First off, hello again Head-Fi; it's been ages!     Background:   I recent pulled my Mapletree Audio (Ear+ Purist HD150, if it matters) out of a box, and thought it would be a fun idea to set up a listening station in my office. Also brought out of storage was one of two Squeezebox 3s in my...

A brief history: about 18 months ago, the battery pack for my RWA-modified SB3 got really hot. Then the battery-only setting ceased to work, and about a year after that the whole thing stopped working. Turns out the battery exploded, or did whatever it is that SLA batteries do when they go bad...

Hopefully I don't ruffle any feathers here, since this isn't strictly about amps, but this seems to be where most of the tube-related stuff goes on. My folks have got an old tube radio that dates back at least as far as 1951. Now, I don't know if the electronics on it are any good right now...

So FedEx finally delivered my latest toy. Cute little thing, and the silver knob looks surprisingly good on it. Sounds brilliant, too (at least compared to anything else I've got). But I don't write reviews; I just give my opinion from time to time, and this isn't one of those times. Actually...

Looking at this player, I'm having a hard time figuring out just what makes the $1500 price tag justified, in the eyes of someone who owns no SACDs. Near as I can tell, it's overpriced for someone like myself at $1500. But what about at $775? I haven't had a chance to listen to one, but...

...I cheap out and start using 75-ohm component video cables for interconnects? Anything fun? Bad? Just gotta crank up the volume a little more?

I've more or less posted this thread before. I was at that time pointed toward Slim Devices and their lovely (but rather un-squishy) Squeezebox. Great, problem of how to get digitised music into headphone-listenable form solved. But now I've run into the problem of doing the same with movies...

Ok, I know that there was a thread regarding this floating around last week, but it doesn't seem to have done me much good. What I took away from that thread was: pretrack gaps are appended to the end of the previous track when ripping with EAC. Cool. Furthermore, you could change the...

I'm so pround of myself: I finally settled on a little baby amp to work as a transportable (so be happy for me!), but now I'm trying to stare down the equally-daunting question of... what do I want? On the bright side, I've settled on the idea that I'd like a tube amp. Actually, I've gotten a...

I ran a quick search on this, and just wanted to verify what I think I got from it: do Creative's world's-bestest-soundcards resample audio sent via the digital out? That's what the consensus in a couple other threads seems to be. Just wanted to make sure. TIA

They don't care what they're plugged into, with respect to sound quality, do they? That is to say, if I've got a song ripped to FLAC and I play it on a "nice" computer (you know, the well-thought-out, quality component sort), the sound that comes out of the DAC (and whatever's downstream from...

So in my quest for a nice pair of closed cans to treble up on gaming, movies and probably even some musich, I've settled on DT770s in general, the 80 ohm version in particular. That one seems to be the most highly regarded of the three versions out there (that huge closed can megareview that...

See title. Must play nice with Grados and Beyers (DT770 in particular). Bonus points if it makes Shures sound better, too! Needn't be battery powered. RCA inputs a plus. So far, the RA-1, Gilmore Lite and AE-1 are topping the list. Thoughts, input and comments appreciated! Thanks

What exactly is the difference? Some amps (like the GS-1) have both, whereas other (MAD Ear++ comes to mind) have only preamp outs. From what I've been able to put together, loop/tape outs send out the exact same signal that the amp receives. So I figure that preamp outs must do something...

I'd been planning to (someday) land a pair of A900s for watching movies (at least when they need to not wake the dead) and playing games, but yesterday I had the chance to briefly try some Beyers, and OMG are they comfy! So I dug up that huge closed can review that someone did (many thanks...

More accurately, I'm looking for a decent AM/FM tuner for my folks to replace their ageing (and dying) NAD 4130. The problem with looking for a tuner, as I've come to see it, is that nobody seems to want a standalone unit anymore, so most are only available as part of a receiver. And a...

I'm starting to get serious about this whole stereo music listening thing, but DACs remain a bit of a mystery to me. Not so much what they do or how they do it, but how you can compare them to each other and (more importantly) how you can get an idea of what other components any given DAC works...

I've seen all over the place that they're based on the same design, but (aesthetics aside), are they mechanically/electronically identical? I just found a relatively cheap (<$500) CD-25 in my general area, and am wondering if there's anything at all to justify a still near-$200 premium over...

Price-wise, that is. I think I want one of these, but I'd *really* like to know how much they cost, and I know there are several forum members who have one. Yeah, I know the stock answer here is "call Mikhail...he's a great guy", and that's just why I don't want to call him: I know I can't...

Presumably, this also applies to E3s and E5s as well. Assuming they're not left to sit and soak, the drivers will survive being thrown into a mug of coffee Resilient buggers. Anyone feel up to testing Etys?

I've got the PPX3 half of that down, and that much makes perfect sense to me. But what's this "SLAM" bit signify? A better model not mentioned on the SinglePower's site? The community's name for a preferred set of upgrades? I'm guessing that whatever it means, it isn't specific to the PPX3...

Title kinda says [most of] it all. I think I'll be making my monthly wander into Portland this weekend, and I'm wondering if there's any place in the area that carries Grado 'phones. It'd be nice to be able to demo first and all that good stuff. I live out on the western frontier of Washington...