Nice writeup, gandhisfist. To fill in the blanks in the ZMF portion, we switched from lambskin to cowhide, and the wood is Wenge. I'm not sure if it was just that recording you chose that I also listened to, which was very static-y, or if it was the interaction of the NOS DAC-19 with your amp, which I imagine has been tuned specifically for the the DAC it shares a housing with, but I've been listening to the NOS DAC-19 all day through the optical input from my Macbook, via Klipsch bookshelf speakers, and then for a couple hours via optical and then USB with headphones (at first Jriver was being annoying with USB and I didn't feel like restarting, so I just used optical until I did restart and things worked fine), and I haven't gotten noise that I haven't expected - feeling very vigilant and choosing recordings that I know will have quiet moments. Or maybe I'm just used to the Metrum Musette and it's also a revealing NOS DAC.
Also, well wishes to schneller. I'm very familiar with how awful the L St. and M St. bike lanes can be. Just yesterday a friend of mine was hit while in a different bike lane. Everyone is terrible at moving around! When moving around, watch everyone!
In better news, Urban HiFi has almost certainly secured a storefront in Takoma Park! In a few months, a new audio store will be in the DC area, and we'll be selling much more than what's on the website. Once we get all set up, we should have room for meets as well, though I haven't yet seen the interior of the space. This seems like the most relevant place to post it, so when we know 100% I'll update.
