Recent content by jamesd

Do a search for Rotel in the title and you’ll get a lot of reading material. I run a RB-981 and have no desire to change it

I had my Snell J’s on wooden IKEA kitchen chairs for a bit and they actually sounded very good…and I’m a believer in stands making a big difference. My Snells are currently on the Skylan stands made for Harbeth Super HL5’s. Are those the opposite of light and open?

You should write a book on drug addiction. It could be one page long. Solved! *dusts off hands*

also in the kids therefore grills camp in fact i find it annoying when some manufacturers don't offer grills. seems like they should be mandatory? (LS50/Audio Note, I'm looking at you)

have you seen the Wiim Pro? Works great. $150 USD over here. You could stream directly out of it as it has a built-in DAC or you could add an external DAC whenever you want.

Bitchin Bajas at Metro Gallery Baltimore Maryland last September. Absolutely transcendent. The room achieved lift off. Left that gig and came home and sad-faced at my hi fi. Gave me goals though. Impact, tone, clarity, scale

Lavorgna’s Twittering Machines has the best music stuff, imo. Well, it’s so similar to my preferences that I favor it. Multiple times I’ve sat down to listen to music and I’m browsing his site and I’ll see him mention an album I’m currently listening to. That happened with the new Kali Malone...

i have few Pi's set up for Roon as well as a Wiim Mini. I'd certainly just opt for the Wiim's now over the Pi's.

there's also the Eversolo units

certainly not budget but the Hifi Rose units have ethernet in. Some even have fiber optic in

a friend asked me to put together a stereo for her 10 or so years ago. Brio-R, RS3 speakers and a P1. She also has an AirPort Express direct into it. I was hanging out there last night and we were playing music over the APX. Man that little setup sounds fun. Not super hi-fi in the traditional...

I had a job installing car stereos in high school. Those McIntosh amps were so desirable (and very unaffordable) to me. They even had a big external DAC that you had to run an optical cable from the head unit/transport to. That was the first I'd ever heard of an external DAC. Ended up with...

You can drive to the Best Buy big box store down the road from my house here and listen to massive McIntosh monoblocks driving KEF Blades or big B&W's. It's kind of crazy. I purchased a piece of furniture from someone locally (east coast USA) and somehow the topic of audio came up. He said he...

in this instance i would say it has to do more with instruments sounding like instruments. a recording sound more like an actual instrument than the playback of the instrument. one major difference I've noticed is in bass texture. lower notes have more detail in their tonality than before and by...

i've been thinking a lot about measurements recently as I've gone back and forth with Yamaha integrateds and Line Magnetic integrateds (not with any intent, it's just how it's worked out). Brio-R > Yamaha AS-2000 > Line Magnetic 518ia SET > Yamaha AS-801 > LM 211ia EL-34 amp...and added a LM...