baseballfan

But doesn't "lossless" imply that it is 100% of the music, not 95%? Granted at 95% most people wouldn't hear a difference, but just on principle I wouldn't think they could call it lossless if it was actually losing 5% of the music information. I'm pretty sure that both .shn and .flac formatting is truly lossless, as in 100% of the musical information is retained - but neither of them incorporate any digital rights management.

I agree that for "on the go" with typical headphones MP3 quality can be passable (I always used the "Extreme" setting in Exact Audio Copy using the Lame encoder which created variable bit rates in the 225k+ range and pretty good sound even with my Sennheisers). Having said that though, there are viable alternatives to MP3. My portable player is a 20gb Rio Karma, which supports FLAC format files (Free Lossless Audio Codec). FLAC will compress audio files to about 60% of the full sized WAVE file, so certainly not as small as MP3, but the resulting files are true CD quality, not "near CD", and I can get about 50 CDs worth on the Karma at a time. It also came with a dock that includes RCA connections to hook it up to a receiver. It isn't as "slick" looking as an iPod, but the FLAC support was a real selling point for me. I also run a mini-plug to RCA connector from my PC's sound card to my receiver so I can use my office PC as a jukebox for the family room system which is in the next room (WinAmp has a FLAC plug in). I've got the majority of my CDs ripped to FLAC, and I'm slowly getting my concert CDR collection on there as well on a "as I want to listen to a show" basis. At some point that 250gb hard drive is going to run out of room though....I noticed yesterday that Costco is carrying a 400gb drive ;-)

The guy I think is the most interesting drummer out there right now is Rodney Holmes of the Steve Kimock Band, he does stuff with the kick drum that seems entirely impossible. (He also played with Santana for several years, as well as playing with a number of well known jazz artists including Wayne Shorter and the Brecker Brothers). There are a ton of excellent sounding Steve Kimock Band shows available on the Live Music Archive ( http://www.archive.org/audio/etreelisting-browse.php ). Personally my favorite stuff is from 2002 when the great Alphonso Johnson was playing bass. The 1st set from 2/22/02 is one of my all time favorite music sets (the 2nd set ain't too shabby either), simply wonderful music with amazing drum work from Rodney, and a great recording from an on-stage rig that makes it like sitting in the front row.

Currently getting a lot of play in my house is Umphrey's Mcgee "Live from the Lake Coast". While they get lumped into the "jam band" phenomenom, these guys clearly have some pretty heavy influences from progressive rock (early Genesis, Crimson, etc. and obviously some Zappa exposure) with a sense of humnor and chops to spare. They recently did a run of shows with jazz great Joshua Redmon joining them on sax. The DVD has 4 sound mixes; 2.0 Dolby Stereo, a binaural "headphone mix", a standard Dolby 5.1 (band in front, ambience/crowd in the rear) and a DTS "cruelty" mix that puts you onstage with the band set up around you. If you're a progressive rock fan you may enjoy their fresh take on the genre. Or you may not

The Dolby site for home theater setup - http://www.dolby.com/Consumer/HomeEntertainment/Setup/ - recommends the surrounds being between 90 degrees to 110 degrees off the viewing axis - so basically either directly to the side or slightly behind the seating position. They also recommend above ear level, although they don't specify how much. You'll probably be OK mouting them up high if you need to for the WAF, I'd agree about angling them down a bit if possible. We've got our surrounds (non-Klipsch, but similar in design to the RS7) about two feet above ear level and almost directly to the side, maybe a few inches behind the listening position. We tried a couple of alternate spots but this sounded the best of the physically possible locations.

I'll second (third? fourth?) Peter Gabriel's "Secret World Live" - excellent sound and an interesting show visually. Blue Man Group is OK although I tire of their schtick after awhile. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Santana's "Supernatural Live" yet. Supernatural was not one of my favorite Santana albums, but this is a great DVD. The sound is superb, the kick drum of Rodney Holmes will give your speakers a workout (the guy is an amazing drummer, he does great rock/jazz fusion work with Steve Kimock's band). This DVD is almost impossible to sit still to. For the more jazz/fusion oriented, two DVDs with Pat Metheny are notable. "Dejohnette, Hancock, Holland, Metheny in Concert" is a real treat - recorded in 1990 it is (surprisingly) in 16X9 format with an excellent PCM track in addition to DD5.1. And last year's Metheny Group tour is doumented nicely on "Speaking of Now Live". A great DTS track and smokin' performances.

---------------- On 5/5/2004 9:01:20 PM TBrennan wrote: Birth of a Nation was described as "history written with lightning" by Woodrow Wilson. Maybe you better skip it ballfan, no surround sound, no sound at all save music to accompany. I reckon you won't get "immersed" in it. Too bad for you. ---------------- There was a time when people said sound in movies was a gimmick, or that color in movies was a gimmick, or even that stereo was a gimmick. They were wrong too I'm not saying a good surround track is necessasry for a good movie, but all other things being equal a good surround track will make a movie experience *better*. If you're satisfied watching 5.1 DVDs in stereo, more power to you. Just as in widescreen vs. Pan and Scan, I'll take it in the manner the director intended it.

---------------- On 5/5/2004 7:53:08 AM TBrennan wrote: Surround sound is just a bombastic gimmick anyway ---------------- Um, no. The whole point of a good surround system for home theater is to immerse yourself in a film. While a lot of people think of action movies with explosions coming at them sonically from all sides, there is much more to a good surround system to that. If it is raining in a film, it should sound like it is raining in your room - not just from the front soundstage, but throughout the room. If you're watching a suspensful scene in a film and a character looks up when they hear a sound coming from behind the seating area, that's where the viewer should hear it coming from. That's not a gimmick, that's how you get immersed in a film. When was the last time to went to a theater that *didn't* have a surround system?