Christmas '12 Audio Upgrades?

No, no audio related surprises at Christmas. Dude, as expensive as audio components are, the best audio Christmas gift I hope for in my world are a few cd box sets. I let it be known exactly what titles I want. No surprises there. In my world, the prospect of a Christmas gift audio component is something that will never happen, costs too much. People, including my wife look at this gear and have no idea what it is, nor how expensive it is. I'm sure they're all assuming it costs hundreds when it actually costs thousands. If they new how much it really costs, they would wonder about me.

No surprises for me either. I did get all 4 records that I asked for, so I was I more than pleased with that. I'm too picky anyways to even think that a surprise would meet my needs.

Wife bought me a pair of Q7's but I would need too much room
treatment, and I don't like that look, so I sent them back.

Magico Q7's? That's quite a present.

The only audio Christmas presents I'll ever get are the ones I buy for myself. My family will never spend that amount of money on audio for me. I have gotten some CD gift certificates to Amazon which is great, because I buy lots of cd's from them.

That being said, I bought myself a new pair of Placette Audio XLR interconnect cables to go from my Empirical Overdrive SE dac direct into my Pass Labs XA30.5 amp. These cables are just awesome and I love 'em. Totally transparent, like liquid clear water.

Wife did make a present of $100.00 cash towards my next toy, which was indeed a surprise. Frankly I would not want any family to buy me audio gear as I would not want them to spend that much money on myself. Nor would they really know what to buy unless I craved it in stone, then only software like a particular cd or dvd or the like.

Happy New Year to all ears.

Indeed, a very nice Hannakah. Moving up to Zuaudio Definition IVs form ther Def 1.5s. This is going to be very sweet. My WAF is wonderful when our savings account is good. Of course a litte jewelry ( say $2k's worth,depending on my desire/must have) goes a very long way maining a healthy WAF

Wifey bought me a set of 8 cable elevators off A'gon.

Forgot to mention my wife along with the money did buy me a "Theatre Room" plague. A nice little addition to my small slice of peace on earth.

No surprise equipment. Audiophiles are a picky bunch after all, most cohabitants know not to "surprise" them with unexpected equipment.

I did get a gift cert to HDtracks.com which was a nice surprise. I've been getting more in 24/96 recordings lately, as you can definitely hear the improvement over 16/44 CD quality on a decent system. I had wanted to get into 24/96 stuff years ago, but that whole DVD-Audio crippled hardware disappointment was a huge turn-off.