging into the details of what makes digital music sound engaging on a great playback system.  I think history will reveal that Chris was a significant part of spearheading this audiophile era. 

[onionhead]

Thanks to all of those in the community that feed the beast that has become CA. Way to go Chris!

[Booster MPS]

Congratulations on the anniversary and thank you so much for creating this community.  I wish that there was a way to give back just a fraction of what I have learned here.  Thanks and here's to 10 more years.

 

So say we all!

[poop]

I remember the post you made all those years ago on Head-Fi asking if people would be interested in a forum dedicated to computer audio. At the time I think it was very early days and you were trying to get a sense of how much interest (if any) there really was out there in audio communities.

 

Thanks Chris for all your hard work and setting the foundation for us to create the community we have today.

[One and a half]

4 minutes ago, poop said:

I remember the post you made all those years ago on Head-Fi asking if people would be interested in a forum dedicated to computer audio. At the time I think it was very early days and you were trying to get a sense of how much interest (if any) there really was out there in audio communities.

 

Thanks Chris for all your hard work and setting the foundation for us to create the community we have today.

Could that have been hydrogen audio? Well that lot haven’t discovered anything remarkable other than to bicker about this bit or that.

[Superdad]

19 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Hi Alex - Yes! That's why I included an extended bullet point above, talking about the Hovland product and mentioning you :~)

 

Oh wow, I overlooked that bit from your wayback machine! Thanks much. Man how time flies. 

 

As cool-- and nearly impossible for the time--as what that product was specified to be able to do, the heart of it was a world-class NOS DAC, based on a quad of PCM1704 with a discrete opamp JFET output stage.

My dear friend and Hovland industrial designer/president Jeffrey Tonkin still runs that beautiful pre/production unit that you saw back in 2008. I've yet to hear a more engaging PCM DAC (though we are working on upgrading the USB>I2S input board to a Sonore/Audiobyte for better clocking and higher input rates).

 

[stevebythebay]

All things considered, in digital years, that's quite a long time.  You've always done an exemplary job of establishing a consistent standard of excellence in reviewing products both technically and musically -- ensuring the central focus is always on the enjoyment we all take in the resulting playback.  And knowing that you drink your own Kool-Aid, by revealing your own reference system, certainly makes us all feel like you're not shilling for some manufacturer.  Your C.A.S.H. list, on review, seems to maintain a consistent level of performance and price-performance for anyone eager to get the most for their currency.

 

Great work and hope for many more decades of your time and efforts.

[christopher3393]

Chris, thanks for providing the essential element of sanity and for sensibly managing the chaotic mixture of computers, audiophiles, and social media.