Deuterium

The use of the squeezebox is a nice possibility, but many that have gone this route have done upgrades to the squeezebox in the power supply (inexpensive) and to the digital or analog outputs (expensive). While I considred this, what I ended up doing was to wirelessly beam my music from my Mac laptop, and associated HDs, to an airport express and use an optical cable out of the airport express to my DAC ( I am using the Lavry although I considred the Benchmark). The information stream from the laptop to the DAC can be done bit perfect. This produces a very high quality source and is quite convenient. I have been happy with this rig and, because I already had the DAC and laptop, I only had to purchase the airport express and the optical cable. Works for me.

320 for lossy, and ALAC for lossless.

John, Thanks for posting this tip on compilations. The only problem I have had with iTunes is this issue with compilations. I now know how to fix it. Thanks.

I agree that it seems hard to believe that a power cord will have a large impact on sonic performance. FWIW, I have pasted below a small part of an article on this subject that appeared in the mag The Absolute Sound. The article is a review of Shunyata wires and is subtitled "Is a power cord the "Last Four Feet" in AC power delivery or the "First Four Feet"." Robert Harley TAS Issue 163 p.56 "Long after I'd discovered through my own listening experience that signal interconnects and loudspeaker cables are important to good sound, I resisted the idea that power cords could affect sound quality. Think of the miles of transmission wires between the power generator and your home, and of the dozens or hundreds of feet of Romex in your house wiring, and then ask how a few feet of exotic AC cable at the end of that long chain can make one whit of sonic difference." A couple of paragraphs later-"The idea that a power cord comes at the end of a very long power-transimission system is purely one of perspective. From the amplifier's point of view the power cord is the first few feet of the power-deliver (sic) system. You can almost consider the power cord an extension of the power transformer's primary windings." For more, I am afraid you will have to read the article. If you get a chance to do that, I would be interested to hear your thoughts. __________________

I am able to fit my library on a 250g HD. Of course, I hope to exceed its capacity in the future.

Like John, I use two external hardrives. I import directly to one, and keep a copy of my library on the other. Although this isn't a cheap solution, it is more convenient for me than other options. I also save each tune in two different formats, a lossy and a lossless version. The lossy version (320) gets moved to my iPOD and the lossless version is used as a source for my Head Fi rig.

I organize my albums as Tom suggested. One additional thought, you can do all of the tunes on an album at once by selecting them all and using the control key with the mouse go to "get info". Within the window that pops up, you can modify the fields and it will apply them to all of the tunes you have selected.

If you like the sound of the 704s, and you have the electronics to drive them well, I would get them. I don't see a problem with towers in your setting.

Interestingly, some claim that IEMs are safer for your ears than buds. This is because they are so isolating that you can run them at lower volumes than buds which leak noise from the surroundings. This requires you to turn the volume up on the buds to achieve the same amount of isolation. I have also read good things about the E500s. As already stated, they are pricey. They may be worth the price if the rest of your portable system is of equal quality.

There are some iRiver's that have been discontinued that can be had at a discount on eBay that also have line outs which allow you to use an external DAC for conversion. Many think this offers additional sonic improvements over internal player's DACs, but does require you to carry an additional box. Personally, I rip my CDs at two compression levels a lossless version and a 320kbp lossy. I use the lossy for my portable unit. I improve my sound by using the line out of the portable player into a small portable battery driven amp and non-stock headphones. This adds a little weight, but I am happy with the sound. YMMV.

I have one of these also. Nice table.

I would recommend you check out HeadFi. A good source of all information related to headphones. HeadFi

Thanks for the suggestions and the link.

I have not delved into this jazz guitarist's discography. I would appreciate recommendations of some of his CDs that would be a good place to start.

The key is matching the amp to the can. If you can decide what kind of sonic signature you are looking for, you can choose an amp to complement the Grados to achieve that sound. For instance, I like a warmer sonic signature, so for my Grados I went with the HeadFive amp which has a warm tube like sound. I think it is a great pairing with the Grados. However, if you prefer a more analytical sound, a different amp may be more to your liking. Enjoy the journey.

I use headphone amps to drive my cans. I have not used the two you mentioned, but have three others which I can comment on. I know you posted about IEMs previously (by the way, how do you like your Etys?). For my portable headfi rig I use a Ray Samuels RS-71 battery powered amp. This is a great little amp with a lot of power and dramatically improves the sound of the cans I use it with in conjunction with my iPOD. These include big closed cans like the AKG 271s to the E3c IEMs. In addition to this amp, Ray makes a smaller version that is called the Hornet. This little amp is also highly recommended. If you would like a small desktop amp that is solid state, but has been voiced to be warm (i.e. tube sounding), the HeadFive by Meier Audio is an excellent choice. This amp, $250, is a treat and I use it as my secondary amp. Finally, I drive my primary headphone listening station directly from my DAC, which is a Lavry. I run this in a balanced configuration and the DAC does amazingly well run this way. I will be adding a balanced tube amp to this rig at some point in the future. I strongly recommend that you visit the HeadFi forum. Using the search feature, you will get a lot of information directly related to the two amps you mentioned in your post. Hope this helps.

No, you don't need a dock. I always used one with my earlier generation iPOD (G3), but when I got a G5, it did not come with a dock. The G5 fit in the G3 dock until I added an invisible shield to the iPOD for scratch protection and now it is too thick. No problem, I just plug the jack into the line-out on the bottom of the iPOD. I am not sure how you were planning on using the dock, but if you are using your iPOD as a source for your sound system, you will get better sound reproduction if you use the line out and not the headphone jack.

I use a Lavry as my DAC. It is around $1K, and I like it quite a lot. I have modified one of my sets of cans to allow me to use the balanced outputs of the Lavry which has led to a great improvement in the sound.

I agree, HeadFi is a great source of information. I have the Shure E3c as my IEM, and like it. That said, I only use it when I want near complete isolation from the sound around me as I find them less comfortable than other headphones. For buds instead of IEMs, Sennheiser makes a reasonably priced and good quality bud. If you like clip phones, the Koss KSC75s are inexpensive and have a strong following on HeadFi.