#1 - Spending more money on gear than music. #2 - Not always trusting my ears. When something sounds "magical" to you, my advice is to stop the relentless upgrade journey and enjoy what you have for awhile. (A long while.) There is a strong tendency to disrupt your system with an...

Below...

Almost every Chinese restaraunt near my neighborhood knows me by name. Running a close second is anything sushi, followed by mexican. Why did it take almost three decades for decent asian food to come to my town? -coma

I've gone through several speakers over the past year in the price range of the Paradigm Atom and somewhat higher, all driven by the lowly T-amp. The list includes the Paradigm Titan, Visaton B200 (DIY kept it cheap), Triangle Titus 202, Cambridge Soundworks MC200, etc. I've also driven these...

Thanks for that link--I may need some custom glass cables soon. BTW, has anyone tried an optical to coaxial converter box (or vice versa)? It just seems like a bad idea to me, but perhaps there are no issues to be concerned about. I ran out of optical inputs on one of my receivers and may...

Kernel streaming has always worked great for me (1212m, AV710). ASIO4ALL also worked fine, but required too much tweaking to avoid the occasional "pop". I'm pretty happy with the previous version of Foobar and am in no rush to upgrade. -coma

BTW, on a more serious note, I achieved a huge noise reduction in my PC by purchasing a big copper heatpipe CPU cooler (SilverStone NT01...only about $50), strapping a 80mm Panaflo to that cooler, replacing the PSU fan with another Panaflo, and putting both fans on potentiometers so I can turn...

This method has my vote if you have the right room arrangement (PC in adjacent room). Put noisy things in another room, far away from you. Works with children too. -coma

Got $8.6k back. Bought a pair of... (drum roll) ...used MS-1's. Audio is a slippery slope. Better to stay clear of the edge.

Possibly your best solution: Sell and buy SR125's.

Ok, thanks everyone. I bought several of these amps and then proceeded to experiment with them. I ran one at 15 volts for a long time and it didn't seem to mind. 3 others died ugly smoking, stinking deaths from my playing around (over-volting, reversing polarity, or both). I bought the T-amps...

I have 3 Sonic Impact T-amps where I overvolted or reversed polarity accidentally on the power supply, so they are "blown", "fried", or whatever. Specifically, what burns out on these amps when you do this? I'd like to just replace whatever part/parts I destroyed and have 3 working amps...

Quote: Originally Posted by sbulack Because of the excellent "sweet spot" tips that I have received from Head-Fiers such as Fewtch, Wodgy and Morsel (as well as the selflessly generous contributors to this community such as tigger, AOS, Grover and ppl)... The members you listed...

That looks *cool*. I love how you can recase these things in almost anything and have the sound be so impressive. Yeah, that's really neat. -coma

I hope you can "get motived". I'd like to see your finished amp. -coma

I prefer listening to small speakers at close (monitor) range. Some benefits: -less room interraction between your speaker and your ears, -requires (sometimes much) less amp power to drive them, - they image nicely, though less like a concert hall--pretty much like headphones (what's in the...

Isn't it possible that the RCA-terminated interconnect and corresponding jacks are the worst sonic offenders in high-end systems? Further, is it possible that joining those same separate components together with solder and decent grade wire (like that found inside the components) would render...

Right--you shouldn't have to take the loss. Consider asking them for a properly finished replacement cabinet. To save on shipping, and since the original cabinet is probably not acceptable to anyone's standards, you might tell them you will be happy to send photo evidence that you have destroyed...

Sorry to hear it turned out like it did. Woodworking has a learning curve and staining mistakes are pretty close to the beginning of that curve, so the guys who made your cabinet are probably pretty inexperienced. Best of luck, -coma

Hot-rodding the T-amp to diminish its weaknesses is supposedly easy to do. I'm getting ready to mod a couple of mine. I probably wouldn't give up on it if you can figure out some suitable speakers. I tried a pair of 90dB efficient Triangle Titus 202's ($350 used). They are a great match for...

Care must be taken when staining birch, which tends to blotch easily. It takes some research and a bit of experience to get it right. Water-based dye stains, gel stains, alcohol dye stains, or a prepping agent for oil-based stains are generally required. You can probably correct the problem, but...

Special care must be used when staining birch, which tends to blotch easily. It takes some research and a bit of experience to get it right. Water-based dye stains, gel stains, alcohol dye stains, or a prepping agent for oil-based stains are generally required. You can probably correct the...

Thanks for the heads up. They're down to 2 after my purchase. I guess I should probably buy a Hakko 936 now... -coma Quote: Originally Posted by James281 if you getting the hakko 936 make sure picking this up too 25 buck for 12 tips is damn cheap.. original hakko iron tips. (the...

Count me in. I love math. I found it pretty intimidating in high school, but it really grew on me in college, especially statistics (how fun) and physics. I also enjoy reading about math advances and famous personalities, especially physics, cosmology and physicists. I hope one day to have time...

"College savings? It's on my head."