jdm56

Down in the "bunker" Looks like a good place to be! Nice!!

Don't feel bad. I don't think that was anything to fret about. I'd say on the scale of dumb things said to celebrities by fans, that's pretty close to the bottom. I had no idea he was that well educated. Something of a renaissance man, eh? I'd like to see them do an instrumental album. Maybe a progressive-rock kind of thing. I love that old 70's Queen sound, though.

Ha-Ha....Yeah, I know; Everybody loves the big hit's. But I'm sure that you, like me, also like to see both players spring right up again after the hit. Not lay there motionless on the ground while the paramedics come to cart them off the field. How many times do we see that? Way to often, IMO, and to me, it's just not worth it. Like a lot of us, I love football and played through my middle and high school years, which doesn't make me an expert on the subject, but it does give me a perspective as a fan and as a former player. In those days we were coached to hit helmet to helmet and to stick our face shields right in an opponents numbers when making a tackle. Both these technics are awknowledged as dangerous today and are not taught. I'm not sure what the answer is. Maybe no contact on a receiver in his route at all, and no contact until they've had time to catch the ball and take a step or two. Kind of like the rule that does not allow interference with a kick returners until they've had an opportunity to catch a punt or kick and to make a "football move". Or we couold put dresses on receivers...but only those who play for Texas teams.[]

I don't think it was one incident. Lot's of players have been hurt badly from blind-side hits in the defensive backfield where the receiver's watching the ball or the QB, while the DB is zeroing in on the receiver and then uses his body and padding as a weapon on the essentially unprotected receiver. Tatum's hit on Stingley may have been clean in the sense there was no penalty, but it was still a cheap shot. And Tatum specialized in them. It to the NFL's shame that they allowed that kind of play to go on as long as they did. Just my opinion.

Oh yeah, NOW you tell me![] They already had knocked $200 off the regular price, so I don't know that I could have gotten any more of a discount. It never hurts to ask, though. I'll keep that in mind next time around. Thanks!

Not a fan. I admit he was a ferocious hitter, though. It's players and coaches with his mentality that make the game more dangerous than it should be. We all like the "big hit", but nobody should be put in a wheelchair. I think the rules could be changed to make the game safer.

re: "I saw a humming bird today in NYC" Perhaps it wasn't properly grounded.

I've got a Slim Devices (now Logitech) Squeezebox, which I love. It has become my primary source. I rip tracks from my CD's to flac files and then stream them wirelessly from the router to the Squeezebox. It also has a number of options for internet radio and music streaming services.

Yup, my DirecTV box is plugged into the same Panamax surge protector that the amp and receiver are plugged into. I could run some gear to different outlets but it would still be on the same circuit anyway. Besides, it's OK now, with the exception of the fact the Adcom amp is no longer grounded. On second thought, I guess that's maybe not OK. I will investigate further at some point to see if I can ground the amp without hum. I ordered the amp online, so I really had no direct contact with any sales people. I've been a J&R customer for years and years and have had very good luck with them.

That's funny. If you ever figure out what it is, I wanna know. Reminds me of how me and my wife keep changing how dishes are stacked in the kitchen cabinets. I stack big plates by themselves, with "pie" plates in a separate stack, while my mentally inferior wife just stacks them all up, with the pie plates on top of the dinner plates. After numerous discussions as to which method was the best, one of us actually started restacking the others work. Which of course required a response in kind. So far there has been no escalation to cups and saucers.[]

Thanks, Mark. Yeah, I'm curious as to why the hum was so bad. The Adcom amp is plugged into the same Panamax device that the receiver (used as pre) is. Everything is the same as it was with the Onkyo amp which preceded the Adcom, but with the Onkyo, there was no hum. The Onkyo does not have a three-prong, grounded power cord as the Adcom does, though, so I assume that has to be at the heart of the issue. But still, I don't know the exact source of the problem. All I know is everything is hunky-dory now!

Thanks, Dennie. I tried to liven up the whole experience to make it more interesting. After all, it really boils down to "Dougy bought an amp. Who cares?" The story is true though. Yeah, this was the good kind of silence; the absence of hum. This GFA-5500 is built like a tank! I have mostly owned mainstream Japanese gear (Sony, Onkyo, Pioneer, etc), so this heavy-duty construction seems all the more impressive.

If you'd like staying with Adcom, Tte GTP-602 is really nice. I had one for awhile and liked it real well. In fact, I may get another one. They did not get much press that I ever saw, but they are cool, with remote volume, balance, bass and treble. Maybe there's a good reason why they are kind of under the radar, but I liked mine. They are still shown as current on Adcom's web site.

When we last left our hero, AudioDork Man, he had ordered an Adcom GFA-5500 amplifier from J&R Music World in NYC.... I was afraid I would lose my good price if I waited, so I ordered the amp knowing we would probably not be home when it was delivered, as we had a little 3-day in Branson scheduled. But, the weather forecast was hot and dry with only a small chance of showers. July in Missouri is almost ALWAYS..."hot and dry with a small chance of showers". So anyway, we went to Branson and did our thing there. I checked online and sure enough, delivery had been made on Friday morning, so I just hoped the amp had been placed close to the door on the front porch, as far back under the roof as possible, to keep it out of the hot sun and...well, sure, the rain too, but there was scarcely a cloud in the sky. By the time we finished the day Saturday and were ready to head home, a huge mass of clouds could be seen moving in from the northwest. Hmmm... We planned to stop in Ozark and take in Lambert's Cafeteria (home of "throwed rolls"!!)for supper, but the crowd was huge (an hour-plus wait to be seated expected), so we moved on to Springfield and went to Friday's, instead. By the time we headed home the clouds were really rolling in. I'm not sure exactly where we were when it started, but somewhere between Springfield and Carthage, it commenced to pour. And pour. We basically drove in a downpour from there on home. So I'm just hoping the amp was packed well and was wrapped in plastic to keep it dry. I figured the box would be a gonner. We drug in home about 11PM and in fact, unloaded in the rain. By this time we were down to a sprinkle, though. Then I went to the front porch, not knowing what I was gonna find, but..."Ah, this looks pretty good"! J&R had double-boxed, as they always do, and sure enough, the UPS dude (or dudette) had left the box as far under the roof as possible, so it didn't seem any the worse for having set out a day and a half in 95 degree heat and then a torrential downpour. I'm dog tired and have to go to work at 7AM, but you know how it is. At midnight or so, I'm unpacking the amp and setting it up in the system. Everything looks good! Dry as a bone, and no UPS OOPS. After everything is hooked up, I fire up the system only to be greeted with some of the nastiest hum I've ever heard. Yee-ow, that ain't gonna cut it. I tried rerouting some cables and making sure everything was plugged in solidly...nope - still hummin like crazy. Next, I changed out the ic's but that didn't help either...CRAP! Anyway, I'm tired and so I give up for the night. Next evening, after work, supper and bathtime, I collapse for a nap, waking up about 3AM. "Back to the amp!", sez I. Now I'm thinking it must be a grounding issue on the AC line, so I go rummaging through my little box of AC goodies and "YES!", there is a lovely little cheater plug!! So I grab that little wart and rush to the man-cave. There waits the big 5500 and I grab her power cord and stick the little a-dapter thangy-wangy on and plug into the Panamax. Next I have a moment of silence and reflection, telling myself that in the overall scheme of things, this really is not very important. I mean, as far as I know, we're all healthy, so if this brand new amp is unusable, I can just send it back. No Big Deal. OK...I turn on the receiver...I takes a breath...I pushes the little power button on the Adcom and......we have a red light...and we have...STONE COLD SILENCE, my friends!! Ahhhhhh, the sweet sound of...nothing! The little Onkyo 282 I'd been using always had a layer of hiss, but the hiss has now been banished. The hum is banished. All audible unpleasantries have been banished to the nether-regions from which they slinked eons ago! AudioDorkMan has prevailed! To the remote, and awayyyyyyyy!!!

If they ever get a 3D system that does not require glasses and does not cause your eyes to turn purple and explode, then I would be interested. I'm pretty geeky, but just not quite geeky enough for 3D...yet.

Might wanna think twice: http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/sony-confirms-3d-eyestrain

Hahaha, that was pretty good. It was kind of cool because both sides were getting skewered. Or at least, to me they were. The audio-dork can't recognize what the customer really wants, and the clueless customer just ain't ready for the high-end. Bose is successful because they give people what they want.

I think you done good! Those look really good; especially for their age. I've scoured all the usual sources for heritage a lot, and there are lots of beater la scala's out there, so I think you're way ahead of the curve. I can't think off hand where I saw it, either ebay or audio-gon, but I know I recently saw a single la scala for sale...not even sure where it was located, but you might want to take a quick look-see. BTW, heckuva rig you've got there!

Wow. I have to go to work a twelve-hour shift at 7AM and here I sit in front of the VAIO at 1:21 AM, having just read seven pages of posts about wire. I'm really gonna hate myself in the morning...oh wait; it already is morning. [:S]

Thanks! I see in your signature that you have a Pioneer Elite A/V reciever. I've got a 55TXi myself. I've had it for six or seven years. After some early problems that were fixed under warranty, it's been good. I've been thinking lately I should upgrade to something with HDMI and video upconversion, but everytime I start looking, l read about some new whiz-bang, gotta-have-it feature that's either only available on the cutting edge ($$$) or will be included on NEXT years lineup ...so I wait. I just recently read about cat-5 connections possibly replacing HDMI. In fact there was a thread here about it, which is where I learned. So I guess I'll wait a little longer. How has your '41 performed?

...just ordered the adcom gfa-5500 from J&R. I used Google checkout and it knocked the shipping down from $38 to $29 for some reason. So I've got that goin' for me. Sale price was $799. Not too shabby, I think. Ought to make the 901's set up and take notice.

linky no worky[]

Yeah, the Adcom is hard to beat for the money. Gotta run it by the boss.[:S]

Let's see: 1. FLAC files of my own favorite CD tracks, streamed wirelessly to my Slim Devices Squeezebox v.3 (70%) 2. CD (20%) 3. Pandora over Squeezebox (10%) 4. DirecTV "Sonic Tap" radio, but only for late night background music. Never for "serious" listening...whatever that is. So that's why I don't assign it a percentage, OK? ps 3000 posts! Yay me!!

Thanks, Dennie. That's kind of what I thought might be the case. I have looked at the Emotiva XP-2, which looks like a heck of a value on sale for $719. 300W/channel! But it's 19" deep and my cabinet is only 18.5, so no go. I've always liked the sound of mos-fet amps anyway! I know the 5500 adcom is built like a tank, too. More opinions / ideas welcome!