Uncle Skid

I have the "Bose SoundLink Mini Bluetooth Speaker II", and love it. The sound is quite good, and bluetooth pairing with phone and other devices (tablet/laptop) just works. Also has an auxiliary input. Price is usually $200, although I did find mine on sale for $180 a few months ago. I chose this one because I have a friend that has one, and was amazed at how good it sounds, given its small size. It's certainly not a replacement for my full-size stereo equipment, but it sure is nice to have the portability and decent battery life.

Indeed. "Cheating The Polygraph" available now, anybody have it yet?

me, too!

This topic hits a little too close to home for me right now, but I do want to second Leeway's suggestion of counseling. It's something I never would have considered in my younger years, but over the last six months, we have been doing both individual and couples sessions. The therapists are a husband/wife team, and it's been interesting to get both of their thoughts on things. It hasn't always been easy, to say the least. But, overall, the experience has been very positive.

Happy Birthday, Ann!

This is an interesting discussion... but largely irrelevant. This stuff mattered to me 10 years ago, but not any more. Hard drive space = cheap. Everything in FLAC (or equivalent) for any "serious" listening. MP3s only when space is limited, which (for me) is only on my iPod. Since I use that mostly in the car, I don't expect much, but still encode at V4 (~165 kbps) or better.

Are any "regular" downloads of those newer masterings available elsewhere for purchase? Sounds like these masterings are on the new Blue Note SHM discs? I didn't really care about the 96/24 as much as I was curious about the different mastering. I was bored today, and it was instant gratification. $12.69 for a lossless download, with liner notes, isn't bad. I will pay a premium for lossless files. But, I'd still rather have the CD.

HD Tracks "Jazz Specials of the Week" has all Blue Note titles discounted: 96/24 @ $14.10 (regularly $17.98), 192/24 @ $17.50 (regularly $24.98). Plus, the FACEBOOK10 coupon results in an additional 10%. I am generally quite skeptical about hi-rez audio, but was interested in hearing the newer masterings of "Speak No Evil" and "Unity". Plus, those titles include liner notes, which is nice. Both titles sound fantastic.. big improvement over the RVGs. Here's something I found "interesting": I wanted the 96/24 versions, and when I searched for them, both titles said "Sample rate(s): 96/24,192/24". But, when I clicked through, only the 192/24 option was available. I thought at first this was my mistake, but the 96/24 options are either accidentally or intentionally hidden. A quick google search for "96/24" and each title yielded valid links on the HD Tracks site, and I was able to order those versions with no problem, for $12.69 each. I shouldn't have had to work so hard to find the 96/24 options... it sure seems like they really wanted me to buy the more expensive versions.

Try this... Pound sign = Press and hold the ALT key, then type 0 1 6 3, on the numeric keypad. Euro = ALT + 0 1 2 8. http://symbolcodes.tlt.psu.edu/accents/codealt.html

Currently at $136.02, plus the 10% off coupon... $122 is quite an attractive price. Also, the Lark's box is at $111, before the 10% off.

Looking forward to it!

Me2.

Interesting. As if Conan wasn't part of the problem.

Congratulations, guys!!!!

Similar prices at Import CDs: http://www.importcds.com/Search/Results?type=200&catalogno=TYCJ

I'm in, sounds great. Good luck, Jim. Some excellent drumming by Scott Veenstra! And keep Greg away from those big q-tips...

Bringing this one back up... it's beautiful music, and a wonderful recording. I am definitely not an audiophile, but I recently purchased a DVD/CD player that knows how to handle HDCDs. I realize that SACDs and a myriad of other formats have superseded that format, but this CD sounds GREAT on my system. This music makes me smile, every time.

I am so confused by all of this sometimes. Perhaps naive, but I like to think that Braxton has always played exactly what he wanted to play. What he needed to play. Some read far too much into it. Maybe it really is that simple. And that's one reason why I like his music. Coltrane, too.

Been listening to that one the last few days, on your recommendation. Awesome! Thanks, Shawn. This is a cool thread. Rock on!

14 or 16 gauge lamp cord from Home Depot. Buy it by the foot, and get exactly what you need. Kevin and fent99 are right. Double-blind tests consistently confirm this. I also have a BSEE, not that it means I'm an expert, by any means. Just a skeptic. I recently received, for the first time, a catalog from Mapleshade. Had never heard of them before. Snake oil crap taken to a whole new level, in my opinion.

Yes, thanks. I thought that the Jimmy Lyons box set was out of print. That's been one I've been thinking about for years. Haven't placed an order yet, but I may to jump on this one.

The Pasty Oven in Quinnesec is about as far north into that peninsula as you can go, and they create several types daily. Their traditional pasty is filled with beef, pork, onion and potato, all wrapped up in a buttery crust. Would never classify as a sandwich in Cornwall. But I love they idea of the Finnish-Cornish culinary interaction. Well, I've lived in Michigan a long time, and I've never heard pasties called sandwiches. And the author of that article apparently needs a geography lesson. Quinnesec is nowhere near as far north as you can go, it's at least 160 miles to Copper Harbor, Michigan.

Any other thoughts on the 5.1 (5.0?) mix of Blackwater Park? I have the deluxe editions of the others, but this is the one I'm missing. If it makes any difference, I'm listening to these 5.x mixes on a two-channel system, Oppo CD/DVD player, with the stereo down-mix setting. The other DVDs sound better to me than their CD counterparts, but that could be because of the DVD mixes have less of the loudness war stuff going on. On a related note, I came across this http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/index.php?search_artist=opeth&sort=dr&order=asc which seems to indicate the dynamic range is better on the DVDs. It also confirms what Shawn mentioned on the loudness war thread -- the LP of Ghost Reveries is quite good.