Champagne taste beer budget

My wife has finally decided it's time to get into the digital age of cameras, I'm researching SLR's but she want's something basic and simple. Figure a $200 budget, nothing fancy, but decent. I know here are a lot of review sites out there, but I'm looking for input from the actual end users, not review people, as to what things you DO NOT like about your camera. (Make and model would be appreciated.) At this price point I don't expect professional results, but would like to hear about shutter lag, poor control placement, lack of battery life, low built in storage, or anything else you may be able to come up with. If I'm off base thinking that most basic P&S cameras are all fairly equal as far as image quality, I want to hear that too. Software issues, cabling, poor instruction manuals, bad zooms, anything that you DON'T like. I could give you a bunch of reasons why I think something is great, but there might be one thing bad that is a deal breaker. It's those things I'm looking for. (Our current film P&S has almost 1 second shutter lag, has bugged me since the day we bought it, it takes great pics, good battery life, good photo quality, intuitive controls, nice camera, but I could never recommend it to someone because of the shutter lag.) Thanks for any input, I've got green light to buy once I decide, so the faster the better!! p.s. I did go through 5 pages of searches with "Nikon" used as the search word and read everything that looked applicable, although all the P&S stuff was a couple years old and technology has marched on since then. I also don't want to know who makes the best cameras, or why, or who bought them out, or anything else argumentative, I just want plain old info about the basic cameras you guys/gals use regularly.

I ran across this thread looking for another post by Jim Tidwell regarding the Parasol Lady near the Hall Of Presidents and thought I'd resurrect it. We are approaching full Mouse Mode, plane leaves early on Sat, 3/24. Wondering if anyone has anything new to add or if they know of any changes made to the park since 5/05. We'll be staying at Town Center Villas, timeshares about 1 mile from the front entrance. Have a fishing trip scheduled inside the park, three days passes bought for DW, and plan on taking a day to go to the ocean, our 7 year old daughter has never seen it. Renting a convertible for the week. I need to check on some of the links previously posted by others and see what info they have also. Any more advice would be appreciated.

You totally don't get what this place is about. ARTIELANGE OUT is fine by me. Miami. 2005 Miata. What's it worth? Trade value. Anchorage. 2005 Miata. What's it worth? Trade value. Do you really think trade value in both locations is the same? Stick around and meet some good people, find a good deal here and there and learn a ton about sound reproduction in general. Or go off half cocked and miss what this place has to offer. I suggest stay, but no skin off my a$$. Oh Yeah.... The Server... They do this site as a nice benefit to their followers... If it goes down, go listen to your music. They didn't advertise for you to come see their web forum, did they? Hope to see you back after you reconsider. If not, I'll be more than happy to suck up all those great under priced sets that run through here. []

I think I've got the Misses interested in these as replacements for the KG4's once we get the new wall unit set up. They're smaller and prettier, which means something to some people. Namely, the person that I sleep with every night, so it's kind of important. She has no idea what the response or imaging means, so that's a freebie for me. Heck, if I could get these upstairs, start collecting KG4's for an HT setup downstairs, then go for some Horns for the listening room, I think I'd be set. Except for the garage And the deck And the dock. And the boat It never ends, does it?

Ummmm... Location is totally revelant. I might offer you $XYZ for em if you were my neighbor and I could carry them home. If it involved a $200 shipping charge, with likely poor treatment during shipping, I'd offer you less. Not trying to bust your chops, but yes, location IS relevant as to selling price.

My take is that it could easily make a differance, if the wire in use initially was of sub par quality. I believe that when most folk say that wire has not made an appreciable difference in their system they are talking about a quality built wire/cable that is adequate for the job at hand. It need not be an esoteric or expensive wire or cable. Switching out "poorly shielded cables" with "ones that had better shielding" is not comparing apples to apples. Much like if I were to say that I noticed a dramatic improvement in my cars ride and handling when I switched from $300 a piece Perrelli's to $30 a piece Dunlops. That could be true if you initially had 7 lbs of air in the Perrelli's and ran 34 lbs in the Dunlops.

My only experience with Class A SS is this: I haven't noticed a difference with or w/out the cheater, but can confirm it will run plenty warm. The Toshiba usually doesn't sit there, haven't gotten everything back in place since the trip to MPLS last weekend.

Sorry to hear of your troubles, though I have no advice on where or how to proceed. I will say, what the hey, do as the cops do in some towns with people arrested for soliciting prostitutes, post his name out in the open and let the world know who he is and how he acts. Maybe after his items for sale have no further interest to buyers he'll get his act straightened out. Besides, you'd be doing a favor to fellow forum members by helping them avoid the hassle and loss you've been subjected to. I hope this works out for you in the best way possible.

I consider fishing pretty much every day, in fact spent a good part of this past weekend sorting plastics and stripping line off reels. Not looking forward to buying new line, but a necessary evil. A 1500' spool of 80lb Power Pro is $145 at Bass Pro. [:S] Are you familiar with St Croix rods? I'd think their PS70XHF would fit the bill. I have a bunch of their rods and like them, they also have a very good warranty. Look around their website, they have different levels of rods at different price points, sure to be something you like, or else check around for a good rodbuilder that can help you with blank selection. I'd think you could get a dang nice rod made for 2-250 if you didn't go crazy on the wrap job. http://www.stcroixrods.com/rods/default2.asp?rodname=36&section=spin Good Luck and Tight Lines.

Goot timing for this thread, after our get-together last weekend I'm feeling the need for some new interconnects also, but DIY is right up my alley, I already have the special stripper and crimper for coax cable plus strippers/crimpers for most other wires also. I'd be looking into things right now but I have to run off and get a 7yr old to bowling practice. [:|]

I agree, I thought of a few things to do different as I wound my way back North, my wife and daughter both asleep as I struggled valiantly to keep the family truckster on the straight and narrow. Anyone out there considering a get together of this sort should notice the common threads that run through all the participants replies. 1) Get there early. Dan and Kyhl got there shortly after 9, but with getting their stuff into the room, unpacking it, (which not a small thing since they brought everything in the factory boxes and torn down about as far as they'd go), and deciding where to put components so that everything could get connected easily, it was almost 11 before we started playing stuff intently. There was always something on, not being listened to that critically. 2) Set up and listen. Get one system up and running right, hopefully with an easy switch to another source or output so you can switch quickly and compare notes while set up continues. We pretty much did that, but without a plan it seemed we'd get one thing set up, then decide it should be somewhere else due to either vibration or interconnect problems and start over. It wasn't a real problem, but for future reference, get er done and get er right fast. 3) Audition equipment, not songs. I will take nothing away from the day we had, but in hind sight, we should have been smarter. It's surprising how fast the time goes by. As I said earlier, I'm happy I got the exposure to performers I would have not heard otherwise, but...If I were to set this up again, I'd probably want to hear short snippets of the same song on either a different recording, different source, different amp, or different speakers. I realize that's a tough request, but It seemed too often we would be going to switch a speaker/amp combo and at the same time it switched over to a different song that may or may not have been recorded by the same folks at the same place at the same time and it gave you pause to if the change in sound was due to the recording or the switch of amp/speakers. It really is a tough call, if you switch performers often, you hear things you might not know, but if you play the same stuff over and over you could compare the intrinsic sounds of each piece of equipment. 4) Bring 10 ft interconnects. Bring lots of em. Bring 20's if ya got em. 5) Make it two days. We had around 6 hours and were just getting into the meat of stuff when we had to tear it down. If there were more than three people bringing equipment, I don't see how you could get through 1/2 of it in the first day, especially if you want to compare tracks on different sources or outputs or speakers. Don't short yourself time. It will pass blazingly fast. 6) Do different SP levels. I took a few arbitrary measurements, we were usually running 80-86 db. We ran a couple songs up to 90-92, but that was the exception. I often listen at that level so considered it normal, Kyhl and Dan listen to a lower level on average from what they said, I certainly didn't want to hurt anyones ears, but mine could have tolerated another click or two. (Maybe that's why I didn't pick up the highs as well as they did?) [:S] 7) Get full names and phone numbers. I got the first names, but no contact numbers. I wish I had em now. PM me. 8) Enjoy every second of it. It was as much a thrill to me to watch and learn as these guys set up their turntables as it was to see the tubes coming out of the styrofoam and into sockets. To worry about if the left side of said speaker is actually pointed to the middle of your face or over your right shoulder. Swap out "The Sweet Spot Chair" with the other guys and stand slightly behind it. Every part of the meeting is important, you just need to find the importance of it. I'd recommend it to anyone that can get a few guys together. Gals would look better, I'd recommend that too. 9) DANG!!! I almost forgot!!! Bring supports. The tables we had were standard fare for a hotel reception room, the fold up, metal, drop leg 8 x 2.5 table. They suck. I ended up going down into the employees only section and pulling out a piece of moveable flooring to set up a turntable on, it worked fine, but would be nice to have it off the floor. Dan had a stand that saved the day for all the other connections I'll post more as I think of it.

Finally getting a chance to sit in front of a computer and type for a minute, got home last night around 7, then daughters homework and her bedtime, then my wife tied up the computer doing shop books, didn't think lunch was ever going to get here today. Wuzzer, Shurkey and hammertop, I understand, when we drove down Sat afternoon it was 40-45 mph a good part of the way, poor visiblity and the occasional knucklehead that would blow by going 70 in his big tired pickup. We all waved nicely as we drove by the one that we saw in the ditch 10 miles later. [:'(] Missed meeting you, maybe at the next one. So yeah, I ended up using my daughters portable DVD player for a source as I waited for Strabo (Kyhl) and cleandan (Dan) to get there. It worked surprising well actually. Dan and Kyle showed a bit after 9 and we got their stuff carted in, they brought so much stuff some of it never even got set up! As I recall Dan brought KLF 20's and Heresys', a Music Hall turntable, McIntosh c32 Pre and 2035(?) power amp, and Pioneer Elite CD player. Kyhl brought a Denon pre that never saw the table, a Music Hall turntable and a tube amp, I believe it was a VAC but sure he'll set me straight if it wasn't. We were able to get most everything run through the Mac pre so it was just a couple knobs/buttons to change to switch sources or amp/speaker sets. Dan was a little flustered by a slight (barely noticable with the gain down) hum that he couldn't find, but it really didn't effect listening. (Hopefully that's straightened out once everything is back home) We ended up using a couple power strips, the wiring behind the table looked just like that pictuyre of how NOT do run your wiring at home, but with so much moving and switching stuff it worked for what it was. The listening was great. The room was kinda bright, but we dealt with it. A good amount of time was spent playing with imaging, seems all the speakers could do a good job but exact placement and source were critical. I was happy that my KG4s' seemed to hold their own, though each speaker had it's own sound. We played every style music out there, from Benny Goodman to Beethovan to The Flaming Lips. It was interesting to hear the same track coming through the different amps and speakers after a short knob twist, made it easier to compare than if you had to make all new connections. I'm not sure there was really a clear favorite in my opinion on anything, each speaker, amp and source all had it's own strong points. Kyhl didn't feel his tube setup matched very well with what was there, and being my first exposure to tubes, I'm not going to second guess him. I did prefer the turntable to the CD player on the cuts off of DSOTM. We did one cut, Time, back to back on the cd then the table and I felt I picked up some things I hadn't heard on the CD. Unbeknownst to me, but according to Kyhl, my old copy of DSOTM is the one to have, some pressing numbers on the inside edge or some such thing. I believe he had a Mobile Fidelity album. In all, I'm glad to have had the exposure to some equipment I wouldn't hear otherwise but have heard of. It was great to hear some new music, groups or individuals I never knew existed. (What was the name of that disc by Lightning someone?) Best part was simply getting to meet Kyhl and Dan, a couple really nice guys that were open to questions and quick with answers, had nice equipment that they were willing to schlep through the worst snowstorm in Minneapolis in 8 years, and made me feel like I wasn't a dork/nerd/geek to just sit in the middle of the room, right in the sweet spot, moving my head an inch at a time to shift the singers on stage postition, toe tapping, fingers strumming, and just listening to the music for the sake of the music. Thanks guys, had a great time, looking forward to doing it again in better weather.

9:03 and here I am! The business office is 100 ft down the hallway from our room, no one else here yet, so thought I'd pop on. Got halfway down yesterday and remembered the Toshiba doesn't have output levels controls, tried to play one disc but was a little too much for 9 AM. [:S] Going to go out to the truck and grab (don't laugh) my daughters portable DVD player hoping it has preouts so I can at least have something. Hope the snow didn't keep you all away.

The birthday party got cancelled, but my wife's feeling better, so we're loading up and heading for the snow. Going to spend the night at a friends house, so don't look for me at the hotel until Sun Am. I'm going to try and get there around 8. Ouch. Everyone drive carefully!!

Down to the end of page 4, a lot of technical but interesting stuff here. Kudos to Tom for his procedure for singling out a particular frequency that is causing the problem, well defined diagnostic approach with measurable results, though I don't see yet where that advice has been taken to heart. Thanks to all that have posted graphs of various things, they are all sure to be handy at some point or another. Way too many adjectives' being thrown around for anyone to know what anyone else means, but that seems to be being addressed. I hate to say it, but it seems to me, SO FAR, like Lisa is looking for an answer that she has yet to determine what the exact question is. She started out worrying about crossover points, then determined that she may have both tweets and possibly a squak not working at all in the first place. I see this a lot in my business, people that know enough to be dangerous, but don't really understand all the intricicies of how things work in a cumulative manner. Not to belittle the problems Lisas' been having, just saying that without having previous experience in problem solving in one particular arena it may be difficult to convey your problem to others through such an innocuous forum as the internet. I'm hoping by page 8 this has worked out and on to bigger isues, I'll keep reading, but doubt I'll get through 18 pages tonight, not like this is the sexy babe thread where you could scan through a page in 20 seconds and see all there was to see!!

I've been watching this thread get bigger and bigger but hadn't checked it, one because I have no speaker that would use either of the networks in question, two because I've been swamped at work, home ISP is slow, so have had to pick and choose my threads to explore carefully. That said, I have a sick wife and an exhausted daughter, both of whom are in bed before 9 on a Friday. I'm headin in from page one, hoping to learn much from the journey. I'll post back when I get through the 18 pages.

When this unit was sold, stereo as we know it, wasn't as we know it, most things were still mono so one speaker sufficed just fine. I'm by no means any authority on vintage Klipsch, but if I were close enough to pick this unit up I'd be all over that BIN price. Hopefully someone from the forum gets it, thanks for the heads up.

Wuzzzer, hasn't your wife been listening to the forecasts? Doesn't she know the roads won't be fit for man nor beast this weekend? You certainly don't want to jaunt off 200 miles to the west and hit even WORSE weather!! For her safety, and yours, may I respectfully recommend that the two of you stay home for the weekend and just travel the intown surface roads, say, over to Plymouth and back. Never know, you might even run into a few other nuts out on the roads just to listen to tunes. My wife got home from St Cloud about an hour ago, feeling poorly, went straight to the whirlpool bath and soaked. She's now on the couch, but her going to MPLS and her friends party is up in the air right now. If she doesn't go, then I'll probably end up going down by myself tomorrow afternoon and getting a room at the Marriott so I can be there to start setting up on Sun AM. Hammertop, if you and mom are getting a room, let me know so I can try and look you up Sat night. We have a room way down in the corner with no one else around us, so I WAS TOLD volume would not be an issue. Room size of 32 X 21, if I remember. It sounds like that could easily be made bigger if need be. $100 covers the room for the day, which I have already put on credit card to secure it. Any donations to offset costs are appreciated. I'll walk around with my hand out and front right pocket held open. ; ) When I originally got the reply from the Marriott it was $500 for the day, but with the late notice and the coordinator and I having several phone calls and emails, we struck a bargain price. Chairs and tables will be in there, I'll call tmrw to see if there is a net hookup in there, they say there's one in every room, but that may just be guest rooms. Would be cool if someone could bring a laptop and upload photos to the forum as the session was going on. Remind me to bring floppy hat and big sunglasses. Looking forward to meeting everyone and hearing new stuff!!

Directions from the Minneapolis/St.Paul International Airport Take 494 West to Highway 169 North; go past 394 and take Betty Crocker/Shelard Parkway exit; turn left at lights (cross 169), follow Shelard Parkway. Directions from the East Take Interstate 394 West to Highway 169 North; take the first exit (Betty Crocker/Shelard Parkway); turn left at lights (cross 169); follow Shelard Parkway. Directions from the West Take Interstate 394 East to the Hopkins Crossroads Exit (County Road 73); go right (cross 394); take right onto Frontage Road; take a left onto Shelard Parkway. Directions from the North Take Highway 169 South to Betty Crocker/Shelard Parkway Exit; turn left at lights onto Shelard Parkway. Marriott ® Minneapolis West 9960 Wayzata Boulevard Minneapolis, MN 55426 Ph: (952) 544-4400 Fx: (952) 545-2851 MarriottMinneapolisWest.com Last I'd heard it sounded like the major snow would be further SE than MPLS, though they might get 4-6. Not enough to scare any of us that live close enough to consider driving to the meeting. I don't know of any other Corns that will be attending, so if you can get yours there it would be great!! I'd love to hear em.

Just a bump to get this back up for folks that might have missed the other thread. Anyone that wants to attend is still more than welcome. Please leave a note here or in the MPLS Meeting thread. Looking forward to meeting everyone.

I hear ya. We're going down for a friends surprise 40th birthday party Sat night. Yet I still intend to be at the Marriot no later than 9 Sun A.M. to get things started. I listed the people that had received emails/pms, they were all in this particular thread. I do remember now you'd shown an interest in a different thread, sorry you got overlooked. I'll have to search out that thread and see if anyone else got lost in the woodwork. Thanks for the reminder. Looking forward to meeting one and all.

Great Googily Moogily, I had no idea it would be so involved to send out a few emails and a few IM's. Nonetheless, as of 9:38 Tuesday evening: Wuzzer, dexter, brian berube, Schurkey, Strabo, hammertop and cleandan (Cut-throat was left out as he's in the Bahamas), everyone that has expressed an interest in this meeting was sent both a PM and en email indicating that we need a head count and need it soon. Hopefully they will all reply on a positive note with great equipment to share the qualities of. I look forward to a great response and audio edumication this weekend. I gave it a shot. Craig

Bump. Would everyone that is definatly going to be there please reply one last time to confirm and if possible list any equipment that you may be willing/able to bring with. I'll have a Perreaux PMF1850 SS amp (180w 20-20k with less than .015THD from .25w up, 330w into 4 ohms), stock Toshiba SD 3950 and a pair of KG4's. I'll likely show up around 8-9.

dtel, wives are truly miracle workers and God Sends at times, been there, done that, just not to the extent that you are at the moment. Glad to hear you're getting back in the saddle, even if the saddle has a Depends stapled to it. I've been out of work the last three days with the flu, so I have a little inclination of what you're talking about, though certainly not to the extent you do. Best of luck with everything from just another guy you really don't know that's worried about how you come through.

Well, since I'm the yahoo that started this mess, I guess it's my baby to take to fruition, however that may turn out. I did NOT get ahold of the Marriot today, I left work early with the flu and just recently got out of bed. It's been a couple of interesting days. I do believe, though, that the rooms are still available, and will contact them tomorrow morning and get something confirmed. We are going to be in The Cities for a surprise birthday party, so I may end up being up a little late since the surprisee (sic?) is also our host for the weekend. Nonetheless, I can see me getting there at 8-9 AM to open up the room, set up some chairs and what have you. The only fun thing I'll be bringing, and fun is a relative term, is a Toshiba 3690 (?) DVD/CD player. Might be interesting to compare its' sound to anything other folk bring. I could also bring along my KG 4's, just to let anyone that's not aware of their sound have a listen. Oh yeah, and a Perreaux PMF1850, 200 watts of SS power. As my wife and I discuss this post while I compose it, I may end up driving a seperate vehicle down from the Garrison area just because of logistics, my wifes' and my schedule don't seem to mesh too well on Sunday. Still in the planning stages, if anyone's going down from somewhere North on 371 or 169, please let me know, maybe we can figure some sort of car pool deal. Any questions, please Instant Message me here at Klipsch.com and I will get a phone number out to you. I'd just rather not have my home and work numbers all over the world. Looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible and hearing what folks have to bring. I apologize for it not being the ideal weekend when everyone could make it, but I don't know that such a weekend exists. Being the instigator, I chose a weekend that worked best for me, since it is a 2+ hour drive. Those of you that couldn't make it, I'd love it if you tried to set up another meeting later this spring or into summer. p.s. Plans for our sleeping arangements are not firmed up, we may end up in Elk River for the night, or possibly Maple Plain. It could effect how soon I can get there on Sunday morning to start set-up.