[sam6550a]

I’ve emailed them all (Trone has no say in state politics). It’s the old three tier schnook system that wine importer Joe Dressner (RIP) wrote a treatise on about three decades ago. People pay good bribes, I mean money, to enforce a system (limited distributorship) of monopoly that imposes excess fees for a “service “ nobody wants. I need a drink. The thing that’s so dumb in MD is our sin taxes are high and we’re surrounded by other options. If one can reach New Jersey it’s the promised land (in a very limited context).

There is not much in New Jersey that qualifies as a "promised land", other than promising to empty your wallet.

 

[sam6550a]

OMG now I am truly ROTFLMAO.

No offense to New Jerseyans, I have had some wonderful times in your state... just not at EWR.

No one has a good time at EWR. I was born and raised 3 miles from EWR, and departed as soon as I could.

 

[Slade01]

No one has a good time at EWR. I was born and raised 3 miles from EWR, and departed as soon as I could.

There is not much in New Jersey that qualifies as a "promised land", other than promising to empty your wallet.

LOL. EWR's new Terminal A was a welcome upgrade to that place. Will still empty your wallet however...

 

[Adam Balm]

Time for some favorite Irish music.

Happy St. Patrick’s day.

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/...NMEiE4dg3s96EFXFXYZ1bHp3BgAttWPdZ8VD&usqp=CAc

The wife is Irish, so.....
Listening to Celtic Woman's Postcards From Ireland.
Sounds fantastic through a system fulla Schiit!

 

[Rattle]

Bought a couple of new ChiFi 'Audiophile' level power cords. Using them with the Aegir 2 and Feya+ N. This allowed me to shift a few cords over to upgrade the ones on my Incubus HP amp and CD player / transport so now all have Pangea except for Aegir 2 and Freya.

For all you power cable naysayers...

You're truly missing out. After installing the power cords, music I've never heard before sounded like I've never heard it before. I'm hearing details and nuances never heard previously. It's as if I was hearing the music I'd never heard previously for the first time! And this is with no burn-in time! It's only gonna get better as the months go by!

Here's the link in case you wish to assuage your case of FOMO.

https://a.co/d/hPXXNcn



The Pangeas were a tad more than I wanted to spend given that only the SE is available now, so I thought I'd give the Amazon 30 day trial a go with these. They are built like a tank.

Those look great and the price is right. I've never changed out the stock power cables on my amps yet, but the noise nuke someone built for me definitely changed the sound on my PI2AES for the better. Maybe the same noise nuking filtering principles at work.

 

[Slackaveli]

Yeah thats what's good about the Wireworld's, too: power conditioning design in the cable.

 

[Senex49]

You've been busy!

Yup. I started planning in late 2023 for a “Year of Audio” for 2024. Starting with headphones, going down the Schitty Path seemed the most productive. Those on here who have IRAs and have hit the magic 70.5 or 72.5 (depending) know about the demands of the RMD. Required Minimum Distribution. My money guy suggested that I use some of the money to do/get something I really wanted/liked. For this year I decided audio. The Yggy, Mjolnir, Empryean kit seems like it should hold me for a long time. Next comes considerations for the living room two channel stuff. I love what I read here as it helps guide my decision making.

EDIT - Oh, and I’m struggling with which streaming service to get. (And for marital bliss, I’d like to just settle on just one.) I dumped Spotify since no HiRes. Trying Apple Music now (I’m a full on Apple guy, two Mac minis, MacBook Air, iPhone, iPad, etc.) but not sure about Quobuz or Tidal. All listening done off hard wire up in my home office. What say ye, oh wise ones?

 

[Hofy]

Yes. Grocery Stores and convenience stores are beer and wine only.

Imagine my surprise when I went into a 7-11in St. Louis and there behind the counter was a wide assortment of liquors.

BTW - there are Total Wines in TX.

Y'all come up to Wisconsin. This famous place is only a bit over a mile from my house.

 

[Slackaveli]

Yup. I started planning in late 2023 for a “Year of Audio” for 2024. Starting with headphones, going down the Schitty Path seemed the most productive. Those on here who have IRAs and have hit the magic 70.5 or 72.5 (depending) know about the demands of the RMD. Required Minimum Distribution. My money guy suggested that I use some of the money to do/get something I really wanted/liked. For this year I decided audio. The Yggy, Mjolnir, Empryean kit seems like it should hold me for a long time. Next comes considerations for the living room two channel stuff. I love what I read here as it helps guide my decision making.

In the past 3 months I've scored Hifiman He1000 Stealth, Yggy, and Flux Mentor (class A Ukrainian amp) so I've been doing the same. Been very fun!

 

[sam6550a]

Yup. I started planning in late 2023 for a “Year of Audio” for 2024. Starting with headphones, going down the Schitty Path seemed the most productive. Those on here who have IRAs and have hit the magic 70.5 or 72.5 (depending) know about the demands of the RMD. Required Minimum Distribution. My money guy suggested that I use some of the money to do/get something I really wanted/liked. For this year I decided audio. The Yggy, Mjolnir, Empryean kit seems like it should hold me for a long time. Next comes considerations for the living room two channel stuff. I love what I read here as it helps guide my decision making.

EDIT - Oh, and I’m struggling with which streaming service to get. (And for marital bliss, I’d like to just settle on just one.) I dumped Spotify since no HiRes. Trying Apple Music now (I’m a full on Apple guy, two Mac minis, MacBook Air, iPhone, iPad, etc.) but not sure about Quobuz or Tidal. All listening done off hard wire up in my home office. What say ye, oh wise ones?

My financial advisor told me that he has never seen a Brinks truck following a hearse, and that I should buy whatever I want [within reason].
P. S. My wife was not amused. YRMV

 

[OldRoadToad]

I read every word you write, ORT. Good rambles, IMHO.

Thank you. That is very kind and I am truly honored.

ORT

 

[sixergixer]

Yup. I started planning in late 2023 for a “Year of Audio” for 2024. Starting with headphones, going down the Schitty Path seemed the most productive. Those on here who have IRAs and have hit the magic 70.5 or 72.5 (depending) know about the demands of the RMD. Required Minimum Distribution. My money guy suggested that I use some of the money to do/get something I really wanted/liked. For this year I decided audio. The Yggy, Mjolnir, Empryean kit seems like it should hold me for a long time. Next comes considerations for the living room two channel stuff. I love what I read here as it helps guide my decision making.

EDIT - Oh, and I’m struggling with which streaming service to get. (And for marital bliss, I’d like to just settle on just one.) I dumped Spotify since no HiRes. Trying Apple Music now (I’m a full on Apple guy, two Mac minis, MacBook Air, iPhone, iPad, etc.) but not sure about Quobuz or Tidal. All listening done off hard wire up in my home office. What say ye, oh wise ones?

Sound quality-wise, Apple Music is very good, it's just tricky getting it bit-perfect depending on what device you are streaming with. iOS is good with a USB3 Camera Kit, MacOS is lame because it lacks auto-switching for bitrates - you have to change it manually for each track or album (like if one album is 24/88.2 and another is 24/96, it doesn't automatically detect that and change it's output. Yeah, lame.)

AirPlay is also super gimpy in their proprietary implementation of it, and it will never give you full hi-res output, though it doesn't actually sound bad per se. I also dislike Apple Music's UX. [The Apple Classical app is actually great, however, because it came from someone else. ]

Qobuz is awesome and their app is more logical and more fun to use, plus they offer pdf liner notes for many albums (mostly Classical) and very detailed credits. Sound quality is amazing, and probably considered the best service by more users who have tried them all. No Connect function but it is coming maybe by end of year.

I have a Cambridge Audio MXN10 streamer and utilizing their generally excellent StreamMagic app, it works far, far better with Qobuz than with Apple, primarily because AirPlay sucks and that's the only interface you can use for Apple

I have no experience with Tidal.

EDIT: Qobuz also has much more journalistic content, from magazine articles penned by their writers to various features of gear that they like. It's a really cool app!

 

[bcowen]

Ok @bcowen should have received his flight board by now, hopefully it will not go on the stack of unpacked boxes already in his possession. Naturally since he is a cardboard connoisseur I used the best virgin cardboard for his shipment rather than a re-cycled amazon box.

Man, I'm sure glad you posted. Been busy unpacking boxes all day, and when I saw your post a few minutes ago I checked the front porch. Nothing there. Went and looked by the garage, nothing there either. Looked at the UPS tracking, and sure enough it showed delivered. Yesterday my next door neighbor (that I just met the other day -- nice people, yay!) brought me an Amazon box that had been sent via UPS...and delivered to them. So I ran next door, and there's the box sitting on their front porch. Been here a week now and 0 for 3 on UPS -- two delivered next door, and the third one MIA altogether. Glad my Vali 3 is coming USPS.

To the important stuff: gorgeous!! I mean like just perfect! Thanks so much! Haven't made it to the box with the liquor glasses yet, so I'll have to substitute temporarily.

 

[bcowen]

Y'all come up to Wisconsin. This famous place is only a bit over a mile from my house.

As a bonus, there is no better place in the US to get tacos than Wisconsin.

Seriously, brats and cheese curds (any cheese, really) is what I miss most from my time there. Oh, and the bars. One on every street corner. Worked for me.

 

[pavnobi]

What's your preamp? You won't need a DAC for those vintage analog sources.

i don’t own a pre amp. i take it a need a pre amp and one of my current amps or another schiit?