Chill3

The big problem with an Oppo and direct HD conected for music is the user interface, to be blunt the remote App is crap ( apple or android) would drive you mad on any decent collection.

Then they are a great buy !

Choose your speakers first, amp to match.

Have you considered stand mounts and sub ?

Say Usher 520s and small SVS would be great music and movies in my view

I'm am sure they are great speakers and also sure this is a successfully model

But for me it does no work, I would never be content that I bought the right one !

Save, just a bit more and you can get a real step up if you look second hand

 

As an example - this landed would be under $1k

 

http://www.hifido.co...73133-80317-00/

 

Nice stuff comes up in the stereonet classifieds as well

Not sure if this is the best place to post this thread on SNA ... but it seemed like a good idea at the time!
 
Tonight, I went to a concert by "Ludovico's Band" in the Recital Centre, in Melbourne.  They were "doing" Monteverdi.
 
The opening had the, maybe 10?, musicians on stage ... but the first sound we heard was a drummer, striking the top skin of a drum that was, maybe, 90cm long and 40cm in diameter - skins both ends.  (I don't know what such a drum is called.)
 
Anyway, as he came in from the side, to centre stage, he was - at most - 3m away.  The percussive effect of the (wooden) drumsticks on the skin was incredible!
 
So I started pondering what is required in a hifi system to deliver such a sound.
 
I am interested in your opinions ... mine is that one of the essential requirements is an amplifier that has a PS which is capable of instantaneously delivering, say, 500 times the average wattage being used?
 
This instantaneous power delivery is required to faithfully deliver the leading edge of the drumstick "strike".
 
Which suggests that a good flea-powered SET (3w) needs a PS capable of delivering 1K5w, for 0.01 seconds.  (Which, AIUI, means many 10s of thousands of uF on the DC rail.)  Trouble is, I suspect makers of such SET amps do not use such excessive PSes.
 
Likewise, to faithfully deliver the leading edge of the drumstick "strike", a good 100w amp needs a PS which can supply 50Kw, for 0.01 seconds.  Hence some amp mfrs use 100,000uF in DC rail filter capacitance!
 
So, what do others think?
 
 
Regards,
 
Andy

Speakers !

Try to get a listen to some big 80s JBL monitors of the take up half your wall type

For life like drums and dynamics nothing beats big light stiff cones with massive magnets !

Yep

 

Perhaps I need to more articulate, I do the HD tracks thing, and its easy enough

 

But HD tracks has a very limited selection and works on full album sales

 

What would be compelling to me would be hidef digital in a full service / track based store

Ok - I am well and truly a taken by the dark side - I no longer own any CD's ( I have about 30 SACDs) and use my Schitt Bifrost DAC on rare occasions only, 90% of home listening is vinyl. 

 

That said I still have a big digital music collection and go to iTunes a fair bit - we all need music on the go and my Yamaha GT2000 has proven a problem to use while flying !

 

So just saying - if iTunes, or any similar online store would just go hi res 24 bit I might be tempted to, well turn :0  - I find 24 bit done well, not better than vinyl, different, but good in many way

 

I suspect I am dreaming

 

I know about HD tracks, but that no were near iTunes in scope or ease of use

 

Will it ever happen ?

Headphone amp connected to pre amp tape out is best IMO

Not sure how much you want to spend, Schitt make a good range

http://schiit.com/ca...&products_id=16

Looks to me the 3000 is an addition to the range, not a replacement for the 2000

So many options, you need to get out and listen to a few and establish a preference 

 

Just a quick look on ebay shows a very diverse selection, all have strong and week point and all will be a big step foward on your current speakers

 

http://www.ebay.com....=1#ht_656wt_465

 

http://www.ebay.com....1#ht_525wt_1180

 

http://www.ebay.com....1#ht_835wt_1413

 

http://www.ebay.com....1#ht_576wt_1180

 

http://www.ebay.com....#ht_1761wt_1413

 

http://www.ebay.com....1#ht_762wt_1413

 

http://www.ebay.com....1#ht_618wt_1413

And where do you think is the volume control in that chain?

 

between the input and output - where do you think it is ?

The best option is either an integrated with HT bypass or if you want pre amp and power amp (with the pre amp having HT by
Pass)

HT bypass is now reasonably common and is a unity gain input on the integrated or pre amp ( that is to say it bypasses the volume control and goes straight to the power amp )

You use an Interconect from the L & R pre outs on your receiver to the HT by pass

Then all analogue 2ch direct into your integrated / preamp ( and that would also include a quality DAC output )

When watching movies you have the integrated set to HT and the receiver controls volume just as if using the internal power Amps in the reciever

Lost of us do this I use a Yamaha Reciever 3900 and MF A1 integrated

iPhoto - you cannot add text to an image.  WTF?  Even MS paint offers this ability!  There are some hacks to do it, but they are not pretty nor simple.  What version is iPhoto at now?  FAIL!

 

iTunes - I want to copy a mp3 file from one album to another album.  Easy?  Nope.  Since I'm a UNIX guy at heart, I took to having a look at where the guts of iTunes were located, and let's just say that short of editing an xml file and probably a .sql lite dbase, it's UGLY.  Now, why did I want to do this (it is an unusual request I do admit) - well, I have multiple versions of a particular album.  I exported one of the songs to a 20 second m4a ring tone a year ago, and mistakenly left the edited 20 second version and not the full version in iTunes.  So, when I listen to that album, that particular song is only 20 seconds and it annoys the hell out of me.  Yes, I can listen to one of the other variant albums where the song is unedited.  But that's not the point, I wanted to copy the song from an unedited album and paste it into the album with the damaged version.  No go.  I'm sure there's some ugly hack to do it, but that is not the raison d'etre of Apple's software according to Apple, is it?  

 

Finder?  I wanted 2 finder windows open, one showing the content of one folder, and the other finder window showing the content of another folder.  Do you think that's possible?  No.  The finder window(s) automatically update to mirror the content open in the original finder window.  Stupid?  Yes.  Retarded?  Yes.  Only Apple could have such a retarded UI.  Even Windows 3.1 from 17 years ago can do this!  Even much older UNIXes using CDE (common desktop environment) can do this!!!

 

What's that?  You want to 'cut' a file (i.e. move it from one location to another)?  Forget it in OS X.  It's drop or drag and nothing else (unless you want to drop to the command line and use the 'mv' command).  Retarded?  Yes.  Every bloody other operating system file manager GUI in existence offers this feature and functionality, except for Apple.  

 

PS I'm not the only one with complaints on this sort of retarded UI functionality, Google it and you'll see millions of other people complaining about these sorts of issues in OX X and Apple applications.

 

edit: worse, Apple, in its infinite wisdom doesn't obviously listen to feedback, and has a "you'll do it our way" attitude.  

 

Dave

Not sure who's the retarded one ?

 

1. Yes your correct iPhoto does not allow you to add text over a photo - not what iPhotos is for, its more a photo library with simple editing tools, but that a fair comment it does not do what you want

 

2. iTunes - easy - click on song - right click ( or control click ) and chose get info - modify album and album artist 

 

3. Finder can have two windows open and showing different views - do it all the time 

 

4. Cut - right click - cut is an option along with paste ? or command C to copy and command V to paste

 

Chill

Nope 

 

Had both, several times, happy with both, different strengths and weakness.