[radicus]

So a butleress, as it were?

As she says, "Is that a 300B in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"

 

[KoshNaranek]

Before all of the fancy cable proponents and opponents strangle each other with their favorite wares, let me offer a few facts for your consideration. Most of the Chinesium standard old NEMA 5-15P [male plug] to IEC C13 female cables that I have worked with, and come with electronic gear are pure crap. Although "rated" for 10 amps, and "claiming" to use 18 AWG wire, most of these things use cable with conductors that look like 22 or 24 AWG, and have very poor connections between the wire and the end fittings. Some that I have seen even reverse the hot and neutral connections. So, I can buy that they will offer higher than desired impedance, resulting in a voltage drop. Now, without addressing "designer" cables, I have found that hospital grade cables of the same configuration offer MUCH better performance. They are available with 14 or 16 AWG cable, and have robust end connectors that are transparent, you can see the cable to connector bond. Disadvantages? The connectors are large [because they are robust], and for some reason unknown to me, 8' to 12 ' seems to be the most common length, which means either extra cable to coil up or buy hospital grade plugs and cut to length. On the surplus market, the can be bought for as little as $8, for 16 AWG. I bet that they sound different than the chinesium litz wire cables. see https://www.mpja.com/Power-Cord-12ft-UL-Listed-NEMA-5-to-IEC-C13-16-3-AWG/productinfo/33925+CB/ If anyone compares them, please let me know.

Cable runs for hospital grade power IEC cables are long because equipment is usually on wheels and is frequently thrown aside at short notice to get at the patient. The thrown aside equipment is expected to remain plugged in and continue to function without anyone checking it.

You may have noticed that some cables have clips at the IEC side.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

Ugh…

My Roon library is "only" 614 albums strong, yet I am experiencing a strong urge to throw out 90% of it because I barely listen to most of that anyway. The signal to noise ratio of my "My Library - Albums" screen is completely off the charts right now.

The benefit of streaming libraries: You can just add to it whatever you like, even if you'll ever only listen to it three of four times.
The drawback of streaming libraries: You can just add to it whatever you like, even if you'll ever only listen to it three or four times.

But hey, at the very least this allows me to just clear out old/unused albums without feeling like I'm being super wasteful.

I get that a lot of people prefer to be able to have a sense of true and proper ownership over their library, and I'm glad that they can still get their hands on physical media.
But I really like having the option to lease my music instead of outright buying it.
I've been actively consuming music for 30+ years by this point. Waaaay before streaming (or even just "proper" digital audio) was a thing.*
And during all that time, my preferences have always been rather fluent. Apart from a handful of albums that are important to me, things come and go all the time. That whole leasing model for music, i.e. streaming subscriptions, makes this soooo much more sustainable for me.

With that said: Yes, the industry absolutely needs to find a better way to reimburse artists. Subscriptions either need to get more expensive (with the biggest share of the difference going to labels and artists, not the streaming services), or they need to switch from the current flat rate model to a pay-per-use one.

* Actually, I still remember as if it was yesterday that I spent a borderline crazy amount of time and effort on ripping cassettes, LPs, and CDs to my PC's hard drive and manually kept them neatly organized in folders and subfolders by genre, artist, and album so that I could always—with just a few clicks—locate and play whatever I was in the mood for at any given moment. Even had my crappy little stereo system wired to my PC's sound card because I couldn't stand those plasticky desktop speakers that were the norm back then. That was the 90s, mind you. Literally noone was thinking about digital music libraries back then. I'm talking a few hundred MB of hard drive space. CD-ROM drive? Nope! If I wanted to rip something, I had to sneak into the living room and "liberate" my dad's CD player from his HiFi stack and hook it up to my PC's line-in. Single-speed CD ripping, baby!
I don't think I could actually be considered an "audiophile" before, what, three or four years ago? But the writing has always been on the wall, I guess…

 

[adias]

Have you followed Mark Levinson’s C-wave gig. I wonder what you think of that. I am not going to tell you what I think...

 

[Ohno Schiitizen]

 

[Orange5o]

Ugh…

My Roon library is "only" 614 albums strong, yet I am experiencing a strong urge to throw out 90% of it because I barely listen to most of that anyway. The signal to noise ratio of my "My Library - Albums" screen is completely off the charts right now.

The benefit of streaming libraries: You can just add to it whatever you like, even if you'll ever only listen to it three of four times.
The drawback of streaming libraries: You can just add to it whatever you like, even if you'll ever only listen to it three or four times.

But hey, at the very least this allows me to just clear out old/unused albums without feeling like I'm being super wasteful.

I get that a lot of people prefer to be able to have a sense of true and proper ownership over their library, and I'm glad that they can still get their hands on physical media.
But I really like having the option to lease my music instead of outright buying it.
I've been actively consuming music for 30+ years by this point. Waaaay before streaming (or even just "proper" digital audio) was a thing.*
And during all that time, my preferences have always been rather fluent. Apart from a handful of albums that are important to me, things come and go all the time. That whole leasing model for music, i.e. streaming subscriptions, makes this soooo much more sustainable for me.

With that said: Yes, the industry absolutely needs to find a better way to reimburse artists. Subscriptions either need to get more expensive (with the biggest share of the difference going to labels and artists, not the streaming services), or they need to switch from the current flat rate model to a pay-per-use one.

* Actually, I still remember as if it was yesterday that I spent a borderline crazy amount of time and effort on ripping cassettes, LPs, and CDs to my PC's hard drive and manually kept them neatly organized in folders and subfolders by genre, artist, and album so that I could always—with just a few clicks—locate and play whatever I was in the mood for at any given moment. Even had my crappy little stereo system wired to my PC's sound card because I couldn't stand those plasticky desktop speakers that were the norm back then. That was the 90s, mind you. Literally noone was thinking about digital music libraries back then. I'm talking a few hundred MB of hard drive space. CD-ROM drive? Nope! If I wanted to rip something, I had to sneak into the living room and "liberate" my dad's CD player from his HiFi stack and hook it up to my PC's line-in. Single-speed CD ripping, baby!
I don't think I could actually be considered an "audiophile" before, what, three or four years ago? But the writing has always been on the wall, I guess…

I'm on track to hit 10,000 albums this year in Roon, and I am constantly removing stuff. There's definitely a lot of ways to skin the cat, but for me I listen to a lot of people that aren't always findable on streaming services. One guitarist I admire lamented last month that Spotify de-monitized 2/3 of his discography due to stream thresholds. It's depressing.

 

[Ohno Schiitizen]

Have you followed Mark Levinson’s C-wave gig. I wonder what you think of that. I am not going to tell you what I think...

I do not know what he is talking about ... not even a bit .....

 

[Slackaveli]

Have you followed Mark Levinson’s C-wave gig. I wonder what you think of that. I am not going to tell you what I think...

It sounds interesting af. I wonder if people will really "hear it continuously" as opposed to modulated PCM. Levinson claims it causes 'audio stress' or something like that.
Claiming "we've solved PCM " is a helluva thing to say.

I wonder what Mike and @Jason Stoddard think about it.

 

[Slackaveli]

I do not know what he is talking about ... not even a bit .....

PCM is modualted, that is to say it isnt continuous. Our brain's don't like that (according to ML) so he's spent decades trying to 'solve' the issue.
That's the premise.

 

[radicus]

Jazz Profiles with Nancy Wilson on NPR

I think it's Rachel Podger that had a podcast that worked like that for symphonic music. Any good jazz podcasts in that vein?
Or something like Suzanne Vegas' old column in the New York Times?

I've been listening to jamming jazz since it was on XM back in the early 2000's. It's now online at Mixcloud. Leans more towards the improv side thus the jamming... eclectic mix

https://www.mixcloud.com/Jammin_Jazz/


From the website:

From XM Radio to WDCB to KBEM...

A long time of turning you on to music that is JAZZ, but also incorporates FUNK, BLUES, ROCK, PROG, REGGAE, WORLD, PUNK, CLASSICAL, CAJUN and more.

Jazz is something that evolves and reflects the times, and this music does that, and more. The current wave of artists pay homage, merge influences, experiment, as well as lay new ground. The music is playful, and dark, moody and danceable, and intricate, celebratory, ethnic and worldly… it is boundless and deserves a platform. That is what this show is all about.

This is music that is happening RIGHT NOW and those who pushed the boundaries of Jazz in the most recent past. Featuring musicians that are influential, current and doing things to shake up the perceptions of what Jazz is and can be.

NOT YOUR PARENT’S JAZZ…

 

[RCBinTN]

My rig is very simple: MacBook SSD - music server - Gumby - Bryston amp - headphones. About a year ago, I switched the music server from JRiver to Roon, and subscribed to Qobuz. My first experience with streaming. While it's easy to find and enjoy "new to me" music via Qobuz, the real improvement has been to the SQ which I attribute to Roon. I'm using no DSP at all, and Roon is installed on the Mac, so the signal path is "lossless" and the FLAC rips on my SSD have never sounded so good. This is clearly apparent when listening to old, familiar, music that I've heard 100 times before and now hear new details in it. That is a wonderful thing to experience. Today's adventure included this old favorite album, see the Listening thread for more details.
IMO and YMMV, the requisite disclaimers.

 

[Paladin79]

Cable runs for hospital grade power IEC cables are long because equipment is usually on wheels and is frequently thrown aside at short notice to get at the patient. The thrown aside equipment is expected to remain plugged in and continue to function without anyone checking it.

You may have noticed that some cables have clips at the IEC side.

I have experience with those as well as other types of connectors that were easily jerked away walls and damaged.

 

[Tbone289]

Quick Freya+ / N questions...

Anybody else leave their Freya + or N on 24x7? I leave mine powered on and just switch to SS passive mode to cut tubes off. I only power off if heading out on vacay or if there are T-Storms in the area.

Any danger in leaving it on all the time? I'm of the opinion that the power rush on turn-on is more taxing on gear than leaving it on, but those glowing things in the preamp always being lit up makes me curious. Am I wrong?

I leave mine on 24/7 in buffer mode, but muted when not in use. It draws less power when muted. My equipment is on a Furman voltage regulator, so I don't worry about any of it being powered on. Those LEDs will last a LONG time.

 

[Paladin79]

I'm on track to hit 10,000 albums this year in Roon, and I am constantly removing stuff. There's definitely a lot of ways to skin the cat, but for me I listen to a lot of people that aren't always findable on streaming services. One guitarist I admire lamented last month that Spotify de-monitized 2/3 of his discography due to stream thresholds. It's depressing.

I have in excess of 65,000 but I have been collecting for a while. That and I know people.

 

[artur9]

Not too far from Bird in Hand. True town name.

Pennsylvania is full of weird town names: Ancient Oaks (What?), King of Prussia (why?), Pittsburgh (jk!)