Appreciate it, thanks. Good read and great pic of Mike ;-)

bien sur

"snookels" is clearly a dutch word, as are all words with two "o"s and a "k". It shares a root with snuggles, it's English equivalent, and has nothing to do with the fantastic ball game called Snooker, which can not be performed around cats because they stubbornly like to rest in the middle of...

I think you are brave, Mike, to openly talk about your condition to so many people, mostly (well meaning) strangers. I imagine that's not that easy. Probably feels good that it's out though. I hope you will find out soon what you are up against, and how to best deal with whatever it is!

I really don't see why this has to be an either/or choice. Or if packing space is extremely limited: there are shoe stores in Berlin. Really nice ones. Buy shoes you love and ship them back home when you leave.

Nice! Berlin is great, you'll have a great time. Vienna's time will come.

So Vienna-centric have I become, that when someone writes "Staatsoper", I automatically think Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera). Terrible Viennese habit. So "Staatsoper Unter den Linden" in Berlin?

Let me know if I can be of any assistance for Vienna logistics (finding housing food, transportation...) Feel free to PM. Bring Birks and nicer shoes, not necessarily dressy. Whatever makes you feel a little more special than Birks. I find it is more what you feel like in what you wear than what...

A concert at the Große Saal (Large or Golden Hall) of the Wiener Musikverein is a transporting experience. I can never stay awake. Not that I sleep. I fall into a trance of musical bliss. Wiener Philharmoniker + Großer Saal, even better. They know the space so well that it comes an additional...

Thank you, this is a fantastic article, fun to read despite the technical topic. Hats off to John Broskie. I suppose until someone opens up their Aegir I won't know what and how many transistors are used. And it's not that important anyway, I am just very curious.

Really interesting question. When I transferred LPs to .wav I have always proceeded as if I was recording with a tape deck. This was with preamps that had built-in phono stages. With a separate phono amp, I would lean towards connecting directly to that. You'll still get the "tube sound" when...

Thanks for doing the search for me! I had read both posts before posting and just re-read them. No concrete answers to my specific questions there (at least not any I can deduce; I mentioned that I don't understand electronics very well.)

Yes, Floyd was great, Peter Gabriel had a great sound system and a wonderful light show in the eighties and more recently both Neil Young and 21 Pilots had great sounding shows. Live can be really bad though, and as much as I try to not let it take away from the experience, it does. Nowadays it...

A power amp with compactrons, now you're talkin' hot Schiit. Triodes please, and single ended, pretty please. Best to also offer a purpose designed, crossover-less speaker with it ... Yeah.