[guerph]

The other day I bought the NAD C541i and some Grado SR125s to accompany my modest home theater/audio setup. I was very excited to get home and set everything up to say the least. But, I decided to stop at a local video store to see what the current DVD rental scene was like (not good I must say). Just before I left the store, I noticed a small bin with about 8-10 CDs in it. I flipped through the measly selection of horrible 80s power pop garbage. The last CD in the stack was the movie soundtrack for The Thirteenth Floor, circa 1999. I had seen the movie a while back, but was less than impressed. However, when I turned the CD over, I noticed that the disc was HDCD encoded. Cool! The CD player I just bought has an HDCD decoder. I vaguely remembered the "jazzy" score from the "film". Again, it was less than memorable. So I thought. I turned the CD over to the cover and saw a nifty $3.00 CAD ($2.14 USD) price tag. HDCD and only three dollars? Sold! I brought everything home. Once I set up my system, I called my wife into the room to demo the new gear (she was not pleased with the money I had spent on this new gear). I had the Thirteenth Floor Soundtrack sitting right next to all my demo discs spread across the hardwood floor. For some reason I decided to pick it up first and throw in on the disc player. I paid no attention to the first song "Downtown LA 1937" as I was messing around with the remote. I decided to turn up the volume on the second track "Jane's Theme" and sit back and relax. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. A "smoochy jazz trumpet solo" for the gods. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. I looked over at my wife. Her eyes were closed and she had a smile from ear to ear. Then I realized that I myself had a grin from both lobes. What Heather and I experinced for those few minutes was awe inspiring to say the least. My wife reached over to me, and said, "I forgive you for spending all our money on this stuff". Sweet!
Guys and girls, all I can say is if you want to justify the moneys spent on your gear to the significant others in your life, all you have to do is go out and find this CD for $3.00 CAD ($2.14 USD) and all your problems will be solved. Done. Give it a try.