AnalogWave

"Whooooa Camel!... WHOOOOA CAMEL!!..." 68... divided by... (!!) That's like six thousand CDs! Times...(!!!) That's like $72k!!! You guys are MONSTERS.

Dood, you gotta' get outta' the house... and into a Three-Step program. If that were me and Track 1 came up I'd be like, "Who the eff is that?"...

I'm away from home for the holidays but the count is @ 2,500, ripped in Apple Lossless format. Then again, unless it's a live recording, I only rip what I like off the disc. I actually don't consider that a large collection at all. There are a lotta' holes in my collection since for many years I stopped buying CDs altogether, pissed at the Recording Industry. Now I buy 95% used unless I can buy direct from the artist.

Check THIS out... Brand Spankin' New to the site.

It's not Christmas until I see A Charlie Brown Christmas. There is no school like the Old School. OK, Prep and Landing kicks tail too... but it doesn't have Vince.

Fine by me – thanks Mike! Did you order yours new direct from Oppo or snag it used? Both models have been selling in just a couple days on Audiogon. Part of the reason I suspect is the new BDP-93 has just one DAC for 7.1 and 2 ch where the BDP-83 has dedicated DACs for HT and 2 ch. I don’t have much interest in the new streaming features of the 93 since I have a HT PC. And 3D? Well, they can keep it.

I own a BDP-83 and when I recently read of its demise and replacement I revisited the Oppo site to poke around. I saw that I still have the option of sending in my player and having it upgraded to ‘SE’ specs. A phone call confirmed this but I was told the upgrade path could go away at any time since fewer and fewer are being sent in for the mod. The Oppo site has always been great about details, so I know exactly what is replaced. I use the player for Blu-ray discs in my HT setup and as a CD player in my 2ch system, which runs RCA cables, so the upgrade makes sense from a use point in my situation. What I’m wondering about is the sonic benefit. Has anyone here either had the mod done to their player or had a chance to compare the output of the two enough to form an opinion? I’m not the type to replace gear often, so spending the bucks for the long haul isn’t a great concern. Thx.

There are two systems in the photo, HT and 2ch. The HT system has a Denon 2808ci pushing Definitive Technologies Studio Monitor 350s to the L/R of the panel and a Def Tech Procinema 2000 center. Off to the far sides are tiny Procinema 600s and a Def Tech Supercube III sub in a corner. It's nice - and even though it's not setup in proper surround fashion it fits the room well. I really like the sound of Def Tech stuff and feel it's high-value for the dollar. There is an old-skool Xbox in there as well as a Wii behind the panel, together which basically collect dust. I've been moving stuff around lately, so also behind the panel is my Mac Mini which I use as an HT PC (mostly web surfin' and iNet music streams) and a music server for my 2 ch gear. It feeds a Benchmark USB DAC which enters a Blueberry Xtreme, then a pair of pCAT tube amps and finally the Forte IIs. I've put Bob Crites x-overs and tweeter diaphragms in them and they sound really nice. The bass isn't quite as present as I'd like but my placement is the primary culprit there though I've yet to experiment with tubes. There is an Oppo BDP-83 in there, a Monster line conditioner for some items, a cable box and an old Panasonic PVR, the likes of which you can't buy anymore - squashed by The Man as it were. Here's the pisser though... my local Audio shop carries Paradigm loudspeakers. The big monoliths are VERY impressive but so are the prices. From a distance, however, I've always loved the voicing of the their smaller offerings, like the Studio 20s. Quite remarkable the sound that comes from those little boxes. So the resident Gear Guru, who's become something of a friend, sez to me, "I've got a demo pair of Studio 40s you can take home for a song, demo... and return if you don't like them." Ohhhh he's a sneaker bugger. Right to the soft underbelly. Plugged 'em into my tube setup and while I liked what I heard it didn't have the dynamics, the presence they had in the showroom. So I pulled out some old Adcom gear and sure enough - they're sand amp speakers. Woke them right up. And it's just the little 535 60 watter. I wanna' say they were runnin' a 200 watt Anthem into them at the shop. So now I'm stuck. The responsible thing to do is to return the Studio 40s, sniff a tear as I look back, exit the building and be done with it. If I keep them, I'm only going to spend MORE money on better chip amps (maybe a pair of those Emotiva UPA-1s) and possibly a different chip preamp. THEN, what do I do with the Fortes and Juicy Music gear? I'd be knob to sell it and I'm already warehousing a pair of KG4s and Heresys. I gotta' stay outta' that damn store. I know better.

?... When I had my wisdom teeth pulled (and subsequently got dummer) I was given The Gas. Pretty lady told me to count backwards from 100. I got to 98 before I floated outta' the chair. Don't remember a thing after that.

This thread makes me glad I don't live in an earthquake prone area. I couldn't even imagine what I'd hafta' do to safely secure my shhhtuff from blending itlsef to pieces.

Ya know... after a little pokin' round the Intertubes, I could prolly pull those homemade jobbers off with reasonable apprearance. I don't think I've the carpentry skillz to make 'em look All-Pro, but then I'd have the satisfaction of bustin' a few knuckles.

I was thinkin' Jethro Tull...

Wuzz... I think they offer the UPA-1 for $300 apiece if you buy two or more, so we'll see what happens for Elf Season - I've read they had a nice little sale last year. And hey, 30 day trial window. I talked to a Tech at Emotiva last week asking about the XPA-2 vs. the UPA-1 and it was his opinion that the UPA-1 would be the better solution for a 2 ch setup biased toward SQ. He didn't want to give the impression the XPA stuff was 'bright', but that it would be more so than the UPA-1. I can't let 200 watts a channel completely outta' the bag without unwanted attention, so I'm just looking to improve the bottom end and detail. Bryston, McCormack, etc. will all remain a mystery to me as I just don't have the bank.

Hey, I'm open to all ideas... it's just that fabrication ain't my bag. Looks like my only option is wooden stands. Still, it's surprising the pickins are so slim for metal.

Forte II ..and stuff.

Tru dat! I'm not exactly Zorro with a soldering iron either, so an acetylene torch is absolutely outta' the question. I can easily find wood stands in 12" height - do you think resonance would be a problem with such a short stand? Speakers weigh close to 35 lbs apiece.

..just re-read my initial post and it wasn't very clear in one respect - I do need a pair of 12" stands. My bad.

Mmmm. Center Channel design has a wider plate than I need... but if it comes down to it... I JUST MAY DO IT! Thanks Wuzz. Oh, and how do you like the Emotiva gear? I'm thinkin' about a pair of their UPA-1 amps.

I'm looking for a 12 inch metal stand to put a large bookshelf speaker on and I'm comin' up with nuthin'. Something I could fill with sand/shot to keep resonance to a minimum. Ideas?...

Excellent info Pete - thanks. Looking forward to trying the PM software.

I use a Mini myself - great little HTPC and Music Server. Would you elaborate on the use of error correction? I'm under the impression it only helps when there is damage to the surface of the disc, somehow doing a better job of reconstructing whats missing by sweeping the damaged section many times, thus the longer rip times. You're the only person I've come across who uses Pure Music. Were the benefits immediately apparent or stealthy? I know you can launch iTunes by itself or with PM to easily A/B compare the output. I still stumble on the fact that it's just digital ones and zeros and can't wrap my brain around how software ONLY can make such a supposed difference for the better. I'm holding off on the free 15 day trial till I finish some arranging in my system.

I can't think of a reason to be concerned about an external drive running the show, but I could be missing something. Your iMac has a Firewire port and I'm guessing a 5400 RPM factory drive. Just by virtue of the faster 7200 RPM Firewire external drive (if that's what you've got) the machine should be a little snappier. Tough to say whether or not you'll notice any benefits ripping music - that bottleneck could be elsewhere. Either way, once your are done you're done. Just back up your music periodically so you don't hafta' repeat the entire process. It's a lot worse than alphabetizing LPs. The file type debate, yeah, I just don't know what to tell you. Size was the factor for me as I couldn't hear a difference between the two. If you've got the space and are a good way through the process, carry on with what you've got. There is a function in iTunes under the Advanced menu to convert a high bit rate track to an MP3, but it stores it alongside all your fat files. The more you convert, the more space you consume. I suppose you should check to be sure your iPod can play Apple Lossless files - I don't know when Apple first introduced the format and it's possible the earliest Pods may not be compatible. If you're not using the 'Grouping' category, that could replace your Source (LP, CD, etc.) The music Style can be added to the existing 'Genre' category, thus freeing up the Star System for rating individual tracks. I'll rip entire CD's knowing full well I won't want to keep all the tracks on my hard drive. I'll then play the collection and mark songs for future deletion with one Star and clear them out later. If I tire of a song after a while I'll zap it that way too. I mean I've got the disc should I want it again.

I own the same model iMac - got a small museum collection of Macs. That generation is seven to eight years old depending upon the exact model. Only the last of the series had USB2, which is substantially faster than USB1. The optical drive, bus and processor are steam powered by today's standards, so I wouldn't recommend putting money into the computer itself. About the best you can do is load the OS on your fast external drive and switch the boot drive from the internal 80 to the fast external - easy to do in the System Preferences. The other beauty of this is should you find yourself the owner of a newer used Mac someday, the whole enchilada is on the external - just plug it into a faster port. I went with Apple Lossless. It's compression only, not lossy. As such, you can fit more music not only on your primary server drive but also on portable devices. I use a Nano as a source in my car audio system. I guess you could do your own A/B testing and listen for quality differences. Your ears, your gear - no better authority, right? With regard to music organization, I check the box and let iTunes do its thing and organize the artists into folders. Really, it's not that important how the music sits on your drive. What you want to do is use iTunes to organize everything - Media, Genre, Artist, etc. You can right-click on an individual or selection of songs and choose 'Get Info' (or Command + letter i) and from the resulting window (at least in iTunes 9.2.1} you can utilize categories like 'Grouping' and 'Genre' under the 'Info' heading. You can create your own Genres if the factory ones fall short. Whatever changes you make here should affect all the selected songs. There are even more settings under the 'Sorting' heading. Then go to 'View Options' and enable all the new columns. And don't forget 'Playlists' which can consist of whatever you drag into the folder. Finally, and not to be a pill, back the drive up. Technology cuts both ways.

Apparently no harm can come from reversing the the inputs other than poor sound quality, which I'm sure you'd pick up on (HA! I slay me...) If you're new to the Booberry and vinyl is your thing, you should read this thread - if you haven't already.

The addendum page is dated 1/1/2007 and has four #'d entries, only one of which references the LOMC option. It would appear the rest of my manual is the same as those that came before as there is no reference to LOMC at all. Sadly, I don't have a vinyl setup to experiment with, but I'd say odds are very good that Phono 2 is MMC dedicated. I'm sure Mark or someone else with first-hand experience will post the final word.