dblue

My favorite albums (lyrically). Pink Floyd: dark side of the moon Tool: Lateralus, Aenima Failure: Fantastic Planet Lateralus deserves special mention for some really amazing lyrics. Very emotional and intelligent, a lot of thinking and research went into this album. Tool are very well-read guys.

I'll add you to my friends list, and then perhaps we'll bump into each other sometime. If you go into the dashboard before starting a game, you can see which games friends are playing.

My Denon has DTS Neo6 and PLII. Being a gamer, I can say that I prefer PLII simply because so many games are using that specific format right now. I also have used PLII for movies, although DTS Neo6 sounds about the same to me there. For music I stick to 2 channel.

Hey, I've got live. And mech assault. GREAT online game. My gamertag is KungFool. What's yours? Perhaps we should start a live thread?

My friend has an older Onkyo, not sure what year(1990-1995). He's running a pair of RF-3's off of it, and it sounds awesome. Nothing like the cold dry sound of the newer models. Lots of warm bass, and a really clear sound. Check out ebay. I'll probably see him this weekend and ask him what the model # is.

Just posting to find out how many fellow console gamers we have. I've got an XBOX, PS2, and Dreamcast hooked up to Reference 3's all around, a Denon 2802, and an SVS Pci 25-31. My monitor is a Panasonic TAU 32' HDTV. The XBOX has many games with superior DD sound. Let's hear about some setups!! (gotta break in this section somehow!!)

Just watched it, truly unbelievable. If you liked it, try City of the Lost Children by the same director. This one is much darker, to be sure, but great visuals and an awesome story.

Spiral out. hehe

Soundgarden...One of the greatest rock bands...EVER. Any Tool fans here?

I own a denon 2802 with Reference 3-II's all around, and an SVS PCi25-31. I was wondering if there is an external crossover on the market that would let me cross the References (fronts) over at 60Hz, and not compromise my LFE. Currently, the Denon goes to 80Hz, which is good for movies, but on tunes, I'd like the fronts to get a little more low end play. Any suggestions? ------------------ "May your mind be like water and mold to many things." -Bruce Lee

I've run into a similar problem with my SVS PCi 25-31. It just doesn't wake up when I'm watching Satelite. So I have resorted to leaving it on also (or crawling behind it to turn it off if I'm going to be gone for long periods). ------------------ "May your mind be like water and mold to many things." -Bruce Lee

Well, I'm a big fan of indie rock, but it is mostly newer stuff. I'm into bands like Shiner from KC, Ring Cicada from STL, and some Sunny Day Real Estate. This is all newer stuff, but you may enjoy it. I've never heard Mission of Burma or Volcano Suns, but I'll check it out. Another band you may like is Failure. The album Fantastic Planet has some really cool rock tunes, as well as some spacey tunes that really sound awesome. Some of the best rock production I've ever heard. Although they're now defunct, Ken Andrews, the brains, engineer and producer has a new band out called Year of the Rabbit. You can download one of their tunes from the forthcoming release at the web site www.yearoftherabbit.net. Really thick, full, sound, especially on the Klipsch's. ------------------ "May your mind be like water and mold to many things." -Bruce Lee

OK, After reading all of the posts here, and talking extensively with mdeneen, who knows a heck of a lot more than I do about this wonderful hobby I've acquired, I've come to the conclusion that this guy (the site proprietor) is, in fact, full of $h1t, and himself. Funny, but posting this in the first place has given me much more insight on things, especially redbook. Thanks for all the info guys, especially mdeneen. ------------------ "May your mind be like water and mold to many things." -Bruce Lee

OK, I understand what you're saying. And I understand explaining it may be a pain. But I still have one question. In an earlier post, you stated that if certain algorithms were not used to encode the sound data, that one hour of music would take up to 1.5 GB of space. So when it is decoded from Redbook, and encoded to wav (both are PCM formats), does WAV have it's own form of encoding that also reduces the amount of space that the music 'data' takes up, Since they both represent the same quality of sound and both take up approximately the same amount of space? Thanks ------------------ "May your mind be like water and mold to many things." -Bruce Lee

Mdeneen, I've figured it out. I just did an experiment. I just took a copy of the Obrother soundtrack, and looked at just the audio files on the CD. (60:31, 611 MB). Now, I ripped these files into WAV onto my HD, and they take 610 MB (close enough). I then realized that the WAV format is nothing more than redbook audio. Microsoft came out with this format for windows 3.1, and then there were no other formats for digital audio ( I don't think so anyway ). So basically, when you record a WAV file, it rips the raw data from the CD to your HD. Then, when you play it back, the OS, (or any player software such as Windows media, winamp, etc) apply the EFM demodulation and CIRC error correction in real time, and play it back through the sound card. So when you rip a WAV, you are getting an exact duplicate of what's on the CD. And since the software runs the demodulation and error correction, the only limits you have in sound quality are your DAC converter (which in most sound cards is pretty darn good), and the noise and interference your computer may put off. Oh yeah, and the speaker/amplifier system. There you have it. ------------------ "May your mind be like water and mold to many things." -Bruce Lee

Also, when I was referring to right clicking on the CD-ROM drive's icon, I was talking about in the operating system, not the burning software. Even on a linux OS, a full CD will show itself to make up 700 MB's of data (assuming it is an 80 minute disc). Plus the meter on the burning software is actually showing you how much space this disc or data will take up if burned to another CD, in which case, if it was audio, would have to be encoded to REDBOOK to work in a player. If I take a 5 MB wav file, and burn it onto an audio CD, it only takes up 5MB on that disk. If I take 80 minutes worth of WAV files, they'll take up 700 megabytes on my HD, or the entire CD. ------------------ "May your mind be like water and mold to many things." -Bruce Lee

Well, put it this way. I have a CD that plays 78 minutes of music. An 80 minute disc holds approx. 700 Megabytes of data. So we'll say that this 78 minute disc has about 680 megabytes of data on it. Now when I rip this disc to my HD in WAV format, it takes up the exact same amount of space on my HD. 680 Megabytes. This is what I am confused about. ------------------ "May your mind be like water and mold to many things." -Bruce Lee

mdeneen, Yes, I have a program called Nero Burning Rom (good stuff), and when you have the program running, It will show you exactly how big the disk is. Also, if the disk is inserted into your CD-ROM, you can right-click on the drive icon, go to properties, and see how much data is on the disk (in bytes). ------------------ "May your mind be like water and mold to many things." -Bruce Lee

mdeneen, Now I'm a bit confused. If the cd-rom is doing the 'translation' from redbook encoding to WAV, then how come when I rip a cd to my HD, it is exactly the same size (in bytes) that it was on the CD. In other words, if I rip a 632 megabyte CD onto my Hard Drive and store in WAV format, it only takes up 632 megabytes of space. Someone help me make sense of this. Db ------------------ "May your mind be like water and mold to many things." -Bruce Lee

mdeneen, I stand corrected on exactly how redbook audio works. I was running on false info about how CD audio works. One thing I like about this forum, is that there is always someone who knows more about a specific topic. ------------------ "May your mind be like water and mold to many things." -Bruce Lee

To say that a CD contains no binary data is insane. All digital data is binary, by definition. Also, there is absolutely NO compression used on a CD. Stream of samples from the original analog source. 44 Khz means 44,000 samples of that analog source per second. While I will say that a good transport will provide more accurate error correction, the DAC is the most important part in the sound reproduction. The laser reads the pits and flats, or 1's and 0's, sends them to a buffer, runs the necessary error correction algorithms, sends the data to another buffer, and on to the DAC. The laser reads blocks of data no differently than a CD-ROM drive. 44,000 pits and flats per second. ------------------ "May your mind be like water and mold to many things." -Bruce Lee

Well, I asked for opinions, and that's what I got (an opinion). What exactly did you think was complete garbage. I must admit that I only read the secions that were of interest to me (all CD Player sections, turntables, The best is not the Most Expensive, and a few others). Just curious as to whether or not I may have missed something. I'm always open to more than one source of input on new info. ------------------ "May your mind be like water and mold to many things." -Bruce Lee

Oh, yeah, the commentary link starts at the turntable section. Do yourself a favor and scroll to the top. The beginning is always the best place to start. ------------------ "May your mind be like water and mold to many things." -Bruce Lee

I just read a somewhat enlightening article on Hi-Fi. This guy really knows his beans, and re-enforces ideas I have been harboring for years. Oh yeah, and notice the brand of speaker he recommends in his ideal Hi-Fi system... hehehe Commentary: http://www.anycities.com/andyhifi/audiocomment.htm#CommentTurntables Site menu: http://www.anycities.com/andyhifi/menu.htm Let's hear some opinions on this read. ------------------ "May your mind be like water and mold to many things." -Bruce Lee

Just a thought... How do you have your tone controls set?? I've noticed that having the bass & treble set up high can significantly mask the midrange (vocal) frequencies. If you have an adequate sub, I've found that the best sound is obtained by seting the tone controls to 0. This levels the frequency field. See if this helps. ------------------ "May your mind be like water and mold to many things." -Bruce Lee