ehart

Responses from ehart

Burlington, VT - Any interest in starting a club?
Hi guys,I have to say I am pretty much out of the running as a host right now. My family and I are preparing for a year's sabbatical living in Latin America, and the preparation is pretty time-consuming (starting with learning better Spanish!). An... 
zune players or ipods
Vinnie of Red Wine Audio modifies the IPOD (calls it the IMOD). His customers are enthusiastic. See www.audiocircle.com and search on IMOD. He has a forum there. Or his site: http://www.redwineaudio.com/iMod.htmlHe still uses the existing internal... 
Has iTunes, etc. impacted your listening habits?
To the original poster -- the answer isn't upgrades to "the big rig". It's connecting your computer to the big rig. Look at the squeezebox, for example. And start ripping in a lossless format, if you aren't already! 
Levels from CD to CD vary too much.
Here's another idea -- go with a hard-disk based music server. I have the Olive Musica, and it has a variety of settings to do what you want. I paid a little over $1000 for my Musica (less than you are looking at spending just for compression) and... 
Which format to use - mp3 vs. windows lossless,
Depends...In our house, the answer has turned out to be "both". I rip to FLAC on the Olive music server because I want highest quality (and I have the room). My son rips the same CDs in MP3 format for Itunes/Ipod. The iPod doesn't support FLAC, an... 
40ft: speaker cable or interconnect?
Not worthy of Albert's system, but I used Neutrik connectors and Canare wire from Markertek to make 40' balanced cable for well under $100 (I forget what it cost exactly). I followed DIY directions that were posted and discussed here. The DIY aspe... 
Another article re CD sales
I just had this discussion with my son last night. He's 11 and has had an iPod for a few months. Up to now, he's just ripped CDs that I have. But now he's ready to start buying music from iTunes. I'm trying to sell him on the idea of buying CDs in... 
Best Portable Digital Device
I would stick with the IPOD. It's very clean and easy to use. It's single-purpose, but that's OK, cause you already have the Palm for other stuff. You'll use Apple's Itunes software. The interface is really ingenious and fun to use, and the device... 
New CDP for $500?
I liked the Music Hall 25 in this price range better than anything else I heard. It's warmer than others (which tended to be bright) but without loss of detail.It lists for about $500 new. I am not a fan of used CD players.If you can stretch to $1... 
Another neat Olive feature
I should add that the Olive itself can't create music files containing cover art. That has to be done somewhere else on your network. 
Shipping Large Amp across Canadian Border?
I agree about driving. As it happens, Classe's facility in Montreal is only a 3 hour drive for me (I'm in the US), and I have driven rather than shipped when need be. If you happen to live close to the US border, I would consider this route.My imp... 
Long distance from amp to speakers
I'll second the basement arrangement. I do just what TIC says with the amp mounted up high and 12' speaker cables. I used a balanced DIY (followed directions posted here)cable from preamp to amp (about 35'). I was sure relieved when I hooked it al... 
21' 13' room: long wall vs. short wall placement
My room is just about exactly this dimension, and after a lot of playing around I have ended up on the short wall with the speakers pulled out about 3 feet from the back and side walls, and about 7 feet apart. I sit about 7 feet away, so basically... 
Cheap and powerful pre/power combo $1k budget
Most amplifiers support 4 ohm speakers just fine. If you want to be sure, find the specs for your amp. There are no switches to set.The lower the ohms, the more power the speakers will pull from the amplifier at any given time.Ohms (a measure of "... 
Today's Transport War: Significant Differences?
Hi,Price level affects the answer to this question. You'll see quite a few comments where people say that their hard-drive-based transport "nearly equals" or "equals" their $3000-$5000 conventional transport. I take this to mean that the best conv...