skonopa

Ahhh, resurrecting this old thread again! [6] I have to agree with this. Thankfully, in my chosen genre of music (power/progressive metal), Autotune is not used at all, or very, VERY rarely. I've personally seen these singers in live situations and they can actually sing. Heck, one, at ProgPower two years ago, there were a bunch of them in a back stairwell backstage singing "accapella" just for the hell of it, and yeah, they can sing! As for Autotune used as an effect, I just don't like the sound of it. It just sounds so "artificial" and "fake" to me. Also does not help that I absolutely CANNOT STAND current pop and R&B music. I've tried listening to some of it - I end up shutting if off before I can even make it through a single song. [+o(]. I looked through that list 'thebes' posted awhile back, and I personally think every single one of those tracked sucked major ***! I would not even waste the bandwidth and harddrive space on my server to download any of that illegally, let alone, actually PAY for it! Give me a "real" band, that has "real" talent like Damnation Angels any day (that I am listening to right now)!

Can you hear a difference? I don't know, but I've done some recent experimentation, and this is what I figured out. First, I started with some barbed wire that I found on a recent hike. The highs came off pretty sharp and the mid-range was somewhat rusty sounding. I then tried a straighted out wire coat hanger. It seemed the notes just hung there in the air and the bass came off like as though it was dragging on the floor. I then got some left-over Ethernet cable and tried that. Seemed the sound came off sounding "digital". Not only that, but when there was a lot of bass, it seemed to get congested. Oh well, went back to my generic Radio Shack cables and my system went back sounding, well, like my system. []

I agree that you may get better answers in the "Home Theater" section, but hear goes. I would simply start with what you already got. That Onkyo unit is actually a pretty respectable piece of its own, and the power it delivers should be plenty for your RF-7s. If you are dead set on wanting to upgrade your reciever, than the Pionner Elite units are quite nice. So are the Denon units (especially anything in the 3xxx series and above range). I currently have a Denon 3802 unit on my RF-7s (although it is getting ancient by today's standards) that I've been quite happy with. I have also been hearing good things about the Harmon/Kardon units as well. And yes, even Onkyo is well respected in these circles as well. As for power, as far as I am concerned, there is no such thing as "to much" (unless you get into rediculous levels like trying to use 2,000 watt amps). Pretty much anything in the 100 to 200 watt range should be plenty for those RF-7s However, one downside I've noticed about your current Onkyo unit is that it has no pre-outs. That is one feature I would look for as that would allow you to add an outboard amp later down the line. Case in point, even though I have that Denon 3802, I am using a B&K Reference 200.7 amp to supply the actual power to my speakers (200 watts per channel, 7 channels). A good outboard amp can make a big difference, but is also a pretty significant expense as well (my B&K amp costed twice what my Denon reciever did!) Beyond that, pretty much make sure the unit you get has all the inputs that you would need (another reason why I am considering upgrading my aging Denon - pretty much ran out of inputs on the thing - those HDMI switchers can get expensive - at least good quality ones!). Also, want to look for something that supports all the latest surround-sound formats (which just about anything worth a d[8]mn now-a-days should have). Auto room correction can be a nice feature as well, although there is some controvery on that. If you have a lot of content stored on computer or NAS, a unit with network streaming capabilities (which your current unit appears to have) is a big plus. In my case, I have a seperate component that does that, a Pioneer Elite N-50 network streamer/DAC.

Actually you can! I see that you indicated that you got everything on iTunes Match. When you re-downloaded everything, you got it back in 256kbps AAC, which is also non-DRMed. In that case, you actually do own your music (it is not locked up behind DRM). You can share/copy/backup those files as you wish. What you should do is get an external harddrive and back everything up to that (you can get 500gig+ external harddrives really cheap these days). As long as you keep your library in sync with your backup, you can easily pass that on in the future if you like. I have a bunch of tracks that my father downloaded on my server as an "off-site" backup. I've actually used it once already when my parents got a new computer, but neglected to copy thier iTunes library off of it before wiping the drive. Between that backup and me pulling the music back off of thier iPod, I was able to completely restore everything. I made a new backup, so now I have it. It was actually easy for me to do, and this could easily happen with other brands of equipment, not just Apple (despite the bleating from the resident iHater here - seriously, what does that add to the conversation other than another place to spout the typical anti-Apple diatribe that nobody actually gives a $#!+ about anyway?)

How does one do that? I have never bought anything from itunes, but have downloaded about 400 CD's to my iphone. If I can rip them lossless, I would erase my entire library and start over. Thanks, Mike You can do what was already suggested. Another way is to go into "Edit->Preferences". In the dialog that appears, make sure that "General" is selected at the top. About two-thirds way down, there is an "Import Settings" button. Click that and another dialog appears. In the drop-down where it says "Import Using", select "Apple Lossless" and hit "OK" all the way back out to the main iTunes screen. From now on CDs you rip will be in Apple Lossless. Now as for file sizes, Apple Lossless will take up considerably more space. This is what audio typically takes up (assuming regular "Red Book" CD quality at 44.2KHz/16 bit sampling rates): Full, uncompressed WAV or AIFF - about 10 Megabytes per minute of audio (thus a 5 minute song will take 50 megs) FLAC (compressed, lossless) - about 5 megs per minute of audio (5 minute song takes 25 megs) 320kbps MP3 - About 2 megs per minute (5 minute song takes10 megs) 192kbps MP3 (what I consider the bare minimum to get decent quality) - about 1.5 Megs/minute (5 minutes = .5 megs) 128kbps MP3 - about 1 meg per minute (5 minutes - 5 megs). I typically get everything in FLAC or at least 320kbps MP3 if at all possible. eMusic seems to deliver it in 256kpbs MP3. I do have a couple of albums in 128kbps MP3 as that is the only way I could get them. For example, the Brazillian progressive metal band, Ynis Vitrin put up thier album for free give-away as they had no intention of getting out on a label, but did not want to let all that music go to waste, but it was only 128kbps MP3. At least this Pioneer DAC that I have seems to do it justice though (pretty amazed at how good it actually sounded despite being 'only' 128kbps). On my music server, it is not a big deal as I got something like 5 terabytes on the thing, but in the case of my iPhone, I pretty much down convert everything to 256kbps MP3 to fit on there. I also have a 160 gig iPod Classic, on which pretty much everything is 320kbps MP3. Considering that I typically listening it through earphones, though the in-car hookup on my head unit, or docked to my little Tivoli Audio office system, I am not that concerned about the actual quality. Sometimes, if you want to take all your tunes with you, you got to make compromises.

After reading through this thread, some serious clarification needs to be made here. As for iTunes, concentrating on only the music portion of the iTunes Store, as this does not apply to movies, TV shows, apps, etc... Prior to April of 2009, all the music on iTunes was formatted into AAC 128kbps. In addition, it was 'encrypted' under Apple's "Fairplay" DRM scheme. If your music was purchased during that time, then you are pretty much stuck and cannot really 'transfer' it, at least not without resorting to hacks and work-arounds to get past the DRM scheme. After April of 2009, Apple decided to completely drop DRM on the files as well as up the quality to 25kbps, although still AAC format (not "MP3" - there is a difference). If you bought all your music after that, it is simple matter of copying your music into somebody else's iTunes library, thus 'transfering' it. Now as for ripping CD's through iTunes, by default, iTunes uses 128kbps AAC, but you can go into the program and change the settings to use something else, such as Apple Lossless. Personally, I've never bought anything through iTunes, prefering to stick with the more open MP3 format and FLAC format. Especially considering that I have some devices, such as my Via!DJ music server, that will not support AAC. I especially avoided any 'DRMed' services like the plague. Sorry, but I want to own my music, not rent it! For any downloads that I did buy, the vast majority of what I got, I have gotten it through eMusic, which uses straight-up, non-DRMed MP3 format (I believe 256kbps). I also like getting through sources such as Mindawn, which offers it in FLAC. I've even gotten albums from Bandcamp, which often offers them in FLAC as well. Of course, if I can get it, I would rather just get the CD, but I really love the convience of digital downloads. Nice that I can get something within two clicks and "BAM!" there it is on my computer, ready to be played! Not having to wait several days or even weeks for something to arrive in the mail before I can listen to it (plus I've had orders get messed up, then the hassle of having to return/exchange something to 'get it right'). And yes, I do a weekly full backup of my server onto a backup server as well as an offsite backup, so if anything does go south, I have a ready backup (it has happended once already - damn near lost my entire music collection on my server, but thankfully, I had a full backup and was able to re-download the couple of files that did end up going missing (that were newer than the last backup). Maybe I am not as anal retentive as some are around here nor am I a 'format snob'. With the nice Pioneer Elite N-50 DAC that I have along with its ability to interpolate the music stream and 'fill in the missing peices" it does a really nice job of playing this material back and really sounds quite good (Pioneer calls it 'Sound Retriever', and it seems to work as advertised) . I don't feel like I am "missing" anything and found I can enjoy my music just as much whether it is coming from a 128kbps MP3 or from a gold-master CD pressing.

Tell me about it! One time, the left front channel of my rig was not producing any output at all. I checked the wiring, and it was all good. I even ended up taking the RF-7 speaker apart to ensure that nothing came disconnected inside the cabinet. Everything looked good there as well. Toggle the amp and pre-amp on and off in an effort to "reset" it. Dug out the manual to the B&K amp and it makes mention of a fuse! DOH!!! I checked the fuse on that channel and sure enough, it was popped! I am guessing it happened when I disconnected that speaker to move it so I can paint the window trim behind there (and neglicted to turn off the amp in the process). Must've touched the banana plugs together by mistake and shorted that channel out. Well, a quick trip to the rat shack to get a replacement fuse and everything working perfectly again! Unfortunatly, just this past week, I've noticed that my outdoor rig was producing really crackly/statically sound. In that case it is indeed due to that Denon DRA-397 crapping out. I've swapped in a Cambridge Audio Azure 640A integrated amp, and it was working perfectly again. I'll need to contact Denon and see about if it is worth repairing or just go and buy another unit (Best Buy has them for $400).

I was wondering if there was going to be a Number 3. I've had the first two DVDs since they originally came out. That is some pretty cool stuff, though. It is fun to use it to show off my rig, though.

Hard to believe it has been over 12 years since I joined this forum! I originally came on because I had a question about my then brand-new Promedia V2.400s (which I still have to this day, and still works!). There was a period of time that I was not on, until I went and moved up to the "big boy" Klipsch (the RF-7s, which I still have and enjoy to this very day!).

Is that outfit for real? I've seen those "Brilliant Pebbles" before, but holy crap, I am beginning to wonder just how much of that site is actually satire playing up on gullible audiofools. I wonder how much of that overpriced, worthless junk they actually sold? Those "Super Intelligent Chips" looks like those slugs you punch out of the back of electical boxes. Would not be surprised if that is all they are. That "White Poppy" looks like just a piece of ceramic bathroom tile (and again, would not be surprised if that is all it is). I also checked out that "Helical Springs". Probably about $6 worth of material that you could get at any Lowes or Home Depot and put it together as shown in the picture easily enough! You'd think snake oil went out with the old western side show salesmen, but apparently not!

Exactly!! Of all the great musicians from the UK and we get The Spice Girls? Taio Cruz? One Direction? Take That? Seriously! I was thinking the same thing with regards to Paul McCartney (at least we did get John Lennon). But then again, where the hell was Ozzy? Black Sabbath? Judast Priest? Iron Maiden? Hell, for that matter, were was King Crimson? Brian May was definitly the hight-light (despite having to hear Jessie J butchering "Another One Bites the Dust".) and even getting to hear a little bit of Pink Floyd as well. The LED lighting through-out the stadium was really cool. The programming to get those lights to sync up like that had to be quite interesting. During the whole time I was watching the Olympics, I was wondering what the heck those square things where at every seat - turned out they were the LED lighting boxes. I will admit that overall, the closing ceremony was pretty enjoyable and pretty cool to watch, but NBC coverage did suck for the most part (why did they have to stick that stupid show in right after the torch was extinquished but before the Who performance - I did not bother to stick around, plus had to go to bed at that point). I did miss the opening ceremony though.

Oh yeah, and these do see thier fair share of rock as well! Of course, since I got some Rock speakers, they are going to be playing Rock music! [6]

Is your brother coming from the 'original' Quaker Steak and Lube there in Sharon, PA? That would put him in Western PA (I've lived in North Western PA for 12 years). The cost of living in that part of PA is dirt cheap from the last time I looked. I don't know how cheap Waco will be, though, so the suggestions of checking out Zillow and such do apply (where was that when I originally moved to Virginia!). I am quite familier with The Lube! There is one just down the street from my office right here in my neighborhood. I go in there from time to time for lunch or even dinner after work. They do have good wings there (and yes, there is a race car mounted to the ceiling as well). There is also a Shane's Rib Shack just across the parking lot from my place at work as well (some good ribs there!).

Glad to hear this!! Thankfully, I've never smoked in my life and don't ever intend to. What you went through makes my knee surgery that I went through in March (and still undergoing physical therapy) sound like small potatoes! [] Again, glad to hear - hope to see you sometime again at a future pilgrimage or such. [Y]

Nice! I was at a friend's pool party yesterday myself - alas, no Klipsch. Also, wish they were playing jazz instead of that crappy top-40 pop $#!+. [+o(] Right on about clarity and detail in the music. I always love how people keep asking me just how loud can my system get. Yeah, it can get pretty darn loud if I wanted it to, but that is not the point. It is how cleanly it can play the music, with all the clarity and detail that I need, regardless how soft or loud I may have it actually playing.

Maybe. The only to know for sure is to listen to them, preferably in your setup with your amp. Perhaps the owner will let you try them? I hightly doubt it. The Klipsch are more sensitive and also tends to be a bit more forward in their presence. Paradigm are known to be a more laid-back speaker. I am certain they will run with your vintage amp, but I have a feeling that the Klipsch will be a bit easier to drive and probably offer a bit more dynamics. I've listened to Paradigm speakers and they do indeed sound nice, but for my tastes, I found I much preferred the Klipsch. With that being said, it is tough to give advice/thoughts on something like that due to the very subjective nature. The only real way of knowing if you really do like them is to try them. I've seen your trials and tribulations with other speakers, and somehow I think you may end up sticking with the Klipsch ever after the Paradigms.

That is unprecedented as far as the NCAA is concerned. This whole thing with Penn State really does hit home for me. I've lived in that area for 12 years and was a HUGE Penn State fan. I've been on that campus numerous times, even visiting friends there over weekends while I was in college. Hell, I was even accepted there, but opted for Clarion instead (just liked and preferred the smaller school better). After seeing and hearing about what happened, that is really a tragedy in my opinion. Should the whole school suffer the errors of a few? No! I think the whole idea of 'bleeding them dry' and/or shutting down the whole university is utterly ridiculous in my opinion. I think what the NCAA handed down is quite appropriate. As was already said by the NCAA president, no amount of sanctions is going to undo what has been done to those victims. I am of the opinion of why punish those that had nothing to do with this via shutting down the whole school? Or even those that just wanted to play football by taking away the entire program? With that said, looks like I'll be rooting for Ohio State (Go Buckeyes) from now on. I'll have to ask one of my best friends here, who is a Penn State alumni what he thinks about this whole affair.

My, how the mighty has fallen. [] I was falling all this. To me, this actually hits pretty close to home. I lived in north western PA (right in 'Penn State' territory). I was a huge fan of the Penn State Nittany Lions. One of the sayings that was common in that area was "If God was not a Penn State fan, then why is the sky Blue and White?". I have many friends that went to Penn State. I was even accepted there, but opted to go to Clarion instead. Since Penn State started thier classes a week ealier than Clarion did, I remember hanging out with some of my old friends at the student lounge at the DuBoise, PA campus (where I was living at the time). My friends where saying it was like "13th grade" there as so much of the old gang where there. So, yes, I've taken all this pretty personally. It is truly ashamed in seeing and reading about all this. I had a lot of respect for what Joe Pa has done over the years, but holy crap, does this hurt on so many levels! Covering up for somebody messing with kids the wrong way is just so wrong on so many levels. I'd hate to see the Nittany Lions get shut down. Well, there is still Ohio State (Go Buckeyes!).

I definitly fall into the "Music for Music's sake" club. [] I was never too anal about the quality (but I do have my limits, though). If the overall recording is good and the music is very enjoyable and of good quality, I don't care what format it is ultimatly in. I can still listen to it and very much enjoy it. Even on my solid state B&K amp and RF-7 rig. [] It is nice to have some good quality equipment behind it to get the most out my music, though (which is why I went with something really nice like that Pioneer Elite N-50 unit).

Nice! I've heard that SqueezeBox Touch is a really nice unit. There is no denying the convience of having everything stored digitally on a server that can easily be searched and then served up via a good quality streamer/network player. I know there are still plenty of old carmudgeons that think the only good audio is through tubes, on vinyl and through full-sized horns. That is all nice and good (and is fun to listen to music on such a setup), but othertimes, I really like being able to call up just about anything I want to listen to and have it instantly available. With good modern, high-end units, the sound quality can still be maintained. Granted, with all that said, I still find myself still prefering to spin CDs as well. I personally went the Pioneer Elite N-50 route for my streaming/network audio player needs (which I also just aquired yesterday as well [] ). One of the big things I liked about this unit is the fact that it can process high-res audio (192khz/24bits), plus it also serves as an outboard DAC for my CD player (I don't have a nice outboard DAC like you already have), so this was perfect for my particular needs. The DACs in this thing seem to be really good, from reading a few reviews, even from such 'snooty' audiophile sources like 6moons. I will be curious to hear more of your impressions on the SqueezeBox Touch once you get a chance to play with it some more and get things settled in with it. For me, I still have to try to setup my file server to feed this Pioneer unit my music. I have a large collection of FLAC files that I've aquired from Mindawn.com (and will continue to aquire) that I'd like to be able to play natively through this thing. I'll have to do some A/B testing between this N-50 unit, and my much more expensive, but very nice sounding, Elan Via!DJ music server that I also have in my rack. I just wish I knew what kind of DACs are in that Elan Via!DJ server, because it really does sound good. To bad there was no way that I could use it as an outboard DAC.

That is some really awesome photo's. I really, Really, REALLY wanted to go to this! Unfortunatly, I just recently had surgery on my left knee, which laid me up for a good month from work. It then took nearly all of May to get things back on track for my project, plus it completely exhausted all my leave (in fact, I ended up having to take some of it as Leave without Pay - thank God for having a good years worth of living expenses saved up! If I was living from paycheck to paycheck, I would've been in a world of hurt finacially!). Plus, I have to go to Minneapolis on the 30th for my neice's graduation. As a result, there was no way I was going to be able to go on this. I am hoping for next year, though. It looked it was an awesome time.

Can you do a bicycle? I had friend who had torn up his knee, and was recommended cycling by his doctor. He could do that where other excercises were not possible.Bruce That is where I am currently at. Having just come off of knee surgery (tore up my ACL while skiing this past winter). Before the skiing accident, I was lifting weights at the gym three times a week, not to mention all the hiking that I love to do along the river, as well as riding my bike into work. Now, I cannot do any of that at the time. However, I did take up swimming laps at the pool, though. Also, I did manage some short hikes along the river.

I have listened to Larry's OTL amps on his khorns. Very warm, smooth and detailed sound. Granted they are not bass monsters so if you are expecting big bass you will need to look elsewhere. But for what Larry listens to ( classical) they really do sound incredible, I've played my own material (power/program metal) through them and I was blown by the sound, especially with that new Nightwush album.

Well, this just shows that to find the "real" talent anymore is to go deep underground and find/listen to the acts that actually care about the music they are making and still treat it as the artform that it is, instead of just making something to shovel out to the masses, to make a buck to later blow on drugs, expensive cars, expensive houses, etc. I will put up any of the bands that I've seen performed at ProgPower US against any of the tripe that is on the top-40 pop airwaves, and I'll show you what "real" talent looks like, compared to all that souless, dull, mainstream crap. If anybody thinks the Grammies is the epitome of what is offered in music, they are sorely mistaken. They can hand out as many awards and pat themselves on the back as much as they want, but it still does not change the fact that much of what they put out these days is pretty much crap. Seriously, how much staying power is something like Justin Beiber or Rihanna is going to have? Who is still going to be listening to Justin Beiber thirty years from now? For that matter, who still listens to N-Sync anymore? Have not heard anything of the Jonas Brothers recently, now that I think about it! Do anybody even still listen to them? I remember a conversation I had with one of my co-workers when I was dissing on how bad the Jonas Brothers were. He commented, "well that is what the kids are listening to". I then asked him just how much staying power do you think something like that will have? When I was a kid (at the age that was targeted by the likes of Justin Beiber or Jonas Brothers), I was listening to Rush, Yes, Styx, Asia, and Pink Floyd. Guess what I am still listening to 30 years later from time to time - Rush, Yes, Styx, Asia, and Pink Floyd! Just found out over the weekend that Rush is going to be playing this area in September - and I do intend on going to see that show! To be honost, I don't think this is just because I am getting older. I am hearing the same thing from many a teenager (who this $#!+ is supposedly marketed to), and nearly all of them say that the music today is complete crap. Recently, while I was at the river, I had one just go off on how much most of this music today really sucks - I was actually really surprised as he seemed to be the type that would be listening to this crap. In addition, over Christmas, I was playing some of the stuff that I like to listen to (underground power/progressive metal), to my 15 year-old nephew and he was blown away at just how awesome some it was! He was making comments like "Holy crap, that sounds awesome! Who is that? Could I have a copy?" No wonder that these older acts seems to be getting some popularity again, such as the Kiss and Motley Crue thing in that original article. I 100% whole-heartedly agree with what Gene Simmons said in that piece. Believe me, he is not the first musician I've heard it from, and he will certainly not be the last either. At least it is nice to finally hear it from one that has some actual mainstream pull, though.

That looks like a Technics SL-QL1 linear tracking turntable. I have a Technics SL-QL15 myself, which, by chance, I also got free. Mine actually works quite well and actually sounds pretty good, but do want to eventually get something a bit nicer. However, I found a thread on AudioKarma with regards to this. I wonder if it would be worth getting a new/better cartridge/stylus for this thing (if such thing is available).