A realy cool cd player deesign

[TransformX]

I have to agree with FB here about the computer & gadget scam.
Does Office 2007 do more for you than Office XP? Office 2000? Office 97?
It does more for you in about the same way that mains cable does to your friend's sound.

You need a cell-phone to make phone calls, send SMS and maybe add birthday reminders or such, half an hour after you've been at the Cell company store, you come out with a 3G something that can do stuff you don't want in the first place, branding that annoys you and all kinds of futsing to waste your time for the price of a laptop. Of course, you'll pay for it in 36 payments, making sure you're chained to the operator for 3 years. They're also 'nice' as they offer to deduct the cost of your newly acquired gadget from the cost of your calls IF you speak over a certain amount of minutes per month.

Cell phones, MS-Office, 5% stronger edition of CPUs costing over 60% more etc are the same voodoo as speaker-wires etc. Even if they do something extra, even if they give -you- more, it's usually nothing you could notice without actually looking intensively for.
Hi-fi isn't half the upgrade craze of gadgets and computers. Hi-Fi scams you once every many many years, computers and gadgets do it every three years or less (5 if you're really stubborn, rich or smart enough to know exactly what you want and need for the years to come).

Edit: Reminder - Windows XP doesn't officially support Directx 10. Why? Because everybody out there want you to upgrade to Vista. Why? Because Vista and Aero need upgraded hardware.

[FatBastard]

In the case of PCs, they (mostly) worked correctly and as advertised at that time and often for years afterwards.

Spoken like a man who never used windows 3.11 (my skin crawls just thinking about it). you know what? even windows 95 (3 reboots a day, countless hours of work lost because the damn thing kept freezing). when you accidentally disconnect a network cable, the entire thing blue screens.

False advertising: Bill gates says you'll never need more then 640K of memory. a few years later people who payed 3k$ for a 640k "future proof" PC (prices then) find out its useless, because gate's company releases more demanding software.

Cell Phones: you are the exception,and I suspect you know that. I also have an obsolete Nokia that actually works, but I did see thousands of people camp over night outside gadget stores. paying 500$ for a toy, advertised to change your life (no less).


HiFi: Look, I don't see the point of paying 200$ a foot for speaker wire. but that doesn't mean that there aren't great HiFi gear at decent prices out there.

[FatBastard]

Edit: Reminder - Windows XP doesn't officially support Directx 10. Why? Because everybody out there want you to upgrade to Vista. Why? Because Vista and Aero need upgraded hardware.

Excellent point

[TransformX]

If in doubt: http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/...fm?newsid=9579

Lanci said the operating system was riddled with problems and gave users and businesses no reason to buy a new PC, according to the report. Taiwan-based Acer is the world's fourth-largest PC manufacturer, after HP, Dell and Lenovo.

"The whole industry is disappointed with Windows Vista," Lanci said.

Despite the long wait between Windows XP and Vista, the latest operating system still lacks maturity, he said. "Stability is certainly a problem," he said.

Users are voting with their feet, Lanci said, so that the Vista launch has had the smallest impact on PC sales of any version of Windows in the history of PC manufacturing. He added the situation didn't look likely to change in the next six months.

So why do we need new bloatwares from Microsoft instead of service packs with bug fixes? Features? Functionality? LOL! We don't need any of that. Hardware manufacturers need it so they can sell their stuff!

[az]

Firstly, let me say there is nothing wrong about people liking tube sound. It just isn't very high fidelity, as in true to the original. But if it sounds nice to you, by all means listen to it - the important thing about music is that you enjoy it.

Now what is wrong is the notion that tube components are somehow "better" or even "more Hi-Fi" than transistor components. That just isn't true. Of course, it is possible to build very good sounding tube amps, even ones with 50 W per channel. But it's also possible to achieve this with transistors for a fraction of the price. The people who want tubes in their systems because "electronics" make their systems sound "cold" are just afraid of what they can't understand (not that they can understand tubes, but at least they can see them working).

Good salesmen have found easy (and, often enough, wealthy) prey in those people. They build something of ordinary quality, put it in an exceptionally well-built enclosure (there's no denying a lot of "audiophile" equipment is absolutely beautifully built), and sell it with a HUGE markup, explaining its superiority with technobabble or even claiming that nobody knows why a demagnetized CD should sound better, it just does. And of course not allowing double-blind tests because those are biased by the unbelieving.

Tell me, why should a cable sufficient to measure gigahertz signals with a high-precision instrument not be enough to transport measly 20 kilohertz? Because then you couldn't sell it for thousands of Euros.

I don't say people shouldn't spend tens of thousands of Euros for their Hi-Fi systems if they can afford it. I just say they should know what they're spending it for: Superior build quality, nice design, brand names, good sound. But you could get the latter from every japanese mass-market amp as well. But of course, "Yamaha" doesn't sound as nice as "Mark Levinson".

FB: Nobody says there isn't a lot of very very good HiFi gear at decent prices out there. But there's also a lot of not very much better (or, in many cases, worse, or exactly the same) gear for MUCH higher prices - this is what Brian and I are referring to. A good home theater amp for a thousand bucks is surely not outrageous (if out of my reach), but a marginally better amp in a centimeter-thick massive aluminum case for ten times that money? Sure, if you like that and have the money to burn - just don't think it sounds that much better or you bought the hearing to appreciate it with the money.

People WANT to be lied to. If you tell them "you're special when you buy my product", they'll give you money. They want to feel superior, and there are always people who'll sell them the feeling, be it with overpriced "audiophile" stuff, bling-bling rims, or any other status symbols.

[TransformX]

Now you're making fun of bling bling rims.. I'm out of this thread

[FatBastard]

bling-bling rims, or any other status symbols.

Now you're making fun of bling bling rims.. I'm out of this thread

Hey, Bling does serve a purpose http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKF35XegmqQ

[Fluff]

I think the best value hi end CD player would probably be.

Tascam CD-601MKII Broadcast Cd player

http://www.tascam.com/details;8,23,14.html

It has wordclock input. And a headphone output.

I have never heard it though.

[Fluff]

FYI Linn records are offering Studio Quality FLAC downloads @ 24/96 which rocks + Foobar and ASIO output.

http://www.linnrecords.com/recording-he-never-mentioned-love.aspx

Think how many recordings you could buy for the price of that belt drive cd player.

[Technoid]

Spoken like a man who never used windows 3.11 (my skin crawls just thinking about it). you know what? even windows 95 (3 reboots a day, countless hours of work lost because the damn thing kept freezing). when you accidentally disconnect a network cable, the entire thing blue screens.

That was the cabling fault more than the OS, since it bloody well happened on any OS when you used Coax cabled nics!

False advertising: Bill gates says you'll never need more then 640K of memory. a few years later people who payed 3k$ for a 640k "future proof" PC (prices then) find out its useless, because gate's company releases more demanding software.

Sure I dislike Bill Gates cause he's a lying, stealing corporate ****ole, BUT I think we have to put the blame on IBM that designed the IBM PC

[az]

False advertising: Bill gates says you'll never need more then 640K of memory. a few years later people who payed 3k$ for a 640k "future proof" PC (prices then) find out its useless, because gate's company releases more demanding software.

He never said that: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_Gates

[FatBastard]

Wiki does not say he never said that. It says he denied making this remark. That people actually believe him and the likes of him (Steve Jobs), only proves my point that the PC buyers market is incredibly gullible.

[Brian Ellis]

Interestingly, snopes.com keep very quiet on the matter: if it were urban legend, I would have thought that they would have said so.

[az]

It's impossible to prove he never said it, but that there's no proof of him ever saying that (or even only people claiming to have witnessed him saying it first hand) should be enough. If he really said that in the public, somebody somewhere would have a record of it.

[FatBastard]

You know something? who cares if he said it or not, since I have little interest in turning yet another audio thread into an alpha male skirmish, I'll concede to it being an urban myth. what matters is the industry's behavior, and the flock of sheep following it. The absolute worst thing that can happen to the software industry is you being happy with your setup.
That is why they keep coming up with crap (ehhh sorry , upgrades ) nobody needs or wants, and forces you to cough up the cash. which people do (with a certain level of lip service protest).

software companies to consumers:
Yes, We know you are happy with your current OS (win xp SP 2).
Yes, we know you are happy with your graphics card.
Yes, our new game is going to require DX10, no backward computability.
NO, we are not going to release DX10 for Win XP.
NO, there is no technical reason why.
Yes, you are going to need to spend 110 Euro for vista (you can't buy OEM license for an old PC). of course you are more then welcomed to buy a new box altogether. buts it's worth it. you are a wise consumer, not like those stupid HiFi consumers. good luck.