Wavelength Brick

Honestly, you have been incredibly helpful, and I really appreciate it. I can't say I won't have more questions, but for now I am one satisfied customer. : ) !

Thanks again, and I will write again soon once I get the Brick to share some of my impressions. I just ripped a bunch of music in to the PC as my auditioning music. Will let you know.

First off, you are going to like this and it is going to work a whole lot better then you ever expected. Be Happy!

Be sure to read everything on Gordon's site - a few times if need be - so it all makes sense and feels comfortable. Honestly, if you are at all comfortable with computers, this is truly simple but knowledge is power and at the very least will heighten your appreciation.

From a hardware perspective, the paradigm I have offered in previous posts is imagine you know have a perfect source for your system. So that part of the battle. and that set of excuses is over. Everything downstream of the Brick is all about analog audio as you know it. Cables, isolation, power, speaker placement and most certainly room tuning will all come into play and are required to optimize the potential of the new source. Take your time, its the fun part for most. Just know that whatever you hear Day One can only get better.

From a software perspective, there are a few things you can do to make life simpler - and IMHO ultimately better. First, I would buy a dedicated hard drive just for my music library (assuming you are going to have more then a few hundred CDs). Under iTunes Preferences/Advanced/General you will set that hard drive to be the iTunes Music folder location. (Dead easy just hit change and select the HD when it is connected) I named mine Bird.

EVERYTHING GOES IN THERE!!!!

Check (turn on) Keep iTunes Music Folder organized and Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library.

The net result of all this is that everything you ever rip will always be exactly where it is supposed to be. Also, back-up, for which you must get another hard drive for is vastly simplified. Back up one drive and you know you have backed up all your music. BTW iTunes will also put all the album cover art on that drive too.

BTW I am sure like everyone else you are lazy about back-up. So don't go an buy that drive till you rip your first couple of hundred disks. If you are like most people you will decide that back-up however onerous is preferable to doing that again. Backing up once a month or even once a quarter, or after you add another 100 titles (assuming you are starting with a brand new high quality drive) is plenty.

Check out a Mac application called ChronoSync which will handle the mechanics for you admirably and ensure a better backup then you can get by just dragging files from one drive to another.

http://www.econtechnologies.com/site/Pages/ChronoSync/chrono_overview.html

BTW a real back-up, ohhhh that I practice what I preach, is one that is located in a physically different location - you are as much concerned about fire and water damage, theft etc as you are about drive failure.

Once you've set this dedicated drive up, you never have to think about it again. And of course you can access all this with an iPod too. Also, if you ever decide to add a Squeezebox once again you can point it at this single library. And if you want to go over to your buddies or wherever, just grab the one drive and you are on your way.

Enjoy the music!

Ck! Been listening to the Brick all weekend, so far NOT impressed at all. Sounds thin to me, exaggerates the high tones and voices and leave the bottom end sort of blank. The sound-stage is very shallow, leaving the instruments deep in a jazz performance very faitn sounding.

I am a little confused as to what to do now since I can't afford the Cosecant, which might be the better match for my system. But I am hesitant to pay double the money for a product that is only about 25% better.

I understand the whole burn-in concept completely, but you can usually get a good idea for the overall sound signature right out of the box. Not to mention this unit had about 20 or 30 hours on it before I got it. So far the Brick has yet to impress me on ANY of my reference recordings, and quite honestly it hisses at high volumes, and at low volumes all I hear it Tweeter. Tssss, Tssss, Tsss as the most significant signal. I have never experienced this with any piece of equipment on my system, and I have auditioned quite a few pieces. In fact, two weeks ago I auditioned a used X-DAC v3 from MF and it sound much better than this Brick for 1/3 of the price.

The pre-amp (VTL) I have is single-handedly the best piece in my system, and very warm and balanced sounding. But from what I can hear with the Brick it does not feed my preamp to it's potential.

I have to make a decision and I don't know what it will be yet, but right now I am not impressed enough to invest this amount of money in this amount of sound ability. Other than the functionality of the Brick I am feeling it is a little over-priced.

Hi - suggest you call Gordon in the morning and share your findings - see what he suggests. There is no doubt in my mind that your satisfaction is paramount to him. Meanwhile it sounds as though a few aspirin are in order. Sorry to hear this,

i have owned a BRICK for two month , it was a very soft sounding box
with a lack of details in the upper and muddy bass .; some call it "analog" sounding.. you also need a very high gain preamp , not a passive because the brick only get less than 1volt output.
i have replace it with a moded "airport" express to a PASSLAB D1 dac
and will never look back.. ( not the same price also...)

Cheers