pbphoto

It's one of those "it depends" answers. How important is 2-channel to you and what are your sources? If you are just streaming background music like you say, then your setup is probably great. You are taking advantage of the Onkyo's internal DACs and room correction, and Klipsch speakers are relatively easy to drive. The next step up would be an AVR with multi-channel pre-outs. This tends to put you in a higher class of AVR, with better guts and processors, across all the major manufacturers' product lineups. And you can add a multi-channel amp to offload the front/center channels for more oomph. The next step up would be to add a 2-channel pre-amp with home-theater bypass. If you had a turntable or specialized DAC, and you didn't want to send these signals thru an AVR, the HT bypass feature would allow you to share the same speakers and amp, but keep your 2-channel and HT audio separated.

Thanks for your explanation above. Wondering if this is still true or has been blown into hysteria-land, or both? I know in the early days of covid, when doctors were still learning how to treat it, and it was going through LTC facilities like the black death, case count was a leading indicator of deaths. Now, at least in Illinois and a few other places I watch, testing is through the roof as the healthy population wants to return to work/school, positive cases are up too, but all the hospitalization stats are way down. Deaths are flat, way down compared to April/May, with the majority targeted at the non-working population. This tells me that the healthy working population is able to fight this off (if they knew they had it at all) yet we are not doing a good enough job protecting the at-risk population.

A red flag goes up when somebody says "just the facts..." but this article does just that. Thanks for sharing. That said, I tend to discount broad data metrics, such as "fatality rate" (some countries don't do much testing, some countries cook the books, some countries count deaths 'with covid' vs deaths 'from covid' etc), and deaths per-capita (since covid kills older people especially in LTC facilities, and/or people with weight, heart, and lung problems, per-capita covid death-rate is more of a measure of a society's demographics rather than a society's response to the disease IMHO). The excess death stat is interesting to me. I tend to believe that covid deaths in the US are over-reported, not under-reported. If this excess death stat is true, then this could change my opinion. I would still like to see how this stat is calculated though - are the excess deaths coming from covid alone or are deaths from alcohol, drugs, depression/suicide, domestic violence, missed cancer diagnosis, baking bad sour-dough bread etc also up? Something tells me yes.

I would ask the stranger to buy me a Stroh's 30-pack, then negotiate down.

Surprisingly good article from the washingtoncompost. thanks for sharing.

Agreed, not everything has been learned but the data on who it attacks the hardest are about as set in stone as you could ask for. As horrible as this virus is, it has given us a clear roadmap on who to protect: elderly, especially in LTC facilities, and especially with weight, heart, lungs or immuno issues. Yes grandparents need to protect themselves and kids need to be taught how to protect their grandparents regardless of whether they are in school or not. Sending them to school safely probably doesn't complicate this too much because they are not social distancing right now - I was just at our local public pool yesterday. In fact, creative schools with creative administrators can use the kids to deliver this message home to their parents/grandparents - just like they did with smoking, littering, smoke detectors, drugs, and a whole list of other public service messages that I delivered when I was a kid. I'm sure my parents were rolling their eyes when I talked to them about having a home fire escape plan...

This is probably true but between 25-50% of the population could already be asymptomatic carriers. This is a good thing as long as we protect the vulnerable. And the data are very clear who the vulnerable are.

There is some good data in this article. Thanks for sharing. "Science sort of has shown us that kids under 10 really don't get it very often, in fact, very rarely get it at all, and if they do get it, they're asymptomatic," he said.

The scientists are constantly learning, true. But the 5+ months of worldwide data we have on the disease are very clear on who this horrible disease affects. And it's not healthy kids.

Everybody needs to make their own decisions, agreed. In my case, I want my kids back in school full time. I believe the data so far supports doing this safely. When listening to the school board and you realize how ill-equipped they are to be making these decisions, and they are putting together plans that are guaranteed to fail. I certainly don't fault them - this is everyone's first global pandemic. In Chicagoland, most public schools (outside of the CTU) are offering a choice between two bad options: remote learning or hybrid learning. Private schools are opening in larger numbers, and their enrollment is up big time, as is home schooling I suspect.

That's a horrible article. Of course when schools open up, cases will increase, and, of course, the media will jump all over it. Anybody who sets the expectation that there will not be any cases in schools, nor have a plan for when it happens, is doing their community a disservice. Schools should plan on kids getting sick and not panic and pull the plug when it does happen. I think this can be done safely and smartly.

That's correct - that's why I said: protect the vulnerable: elderly and those with existing health issues (weight, heart, lung problems.). This can be done with some creative thinking and is no excuse for keeping kids out of school.

Kids are super low risk. In Chicago, kids under 18 are much more likely to be shot than die from covid. Not every kid has a cozy home with great internet to take "remote classes." Get the kids back to school and protect the vulnerable: elderly and those with existing health issues (weight, heart, lung problems.) The data on this are very clear.

Until at least November 4th 🤣

Tuba Skinny is fantastic. Lots of videos on youtube. I bought their quarantine album - outstanding.

I believe most schools should be open and there are ways to do it safely. Unfortunately, here in Chicagoland, politics has entered the decision and teachers unions and administrators are going to keep things closed up while they all get their full salaries "teaching remotely" from their basements. Kids under 20 rarely have severe covid cases, nor are they the super-spreaders to at-risk populations that we all worry about. Not every kid has a home situation that is safer than school, and I would argue that kids are much more at-risk staying home. And when they are home, don't assume they are following the rules just like we can't assume that if they go back to school - it's a normal Summer around here for the kids in my neighborhood. That said, there are multi-generational family situations and/or at-risk kids, teachers, administrators, etc, that schools need to have a flexible plan in-place to accommodate. I fall into this category. I just wish the default thinking was to get the kids back in school with a plan to handle the at-risk situations (and the inevitable uptick in covid cases) , rather than defaulting to 100% remote learning and maybe your kids can come to school one day every 2 weeks. There's no one-size-fits-all plan and each school or district will have to figure it out as they go, but I believe it can be done.

I think it will be "subtle but noticeable." I once upgraded an old HK integrated amp to a Mcintosh integrated amp. I noticed the difference right away - cleaner, more power etc. My wife walked by and said "sounds just like the old one...."

Just yesterday, I retired my iphone-6 which was almost 6 years old. I replaced it with a new iphone SE (2020). This is Apple's new "budget model" - basically an iphone-8 case, screen and camera with the latest A13 bionic-chip guts inside. Hopefully it will last another 6 years.

Can you imagine the outcry over the alternative? If Truman had decided to invade Japan and then a year later, it was leaked to social media the AP and UPI that the A-bomb was available in the US toolbox, but went unused?

Yes, any of the Japanese brands with the features you require AND with multi-channel pre-outs. This tends to put you in at least a mid-tier level of quality in the $800-1000 range new, or lower used on accessories4less. If you go used, I would look at Yamaha RX-A line for their build quality. Check out reviews at avsforum.com

I've had this a few times over the course of 30 years of running. Sometimes it lasts almost a year. Never went to a doctor - maybe it helps - not sure. Here's what worked for me: 1) Don't walk around the house in bare feet. 2) As often as you can, massage the front of your heel (you know where the spot is) as hard as you can with your thumb until it stops hurting. 3) Get these (or something similar) to support your arch and cup your heel: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0045E5KCA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 4) this can also help under a sock or at night: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019WOPQC6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 5) ibuprofen 6) do the toe-clench exercise until you can hold it for like 10 seconds without cramping up. good luck.

Are you a runner or did this develop just through your normal day-to-day activity?

Maybe some good news: Dr Marc Siegel says that front-line doctors in Pittsburgh and New York are reporting covid-19 is getting weaker/milder the last few weeks. It's anecdotal, but if true, this would be the typical pattern of a virus over time. There were zero covid-19 deaths in NY the last 24 hours. Hopefully this holds. Also, Dr Fauci wants kids to go back to school in the Fall. If my kids are still home next Fall, I'm moving out.

I would browse the receivers/amps section on avsforum and take a look at the reviews. Is this for a dedicated HT or will it be for both HT and 2-channel listening? As much as I favor stuff made in the USA whenever possible, for this component, it's a switch-box crammed with computers, features and processors- all with specs that change every 6 months. Unless you get a $4K AV-pre-pro, there is very little profit margin in a sub-$1K AVR. IMHO, the large Japanese manufacturers have the economies of scale to be able to do this and keep up with all the latest chips and specs, while building a reliable product. Yamaha seems to be better than most in the reliability department. Better than a boutique USA brand.

Understood. I was just curious how the CW3's would sound on your main system since you said the tube amp/preamp had some hum. I think those things were a kit that the customer could assemble, but I don't know anything about them really.