Scott Dolan

No, I was actually asking an honest question, and you decided to get snappy. Do not try to lay this at my doorstep. And the claims you say you made in the initial post weren't really clear at all, hence the questions. But, now that I know I'm not allowed to ask you such question, I will refrain from doing so. Previous posts have been deleted as to not disrupt the conversation, and I respectfully exit this conversation.

Must have been using the previous version USB. I can currently load 50 albums on my iPod Touch in just a few minutes. I could even do it wirelessly in about 5 minutes. xybert, and don't forget the Apple TV option! Streaming music via wi-fi from my iMac at one end of the house to my main system on the other end is how I listen to the majority of my stuff. And I use my iPad as the remote control for it.

Mostly. It got above freezing around noon today, and most of the roads are now in good shape. Most school systems will remain closed tomorrow - a combination of erring on the side of caution and recognizing that many students and teachers spent Tuesday night at school or stranded on buses, and might need some more time to decompress and catch up on sleep. Recriminations are flying, and the governor and head of emergency management for the state have admitted that they dropped the ball. The mayor remain oddly defiant. I hope that folks here use this experience to reevaluate their love of cars and disdain for public transportation. But nobody died, although their were some near misses with folks stranded for hours without their medications. And a gorgeous baby named Grace was born in a car stranded on I-285; mom and baby are doing fine. The fact there were no deaths is really remarkable. And thank goodness. Living here in the midwest I kinda feel for everyone involved. Even those who "dropped the ball". This is simply something folks down there aren't familiar in dealing with. I even saw that 100 miles of I-10 was closed in Florida yesterday due to icy conditions. I lived in Florida for 32 years. The only thing we knew about ice down there was that you crushed it up for your Margaritas.

I actually learned the trick to unfreeze my iPod Touch through simple trial and error. Luckily since it only has two buttons, the trial was short. I went through a period where it would freeze about once every other month. But then, about a year ago, it just stopped freezing. Very bizarre. Only thing I can point to is that's when I stopped updating the iOS.

Yeah, I get the point they're driving at (and I don't disagree), but hasn't the iPhone always out sold the iPod?

Hell, we got all the way up to 48 today! Felt like a genuine heat wave. Although the wind kept you grounded in reality. I don't know about any of you, but in my opinion this is one of the windiest winters I've ever lived through.

Yeah, but then you're tied to the room where the turntable is. Whereas the rest of us are listening to music any time we want, anywhere we want.

More power to you, I guess. I can't imagine carrying that many albums around with me. I'd never be able to find anything! I'm with Neal, give me 16GB and I'm perfectly content.

Bigger than 160 GB?! Most computer hard drives weren't that big not so many years ago. How much storage are you looking for? In higher quality encoding, say 320kbps, that will hold in the neighborhood of 1,000 albums. My 160 gb iPod is full, and my iTunes library is significantly larger than 160 gB. Consequently, the new stuff I add does not get added to my iPod any more, forcing me to carry around more CDs. I just listen to the iPod in my car (living in Dallas, one drives alot). I really don't hear much (if any) difference between the sound of a CD and the iPod listening in a car. . Why not just switch albums out every now and then? Surely you don't need to carry around 1,000 with you daily, right?

That was true about a decade ago. But sound has been improving since then with the advent of ALAC/FLAC, which are indistinguishable from CD/.wav. And from I've seen most folks challenged cannot tell the difference between a .wav file and a 320kbps AAC. Hell, I'd challenge anyone to correctly pick out a .wav file from a 256kbps VBR AAC. The biggest downside now is the horrendously shitty production methods in modern studios. Loudness War in end stage. But digital files have improved immensely over the last decade, and seem to still be on an upward trend. iTunes guarantees all their music downloads to be no less than 256kbps, after having 128 as their standard for years. And Emusic has played the catch up game. This tells me that people were complaining about sound quality, or else they wouldn't have changed anything. I've even heard whispers that with hard drives getting larger and larger, and storage getting cheaper and cheaper, that iTunes will eventually offer ALAC downloads. And at that point, you've got the same thing they pulled off the original disc. That sounds pretty good to me.

Bigger than 160 GB?! Most computer hard drives weren't that big not so many years ago. How much storage are you looking for? In higher quality encoding, say 320kbps, that will hold in the neighborhood of 1,000 albums.

Well, let me put it this way. I've never been a fan of Bose, but $100 for multimedia speakers from them? I wouldn't have any problem pulling the trigger on that, sound unheard.

Bruce Hornsby. Although I still refuse to consider it a "guilty pleasure" since he is a rather astonishing singer/songwriter.

Al!!! What's up, brother?! Good to see you around. Sorry you never made it over to jazztalk. Hope you are well. *edit* Love the avatar! That sums you up perfectly, doesn't it?

Ah, OK. Yeah, I wasn't getting that part. Probably more my fault than yours. I agree for the most part, but will say that some companies do indeed have "signature" sounds. Two that immediately come to mind are Yamaha and Harman Kardon. And you, me, or anyone else familiar with either could quickly pick them out of a police line up without even having to think about it. Yamaha has a bright and nearly brittle sound, whereas Harman Kardon has a far warmer sound signature. As I mentioned before, my buddy that had a McIntosh tuber listened to my HK and told me it had a "tube-like" sound to it.* But you're right in that if we went beyond that in the mass-marketed receivers/amplifiers, i.e. Pioneer, JVC, JBL, Fisher, whatever, it would be nearly impossible to hear any discernible differences. And though I haven't heard a whole lot in the range that I'm in with my Emotiva equipment, I can't discern any notable sound signature to that brand. Unless I use their proprietary automatic room correction/parametric EQ which makes it sound like a crappy Yamaha... *This is made even more odd considering the HK had a better THD rating than anything else in its class. The higher levels of harmonic distortion in tube amps is what gives them their warm, round sound.

Huh? You clearly stated that a double blind test would show that my claim that different pieces of equipment sound different from each other wasn't true. ???

Loudspeakers almost always are audibly different (and they are also the weakest link in the sound chain in many systems). Comparing speakers at home can be quite tricky though, since by necessity they can't be placed at the exact same spot at the same time, and placement has impact on the sound in most settings. But are you claiming that there's an audible difference between any piece of sound equipment compared to every other? A blind test will prove you there's not. So my old Pioneer VSX-454 sounds just like my current Emotiva rig? And my Emotiva rig sounds just like Lon's Decware amp? And Lon's Decware amp sounds just like my Harman Kardon AVR120? And my AVR130 sounds just like Kevin's McIntosh? Sorry, it wouldn't take anything more than a quick listen to each to prove that's not true.

But two pieces of equipment should sound different. They're different pieces of equipment from different manufacturers.

I agree. I'm not sure how one would even go about testing multiple pieces of equipment in a double blind. That's mainly why I was asking Daniel for clarification of his statement. You can easily A/B/X interconnects, speaker cables, that kind of thing on the same equipment. But various pieces of equipment? I'm not sure how or why you'd want to, to be perfectly honest.

It depends. Just like discussing the Live Trane box set the other day. If I had to choose between the box, which is in mono, or the original CD releases that were in stereo, I would take the mono box hands down. And it wouldn't even be close. But that has to do with the fact that those recordings were very poorly recorded. So yes, sometimes the mixes are indeed better. But, at the end of the day, the majority of music any of us listens to is in stereo. And it's not because recording in mono was cost prohibitive.

Same here. I'm not opposed to mono, but definitely prefer stereo. It's why my system has two front speakers...

So wait a minute. You're saying you don't believe there are differences in audio equipment until a double blind study is conducted?

Hey! We're up to a rather sultry 10 here in mid-Missouri! I really don't mind cold weather. Having lived in Florida for 32 years I actually appreciate it quite a bit. But I have to admit these single digit temps are even starting to wear on me.

Oh, I just meant the styles. Termination types, that kind of thing.

Fuck if I know. All I can tell you is that the cheap, flimsy aluminum connectors degrade over time. The ones I used would oxidize over time which would lead to a degradation in sound with a slight hiss and distortion. Incredibly slight, mind you. This is why most companies now use brass connectors plated with things like gold and nickel. It helps mitigate oxidation. I don't know if it completely mitigates it, or not. Porch, what types of wires were you changing out?