What about a product can irritate you?

Unhinging the CD case is a novel approach, but is removing the sticky tape that big of a deal? I admit I can't do it quickly without the aid of a blade, so I keep a pen knife handy. If you try to remove the tape lengthwise along the edge of the case, you'll have problems. I use the pen knife to peel up the tab at one end of the case. Then it's easy to peel up the tape along the first face of the case, then lift the whole thing off the edge of the case and then the other side in one piece.

Then I ball up all these lengths of tape, sticky side out, and use them to clean my stylus and de-lint my clothes so I look sharp while listening.

1 crowded rear panels
2 internal switches
3 humming components (like my new cable box)
4 $500 remote controls
5 waiting for tubes to warm
6 slow responding cd players
7 I hate CD case wrapping with the intensity of 1000 burning suns.
8 products with advertisements that claim the product will change my life more than a face to face with God.

Another one is dealers who won't Sell to you over the phone/internet. I live in Montgomery, AL where there are really no high end audio stores. I must go to Birmingham, for example, to purchase McIntosh equipment. Fortunatly there IS a place called Audiogon............ever heard of it??? ;)

A follow up on my last post - I just read an ad for someone selling some speakers that said the company "offers no discounts under any circumstances". Sure enough, I checked the company's website and it said the same thing. Well, guess what. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES AM I DOING BUSINESS WITH THAT COMPANY. This is directed against that Company (who shall remain nameless - email me if you gotta know) and NOT the Audiogon member who is selling his used speakers from this company. Kudos to him for circumventing that companys hard-line policies.

Ok, I’ve moaned about this before, but it bugs me enough to moan about it again. My single greatest cause of endless consternation with any of this audio stuff stems from the fact that the remote codes for my preamp and for my HT receiver have some “unfortunate overlaps,” let’s say. Background-wise, I’m running a dedicated 2-channel system with a HT add-on, for lack of a better word. The 2-channel stuff is nicer, while the HT stuff feeds into the pre-amp from the HT pre-outs and there you go. So, when watching movies, everybody is on and working. My former pre-amp had a HT bypass loop, which was nice. The new one doesn’t. Normally, this would be fine, simply dial in the pre-amp at zero gain (more or less), balance the channel levels at the receiver at that benchmark, and it’s done. HOWEVER, the remote volume control code on the pre-amp is the same as the one for the HT receiver (like to get my hands on the genius that came up with that one…). As if that’s not enough, dimming the display on the HT receiver mutes the pre-amp; standby on the pre-amp turns on the HT receiver; etc. . . .

Imagine if you will – lights are dimmed, it’s movie time! Wonder of wonders, it occurs to me to dim the display on the receiver and, VIOLA, the pre-amp is muted. Mains? You wanted to listen to the main speakers, too? Nope. Wanna turn down the volume? Joke’s on you (well, me) – try and do it from the remote and it changes the volume on both the receiver and the pre-amp and all that careful channel balancing is out the window. Ok, so you’ve had enough of the movies and just want to turn on the pre-amp – but no, you get the HT receiver, too. Right, so you learn to turn on the pre-amp by hand, that’s fine, but don’t make the mistake of thinking you can use the remote to turn it off because, that’s right, it’ll only turn the receiver on. Mercy.

Moral of the story is: Plinius and Marantz, two great tastes that don’t go great together. Bastards.