mezmo

Responses from mezmo

Buying top brands's older CD players: Pros& Con
Yea, think we've identified the major pros and cons. I run a Meridian 508.24. It's really old. But it consistently sounds as good or better than all manner of fancy, expensive, and "new" iterations of turning bits into music. Its a damn fine CDP, ... 
Noisy static when powering off my Bryston 4B-ST
A batch of 4b-st went out once upon a time with muting switches that were prone to fail over time. When working, the switch mutes the speaker taps at power down, so that you don't have to listen to the power bleed out through the speakers. I had o... 
Stillpoint Ultras anyone?
Isolation can be really hit or miss in any given application. Different iterations make real differences in my setup. Sometimes for the better, sometimes not, and in each case pretty unmistakeable albeit pretty subjective as to positive vs negativ... 
What happened to Krell
Yea, not sure anything's changed all that much -- just the model numbers. Rowland's recently come out with ~$30k monoblocks. Ayre's monoblocks clock in just south of $20k. Dan D'Agostino apparently outgrew Krell, but his new copper-cooled monsters... 
How long daes it take your gear to warm up?
My kit is never off -- but a friend/professional sound engineer recently made the argument that the single most important important bit to "warm up" in any system will be the magnets and actual moving bits on the speakers. After about an hour, he ... 
Converting Flac to Wav & Upconversion
Thanks, Tim. Was hopeful that perhaps you'd stumbled on something cool, but sounds like we're pretty much on the same page after all: curious, but the jury's still out. Steve, have you found that permanently up-sampling files with a purpose-built ... 
Converting Flac to Wav & Upconversion
Are you able to articulate why this should sound better, at least in theory? I guess that there are potentially at least several ways one could upsample/upconvert, (a) as you have, by using pre-player software that permanently converts the files, ... 
Should Sound Quality of Computer Audio be improved
People, listen. You could dismiss the smooth stylings and gnostic, free-form verse poetry of brother Petty as the incoherent ramblings of a troubled and delusional soul. But before you do -- before you find yourself in the not-too-distant future w... 
Got the itch; where to go after Rowland Concerto?
I was going to suggest looking into penicillin for that itch, but then I realized that was singularly unhelpful. So much for that. Personally, I cam from a tubed pre (Rogue 99 Magnum) in front of solid state (Bryston 4b-st) to my Concerto (albeit ... 
Need info on amp rec. for these Thiel cs2.4's
Curious to hear how the Channel Island monoblocks treat you. Had some Rowland 201s (class D monoblocks) on my 2.3s for a spell, and liked it just fine. Class D definitely elicits some strong reactions. As it's a relatively new way of going about h... 
Need info on amp rec. for these Thiel cs2.4's
Yea, I've had a pair of 2.3s for almost 15 years. The 2.4s are meant to be a real improvement -- but relatively similar. They definitely appreciate some real current, and don't do very well without it, at least in my experience. I've also found th... 
2011 Mac Mini - Is SSD worth it?
Well, by getting the conventional drive out of the same box with the CPU in it, you're essentially removing all moving parts from that enclosure. With a SSD (and now that they've inexplicably excised the optical drive), suspect that there are no m... 
Does the Quality of the USB cable matter?
In my experience, I've found no difference at all between the free USB cable that came with a drive and a $200, all-silver "fancy" one from an expensive cable company. But, that's running from a Mini to an asynchronous USB DAC. Asynchronous is mea... 
Help Me Name a New Band
The Lone WoofsLovely and IncompetentAway from the Menacing CodKnocked Up or GreencardRefresh and go Looting...and perhaps my favorite: Put a Cheerio In It (which is the correct answer to the question "is breakfast too early for vodka"). And yes, t... 
Should Sound Quality of Computer Audio be improved
Gosh, so many points of agreement, I’m not even sure where to begin.First, THIS is definitely going to replace everything else. THIS. Right here. Agreed. THIS.All other Audio Formats ARE. They just ARE. There’s no point in arguing about it. Yes....