CanJam Newbie Notes

[cyberspyder]

What about Toronto?

[bozebuttons]

Originally Posted by wavoman

TTFN, when is the next NY meet?

Sometime in November.Check the meetings thread around Sept for info.
Drew from Moon audio & the Stax rep showed interest in attending the Next NY meet.
Almost Forgot,
Welcome to Head-Fi Sorry for your Wallet.

[qib]

Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam! (in a movie-like supporting chant) But seriously though, that would be a good cheap option for europeans and Americans alike.

[wavoman]

Ya gotta post at the CanJam 09 thread where they are getting serious about the city choice. U go 1st, I'll support u on Amsterdam, maybe krmathis joins in too

[grawk]

For an international meet ot happen in europe, you guys need to pull off a larger local meet first, I think

[krmathis]

Originally Posted by grawk

For an international meet ot happen in europe, you guys need to pull off a larger local meet first, I think

You're might be right.
I personally don't see myself traveling far down to central/southern Europe to attend a small scale meeting though. A larger meeting with 30+ members and vendors for sure, but not one with ~10 members.

[jp11801]

Originally Posted by krmathis

You're might be right.
I personally don't see myself traveling far down to central/southern Europe to attend a small scale meeting though. A larger meeting with 30+ members and vendors for sure, but not one with ~10 members.

It is all about building community so why not org a midsized 30-50 in Amsterdam? I'd be envious as heck and if it was done late 08 or early 09 I'd try to attend as both the Netherlands and Spain have communities that could make it happen

[Mazz]

I looked at the Hush gear some time ago. Looks very nice, but it's pricey (but you're on Head-Fi now - sorry for your wallet ).

I built my own MythTV server for the loungeroom. With good component selection you can build a very quiet box without the hassle of going completely fanless, but it takes quite a bit of careful work. I have all my CDs ripped to FLAC (almost 300GB worth) so it acts like a giant programmable jukebox - and I've set up MPD so that I can control music playback from another machine (e.g. a laptop or my wife's computer across the room) instead of being anchored to the TV.

MythTV is also useful because you can split the server and the frontend (and because you can do TV recording and video playback and more on it). The server has all the storage (spinning hard disks are not completely quiet) and you can situate it in another room, and build a completely silent front end box that merely plays content from that server.

Or you can buy one of several silent network media player boxes (e.g. SlimDevices as shown by Headroom at CanJam) that do much the same - play content stored on a server that may be located elsewhere. That might be easier (less messing around creating and administering a MythTV box - you can even just buy a home NAS storage device and plug it in to your network and dump all your music there rather than set up a computer that runs 24/7 to serve up the data).

[wavoman]

Mazz, great idea! I grok the concept of a split system. Put the big rig downstairs with the huge RAID and the ripping (I use EAC) stuff. Then buy the weakest HUSH (I gotta be 100% fanless and I can't build anything, all thumbs) I can with a solid state drive so nothing spins, I mean 0 db, and use USB or I2S for perfect sound, bit-for-bit as good as the most expensive CDP. Share out the big RAID and I am good-to-go!

Love 'ya mazz you made my night.

Your MythTV system sounds great. I have networked Windows Media but it is not 100% reliable (Dell and HP gear) as it comes out of P1 or P2 suspend.

However it replaced a RAID-like array of 11 VCR's which my wife invented so we could pause and rewind live TV before DVR's were invented.

My quest for the perfect set of isolation cans (will be STAX I think) stems from my desire to be in the same room as her but not listen to (or heaven forbid watch) her choice of TV programs.

[krmathis]

Originally Posted by jp11801

It is all about building community so why not org a midsized 30-50 in Amsterdam?

Yes, but someone local need to arrange the meeting.
I am located 1400km north of Amsterdam and have to cross 4 borders to get there. So its quite limited what I am able to help out with.

You Dutch Head-Fi'ers, where are you?

[Mazz]

Originally Posted by wavoman

...Then buy the weakest HUSH (I gotta be 100% fanless and I can't build anything, all thumbs) I can with a solid state drive so nothing spins, I mean 0 db, and use USB or I2S for perfect sound, bit-for-bit as good as the most expensive CDP.

You can probably find something cheaper than Hush but still 0dB if all you want to do is play media (depending on USB/I2S support) - but the Hush stuff is fairly sexy. You can also buy pre-built MythTV boxes, but MythTV itself has a fairly clunky audio player interface so you need to use something else for that. And you might want to think about whether you want to play music without the aid of a TV screen or not...

Originally Posted by wavoman

Your MythTV system sounds great.

Well, various bits crash every so often (typically the MythTV UI) and the box needs some Linux admin at other times - usually when I'm not home. I've created a couple of watchdogs and means to logoff/reboot in severe cases, but it's not entirely consumer grade usability or robustness yet.

I don't have it RAIDED either - makes it hard to fit everything in one case once you get 2TB+ storage and want to RAID it, and I don't have a good location for a split system. I back up all the non-TV data to external drives and let the TV fend for itself. Any TV I _really_ want to keep I can back up elsewhere too.

But all-in-all it's very enjoyable And I have great freedom to upgrade it as I want, which most off-the-shelf products won't give you. I started out with 1TB and I'm likely to reach 3TB sometime this year...and I'll upgrade the GPU and/or CPU when I like the cost/benefit ratio...

I agree there's no need for an expensive CDP if I can get bit-perfect data off the hard disk and feed it into a decent DAC without inducing jitter. Tried to explain that concept to a traditional audiophile a couple of months ago ("CDs are just data" and "just think of the computer like a huge transport") but it's sometimes hard to get the concept across. In fact I prefer to grab the datastream off the hard drive (where I can back it up to a backup drive that I - should - keep offsite, and leave the CDs themselves in a bookshelf somewhere else). No shuffling CDs trying to find the one you want...and lots of ways to choose which tracks to play that can't really be done with CDs.

Originally Posted by wavoman

However it replaced a RAID-like array of 11 VCR's which my wife invented so we could pause and rewind live TV before DVR's were invented.

Wow, impressive - how did that work?

[wavoman]

Mazz, thanks ... I'll send you a pm. Next Year in Amsterdam!

[daveDerek]

Originally Posted by jp11801

Another option would be simultaneous multi continent events.

and Jude must attend each one!

[SACD-Man]

The problem with the first week in May is that is convention week apparently!!

I was at the audio karma show (I was one of the sponsors so i had no choice) and I would have been there otherwise. Too much fun!!

[tyrion]

The weekend was chosen because the hotel was booked everyother weekend in May or the cost of the rooms due to Memorial Day and a boat show in town would have been $300 per night instead of $150. June was impossible for me due to vacation, Fathers Day and my daughter leaving for college. I felt July would be too hot and encroach on family vacations. I would have preferred to do it June.

I found out about AudioKarma after I booked the hotel and weekend. I don't think that prevented a problem for most people attending. Other than SACD-Man, I am not aware of anyone who didn't come to CanJam because of AudioKarma.