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akirk

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Everything posted by akirk

  1. I've come to the point in my life where feel that the most important thing that I could do for my health is to kick my caffiene habit. I've never been one for soft drinks, but I do love my coffee in the morning. The question is: how to do it? I have tried before but have always fallen off the wagon. I can get past the physical dependency - it's rough, but I can do it. The problem comes in with the mental dependency. For all of my working career, caffiene is the thing that gets me perked up and ready to work in the morning. Without it, it is so hard to get motivated. I guess I am looking for suggestions from others who have successfully kicked the habit. Oh - and don't suggest decaff. Decaffinated coffee is like a cruel trick to the brain. The mouth tastes that good coffee taste and the brain waits for the kick to come - and it never does. Kind of like drinking non-alcoholic beer - you could do it, but why? Suggestions, anyone?
  2. Sorry, that last post didn't go as planned. I was trying to refer to Allen Songer's post about the Woolite Oxy Carpet Cleaner.
  3. What did you use for a brush when you scrubbed your record with this stuff?
  4. Aside from the expensive Nitty Gritty and VPI vacuum-type record cleaning machines, is there a simple record cleaning system that works well? I'm talking about your basic wet brush/cleaning fluid system where you spray or otherwise apply the fluid to the record and then brush off.
  5. I would like to find a DVD recorder that has some of the better DVD player functions like progressive scan, upscaling, SACD decoding, etc. It seems like you can either buy a DVD recorder without the above functions, or a DVD player with the functions, but not an all-in-one unit. Has anyone seen a DVD recorder like this? Oh yeah, if it could play the new high definition DVD's (once they settle on a format) that would be great too![]
  6. I'm pretty sure that the version you want is on the album "Blue Sky, Night Thunder". I have the album at home and could listen to it to make sure if you want. I saw Michael Martin Murphy at a small record store back in in the 1978-79 timeframe. He sat on a stool with guitar and played several of his songs, including "Wildfire". No piano of course but it still sounded great.
  7. I bought an older turntable off of eBay so that I can once again enjoy my record albums. The cartridge on the turntable is old and needs to be replaced. I need a recommendation on a good inexpensive (<$50 ) cartridge. Obviously, for this price range it definitely won't be audiophile quality, but perhaps I can find one that produces music and performs reasonably well. Any recommendations based on personal experience would be appreciated.
  8. OK, here is a bit of clarification on what I am looking for in a turntable: budget - less than $200, new or used - definitely used (more bang for the buck), manual or automatic - probably manual or semi-automatic, direct or belt drive - unsure. I was kind of under the impression that belt drive turntables were better, since the belt acts to dampen out any vibrations that the motor might impart to the platter. Is that correct or not?
  9. A couple of years ago the cartridge on my Bang and Olufsen turntable was damaged and became unusable. I ended up selling the turntable because it uses a special B & O cartridge and I didn't want to pay the high replacement cost. I was planning on selling my record collection but now am having second thoughts. Although CD's are so nice and handy there's still something about vinyl albums - maybe it's nostalgia hitting me, I don't know. Anyway, I'm thinking about trying to find a good used turntable on eBay or elsewhere for not a great lot of $$$'s. I was wondering if anybody had any good recommendations on a good brand/model, etc? Also, any recommendations on good cartridges would be appreciated. Thanks for your help!
  10. What's the deal with Downtown Disney? Do you have to pay to get into the area or do you just go there and shop, dine, etc.? Is it worth going to?
  11. Thanks for the info guys. We are going at the end of this month and beginning of June. I didn't realize until after I had booked the package that we would be getting there on Memorial Day weekend. It will probably be pretty crowded there Sunday and Monday but hopefully will calm down after that. I hope by going a little early in the summer that we will beat the vast horde of tourists that will be heading that way as soon as school lets out. Perhaps the weather will be reasonably mild also. I realize that many miles will be walked and quite a few lines will be stood in, but hopefully a good time will be had by all. Funny - when I was younger I used to think that amusement parks were a blast. Now all I see is the crowds, the heat, the lines, and all the money spent - when did I become such an old fart?
  12. Well, I am finally going to break down this summer and do the Walt Disney World trip thing with my wife and two kids (ages 11 and 8). I have been to WDW once BK (Before Kids) but it has been awhile. I was wondering if anyone had any words of advice, tips, tricks, etc. to make our stay more enjoyable?? Thanks in advance for your insights and help.
  13. Thanks for the answers, guys. It sounds like a stand-alone DVD burner is my best option, since I am just looking to burn my tapes to DVD for archive purposes, and won't be doing any editing. One question though - since my camcorder is analog, not digital, will there be much degradation of the signal running it from the composite analog outputs of the camcorder to the DVD burner?
  14. I think that this subject has been covered before, but I was wondering what kind of equipment it takes to transfer analog camcorder videos to DVD? I assume it takes some kind of an analog to digital converter, a DVD burner, and the proper software?? I notice that there are quite a few websites that offer transfer services, so I get the feeling the technology involved to transfer videos is either expensive, complicated, or both. Does anyone have any experience with this?
  15. Since we're talking about spyware/adware removers, I have a question. I usually scan my system with either Spybot or Ad-aware, then use the removal function to delete the spyware/adware programs or files it detects. If I then run Spybot or Ad-aware immediately again, it frequently detects (again) the files that I have supposedly just deleted. What's going on here? Are these removal programs working or not??
  16. Luckily, I bought this book on eBay at about half of its list price of $39.95, so I don't feel so bad. The book will probably find its way back onto eBay soon.
  17. Well, I finally broke down and bought a copy of the much-praised Loudspeaker Design Cookbook. Boy, was I surprised! I was expecting a good practical speaker design tutorial for DIY'ers such as myself, but this thing reads like a graduate-level textbook in loudspeaker engineering. Talk about some dry reading - far too many graphs and formulas for my simple mind. Am I the only one who has felt this way? BTW, I am an engineer (mechanical) but this one is over my head.
  18. This question is for those of you who work or have worked for Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. When you buy something like a a TV, computer, speakers, etc, why do the employees try so hard to sell you an extended warranty? Do they get a commission or percentage of the extended warranty for themselves? It's hard to me to believe that they are trying that hard just because their boss tells them to. I have to believe that there is something in it for them. I wonder what percentage of revenues extended warranties represent for Best Buy? I never purchase extended warranties - I figure if it is such a good deal for them it must be a bad deal for me.
  19. How was Speakerlab able to sell these without being sued by Klipsch for patent infringement?
  20. BTW, you automatically date yourself to the younger generation if you refer to a compact disc as an "album" - as, in, "what's an album, you ol' geezer?"
  21. I am located in LA (lower Arkansas) approximately 70 miles east of the Klipsch plant in Hope.
  22. This question is to those of you'all who have gotton rid of your record collections - what did you do with them? Did you trash them, sell them, use them for *****, or are they still collecting dust in your closet somewhere? My six year old daughter decided that she needed to rub her finger across the stylus of my Bang and Olufsen turntable cartridge - nuff said on that. Anyway, it would cost more to get my turntable operation again than its worth to me - so, what do I do with these records in the closet? My wife would like to see that space cleared out.
  23. I have a cheap subwoofer (Sony) that I use for home theater and some music listening. The subwoofer sounds ok for what it is, especially on home theater, but sounds somewhat boomy on music. The subwoofer cabinet has no damping material whatever inside of it. My question is: would it be better to stuff the cabinet with acoustastuff, etc. or attach sheets of damping material to the cabinet walls? What do most subwoofer manufacturers do? If you attach sheet material, do you attach it to the backside of the subwoofer amp, which in my case forms the back of my subwoofer cabinet? It seems like there might be a potential heat build-up problem. Perhaps the subwoofer amp radiates most of its heat buildup through the fins on the back of the amp and not into the cabinet itself, I don't know. Another thing I am planning on doing is installing some spike feet to couple the subwoofer cabinet through my carpet to the floor below. What do you'all think?
  24. Is there any basic problem soundwise in using a speaker upside down (ie, with the woofer at the top of the sound board and the horn tweeter at the bottom)? My home theatre speakers are sitting on wooden shelves that are mounted on the wall. If I flip the speakers over the tweeters will be closer to ear level when a person is sitting on the couch. The tweeters on the left and right speakers will also be closer to the height of the center channel speaker tweeter from the floor. I really don't want to lower the shelves because I'm trying to keep them out of the reach of my kids. If it doesn't hurt the sound, I can flip the speakers over but leave the grills on upright so everything looks normal.
  25. Check out this url for info on this: www.t-linespeakers.org/design/tweeks.html
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