Mr. Blorry

I have been using Music Library for a while now, and I love it. Very powerful. Not free, but very affordable. http://www.wensoftware.com/MusicLibrary/

She's really hot, and she's too young for me and the video director leaves practically nothing to the imagination. Watch a JLo video (turn the sound off), and we get just enough hints and teases to make us keep watching. This chick's video is mostly blatant shots of her cute ***, her cute face, and that's it. Not that I'm complaining, mind you! It's just a little overrear kill! Plus, I'm pretty miffed at the French anyway, so if I happen to watch the video again, at least I won't admit it.

RIP Mr. Ray Charles. Thanks for the incredible music.

The finale was "axed"? What a rip-off! Thank you, State of Texas. Oh well, they'd probably have the same problem in most states. My tastes in guitar players echo yours fairly close, but it seems to me the biggest problem must have been that you couldn't enjoy any one of the artists for too long, as they had to cram so many acts into such a short period of time. Jeff Beck, only one song? I would have cried. I hope he did Blue Wind or Freeway Jam or something. Now, for those of use unable to attend, I wonder if a dvd is planned.... That would be a must have.

You lucky son of a gun! Tell us what it was like!

Anyone going to the Crossroads Guitar Festival? The list of guest guitar players is impressive, to say the least. Clapton is also auctioning off Blackie, his favorite Stratocaster, among other guitars. Brownie went for $475,000 four years ago, purportedly to Paul Allen, and I expect Blackie to go even higher... http://www.crossroadsguitarfestival.org/

1978, Eighteen years old, and the only Klipsch dealer in southwest VA (Roanoke) had a pair of Klipschorns in their high-end room. The sales dude thought he'd blow this kid away by playing the song called On the Run from the Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon ; especially the part where the plane flies overhead. He was successful. I had to go home and change my shorts. Took me twenty more years, but I finally got some Klipsches. Will not rest until I have corner horns (in every corner)

Well, there it is then! If one has to use the separate analog outs for dvd-a and sacd, then my m-audio card is useless no matter what software is developed! Thanks again Dr. Pyro. I am glad you pointed that out, as I believe I will soon be purchasing a dvd-audio player, and must consider the added cost of three stereo RCA cable pairs. I hope I can find a reasonable cabling solution, as monster stuff is really nice, but ridiculously overpriced, and I have trouble believing it is truly worth the extra cost. Granted, I won't be buying the cheap junk they sell at Radio Shack, but there must be an affordable alternative. I have to wonder how the folks at M-Audio had the cojones to tell everyone their card was dvd-a compatible when it doesn't even have the necessary connections!

Oh, and to complete my question, are you saying that the s/pdif out on the m-audio card isn't adequate to run five or six channel dvd-audio?

FINALLY! Some straight answers!! Thanks Dr. Pyro! This now makes sense. I understand the industry's take on it; this (and SACD, I guess) is their last bastion of copyright infringement protection, as they will never be able to completely stop the flow of pirated CDs around the world, and they know as soon as it's available on the PC, someone will crack their code. The ironic thing is that the advantage of mp3s is their ability to be compressed, as straight wav files are too big to house on a PC in large numbers, but compression technology in both digital music and digital photography leads to inferior products, and audiophiles wouldn't stand for a dvd-a mp3 type file if the sound quality has been compromised! I agree with my fellow disgruntled M-Audio owners. In turn, Soundblaster has never proven themselves to me as a viable competitor in the high-end PC audio market, and I liken them to the Bose of the PC. They're all about marketing and fluff, and slim to none for substance, and they seem to have geared themselves to the gamer community and not the serious audiophiler, which is why I chose M-Audio in the first place. I still think they produce a superior product, but I am certainly upset that they lied to us. So I guess the options are now to suck it up and buy a (yecch) soundblaster card, wait for another manufacturer to make one, or just go buy a component dvd-audio player, like the sweet Denon DVD-2900!! I think I'll save my pennies and go for the latter. BTW, Toddvj, you can't get the full dvd-audio capabilities from a digital coaxial or optical output?!? It's still best to use six separate RCA connectors?

I own an M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 sound card, and I asked the manufacturer if my card was compatible with dvd-audio. They told me yes, and that what I needed was dvd-audio software, and any old dvd drive in my pc. If you've ever shopped for pc dvd player drives, they're mostly all the same, and are only made by just a few manufacturers anyway! Nonetheless, I found a comparison review, and the Pioneer model was rated highest. It was a whopping five dollars more expensive than the others, so I took the plunge. The only dvd-audio software I can find is the Soundblaster stuff, but it's only compatible with its own cards. Minnetonka makes some incredible authoring software, but all I want to do is listen. I want to be able to play my dvd-audio discs on my pc, run digital out into my 7.1 receiver, and crank up my Klipsches!!! Right now, the only other dvd player I have is an "old" (3 years) Denon player that is neither progressive scan nor dvd-audio compatible, so I can only listen to the dolby digital track on the disc. Elsewhere I had learned that all pc dvd drives are progressive scan, as long as you're viewing the video on your pc monitor, so I began to wonder that maybe all I needed to listen to the dvd-audio tracks was compatible software! As I said earlier, this myth was furthered by the tech folks at m-audio, so where is this elusive software? Anyone have any ideas? Am I chasing something that doesn't exist? I am going to pose this question in the sound card forum as well, but I thought you guys may be able to shed some light as well!

Thanks Bill! Yes, I have heard of Crutchfield. They are right down the street from me here in Virginia. It is a fine store, and their support is second to none, but their prices reflect that. My problem is that even if I found a good scratched or dented one, I still have to pay sales tax since I live in the same state!! No big deal; I was just informed by these Dak folk that 3803s should be arriving this coming week, so I won't have to fret about getting a 1083, even though it is indeed true that it won't matter which model I buy, since both will be virtually worthless in 3 years. I guess my little 1801 might make a good garage stereo!

---------------- On 5/2/2004 1:03:48 AM CAS wrote: But I've got dual 12's in each of my mains. I have to set them to large!" During music reproduction I'd agree, but not during home theater. ---------------- I see what you're saying, and that makes sense! I will definitely give that setup a try when doing home theatre, but honestly I do much more five channel stereo and DVD-A than movies and such. Nonetheless, do you still think I could get satisfaction with a 12" sub rig? The KLF-30s do really work nicely way down to 50, and even on towards the end of their stated range of 36, so a sub in this setup really doesn't have to start working until about 50, and I'd love to see it push it into the 20s if at all possible. I may be asking too much. Another quick question: In an effort to utilize all my available resources, is there a way to convert a multichannel amp into a mono one? For example, I have a five channel receiver that is now gathering dust after my recent upgrade. Here's a unit that makes 70w x 5. How nice it would be if it could be converted into a 350w x 1. Catch my drift? I'm already pretty sure the answer is no, unless I made a five speaker subwoofer, and drove each speaker separately. Hmmm... Ampeg made the SVT, what is considered by many as the finest bass guitar amp and speaker rig in history, and they did it with a monster 300+ watt tube head driving a massive 8x10" speaker cab Those eight tens outperformed most everyone else's rigs with 12" and 15" speakers. Maybe I could make a sub cabinet with five tens!! Ok, maybe not.

"Teen Town" by Weather Report. Pastorius as the composer, and played both the bass and drums. A brilliant musician; a tragic story.

Anybody ever dealt with "Dakmart?" They're a sketchy looking company in the Miami area that sells everything under the sun, from toasters to sunglasses to Denon gear. Per the Denon website, they are one of a small handful of authorized Denon etailers that sell their refurbished or reconditioned gear. I'm dying to upgrade my Denon AVR-1801, and the 3803 seems to be everything I want (for now) even though the newer 3805s are out. Denon authorizes about five shops to sell their refurb gear, but only Dakmart had the 3803 in stock, for about $700. It comes with a manufacturer's 90 day warranty, and Dakmart adds another nine months to that. I placed my order the other day, and got a message saying they won't be in stock for two more weeks, but we do have this shiny Denon AVR-1083 for the same price! True, the specs are identical on thise two amps, the only difference is that Denon changed the badging so that the smaller merchants could compete with the big boys, as the 1083 is sold at Sears, and the 3803 is sold a finer stereo stores, for a considerably greater profit margin! Now, doesn't that sound like bait and switch? All around the web, you can see that the 1083 sells for about $200 less than the 3803, and yet these guys want to sell the refurbs at the same price. Aside from badging, is there any difference in component quality between the two? I'd heard years back that manufacturers were selling a lower grade of comparable gear to the big retailers like Sears, which also accounted for its diminished price. I wonder if this is a hoax, or an accurate representation on how these companys do business! I bowed to the pressure last night, (even after offering to buy a 1083 for less money after they told me the 3803 was out of stock, and should be in within the next week), and purchased the 1083 instead for the same price that this company sells the 3803. Much to my chagrin, all of my quibbling allowed the six items to be sold to others, and they ran out of stock! OK, so I have to wait anyway. Dakmart assures me that other models will show up next week. What about resale value? If I decided to sell the 3803, wouldn't I command a better price than if I tried to sell a 1083 since the 1083 was far less expensive to begin with! Anyone have any ideas or opinions about all this stuff? Thanks! It's making me a bit crazy