CWelsh

I've listened to a few and they can be fun depending on the book and the reader. My preference is to read, though.

Our library only has it available as an audio book. 😞

I'm currently reading Douglas Adams "The Salmon of Doubt". In case someone is not familiar with Adams, he was the author of "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy". This is a book pulled together from essays, speeches, musings, and fragments of book ideas by Adams friends and associates after his death. A very unique book from a very unique and brilliant mind presented with Adams typical humility and humor. I highly recommend it.

I did get to hear a pair of Allison designed AR3s one time, but the setting was totally wrong and they were totally unimpressive. That particular store sold a lot of Bose, though. I would have loved to hear the AR3s set up correctly.

That's what she said.

@MeloManiac I suspect your donation of clothes will more than balance the scales. Nice purchase!

Lamb is one of my all time favorites, but I like most everything Moore has written.

I just finished the first Thursday Next book. Strange, but very enjoyable read. No more weird than what Christopher More writes and I love those. Thanks for the lead.

Seems only fair. 😉

Wow, those are beautiful! Somebody's going to be happy.

I agree with jcn3. I don't think you are out of line at all.

The Aiyima amp arrived today and my first impressions are very positive. I haven't even been able to try it full out for fear it will annoy my neighbors in the apartment. I've been using my Marantz 1060 and most people who hear it with my Fortes describe it as being "warm". The chip amp is more detailed, which some might describe as less warm, but I don't hear it that way. And, percussive sounds are just incredible! Drums are crisp, cymbals sound live, bass is tight, and when Stevie Ray Vaughn hits a hard chord it isn't the least bit muddy or softened. Speaking of bass...on live recordings of an acoustic bass, you can hear the strings vibrate against the fretboard if the player doesn't lift their finger quickly. I was going to say, for $80 I'm blown away, but I wouldn't be the least bit disappointed if I had spent $1,000.

When I had tried to research my Shiro guitar just after I bought it (about 15 years ago), I had a hard time finding much. Now there seems to be quite a bit out there. I just found this: " Shiro guitars were built by the Aria factories in Japan between the early 70's and early 80's. The company was named after the founder of Aria guitars, Mr Shiro Arai." I found some pictures of similar models from the early 70's that have the same headstock shape and truss rod cover, but include a Shiro label. They also appear to be slightly differently shaped. This makes me think the early prototype story may have some validity.

It is a nice guitar, but it is kind of a smallish dreadnaught extra wide at the shoulders and very flat at the tail end. I have a feeling it is modeled on a classic guitar rather than a steel string.

I have an old guitar I picked up several years ago that no one seems to know much about. Perhaps one of you will know something. One story I found while doing internet research is that this was an early demo guitar made by a Japanese manufacturer to show American guitar companies that they were capable of building a good product. The thing is built like a tank and plays and sounds really nice. It's just a little oddly shaped and sized.

@Bubo That is a beautiful building! Thank you for sharing this.

@svberger I had completely forgotten about Allison speakers. I always wanted to hear them live, but didn't know of any dealers where I lived.

I will be interested to hear how you think this compares to the TI 3255 based chip amps. People seem to be blown away by the Topping line.

I will be looking forward to your impressions after a couple of weeks of living with it.

I wondered if you were coming from something modestly powered or something with triple-digit wattage. And, you're running a single ACA in stereo mode?

@Marvel That Godin is very cool. I don't believe I've ever seen that model before. I've become a big fan of P90s.

I pulled the trigger. I'm going to tell my wife it is your fault...LOL

I checked the link you provided and it looked to me like the PS was not included, but I may have read it wrong. When I looked at the DOUK website they had a nice chart showing output with various power supplies and recommend using lower voltage (32 - 36) for lower distortion and longer life. Even with 32V, it will push over 100 wpc which should be more than enough for my needs. Definitely worth consideration. Edit: I just went back to the listing and looked again. Right there in the description it says 32 DCV Power Supply. DOH! That's what I get for going straight to the description and skipping the heading.

@ClaudeJ1 What are you using for a power supply with your 3255 based chip amps?

I checked out some of the early "clones" people have completed. Pretty cool stuff. Since they are all pretty recent, it will be interesting to see what they think after a little time. There are getting to be just too many choices in this world. Low cost Class A or low cost Class D? 😱