February Edition: 2008

                        

 

Get your fix of older links posted on Cdnav.com

March 31st    March is toast: bring on April I say!  Time-change be damned, spring never seems 'real' till' April swings on bye.  I guess its because - here in the Okanagan at least, our local ski hills close in late March / early April, and no-skiing means spring has sprung!  Speaking of which; our 'local hill', Apex Resort, closed this afternoon, bummer, but if it means biking / hiking/ kayaking / camping - well, to hell with it and onward ho!  I rode the living shit outta' Apex this winter, squeezed every bit of powder I could out of the old mountain - it was all good and I've no regrets!  Lets celebrate the one and only (ever) April, 2008 with Sera Cahoone - Only As The day Is Long.  MP3 courtesy of SubPop Records.  Hint: SubPop isn't known for leaving the free downloads up and in place for too long - if you dig this track (do give it a few listens), then download and save it locally now.

March 31st    When I was a but a wee lad, there was nothing I loved more than cranking up a little (ok, a lot), of classic rock and heavy metal!  One of the bands that I was weaned on came screaming out of Toronto, calling themselves Anvil (ya, kinda' like Advil - the thing your mom reached for every time you cranked the shit outta' Anvil on your system) :-)  Anvil, it appears, now has a documentary!  Now, I can't say I'm a big fan of a lot of their work, I've always been extremely selective about metal; but I offer that their Metal On Metal LP was one of the benchmarks of heavy metal back in the day - and still stands as such.  If you're a 'closet metal-head', give a listen to 1982's 'Mothra' on YouTube for an ear-full of what I'm talking' about here.  Sure, its classic shitty quality 'YouTube', but crank it nonetheless - then buy the CD or LP today - its a mind-blower - the whole freakin' album rocks that hard!

March 31st    Gary Krakow | You're full of shit...  Where the hell did The Street.com find this fucking guy; and who on-staff was stupid enough to actually pay him to type out the absolutely full-of-shit article titled "New Fuse Makes Stereos Sound Fantastic"?  Give me a 767-sized break!  This fellow missed his calling - he should have been a politician...  Hey Gary, I don't suppose you'd like to whip up a couple of lossless files: a before / after - standard-fuse / bullshit-fuse - for us to audition for ourselves would ya'?

March 31st    Lets face it; no matter how much belly-aching we as honest audiophiles do online, in forums / blogs etc., there isn't much we are gonna get done about the blatant fraud which blackens our hobby; aside from perhaps educating the occasional 'audiophile in bloom' before he gets sucked in by the pervasive bullshit.  We really need to strongly encourage non-governmental organizations, marketing watch-dog groups as well as federal and provincial governments to step-up and implementation intelligent, science-based standards on the industry's marketing practices.  Last week I suggested that we contact British Columbia's Competition Bureau - a good start - but we also need to contact similar bureaus across Canada, urging them to address the insane fiasco that we are currently enveloped in.  Today I'm supplying you with the address of CBC's Marketplace Story Suggestion www site.  Please contact them via the email address within that link and request that they look into audiophile voodoo products.  Since they've already covered HDMI cables earlier (Packing The Deal - Feb. 20th), we might suggest that they next look into power-cords or speaker wire (?).  An article from Marketplace or MythBusters is a stepping-stone in the right direction, generating media attention and momentum towards a binding federal marketing legislation.  I've previously spoken with Canada's Nation Research Council and they've informed me that after looking into 'special-cables', they've chosen to employ common twin-lead 'lamp-cord' for their loudspeaker evaluations.  I would dearly love to witness the eventual implementation of a federal "Integrity In Marketing" framework, based in part on input from the NRC in cooperation with Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.  I suggest that such a design wouldn't appear overnight, but its certainly the rough outlines of a goal which is attainable in the long run.  PS: did you know that there's a MythBusters Forum?  Check it out and be sure to mention the crap that so many are attempting to shove down throats in the audiophile arena!

March 31st    What's new and exciting in the world of gadgets?  How about a little gizmo that acts as a portable DVD player one minute, and doubles as a digital picture-frame the next?  LG's new DP392 is just the ticket!

March 31st    Well, that's it for me today - time to get some shuteye and rest these snow-boarder's legs that I've so intently abused all weekend!  Tune into Old Man River - Sunshine as you ready yourself for what Monday has in store for you.  MP3 courtesy of SXSW and Ohad Rein.

March 28th    Allrighty-then, it looks like I've honed this practice of working short work-weeks to a science of sorts ~ Friday is here already!  Lets celebrate with crankage of Nakia & His Southern Cousins - Playing The Cards.  This taste of white-boy-soul is brought to you care of the band and SXSW.  Check out the man and his band on their website.

March 28th    In case some of you are wondering what to see on your fancy big-screen TVs / surround-sound systems this weekend - take a look at PopCrunch.com's 50 Movies That All Guys Should See Before They Die - A Modern Guide.  Can't say that I'm a fan of every one of those chosen; but I'll suggest that they've hit the nail on about 75% of em'.

March 28th    By now, many of you have read the interesting media clip wherein the Marketing Standards Authority in the UK have weighed in on Russ Andrew's bogus marketing claims about their 'high-end' products.  This so moved me that I've contacted several Canadian marketing watchdog groups, including the Competition Bureau Of Canada and inquired about shady marketing practices here in Canada.  Its been less than 24 hours since I contacted them - will let you know their response.  In the mean time, I thought I'd provide easy access to their contact website in order that you may also voice your anger over idiotic audiofool marketing practices here in Canada.  Its only a matter of time before the utterly out of control lying that is soiling out hobby gets quashed; I suggest we hasten its inevitable arrival...

March 28th    More on the "Buy your Blu-ray player from us" marketing-gig: Best Buy Canada is following suit with Future Shop’s move last week to give something back to consumers who recently purchased an HD DVD player. But rather than offer a trade-in program as Future Shop is doing, Best Buy is providing a $50 gift card to customers who purchased an HD DVD player from the retailer since January 1, 2007.

March 28th    There sure is a lot of yammering about HDTV to be found on the Net', but much of it is piecemeal or thoroughly laced with techno-jargon.  Kevin Baggs puts it down in plain English on his 'Innovation' website / blog.  Check out 'HDTV Explained' for the lowdown.

March 28th    Since I drag miles of the stuff through homes and offices every day, I was tickled to find this article on CAT5e in a recent online edition of Sound & Vision magazine (formerly the magazine we all grew up with: Stereo Review).  Their article 'The Little Cable that Can' provides a brief overview on the topic.  I employ CAT5e in the shop for the smaller speakers in my office hi-fi system as well ,and swear by it as a cost-effective solution.  The stuff is extremely flexible, easy to hide and stunningly cheap; under a hundred bucks for a thousand foot spool!  Check out your local electrical-industrial supply house for a box today!.

March 28th    Those of you employing a PS3 for your Blu-ray duties will be interested to learn that Sony has just released a 'Profile 2.0' update, offering Blu-ray Disc Profile 2.0 support, mosquito noise reduction and “resume play” along with an improved internet browser.  Read (and view) all about it.

March 28th    Count on good old PBS "the last / best hope for broadcast documentaries", to lay it on the line and cut through the crap of the current American administration like few have done before.  Spend some time with their free, online documentary Bush's War.  Note that you can run the videos full-screen on most decently-powered PCs.

March 28th    Ok, that's it for another week of Cdnav.com.  Get out there and enjoy the spring weather, come home and pour a drink, then crank up a little bit O' Mark Mallman - Death Wish.  Tell me this doesn't just flash ya' back to mid-80's classic rock!  More info' on Mark can be gleaned on his website.  MP3 compliments of M.M.  I don't know what it is that I dig so much on this track, perhaps its the nostalgia, or maybe its the mix of rock and roll and piano...

March 28th    One last note: not even really A/V related, more along the lines of my job-description / hobby.  I just received an email from Tiger-Direct.  I've dealt with T.D. on several occasions in the past, their shipping is dead-dog-slow, but their pricing is jaw-droppingly low.  They are offering a 'bare-bones' PC kit for an astoundingly cheap $190.00 plus shipping and tax.  The details of which are laid out on this site.  If you add a free copy of the excellent / open-source Ubuntu operating system and a whack of free, open-source software such as Open Office, along with a cheap LCD monitor or the old CRT that you have tucked away in the basement / garage - Damn man, that's some cheap PC power!  PS: check out SourceForge for a massive collection of open-source software - its a great repository of O.S.S.

March 26th    Been a few days then hasn't it!?  Well, I've been playing hokey from everything work and 'online' related as the snow has been falling from the sky by the megaton in the mountains!  Apex Resort is set to close in a scant six days, so my priorities have been to spend as much time up there as possible before the inevitable end of the ski / boarding season.  What a shame that they are closing so early this year as conditions couldn't be better.  At any rate, nuff' about me being a slack-ass ski-bum, lets kick off the (now shortened) workweek with a slab of Ian Moore - House Up On The Hill.  I first came to love Ian's music when I heard his amazing track Muddy Jesus years back.

March 26st   Further mental compass reorientation for British Columbia's Island population of audiofools: Long & McQuade is offering a six-week 'Recording Fundamentals' course at the Victoria Music Education Center this March 29th. Those who wish to learn how depth and acoustic perception is accomplished can forget about shoving wooden cutting boards under their CD players and amplifiers, swapping cables and wall-plugs as well as any number of idiotic 'tweaks'. Also, check out their many other clinics being offered across Canada.

March 26st    The 'big delay' in posting you see on the site is due to modifications to the server I host on - they've screwed up their Microsoft Front Page 'Server Extensions' in such a way that I am no longer able to use FrontPage or Microsoft Expression to create the 3x-weekly posts... these few interm posts will be via my old DreamWeaver app', so some items might not work as they normally would. As with most things from NetFirms - this means "we have no idea what's wrong, it'll just start working miraculously out of the blue one day soon..." For those audiofools who read my missives and still don't' think that its possible for them to be deceived by the marking departments at their favorite A/V hardware suppliers; allow fellow Canadian Bill Nye ('The Science Guy'), to demonstrate how incredibly easy it is to deceive this human brain of ours, even with something as accurate as the vision system: Illusions

March 26st    Continuing right along with the "hammering away at audiofools" theme :-) I stumbled upon a fun little page online this week titled "Can You Hear The Difference". Some cat has set up an easy to use 128Kb/s vs. 320Kb/s MP3 audition page for our listening / educational pleasure. Its simple; play one clip, then the other - which is closer to "high-fidelity"? Now, don't get me wrong, there sure are differences and you'll hear them with a nice sound card and headphones / speakers, bit isn't it astounding how close the 'sound' is at first glance. I mean, shit man - in the 128Kb/s clip - over 90% of the original signals potential bandwidth is simply not available - and yet the clip is audibly intact to a remarkable degree! No matter how many times I contemplate the scenario, it still amazes me! And the 320Kb/s clip; it sounds great! Another great thing about this little audition is that folks are actually out there, putting up online auditions! I think its admirable and to be applauded! One of the simple lessons that went pretty completely unnoticed with my recent RCA and power-cable auditions of lossless .wav files was that each and every person reading the particulars has the capability to participate in their own 'File A vs. File B' auditions in this day and age - and yet, even after thousands upon thousands of readers answered my original posts on multiple discussion forums; none - not one goddamned person - bothered to proceed through the steps required to build their own (insanely simple), sub-hour process themselves! WTF!? Is the entire population of the online audiofool world that lazy or are they all brainwashed sheep, tongues hanging out, eyes glossed over, hanging on every word from A/V manufacturers; I think the answer is obvious...

March 26st    I've always been a fan of AudioHolics, Bob Carver's products and deep bass; put em' all together and what do ya get? A.H.'s review of the Sunfire HRS-12 Powered Subwoofers. $900.00 bucks a pop aint chump change, but then again, chances are you'll never again need to plop down for another set of subwoofers in your lifetime...

March 26st    Ok, thats it for me this fine Tuesday; I've had enough of DreamWeaver's idiosyncrasies for the time being. I'll sign off with a track from Monahans - I run to you.

March 21st    Hadn't intended on posting till' Monday, but this just can't wait; in hope of saving someone else from the biggest waste of two hours and two minutes of their lives;  No Country For Old Men is easily one of the single biggest disappointment of any movie rental I've yet to see.  That puts it 'down there' with some pretty miserable titles.  The acting is 'great'; aside from the fact that all of the characters that you'll recognize, act in exactly the same manner as every other show you've ever seen them in.  The script itself must have been created on a major cocaine binge; many conceptual threads begin, only to be dropped and never again resumed.  The number of 'suspensions of disbelief' / impossible scenarios, tops even the most ludicrous fairytale - simply put; its beyond pathetic.  The gore I can deal with, I've seen much worse outta' Hollywood from any number of flicks.  And the ending...  utterly disappointing in every way possible.  In fact, if you are sadistically inclined enough to even rent it, then for Pete's sake, eject the movie at the half-way point and take it back, because you're gonna' freaking hate the remainder of the flick.  I'll try not to hold back what I thought of it; its fucking shit!  No, sorry: "its complete fucking shit!"  Andrew's rating - 1.5 out of 10

March 19th    Been a busy couple of days!  "Our hockey team" - The Vees, had an even busier week; after leading the first-round of 'Junior A' playoffs three games to one, they found themselves even-up and fighting for their season in a Game 7 just a few short days later!  And what a G7 it was; their competitors, the Vernon Vipers, ice quite a battalion of excellent players and they threw everything but the proverbial kitchen-sink at the Vees in this deciding game - which we luckily won.  Lemme' tell ya' fellas, watching Junior A 'live' is much more satisfying than NHL on TV!  In honor of the absolute grinding effort I witnessed last night, I'm going to lay a couple of massive slabs of heaviness on ya' today: I'll start you off easy and migrate into complete metal-overkill as we move along :-)   Lets kick it off with a head-full of Vancouver's own Black Mountain - Druganaut  MP3 provided by the band and SXSW.  More info' about Black Mountain can be had here.

March 19th    LimeWire, that pirate-ship of the Internet - is going legit!  Yup, they have a BETA site up offering 500,000 DRM-free tracks in MP3 file format, at 256Kb/s.  The site is a little slow at the moment, very BETA, but I look forward to good things from them in the future.  They are offering a number of plans, and your end-price will basically depend on which you enroll in.

March 19th    Many of us spend an exorbitant amount of time in our automobiles, so I guess there's no reason that we shouldn't highlight an A/V discussion forum on the topic; check out Steve Meade Design's discussion group if its mobile audio you're all about!

March 19th    Great picture - so-so sound...  Broadcastroom.com has an excellent article that explores the conundrum of HDTV supplying kick-ass visual signals while only feeding us 'basic' audio signals.  Seeing as most of you reading this site are likely to be audio-geeks, you might find the subject worth a look, I did.

March 19th    Portable MP3 players are pretty cool, but they have a down-side: you generally cannot share the tunes with your friends unless you have an external device of some sort to plug into them.  Enter the Creative Labs 'Zen Stone'.  Dirt-cheap, available in multiple-colors, and able to play a variety of popular digital music file formats, this might be the answer to those times when you wanna' rock out with the boyz' but aren't keen to, or don't have the option of, plugging into an external amplifier / speakers.

March 19th    Just so you, my fellow Canucks, are up to speed with what the Canadian Private Copying Collective has up their sleeves for the 2008 / 2009 'recording season' :-), roll an eyeball over their draft titled Proposed Tariff 08/09. 

March 19th    Always one to put music ahead of insane audiofool idiocy, I bring you the unique Musicovery.com.  Like so may other 'floating-cloud' music discovery sites, Musicovery brings you a mind-numbing array of bands, but they've added the additional capability of breaking searches into 'mood', 'era' and 'Genres'.  The audio-quality isn't exactly top-notch, but the way in which it leads off one track and onto another is pretty cool!

March 19th    Those of you who are regular readers know I'm a fan of A/V receivers as the core of a system; they save a lot of space and tangles of wires, 'sound' the same as a set of separates (see our forum for unsighted auditions - damn the audiofools), and allow one to save a pile of cash on a system build.  I've generally leaned towards what Pioneer has released as they offer killer bang-for-the-buck, but recently I was shown a killer product / deal from Yamaha, and thought I should point it out to my readers.  The V663 offers all of the recent-market bells and whistles, and is available for under $500.00 online (a hair over $400.00, new-in-box on eBay).  Check it out.

March 19th    At the outset I promised you an ass-kickin', eye-ball shaking onslaught of metal; true to my word, crank the living bejesus outta' Mitra - Crucifixed  -  Free and legal MP3 supplied by the band and SXSW.  This is one that'll scare your mamma folks: SlugMag has an interesting review of the LP its taken from, I quote:

"Here’s a chronological recap of what happened when I first listened to All Gods Kill.  I was a decent person.  I opened this CD, I put in the CD player, and I instantly became evil.  This is the sort of album that has the capacity to turn any good Christian into an unadulterated axe murderer.  The album is blues-tinged, southern rooted, stripped down, no-nonsense hard rock at its best.  It makes Metallica look like a bunch of pussies and your average speed metal gods look like pretentious poseurs.  If you are familiar with (REO) Speedealer or Billyclub, the alma mater of the members of Mitra, you may begin to know what you are getting yourself into.  Frontman Kurt Grayson’s voice is used like an instrument (Iggy Pop would be proud), the versatility of which is evident throughout the 13-song album, and showcased on “Crucified”, transitioning from husky wallows to ear piercing screams.  The rhythm section, provided by Mark Her and Harden Harrison (both ex Speedealer), runs like a never faltering, well greased machine gun.  This album proceeds without so much as a moment for the listener to breath.  Each track progresses from the previous relentlessly.  I will be the first to admit that I am a pansy, but listening to this album is certainly an exercise in stamina, and a much-recommended one at that". – Brady Gunnell 

Have a great short-workweek folks, live it up to the max!  Oh, hey; while we're on the subject of heaviness - if you're of the metal persuasion, do your overtaxed brain a favour and get yourself a copy of Tool's Aenima LP - specifically the title track - which should definitely go down as one of the Top 10 best metal tunes ever written!

March 16th    Welcome back to the workweek my unknown friends!  Just think, in four short days, it'll all be over :-)   Yup, its a short work-week due to the apparent death and rebirth of the god-dude that everyone's so adamant about.  Lets celebrate this festive event with a track from fellow Canuck, Daniel Lanois - Here Is What Is.  Free 192Kb/s MP3 compliments of Daniel and SXSW.  This one takes a few listens, but its one of those tracks that really grows on ya', its definitely one of my current rotation faves'.  More information on the man can be found on his www site.

March 16th    Being a huge fan of live shows, music and the Whistler Valley, you can imagine how tickled bloody pink I was to learn about a new mass-concert being held in Pemberton this summer - July 25th - 27th!  I could blabber on and on, repeating what the promoters have in store for us, or I could just point you to information on the Canada.com web site.  Afterwards, visit the Pemberton Festival Homepage for further details.

March 16th    In my daily work as a PC technician, I see a wholesale move away from classic metal-box workstations, towards laptops.  For the audiophile; this has always meant a compromise in A/V quality; until now.  Acer has just released a new series of absolutely kick-ass laptops for the North American market, check out the 8920G (16" LCD) and 6920G (18" LCD) on their website.  High-definition, wide-screen visuals compliments of onboard Blu-Ray, Dual 320 gigabyte drives, Direct-X 10, the full compliment of Dolby surround-sound modes and 5.1 speaker system (onboard sub!), 4-Gigs of RAM and a whole lot more; ya', on a bloody laptop!  I see my next PC folks...

March 16th    Whew!  I know a whopper when I see one, and this my friends, must rate as a Burger King special!  I was reading a forum the other day, the discussion was regarding power-cables (see blurb below), and one chap asked an open question: "where can I read technical reasons why power cables might make a difference in an audio reproduction chain"?  Some deluded bugger answers him by pointing the fellow to a commercial site run by the Van Den Hul company.  As far as I knew, VDH was involved in record stylus design and implementation.  Apparently the management clued into the fact that cables had a far greater potential for revenue generation than the stylus market.  As such, they've rolled out a collection of cables that put the much-maligned Monster Cable Corporation to shame.  They've also come up with a document or two describing the cable-gospel according to one A.J. Van Den Hul himself.

Lemme' give you a sample of these words of wisdom:  A (hypothetical) fellow asks a (made-up) question "When I listen to my hi-fi set, I hear everything, but there is no depth and imaging in the sound picture. What to do?"  Mr. A.J.V.D.H tells the (make-believe) chap that he should get better cables and treat the ends with V.D.H's 'The Solution' chemical (a pittance at $58.00 for a 25cc bottle) !.  Did Mr. V.D.H. consider the lad's room, his speaker placement, source material?  Nope, fancy cables and magic solution in a bottle is always the best bet to pad one's bottom line, er, I mean, to 'magically fix imaging...'  What a crock of shit!  If you have the stomach for it, or just enjoy a good comedy now and again, check out the incredibly long list of misinformation that can be had on V.D.H's F.A.Q. 'paper'.  Or, print it out and use it to wipe your butt, either way, it's about the same value...

March 16th    American Heritage has an interesting article on a legend in the music business which many of you may find interesting (from 1949 to 1953, Hank had 34 consecutive hit singles - 32 hitting the top ten and 11 going to number 1).  Titled "The Miserable Life, Death and Immortality of Hank Williams", David Rapp succinctly sums up the man and his music in an entertaining read.  Pour a drink and kick back with the article.  For those of you uninitiated with the legend; Honky Tonk Blues.  Oh, and by the way, have a Happy Saint Paddy's Day! and perhaps learn about the origins of the traditions behind it.

March 16th    That's it for a Monday morning post boyz', head off to work with your hearts set on Thursday; reach down and crank up some Lucero - The Mountain  (that's some classic rock!).  MP3 courtesy of SXSW and the band.

March 15th    One of those oh-so-rare weekend posts:  I'm kicking back, relaxing, sipping on a nice cool Nelson 'After Dark' (organic!), beer, recovering from a long day of boarding the hell outta' Apex Mt.  We received quite a decent little dump of snow last night - today was a 'real beauty'.  Some thoughts: I've posted the Power Cable  Comparison 'Take II' on a number of audiophile forums in the past few days, and have had nothing but grins and solemn shaking of my head as I watch the responses (Head-Fi appears, thus far, to be an exception).  Most appear to be stunned that someone would have the audacity to post such an evaluation in the first place :-).  the rest are scrambling to determine which component of the system used "doesn't have enough resolution" so that they can pick it apart - without having actually ever heard, owned or even seen it before I might add.

In my replies to them, I've repeatedly requested that the folks who are in disbelief simply conduct the same type of evaluation themselves (peer-review is the best way to form conclusions on differences of opinion of this nature).  Of the hundreds of terse / mocking answers I've received net-wide thus far, not a single person has offered to conduct a similar evaluation with their own hardware / software.  Instead, they've wasted countless hours attempting to poke holes in the hardware I employed and the methods I used, eternally navigating around the simple solution: try it yourself!  Oddly, they'd rather piss away hour after hour, conjuring up pointless arguments about how and why this 'cannot possibly be true'.  I used to think that the hobby was populated by adult males with better than average educations and a desire for real knowledge; over time however, I am tending to believe that its simply a horde of folks with an excess of ego and no interest in actually learning anything that might conflict with their fantasies of reality.

Its really sad that so many people in our hobby are actively willing to be manipulated by marketing con-men and don't have the balls to figure out simple concepts for themselves.  I know, I know - I've was told time and time again by my peers that asking audiophiles to conduct logical evaluations themselves was a lost-cause, but I have persevered.  I can only hope that some day I'll get one or two of them riled up enough that they'll actually get off their asses and conduct investigations / comparisons unsighted, and then, lo-and-behold, they'll finally 'get it'...  Until then, I need another beer...  Here's some Classic Canadian 'soft-rock' - Blue Rodeo - This Town (MP3 compliments of SXSW and the band)

March 14th    Finally | Friday!  Not too much left of the ski season lads, be sure to get off the couch and head for the hills cause the rains are coming and the flowers are bloomin'.  Saw tulips in the neighbour's front yard a couple of days ago!  So, what to listen to this fine Friday?  Clean that ball of wax outta' your ear and crank up Hymns - I Can't Be What You Want.  More about the band and a decent stream of other Hymn tunes can be had on their www site.

March 14th    Just what the mad-scientist ordered: Yet another Audio Forum; LowYat.net!  Check out how the craziness has affected Malaysia (English-language) - Just so you won't be left thinking that its just us over-ego'd, overfed, spoilt little bastard North Americans who have flipped our collective lids.

March 14th    Found a pretty spiffy, albeit somewhat pricy, workaround for 'the power-strip blues'.  You know the one - outboard power-blocks that hog all of the room on your power-strip, disallowing you from plugging in further components because the plugs are blocked by adjacent devices.  The Tributaries T-12 has an ingenious workaround for this problem: pivoting plugs!

March 14th    Most of us 'audiophiles' never get a chance to see 'the other side of the mixing board'.  I've always maintained that the 'air' / 'feel' / 'depth' and other assorted audiofool lingo used to describe a system's sound is actually held in the room's acoustics, speaker placement and the actual source material's mix / mastering - not some new amplification-stage / design-of-the-week from yet another bullshit 'high-end' audio manufacturer.  Lend an eyeball to a behind the scenes look at the world of Grammy-Award winning mix master Bruce Miller (Miles Davis, Yes, Mariah Carey, White Stripes, Lost Boyz, Dave Matthews, Canibus, Luther Vandross, Whitney Houston, and many more).  You might even wish to sigh-up with the free online BAM Audio School while you're there.

March 14th    Cut to a rocking track: Band Of Thieves - Woman.  I would like to link directly to the full track as I usually do, but the band hasn't made it available and I've yet to hear back from them.  As such, I point you to their homepage which features an auto-play Flash-script which begins streaming the rocking tune Woman as soon as you land on their site.  For the record; the tune is now stored in your 'Internet Cache' folder...  This is great, old-school, straight-ahead Rock N Roll - I dig it!

March 14th    What would a workweek be without yet another article to set audiofools strait!?  This one comes care of the lads at Audioholics.  Several years ago they sat down with respected loudspeaker manufacturer Jim Thiel to talk cables and speakers.  The conversation leans heavily on cable in this particular case however, and surprisingly, underscores a severe lack of understanding on the part of Jim with regards to the electrical properties of wire.  Be this due to Jim truly believing his own words or spilling out this nonsense for the sake of his deluded clients, I cannot say - this interview however, appears to raise questions on the man's integrity...

March 14th    Russell Smith went off like a firecracker in yesterday's Globe & Mail and I thought he made some great points.  (Snip) The CBC no longer feels there is any point to devoting an entire radio station to the more musically and intellectually complex style of music colloquially, though entirely inappropriately, known as "classical".  Have a look at the entire text on the Globe's online site. 

March 14th    In case you missed the memo: South By South West (SXSW), is on in the States at the moment.  Get an ear-load of the hundreds of bands via their Online Music Player.  You can just let it go and have a taste of the mind-boggling array of tuneage, or you can 'Fast-Forward' through the many featured artists - your choice.  If you have the patience to go through the entire list (good luck on that one), and find some outstanding bands, let me know and I'll post em' here for all to enjoy!

March 14th    Ok cats, that's it for me this week - Here's hoping you have a blast over the weekend - and remember, life is freakishly short, get out there and have an ass-kicking good time cause you never know when its your time to be worm-food...  (Seriously, two business associates from completely different walks of life died on us here in town this past week.  Both were in great shape, one 50ish the other early 60s.  Both of them 'left the rock' through different means, one on Monday, the other Thursday).  The moral of the story - don't sit around and moan - get yer' asses outside and do some fun shit man!  Oh, and crank the living shit outta' this track just for good measure: Matt King - Shanty Town  (MP3 compliments of the band).  This one will appeal to fans of off-beat punk-esq stuff along the lines of the Butthole Surfers.

March 13th    Ok, so once in a while I just 'throw stuff up here, A/V related or not - cause' I get a kick out of it'.  Flickrvision is one such post.  Those of you with a photography fetish are gonna' dig it - mouse-over the images and leave you mouse in place, as all further images will take on the effect...

March 12th    Think it'll be a short post today boyz', been traveling a lot of late and am kinda' tuckered out!  Here's a track that'll be a hit with the little lady; described as "lush indie pop with shimmering melodies, sparkling soundscapes, and beats like a train on a track": Kate Tucker & The Sons Of Sweden - Faster Than Cars Drive reminds me very much of something else, but I can't quite put a finger on it...  MP3 compliments of the band and Starbucks Records (perhaps that's where I've overheard it playing in the background?)

March 12th    The boys over at Home Theater Shack have released the latest version of Room EQ Wizard and its worth checking out!  This powerful, free software application can assist in evening out acoustic issues in your listening room.  All you need is a quality sound-pressure meter, computer and a free membership to the Shack' and off you go to decent-listening-room nirvana!

March 12th    Many of us (me included) are on the lookout for the best bang for the buck in a large 1080p TV.  I stumbled upon this UK-based site the other day and felt that it gave a pretty decent overview of what's available on an ongoing / up-to-date basis.  Check out HDTV News.com's site - I dig it!

March 12th    That's it, I'm outta' here: told ya' it was gonna' be a short one today, I'm damned tired, its late, gotta' go: tune out with this track from the unlikeliest of places: The Republic Of Iran!  Hypernova - Fairytales that don't have happy endings.  This track isn't my usual "I love it" kinda' postings, but it does strike a certain note in me.  At any rate, I post it here to show everyone that Iran isn't just about nasty dudes with funky clothing and oil...  256Kb/s MP3 compliments of the band.

March 11th    An out-of-place, yet curiously interesting post this fine Tuesday; Power-Cable leads - Do they Make An Audible Difference?  Have a listen for yourself here.  If more folks would just take an hour or so to put down something like this - the whole "power-cable-bullshit & lies" thing would fall by the wayside...

March 10th    A little late, but better than never: the 'Monday Afternoon' posts :-) . Had a hell of a great weekend folks: took in Friday's first-round playoff between our Vees and Vernon's Vipers, which we won by a landslide, then off to Revelstoke to check out their new Mt. Mackenzie Ski Resort - which by the way, kicks some serious ass!  If you're into the sport, then by no means do you want to miss a trip out their way - its massive in the Whistler / Blackcomb way, and offers a load of seriously cool terrain - with hundreds of square kilometres of expansion potential.  Lets ease into the workweek with a smooth groove from Frank Smith - Throwin' Rocks.  MP3 compliments of Frank & Ye Old Records.  More info on the band can be had here.

March 10th    Yup, the Internet holds some of the oddest 'stuff'...  This falls into the "Whatever happened to..." category: Defunct Companies - a directory of A/V companies that fell by the wayside over the years, along with a brief tidbit about each.

March 10th    I saw mention of American retailers offering up 'deals' for folks who brought their in HD-DVD players to 'upgrade' to Blu-ray decks, but nothing for us Canucks - until today: FutureShop is stepping up and allowing for a $100.00 discount if you bring in the now-defunct HD-DVD format reader and walk away with one of their 'new' multi-format decks from LG or Samsung.

March 10th    Tubes are "warm"?  Transistors are 'Cold"?  Check out this [guitar] amplifier listening evaluation put on by Georgia Technical Institute of Electrical & Computer Engineering titled 'Tubes vs. Transistors in Electric Guitar Amplifiers'.  Adobe PDF, 247Kb.   

March 10th    Many is the audiofool who will tell you that "you cannot set up your own turntable, you'll need a professional to do that" (cough... that would be the same 'professionals' who'll try an' sell you a couple hundred bucks worth of 'upgrades' and cables while in-store).  Well, as usual with these messed-up cats, they're completely wrong!  Wired gives us the obviously titled "How To Set Up a Turntable"

March 10th    Seeing as most of you reading this site are both Audio & Video junkies, I think its only fitting that I post the Official Guide to the Summer of 2008 - a summary of new movies you can look forward to checking out in 08'.

March 10th    Time for another tune don't cha' agree?  Check out Richard Swift's Paisley Park (a little Beetles-ish, no?).  Free MP3 compliments of Proudly Canadian Records.

March 10th    There's this cool cat going by the name of 'StickBoy' who keeps track of 'Classic' Canadian bands on-tour across this kick-ass country of ours, and he actually keeps his lists up to date!  Check out Canadian Classic Rock 2008 - Tour Dates.

March 10th    Everyone's got a 'favourite' old-school / classic bit of audio hardware that, for whatever unfounded reason, they still think is 'the best' of an era.  I for one recall really liking early 80's Luxman hardware - perhaps because it was what I saw hooked up to my then (and still), favourite loudspeakers: Magneplanars, in my local (Winnipeg) hi-fi shop.  Looks like Hans Hilberink has a real bug for Luxman kit as well - so much so that he's build, designed and maintained The Luxman Vintage Audio Website.  Go ahead, marvel at products from yesteryear - and know that the Luxman brand has recently been reawakened in North America.

March 10th    That's it - I'm outta' here!  Here are a couple of pics for ya':  Revelstoke Mt. and Your Wandering Editor - damned happy to be in the mountains!

March 7th    Did that week fly bye or what!?  I believe that it was made all that much easier by skipping out on Wednesday to go boarding in the mountains; as such, I'll have to work on skipping out on work more often!  What are we listening to this fine Friday?  I've heard an awful lot of good chat about The Band Of Heathens, but never took time out to get an earful - definitely 'My Bad' cause' these cats rock out old-school, think The Band / Little Feat / Townes Van Zandt and you get the picture - or just have a listen to Jackson Station; I'm sure you'll dig it and reach for the volume!  MP3 courtesy of the band.  More info' here.

March 7th    There are a few great loudspeakers designs that get short-shift in today's audiophile community: The Transmission-Line Loudspeaker model is one of them.  Robert Allen Robinson set out to dispel unfounded notions and present a comprehensive dissertation on the topic as he worked his way towards a Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering degree in 2007, at the Georgia Institute Of Technology.  Enjoy his articulate manner and well written prose here.  (Adobe PDF formatted document, 2.12 megabytes)

March 7th    That didn't take long: Lite-On and Phillips have released the first external Blu-ray drive for public consumption.  You can also purchase an internal version at a pretty decent price of $150.00.  If you're not an 'early-adopter', wait a few months and you'll start to see price erosion left, right and center on this product genera as discussed in this link where Sony executives suggest that stereo players will continually drop in price.

March 7th    There are few cats publishing independently on the Web' who's missives I place any stock in; Seth Godin is one of them.  His recent presentation to the industry, titled 'On The Future Of The Music Business' is a good read that I think many of you will find worth your time.  I agree with pretty much all of it, and in fact see this site as a component of the 'Tribe'.  Check it out (Adobe PDF formatted document, 191Kb).

March 7th    You poor frozen bastards in Winnipeg: Rejoice, there are a shipload of excellent bands making their way through your fine city over the next few weeks!  Steve Earl at the Burton Cummings Theatre on the March 10th, Lenny Kravitz at the MTS Centre on the 17th, Black Mountain & Ladyhawk at the Pyramid on the 27th and Rascal Flatts at the MTS Center on the 28th.  Hell man, those are only a few of the dozens of great acts that you should be getting off your "sitting in front of the TV on our frozen asses" and going down to see!  Check out our Jam Concert Listings link to get all the details on who is where across this fine country of ours!

March 7th    That's it for me this week boyz'.  I have, as usual, a stack of paperwork awaiting my attention, and I can only procrastinate so long before I have to break down and acknowledge that dammed stuff!  Have a freaking fantastic weekend and crank up some Luke Doucet and the White Falcon - Blood's Too Rich to get your feet tappin'!  (Free & Legal MP3 compliments of Luke and SWSW.

March 5th    Lets just kick into this right off the bat shall we: Crank the living shit outta' a track from Company : The Sad Businessman.  A little discordant near the end, guess they're experimenting with the folk genera.  More info' on the band here - track compliments of the band and Jag Jaguwar Records.  Update: The more I listen to this track, the more I dig it!  Give it a virtual 'spin' and you'll see what I mean.

March 5th    Time for a little more 'ler-nun': Check out the excellent Audio Express article 'How Horns Work'.  Leave it to the backbone of the D.I.Y. A/V industry to bring us yet another excellent essay on loudspeakers.  It supplies one with 'everything you ever wanted to know about horns' and a whole lot more that you hadn't even considered!  (725Kb - Adobe PDF File)

March 5th    Mentally insulted by what I read on the vast majority of A/V forums, I've been turning back from whence I came: Computer Forums.  Many of them discuss A/V a great deal, but the majority of the discussions are limited to that great unknown in the audiophile field: reality.  'Computer geeks' like myself are firmly rooted in factual realities, a spin-off of our stock and trade where 'everything has a reason and there's a reason for everything'.  All facets of our industry can be measured and contrasted, which leaves absolutely no room for snake-oil salesmen and shysters.  For those of you who aren't familiar with my Baptized in Fire stance on truth, respect and integrity; this is where I came from.  Check out hardforum for a taste of what I mean.  Afterward, click on over to The Register (pretty-much my all-time favourite), for a taste of intelligent tech-humour in spades, with a dollop of UK flavour.  What the hell does this have to do with A/V?, everything: didn't ya' read what I recently postulated?  "A/V and computer technology are forever linked from this generation forward".  Secondly, the core-logic | utterly definable approach that software engineers must take with their trade, forces them to be rational about the whole - if only audiophiles were on the same wavelength...

March 5th    Those of you daring enough to have ventured into the forums section will have no-doubt already seen what I refer to as "Great Coat-hanger Caper" link.  Several years ago, an educated lad was so cheeky as to see if his audiophile friends would be able to discern the difference between 'audiophile' speaker wire and... straightened cloths-hangers!  For the rest of you; here is yet another chance for you to see what happens when folks actually set their minds to finding the truth, hidden among the weeds of today's A/V hobby.  A "don't miss it" kinda' read!  As always, I strongly encourage you to conduct unsighted auditions yourself, and if you are so inclined, let me know and I'll publish the results here so that others may attempt to replicate your work.

March 5th    Extended Warranties: Buy or Avoid?  Electronic House has food for thought on their site with regards to one of the biggest conundrums facing the prospective electronics consumer.

March 5th    Another short one today boyz',  I'll leave you with a mellow little ditty by Lightning Dust | Listened On  This very much reminds me of something a 'female Curt Cobain' would crank out, mellow, but I dig it!

March 3rd    Now wasn't that a bloody great weekend?!  I was able to both ride my Mt. Bike down here in the valley as well as snowboard the living shit outta' my legs in the mountains!  British Columbia kicks some serious ass folks - we rarely get the asinine cold weather of the prairies, or the insane moisture levels of the East Coast - and we very often experience the 'dual-climate' phenomenon where its spring in the valleys and winter in the mountains!  Attended a party at a local band's home Saturday night at Apex Resort, met a load of extremely cool people. listened to a shitload of live music and discovered that I'm not half-bad at poker!  Played 'dealers call' for a few hours, and while I didn't make a pot of cash, neither did I walk away with less than what I sat down with!  Nuff' about me, lets celebrate the one and only March 3rd, 2008 with a dose of Alabama3 and their track - Woke Up This Morning.  Kinda' like soul/funk, I understand that this track has been featured on The Sopranos, Gone In 60-Seconds, A Life Less Ordinary and The Simpsons.  I've actually never heard it before, but its hits a certain funky note for me so I thought I'd share it with ya'.  MP3 compliments of the band and SXSW.

March 3rd    Who among us hasn't wondered to themselves as they listened to a particularly complex tune: "what was it the artist was trying to say here?".  Check out SongFacts and get the lowdown.  This site has a lot of different 'stuff' on it, more than enough in fact to keep one occupied for hours...

March 3rd    Into Vinyl LPs in a big way?  Then you're not gonna' want to miss The Vinyl Tourist.  This cat has put together a pretty comprehensive site that touches on five different categories: Journeys, a region-by-region guide to retail and other sources.  Discographies & Biographies, a (reasonably) complete listing of the work and history of some of the Tourist's favorite artists.  Good Sound, an introduction to better quality home play-back equipment, including specific recommendations for turntables and phono cartridges, plus tips on record cleaning and storage.  Mini FAQ, quick tips for finding albums and valuing or selling your collection.  "Have You Seen This Record?," the VT's personal Want List.  Some of his sub-links lead into 'audiofool' sites, but for the most part, the cat seems to have it together.  One of the aforementioned sub-links I found interesting, is the Canadian Antique Phonograph Society site.

March 3rd    Did you folks know that we actually have a Canadian car company?  Its called the 'Zenn Car', and fellow Canadian Rick Mercer has a great little clip on YouTube that you should definitely watch!  Support your fellow-Canucks!  (Obviously not A/V -related, but I like to throw in eco-stuff that I deem 'cool'!)

March 3rd    Well, that's it for me today, short post, but I have company paperwork to deal with as usual and need to get that shit outta' the way.  I'll leave you in Wolfgang's Vault - make the best of your time there lads, the place is chalk-full of music from every walk of life!  Go ahead and sign-up, the username / password you need can be had with any old made-up email address you want... (they don't send "confirmation emails" as do so many sites).

March 3rd    One last post; quite a while back I introduced you to a 'bar-band' called Amplified Heat and their track Heart Attack.  Its raw, mean and lowdown rock and roll - kinda' what Lemme & Filthy Phil might be part of...  I just happened upon the companion video to the track and thought I would share it with ya'.  The small .wmv flick isn't any better than the MP3 fidelity-wise, but it does capture the band in full flight!  Imagine how jacked up these guys would get ya' live after a few drinks, while on a night-out with the boyz'.

Feb 29th    So that's it for February, 2008 - there won't ever be another one, so make the most of it lads!  Never one to shy away from the completely bizarre; I bring you Mr. Lewis & The Funeral 5 - My Girl, Suicide - Free MP3 compliments of the band (favorite line: "And all the prostitutes are gussied up for church" :-)  More info' about the band can be had on their MySpace page.

Feb 29th    ASUS is kicking ass and taking no prisoners in the PC-based A/V arena!  I run some of their kit (Xonar PCI internal), and can vouch for the equipment's clean throughput and flexible interfaces - now it looks as though they are taking the Xonar core and building a whole lot more onto it in order to satisfy the video (HDMI) crowd as well.

Feb 29th    I was gonna' let you off easy, what, with this being the last day of the month, plus a weekend and all - but said "fuck that weak shit" and dumped this "pocket-protectors for dummies" article on ya instead.  Conversion: Issues In Hearing, Sampling, Quantization and Implementation - by James D. Johnson, Microsoft Corp. Audio Architect.   Its based on an in-browser Microsoft PowerPoint document.  I don't think that you'll be able to read it with out either Microsoft PowerPoint installed or Microsoft's free PowerPoint Viewer, available here.  This AES document offers honest and factual insights into digital audio technology that you'll rarely get from online discussion forums.  The slide-show is long at 79 pages, but the font is very large and there is little text on each page.  Thanks to the boyz' at Hydrogen Audio Forum for a tip-off to this document.

Feb 29th    Shit man, did you finish all that reading?!  If so, reward yourself with a listen to Batteries' track Childproof  Free MP3 compliments of the band.

Feb 29th    A few days ago I pointed you to an excellent article in which the Canadian program Marketplace thoroughly debunked the expensive HDMI cable myth.   They've recently posted another excellent article titled How does a stadium concert sell out in seven minutes?.  I've oftentimes wondered the very same thing.  Ever try to get tickets to a Neil Young show in your favorite city?  Good luck...  The Marketplace article explains this phenomenon and makes suggestions about how to make the best of a bad situation.

Feb 29th    Gee. imagine that: 48% of teenagers bought no CDs at all in 2007, up from 38% in 2006. Music downloads continue to grow, though, with iTunes leading the way.  [Of course, iTunes comprises about 3% of the music actually downloaded over the Internet these days...]

Feb 29th    Lets face it; the future is all about computer > stereo system interfaces.  Move on or get lost in the dust with audiofools who are still convinced that vinyl sounds better than digital audio and Amiga geeks who remain convinced that their archaic 'computers' are superior to what's available today.  Its time to learn How To Build Standalone NAS Systems for house-wide distribution of multimedia content.

Feb 29th    That's it, I'm outta' here for a few days / may or may not make it back for Monday's posts...  Blow out the cobwebs with some seriously heavy Canadian content: The Cancer Bats - French Immersion :-)  If you're a fan of this kinda' heaviness, check out their website.

Feb 27th    Half-way mango'!  Hump-day is upon us and rain is coming to the Wet-Coast!  This can mean only one thing; great boarding & skiing this weekend!  Ya man, celebrate with something that will throw you back to shades of your favorite high-school Queen or Blue Oyster Cult LPs: Bryan Scary & The Shredding Tears Imitation of the Sky (Free MP3 compliments of the band & SXSW)

Feb 27th    I suspect that I have more than a few CSN&Y fans in the ranks of our readership - count me among you!  Happened upon 4-Way-Site the other day; it hosts what I suspect is the largest collection of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young soundboard and live recordings anywhere on the Internet.  Dig in, download, crank it up!  (Note: The actual download sequence is a little quirky, you have to be fairly patient on the last screen... a small, 'No Virus Detected' - Download File link will eventually display ~ after perhaps a minute or so of waiting, using a standard high-speed Internet connection).  I'm listening to Neil's Oct. 2007 Chrome Dreams gig in Spokane, WA as I create today's posts.

Feb 27th    Slap on your pocket-protectors, don your thickest (broken & taped) spectacles and show us your overbite... its geek-out time again!  Time and time again you'll hear audiophiles, audiofools and common-folk (not likely), discussing, ok; arguing... about dynamic range - be it between different masterings of a recording or the same recording on dissimilar mediums (CD vs. LP comes to mind...).  Up to now, there were only a handful of mediocre methods to 'score' the difference in a tangible way.  Richard Tollerton to the rescue with his software application: pfpf.  (I know, funny name, but not much worse than the crazy band names I post here every week!).  Be warned that its installation is not for the faint of heart; a decent level of computer skills are in order here...

Feb 27th    In for a little reading?  Grab a bottle of your favorite and kick back with a copy of Training For Audio-Visual Presentation In Europe's Audio and video carriers Recording principles, storage and handling, maintenance of equipment, format and equipment obsolescence.  This 329Kb Adobe PDF document pretty much covers everything you would ever want to know about the main audio/video storage formats in use today, but were afraid to ask (afraid to ask on an open A/V forum anyway, cause' you'd get the usual demented answers from audiofools...)

Feb 27th    If you're looking for Home Theater In A Box, done right~ check out Yamaha's latest lineup.  Their YHT-Series is available in four different configurations, each affordable ($400.00 to $850.00), and worth checking out.

Feb 27th    Just a short post this evening lads; I'm back to the paperwork piled up to my left; do yourself a favor and check out Canoe's 'Jam Canada' site.  It'll hook ya' up with some rockin' in your hometown or one near you this coming weekend!

Feb 27th    Aw shit, just one more tune maestro!  Lean a tympanic membrane into a little bit of Centro-Matic and their track Triggers & Trash Heaps  Free MP3 courtesy of the band

Feb 25th    Wow, look at the month fly bye!  Spring is just around the corner, lets hope we get a pile more new snow in the mountains to facilitate our ski / board habits before it turns into water and floods the lower mainland again...  What are we rocking to this fine morning - how about some Steve Dawson - At Arms Length.  (MP3 compliments of Black Hen Music),  If you dig Steve's style, check out a few more tracks on his record-company-hosted homepage.

Feb 25th    Now this is a cool marketing idea: Put together a kick-ass system in a properly designed room, spin a few absolutely classic LPs and invite folks in for a free audition!  Any Canadian dealers reading this' take note - free advertising that will get you more word-of-mouth than a half-page ad' in any audio rag!

Feb 25th    Those of us with (old), cassette or reel-to-reel tape-collections may want to take a few moments to read Wendy Carlos's If I Knew You Were Coming I'd Have Baked A Tape! (A Recipe for Tape Restoration).  It'll give you a heads-up on salvaging that old-school music before you inadvertently destroy it during the next playback.

Feb 25th    I continually offer up loads of reading on the site, but realize that my audience might enjoy just sitting back and using their ears to learn once in a while.  Audio-2-U offers a great many podcasts that might interesting for those of you who are into PC/Mac audio editing.  There are about 18-months worth of podcasts available on his site... Nice work!

Feb 25th    Fellow Canuck Jeff Mathurin runs a page called Biline.ca.  I've mentioned his site once before, around the time I started this site, but I feel that his tireless honesty deserves another honorable mention!   Here's a good one; Jeff's 'insider-information' on how hardware manufacturers deal with web-sites that offer favorable reviews of their products: (er; I'm pretty confident that I'll never get one of these friendly offers from cable manufacturers!)

Feb 25th    Excuse me, another what?  Another bloody audio/video forum!?  How can that possibly be?  I mean, shit man, there are so damn many already :-)   Lend an eyeball Lend an eyeball to AVReview.co.uk and let me know if you learn anything that might be of worth to post here.

Feb 26th    Nuff' outta' me this fine Monday, get yer' asses off to work and produce some 'stuff' for the world to consume and then throw into a landfill a short time later... "can't get enough of that consumer shit" (Sung to the tune of the old "Can't get enough of that Sugar Crisp").  In the meantime, reach for the volume and crank up Sweden's Amandine: Secrets (192Kb/s MP3 compliments of the band)  If you get funky with that track, pay a visit to their 'Media' page and click on the five other album covers you see listed under 'Discography'.  It'll allow you to sample tracks from each of these other releases. (Highly recommended)

Feb 22nd    Its Friday baby!  This can only mean...  its high time to commence with incessant goofing off and cranking it up!  I've a whack of tuneage for you today: lets start off with a glass of white for a change shall we.  I've just been 'tipped' with a fine bottle of Sauvignon Blanc - which I'm proceeding to sample the living hell outta'.  For the record; it kicks ass, you might wanna' get some in ya' soon; tonight would be good!  Kick it off with some Yeasayer - 2080  This dreamy little number was posted here early during mid-summer 2007, but since that link is dead, here is a newly revived one; I dig this bit of smooth weirdness just enough to bring it round'  again!  Free MP3 compliments of the band!  Next up, is something a little more mentally challenging; bend your brain around the rather rough chorus in the Kaiser Chief's Oh My God.  Finally, in case you think I've gotten altogether too fucking weird (sorry boys, too late), crank a bit of the recently deceased Willie P. Bennett (R.I.P. Dude), and his track Ballad In Low E (Low bitrate, but it kicks musically!)  All tracks, as always, are free & legal!  There is a good-bit more of Willy's work, unfortunately in similar low-bitrate, here.

Feb 22nd    I've been trading a series of email missives back and forth with the editor of Tone Publications; it seems that he didn't appreciate my recent, albeit brief, summary of his fine publication.  We've come to an agreement; he thinks I'm a grumpy old bugger and I think he's a lying fucker; perhaps we deserve each other :-).   What I cannot seem to get thought to him is this: I want folks in positions of influence in the industry to begin embracing truly open and honest unsighted auditions, and publishing in said manner.  They, on the other hand, feel that I've lost my goddamned marbles if I think they are gonna' actually tell the truth in hardware reviews.  As such; a stalemate...  Its been a long while, so I'll point it out again; if you want to read honest editorials on A/V, look no further than The Audio Critic's back-issues.  If you're new to this site - enjoy, you'll not see this kind of integrity in publishing for, I fear, a long, long time because in this day and age; lies equals revenue.  I guess its safe to assume that $50.00 Gold-plated USB Cable that Tone's editor promised to send me for evaluation / comparison to a $1.99 Value-Village cable a few weeks ago is never gonna' show :-)

Feb 22nd    Its been a while since I laid any 'hardcore science stuff' on ya' - well, 'tonight's the night' (as Neil Young was wont to day).  Boston University's When believing becomes seeing, or how the brain learns to fill in the blanks is visual-centric, but it applies equally, if not more so, to the auditory realm.

Feb 22nd    I'm not sure exactly how this is going to affect us as Canadian users of the tax-payer financed CBC Radio / TV, but it looks like there's been somewhat of a major change in the world of our A/V supplier today: Shakeup at CBC aims to integrate TV, web & radio

Feb 22nd    Time for some funny shit: now I've been a longtime country fan, specifically, the old-school; Johnny cash, Waylon, Willie and such.  My grandma pretty much embedded it in my DNA as a child, what with her spinning endless country records and popping in 8-tracks left, right and center (I think she had a serious crush on Johnny)  However, a recent article caught my eye and made me laugh aloud:  The Effect of Country Music on Suicide (!).  Adobe PDF, 683Kb.  (Ya, I know - there are more than a few audiofools who read this site daily and now wish that I'd take up a full -time diet of country & western - and maybe move to a ranch, preferably one without internet access...)

Feb 22nd    Many of you know that I dig what Monoprice sells in the way of cable.  Well, I discovered another source of A/V cables, at an equally impressive fee-schedule the other day: ShowMeCables.com.  Have a look if you're into purchasing cable with a sane price.

Feb 22nd    Looking for that hard-to-find classic A/V bit?  I happened upon an interesting Canadian site the other day called Ad-Post.  They sport a surprisingly large index of goods for sale, and all of it in Canada as far as I've seen thus far.  Check it out.

Feb 22nd    Oh Hell, why not; its Friday Afterall - another forum comes your way my friends, this time (gasp), they are of the same mindset as myself; that a vast swath of A/V today is complete marketing crap, hoping to vacuum vast sums of money from gullible pockets on-demand!  Witness The Audiophile Of Happy People (what a hilarious title!).  Its French, translated into English - care of AltaVista, but I think you'll get the gist...

Feb 22nd    This is kinda' interesting, if still something that most of us generally consider as 'a future thing': HDTV Magazine (online), has released a 'shootout' between the 'new' Apple TV and VUDU.  Its all about online content delivery and which is best.  This touches on an important fact of life around here; honest, 'show-the-public' overviews of technology.  Fuck this "Its better because I say so, and, um, well, you'll just have to believe me because I'm a reviewer" bullshit.  I'm not one of those "show me the money" cats; for me its "gimme' the facts - Jack"

Feb 22nd    Shit man, look at the clock... lemme' lay one more track on ya' and then its lights out!  This time you gotta' kinda' work for it.  Visit Joan Armstrading's www site and you'll immediately be treated to a shot of Into The Blues - by an outstanding female blues artist!  The file is a streaming MP3, so if you simply give it a minute to spool, then look into your 'Temporary internet Files' folder, you'll see the MP3 file sitting there - enabling a copy / paste if you are so inclined.  I generally like to link directly to artist's files for direct-download, but I've yet to hear back from Joan or her management team, so this is the best I can offer legally at the moment...  What a great track!  Have a fantastic weekend boyz' - do some crazy shit and live it up, cause one never knows when this freaky 'life' shit just up and dumps ya' 6 feet in the dirt (or a ceramic vase on someone's shelf...akk!)

Feb 20th    Geeze', I'm either getting old or mellow this fine Hump-Day cause' I'm really digging this pair of flat-out 'Pop' tunes!  Check out Astra Heights The March and The Republic Tigers Buildings & Mountains.  MP3s compliments of SXSW Promotions and Chop-Shop Records - respectively.  Update: I've been listening to these two tracks quite a bit lately, and damned if they don't rock the shit outta' the place.  Crank the livin' bejeeze outta' them boyz'!

Feb 20th    A post from the forum that I felt should go here (Tnx. to 'Zane9'):  Check out Marketplace tonight (7:30pm).  The storyline for the item is this: "What's the difference between a $260 video cable and one that costs $12?  If you have an HDTV or you're thinking of buying one, you'll probably want an HDMI cable to hook it up.  Some stores say more money means a better picture.  Does it really?".  Should be interesting!  Editor's note: What I would love to see is a legal investigation into the companies that market power (etc.), cables!  Those bastards should be driven off the market for their morally bankrupt, socially inept marketing practices.

Visual Epilogue: Click here to watch the video    Nice, very nice!  We get both the 'Joe Consumer' input as well as 'Techno-Geek' analysis.  They didn't mention where they purchased the $12.00 HDMI, but I suspect that it was likely eBay or Monoprice.  The link provided should open / play in the Windows Media Player (.wmv) 

Feb 20th    Dolby Labs is on the move again, and I mean literally 'on the move'.  They've just released Dolby Mobile, promising to "bring rich, vibrant surround sound to mobile phones".

Feb 20th    You wanted it, you demanded it, you..., ok, no you didn't - but I'm going to give it to you anyway...  KVR Forums (audio plug-ins and effects for audio software apps').  There is some really cool stuff however; Music theory / The Music Cafe / a Buy - Sell area and a lot more.  Hey, it beats the bloody hell outta' reading yet another idiotic post from some audiofool verbally wanking off about his cables / CD player / amplifier yadda-yadda-yadda!

Feb 20th    Good Grief!  I'm finally getting some hate mail!  Unfortunately, just one cat who seems determined to be a complete dickhead...  Said dickhead appears to think I give a flying fuck that he isn't intelligent enough to simply read other websites instead of continually returning back to this one, only to bitch at me...  Ok Fred Framus, you've had your say, now bugger off back to one of the many A/V forums which enjoy the lies and deception which you apparently so cherish...  If you wanna send Mr. Framus a line or two, feel free to contact him at framus@inbox.com  (may the spam-harvesting bots from hell mercilessly rape and pillage this email address...)

Feb 20th    Ya, that was fucked up, but it gets better!  Tone Audio has just released issue number 14 of their free A/V journal for your consumption.  I have such a struggle with this rag': its slick as a glad-handed politician, the layout is top-notch, it's musical coverage is excellent / well-balanced and they continually interview top-class artists. 

Why the negative insinuations?  Its the complete bullshit hardware reviews!  What the hells with these cats?  Are they trying to give Stereofool a run for it's money?  Perhaps hoping to pacify manufacturers in order to secure future 'offers for review' from others who also pine for equally bullshit blatant marketing?  Maybe its just that they realize that keeping rip-off hardware builders happy is an excellent way to suck in a shitload of advertising revenue?  At any rate, [the hardware reviews are] 99% complete fucking bullshit in every paragraph!  Check out page 108 for an amazingly idiotic introspective on a power-lead that they feel is a real deal at, um - $800.00 (going so far as to suggest that you may need three or four of them!).  Gee, lets see, you can be a complete dumb-ass and pay DH Labs eight hundred bucks... or, you can be a somewhat lesser ass and purchase the [exact] same components individually: $89.70 for the cable (Acoustic Tech.com) plus $172.00 for the IEC & Plug.  So there you have it; $261.70 and you pick up a screw-driver for less than five minutes, or $800.00 and you rip open the package.  Either way, you would have to be a complete and utter moron to think that a power cable will affect the sound of your audio system.  Nonetheless, why the hell wouldn't the rag' point out this simple, $538.30 difference if they were out to serve their readership?  Ya, I know: "Fuck that weak shit, its the advertisers they're worried about!".

The balance of their hardware reviews are of similar abysmally low moral quality.  If this rag' had any thoughts of an honest approach to assisting their readership in selecting decent gear they would embrace the methodology I've pushed on the site:

Record two lossless audio tracks, one with Cable A, the other with Cable B (or whatever component(s) were under review, posting both tracks and allowing the public to download / audition & decide for themselves.  Next, post two visual waveforms, one of audio through device A, the other, with the same cut through device B - allowing us to see if there is a visual difference in data pass-through.  Finally, create a lossless 'Audio Diffmaker' file for us to hear for ourselves if there is in fact any audible difference between the files (note that the Tone article specifically states "Without question, there was more music getting through to my speakers").  If you want to download a copy and read-around the hardware lies, go ahead and grab it now - beware that its a significant download at 47.4 megabytes - those fancy advertiser's graphics equal a lot of data :-)  In the meantime, I openly challenge Tone Audio to take up the cause of integrity in publishing and begin presenting their data in an honest light.

Feb 18th    That was a nice, self-imposed long-weekend.  Hope the lot of ya' took some extra time off to be with ones ya' dig as well as doing things that you love the most.  I'm enjoying a glass of my favorite red with some sharp cheddar, puttering around with some 2007 tax prep'.  Booze certainly takes the edge off sending the feds' a shitload of cash...  I figure that we aught to kick off Monday with a taste of the magnificent, and unfortunately disbanded - Drag The River - Death Of The Life Of The Party.  192Kb/s MP3 compliments of Suburban Home Records.

Feb 18th    D.T.R. come across as kinda' folksy, so I thought that you might be interested in a whole lot more: check out the free / streaming Folk Alley.  The cats over there have put together a really slick interface with which to fill your hearts and minds with an endless stream of folksy tracks.  Its a little unusual in that it offers more than just music; occasionally updating you with band info' and tour dates between tracks.

Feb 18th    This next one is pretty much American-centric, but I suppose if its accepted to the South, we'll soon see the same methods implemented here as well: FCC plan to let AM stations use FM at night.  Its an interesting article nonetheless, opening up possibilities that few of us have ever considered.

Feb 18th    So that's it then; Stick a fork in it, its done dead?... Update: it really is official this time round' - This morning Toshiba announced that the deed is done - HD-DVD is no more...

Feb 18th    Here's a mindfunk for ya', check out this curious audio illusion.  I had to listen to it a few times to be sure of what I was hearing.  So much for the "Trust Your Ears" crap boyz'...

Feb 18th    For the past few months I've been hearing about this amazing Canadian manufacturer called Space Tech labs.  I've been regaled time and time again, again how 'high-end' the company is.  So, that and the fact that its Canadian based - I got curious enough to check out the manufacturer's home page.  Imagine my disappointment when I see that they are a purveyor of very expensive tube equipment and CD players; all in OEM chassis the likes of which I can source from eBay for next to nothing.  Check out the top CD players in their range ($1680.00).  This is a basic box with a CD ROM the [exact] likes of which was on the market years ago; Creative Labs manufactured crap!  In my PC tech' shop, I've witnessed more of this manufacturer's CD players 'dead' than any other brand - hands down.  Hell, it only costs $30.00 OEM!  Oh, and the amplifiers / preamplifiers; more fucking OEM / thrown together in a backroom basic kit. 

These cats should be selling their products at a flea-markets for hundreds of dollars; not on the Web' for thousands!  Speaking of web pages; man, that's one sad example of HTML.  Perhaps it would have been slick in 1993, but its butt-ugly in this day and age!  WTF is with audiofools?  I've had a good number of them lavish praise on these; IMO, bloody ugly, ultra-basic bits of kit.  A while back I conducted an unsighted evaluation of RCA cable, employing a very nice Roksan Kandy III integrated amplifier.  Some audiofool didn't like the (null) results and writes that the Roksan "must not have had enough resolution to discern the differences in cable".  He suggested that I should have been using; gulp; Space Tech Labs kit like he uses...  Its bloody amazing; if one prices (anything) high enough, folks will look right past the crap and buy it because it is high-priced.  We live in a fucked society my friends...

Feb 18th    In contrast to the story above: an excellent 'case in point' of how audio / video kit should be built / priced.  Check out Audioholics review of the Emotiva XPA-2 power amplifier.  Very high-quality build / shitloads of power / sane pricing!  You can practically arc-weld with this fucker when bridged and it only costs $800.00.  Ya, I know, you're wining that its made offshore; so just look around your house, at the cloths you wear and maybe even the car you drive... any guesses where all that shit comes from?

Feb 18th    Ha, I like the guys at Home Theater Focus and their penchant for good old fashion honesty - check out their brief article Shopping For Audio Cables.  I might just have to cop that catchy phrase myself "The Cable Cult"... :-)

Feb 18th    I posted this one a year or so ago, but the page was loading erratically, and now that they've fixed it, I figured that it was a good time to repeat the story.  Those of you who are certain they have 'golden-ears', plug in a nice DAC and kick-ass set of headphones, then visit the Klippel Listening Test.  I can only get about three-quarters of the way before I'm more or less "just guessing".  Its a lot tougher than it seems at the outset!

Feb 18th    Ok, enough of this posting shit, its late and I still have a bunch of paperwork stacked beside me.  I'll close with another track from Drag the River - Embrace The Sound.  Tap at cha' all later in the week!  If you dig this kinda' alt/ country music, go ahead and check out their homepage.  (reminds me a lot of Steve Earl's early recordings).

Feb 14th    Happy Valentines Day you homely buggers!  Fuck that weak shit: Kick into the sappiest of non-holidays with a blast of Gringo Star - Y'All  (160Kb/s MP3 compliments of the band!)

Feb 14th    Its baaaaaak...  Devolo has launched its latest Powerline Ethernet product: an 85Mb/s adaptor designed to connect a hi-fi to a mains-hosted network so it can play streamed music.  This has been tried a dozen different ways in the PC TCP/IP industry, but has never caught on, will this be the ticket to get audio information around the home without running unsightly wires everywhere?  What will the audiofools say!?  Damn man, they'll be ripping out the copper, drywall flying all over the place, sweat pouring down their twisted foreheads - muttering under their breath "gotta replace it with Cardas... solid core affects the soundstage.. what would my friends think if they knew I was listening through solid-core... must have blacker blacks"  Those poor tormented little bastards.

Feb 14th    Those of you who sat mesmerized in front of the TV in the 70's while the General Lee flew over yet another bridgeless crossing - are gonna' get the not-so-subtle innuendo of this next political message: Patton Oswalt - The Dukes Of Hazzard

Feb 14th    Its about time for some Canadian content: check out "Your tax dollars at work", in a good way for a bloody change: CBC Radio PodCasts.  I guarantee that there's enough there to keep you busy for many an hour (after Valentines Day of course)

Feb 14th    Can you believe it: another fucking Audio / Video Forum!  Hell man, how many of these bloody things are there on the Net!?  I've listed well over a hundred in our 'List Of Other Forums' and yet, every month a few more pop onto the radar.  Check out The Art Of Sound

Feb 14th    Ok, nuff' said for today, take some time and wine / dine / jump yer' ol' lady!  I mean, fuck man, its Valentines Day!

Feb 11th    Another weekend trashed; stayed away from my stash of fine wine enough to avoid the inevitable hangover and made the most of the fresh snow falling in the mountains.  What would winter be like without gravity and my trusty board?  Fucked if I know, and I sure as hell don't wanna' find out!  Lets see, what do we have for you today; (rummaging around the Internet)... it looks like we're in for some of The Green Pajamas (ya, I know, what a freaking weird band name), and their Free track: Wild Pony.  It reminds me of what Tom Petty might do with a raunchy guitarist.  192Kb/s MP3 compliments of Parasol Records and the band.  More info' on the boys is available here.

Feb 11th    Was perusing a thread on a local forum of fools the other day when I happened upon a fellow asking "which Audioquest speaker cable should I use for this amplifier of mine".  Not that the question is unusual among audiofools, but damn man, its just so old and answered.  Lemme' give it to ya' strait kid: "any damned 12-guage or better copper wire will do the trick in a completely transparent fashion as long as the ends are stripped clean and free from corrosion.  You'll not hear a difference from any other copper / silver / gold heavy-gauge cable on earth as long as you keep the runs below a kilometer or so!".  Ok, so I gave you the harsh version, let me pass you onto the kinder tone at Audioholics for the mellow answer to your Audioquest speaker cable question.  Oh audiofools, will they ever learn?  Will they ever conduct unsighted evaluations of their own instead of reading marketing literature and accepting it as fact?

Feb 11th    I've got a real soft spot for the work of Canada's own (ok, so Levon Helm was a Yank), The Band.  I recently came upon an interesting page highlighting the work of this amazingly talented group.  The site has more or less up-to-date news on the who / what / where / when of The Band's members, where they are now and what direction their careers are heading in.  Very interesting reading for fellow Band fans.  Be sure to check out the shitload of Band covers in full MP3 file format.  Final note; each and every one of you should somehow get your hands on a copy of The Last Waltz on DVD (or check eBay, there are usually multiple copies of it kicking around there at any moment).  If you're a member of our discussion forum, I'd be glad to loan you my copy for an evening's enjoyment!

Feb 11th    Another week, another Audio / Video discussion forum!  This time its from way around the rock in South Africa!  AVForums South Africa.

Feb 11th    Now here's a cool & very affordable little gizmo: 'Active USB 2.0'  A cable which enables you to run a decent length of USB wire across a room without additional boosters.  In my case I will soon be running pretty much this distance from the desk where my laptop is situated, under the floor and up to an external USB DAC beside my main stereo system... very handy!

Feb 11th    Some curious shit!  'White Lightning Moonshine'.  You who venture near this (oftentimes scathing), site know all too well my utter dismissal of 'special cables' and other audiofool idiocy, so have a gander at what the chaps over at the notoriously idiotic '6-Moons' have cooked up; a complete set of D.I.Y. speaker and RCA cables - based on a $7.50 extension cord - which they ceremoniously laud as being up there with the best of em' as far as 'sound quality'.  I don't know what to do: offer up a standing ovation of joy that some of the biggest audiofools on earth have finally told the truth, or fall off my chair laughing that they appear to have shot all of their own deceitful promulgations over 'cable sound' in the proverbial foot with this article?  Had one taken these cables and carefully placed an exotic logo and title on it, then presented them to an audiofool 'guru', said fool' would have also lavished it with 'audible accolades'!  Fact of the matter is; as long a something in A/V has a fancy moniker and good looks, audiofools fall all over themselves paying tribute to "its sound" - and so it goes in the world of fools'...

Feb 11th    By now, most of you have heard the potentially lethal shot that HD-DVD has taken in the battle of the high-definition video formats.  From what I see overall, Blu-Ray is gonna' be king of the castle and Sony will have finally won a format grudge-match!  What many of you may not know is that Blu-ray comes in several 'flavors'.  Have a look at what the cats over on the always cool Ars Technica have to lay on ya, and the surprising player that they are pushing as numero uno.

Feb 11th    That's it, I'm outta' here for a few days, tap at cha' later in the week, in the meantime, get your sorry asses out of the house and down to a local live gig ASAP!  Let me tide you over in the meantime with Mark Pickeral's Cody's Dream (160Kb/s MP3 compliments of Bloodshot Records & the band).

Just a reminder: if you fellows dig the tracks you hear on this site, download them now as I cannot guarantee just how long the band / record company / promo-agency will keep any given MP3 available - or how long before a link / page its hosted on is modified and the link quits working.

Feb 8th    Fuckin' A, ya did it!  Welcome to the gateway to happiness: AKA; The Weekend!  Lets barrel right into it with a speedy little number from The Pendletons; Sad Songs. 

Feb 8th    Where would we be without instruments?  We spend an exorbitant amount of time discussing the devices that (re)-create sound, but dame little discussing the instruments themselves.  Was reading through the Boston Audio Societies' www page the other day (a rare bastion of honesty and integrity in an A/V hobby awash in complete and utter bullshit), and they pointed me to the excellent University Of New South Wales 'Music Acoustics' site.  A wide variety of instruments are presented in detail, including: Flute, Clarinet, Saxophone, Brass, Didjeridu, Guitar, Violin and voice.

Feb 8th    I've never really taken the time to investigate the phenomenon of 'Perfect Pitch', but just happened upon an excellent article from the Acoustical Society Of America the other day which delves into the topic, and in a very entertaining / educational manner.  Pour a glass, sit back and take some time to enjoy The Enigma Of Absolute Pitch.  (577Kb - Adobe PDF File)

Feb 8th    I don't spend much time on AudioGon, but was recently shown an interesting article about a subject dear to me: Wet-cleaning LPs.  I've been an avid fan of the method for several decades, and this cat takes my fondness of it a step further: Finding Pure Water For record Cleaning.

Feb 8th    Just a short one today boyz'; and I think I'll mess with your minds by showing you this link which combines a somewhat twisted animation with audio and visual effects... :-)  Have a great weekend!  The Blue Ball Machine (no, we're not talking about your significant other...)

Feb 8th    ...Hell ya, just one more post to round out the week, and what kinda' weekend would it be without a bunch of free music!?  Check out Sandbar Music Groups' free Boxer The Horse DEMO Session.  This collection employs the industry-standard 'Zip' file format, so just know going in; if you don't possess the computer acumen to unzip a file, don't both clicking any further...  Enjoy, crank the living shit outta' your favorite and let me know what you dig the most from this bit O' tunage!  B.T.H. kinda' reminds me of a folksy / grass-roots Dylan meets Jon Lajoie.

Feb 6th    Happy Hump-day dudes!  This week is just zinging along!  Damn strait, all the better to get this working crap out of the way and allow us to resume pissing around and having fun on the weekend!  Let me step way the fuck out of the ordinary for today's musical track and offer up something utterly bizarre that I used to really 'dig' when I was a lad: Skinny Puppy Dig It.  This 192Kb/s MP3 (10.8 megabytes), is compliments of Zunior Records, as offered on their latest freely downloadable Zunior Compilation version 3.03.  This track as well as a wide variety of others from numerous bands / genera's, is available on the Zunior www site.  If you sign-up with them, they'll send you the newsletter with a freely downloadable compilation every month or so - very cool!  By the way, if you are curious as to what the hell the vocalist is saying on this track, the lyrics are here...  Don't be freaked by the Skinny Puppy track above, the label (and free sampler), offers a wide range of talent - many of you may enjoy Canada's own Be Good Tanya's track 'Human Thing' which is also on the version 3.03 download.

Feb 6th    In the never-ending quest to lower your system's noise-floor to vanishingly small levels; I present Bill Whitlock's well-written 'Hum & Buzz in Unbalanced Interconnect Systems'  (215Kb, Adobe PDF) 

Feb 6th    Hell, its been weeks since I belligerently mocked audiofools!  I must be getting old!  Many is the audiofool who will carry on for hours about the 'sound' of amplifiers, trotting out one golden-tongued descriptive after another in an effort to boost his own morbidly malnourished ego.  Try and get said audiofool to sit in for an unsighted audition between two utterly dissimilar amplification stages however and you'll end up with something like this (Tnx. NPA for the link).

Feb 6th    That old-timer of the loudspeaker wars: Polk Audio , has branched out it's distribution channels to reach a Best Buy near you.  Audiofools will lament this as yet another case of the old-schoolers selling out, but who cares what mindless audiofools think anyway: I've always been a fan of Polk's kit and see this as nothing but a good thing for folks who are looking for decent speakers at a fair price.  Speaking of Best Buy, check out this decent price on a Sony SXRD 1080p LCD Projection HDTV.  Addendum: It looks like Polk has pulled off a double-whammy this week, adding Apple's brick and mortar as well as their online store to Polk's distro' method!  Nice work Matthew :-)

Feb 6th    Wow, who knew... the SH Forum is good for something cool once in a while; witness some cat's high-resolution images of the old standby; a cantilever and stylus.  (You'd have to be an audio-geek to really get a kick out of seeing weird shit like this...)

Feb 4th    Look at that, another month down the tubes, another chance to start clean!  I made the very best of this intro' to Feb; by avoiding work with all my might!  Myself and a group of a dozen other middle-aged, thirsty ski-bums from across Canada got together at Red Mountain this Thursday / Friday / Sat., and made the most of the absolutely excellent conditions the resort had to offer.  Heads-up cats; if any of you are fellow boarders or skiers, Red Mountain Resort is one kick-ass experience and, as they say "You should go!".  I've been a few times before, but never with a bunch of nuts  who know every square inch of the place; and love to show off the 'secret-spots' (visit 'Barrel Roll', 'The Rocks' and 'Power Fields' for a great day!).  On return to the Okanagan I scooted my butt up to Apex Mt. to take advantage of even more excellent powder... ah, goofing off and fleeing from work - the good life!  So how to start the new week?  How about a mellow little ditty from the very oddly named UnBunny: Nothing Comes To Rest.  Kinda' mellow, perhaps a little Neil Young inspired (never a bad thing in my book!).  192Kb/s MP3 compliments of Parasol Records.  More about the band here and have a go at their MySpace page here.

Feb 4th    Some of the first rebel-rock I ever came to love emanated from the screaming guitars of The Clash.  Julien Temple's 'The Future Is Unwritten' paints a picture you may be interesting in seeing if you are one of the fellow dwindling fans of the former punk powerhouse - it looks like a great little biopic.

Feb 4th    Fellows at Hydrogen Audio recently pointed me to an amazing collection of software applications that I'm sure those of you with curious minds are gonna' dig!  As the man says: "These real time simulations of some electro-acoustic phenomena allow you to listen, modify and judge by yourself if some parameters are audible or not. Stop reading everybody’s argument and listen yourself".  Many of the programs can be integrated into other applications as plug-ins, but all are available as stand-alone apps'.

Feb 4th    In an effort to convince you cats to use the link above I'm going to keep today's postings short.  One of the main things I continually try and drive home on this site is the mantra noted above in bold / italics.  I feel like puking when I read all of the bullshit put forward in 99% of the A/V forums / magazines these days.  So much crap / so little honesty...  Reclaim control of your minds and conduct honest, unsighted evaluations of your own.  Let the big picture sink in: the vast majority of critics / reviewers / online posters are completely full of shit, opinionated, pretentious fools sporting continentally oversized egos and very little in the way of actual morals.

Jan 30th    Look at that, its Humpday and you're still alive and kickin'!  Very good then, lets just ease on into the balancing point of the workweek with a smooth track from one of my favorite artists new releases: Cat Power - Metal Heart.   If that's your cup O' tea this final week in January, you might also enjoy her (seemingly Dylan-influenced) Song To Bobby.  192Kb/s MP3s compliment of Matador Records.

Jan 30th    Well, it aint' Jack Black's School Of Rock, but Sound Reasoning hopes to open your mind to logical investigation of music in a whole new way. 'Sound Reasoning' is a web-based, introductory music appreciation course.  It offers a new approach to music appreciation for adults, focusing on style-independent concepts.  While the course concentrates primarily on Western classical and modern music, the concepts that are introduced apply to music of any style or era. The goal of Sound Reasoning is to equip you with questions that you may ask of any piece of music, thereby creating a richer and more comprehensive understanding of music both familiar and unfamiliar.

Jan 30th    Have you ever picked up a copy of The Sensible Sound, but coughed when you saw that the price for the little magazine was $8.75 an issue?!  Well, what if I told you that I found a legitimate source of the last ten years of S.S. online?  There is a catch, as with so many 'free' things.  In this case, many of the pictures have been removed and you get only the text.  Also, there are a few advertisements along side the articles, which, while not whatsoever uncommon on the web, is slightly annoying...  Dig into the stash of back-issues here.

Jan 30th    Those of my readers who are aspiring musicians and have a thousand and one questions about recording technologies, tricks and techniques will absolutely love a little application I dug up the other day: Studio Buddy.  Download and install it, then run through the questions and answer screen.  Its freeware without any ads / popups / spyware etc.  I run it on my PC without so much as a hiccup.  Thanks to Recording Magazine for the link.

Jan 30th    Oddly enough, for some folks its not all about massive loudspeakers and numerous large subwoofers populating the listening room...  I know, I know, I can't explain it either :-).  However, for those of you who enjoy understated aesthetics with your music, Yamaha has unveiled a very sexy 5.1 Surround system for well under a grand: $700.00 to be exact.  Their NS-SP7800PN saves some bread - which you can (and should), blow on CDs / DVDs, and it looks really great!

Jan 28th    It’s Monday and I feel its only fair to kick the workweek off with some excellent hard rockin’ tunes care of what used to be, more or less, fellow Canadians Big Sugar. Band leader Gordie Johnson’s newest musical incarnation is known as ‘Grady’. It consists of two cats and a chick on drums and kicks some amazingly serious ass. I was introduced to their style this past weekend via their Cup Of Cold Poison CD and dug it from the first few seconds of play!  Be sure to check them out as they breeze through the East this spring on a mini tour in Ontario and Quebec:

April 29th - The Mod Club Toronto, Ontario
April 30th - The Mod Club Toronto, Ontario
May 1st - Dagobert Nightclub Quebec, Quebec
May 2nd - Les Saints Montreal, Quebec

Ok, to the point of this post: download and crank up Devil Got My Woman (.WMA file compliments of the band).  Burn it to CD if you have to, or hook up the big-rig to the PC cause' this deserves much better than a small PC speaker!  Crank It (((Louder)))

Gordie Johnson recently says “We’re trying to find the common ground between punk, metal and gospel. I like to think we sound like Motorhead just got the job of backing up John Lee Hooker”. Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys lead singer), enthused “You guys are the missing link between Junior Brown and Black Flag". The ‘Cup of Cold Poison’ CD was recorded live off the floor at Willie Nelson’s famed Pedernales recording studio and even features a spoken word introduction by the Red Headed Stranger himself.  Purchase and download the full LP from the band’s www site in either .FLAC or 320Kb/s MP3 – very cool!  They've even included a good bit of each track as a demo to audition at a decent streaming bitrate (224Kb/s) so you can 'try before you buy'.  These cats have online promotion / sales figured out - a good example for others to be sure!

Website / Myspace

Jan 28th    Always something new out thereon the wibbly, wobbly web: Qtrax: Free, advertising-based P2P.  Kinda' like Gnutella meets Zune-esque DRM.  Qtrax figures that it can offer a better P2P experience by offering 100% free, legally downloadable tracks from all major labels. The catch is that the service uses DRM to monitor usage and help push ads, all the while, running atop a Mozilla core / Gnutella P2P interface.

Jan 28th    Saving History From The Dumpster: (verbatim from the site):  These pages are dedicated to preserving a historical record of broadcast equipment.  This site consists of scanned manuals and catalogs of broadcast equipment.  An odd-sods kinda' post - for those with eclectic / off-the-wall tastes and interests (pretty much sums up audio-hobbyists doesn't it?)

Jan 28th    Ha, and if you thought that was off the wall: check out The First Annual - 2007 'Burning Amp' Festival' held in the Fort Mason Centre, San Fran Sisco, CA.  Lots of cool info' and pics, including a longish slideshow - enjoy!

Jan 28th    Take an old LP that you don't feel like playing anymore (to noisy / whatever), and paint a picture of that particular artist atop the vinyl surface (or have someone with some artistic talent do so for you), and there you have it: $175 bucks worth of 'Cultural Art'...  Well, neat in theory, but perhaps a tad overpriced... cool idea though!  Vinyl Art By Daniel Edlen (don't try clicking on the 'Open' sign, you'll get nowhere.  Use the text links at the bottom of the page.  The dude can paint, but he needs some help with user-friendly interface design...)

Jan 28th    Alas, what a breath of fresh air for the media to publish a common-sense article on A/V: The Orlando Sentinel and an article on using sanely priced cables for video reproduction.  I really dig it when the mass-media actually steers the public in the right direction.  I have seen a thousand too many folks walking out of big-box A/V shops with $300.00 of cable in hand - when $50.00 bucks worth would have done (exactly) the same thing from them.  Dam salesmen (perhaps Sales-Managers is more accurate): Dam them to whatever fucking hell salesmen go to when they die...

Jan 28th    I'm incredibly guilty of not paying much attention to Car-Audio on this site, so here is my ode to the genre: The 12-Volt.  This incredibly cool site hosts loads and loads of diagrams for wiring hundreds if not thousands of car-stereo and alarm systems from reams of manufacturers.  They also sport a comprehensive forum with over 200,000 members (!).  Car-stereo installation is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.  They also touch on tools, technique, electronics theory and a shitload more - I dig it!

Jan 28th    Got distance to cover with HDMI, but have seen the price of the stuff in your local shop?  You could consult MonoPrice, but massive lengths are still a problem.  Ok, what if I told you that you can run HDMI with 1080p resolution / full HDCP compliance, using up to 300-feet of a single line of RG-6 coax!?

Jan 28th    Always one to cut the crap, HDTV Magazine rolls out yet another great article, this time on Flat-Screen TVs and the marketing game that manufacturers play on your mind: LCD Specs Playing with Your Eyes

Jan 28th    And finally this Monday, a not-really-A/V-related post, but one pertinent to all of you considering purchasing a Dell Laptop in the near future (a shitload of you I would guess).  Dell has assured users of its laptops that there is no danger from electrical jolts sometimes received from the cases of some of its systems.  I'll tell ya' what - I have a client with one of these annoying fuckers and its really a pain in the ass, er, finger...  Just demand that Dell include a three-prong power adapter with the unit when you order it!  What a bunch of cheap / dumb-pricks Dell is being on this one...  Now, get back to cranking the living shit outta' Devil Got My Woman again, and again...

Jan 25th    Fuck boyz', she's Friday!  Enough with the workin' bullshit, pop the cork and crank up some Gov't - Mule Live at The Fillmore 11/15/2003.  If that's not your cup O' tea, check out some tunes from a band that I was talking about a few days ago: Trouble.  They've made several tracks available from their www site, I recommend their cover of Cream's Tales Of Brave Ulysses.  Finally, if heaviness isn't your dig for the weekend, here's a little (well, a lot actually), of classical to get you through your funk: The works by J.S.Bach, Paul Patterson and Eugène Ysaÿe (Tnx. Tesco!)

Jan 25th    Now here's an odd match to make you scratch your head: Scarlett Johansson sings Tom Waits cover tunes(!).  Yes, that Scarlett Johansson...  As it turns out, she'll be releasing an LP this year.  In the meantime we can only wait and wonder... and stare at those, er, I mean, wait for her...to, um...never mind...

Jan 25th    HDTV Magazine has offered up their latest blurb titled The Death of Rear Projection TVs & Bridging the Gap from your Computer to your TV which might interest those of you who see the inevitable mash between the two anyway...

Jan 25th    Well, as expected - so far its been 'a wash'.  Audiofools in every forum who have reviewed the process outlined below (power cables), have conveniently side-stepped the actual listening challenge.  Not only have they actually refused to listen and comment on which file is which, they actually just carried on with "business as usual" and blathered on with a bunch of horseshit about how they hear so much difference in cables and why...  I am stunned at the level of idiocy in an extremely well-educated society, I shake my head and sigh...  Though I'm surprised, I guess I shouldn't be: there really isn't anything to see or hear as far as a difference between these two utterly dissimilar cables, and audiofools have always been right up there with politicians and lawyers as far as integrity.  Wanna' push it further into the astronomically absurd?  If anyone wants to ship me (I'll pay insured / express-post both ways), a super-cable such as a Cardas Golden Reference or something more or less equivalent - I'll add a few more crude splices to my 'beater' cable, pound the living shit out of the plug assemblies with a mallet so they make only rudimentary contact with the wall-socket and take it outside and rub it in dirt till' the prongs are covered in dust - then I'll produce another round of quality recordings with the two cables for your audio-visual enjoyment / education...  Guess what, I'll lay a hundred bucks that no one reading this will be able to distinguish one from the other - any takers?  Come on boys... now is the time to prove me wrong on this whole 'audiophile power-cable myth'.  It doesn't get any better than this- the odds are completely stacked in your favor...

Jan 25th    Short one this Friday: its bloody late, I've a full day ahead of me (and then some), so I'll bid you a fond farewell... over and out with a Beatles-ish track from Kelley Stoltz - The Sun Comes Through

Jan 24th    Ok boyz’, so what we have here is a power-cable ‘shootout’ of sorts between: 

Contender 1: A finely crafted D.I.Y cable that I lovingly custom-built.  It features Watt-gate plugs on both ends, deep-Cryo-treated, with six feet of killer-thick, 600 volt, shielded, 99.9% pure copper cable.  No solder was used in affixing the Watt-gate plugs to the wire as they sport a unique clamping system unlike what I’ve seen in hospital-grade or other plug assemblies.  Very cool!

Contender 2: A ‘standard’ power lead, exactly like the one that is powering your home PC at this moment.  According to Audiofools world-wide, these are the deadly bane of high-fidelity; “complete and utter crap, throwing a ‘veil’ over one’s music and collapsing the sound-stage” (feel free to mentally toss in any other descriptive, negative connotations that you wish).  Not satisfied that this diminutive wire was handicapped enough, I decided to hobble the little bugger just to make things interesting.  Grabbing my wire-cutters, I snipped it in two, stripped back the (un-shielded) wires (which are pathetically thin by the way), and then very sloppily twisted them back together in what must surely be one of the crudest splices ever.  As I was carelessly stripping the wires, I managed to randomly break several strands within each wire, thus effectively reducing the overall AGW by perhaps 10% or so.  Finally, I wrapped the whole thing back together with bits of cellophane tape (Akk!; not even electrician’s tape!), leaving the splice exposed and unshielded.  I plugged into the fancy new DAC I picked up a few weeks ago and began to record the output (or should I say 'throughput'?)

With this cable, I proceeded to record one minute of ‘Spanish Harlem’ from the same, excellent Chesky Records ‘Ultimate Demonstration Disk’ that I employed in the RCA cable evaluation earlier this week.  This time however, I decided to pick a different track, and keep it to a one-minute / fair-use length: I don’t want to tempt Chesky Records lawyers too much here…

I then turned everything off, unplugged the old beater and plugged in my (get this): ‘Andrew’s Audio Ultimate Cryo-Uber-Cable’ (Ooo, I’ve always wanted a component with my name on it :-), and recorded the same track once again.  See the RCA recording session (below) to learn what I used in the recording process - needless to say, all top-notch kit.

Both files are in lossless .WAV file format, untouched aside from deleting the first minute and a half or so from the front of the file in order to keep it to one-minute.  I also added a neat little ‘fade-in’ to the intro’ of each so that it wouldn’t ‘boom’ into your ears as you auditioned it.

The plug-ends of the custom-cable were cleaned with 99.9% pure Isopropanol alcohol and buffed with a clean cotton cloth prior to use; the plug-ends of the POS ‘beater’ cable were left as they came from the factory - perhaps 10 years ago – very slight corrosion and all.  The custom cable was carefully inserted all the way on both ends, tightness checked and re-checked.  The beater was just plugged in and left.

So there you have it.  As with the RCA evaluation, I am 100% willing to conduct this process with any two cables on the market.  If you own a fancy cable-beast, I offer to pay express, insured shipping both ways from your home to mine and back, assuring you of a 72-hour turn-around of your cable.  I’ll plug your cable in and record a track just as I have done here, then do the same with any beater cable you care to put it up against.  Heck, I’ll even splice & tape my resident junker again a few more times if you wish.  I'll soon be conducting this evaluation with various other bits of equipment that I have around the shop: A PSAudio amplifier under full load, a Pioneer Elite CD player and a Roksan Kandy III amplifier, also under full load - just shy of clipping.  If you have any other equipment that you'd like me to employ in this evaluation, please let me know and I'll do my damn-level best to find a way to include it.

Alternately, you can very easily conduct an evaluation like this yourself.  All it really takes is a decent PC without any application loaded aside from Audacity, a decent sound card and a spot of your time.  It'll be a real eye-opener lads!

And the .WAV files?  Here they are, only this time I've left the files 'unlabeled'… and added the waveforms for both in order that you may scrutinize them tirelessly, ABX the living hell outta' them and burn each to CD in order to audition them on your main PC.  Much larger waveforms are available, as well as zoom-ins of any sections you request - just drop me an email).  I can however, assure you, that they are absolutely identical, even when zoomed in to the 'fraction of a decibel' level.  I've been carefully examining them, zooming in and out for some time now; all I'm getting is cross-eyed and hungry  :-)

So, have at it lads, and let me know which cable is the fancy Cryo’ one and which is the severed / taped piece of crap…  If nothing else, at least you’ll enjoy the music, its really a beautiful, albeit, abbreviated piece!

Andrew D.

Jan 23rd    Ok, so its "tomorrow" and I don't have the power-cable comparison ready for you yet, suck it up!  I simply haven't taken the time, will do so in the next 24 hours or so.  Instead, lets kick off Humpday with a blast of heaviness compliments of fellow Canucks Black Mountain and their bit O' Raunch N' Roll Tyrants  If you like this kinda' basic, really hard Rock N Roll, check out their www site for more tracks and some video clips.  (MP3 compliments of Jagjaguwar Records - 192Kb/s MP3).  It took me a few listens, but now I fuckin' dig it!  Reminds me of something that Trouble did years back.  Sitting here, typing this missive with the headphones on, listening to the track over and over again...  As I say, if this is your kick, than definitely look into scoring some old 'Trouble' - its very much in the same vein.  Update - Canada's own The Nerve magazine is running a 'front page' article on the band this month.

Jan 23rd    I love D.I.Y speaker sites, and 'Mark K's' is an excellent example of one done right.  Check out his comprehensive driver distortion measurements and, well, hell, the entire site is pretty damned interesting and informative!

Jan 23rd    Some companies 'get it'; they realize that the industry has topped out on what can be accomplished with regards to amplification and preamplification, and have moved some of their focus onto what is far more important: the speaker / human / listening room interface.  Anthem is introducing their ARC-1 Room Correction technology which they claim "helps compensate for acoustic issues related to the room with which a speaker is placed".  The technology is available as a $400.00 'add-on', or you can purchase it 'built-in' for (gulp) $7500.00 (double-gulp), in their 'D2" product.  (guess which they'll sell more of..)

Jan 23rd    Steve Jobs had a vision: in it, CDs were a thing of the past, relegated to the scrapheap of technology... thus 'His Steveness' released a fancy new, fairly expensive and uncannily slim new laptop computer without the space requirements of 'ancient technology' disk drives.  Methinks he is onto a good idea, but "wo unto thee" if thou shall be stuck with 'old' software on CD that you wish to load on said PC... that'll cost you fella; as in 'extra' for an external CD/DVD Drive.  What the hell does this have to do with A/V: everything lad, cause you are entering the era of "everything is software".  What do we need 'CD shops' for if we can download anything we want online, cheaper, quicker and without having to 'special-order' any disks?!  My prediction is that by 2012, all music will be available online, in a variety of high-resolution formats; watermarked and stamped with some variation of DRM in a more subtle form that what we see now.  CD / DVD / Blu-Ray (or whatever), players will nosedive in sales as TPC/IP-Network-aware receivers / amps, rule the marketplace.  Ok, that's the best I got, my crystal-ball is dimming... :-)

Jan 23rd    Its inevitable with most folks; they are convinced that "if something is more expensive, surely it must be better".  This little bit of false logic has created a market for insanely priced cables among other things in the A/V hobby.  Now scientists figure that they have discovered exactly what it is that feeds this bit of stupidity: er, it makes us 'cheery', in the short-term anyway.

Jan 23rd    Want a really high-quality, upsampling DVD player that just happens to play a high-definition format - which, by all indications is on it's way out?  Well fella', have I got a deal for you :-).  Toshiba, in a desperate last move, has squashed the price of their HD-A35 deck to a measly $130.00!  Like I say, don't be swayed by the whole HD vs. BluRay thing, rather, look at it simply as a cheap upsampling deck that happens to play HD-DVDs.

Jan 23rd    More on the D.I.Y front: this time from the Iowa D.I.Y Oct. 27th, 2007.  Loads of groovy pictures of grass-roots kit for you to drool on!  My favorite entry, based on looks alone, would be Dan's 'HOSS' design in the 'unlimited' class.

Jan 22nd    120 Volt Power leads! Yes, I have constructed the 'uber-cable' my friends! A master of electrons, roaming the earth in search of power stations to devour - destroying everything in it's path, leaving a wake of downed power-poles, chaos and... er sorry, wrong story...

Ok then, it’s a very thick (12 Gauge / 3-strand 600 volt), shielded, 99.9 percent pure copper behemoth sporting Wattgate Cryogenically treated plugs on both ends!

What will become of the audiofool world when I unleash this monster onto an unsuspecting market!? Utter dominance I say, (laughing delusionally, gnashing my teeth and stomping around the shop, smashing things..) - wow, this power-cables stuff really gets ya’ goin’! I can see how Ian got so messed up with them…

Ok, but seriously folks: this is ‘step 2’ of the process of finding the truth about cables. In one corner we have 'The Beast from the East' (ordered the in plugs from Ontario), in the other, the ‘Pathetic PC Cable’.

I have selected the most funkin’ flimsy little freebee PC cable that I could find to put up against my massive DIY world-destroyer. I’ll run basically the same hardware setup as yesterday’s RCA shootout, trying the cable on the new DAC as well as the transport. I'll post files for you to audition and ABX or burn to CD and play on the 'big stereo' in your own homes.

Will we hear any differences between them? Will the graphs be off the charts? Will audiofools decide to speak the truth about audio / video, causing a tide of honesty to sweep over the industry, and how exactly does Cardas get away with selling thousand dollar power-leads without being lynched, tarred and feathered?

Tune in tomorrow for these answers and much, much more…

Andrew D.

Jan 21st    Allright then, here we have it: Two .WAV audio files, recorded from the Chesky ‘Ultimate Sampler” CD - a standout in resolution & fidelity in it’s own right.  The point of this whole endeavor is to provide you with two very high-resolution sample files which you can use to determine for yourself whether ‘hi-end’ / ‘special’ RCA interface connector cables have an audible effect on the signal passing through them.  In the future I’ll also conduct this evaluation with several other RCA cables including Monster Cables, Audio-Research and any other I come across.  I’ll always make every attempt to find the most basic ‘junk’ RCA cable I can lay my hands on to contrast against the quality cables.

If any of my readers have a particular ‘high-end’ RCA cable that they would like to include in this audition method, I’ll offer to pay shipping both ways in order to access your cables for this evaluation process, post the results here, and guarantee that you’ll have your cables back in less than a week.  Note that the RCA plugs on both cables in this evaluation have been cleaned with 99.9% pure Isopropanol alcohol and buffed with a clean cotton cloth prior to use in this session.

Contender 1: A very basic, no-name patch cable the likes of what you will find thrown in for free in every electronic audio reproduction device for the home stereo system; i.e.; what audiophiles call “complete junk”.  The plugs are cheap plastic without the luxury of any fancy plating.

Contender 2: A slick looking ‘Wire-World’ brand patch cable constructed with a nice braided sheath, metal strain-relief and a core of silver plated wire.  It sports nicely machined, gold-plated RCA cable connectors with the following markings on the cable itself: mil-c-27072/89 IDDE 20 AWG 3C 600V (US Military specification 200C 600V Teflon insulated silver plated).  The cable is multi-conductor / single-shielded.  (Image of both cables side-by-side)

I’ve run the above audio track through both cables and recorded it on the PC via Audacity application software.  The file is an industry-standard, 44.1hz, lossless .’WAV’ format which you can playback on a PC and / or, employ the free Win-ABX software to provide instantaneous comparison.  Additionally, you may wish to burn these files to a CD and use your stereo system to play them back for purposes of observation on a large, high-resolution setup.

The audio recording system:

The evaluation employs a Pioneer Elite DV-45A as a transport and Yulong DAH1 outboard DAC combination, connected with a Toshiba pure-glass TOSLink Cable.  This is driven into a PC (using one or the other of the two cables under consideration), which has been custom-built for this evaluation.  The computer sports an Intel D915GA series mainboard with the latest BIOS update (0482), a dual-core 2.8 GHz Pentium processor, one-gigabyte of Kingston brand DDR-400 RAM memory and a Seagate 80 Gigabyte, SATA hard disk drive.  All other drives have been disconnected and cables removed.  The mainboard hosts only one PCI card; an ASUS Xonar audio interface (onboard audio has been disabled at the BIOS level).  Said card is running the very latest drivers – version 8.17.25.  The operating system is Windows Vista Business Edition, build 6.0.6000.  All patches, updates, service packs etc., have been added to the OS and it’s been freshly defragmented.  This edition of Windows Vista has been tweaked as an audio recording and playback platform according to suggestions in the Benchmark Audio Windows Vista Audio Playback - Setup Guide

The hard disk drive contains no extraneous application software aside from Audacity version 1.2.6 and LAME version 3.97 – basically, its’ pretty much empty.

The PC is running in a chassis without an internally mounted power supply unit.  Said PSU is situated approximately eight inches outside the case.  This is due to concerns with electromagnetic noise contaminating the audio signal – as expressed by many audiophiles when it comes to PC-based audio manipulation…  The power supply in question is a 380 watt, Antec ‘True-Power’ version 2.0 unit, custom-ordered for this project.  The power supply, transport and DAC are all plugged into three separate wall sockets – each sporting an independent feed back to the breaker panel (I built the shop several years ago and ran separate lines for - every – plug and light fixture!).  No other devices are plugged into any of the three sockets.  Correct polarity has been confirmed in all wall-plugs by myself and the city electrical inspector.  (Image of equipment CD & DAC / Audio Card)

The audio file itself is a sample of Chesky Record’s ‘Ultimate Demonstration CD’.  (AKA: “Go ahead and buy a copy and test the living heck out of your own system if you like - make me look good for showing you this so Chesky won’t sue the living hell outta’ me for posting the file” :-) 

I picked this particular track as it offers a whole lot of both top and bottom octave information, and it seems that audiophiles can’t decide on which is more important for demonstrating cables – so I bring you both!

In the end, just listen, and then ask yourself: “do these files actually sound any different from each other.  I have ABX’d and auditioned the living hell outta’ them (using the latest edition of FooBar 2000), and cannot, in all honesty, discern one from the other, perhaps one of you out there can?  If so, let me know.  If not, well, congratulations – you’ve learned something today :-)  The files are 6.65 megabytes, so you might need a high-speed Internet connection to grab them – or a lot of patience.

Junk Cable   |   Quality Cable

Originally, I had intended to post an additional set of ‘un-labeled’ cable links, however, I can see that if one were to take a file examination utility and really interrogate the files, they would soon see that there are very slight differences between the files, enough that some computer geek / smarty pants would know which was which without actually listening to them.  As such, I'll simply provide options for ABX and / or burning of these files to CD for auditioning – in order to offer an honest evaluation of what you can or cannot hear.  I’m not your mom, so I’ll leave it to your personal integrity on this one…

Andrew D.

Jan 21st    I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming: Rock N' Roll!  Tonight's little ditty is compliments of Zunior Records, featuring Canadian artist Dale Murray and his track Driving Song.  Dale has played with a number of East-Coast bands and this is his chance to shine on his own.

Jan 21st    And for even more music: check out the Pod-Cast Directory and access 57 different generas of music streaming to your PC in real-time.  I'm listening to the Reverend Norman Jackson and the Pawnshop Blues as I type this post!

Jan 21st    We all wonder what the hell's up with our compact disks and ponder the reliability of the medium.  Well, it looks like some folks have taken it upon their selves to investigate that issue and a whole lot more in-more depth.  Media Sciences, an independent testing laboratory in Marlborough, MA, offers us a page-full of interesting information links on all manner of media-related topics.

Jan 21st    Audiophiles are continually asking each other for recommendations on well-recorded / mixed / mastered albums, and the answers are as varied as the shape of clouds, but are generally based on personal preference rather than technically accurate information.  Digital Domain attempts to provide you with both, have a look at their Honor Roll of Dynamic Pop CDs and why each was selected for inclusion.

Jan 21st    That's it from me for this Monday morning.  Its in the wee hours here in BC, I'm dog tired and need some shut-eye.  Spend some time with the bits I've provided here today, and do get back to me on the cable sound-files.  I'm very interested in evaluating some of my reader's uber-high-end cables as well!  I'll sign off with a taste of the Blues care of Burton Gaar and One Hundred Pounds Of Trouble.  (PodCast)

Jan 18th    Its Friday Baby!  Time for a whole lot of goofing off, avoiding responsibility and Rockin' Out for all you're worth!  Check out TAB and their Stones-esq track CYT (Free & Legal track compliments of NorthStreet Records)

Jan 18th    I've thrown out an offer for all 'high-end' power-cable manufacturers.  Sit down with me, anywhere in Western Canada (Alberta / British Columbia), and audition your own cables 'blind' vs. a cheap-o power cable the likes of which ship with all computer systems.  If you are able to pick out which power cable is yours 90% of the time out of 20 attempts, I'll publicly renounce my position of calling all power cable manufacturers lying bastards, then browbeat and ridicule myself on 100+ A/V forums and host a massive banner advertisement for power cables on both Cdnav.com's main site as well as the forum.  I'll keep you all posted if any of these 'manufacturers of the special wire' get back to me with this offer...

Jan 18th    Not that the topic needs any more driving home... but it was nice to see this article published in the Chicago tribune the other day: Price Of Audio / Video Cables Bears Little On Performance.  A few more like it and perhaps we'll see a lot less of people bringing home hundred dollar HDMI cables... [ MonoPrice guys... MonoPrice ]

Jan 18th    Happened upon a pretty cool little A/V Blog site the other day called Don Lindich's Sound Advise.  Most of what he says appears to be pretty much on the mark, have a look and and see if you agree.  A great quote from the site: "I’ve long said using expensive wire and connecting cables is like filling your toilet tank with Evian… it’s expensive and wasteful as tap water flushes just as well".

Jan 18th    The other day a friend posted a query in the forum asking "if its true that tube-based amplifiers 'sound different' than transistor-based ones, why is that so"?  Well dude, scan an eyeball across The Tube Primer for an answer of why some tube-based amplifiers might reproduce signals differently then their solid-state brethren.  Now if that one just whets your whistle, this one will blow your mind: Electronics 27 University Of Denver, Colorado (Everything you ever wanted to know about tubes, but were afraid to ask some golden-ear cause' he would fill your mind with bullshit)

Jan 18th    When I was but a wee lad... I used to have a real thing for Technics audio equipment.  Hell, I owned Technics amps, preamps, integrated amps, Tuners,  Speakers ( I dug their honeycomb speakers!), Cassette decks (anyone remember DBX?), Turntables (linear tracking anyone?) - in numerous incarnations.  I was quite disheartened when Panasonic yanked the product from the market.  As it turns out, so were a great many others, and thus from the ashes rose The Technics Discussion Forum!

Jan 18th    My first introduction to Stereo / HiFi magazines was the much-maligned Stereo Review and the words of one Julien Hirsch (RIP old dude).  Some time in 1990 the boyz' at Stereo Review decided to audition three (then modern) CD players in order to attempt to discern audible differences between them.  Keep in mind the era and pedigree of the decks in question as you read through pages one to five of this old-school article.  Afterwards, ask yourself: Do modern CD players really sound different from one-another like all of the audiofools say they do?  This, eighteen years after this evaluation, do internal DACs etc., possess audible differences?  If you still don't arrive at an answer, do yourself a favor and set up a truly unsighted evaluation for yourself with the help of a friend.  Pages are .JPG photos that someone snapped of the magazine's pages - so don't flame me over the quality, just be thankful that some cat cared enough to do this for us!

Jan 18th    You may have noticed that I pretty much speak my mind around here :-), and with good reason.  As such, I dig it when I happen upon another A/V site that tells it like it is and swears just because it feels good.  Check out Rekords Rekords forum for a taste of reality of the rockin' life.  I love their motto: "Fuck ya' baby"

Jan 18th    Absolutely freaking nothing to do with A/V, but what the hell, its cool: Royal Enfield motorcycles are once again available!  Have a look at this 'Bullet 500 ES Electra X'.  Very cool in an old-school kinda' way, and look at that dirt-cheap price!  Hell, considerably less than a set of insanely prices speaker cables!

Jan 18th    Lets wrap with another track, this from Saul Williams - a cover of U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday (MP3 compliments of Glide Magazine).  I've never been a big U2 fan, but I do like this cover - better than the original in fact.  Have a kick-ass weekend boyz'!

Jan 16th    A long time ago... mid-summer 07' to be exact, I managed to mangle a whack of posts on the site beyond recognition - witness the mid-August / September gap in posts on the archive site.  Well, what do ya' know; I stumbled upon some backups the other day and lo and behold; it contained the missing posts!  I'm taking the lazy road out this evening and reposting (some of) those 'missing posts' here in place of what should be the Wednesday entry.  Why?  Well, I'm too lazy to do the required work to formulate a Wednesday post of course!  :-).   Ok, that, and there are some cool tracks / notes in there that I feel deserve to be on the site again.  I've weeded out most of the 'no-so-cool' stuff and provided an abbreviated 'greatest hits' package below:

Restored From Backup   Ahh, let the inner A/V geek shine through: A BBC white paper titled Acoustic modeling - approximations to the real world.  Sound propagation is a complex subject, especially inside enclosed spaces. In nearly all branches of acoustics, models are constructed, either physically or more often as conceptual simplifications, in order to make the problems of design and prediction tractable.  This article will help you get a handle on how the 'Pros' conduct sound modeling.  Adobe PDF / 230Kb.

Restored From Backup   The Anatomy of An Album Leak: For every five or six albums produced in the United States, it is said there is at least one major hit song or album leaked early. In the worst case scenario the entire album may be leaked hours, days, or even weeks before the scheduled release date. Traditionally, it's been a headache for some musicians and a nightmare for record executives. This is a look at the practice of leaks: who leaks, why they leak and the varying responses from Artists, Record Labels and the various media outlets.

Restored From Backup Always on top of the cool stuff: Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity has an interesting article available titled: High Definition 1080p TV: Why You Should Be Concerned which offers some great reading - check it out.

Restored From Backup My lady and I attended the local theater last night for a screening of the latest Bourne flick: The Bourne Ultimatum.  It was 'ok', though, in my opinion - not as good as previous episodes of the Bourne series.  The fight scenes are a blur of fast-moving camera shots that look like they were filmed by a drunkard with a handicam, and there wasn't a single foxy lady to be seen onscreen.  At least Bond always offers some eye-candy between scenes of senseless killing...  Sure there was a gal, Julia Stiles, but she displayed absolutely no 'sexiness' in this outing.  What was more of a letdown however, was the concessions stands.  A small iced tea and a small popcorn is eight bucks!  Imagine a family of four and each purchases  (or, should I say: "Dad buys"), a medium popcorn and medium drink for each: that's $4.75 each item times eight items (a pop and popcorn each): $38.00, plus tickets, another $7 bucks each - $66.00, plus parking, plus gas, etc. - $70.00 just to take the family to a movie!  Fuck, and major theaters wonder why folks are moving away from the big-screen and into home theaters!  If you are gonna' make us sit in uncomfortable seats, enduring musty smells and sticky floors, at least sell us your junk-food for a fair price!

Restored From Backup So ya' want a pair of mini speakers, but you don't wanna' drop a few thousand bucks on the table for the deal?  Sounds familiar, I hear it all the time from friends.  One company that I never hesitate to direct them towards is AV123.  Their products continually garner positive reviews online: which is exactly where you'll find their products.   AV123 is a direct-from-manufacturer speaker builder, and we all know that cutting out the middle-man will save you around 100% markup right off the top!  I thought you might like to take a look at the RS250 MKII in either Rosewood or Ebony veneers $700.00 US, with a free in-home trial offer.  (Edit: Currently (Jan 15th 08') -  Five Hundred Bucks A Set - Very Cool Deal!!!)

Restored From Backup New technologies ahoy: THX has just released a new bit O' marketing for us called 'THX Loudness Plus'.  As usual with new technologies, it'll only be available through the latest, greatest A/V kit, but give it a year or so and we'll likely be seeing it on almost every receiver produced.

Restored From Backup That's it for me this week: enjoy your weekend, squeeze in as much fun as you possibly can, Rock N Roll with all your might and do something you don't usually do - cause' life is really goddamned short!  Here is one more bit O' Rockin' for ya' before I head out for the weekend: Amplified Heat - Heart Attack (256Kb/s MP3 / No DRM - Crank It!)

Restored From Backup 'Hump day' friends: time for celebrating short work-weeks and countdowns to the impending weekend!  I found links to a couple of live-in-studio tracks to share with you this evening: John P. Strohm's Everyday Life.  If that's too passive for ya', check out a the 'Brit' Sounding Assembly Now as they cover the Boss's Dancing In The Dark (!)

Restored From Backup Looking for writers!  Course' I am, this little hobby site deserves another perspective.  If you like working for dirt (Volunteer) and have an ear for good music ~ with a slight emphasis on Canadian bands, then by all means contact me at your convenience and we'll talk.  If you wanna' know what kind of music I dig, just 'listen to this site'.  Though I cannot post old-school, major-label / copyrighted music such as Steppenwolf / Zeppelin / Floyd / Stones / Sonny Terry etc., at least much of what is posted here often reflects the old-timers in some way.

Restored From Backup Picked up a great new set of headphones from eBay the other day.  Audio Technica's ATH-M40fs.  These are quite likely the best phones' I've owned in years.  Perhaps better than the old Koss or Sennheisers cans from days gone by.  MSR was $150.00 US: eBay was $56.00 US shipped to my door - nice!  They are generally in the $60.00 US range on eBay at any time.  I can heartily recommend them if you dig accuracy and clean bass - and who doesn't?  However, there are some other cool things about these cans:

11' left side-entry cable
Field-replaceable cables, drivers and ear pads
Convenient one-side exit
Rotating earpieces for easy one-ear monitoring

Restored From Backup Wow, great 'BC Day'' long weekend we had there!  I'd say that it deserves to be celebrated with British Columbia's own Ox, and their cover of Surrender.  192Kb/s MP3, no DRM.  Free kick in the butt to whoever can recognize the original artist from 'back in the day'!  Ya man, they were cheap, full of tricks - and I went through the eighties rocking to their groove.  The track is odd, but wittedly nostalgic!  If that one makes you a little leery of Ox's 'sound', then sooth yourself with a taste of their own work as posted earlier on this site Miss Idaho.

Restored From Backup It looks like Starbucks is hosting it's very own version of the 'Idol' theme with a contest to see who will be the next Starbucks music label act.  Not much here that I dig except perhaps the Keith Everett track...  If you like any of what you hear, simply right-click and release on a track and select Download This Song...

Restored From Backup I continually make reference to how amazing it is that a pathetically dilapidated (data-wise), signal such as Mpeg can sound great - and I continually get flack from golden-eared audiofools about my stance on 320Kb/s transparency.  Well, it turns out that a group of qualified individuals from the BBC (D G Kirby (BBC) and K Watanabe (NHK), were interested in the phenomenon - enough to put together a little unsighted auditioning and present a paper to the IEE at a International Broadcasting Convention - in 1997.  Even when employing antiquated codecs that are eleven years old, (testing conducted in 96'), they came to the same conclusion as I do daily (see the 'conclusions' section in the paper).  If 320Kb/s is audibly transparent to the human ear in (nearly) every case - and that's leaving less than one quarter of the original signal intact, then it would be safe to say that doubling it to 640Kb/s would be a safe bet to capture the signal without any (audible) loss.  This still leaves us with more than half of the original signal simply thrown out - and yet, the sound would be fantastic - freekin' amazing how incapable the human ear is at discerning low-level loss in audio signals!

Restored From Backup Can't get enough of that Canadian Rock N Roll!  It never ceases to amazes me how many talented acts exist up here in the Great White North!  Drop some weight clockwise on the volume control for Bodega's Finer Than Fine Print  - Thanx' to Tarbox Road Studios for Free & Legal links!  More about the band, and another free track, here.

Restored From Backup Has anyone noticed that Starbucks has become a music label?  Damned right, the over-priced coffee shop has been signing acts left, right and centre.  Not just independent up and coming acts, hell no, big-time acts that each and every one of us has spent hundreds of hours listening to over the years: Paul McCartney, Dave Matthews, Joni Mitchell and a pile of others.  I find it interesting how easy its becoming to be your own record label.  With the death of record stores as we once knew them, and the stupefying depth of the Internet - to the point of being "too much of a good thing" / "too big to find stuff", location, location, location, is becoming the key to music distribution.  Heck, there are two or three Starbucks outlets here, and my town isn't too damn big.  What's next: Zeppelin's new release out on a Tim Horton's music label?  There are four of them here, and only two 'CD stores'.  Food for thought... and while you're chewing that one over, have a listen to some of the Starbuck music label - 'HearMusic' alumni.

Restored From Backup HDTV sent me an email the other day which I thought was pretty interesting: Hi-Def DVD - Audio Streaming Over HDMI.  The idea of using anything other than old-school cable will bring fear to the hearts of audiofools, but for the rest of us, its a step forward.  Have a look.

Restored From Backup Little tight for time tonight: minimal posts are forthcoming: lend an ear to SeaWolf - You're a Wolf

Restored From Backup Those of you in the know - realize that a well-built direct-drive turntable kicks ass - contrary to the bullshit which spews forth from the audiofool community.  The genera has simply gained a tasteless reputation due to the many hundreds of low-end, plastic DD designs which flooded the market back in the early 80's.  Fact of the matter is that a well-engineered direct drive TT is a thing of beauty!  Came upon a site called, fittingly: Direct Drive - which agrees with me, check it out.  Speaking of which: My 8/10 Systemdek IIx is up for sale - cheap, contact me if you are interested or offer me a quality direct-drive unit in trade; Denon, JVC or B&O for instance.

Restored From Backup On the topic of B&O: Have a look at this classic B&O fan-site.  Its quite well put together - I thought it was the corporate site at first - and very informative.

Restored From Backup New month, new twist in our musical presentations: Canadian Bluegrass / Rock / Country pioneers FiftyMen give us a taste of Rockin' PQ style: 22 Minutes.  Crank it up, pour a glass and check out their homepage! 

Restored From Backup Who among us isn't incorporating computers in our music listening in some way?  The problems is hard disk drive and fan noises...  As usual with market vacuums, folks come up with solutions: in this case, 'End PC Noise.com' is steppin' up to the plate with a load of toys.

Restored From Backup And in classic April Fools fashion, (no, I'm not picking on the audiofools again...), I bring you Jeff Milner's Back-masking Site.  remember how some nutbars used to say that listening to music backwards would subject you to satanic messages?  Well, here's your chance to find out :-)

Restored From Backup Here's one for all you crazy-ass tube freaks out there: kinda' like 'Tube-Porn' by the looks of it.  Apparently there is some kinda' issue in identifying tubes on the market???

Restored From Backup So, that's it then: another month of our lives on this rock flying through space... pissed away doing exactly what?  Well, hopefully cranking Rock N' Roll like this bit O' Canadiana: Ox - Miss Idaho

Restored From Backup Here's a slightly odd step-back in time: 'Hi-Fi Literature': some dude has put together a website that highlights a great many old-school, and I'm talkin' really old-school, A/V corporate product literature packages.  Whatever..., its interesting in a nostalgic sorta' way.

Restored From Backup Nearly a year ago I noted an excellent site called the Hi-Fi Museum, and I'm sure that many of you spent a great deal of time reading through the many informative articles it contains.  However, I wanted to point out the fact that, aside from the large collection of owner's manuals and hardware highlights, the site also offers some really interesting stuff in it's 'Library' section.  Do check it out.

Restored From Backup Those of you with USB devices that you wish to interface with far-away A/V hardware, look no further than the USB Superbooster.  This cool little gizmo breaks the limitations of the USB cable distance specification by boosting and pumping the digital USB feed over standard CAT5e cable.  Not the cheapest solution, but pretty much the only one for this particular task.  While you're there, have a look around Impact Acoustics site, they build a great many other cool gizmos to overcome odd installation issues.

Restored From Backup Received an 'alert' today from what was once one of my favorite haunts on the Net': Home Theater Shack.  Looks like one of their members has stepped up and conducted a series of subwoofer evaluations and published it online.  Have a peek here.  The company builds some pretty crazy shit: Case in point...

Restored From Backup Now wasn't that a kick-ass weekend!  Funkin' A' ~ lots of family, friends, feasting, and mud-splattered bodies hurdling at break-neck speed down single-track in the mountains!  Lets ease on into the last week of July 07' with an eponymous Canadian track from The Wooden Sky.  This is really nice stuff, if you want to learn more about the band, check out this link.

Restored From Backup All you Zeppelin fans out there might be interested to learn that the masters have re-released The Song Remains The Same, but with six new tracks.  After the previous announcement of the band reforming around John Paul Jones's kid on drums, it looks to me like this is the best effort they had up their sleeves as an album to rally around in preparation for a world tour... time will tell, but that's my prediction.

Restored From Backup Always on the lookout for cool stuff, I happened upon this nifty little external, USB 2.0 sound card from, of all companies: Phillips.  I perused a few reviews of the 'Aurilium' and it seems to be impressing folk all over the web.  Couple that with the incredibly affordable price and it looks like we have a winner!  Lets hope the audiofools don't get wind of this one or the price may go through the roof!  Amazon.com currently has a number of these devices, apparently 'in-stock', starting at under 60 bucks.  There is also this solution from Onkyo, but I'm having a heck of a time locating one...

Restored From Backup If you are one of those rare folk who still hold and cherish the old faithful DAT format and its sundry, you'll feel quite at home on the DAT-Heads page and mailing list.

Restored From Backup Those of you crazy enough to put your audio reproduction faith in the old tube will get a charge out of The Cathode Ray Tube Site.  Enjoy, tap at cha' all later...

Restored From Backup Late in the evening, half a bottle of really great Inniskillin 04' Merlot and a slab of [dark] chocolate later... Been playing my fingers to the bone attempting to learn (desecrate is more like it), both Kirk Hammett and Bruce Cockburn's excellent guitar workmanship, and I've had an epiphany!  If more of these stupid sons of a bitches who ramble on about cable-sound would just pick up an instrument and listen to what real sound feels like, they wouldn't waste so goddamned much time making up bullshit about wire!  Bloody-well right man!  Oh, and on the topic of Metallica: I recently introduced (see below) the gals on harp who were doing some magical work based on Metallica's art form - check out what can be done on cello: A real thing of beauty! - Apocalyptica - The Unforgiven.  Yes I'm a huge Metallica fan - at one time they were the best metal band in the world!  Heck, lemme' tell ya' a little story: back in 86' I saw em' in, of all places, Brandon, Manitoba.  They were playing in an agricultural arena, where cattle were often sold at auctions.  Less than 100 people showed up for the gig, in a building that would hold thousands - those Mennonites weren't much for heavy metal back in the day.  It was fuckin' great, one could stand anywhere they wanted, every spot was fantastic as we basically just lined the stage all night!  I can still remember Kirk laughing and looking out upon us saying, "shit man, it’s like our own little party here tonight, lets fucking rock this place"... as he led the band into a violent rendition of Hit The Lights: nice...  Hell, what else can I cram in here about the former Godz' of metal...  If you are interested in hearing the best bass solo on the face of the earth, seek out former Metallica bassist, Cliff Burton's (RIP): Anesthesia / Pulling Teeth

Restored From Backup Funkin' A man, its finally Friday!  This can mean only one thing: Rock out for all you're worth!  Lean a little crankage onto the The Archibalds tracks - Sinking Ships & Rain & Tunder (yes, the spelling is accurate)

Restored From Backup The July issue of Affordable Audio is on the Net', and this one is even more disappointing than the last one!  It seems that the rag's editors have leaned even further into the bullshit and lies underworld of the audiofool than ever before.  Witness this insane description of what happens when you place a couple of little wooden blocks under one of their bench amplifiers: "I placed them under my Micromega Minium amp and the effect was little short of dazzling. I was listening to the matching CD player, and the sound opened out considerably. It really was a delight. Digital took on almost analogue qualities, with extra air and space around each note, and a slight deepening of the sound stage. It really was more musical."

Umm, excuse me sir, but I do believe that you are in fact - full of shit...  Where do these folks come from?  Are they on the take or just incredibly gullible?  The world as we know it is in trouble - people like this actually walk among us...  Taste the latest load of bullshit here.  (Adobe PDF formatted document).  What a joke... the [only] thing that this edition has going for it is the article on guitar pioneer Les Paul.

Restored From Backup The Truth About Monster Cable - Grand Finale (Part III),  As usual, Gizmodo has some cool stuff on tap: a shootout between Monster Cable's $250.00, 35 foot HDMI cable and one from online, low-priced source Monoprice, a $35.00 version of the same length.  Read on.

Restored From Backup Ok... just what we needed: another cable / port interface!  It seems that some folks out there feel that HDMI doesn't cut it, thus are making every attempt to initiate a campaign for a technology called DisplayPort.  Read all about it.

Restored From Backup All of you folks who love to hate cabling will dig this next one, but it has me a little uneasy: I mean, hell - aren't we bathed in enough electromagnetic radiation as it is?  The state of Wireless HDMI and WirelessHD

Restored From Backup Lets close this session with some Canadian Rock n Roll, care of Montreal's The Stills: In The Beginning (192Kb/s No DRM - Care of Vise Records)  Tap at cha' all Monday.

Restored From Backup Wait, one more last-minute addition: Harptallica:  Metallica's 'Unforgiven', done by a couple of harp players!  As a die-hard, old-school Metallica fan (The Black Album was the beginning of the end), I can dig this effort!  These gals have a full-length CD out, covering several LPs worth of Metallica's older work - Very Cool!

 

Restored From Backup This reminds me of something from the 80's, imported from the UK or Australia.  Think of the Men At Work / Payolas era...  Brighton Ma - Ballad Of Coolhand.  (192Kb/s MP3  No DRM)

Restored From Backup If that doesn't spin your button, check out Iron & Wine's new track : Boy With The Coin (192Kb/s MP3 - No DRM).

Restored From Backup It looks like a money-grab, it reads like a money-grab, but is it?  You decide: THX Introduces Performance Benchmark and Product Certification for HDTVs

Restored From Backup Now this is one of the odder sites I have come upon: RecordNerd.  It looks to be about showing off one's record collection as well as seeking trades and offering up material they no longer want.  Kinda' confusing layout, but I guess once a fella' got the hang of it...

Restored From Backup As always, I am happy to present you with a paper by one of my favorite A/V authors: Tom Nousaine's Urban Audio Legends.  Read, learn, enjoy - it’s a far cry more than you'll ever get from any of the commonly available A/V press at your local magazine rack, and a hell of a lot more than any almost any online forums!

Restored From Backup I've always been a fan of John Hiatt's spin on rockin', but I've never really known much about the man behind the strings.  This interview-cum-album sampler MP3 filled in a lot of the spaces and offered a great way to get a taste for some of John's latest work at the same time.  Check it out, I think you'll find it as enjoyable as did I.  (17 minutes, 11 seconds - a large file of nearly 17 megabytes)

Restored From Backup Being a long-time PC technician, and having spent innumerable hours auditioning tracks for this site on my computer, I'm naturally fond of the convenience of 'instant-selection / instant-music'.  No CDs to keep immaculate, no pandering over the ultimate cleanliness of vinyl - digital files are the proverbial cat's ass!  Historically, obtaining an excellent-quality sound-card meant paying big-bucks and fidgeting around with arcane software-driver tweaks.  ASUS means to put an end to this with a couple of solid contenders in the battle for music aficionado and computer-gamer's hearts: enter the Xonar series of high-quality, fair-cost, fully shielded sound cards.  I had noted this product in pre-release form earlier on the site, but now it looks as though the product is ready to roll out to the masses.  You'll note one of the many cool features offered is a workaround to strip DRM from audio files.  A September 07' launch at around $200.00 appears to be the line..

Restored From Backup I've always been floored by the cost of projection units.  I mean, look at that little plastic box, how the hell can something with so few parts cost so damned much?  The optics in it are no better than my high-end camera, the bulb no match for the fancy lights out front of my modern car and the electronics are a joke compared to what's in my laptop - yet the prices of these little projectors are out of this world!  I suspect that the manufacturers are simply  keeping financial pace with the competition: large-screen plasma and LCD monitors, nothing more.  Anyway, enough ranting!  One manufacturer appears to be, albeit, ever so slowly, moving towards building products that offer us 1080p on the 'really big-screen', at a price which approaches sanity.  Enter Optoma.

Restored From Backup This day in Music: Bob Dylan goes electric and blows the minds of many.  Check out this excellent article on the subject.  As for me, I'm one of those who feel that it was the best move he ever made!

Restored From Backup Anything but predictable ~ that's how I like this site to groove.  On that note, check out the rockin' country sounds of the Wrinkle Neck Mules - Black Skies For The High & Mighty and Cumberland Sound.

Restored From Backup Those of you 'in the know', or those with kids into music, will no doubt have heard of the popular Guitar Hero computer game.  As with so many other applications these days, a freeware clone has emerged on the scene, this one called Frets On Fire: undoubtedly, the most fun you can have with a wireless keyboard!

Restored From Backup That grandpa of Canadian A/V magazines is back: Audio Ideas Guide has finally freshened the face of their old site on the web and brought us a few new stories.  For the most part, Andrew Marshall's reviews are realistic and on-target, and I like his overall summary of most audiophiles: "misguided, obsessive compulsive and moderately paranoid".  I'd say that was pretty accurate!  In fact, if you go wayyy back, Audio Ideas Guide was among the leaders in pointing out the idiocy of so-called "High-End" speaker cables in the article "Beating the Bafflegab & Filtering the FooFooDust", [Hayward, James, Part 1- Marshall's Audio Ideas Guide (Canada) Summer/Fall 94].  Truth... its just sooo rare in our little hobby - savor it when you can!

Restored From Backup In case you missed it, and I hope so if reading T.A.S is your guiding light...  An interview with Bob Ludwig in the June / July 07' issue.  2.4 megabyte Adobe PDF formatted file

Restored From Backup I keep sayin' it, and slowly but surely its coming to fruition: affordable combination Blu-Ray / HD-DVD players.  Actually, in this case we're talking about something even better: combination burners!  Many of you are moving to integrate your computers and sound systems and these two components will fit right into that plan.  Check out LG's latest shot across the bow of the idiotic 'format wars'.  Couple them with a few of Western Digital's new 'Eco' One Terabit hard disk drives and you have a dandy A/V server!

Restored From Backup Smokin'!  So what if the past weekend was kinda' overcast and threateningly moist: nothing a few bottles of red wine, fine friends on Saturday, followed by a massive climb / high-speed downhill with da' bike boyz' in the mountains on Sunday won't cure!  Lets slide on into the new week with a track from the John Lennon influenced Shannon Wright - Everyone's Got Their Own Part To Play

Restored From Backup Klipsch has somewhat of a cult status in the audiogeek community, thanks in no small part to their much heralded Klipsch-Horn loudspeaker system.  As it turns out, the manufacturer also holds their clientele in somewhat the same high regard.  This summer, as with the past half-dozen, Klipsch held its annual pilgrimage where devotees could meet staff and audition the latest Klipsch gear.  Sounds like a really cool idea.  Hey, I have one: perhaps cable companies could hold live events where they demonstrate unsighted auditions between 'audiophile' fifty dollar per foot copper and fifty cent per foot hardware-store cables... oh, wait, that wouldn't work... what was I thinking!?

Restored From Backup Wanna' back up your iTunes files, but don't want to mess with potentially messy cracking software?  Try this easy, straightforward and legal method.

Restored From Backup I've always been an advocate of solid-state media and apparently, Sony is too.  Check out their HDR-CX7 camcorder.  It records it's HD Audio / Video onto memory sticks, eight gigabytes at a time.  This eliminates shake and impact issues, while allowing better battery life and throws in a pile of features to boot.

Jan 13    A Sunday post, masquerading as Monday...  One of the most time-consuming things about running Cdnav.com is the location and auditioning of music that I dig enough to post on the site.  Most music sites just post any old thing to fill space and 'flesh-out' the site.  Me, I need to dig the tunes enough to wanna crank it up on my own system, before I'll post it for your listening pleasure.  Sure my musical interests run all over the map, but, hell - so should yours - life's too short to listen to one or two genera's exclusively!  Much of the time I'll audition between 20 to 50 tracks (sometimes more!), before I hit one I dig; tonight was different, I nailed a Free & Legal, fully crankable tune on the second try!  Blast the Hell outta' The Whigs - Right Hand On My Heart.  160Kb/s No DRM!  Check out their homepage if you dig em'

Jan 13th    What would a new week be without yet another audio forum?  Hell, I just don't know, and neither will you until you visit FullRangeDrivers.com and their forum!  Now, don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of full range drivers - rather, I'm a multi-driver kinda' guy; give me a satellite / subwoofer setup any day - but there are those crazy cats among us who's distain for crossovers reaches to the extreme, thus... enjoy.  PS: Thanks to Charivari for trying to glean 'forum posts' from the main site on Cdnav.com and re-post them to the Other Forums' section where they should be.  Two Thumbs Up Dude!

Jan 13th    There seems to be a bit of a plague of notion creeping throughout the A/V/Music industry with regards to reengineering music distribution.  I've just read another post where individuals are asking that Internet Service Providers be allowed to jack up their rates, thus allowing us access to limitless free music A'La carte.  I stated my position on this idea earlier in the week, and its good to see others debate the concept.  Check out Michael Arrington's Tech Crunch article.  Hell, if it were only me I was thinking of, no problem, what's five bucks, a 'special coffee' once a month?  However, one has to think of all the others who use the Internet for other purposes; porn for instance...er, just kidding...

Jan 13th    An addendum to yesterday's CBC Radio Concerts On Demand post: I'd like to add an interesting addition hit the main page this afternoon: Oscar Peterson Tribute - Simply The Best - Recorded 1/12/2008 at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, Ontario.  Gotta' admit, I'm not a big fan of his actual music, but I know amazing talent when I hear it and this old dude had it in spades!  Drop in for a listen.

Jan 13th    The restless bass-junkies over at Home Theater Forums have done it again: Check out the Oct. 2007 Subwoofer Tests

Jan 13th    In case you missed it: DRM is Dead...  Amazon to sell Sony BMG songs free of DRM.  They join the 'new Napster' in pushing sane music distribution concepts.  However - it looks like that old spy 'Watermarking' is making a comeback...

Jan 13th    Telus and Yahoo are actually good for something(!?!)...  Calendar Of Canadian Concerts.  Have a peek at the listings (January to May 08'), to get an idea of what's worth seeing in your neck of the woods.

Jan 13th    Eco-TVs?  Phillips has pushed low-power consumption to new lows with the release of their new 42PFL series flat-screens.  They've also constructed the case of recycled materials and employed lead-free / low-mercury construction techniques.  Very nice; may others build on this excellent example!

Jan 13th    Lets caps off this post with a link to one of the Internet's greatest repositories of live music: Wolfgang's Vault.  Today's featured band is the one and only Queen - Live at Maida Vale Studios on October 28, 1977.  (Sign-up with any username / password.  There is no authorization email BS to deal with)

Jan 12th    A (very rare) Saturday morning post!  Stumbled upon an all-Canadian kinda' music thang' that I felt needed to be shared amongst my friends here on Cdnav.com: CBC Radio's Concerts On Demand.  With a PC connected to your stereo system (if not, make it this weekend's project!), one can enjoy a wide selection of live concerts from hundreds of artists.  I'm off to sample the latest snowfall in the hills, take care and may the best of all good things come your way this weekend!

Jan 10th    Told ya' it was going to be a while between posts :-)> So, Thursday the tenth eh?  Its dumping' hard and heavy outdoors at the moment, more base for the local ski hills is always a good thing - allows me to dream of a weekend of tree-boarding and forget the fact that my week is over-committed beyond belief.  So what to lay on you music-crazed buggers today?  Shit man, I've previewed perhaps 75 or 80 tracks this evening and I just cannot believe how much goddamned shitty music is out there!  In a world where millions of folks actually think that RadioHead's new LP is a gift from the music godz', the Net' is awash in crappy pop / new-rock bands!  I'll throw down the gauntlet tonight with a blast from the past which is exactly opposite of everything that the masses seem to find so appealing.  The lady who raised me a good part of my early years was a big fan of country and Western; classic C&W mind you, not this new-wave of poser / duster-wanna-be's.  Here a tip of the hat to Johnny Cash, Willy & Waylon and Merle Haggard Wishing All These Old Things Were New.  (MP3 courtesy of ANTI Records)  (Ya, thought that'd fuck with your heads...)

Jan 10th    So another Consumer Electronics Show has come and gone, what new gizmos did it have in store for us to ogle?  OLED TVs are still in the running, despite some manufacturer's hinting that organic light-emitting diode technology will be tough to profitably manufacture.  ATI (now AMD), showed off a promo of a PC graphics card that's rumored to be as powerful as a Cray-1 Supercomputer (!), Samsung showed off a new, ultra-slim 52" LCD screen, General Motors rolled out some new electric and hydrogen-powered automobiles (Beta Releases :-)), and just for kicks, check out this video titled "Best Of CES 2008" (I dig the Alienware Curved Monitor).  Oh, and lets not forget Booth-Babes!  I was however, more than a little disappointed to see a lack of mention of dual-format (Blu-Ray & HD-DVD) players at the show, aside from the hullabaloo over Blu-Ray's media conquest this past week)

Jan 10th    Let me take ya' back, waaaaaayyyyyy back to the early eighties when a rag called Audio Basics was being published by Van Alstine.  He touches upon are some great topics; legitimate tweaks that appear to be valid, as well as a load of discussion on room acoustics and manipulation thereof.  Dig in, there is enough reading here to keep you going for days!

Jan 10th    Full HD-TV (1080p), along with 7.1 channel surround over satellite?  Sounds like its on the cusp of becoming reality.  Have a look at what XStream HD is offering on their site.

Jan 10th    Speaker burn-in: Fact or Fiction?  The crazy cats over at Matrix HiFi sent letters out to a wide selection of speaker manufacturers and this is what they received in return - very interesting!

Jan 10th    I've always wanted to incorporate an 'Album Review' section on this forum, but hell, I just don't have the time!  I guess that George Graham's Weekly Album Reviews will have to stand-in by proxy as the source of of entertainment in this regard.  Let me know via email or the forums if this does it for ya' - and if so I'll make it a 'sticky' part of the forum site.  (That background just has to go... what a mindfunk...)  Check out the (massive) selection of MP3s while you are visiting his site and peruse the huge array of LPs / CDs he has reviewed.  Most, if not all of his reviews are complete with images, text, detailed voice-overs and of course, the tunes - Fuckin' A!

Jan 10th    Ok, thats it, I'm outta' here for another few days.  Might tap at cha' again this week, then again, might not...  the hills are calling and the liquor stores are open late...

Jan 7th    So that's that eh'?  I guess I milked the living shit outta' the holiday season / days off about the best I could!  That was some seriously classic avoiding work.  I'm damned proud of the way I dodged responsibility, ducked expectations and generally slacked off, spending most of my free time drinking / eating and boarding at an assortment of local ski hills!  How shall I celebrate Cdnav.com's reawakening in 2008?  How about a dash of Canadian music, compliments of Toronto's Yonder - Let You Down.  192Kb/s MP3 - Track compliments of Zunior Records

Jan 7th    What would a new year be like without me hammering away on liars, crooks and generally full of crap audiofools?  I guess we'll never know :-)  Several cats in Spain have amassed the largest collection of [unsighted] audio equipment evaluations I have yet seen.  Do yourself a favor and take a look at this well-done array of honest assessments ranging from cables to CD players - amplifiers to system modifications.  Two thumbs up and a hearty round of applause goes out to these honest lads!  Note that the link I provide here is a URL run through AltaVista's BabelFish translation service.  The end-result is a little shaky in places, but the gist of the thing comes out loud and clear.  Those of you who read these words and do the usual "oh, there has to be something wrong" flippant rejection of logic - I ask you to simply conduct your own unsighted evaluations with level-matched (!!!) components in a way that there is no possibility (whatsoever), of cheating / peeking.  You'll see what we mean around here when we constantly harp on folks to try judging equipment without the unavoidable bias of viewing it.

Jan 7th    Here is a rather broad montage of links via a site called ePanorama.net.  From what I gather, its more or less aimed at professional sound systems, but they delve into a number of subjects that apply to audio / video nuts like us as well.  Heck, if you really feel like burning off valuable minutes of your life, they even have a forum!

Jan 7th    There are a certain few folks in the industry whom I sincerely admire: Tom Nousaine is one of them.  This cat has taken on all comers with his stripped-down brand of honesty, integrity and common sense.  Take some time to kick back with your favorite beverage absorb Toms' Audio's Top Urban Legend - 'Equipment Burn-in'.  (Adobe PDF formatted document 437Kb)

Jan 7th    Ever wonder who to call when the shit hits the fan with your A/V equipment?  Fret no longer, I think I've hit the communication jackpot with this Consumer Electronics Customer Support Contact List

Jan 7th    I keep referring to this as an A/V site, so I guess I had better post some video here once in a while!  How about splicing Audio & Video in the same flick?  Check out Meta-cafe's How Its Made: Building A Speaker.  Much of this you've no-doubt 'assumed' over the years (those few of you who haven't disassembled a bunch of speakers in the past).  For the rest of you it'll be a learning experience.

Jan 7th    You'll find bits an pieces of information that'll help you determine the value of kit you are buying or selling all over the web, but most of them want a fee for the information.  Alternately, you can pop over to The Stereonow Audiophile Price Guide for used items.  Its UK-based, but features regional information and will give you a decent idea of product values across a variety of so-called 'high-end' brands.  If you need help with conversion, check out XE's Currency Converter.

Jan 7th    Eight posts; what an outburst after my long hiatus!  Well, you'd better suck this one up real good cause' I'm not sure when the next one will be.  You see, I'm getting used to my new ways of sloth!  Anyway, back to matters at hand: Henry Rollins in 'rolllin' into a city near you soon.  You should go... no really, you should fucking go!  Hope the profanity doesn't offend you cause, if so, you're going to be pretty goddamned offended after an hour or two of listening to Henry!  I first came to admire H.R's work as the mouthpiece of the now defunct Black Flag (a sample of their work is to be found here and everywhere else on the Net').  Here is where you can enjoy Henry's solo diatribe:

March 2nd    Montreal - National Music Hall

March 3rd    Winnipeg - Burton Cummings Theatre

March 18th    Regina - Conexus Arts Centre

March 20th    Victoria - McPherson Playhouse

March 21st    Nanaimo - Port Theatre

And this is a taste of what you'll get (Google Videos)

Jan 5th 2008    Well, I'm not really "back", working on the site yet, that'll not happen until after the 7th of Jan when I resume working, however, I've prepared a rebuttal to a local magazine article and I simply felt like posting it here for all to see and comment on:

Read Bill Henderson’s recent article ‘Chicken Shit Man and other file-sharing mysteries’ (BC Musician - issue 59, page 8:

http://www.bcmusicianmag.com/images/DecemberIssueWeb.pdf

As much as I respect the man and his work with Chilliwack, I disagree with his stance on how best to go about monetizing file-sharing. 

In his article, Bill suggests that the future lies with a blanket-fee for all high-speed internet access users - whether they use P2P or not.  In my opinion, this solution would never be accepted by either subscribers as a whole or internet Service Providers – period.  Bill’s television-access analogy simply isn’t applicable to P2P music sharing and there is no way folks are going to go back to the dark ages of dial-up access in order to circumnavigate additional fees, as suggested by Mr. Henderson. 

Bits and pieces of ‘file-sharing done right’ are already in place – it’s just that prices are far too high to ever catch on with the majority of music lovers.  The current norm of “a buck a track” gets pretty expensive in the long run; tens of thousands of dollars for music-junkies to fill an iPod for instance.  Folks can rant all they want about morals, but there is just no way anyone is going to pay $200.00 for an iPod or other music player, then spend thousands of dollars filling it with low-bitrate music files!  I run a computer sales / service business and see tens of hundreds of PCs every year.  Very few (less than 5 percent), of folks from all walks of life that I meet employ iTunes to acquire music in the first place; rather, they run LimeWire or a Bittorrent client to collect music and iTunes as a means to move the data to their iPod and sort MP3s / build play-lists. 

iTunes / Amazon.com / AOL etc., need to be selling tracks at 15 cents a pop, and users should have the ability to pick and choose amongst file formats and bitrates, to whit: all tracks should be available in a selection ranging from lossless 16 and 24-bit WAV, to lossy .MP3 and perhaps .OOG file formats.  Record companies would even catch the elitist audiophile crowd with such flexible supply strategies.  ‘Lossy’ formats such as .MP3 and .OOG should be made available in a wide array of quality resolutions: 128 / 192 / 320 Kb/s, enabling end-users to decide for themselves what balance of audio-quality vs. file-size they feel comfortable with. 

Payment systems should be user-friendly & ultra-flexible, including VISA / Mastercard / PayPal and a credit / debit system through resellers.  When I say ‘user-friendly’, I don’t mean from a computer-geek point of view; rather, from an end-user experience.  Nearly all of the software applications I see daily do not come across as ‘user-friendly’ for my clients because they are written by computer geeks who view the interface from an experienced PC user perspective.  The software [must] be evaluated and focused towards completely non-computer-savvy end-users before being released.  The Mavis-Beacon typing-tutor application is a good example of a user-friendly interface – Microsoft’s latest Office Suite 2007 is not… 

It’s useless to attempt the shutdown of Limewire / eMule / Bit Torrent etc., instead, bring them into the fold as the source of legal music.  Pretty much every individual currently ‘stealing music’ is running these applications and feels comfortable with their interfaces.  Leverage this knowledge and familiarity while building a newer, even easier to use application front-end that can be supplied to all distributors / agents when it’s ready.  Folks behind the development of currently-in-use application will welcome the monetization of music if they see that it’s being supplied at a fair cost and they are allowed a small cut of said fees.  Even a penny a track for application coders / associations / companies would reap them thousands of dollars a day! 

Is this going to bring back the good old days of $15.00 bucks a CD in profit for the record companies?  Nope, that’s history folks - but look at where the industry is now: tens of millions of tracks a month that slip through their fingers via P2P!  Will everyone embrace this new strategy?  No, there will still be music thieves out there, but consider the millions of dollars that the industry would reap by moving to this new distribution paradigm – money which is currently unrealized potential. 

What will drive the public to use a paid / legal solution over a free, yet illegal one? 

- Speed

- Safety

- Quality

- Selection

- Reliability

- Ease of use 

…to name just a few things off the top of my head. 

With the present system of illegal file swapping, folks don’t know if a track will begin to download or not when they select it (due to the nature of P2P networks).  If the file does begin downloading, many times it’s infuriatingly slow and end-users have no control over the quality of the track.  Many of the currently available P2P tracks have been ‘ripped’ using inferior hardware / software configurations, producing files which exhibit odd sounds interspersed through the track and / or tracks which end prematurely with an abrupt cut-off where there should be a fade.

Additionally, oftentimes a track will simply fail to complete downloading at all.  If the download process completes successfully, users have no guarantee whether they can trust that the file is free of executable virus’s / trojans / worms / spyware.  A good part of my daily work is cleaning PCs of the aforementioned afflictions – the vast majority of which originate from P2P application-networks! 

If record companies were to put together or lease space on a server-farm (a fast & powerful collection of industrial-strength computers acting as one), thus guaranteeing incredibly quick, secure, high-quality music file downloads, the industry would have a virtual goldmine bigger than anything the Internet has yet seen. 

Andrew D.

PS: Bill – Saw your gig at Penticton’s School Auditorium a couple of months back – you needed to get rid of the very loud 60Hz hum – everyone in attendance was mumbling about it – My wife and I got up and left half-way through the show – that’s how annoying it was.  I was disappointed to hear you actually thank the sound-crew for their work in setting up the system…(!)

Dec 21st    Very cool, its Friday, its the beginning of my holidays from responsibility of every kind and I have some crazy tunes to share with you.  If its Christmas music you are expecting, then this isn't the place to look and listen.  Lets kick it off with some Reggae: Midnite (sp) Banking In The Pig. 

Dec 21st    I've provided expansive coverage of turntables over the past couple of years, but not much in the way of cartridges.  Lets balance this out a bit with a link to The Cartridge Database (with a side-project The Tonearm Database)

Dec 21st    I detest reviewers | I like interviews...  If you've no idea about the Radiohead fiasco then you've been living under a rock, a heavy, moss-covered audiofool rock no doubt...  Lets hear it from the proverbial horse's mouth then shall we: The Radiohead interview on Wired

Dec 21st    We've all pretty much grown up with Dolby as a de-facto technology all around us: it was in our cassette decks and reel-to-reels, its in our movies and television soundtracks etc.  Now Dolby is working towards an industry-wide standard that will eliminate one of the most annoying issues in home entertainment: blaring-loud television commercials (among other things) with a new Dolby Labs technology called Dolby Volume. 

Dec 21st    Heres' something a little left-field: A couple of lads who frequent the Cdnav.com Forums have, for some time, been attempting to explain why so many audiofools keep coming up with bizarre ways to inject utter bullshit / deception / outright lies into the world of the audio hobby.   I've read psychoacoustic arguments, explanations of psychology and numerous other angles on the topic, but now I think I've stumbled upon a comprehensive list of why audiofools lie.  Its not cut and dried into one paragraph, rather, its multi-faceted and incongruous.  Take a look...

Dec 21st    Utterly useless, but bizarrely interesting - for the music-junkie at least: Led Zeppelin Landmarks (some folks have way too much time on their hands).  John Bonham's gravesite?  Cover of Physical Graffiti?  All this and more awaits your work time-wasting hours...  If that's not enough of a thoughtlessly, inefficiently or inappropriate use of your office attendance - be sure to check out Bekijk Music's Matching Album Covers site :-)

Dec 21st    Just when you thought it was safe to store your files on the PC: Western Digital Hard Disk Drives now block file-sharing(!).  Read all the natty details here.

Dec 21st    Just what you needed to get you through the Christmas holidays: Another A/V/Music forum!  Have a browse through Bob Olhsson's Corner and twitter away those hours best spent doing something else!

Dec 21st    Wanna' open your eyes to some new music, hell ya!  If so, check out Chart Attack's Top 15 Records Of 2007.  I've posted tracks from a few of these LPs on Cdnav.com in the past and I think its worth your while to check out some of the others on your own.  If its free tracks you're looking for, just do as I do: check out the artist's websites and / or, those of their record labels.

Dec 21st    What's about as difficult to find as hen's teeth, and a million times more expensive?  Dual-format (Blu-ray / HD-DVD) players of course!  Well, ever so slowly its becoming the standard - and LG has just announced the retail availability of it's own second-generation decks as seen here.

Dec 21st    As mentioned the other day, I won't be posting much, if at all, on the site over the holidays.  I'm taking a good, long and very well-deserved time off from everything that has anything to do with responsibility!  As such, I give you Telarc International's Free MP3 music page to tide you over till' I resume posting in the new year.  The site hosts about 60 or so tracks of MP3 file format music from a whack of different genres.  Enjoy your time off lads!  Now would be a good time to look over the thousands of posts on Cdnav.com and take the time to download / listen to some of the music you might have missed as well as read up on all of the links that you just didn't have time to look into previously

Dec 19th    We're 'midway to a holiday' my friends!  Can't say I'm much of a Christmas season keener - lost that when I was six or seven and realized that Santa was make-believe, but I surely love the whole 'time off from work during the Christian foolishness' thing!  I'll be pretty scarce around the site for the next few weeks as I spend every possible moment on the ski hill, reacquainting myself & my board with every undulation on the mountain.  This Friday will be my last post here for a few weeks in fact ~ but you can be sure that I'll be back in the New Year to blow your minds with the usual collections of music and A/V news from around the wild, wild web!  Nuff' said for now, lets just dig into some blues care of Mapleshade Records and Al Lee - Rainy Changes

Dec 19th    Rejoice all ye' Hobbit Fans!  It looks like the powers that be have finally come to a legal agreement over who will turn the next two JRR Tolkien books into movies, and judging by what he did with The Lord Of The Rings, a better choice could not have been made: Peter Jackson.  Check out this blurb from OneRing.net:

The Hobbit is Finally Going to Happen!  Today New Line and MGM announced that the way is clear to turn J.R.R. Tolkien's "Hobbit" into two films.  The joint announcement came after settlement of a lawsuit with Peter Jackson on 'The Lord of the Rings'.  The plan is to start production in 2009, shooting both films simultaneously and releasing them in December 2010 and December 2011.  New Line and MGM will co-finance the films and it is no secret that 'Spider-Man' director Sam Raimi has long been interested in 'The Hobbit' as long as Peter Jackson was involved in the project.  The plan is for New Line to run production and domestic distribution and MGM will distribute internationally.  New Zealand once again will be the setting for Middle-earth, this time the film will tell the tale of how Bilbo Baggins, ventured from the Shire and wound up taking the Ring from Gollum.

Dec 19th    Time for some audio-geek eye-candy :-)   I don't know what's with all of the Asian audio-collections that I've been stumbling upon lately, but I guess it makes sense: there are a hell of a lot more of them then there are of us and they were on the vanguard of the electronics movement at one time.  I give you The Vintage Vanguard.  Now, I haven't the foggiest about what most of the text says, but I guess not much needs to be read as there are plenty of great shots of old-school kit to admire... enjoy!

Dec 19th    In audiophile circles there exists a lot of discussion and speculation about the effects or lack thereof with regards to absolute polarity.  Personally speaking, I've always simply assumed that it surely must make a difference.  This being a hobby of adverse discussion however, I've often read folks standing their ground on the opposite end of this topic.  Well, I happened upon an interesting article in Recording Magazine the other day that you may find interesting.  All you need is a software application capable of playing .WAV formatted files (if you are running Microsoft Windows, you already have one).  Check out Audio Polarity Test.  By the way, I strongly support the settling of arguments over fidelity via sound files, especially lossless ones such as .WAV.  No matter how good you equipment, your ears, room and source material is, you are always going to get flack over something in your argument of whether one thing sounds more accurate than another: however, if you have A vs. B sound files, recorded with care on great equipment to back up your position, it goes a long way...

Dec 19th    Ok, lets just say that you have your PC hooked up to your stereo system and big-screen and you're itching to experience some ass-kickin' action in the virtual realm.  Suppose further that you are too much of a cheap bastard to shell out for a new game to melt your mind: what to do?  Check out this selection of the Top 20 Free Games Of 2007.

Dec 17th    Another weekend in the history books!  I made the bloody most of it, well, as much as I could without getting swashbuckling drunk anyway :-)>  No, I spent my weekend 'up the mountain' as it were, getting my boarding legs back under me.  Its amazing how quickly the groove comes back to one, even though its been the better part of eight months since I last surfed the slopes.  What to give the virtual spin to today...  Hmm, how about some Camphor - Confidences Shattered.  Its another of those groovy, easy-going pop-folks tracks ya' hear round these parts so often, enjoy!  (160Kb/s MP3, No DRM - Track provided by the band.)

Dec 17th    Now this is more like it: an external HD-DVD / Blu-ray / Standard DVD and Redbook CD external player - at a decent price: $430.00 in USB 2.0 version!  Check out the latest coolness from Addonics Technology.  As USB is pretty much everywhere these days, I can see all kinds of applications for this little gizmo.

Dec 17th    Decided to spend some time on the new SpiralFrog www site this evening and see if it was all that the hype cracks it up to be (free music if you can deal with a few advertisements).  Well, lemme' tell you here and now; this thing is a pile of crap!  First off, its explicitly tied to Microsoft's Windows Media Player - which is not the way I have ever chosen to listen to music or arrange play-lists.  Secondly, all music on the site is DRM 'infected' (death to DRM!), and finally - the setup will be a complete fucking nightmare for those of you who aren't computer savvy.  In a nutshell - what a dud!  Do you want music?  Do you want it free?  Do you hate DRM?  Check out Songbird!  PS: Record Companies, I'm gonna' keep pushing this crazy shit till' you get your heads out of your collective asses and offer us fairly priced music (10-15 cents a track), in a wide selection of bitrates, including lossless WAV and FLAC, without any goddamned DRM schemes - and in an easy to use format!

Dec 17th    You've likely been around these parts long enough to know that I really dig it when folks mash science and sound creation.  One cat on the forefront of this topic is Daniel Levitin.  Here is some of what David has to say in his article A Rock N Roll State Of Mind (with header information)

Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin spends his days exploring how our brains process music as an associate professor at McGill University and head of the Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition, and Expertise. His music research is a natural extension from his days as a highly acclaimed music producer for the likes of Stevie Wonder and The Grateful Dead. In 1990, Levitin left the recording studio for the research lab, changing his focus from creating music to understanding its neural substrates (the set of brain structures that underlies a specific behavior). His 2006 best-selling book This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession explains the complex relationship between neuroscience and music. InnovationCanada.ca asked Levitin to share his unique perspective as a music maker and researcher.

Innovation Canada.ca (IC): What made you decide to stop producing records to study the brain?

Daniel Levitin (DL): I noticed the record industry was deteriorating — it was becoming more difficult for talented artists to make headway. The industry became more interested in short-term profits than long-term nurturing of talent.

At the same time, I started teaching a course in record production at Stanford because I wanted to give something back to the next generation. We had interesting guest lecturers such as Sandy Pearlman who produced an album by The Clash and managed Black Sabbath, Bernie Taupin, who is the lyricist for Elton John, and Robert Lamm, a founding member of the pop group Chicago. In teaching the course, I realized I liked being around smart people at universities, and I thought that would be a nice way to spend my time.

IC: How does music affect the brain?

DL: There’s a particular part of the brain that responds to pleasurable things like winning a lot of money, taking cocaine, or having an orgasm. That’s been known for years, but with my colleague from Stanford Medical School, Vinod Menon, I found that the same region of the brain responds to pleasurable music. People tell you that they like music, but to actually see music activating this pleasure centre in a brain image was surprising. We like to think of it as the sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll centre of the brain.

IC: In your book, you write that the only pleasing sounds that could come from an accordion would be one burning in a bonfire. How do we determine what is “pleasurable music?”

DL: [laughs] I actually do like accordions. Some people really don’t like bagpipes, whereas some people really like mandolin. These things are cultural or can be an early association, like a favourite song that featured that instrument. Or, you were at summer camp while an accordion was playing and the kid next to you was punching you, so you developed a negative association.

Some of it is influenced by the physiology of the ear. The pinna, the fleshy part of the ear on the outside of the head, filters sound similar to the way that sunglasses filter light, letting in more of some wavelengths than others. That can set up a case where the accordion physically sounds different to you than me because of the filtering. So, it may be pleasant to one of us and unpleasant to another.

IC: Does personal taste play a role?

DL: Why is it that some people like spicy food and some don’t? There are these individual differences for preference all around the world. We haven’t figured out the neuroscience of aesthetic judgment yet, but it’s something people are working on.

IC: Is there a scientific reason why we get songs stuck in our heads?

DL: It’s been described as a cognitive itch and the way you scratch it is by having your brain play it over and over again. And, it’s partly mediated by neurochemical changes in your brain, meaning if you are feeling especially anxious or tense or if you’ve taken certain medications, it’s going to get worse. On the contrary, some medications can improve the condition. We know this because some people have songs stuck in their head so bad that it interferes with their ability to sleep or work. There’s a class of drugs that will relax the neural circuit and reduce the likelihood that the song will keep playing in your head.

IC: You emphasize using actual music — not abstract electronic sounds — in your studies. Is rap music by Busta Rhymes better than classical Bach for your research purposes?

DL: Part of the challenge in designing a rigorous experiment is ensuring that each subject has something equivalent. In the old way of thinking, you played everybody the same piece of music, but if you hate classical music and I make you sit for an hour and answer difficult questions about music while listening to Beethoven, I may not be getting meaningful answers out of the experiment. The newer way of thinking is that we need to be flexible about equivalence across subjects. That doesn’t mean a loss of rigour, it means that you might have an experiment where everyone brings in their own music and each subject serves as their own control. So, the experiment may steer more to [rapper] Ludacris than [virtuoso pianist/composer] Liszt depending on who your subject is.

IC: What do you think the next five years hold for music brain research?

DL: I’m not sure about the next five years, but I think in our lifetimes we are going to see a better understanding of the relationship between genes, brain development, and cognition. We are going to see a better understanding of what the components of music are and how they are represented in the brain.

If I were a betting man, I’d say a disproportionately large amount of these results are going to come from Canada because Canadians have been at the forefront of this work for the last quarter century, longer than anyone else. Canada has a very rich history of real innovation in the neuroscience of music, and it’s nice to be part of that.

Watch a video of Daniel Levitin and David Byrne from SEED magazine.
 

Dec 17th    I've spent more time than logic would allow for, searching for the perfect DAC over the past six months and there is one thing I have come to a conclusion on: DACs are a rip off!  Take a look under the hood of this very common DAC (Musical Fidelity A3) and I think you'll see what I mean.  I'm not picking on Musical Fidelity here, pop the hood off just about any company's DAC and you'll be shocked at how few components it contains.  Its not like these guys are putting a lot of money into R&D, hell, every one of em' is buying off the shelf DAC core logic chips and assembling them by the book.  Getting back to the M.F. DAC: what do we have there?  Perhaps a hundred bucks worth of components and a common OEM case...  Nice, and what does it sell for?  This one went for $1495.00 USD in 2003.  Face it fellow cats, we're being taken for a fast bumpy ride in a car held together with ego and bullshit.  And don't cha' just know that every manufacturer will have a "Next Years Model' available every second season, for more or less the same amount of money, but with bold faced lies telling you the "Its Much Improved Over Last year's Model" .  The way I see it, we should be able to acquire a high-quality-built DAC for [well] under $500.00 which offers a wide array of input / outputs, including USB and /or Fireware.  The case should be available in the standards: brushed aluminum and black, as well as an array of paints or anodized finishes (at a small upcharge).  Furthermore, the company should be willing to offer at least three solid years of warranty on the unit.  As the 'Outboard DAC' genera currently sits, we are being made fools of by an industry which knows that 'audiophiles' are willing to pay whatever it takes to keep up with the Jones.

Dec 17th    After all of those overly-long posts, I think you're due for a shorty: Check out popsike to learn what the value of your cherished records really are.  (thanx to the cats in the Cdnav forum for this one).

Dec 17th    Lets cap off Monday's session with a bit more of my favorite subject: Vinyl Records.  I've said it before, and I'll say it here again: I don't think "LPs sound better than CDs or digital audio files from a computer source", rather, I simply dig the nostalgia and element of human interaction I get when spinning records.  Picked up two more this very afternoon in fact: ZZ Top 'Greatest Hits' and Steely Dan - Gaucho.  Record Technology Incorporated's website has some very cool, eminently interesting information that I'm sure all of you LP aficionados will dig.

Dec 14th    Yaman, the weekend is upon us, snow is falling fast and furious outside and the local ski hill hints that they'll open up more terrain this weekend - very nice!  I say we rock on into Friday / Saturday / Sunday with a little Joe Henry and his track Time Is A Lion.

Dec 14th    Lets revisit one of my favorite Canadian magazines to ridicule: Issue 82 of UHF Mag'.  Is it the 'Blind Tests' where everyone simply gives their opinions on something and a master-reference is whatever rings their bell at the moment or the comments about 'High-End' power cables making the PC's display monitor noticeably better...  I dunno, but amongst the truckloads of - in my rarely humble opinion - complete verbal sewage within it's covers, there lays a few nuggets to glean.  Check out page 18 on soundproofing your home or page 32 for a 'Flashback - Age Of The Catalogue, perhaps page 41 which highlights the Blue Circle 'Thingee'; a device that I find brilliant!  The PDF file is 11.6 megabytes in size, so dial-uppers beware.  Note also that the magazine isn't like Tone Audio or other freebee Zine's that I liberally rake over the coals each month :-).  UHF only provides medium-sized 'sections' of the rag for free, the rest is either Greekish gibberish or blocked with advertising placeholders.  Still, one day they'll learn (perhaps about the same time they start holding actual double-blind evaluations... 

Dec 14th    Pink Floyd fans ahoy (is there, truly anyone out there reading this who isn't a fan - if so, shake a leg man - and get some under your needle, over your tape-deck heads or onto the beam-machine today!  Oh ya, back on track - check out the cool Pink Floyd Discography site I stumbled upon this evening: Pink Floyd & Co.  Very, very nice!  There is sooo much on the site that you'll be there for days, but one of my favorite spots is PFCO Lossless Music Sharing Hub.  In a nutshell: The PFCO Hub allows you to download and share hundreds of live shows from the early years, all the way to the present day solo tours. Most audio shows are available in "lossless" quality, and we encourage the sharing of lossless shows when possible. Many shows are available in DVD quality video also. We do not allow "officially released" albums or songs.

Dec 14th    Mental correction: I've always been one to feel that an MP3, encoded at 320Kb/s with excellent kit was audibly transparent, but I've been corrected, with proof, by a reliable source.  I posted a carefully crafted 320Kb/s clips here a few days ago and the same on Hydrogen Audio Forum.  (H.A. Kicks Ass!)  99% of the feedback I received was in the negative, in other words - no one could hear any difference between MP3s at 320 and un-compressed .WAV files ~ except for one cat.  The dude; Benski,  just so happens to be a developer on the WinAmp software project.  I've been a decade-long user of his product and dig it - I respect his work!  Said Benski Dude pointed out where and what one should listen for - (see post #12 )- he has also provided a WinABX software 'printout' proof of audible mastery - (see post #8).  [[This, my friends is the way it should always work with what might be considered radical statements - back it up]].  As it turns out, the software developer - of all people - certainly knows where to seek out compression artifacts like no-one I have ever communicated with.  His intricate understanding of the process no doubt doesn't hurt.  Nor does the absolutely kick-ass quality of the hardware he is employing in the task: [Orban Optimod-PC 1100 soundcard (all processing turned off), balanced XLR output to an analog mackie mixer, Beyerdynamic DT 880 headphones].

So there you have it men - I've been shown a new chapter here on Cdnav.com!  More power to the   lossless FLAC file format!  Until I am shown otherwise by someone such as the software developers (who all currently maintain that its completely and utterly transparent), I'll push FLAC as hard as possible - not that I haven't always :-)

Dec 14th    Any of you cats thinking about picking up an instrument?  I suspect so, well, if so, have a look at Showmehowtoplay.com.  What a kick-ass site with excellent software - which you can download and use on a few sample tracks and one full song  for free.  Zoom in, slow down and generally mess with the software's tutorial to your hearts content.  Cool software (that really Rocks!)

Dec 14th    That's it for me this week lads!  I'm off to snowboarding, dreams of hot chicks and getting some fresh air - the hell away from computers for damned sure!  Have some Australian Tetley's English Ale at hand, Zeppelin IV blessin' on the stereo and nothin' but starry skies above - its gonna' be a great weekend!

Speaking of Zeppelin;  as a long-time Zep' junkie, I'm not so sure about the new renaissance which the old boys (or is that the media?) are pushing.  I mean, fuck, I love that band's work - all of it, yes, even Coda,  In Through The Out Door and Presence...  But I've heard the new live show (Youtube had a shitload on until recently when the thought police were called in), and, well...  Plant's once-golden voice is, not 'shot', but the inflections are now just so way off base and it "just aint like it used to be".  Sorry man, it doesn't work for me.  Now, should they release a new LP of original material, something that I wouldn't be holding up to the harsh light of 30-years of ingrained listening and coding every musical inflection (and why wouldn't they), and go out on a World Tour, I'll give em' another go, but time will tell...

Don't miss Alex Reisner's Zeppelin Fansite very nice!  And that's it from me: Drum Roll and out...

Dec 12th    As Monday's track was pretty darn mellow, I thought I'd make up for it by providing you with a rockin' bit O' tuneage today: Michael Franti & Spearhead: Yell Fire!  (MP3 compliments of the ANTI Record Company)

Dec 12th    Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD: who would have thought that this would take so goddamned long to sort out!?  SRP (Stupid Rich People), as it turns out, can never be underestimated...  I truly felt that the industry as a whole would have stepped up to the plate and multi-disk players would have swamped the isles by now.  Unfortunately, you only have two choices in that genera at the moment: LG and Samsung.  However, at least we can safely assume that neither format shows much of a real-world improvement over the other - this from a set of reliable sources: Audioholics and Consumer Reports.

Dec 12th    Even though the sound and video quality are less than stellar (an extreme understatement), I'm sure that all of my fellow "we're in it for the music goddamit!" cats will be able to look past it and really dig the tunes being cranked here: OMG's List of the The Top 8 Concert Films of All Time

Dec 12th    I repeat (see every other mention of this online rag'): Not that I'm a huge fan of Tone Publications work: in fact, I think that the author's "I hear it" statements, with regards to cables and various transparent hardware bits is downright asinine.  However, there are occasional articles in his (very slick), magazine that are interesting and informative, especially the large - and very welcome - music sections.  Just skip over the hardware reviews as they are all pretty much poppycock.  Tone Issue 13 2007 Edition.  Careful on that download man, this sucker clocks in at 56 megabytes!

Dec 12th    As a huge fan of Leonard Cohen's body of work, I thought that perhaps many of you out there would enjoy this Austin Chronicle article First We Take Berlin Bob Johnston's two world tours with Leonard Cohen.  Those of you who don't yet own it, do pick up a copy of his 1985 release Various Positions.  By the way, folks with PCs (not Mac) scroll-wheel mice - Hold down the Ctrl key and scroll forward on the mouse-wheel to zoom the page, very cool to ease online reading!

Dec 12th    Missed last years (06'), bit on the mastering process?.  No worries, I give you Studio-Review's WTF Is Mastering?  (Ya' gotta' love an article that gets right to the point)

Dec 11th    A rare Tuesday post!  As promised the other day, here is an interesting little trip down memory lane - your musical memory that is.  Today is your chance to honestly evaluate your ability to discern between two wildly different audio bitrates!  on one hand we have a 30-second file that was 'ripped' from a Chesky records Ultimate Demonstration Disk - using the latest editions of both Exact Audio Copy and LAME, into a 320Kb/s MP3 formatted file.  Then (for the purposes of ABX), this MP3 was re-encoded into lossless .WAV file format.  On the other hand we have a classic, strait-ahead  .WAV file, 'ripped' from the same CD, using the same software, on the same PC (a custom-built, high-end audio-specific workstation - details available on request).  Both 30-second clips are 5.1 megabytes in size.  We also have a copy of WinABX (half a megabyte file) on hand for your use in attempting to determine which is which.  So go ahead, right-click / Save the files to your PC's 'Desktop'.

Spend some time acquainting yourself with the two music clips - The Fred Hersch Trio - 'Played Twice'.  I strongly suggest that you click here and listen to a vocal recording which succinctly introduces the two clips you'll be auditioning.  The files are plainly marked as to which is which.  Now run the WinABX file - it'll immediately offer to open the first of the two previously saved files, double-left-mouse-click the first of the two music files (they should be obvious on the desktop if you saved all of the files to it as suggested above / order is irrelevant), now double-click the second file and click OPEN again.

The WinABX program will now open and be ready to go.  Take some time to acquaint yourself with the application, its pretty strait-forward, feel free to mess around with it as much as you want, there's nothing that you can bugger up.  If you would like to read a 'how-to' manual on the WinABX application, there is one here.  Once you feel comfortable with the application, carry on and prepare to be blown away.  The difference between WAV and a carefully ripped MP3 at 320Kb/s is, well... listen for yourself!

I've been told many times, by many different audiophiles, that the best way to attempt any comparisons between MP3 and .WAV was via quality recordings featuring a lot of cymbals.  Thus, I bring you one of the cleanest recordings I've heard in some time, sporting pretty-much non-stop cymbals.  I've used some of the very best computer hardware / software available to the public in the creation of these files.  I suggest that you situate yourself in an absolutely quiet room, get comfortable and pour a glass of your favorite beverage, employ the very best headphones you have on hand and perhaps an outboard DAC if you happen to have one.

Dec 10th    Gonna' drift you dreamily into the new workweek on the vocal wings of one Rose Polenzani.  Cannot pin down exactly who I think this gal sounds like, but its been heard before, just in a slightly different guise.  Blue Angel (160Kb/s MP3)  Rose is giving away a bunch of other tracks on her homepage if her style interests you.

Dec 10th    Its all the rage amongst music lovers these days: rag on the audio quality of the MP3 file format.  So its not perfect; oftentimes due to shitty rips on shitty equipment using ancient codecs.  Anyway, some cats have come up with a cool little site, all setup for unsighted auditioning of three different bitrates of the same track(s).  Have a go and see for yourself how your ears do in discerning audible differences between 64 / 128 / 256Kb/s is when you cannot first see which is which.  Sure the 64 Kb/s track stands out - it bloody well should, but aren't you impressed with how close the 128 and 256Kb/s tracks are to each other!  By the way, many (see Hydrogen Audio Forums), strongly defend the stance that 256Kb/s or so is the point of transparency between Redbook CD and MP3 encoding technology - as long as one is ripping the tracks with care and the latest codecs.  I'll soon post a Redbook CD vs. 320 Kb/s audio track on Cdnav.com so that you can compare the two in WAV file format.  I'm sure that those of you in the 'Golden ears' club will be floored at the lack of audible difference!

Dec 10th    Here's an odd-spot: me quoting an artist who's music I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in...  Curtis James Jackson III, aka 50 Cent on downloading pirate music off the net.  I pretty-much agree with this cat.  While I don't think that all music should be 100% free, I do take the position that a small portion of it should be, in order to spread the word about a band - and the remainder of the artist's work should be sold - but at prices a hell of a lot less than what its being sold for now.  In my ideal world, big labels have one, perhaps two tracks per album of freely downloadable samples available on their sites and the balance made available in a variety of high-bitrate formats for perhaps 15 - 20 cents per track.

Dec 10th    The Swiss National Sound Archives, in conjunction with one Mr. Cavaglieri is proposing a process which will enable the storage of phonographic records onto photographic films.  the process involves some interesting micro-scanning and computer analysis / capture techniques.  Have a look at the video and listen to the early results on the VisualAudio website.  Parallel projects are also ongoing at both Princeton University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  Both are cool as heck and worth a look.

Dec 10th    Well, I've been on kind of a vinyl kick on the site as of late, so why not press on - Those of you who express an interest in really old-school slabs; 78-RPM, 16-RPM, transcription records and the like will get a kick outta' Vintage 78's - Getting in the Groove.  The site is a treasure-trove of knowledge on these topics and offers numerous links that'll keep you learning for hours!

Dec 10th    Flashing back to the future.  I was recently reading about an issue that I'm sure that each and every one of us has encountered & wondered about at some point: those little 'holes' that are apparent when one holds a CD-ROM up to a strong light-source.  As it turns out, there is more to TLC of your shiny disks than "don't scratch em' and keep them in their cases".  Have a read though the National Institute Of Standards And Technology document Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs — A Guide for Librarians and Archivists.

Dec 6th    And that's a wrap to another workweek.  Feel any older?, me neither...  Lets ease on into the weekend with a little bit O' Steve Dawson's work - This Train  (160Kb/s MP3 compliments of Bloodshot Records)

Dec 6th    I've been dragging my heels over acquiring an outboard DAC in order to facilitate some upcoming unsighted auditioning - but this procrastination has allowed me to do a great deal of investigation into what's on the market in the interim.  One of the shining lights in the distance is the Musiland MD10 USB-equipped DAC, and one of the most cost-effective sources that I've found (even compared to eBay!), of said DAC, is iFi Audio in Omaha Nebraska (of all places).  If that sucker was available in black, I'd have one on my desk right now!

Dec 6th    Stumbled upon a real treasure-trove of musical nostalgia / learning in the Library Of Congress - American Memory homepage.  I went looking for African American heritage classics / blues, but came up with a whole lot more.  The site is jaw-droopingly massive; I know that I've barely put a dent in it as far as reading goes.  It takes some poking around, as the pages don't have a cohesive look and feel to them, but its all there - albeit, the 'Fi' isn't so 'High' on most of the clips as currently presented - I found out why - they also sell full-fidelity versions of the recordings :-)

Dec 6th    Marc Heijliger's 'Milestone' DIY loudspeaker project looks to be a real charmer.  Those of you with a nice woodshop and a little (ok, a lot), of time on your hands and a hankering for a beautiful set of speakers, might be inclined to have a look at the very well laid out instructions for these floor-standing beauties.  Marc's hobby site also has a load of cool reading to be had, check it out.

Dec 6th    Here's an oldie, but a goodie!  Producing Great Sounding Phonograph Records (or Why Records Don’t Always Sound Like the Master Tape).  Its an entertaining read, casting the vinyl LP recording / reproduction process in an easy to digest light.  Check out the FAQ on the main site as well, there is some interesting stuff to be had there too.

Dec 6th    What would a day of posting on Cdnav.com be without busting yet another audiofool myth?  Why, just another geeky A/V site - and that's certainly not our style :-).  I give you Audioholics 'Speaker Cable Length Differences - Do They Matter?

Dec 6th    Now here's an example of 'Thinking Outside The Box': Owen Meyer's  - Mood-Based Music Classification and Exploration System (Adobe PDF formatted document - 1.3 megabytes).

Dec 6th    What have I been saying these past weeks: Forums, forums, forums - every damned where you look theses days, someone is talking turkey about A/V!  The latest barrage is from Audio-Video Revolution - have a go man.

Dec 6th    Ok, nuff said.  I'm off to sleep, here is one last bit O' tuneage to ease you into the weekend - Gary Louris (formerly of the Jayhawks), on his own: True Blue (192Kb/s MP3 - No DRM - Song compliments of Gary's homepage).  They jury is still out on this one as far as I'm concerned.  I'll have to give it a few more listens as it appears to be 'growing on me'...  Let me know what you think.  Have a rockin' weekend lads!

Dec 5th    You know I dig quirky names and all, but this is beginning to push things a little far: The band is called I Am Bones and their track is titled The Main Thing Is To Keep The Main Thing, The Main Thing (! Nothing like a little truncation).  Its a fast-paced / poppy little number that'll get ya' hoppin about the house today.

Dec 5th    What the heck is with all of this aliasing and Nyquist stuff anyway?  Today's 'Geek-Out' deal withs what I'll call "Aliasing For Dummies"... ya, I like pictures too..

Dec 5th    Holy crap, yet another forum to suck away the precious minutes left in your existence :-).  Doom 9 is heavily focused on DVD Conversion, but I found loads of threads going every which way into the A/V world as well.

Dec 5th    I dimly recall reading about nOrh Audio's unique loudspeakers, but I had no idea that they built power amplifiers as well.  Not only that, but overkill / massive / quality power amplifiers at a [[[very]]] fair price!  This looks like the deal of the century in power amplification.

Dec 5th    Ready for a little World Music Brampton & area?  Alpha Yaya Diallo is playing in your neck of the woods tomorrow at the Rose Theater.  This is your chance to hear one of the greats in the genera.  Check out a few free MP3 (clips) that his band has made available on their website.

Dec 5th    Lots of short posts today, so I guess its only fair to end the midweek posting session with a whopper:

Dear readers, those of you who have been with me for some time, or who have ventured into the void known as the Cdnav.com Forum, will have no doubt by now realized that I’m a real hard-ass about bullshit, deception, marketing (as its generally conducted in North America), and outright lies.

My harsh tone on these pages and in the forums might make you wonder who the hell I think I am and why I’m so cocky. Trust me, I just seems shocking because it’s been a long time coming; our hobby / industry is so far down the moral toilet that it couldn’t reach the rim if it stood on tiptoes!

Spend any amount of time online and you’ll soon see that the A/V industry is awash in misinformation, deception and outright lies. I’ve seen folks rally against it here and there around the Internet, but few like the cohesive, grounded endeavor that I had in mind. Cdnav.com is a true effort from the heart – a love for my hobby and of an honest approach to dealing with your fellow man. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m the farthest thing from religious; I’ve simply sought to create not only (one of) the Worlds’ largest repositories of easily accessed / free & legal music, but also a clearing house of information relating to folks who took the time to conduct carefully documented, peer-reviewable and reproducible unsighted audio / video evaluations. It doesn’t matter to me if you are a scientific body or a couple of friends who get together, have a glass or your favorite beverage and audition a couple bits of A/V without any way of visually scrutinizing it as it’s being evaluated: I want to hear from you.

This unbelievably simple act of just listening without seeing goes hand-in-hand with the core audiophile mantra: “Trust Your Ears”, yet most refuse to do so without knowing what they are listening to. If enough people actually listened without the prejudice inherent in seeing what you are auditioning, the audiophile community would realize that the marketers are full of hot air, among other things.

The industry is on its knees before our wallets, lets not allow them to manipulate us each product cycle the way we’ve been (asking for), through so many years. If we take a new, educated stance, they’ll very soon realize that we as a consumer group have seen beyond the mask of marketing / brainwashing and the multi-million dollar mind-funking nonsense that goes along with it.

What’ll this get us? How about lower prices on ‘high-end’ audio kit, more focus on quality control instead of new face-plates & cases every few years, stronger efforts to increase hardware / software / firmware reliability prior to market launches, longer warranties (note how the automotive industry uses longer warranties as a competitive tactic), better technical support, and a sense of pride that we’ve re-established the lost art of honesty in the industry.

I’d like to think that, way back when, before a marketing department got hold of it, A/V equipment was built with thoughts of the joy it would bring to those who would use it. Helping folks to travel to another time and place via audio and video technology, not simply figuring out ways to part folks with their money in any way, shape or form possible, under any circumstance imaginable.

That’s called marketing – It’s the source of that subliminal, gnawing itch that audio/videophiles refer to as ‘upgradeitis’. It’s the voice that tells you that you need an amplifier / CD player / set of cables or whatever - of a certain status - especially one that some other equally deceived individual or marketing-publication has raved about, before you can truly enjoy what’s to be heard in the source material you have so diligently collected.

I’m hear to tell you – in plain English – that there is no need for the absurdity that exists within the current Audio / Video industry’. Reclaim your hobby by sitting down and just listening (remember the “Trust Your Ears” mantra), to what you already have, compare it with whatever you like in it’s class – level-matched (easy to do with freely available Pink Noise WAV files and a cheap ‘Radio Shack’ meter) – and operating within it’s specifications - without looking at it while doing so. I guarantee you that you’ll be bowled over by the lack of difference that you’ll note. Spend as much time with the piece in question as you like, but when you switch bits, arrange it to be done in such a way that you’ll have no idea which is which.

If you do this – and don’t peek in any way, you’ll understand what my ranting and raving on this site is all about. Let me put it to you quite frankly: go ahead and mess with loudspeakers, room acoustics, source material and perhaps cartridges, but leave the rest alone – it’s marketing mythology and its bringing down our reputation and respect in the electronics community!

Andrew D.


Dec 3rd    WooHoo, its December ~ only 22 more shopping days till' that grand Christian freakshow called Christmas!  For me, its simply an excuse to avoid work for a week or so while my clients are distracted by visiting family and friends; a week of snowboarding in the mountains among the trees and beautiful views...  ahh...    Lets open Monday with something quirky and curious: Pale Young Gentlemen - Clap Your Hands (192Kb/s MP3 care of the band).  You can also read up on the group here.

Dec 3rd    Another month, another issue of 'Affordable Audio' online A/V rag.  This one is always a head-scratcher for me, the cat at the helm of said publication seems to be nice enough - we've 'spoken' several times via email, the zine' features some great articles each month - yet it also drags in complete fucking bullshit as "Budget Power Cord Comparison", which offers mind-bendingly idiotic statements to whit:

“Signal^® (cable) had impressed me again, only this time I needed surgery to get my jaw reattached. I heard recording mistakes I had never known existed (not that this is a good thing, but it shows the kind of detail this cable has). It was full, it had body, it was so much more open relative to the stock cable.  The subtle voices I mentioned earlier were so clear I thought I could make out what they were saying.  It was deep, moving, and above all, emotional.  The layering was quite good and resolved.  The only hindrance to the cable was that I felt the bass could get a bit unruly on heavy hits, but this was only experienced while listening to techno tracks where the bass is supposed to hit hard.”

I can only shake my head in amazement as I marvel at how this lad was able to come up with 8 different sets of complete bullshit to cover the clutch of cables he had in his possession.  Did he consider conducting the auditions unsighted... naw, that would be too logical and intelligent.  Instead he dug deep into his thesaurus and..., well I'm sure that you're all big enough boys to sort the wheat from the chaff by downloading issue number 24 here.  (Adobe PDF formatted document).

Dec 3rd    Whew!  After that load of manure you'll be needing something intelligent to get you through the day.  Check out Chris Whealy's Porous Absorber Calculator and prepare to be amazed by how much work this fellow has put into designing a series of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that can be employed in calculating room absorption coefficients for a number of different materials.  Notice how you can manipulate the spreadsheet to account for Properties Of Absorber, Properties Of Cavity, Properties Of Incident Sound and Display Options.  You'll need to know a wee bit about Excel's Security functions (manipulation of), in order to get Excel to work with this amazing spreadsheet - just use the Help option that pops up when you try to change anything and you're good to go (email me if you want instructions).  I've programmed many an Excel Spreadsheet in my years as a computer technician, but nothing near to the complexity of this one - nice work Chris!

Dec 3rd    Buy 5 Pepsi products get one MP3 for 'free'...  Now lets translate that into truth and reality: Purchase five portions of a multinational corporation's sugar-laden / diabetes-promoting products and get one lousy MP3 that 99.9 percent of the population are already downloading for free from P2P applications... Ya, that promotion will go over well.

Dec 3rd    Mix Magazine has a very interesting interview with Metallica's sound-man “Big Mick” Hughes, complete with several informative podcasts (streaming MP3s).  Once upon a time, this band was 'The' metal act on the planet.  I saw them in Brandon Manitoba (of all places) back in the mid-80s and once thought that they could do no wrong.  Turns out that any act that sticks around long enough tends to put out some pretty bad shit...

Dec 3rd    What'd I say just the other day about forums?  "Another new one every time you turn around" (or something like that), and sure nuff': 'Agoraquest - The place for Sony Enthusiasts'  Got Sony / Got Questions?  Check it out.  (PS: if any of you cats wanna' help out by scanning through this page and adding the many forums I've mentioned over the past few months to our forum's "Other Forums" list, I'd greatly appreciate it - I'm just tits-up up for time these days...)

Nov 30th    Ya did er' boyz', another month in the record books / another opportunity to have a blast at your doorstep, AKA; The Weekend!  Have a couple of tunes for ya' to check out this fine Friday.  Twist an ear to the folksy, and as usual around here, oddly named The Dying Californian and their (incomplete) track The Martyrdom of Perpetua.  I've provided this track, even though its incomplete - because I dug it and thought you might too.  Read up on the story behind the song here.  Drop into the Indy record label's site and pop a tenner for it here.  If these folks turn yer' crank, there are three more (full length), tracks here.  If that's too mellow for ya', then check out The Like Young - For Money Or Love (if you're a fan of Sonic Youth, you'll likely dig this track). 

Nov 30th    In the vein of "its the weekend / anything goes", I bring you Showcase's free offering of The Trailer Park Boys, season 6 & 7 as well as the Christmas Special :-) online.  Weird shit man...  The website also features a whole lot more that I'm sure you'll get a kick outta'.  Learn how to use the 'enlarge video' option...

Nov 30th    For those of you considering treating yourself to a new flat-screen TV this holiday season: I've been doing a bit of sleuthing myself: in the 1080p category, I've found that the local Costco is about the best bang for the buck.  Take a boo at this link to see what they currently have in LCD / 1080p.  I've omitted Plasma in this rundown as I feel that they are energy-hogs.  Speaking of which, have a scan over this chart which indexes the latest round of monitors based on energy-efficiency.  And finally, for even more insights; pop over to C-Net for a look at their 'TV Buying Guide'.  With these three in mind, you'll no doubt make the best choice on the new monster TV.

Nov 30th    Its been pretty much a free ride for music pirates in Canada over the years, but it appears that certain 'powers that be' are moving to implement some pretty tough anti-piracy / anti-circumvention laws.  Get up to speed on what's going down via Michael Geist's informative website.

Nov 30th    Audio-Antique-heads rejoice; someone out there still cares!  In this case, its some un-named cat with a website dedicated to phonographs; specifically those made by The Victor Talking Machine Company from 1901 through 1929.  The site is chalk-full of information and links relating to the old-school machines; very informative and entertaining in a musty old, shellacked-smelling kinda' way.

Nov 30th    Ok, its been a while since I laid a heavy on ya': today's bit of knowledge; Memory For Musical Attributes, is offered up compliments of Daniel J. Levitin.  This is one of the best articles I have read with regards to 'hearing memory'.

Nov 30th    Gonna' stretch my musical scope a bit here and offer up something that I rarely bother with, due in no small part to my lack of enthusiasm towards it, Jazz!  Check out Winfield Davis and Ed Johnson's free MP3s on Jazz Times website.  You are asked to sign up for the download, but [any] email address works to get in!  From what I can gather, the site's selection of free Jazz MP3s changes over time, so if you are viewing this a few months from now, I can't say what might be there...

Nov 30th    That's it for me this weekend; back to figuring out accounts payable I go!  Most of you know my soft-spot for old-time blues, so you shouldn't be surprised that my final link of the week is to a very cool site, narrated by the one and only Buddy Guy.  Click over to Chicago Blues and get an earful form the master.  The site is 'Flash' based, so might take a while to load on a slow connection, but its worth the wait!  (Use the blue panel on the right-hand side of the screen to navigate the place).

Nov 28th    Welcome to yet another Hump day in the life and times of 'You'!  Nothing to do but tip back a brew and celebrate the fact that we're still standing on the rock, spinnin' round' the hydrogen ball of fury :-)    I tend to accumulate a shipload of Free & Legal tunes in the course of any given month, and this one has been sitting on the desktop for a while now - I have no idea from whence it originated, but hell, I dig it!  Have a go at it lads!  Oakley Hall - No Dreams.  (256Kb/s VBR MP3, No DRM!)  If you dig their style, there are four more downloads available on the Oakley Hall website - though note they are pretty low-fi...

Nov 28th    This may come as a shock to some, but there are still cats on the rock who will cut you a one-of-a-kind vinyl LPs - for a price.  Apparently, its more common and popular than one might think.  If you're into an interesting read, check out TapeOp's article: Peter King & His One-Off Vinyl.  (Adobe PDF file format 90kb).

Nov 28th    I know that I haven't been fillin' yer' heads with much in the way of 'what's new' out there in regards to audio kit, so here is a mouthful all at once for ya'.  There are some pretty cool gadgets coming down the line, witness CES Innovations 2008 Awards Honorees.  Flat, powered subs with remote controls, Wireless subwoofers, Bel-Canto & B&W going with the iPod crowd, (that's gotta' make the audiofools cringe :-), and a bunch of other new toys to mess with your common sense (and wallet).  Oddity of the set, for me anyway, is the Infinity PS212W wireless subwoofer.

Nov 28th    RCRDLBL: This is another shot at distributing music - legally.  RCRDLBL (re-read the moniker, you'll get it...).  I could take a few paragraphs to attempt an accurate description of the site, but here is a direct-copy of their own blurb: We'd like to welcome you to RCRD LBL, a new music site where all of the downloads are both free AND legal.  In some ways we're a music blog, written by people who want to bring you cool new music day in, day out. In other ways, we're a record label, championing, signing and partnering with bands we believe in. Either way, we have exclusive tracks from everyone from Mos Def to Junip to Jacques Renault (with TONS more to come), but we're also working with an amazing roster of partner labels (they're listed just below our logo) who will also be blogging and giving away music on the site on a regular basis. And since we do have a blog we figured we should also use it to point you to best of what else is out there on the web.  In a nutshell, a place to grab some more Free & Legal tunes!

Nov 28th    If you caught 'The Great Debate' posting the other day, you'll no doubt be interested in viewing the 'PCABX Training Room' mentioned in the audio discussion.  This page allows one to take the time to train their own ears.  Some pretty tough challenges await as downloadable WAV files; have at er' and learn a shipload.

Nov 28th    Oh hell, I was gonna' lay some heavy reading on ya' with regards to musical memory, but it'll have to wait till' Friday as I'm feeling like more music is the better avenue.  Something freakish is appropriate here: Gary Lucas and Rolo McGinty cover Syd Barrett's Astronomy Domine (nice :-)  Double-Hell, if that's not enough for ya, have a listen to Tim Easton - They Will Bury You (raw blues - Lots more Tim Easton Here.)

Nov 26th    Groovy: We finally got some snow in the local mountains!  Our ski-season opened this weekend, but with a whopping 40cm's in the hills, not too many people took the opportunity to trash their equipment :-)   Lets ease on into the new workweek with a subtle shot of Loquat - Swingset Chain.  Tnx' to Playing In Fog Records for the free MP3.

Nov 26th    John Atkinson's vs. Arny Krueger: A few years back these two cats got together and voiced their opinions on the Subjective vs. Objective positions.  Its an interesting listen, but one which requires a 30 megabyte download.  Those with dial-up connections need not apply...

Nov 26th    Forums, forums, rah, rah, rah.  Love em' or hate em'. there seems to be one springing up monthly on the Net' in this day and age.  Stumbled upon 3DB the other day, though it appears to have been around for a bit already.  Dive right in, this one seems to be more of a Pro-audio site, and should therefore be lighter on bullshit than so many others.

Nov 26th    Very cool: Who amongst us doesn't appreciate the Bob Dylan's body of work!?  Turns out, Bob has dipped his toe in the movie bizz' again, this time round', its a little bit weirder: Bob's life is played out by six different actors, one of them a gal Cate Blanchett)!  Check out Bob's I'm Not There site and trailers.

Nov 26th    Own a Radio Shack SPL meter and wish the hell you knew more about the lesser known functions?  Hell, wish you knew more about it in general?  Check out Home Theater Shack's SPL Meters | Mic's | Calibration page and fill yer' brain!

Nov 26th    Here's an odd-spot; some cat in the UK has put up a site dedicated to those old-school devices: Laser Disk Players!  If you've a hankering for ancient equipment, dig in.

Nov 26th    CBC, oh beloved CBC de Radio-Canada!  To hell with buying audio tapes / talking books, etc: check out this absolute treasure-trove of CBC programming, all in one spot.  Dig in, download!

Nov 23rd    Friday Baby!  In celebration of unleashing the beast for the next two days, I give you Cass McCombs - That's That.  Its a floating little tune, reminiscent of any number of bands, but still manages to remain unique.  320Kb/s VBR MP3 - No DRM.  (MP3 Compliments of Cass)

Nov 23rd    Too mellow for ya?  Ok, how about some old-school blues pickin'?  Ronnie Earl - Lunch At R & M's 320Kb/s CBR MP3 - No DRM.  (MP3 Compliments of Telarc Records)

Nov 23rd    Many a time I have stated that any two amplifiers, of quality design, with roughly ballpark specifications, will 'sound' alike, so long as neither amplifier is driven to the point of clipping, oscillation etc.  Never did I suspect that two completely and utterly different amplifier designs could come so close to this common ground as well!  As it turns out, a group of Golden Ears gathered together at the 2006' Rocky Mountain Music Festival in Denver Colorado, grabbed an old-school, home-brew tube amp (1966 D.I.Y. vintage), and a modern Denon transistor amp, then put their egos to the test in just this sort of amplifier audition.  The results... "There were no "night and day" results. Indeed, for most attendees the differences were difficult to hear. Moreover, those who perceived a difference were just as often wrong in selecting which amplifier they thought was the tube amplifier. This shocked all of us".  Its a shame that they had to employ such uniquely different amplifiers as well as such an open method of auditioning, but I guess it made the point.  Personally, I would love to see the same kind of audition at AudioFest 08', but employing something more linear.  Perhaps a modern, basic 100 watt per channel 'big-box' receiver's amplifier stage, along the lines of a Pioneer, JVC, Kenwood or what have you, vs. a Mark Levinson or Krell designed showboat / power-house.  Now that my friends, would be very interesting.  While you are on the Cordell Audio site, have a look around - its a fairly cool place, chalk full of knowledge.  I haven't had the time to look at it all myself yet, but what I've seen so far is impressive!

Nov 23rd    Titled "An Unusual Route To The Home-Theater Experience", the Walberswick site is jam-packed full of classic audio kit for your eyes to feast upon.  It looks like the chap has a real love of our hobby!

Nov 23rd    Audioholics: I really like this place, they are among the more honest A/V spots out there, though I've been known to keep half an eye-brow cocked when negotiating the space of anyone involved in marketing & advertising...  Today's tidbit covers a product & subject that I've never really given much thought about, but one which I can relate to: Masking Systems.  Check out the Carada Masquerade Masking System Review on Audioholics.

Nov 23rd    That's a wrap for me this week dudes.  I'm going to take the advise of Southeast Engine and - Quite While You're Ahead.  160Kb/s CBR MP3, No DRM.

Nov 23rd    Aw, fuckit, its the weekend after all.  Check out the many free tracks offered by Steel Train on the Daytrotter site.  You'll have to do the clickin' on these ones yourself and put up with the slightly annoying 'Sure Microphone' pop-up advertisements...  I recommend the tracks 'FireCracker' as well as 'Dakota'.  Have a great weekend; Crank It Up!!!

Nov 21st    Well look at that; Wednesday already!  Good things certainly come to those that wait...  I can hardly wait till' Friday, will that make it come sooner?  :-)  What to kick off Hump Day with?  How about some Lou Reed (esq.) tunes from the very oddly named Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - Cold White Christmas.  If its a dark under-story they were searching for - they've nailed it!  Lou would be favorably impressed.

Nov 21st    Ok, ya, ya... that one was a little noir wasn't it?  How about I set ya' up with something a little more upbeat: Brighton MA's Ballad For Coolhand.

Nov 21st    Wanna' know what the hell the whole controversy over MP3 codec sound quality is all about?  Well, you could download, install and try one of the many ABX applications on the Net', or you could cut to the chase and visit FF123's Artifact Training Page and give your ears a go.

Nov 21st    Everything you ever wanted to know about HDMI.  I know, I've posted this link in the past, but the site has been updates to include the latest 1.3 series specifications and more FAQ's have been added.  Don't believe the crap you'll read in forums - get it from the source.

Nov 21st    Whatever Happened To The SACD?  (Quoted from the site): "Like the cavalry charging over the hill to save the day, the Super Audio CD was poised to rescue the ailing music industry five years ago. It promised far better sound quality than standard CDs, surround sound capability, and best of all, the Hybrid SACD could also play in standard CD players. In 2002, the Rolling Stones' classic '60s albums were all reissued in the Hybrid SACD format, to glowing reviews. The next year, Bob Dylan's catalog was upgraded. The sound quality blew away listeners. It seemed only a matter of time before the people who had replaced their LPs with CDs for the last twenty years started replacing them again with SACDs.  And then ... nothing".

Nov 21st    It seems that one of the uber-philes out there decided to take things into his own hands this week, and attempted to give the ol' Amazing Randi vs. Michael Fremer cable controversy a go.  Now, this particular cat just happens to own one of the world's highest-quality stereo systems, as well as a high-end / custom-designed audio listening room.  Said individual also felt that he wouldn't have a problem determining which speaker cable was which, thus, was a pretty damned good candidate for the session.  As it turns out - all of the fancy equipment, special rooms, familiarity with his own source material and megga-thousand dollar speaker cables couldn't save him from his own ego...  he failed miserably in picking out which cable was in play.  The moral of this story is obvious: Ego sucks and a basic, properly designed and terminated cable is as good as one costing tens of thousands of dollars.  As you can imagine, the many complete nutbars out there who claim to hear everything and anything, will make desperate attempts to sway you from the black & white truth, but you'll not see a damned one of em' offer to challenge their own ears to an unsighted evaluation of a fancy cable vs. a bog-standard copper cable!  Why?  Gee, I dunno :-)

Nov 21st    Always one to bring you the crazy stuff that no-one else on the scene cares to grasp ~ Check out a RecordingMag.com technique that will let you hear for yourself, realtime / linear, the effects of aliasing on digital audio.  Its a bit more work than most of my posts, but has a trippy payoff, and you'll no doubt get a buzz out of how much the signal can take before we get annoyed with the sound.  First off, you'll need to download this 30-day Demo of Max MPS, in zipped form from their website.  Unzip it (inform me if you don't know how to 'unzip' a file, and I'll post an uncompressed version on my site), and then download this little file (AliaserPC.mxf), from Recording.Com's site.  The aforementioned are XP-Home & Pro OS specific versions - if you want Mac versions, go here.  Re-boot the PC after installing the program and then use MaxMPS to open the AliaserPC.mxf file that you downloaded in part II of the above instructions.  Got all that?  Good, once you've opened the AliaserPC.mxf file you'll see a rectangular / grey click-box titled Load SoundFile.  Click it and point it to any .WAV file of your choosing.  Click the Play from top button and enjoy the music for a moment...  Now use the vertical slider to change the sample rate.  Crazy shit man...

Nov 21st    A looooooong time ago I promised you an opinion on the Windows Vista operating system.  Well, I've had a spring / summer and fall to get to know this Microsoft OS and here is what I found:  Its slow... and I mean fucking slow - compared to Windows XP - or any other OS that Microsoft has ever released in fact.  It doesn't offer me anything exciting, nor does it positively change my interface with the omnipresent personal computer.  Its sluggish to do anything, even on absolutely killer / cutting-edge hardware.  I have been warning my clients away from it in every possible case, every scenario.  What else... how about that cool printer / camera / scanner / internal card etc., you purchased two or more years ago... feelin' lucky?  There is a damned good chance that the manufacturer hasn't bothered to write Windows Vista-compatible drivers for that sucker.  I've run into this issue innumerable times onsite in the past 10 months - its maddening!  Some fools in the A/V geek-pool expound theories of a 'Vista audible superiority' vs. Windows XP... Do they care to take a shot of identifying a file recorded on Vista vs. a file recorded on XP?  No?, I thought not... (but I'll post two here in a flash if you ask!).  I've blind auditioned many such files and must say here and now: the Vista vs. XP audible superiority thing is a myth!  It was all based on a misunderstanding of an issue related to triggering sound files in the background when another was playing in the foreground on XP.  Vista deals with it smoothly, sometimes Windows XP does not, as sounds associated with events in your XP operating system and applications can evoke sample-rate conversion - end of story.  An engineer from Benchmark covers tweaking XP quite well in this Wiki.  The verdict, as I see it: skip Vista, wait from Microsoft's '7' Operating System, due out in...um, whenever Microsoft sees fit to release it...

Nov 19th    Beautiful!  Spent my weekend with loved ones and great people!  Saturday night consisted of a huge party with a hundred or so friends at a buddy's 50th birthday.  The gig was held at a local Greek restaurant famous for its ambience and amazing food, and we all had a hell of a great time.  With loads of traditional Greek food & gallons of fine red wine to wash it down on hand, it was a good thing I got to sleep-in the next day!  Late Sunday morning a bunch of us headed into the local mountains on bikes to get high naturally ~ if there is one thing to get your ass on before you die; its gotta be a kick-ass mountain bike lads!  The views, the exhilaration of speed on the descent, camaraderie between the fellas and the beer... oh, the cold beer around a campfire at a seclude mountain cabin at days end... to hell with the city life; this is livin!  Lets ease into the new week with a mellow little ditty from Nick Drake: Blues Run The Game.

Nov 19th    Forums, forums, forums... there seems to be no lack of cats with a jaw to wag (key to punch), when it comes to discussing A/V and our fascination with it.  In that vein, I give you yet another: The North East Wisconsin Audio Society.

Nov 19th    They’re remastered and re-released - but does messing with Led Zep’s classics really make them sound any better? Times Online bends an ear toward the Lead Balloon.

Nov 19th    What would my week be without ridiculing audiofools?  Boring, I agree!  With that to heart, I give you the rather long-winded, but pretty damned comprehensive Science and Subjectivism in Audio.  When just one of those nut-jobs comes out of the A/V closet and conducts a documented, witnessed, unsighted evaluation of a tweak demonstrating in good faith that some pseudo-scientific cable / fuse / pebble etc., bullshit actually has an audible effect on the program material (don't hold your breath), then I'll let up on em', I promise!

Nov 19th    What good would this site be if I didn't provide you with some serious acoustic geek-time?  Well, today I have a dandy for ya': Bruel & Kjaer's: Measurements In Building Acoustics.  850Kb Adobe PDF File)

Nov 19th    Old-school Punkers ahoy!  Who knew that these cats still existed: Canada's own DayGlo Abortions are playing Toronto's 'Kathedral' Nov. 23rd if you are so inclined.  These crazy buggers brought us such memorable (hilarious) albums such as Feed Us A Fetus,  Here Today, Guano Tomorrow and Two Dogs Fucking.  They are even giving away one of their tracks, an oldie titled Is This How A Punk Song Goes?  Go ahead, tickle you nose hairs, as to what the hell they are saying... here you go!  I used to listen to em' a lot and saw em' a few times as a kid, they were wild onstage and as long as one stayed fairly inebriated; loads O' fun with kinda' catchy tunes (in a vaguely disturbing sorta' way  :-)

Nov 16th    Well, wasn't that a nice short workweek!  IMO, we should always work four days on / three off, it'd make for a whole lot less stress!  I say we celebrate the coming weekend with a taste of The Treats: Cuchillo.  This is what one gets when Mexican traditional meets Rock n Roll (bear with it past the Southern intro).  There's some riffin' in there that even Jack W. would be proud of - very cool!

Nov 16th    Everything old is new again: have a look at Yamaha's latest offerings and it'll throw your head back at least 30 years.  Metal faceplates, wooden end-caps, the exact knobs and dials that we grew up on 'back in the day'.  I wonder what this'll do to the absurd market prices being asked for ancient components online?.

Nov 16th    Now this is funny: you may have already seen this clip on other forums, but I just had to post it here, for, if nothing else, my own amusement: A couple of long-term studio cats and two musicians take a stab at identifying an all-analog tape recording vs. an all-digital master...  Have a peek, pretty entertaining!

Nov 16th    Why do I mock tweaker-audiofools so?  Perhaps its because I simply must laugh at their gullibility, maybe its caused by years of reading their asinine missives, or perhaps its simply that their giant egos annoy me so.  Apparently, I now must pity them: Scientists Find that Low Self-Esteem and Materialism Goes Hand in Hand.

Nov 16th    Those of you into glowing tubes and all things ultra-analog have reason to celebrate this weekend ~ This day in electronics: Nov. 16, 1904: Vacuum Tube Heralds Birth of Modern Electronics

Nov 16th    The perfect gift (aw', are we starting in on that shit already?!), for that Beatle-junkie in your life, or maybe even yourself: "...the most definitive and thoroughly researched book ever published about how the Beatles' recordings were actually made"

Nov 16th    Frontline has made a one-hour / 4-part video series available online titled "The Way The Music Died" - Here's the synopsis: Frontline follows the trajectory of the recording industry from its post-Woodstock heyday in the 1970s and 1980s to what one observer describes as a "hysteria" of mass layoffs and bankruptcy in 2004. The documentary tells its story through the aspirations and experiences of four artists: veteran musician David Crosby, who has seen it all in a career spanning 35 years; songwriter/producer Mark Hudson, a former member of the Hudson Brothers band; Hudson's daughter, Sarah, who is about to release her first single and album; and a new rock band, Velvet Revolver, composed of former members of the rock groups Guns N' Roses and Stone Temple Pilots, whose first album will be released in June.  Part 1, 2, 3, 4. (Windows Media Player file format).

Nov 16th    A New Twist to the Cochlea: Why It’s Shaped the Way It Is: Time for a little techno-babble.

Nov 16th    I've been reading / listening to a new book lately ( Critical Listening Skills For Audio Professionals ) that, among many other things, allows one to discern distortion in pure tones and music.  I'm amazed at how well music masks even relatively high amounts of distortion.  I'm using very high quality headphones for most of my listening (to the books' companion tutorial CD), and have to say: marketing brochures where companies contrast their products 0.0035% distortion vs. a competitor's 0.0075% distortion - are the biggest crock of shit ever put to print!  The human ear has a hell of a time discerning 1.0% THD (!) when music is used as a source.  For a good read on distortion, have a good look over Bruel & Kjaer's Audio Distortion Measurements publication.  (2 megabyte / Adobe PDF document).

Nov 16th    Well if this hasn't been the biggest post I've made in quite some time!  Perhaps I feel an angstrom of guilt over not posting much these days..., um, no, that's not it...  or perhaps I just have too damned much time on my hands this evening, waiting for these damned PCs to finish loading service packs / updates / security fixes...  At any rate, this is it for a few days; I'll wind up with some more tunes to groove on into the weekend: Check out full album streams from: Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Bobby Bare Jr., The Stranglers, Lindsey Buckingham, Widespread Panic, The Sex Pistols, Jerry Lee Lewis and Paul McCartney!  Remember to check that Temporary Internet Files folder... :-)  Have a kick-ass weekend fellas!

Nov 13th    What a wild and wooly long weekend that was!  Here in the Okanagan we experienced near-gale-force winds that ripped the hell outta' our park trees, shingles from dozens of roofs, storefront signs and various other valuables.  I guess one can only respond by... puttin' on some Canadian tunes and cranking the hell outta' your stereo!  The New Pornographers - My Rights vs. Yours.  192Kb/s MP3 - No DRM.  Kudos to Zunior Records for releasing this free work.  You can download loads of other Zunior Samplers by signing up on their website.  You'll receive bi-monthly (more or less), notes from Zunior - whenever they have another 'Sampler' available for free download.

Nov 13th    Just in case that's not enough of a jolt to drag you through the shortened workweek, dip your earlobes into some of Ministry's free & legal downloads: warning - extremely heavy!

Nov 13th    Ever wonder what an acceptable grading system for used vinyl might be?  If you wanna' flog some of your unwanted LPs, how do you describe them?  The Record Collector's Guild has created this succinct guide to describing your wares to potential clients.  While you're there, check out their discussion forum, (might find some of that inner-groove inscription info' that you wanted in there KC), as well as the interesting articles on estimating the value of your records, care, finding vinyl, Microscopy of Vinyl Recordings and many other cool listings.  A highly recommended site for vinyl buffs!

Nov 13th    Continuing right along on a vinyl kick: check out the very interesting Secret Society Of Lathe Trolls discussion forum.  From what I can gather, this is a place for cats involved in the actual cutting of vinyl LPs!  Another of those things that make you say to yourself "I hadn't even considered that such a thing existed"...

Nov 13th    Ever lust over a set of Wilson Audio's Watt Puppies, but just don't know how you'll break it to your significant other that you've blown over $18,000 on a set of loudspeakers?!  Well, fear sleeping in the garage no more; with a lot less money, a bit of carpentry skill and a whole lot of time, you can own a D.I.Y version of the venerable monoliths!  Check out Thorsten Loesch's little 'how-to' and be amazed!

Nov 13th    One of my favorite things to do on a rainy Saturday afternoon is listening to CBC's Quirks & Quarks.  Bob McDonald pry's interesting answers out of scientists from around the world, on just about every topic imaginable.  Just in case you are looking for some interesting to burn to disk for that next flight, long drive or trip on rails, this massive collection of knowledge is sure to impress.

Nov 13th    Its that time of the month again: Affordable Audio has released it's November edition of the AA online rag.  As usual, crank the bullshit detectors on high and dive in!  If you can hold your breath past the voodoo cable / 'air around instruments' nonsense, you'll be rewarded with articles such as Recording – Techniques & Technology, by Simon Ashton (page 23).  Truth be told, that was all that interested me, but you may find a few other nuggets kicking around the place...

Nov 9th    Ya Man - Fuuukn' Friday, and a long-weekend to boot!  Cruise on into the weekend ~ that glorious distraction from the curse of work and all its attendant stresses ~ with a taste of of John Vanderslice's quirky Me and My 424 (I believe that he's singing about a Tascam 424 as the CD this was taken from is called life and death of an American four-tracker) - Track compliments of Barsuk Records

Nov 9th    Yet another cool cat who took the time to debunk the complete freekin' idiocy of the 'audiofools' (translation: gullible / corrupt individuals with massive egos).  Green Markers on your CDs: Teetering On The Edge

Nov 9th    "Deezer is like... Freebasing Napster"...  That's how this one was described to me in an electronic missive.  Now, I've truly no idea what the hell freebasing is all about, but I sure as shootin' know all about the Napster phenomenon!  It turns out that Deezer is only 'kinda' like the once-mighty Napster; one cannot download the music (shy of streaming capture utilities), but you can audition loads and loads of amazing music in their full-track / streaming glory.  Deezer.com.  Cannot tell ya' what the bitrate is, perhaps 128k or so.

Nov 9th    And finally, a little Canadiana (always a good thing!).  The Impact of Music Downloads and P2P File-Sharing on the Purchase of Music: A Study for Industry Canada (391Kb Adobe PDF).

Have a great weekend my friends, go ahead and purchase a "shit, that's expensive", bottle of Vino', a bit of those favorite treats you've been denying yourself, a longed-for CD or LP, perhaps a ticket to a live show and don't forget, in honor of Remembrance Day, Pay It Forward to someone, especially a complete stranger!  Those cats fought and died so that we might carry on - lets try to make their effort's worthwhile by making each other's lives a little better!

Nov 8th    Only a couple more days till' the weekend, Nice!  What'll it be today?  how about some Rickie Lee Jones - Elvis Cadillac.  (Compliments of New West records)

Nov 8th    Bid daddy is coming round'...  Universal Music - Classics & Jazz have stepped out of the DRM shackles and are now offering their entire C & J catalogue.  Better yet, the files are MP3 encoded at 320Kb/s!  Nice work, now if they get smart enough to lower their prices...

Nov 8th    10 Things to Know When Buying an HD Camcorder - The cool cats at Gizmodo have another very informative, no-BS article that'll help you avoid the sales pitch you'll get at your local big-box chain store if you go there looking to purchase a new camcorder.

Nov 8th    In what must surely be a contender for the Internet's ugliest www page design... we have the Sonic Studios site.  Its actually chalk-full of cool gizmos which enable one to capture binaural and surround-sound performances 'in the field' as it were.  Someone please email this cat and tell him his website layout blows...

Nov 8th    The iPod geek crowd out there will love this one: Stream Music from your iPhone to iTunes with Firefly Media Server.  See, sometimes crackers are helpful little buggers!

Nov 8th    Some of you are still into Digital Audio Tape (DAT), and as such, I'm sure that you'll get a charge out of what amounts to somewhat of a 'DAT Oasis': DAT-Heads.

Nov 8th    For those of you who are chomping at the bit for some technical A/V reading, and don't wanna' be forced to pick up one of the fetid audio/video rags at the smoke-shop: Engineering The Performance - Recording Engineers, Tacit Knowledge & the Art of Controlling Sound.  (All credit to the authors!)

Nov 8th    Its back!!!  Enjoy what is arguably the Internet's highest quality streaming audio via Radio Paradise's 192Kb/s streaming MP3 channel.  I'm listening to it at this very moment in fact: Louis Armstrong - Wonderful World - Very, very nice!  Speaking of Radio Paradise: They are currently flogging some really cool, well-built and sanely priced 'Audioengine' powered mini-monitors.  The speaks' go for $200.00 whether you purchase them through the station's www site or Audioengine's site.  I suspect that Paradise Radio stands to gain a tad from the sales, and I feel that should support them...

Nov 8th    "Just because"... Every once in a while I like to throw in a link to something environmental-based.  Today's link is to a newer, pretty-much frictionless wind turbine: the home & office sized Maglev Wind Power Generators.  Finally, something good coming out of China!

Nov 8th    Ok, just in case I don't get a chance to post again before the salvation of our society: AKA, The Weekend!!!  Jon Lajoie: High As Fuck - Funny shit!

Nov 5th    Damn man, wasn't that a kick ass weekend!  Sure the weather wasn't 100% here in Western Canada, but the cool, overcast was cats-ass for hiking / biking in the mountains, and the even cooler evenings were a great excuse for a dinner-party or two with good friends, great music and a few bottles of Vino'!  I'm gonna' kick off the workweek with a blast of The Archibalds - Rain & Thunder.

Nov 5th    An interesting clip to mess with your minds this morning.  Most audiophiles swear on a stack of whatever that they can discern audible differences between various components - and they absolutely refuse to be put in a position where they cannot visually identify the components or devices under audition.  They are pretty sure of themselves and their capabilities.  Please allow me to demonstrate the utter unreliability of our eyes / ears with a demonstration of a phenomenon known as the McGurk Effect.  Check it out, have headphones at the ready to assist in this one.  Its pretty much a mindfunk: if you stare long enough, and try like hell, you'll get it, but its not easy.  Try to watch / audition the video clip and then listen to it with your eyes closed, before you read the text below the video...

Nov 5th    Gonna be a short one today boys, am working on researching another project to do with agriculture in Nova Scotia - will let you in on the bits and pieces if I successfully acquire the land I intend to purchase in 08'.  In the meantime, here is something to amuse and amaze you!  The 'golden ear' nutjobs think that I'm against everything that isn't explainable by modern science.  They are, of course, completely wrong in this assumption.  The truth is that I'm not opposed to the unknown elements so long as they are tested and the methods are documented and openly available in case third parties wish to employ these methods in further evaluations.  Case in point, this Knowledge Network documentary on autism.  No, its nothing to do with Audio / Video, aside from the fact that its a motion picture.  However, its fascinating as all get out!  Check it out: The Boy With The Incredible Brain.  You'll definitely require a high-speed Internet connection to view this clip.  Notice that the individuals under consideration have no problems with performing their mental feats under duress, in multiple locations, on demand - and get it right every time.  This is in stark contrast to the audiofools who stammer that they cannot be tested as the 'stress' will cause them to fail... cough...

Nov 5th    Not that I'm a huge fan of Tone Publications work: in fact, I think that the author's "I hear it" statements, with regards to cables and various transparent hardware bits is downright asinine.  However, there are occasional articles in his (very slick), magazine that are interesting and informative - just skip over the hardware reviews as they are all pretty much poppycock.  Tone Issue 12 2007 Edition.

Nov 5th    We all like a great deal, and Onkyo has the manufacturing, marketing and distribution muscle to lay some out some cool kit at fairly decent prices. Check out their new 'all in one - 7.1' surround sound HP-ST908.  Its loaded to the tits with cutting edge technology including:

- 1080p HDMI version 1.3a, video up-conversion, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD
- Slim wall mountable 7.1 speaker system with 230W powered subwoofer
- Audyssey 2EQ Auto Speaker Calibration, using multiple calibration points
- 192/24 bit DACs

Ready to roll for $745.00 bucks on Amazon.com

Nov 5th    You think you have WAF issues!?  Check out Arto Kolinummi's D.I.Y Full-Range Electrostatic project.  Ah, ya... that must be one understanding little lady...  On the other hand, if you were really gunnin' for a divorce - I do believe that this is the project to undertake

Nov 3rd    We interrupt this weekend of relaxation for a special announcement: You need to download, pop back a stiff shot and (((crank the living hell outta'))) American Steel : Sons Of Avarice as soon as humanly possible!  I know, I know, this is a repeat of Oct 29th's post - but I just cannot emphasize strongly enough, the utter crankability of this track: you'll see what I mean shortly...

Nov 2nd    Welcome to November: the pearly gates of 2007/2008's ski season!  In a mere 21 days I'll be on the slopes, pitting balance and common sense against the forces of gravity - and lovin' every minute of it!  How about some Canadian band crankage featuring The Stills - In The Beginning (A nice, clean, DRM-free, 192Kb/s MP3 compliments of Vice Records)

Nov 2nd    I run two, would like two more if the wife wouldn't have me committed...  This begs the question" "How Many Subwoofers Is Enough"?  Floyd Toole answers  

Nov 2nd    Here's another of my favorites: a cool cat who sat down and auditioned two CD players 'blind'.  I know where this cat is at, I too have been convinced that items A and item B sound unique from one-another, but when it came to telling them apart when I was disallowed visual access... well, read the experience [and try it yourself!].  The dude also has a load of really cool links from his site to others on the Net, including this one: The Bass Pig - love it!

Nov 2nd    In a world where well-designed / built CD players, amplifiers, preamps, cables and solid-state electronics in general are acoustically transparent (go ahead, grit your teeth Mr. Audiofool), there is one bastion of excitement left for audio hardware lovers: The Loudspeaker.  I recently came upon a page detailing Keith Kidder's DIY speaker exploits and was very impressed with it - to the point that I wanted to share it with ya'.

Nov 2nd    For some reason or another, I've failed to keep up with my usual postings on band tour schedules.  I'll attempt to rectify this by noting that The Weakerthans are playing Toronto's Phoenix Concert Theatre on Nov. 8th.  See the full tour schedule here.  I've posted their work on this site several times in the past: scroll down to April 30th, May 1st and July 11th to get an earful of their talent!  .

Nov 2nd    Slowly, oh-so-slowly... bits and pieces of the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray war are eroded by dual-format decks such as Samsungs' new BDUP5000.  Gizmodo has a snippet of an update on the rather expensive gadget.  Expect 08' to go down as the year that the format wars died...  when Chinese manufacturers get hold of the technology to pull this off with some kind of cheap licensing or reverse engineering!  Don't buy a single-format deck folks, hold on a little longer...

Nov 2nd    I really and truly love it when folks have enough of a brain to actually conduct logic-based audio evaluations on their own or with friends.  It warms my heard and restores my faith in my fellow audio-nut.  Chris Long is one such fellow: he recently endeavored to discern differences in ripped CDs under various 'electrically noisy' environments - and came up, you guessed it... well, read the short description...

Nov 2nd    Those Clapton fans among us might be interested to read a few pages of excerpts from Eric' new book: Clapton: The Autobiography - available here on, of all things, Vanity Fair!

Nov 2nd    Purchased a pretty interesting-looking book off Amazon.ca this morning: Critical Listening Skills For Audio Professionals.  I'll keep you updated on what I learn as I go along.  The hardcover book was a mere $37.00 and since I grabbed a copy of Leonard Cohen's Death Of A Ladies Man CD while I was there, the order qualified for free shipping - cool deal!

Nov 2nd    Well, that's it for me, the weekend, AKA: my salvation from work - has arrived, on time as always - though it tends to feel overdue about Wednesday...  I'll sign off with a track that Fingertips just listed: The Silver Seas - Imaginary Girl.  A nice, easy-listening way to trip on into the weekend - Later skaterz!

Oct 31st    Happy Halloween my fine friends!  I'm so damned happy that Oct. is over and we're one step closer to ski season, that I'm gonna' take today off work!  Damn strait, I figure that the only sane way to make it through the workweek is to shorten the darn thing, and what better way than to break it up into little chunks!?  Heck, now look at that, only two more days to go and its the weekend again :-)  Lets celebrate with a track off Mark Knopfler's new LP: Madame Geneva  Unfortunately, there is a catch to this one: Mark & Co. aren't making it freely available for download, only as a stream...  Thus, unless you are 'stream-savvy', you'll have to simply enjoy this one from the site as-is.  It is however, a pretty decent tune!

Oct 31st    In the vein of Halloween, allow me to flash you back a few decades to The Hilarious House Of Frightenstein.  Like many of you, I grew up on this Canadian program and remember more than a few after-school afternoons, stretched out in front of the boob tube, getting my fill of this psychedelic children's show, enjoy!

Oct 31st    Those of you craving some mind-food, check out the work of yet another proud Canadian: Floyd E. Toole's Loudspeakers And Rooms For Multi-channel Audio Reproduction.  This is a three-part series, I'll shoot em' to ya' one at a time over the next few weeks as each is fairly significant in depth.

Oct 31st    Yup, that's it for me, a short work-week, a short post and an even shorter attention span :-)  I'll sign off with the work of a few more talented Canucks: Blue Rodeo, and a couple of tracks off their new LP.  (Have a look in your 'Temporary Internet Files' folder...)

Oct 29th    Back at the grind my friends!  Not much to say this AM, but I have a mind-blowing site to show you: Seeqpod.  I'm not too sure of how they have managed to stay online for as long as they have, must be a loophole in the RIAA's book over the fact that the site doesn't actually download anything for you, it just points out the music, as with Google?  Oddly, as with so many other large sites with the RIAA's blessing (download.com for instance), Seeqpod really does download the streamed files onto your PCs - into the Temporary Internet Files folder...

Oct 29th    This next one goes hand-in-hand with the above link.  When Pigs Fly: The Death of Oink, the Birth of Dissent, and a Brief History of Record Industry Suicide.  I suggest that you set the display font in your browser to 'largest' for this one.

Oct 29th    those of you with 'above average' music file collections (see above), will dig the news that a faster bus is coming to town: USB 3.0 ~ 4.8 Gigabytes per second (not a typo!).

Oct 29th    A few weeks ago I showed you some bits concerning the coming OLED display technology, there is a lot more online since then, have a look.

Oct 29th    Ok, ok... I'm known as the guy who gives folks links to free & legal music, so I'll play the role...  How about several hundred more classical tracks by all the major composers from wayyy back in the day?  Check it out, its fairly comprehensive.

Oct 29th    Need a Rock n' Roll fix instead?  Ok, if you're a fan of the work of the Clash, in their heyday, you're gonna' love American Steel : Sons Of Avarice ((Crank It))) and perhaps a few 'retakes' of classic tunes compliments of Me First & The GimmeGimmes: The Longest Time, Leaving On A Jetplane and the timeless Wild World.  I get a hell of a kick outta' these versions!  What?, too heavy for ya?  Geeze', ok then, at least crank up the dial for a little Leeroy Staggger Slowly Sinking.

Oct 27th    Short one for the weekend boyz'.  Tonight's music post is taken from Fingertips site - Melou - Sweet Love.  Very nice, a complete change from the regular themes around here!  This track is MP3 encoded without DRM at 320Kb/s VBR.

Oct 27th    More music: Not just any old tunes mind you, but really old and quite rare ragtime care of Collections Canada.  All of the tracks you hear on the site are legit / legal, so take some time and enjoy the archival skills of a great many folks: "your tax dollars at work". :-)

Oct 27th    For those of you who are into portable players and have wondered about battery life vs. file bitrate (ya. my mind wanders...), check out this well-executed site on RockBox.  They also sport a discussion forum if that kinda' thing interests you.

Oct 27th    I gotta' admit, nothing brings a smile to my face like witnessing a 'Golden ear' face reality by way of someone holding their proverbial 'feet to the fire'. Though I've read this one in the past, it never ceases to give me that warm all over feeling: Boston Audio Society ~ The Digital Challenge.  While you're in the neighborhood, check out their other excellent articles; ABX Testing and Wishful Thinking.  By the way, in case you've ever wondered why its so damned difficult to get your neighborhood 'Golden Ear' to attend an unsighted audition, this should explain it...

Oct 27th    Ok, that's it for me this week (told ya' it was gonna' be brief): lets close with a link to some new piano-rock care of John Mayer's new band 'The Frey'.  All files are nearly tucked away in your 'Temporary Internet Files' folder as you listen to em' - unfortunately low-bitrate 128Kb/s....  Not enough for ya'?  Ok, tuck into a few tracks from that old balladeer Bob Dylan care of Download.com.

Oct 25th    Another day, another win for the Vees!  Just arrived home from taking in a great game in our local arena, watching what I hope will soon gel into a BCHL league winning team.  Now that I'm back, safely ensconced behind the keyboard of my favorite laptop - what to crank up this evening?  How about some free & legal Widespread Panic: Up All Night.

Oct 25th    Enjoy a controversial film now and again?  Hell, who doesn't?!  As such, I know you'll dig this lot of free films from FreeDocumentaries.org.  The resolution leaves a bit to be desired, and some of the links don't initially work right off the bat (look around the pages for secondary links), but heck, the price is right!  The site contains something like 90 movies, most full-length feature films, the vast majority of them are poignant / pretty much 'must-sees'!  This should take you a while to wade through!

Oct 25th    Don't think I've brought this one up in the past, a quick search of the site appears to confirm this - so here is a link to a quality site dedicated to lossless audio: The Lossless Audio Blog.  If you dig high-quality audio signals, but wish that they could be a little smaller, lossless audio is for you.  Not just .FLAC mind you, there are a sheepload of different lossless audio file formats, check out the site and learn what I'm talking about.

Oct 25th    Another day ~ another A/V blog to show ya':  Check out ProRec.com to avoid all of the audiofool banter and get back to the heart and soul of music making!  The site's main page also has some pretty decent articles.  Check out Over The Limit, Greed & Power and Radio-Radio.

Oct 25th    So Steve has finally landed the 'Apple Of His Eye': Led Zeppelin's entire discography!  I must admit, I'm mighty surprised at one thing; they are offering a bundle of the entire catalogue for $99.00.  From what I gather, that means roughly a hundred bucks for the lot of em', at 256Kb/s and free of the much-hated DRM.  The only suggestion I have is that they boost the bitrate to 320Kb/s and call it a deal.  Here is a direct quote from the Apple site: Pre-order “The Complete Led Zeppelin” today on iTunes Available for pre-order exclusively on the iTunes Store, “The Complete Led Zeppelin,” a special digital box set, delivers the band’s entire discography for just $99. The 165-track collection includes the new career-spanning “Mothership,” a 24-track retrospective of the group’s best-known songs that’s also available separately. Pre-ordering either “The Complete Led Zeppelin” or “Mothership” automatically enters fans to win the chance to see the band’s reunion performance at London’s O2 Arena on November 26. Winners will receive 2 tickets to the show, round-trip airfare, and hotel accommodations. (Terms apply.) [Oct 23, 2007]

Oct 25th    I don't post much gospel/blues on the site, mostly because I'm not much for gospel, however, sometimes, such as with the work of Elvis ~ and in this case: The Blind Boys Of Alabama, I have to digress.  NPR has a great page that will fill your soul, if you are so inclined, with great old-school blues.  If you have the Real Audio player installed (or better yet, the open-source - Real Alternative player), you can sit back and enjoy an excellent interview with the boys, accompanied by loads of TBBOA tunes.

Oct 25th    And in closing...  Long-timers round' here are well aware of my vehement dismissal of 'The AudioFool gang' within the music-lover's environment.  Sites like Cdnav.com are few and far between, which is odd on one hand, as most of us are well-educated, affluent, and  I would like to think, wise enough to see a scam at 50 paces.  However, greed, ego and stupidity have obviously saturated a good portion of the audiophile community; how else can one explain sites like Canuck Audio Mart's discussion forum, as well as those of Steve Hoffman.tv and the various 'Asylums' out there?  Happily, there exists a large site called Audioholics.com, which was one of the first to point out the idiocy of cable manufacturers.  A recent article by Audioholic Tom Andry had me laughing enough that I thought I'd share it with you: Audio Reviews & Marketing.  My favorite is:

"I had what I can only describe as multiple out-of-body experiences during my listening sessions with the [speakers].  It was as if I had been taken to the Amazonian jungle, smoked some hallucinogenic plants with the local shamans, and had been transported to another reality."

Oct 23rd    Tuesday and we're just cruising along, thinking about sneaking a day off before the weekend...  Lets glide into today with another taste of Iron & Wine - Innocent Bones.  It took me a few listens to really dig this track, but now I'm playing the hell outta' it.

Oct 23rd    I always knew that there were a heck of a lot of bands in this, the greatest country on earth :-) -but I had no idea of the sheer number of groups in Canada!  The other day, while browsing a CBC site, I came upon this amazingly massive list and thought I would share it with you.  There are a little over 22,400 entries (!) so far, and as you'll no doubt see, a wide range of bands don't currently appear on the list.  Lets work on increasing the numbers: email or post in the forums, and I'll edit the list as we go along.  In no time, we'll have the most comprehensive listing of Canadian bands on earth!

Oct 23rd    If you're in the market for a portable media device, but don't wanna' go the iPod route, for whatever reason, then Anything But iPod is definitely the place for you to start your search.

Oct 23rd    Wireless speakers: Sound at last?  Upstart company, Avnera, feels that they've cracked the secret of providing quality audio over wireless technology.  Have a look at their ideas, but keep in mind the option of the many sound-bars on the market - as discussed on Cdnav over the past few months.

Oct 23rd    As if legal downloading sites didn't have enough to contend with in attempting to establish a toehold in a world of pirated music (90+ percent by most estimates), Canada's Copyright Board slaps tax on music downloads.

Oct 19th    Well I'll be damned, look at you, all happy to have made it through another week of working for da' man!  I guess its time to celebrate then huh?  How about we kick off the gateway to the weekend with a shitload of REM-tribute tracks.  Those of you who never took the time to dig into the milestone 'Automatic For The People' (one of REM's best ever LPs), get your chance to discover the genius of the band - albeit, through the work of admirers and their interpretations, via StereoGum's compendium of REM cover-tunes on this site.  All downloads are free & legal, encoded at 192Kb/s MP3, No DRM!

Oct 19th    Home Theater Shack is at it again: check out the Fall 2007 Subwoofer Test.  Gotta hand it to these cats, they don't just talk the talk, they rock the walk!

Oct 19th    There is not much I admire more in a man then truth and honesty.  Its what makes me so fond of my step-father, he's the proverbial rock of integrity when it comes to any matter which he is faced with.  In the field of A/V, I am most impressed with folks who stand up to the marketing juggernaut and simply speak the truth.  One such man in the field is Marc Perlman.  Pour a deep glass of your favorite inebriant and kick back for an enjoyable read of Marc's Golden Ears and Meter Readers: The Contest for Epistemic Authority in Audiophilia.  IMO, this is one of, if not 'the', best expression of the current 'state of the industry' at this point in time ~ as sad as that may seem...

Oct 19th    Cool new product watch: Check out what's happening in car-audio ~ Estone, an unknown in the industry has just released an in-dash deck with removable 20-gig' hard disk drive, auto-CD-Ripping technology (!), and USB 2.0 connectivity.  Some models sport Flash RAM compatibility and future models are soon to be released with wireless connectivity capabilities for transferring files between your PC and car-stereo sans any physical media ~ dig that shit: pull up in front of your home (or a friends) and download a bunch of tracks, then off you go - very cool!

Oct 19th    I keep dragging you back to this site, but for good reason: the Rock N Roll held within it is kicks ass!  Without further ado, I present the one, the only, Jeff Beck - Live Masonic Temple, Detroit, MI, 05/09/1975 - care of Wolfgang's Concert Vault.  If you haven't signed up before, know that you can use any username / password / email to sign up - there is none of the usual 'confirmation email' bullshit - just Rock n Roll!

Oct 19th    That's it for me this week, between the 22-odd tracks on the REM page, the comprehensive subwoofer discussion and Marc's absolutely excellent dissertation, you should be up to your tits in information for more than a few days!  Me, I'm gonna drink in the weekend like a fine Bordeaux: do some hiking and biking, take in some junior hockey (The Vees are working on 10 straight!), spend time with my gal and our friends and generally lap up the luxury that some fail to see surrounding us each and every day!  We may not be rich, but we Canucks certainly live in the lap of luxury!  Tap at cha' some time next week...

Oct 18th    Its been a few days since my last post; as much as I dig the site, its pretty time consuming to research and post the way I once did (daily).  My gal and I both celebrated birthdays over the past few days, I took plenty of time off work, did loads of hiking in the colorful local mountains, and generally just sucked up the beauty of being alive with a vengeance!  Today's Free & Legal musical post comes to us care of Andrew Vincent & The Pirates.  I posted their stuff a few months back, but it was wiped in a bit of server f#c$ups...  Check out One, Two Three and Gary Haché.  If you were ever a fan of early Lou Red, you'll love this stuff!

Oct 18th    Those of you who know me, realized years ago that I despise the bile which spews from the mouths of audiofools (did I word that strongly enough?), and I relish showing them the folly of their bullshit: my newest catchphrase to describe their behavior?; "They're nuttier than squirrel shit".  Liars annoy me: audiofools annoy me even more...  What am I driving at with this little diatribe?  Well, the crock O crap which said delusional fools proffer in suggesting that surround-sound is not for the enjoyment of 'real' music, but rather, for video accompaniment only.  Man, these cats are spending far too much time alone with their little 2-channel systems in dark rooms, they need to be provided with a decent demonstration of what a properly setup 7.1 or better hardware / software front-end can provide.  I agree with much of what James D. Johnson said in his 1994 publication: 'The Science Of Audio'.  Have a read, but to do so you'll need either Microsoft Powerpoint or the free Powerpoint viewer installed on your system.

Oct 18th    Hell, I'm on a roll here, so might as well provide you all with a little more reading from someone who actually took the time to blind audition amplification devices and report on their findings (hint - more of you fellows need to do this too).  Sensible Sound published this little ditty a few years back on the topic of 'Amplifier Sound'.

Oct 18th    I don't talk about A/V books much, perhaps I should do so more in the future.  Let me rectify that somewhat by opening your eyes to what might just go down as 'the' bible of the blues: Black & White Blues, by Marc Norberg. 

Oct 18th    Wowzers - here's enough reading to keep ya' busy for the balance of the evening, perhaps into the weekend!  Automated Home's article 'Wiring Guide'.  Its the most comprehensive overview on the topic I've seen to date.

Oct 15th    Welcome back to office hell!  Just kidding, er... no I'm not...  What to do in order to get your sorry asses through to Friday: AKA "the only workday that really matters"?  How about tuning into Concord Music Group's www site where they have a nifty little thang' called Concord Radio.  This application not only streams great music at 160Kb/s MP3, no DRM (I'm listening to CCR's Susie Q as I tap at cha'), but the files spool into your web browser's temporary internet Files folder... for later retrieval and playback if you so desire.  By the way, the new John Fogarty disk is pretty much what you'd expect from the man and his band, kinda' like CCR never left the stage.

Oct 15th    I've been on a bit of a "can I hear codec artifacts?" kick as of late.  Despite my urging, most folks simply refuse to download an ABX utility, rip a track or two and compare for themselves.  Odd, but... I'll be posting more on this in the future.  I have always maintained that 320Kb/s, properly ripped, with modern encoders, is transparent for 99.99 percent of the planet's population.  Oddly, its been damned tough to find a single documented blind or double-blind audition using 320Kb/s vs. classic Redbook CD posted on the Internet, in fact, none are available via Google or AltaVista lookups.  I did however, find this old (year 2000), evaluation in which a group of respected auditioners from the German magazine C't - using 7 year old MP3 technology at 256Kb/s, were unable to produce anything even near statistically valid data to demonstrate an audible difference.  Once again, I encourage all viewers to download Foobar 2000 and Audacity, then rip your favorite / cleanest CD with the widest dynamic range possible - into both WAV and MP3 at 320Kb/s.  Listen to your heart's content, then report back here with results.  I'll post em', anonymously if you like...

Oct 15th    If, on the other hand, you prefer your music in FLAC file format, groove to live soundboard recordings, and like me, dig Free & Legal tunes, there is always The Decemberists 24-bit FLAC files, available on The Internet Archive.  (Tnx. Lou!)

Oct 15th    While you're waiting for those bloody huge downloads, perhaps a little light reading to occupy yourselves?  Though its damned obvious to all of us who are music junkies, science, or rather one Daniel J. Levitin, of McGill University has recently produced this little ditty titled 'Life Soundtracks ~ The Uses of Music In Everyday Life'.  A good solid read, and fodder for those friends or spouses who cannot figure out why we simply must play music nearly every waking hour; (its actually good for us!).

Oct 13th    Yes, a rare weekend post!  Just thought that I might throw ya' a curve ball and allow you to do some auditions for kicks.  I've uploaded two files to my server, both identical clips from the Brandenburg Concertos (see below).  One of the clips is in uncompressed WAV file format (1440 Kb/s), the other is compressed in MP3 file format at 320Kb/s, using Audacity to export the files, and the very latest version of the LAME encoder.  Download the WAV file here (6.6 MB) and the MP3 file here (1.5 MB).  Now import these two files into any ABX comparator application and have a go at discerning one from the other...  Good luck!  I have had no success whatsoever figuring out which was which!  A great ABX utility to work with is built-into Foobar 2000.  No matter what the files are named, the application doesn't allow you to see them or their file-names when the audition is in motion.  This, my friends, is a fantastic example of what our golden-ears can or cannot 'hear'!  I'm using a kick-ass set of ATHM40fs headphones and a new Asus Xonar sound-card (supposedly the highest-quality card in the world at the moment), on a custom-built A/V workstation, in a very quiet room late in the evening.  If any of you have any questions on how to use the ABX comparator utility, feel free to drop me a line and I'll write you a tutorial pronto!

Oct 12th    Ya' just gotta' love short work-weeks!  Four days on / three days off... sounds like an extremely sane way to run a life!  Imagine the decrease in stress, rampant consumerism and pollution from commuting...  For this weekend's music, I'm going to borrow a link from a good online buddy (Hi Lou!), and provide you with something (a lot different) for a change.  The Brandenburg Concertos are freely available from this site in both 192Kb/s MP3 - as well as lossless .FLAC file format.  Scroll midway down the screen to see the beginning of the tracks.  The site has a decent server in place: I achieved download speeds in access of150Kb/s.

Oct 12th    One of the coolest of the forums listed in our massive 'Other Forums' section (see our own small forum for the list), is the Home Theater Shack.  Those of you who own a sound pressure meter will dig the free Room EQ Wizard software which the shacksters have made available online.  If you become a member of 'The Shack', you'll also have access to a comprehensive selection of test tones for free download.

Oct 12th    Like me, Tech Crunch blog feels that it just a matter of time until "The Inevitable March of Recorded Music Towards Free" comes to pass.  One day soon, every band will make a great deal of their music freely available online, using it as a way to get us to shows, and they'll earn their money like the rest of us: working for it!

Oct 12th    I can't really say that I've heard of Mr. Morrison's loudspeakers prior to this week, but I like what I see on his site: honesty...  Can you imagine - how scandalous: truth in marketing!  The old devil has built something along the lines of Ohm Walsh's kit from days of yore, and though I have yet to hear them, I have spent many an hour with the Walsh designs over the years, and dug what I heard.  Bend an eyeball to the Morrison line of speakers as well as Mr. W's strait talk about audio - if only more people in the audio business had these kinda' morals ! 

Oct 12th    Not really an 'A/V' post, but what the hell, its A/V related...  Every once in a while I post on the topic of gaming, mostly because I am flabbergasted by how life-like games are getting.  Case in point: the latest game to hit the shelves: Crysis, check out the screenshot (click to enlarge).  Is that crazy or what!  Ok, while not as high-rez' as Crysis, the free / open-source game Glest aught to have your kids (or you), tied to the screen for a few hours on rainy nights.  I really dig free & open software, in any guise, check out Glest!

Oct 12th    Looks like there'll be a new kid on the high-resolution television block by 09': Toshiba's announcement that they will be joining Sony in releasing OLED TVs is good news, with more of the big-boys sure to follow, perhaps we can get these suckers at a sane price before the 2010 Vancouver Olympics - cause you sure as hell won't wanna' pay the prices for the tickets to see the show live!  What is OLED TV?, check out this video explanation.

Oct 12th    Seems as though every-other loudspeaker company is producing a 'sound-bar' style offering these days, with good reason - they are unobtrusive and 'good enough' for most folks.  Nakamichi is the latest to throw it's hat into the fray with their Niro 1000 Surround System

Oct 12th    Ok, enough already...  Its the weekend, go out and have an ass-kicking good time, suck up every last second of this fleeting 'life-thing' and perhaps, well ya': crank up some great music like this from Canada's own The Sojourners and their gospel / bluesy track Eyes On The Prize (160Kb/s).  If this is your groove, there are a few more 'Free & Legal' tracks to be had here.

Oct 9th    Wow - what a long weekend!  Loads of riding with my best friends, far too much food at three separate feasts and lots of Rock N Roll!  Several days ago I promised to dig up some more Sadies, and true to my word, I found one other track for ya'.  Crank up a bit of What's Left Behind (192Kb/s MP3 No DRM)

Oct 9th    Gateway looked to be all but finished a short time ago, but alas, just look at the kit they've just rolled out:  "extreme HD resolution - a whopping 2560 by 1600 pixels (aka "1600p"). That's just about twice the number of pixels available in 1080p high definition signals".  I've always cheered for Gateway, that 'underdog to Dell' kinda' thing, and I'm glad to see them pop out some stunning technology!

Oct 9th    Don't know if any of you have stumbled upon this comprehensive site dealing with Neil Young - but its one of my favorites: check out HyperRust for (everything) you could ever want to know about the old man we all admire.

Oct 9th    My favorite geek site: Gizmodo, is running an article on one of the all-time great myths: Audio Cables!  Click on over to their entry "Calling Bullshit" and have a laugh today!

Oct 9th    Looking for an online radio station, be it in your area or worldwide?  Check out Bill Sparks Radio Station Lookup Site.

Oct 9th    Speaking of Radio...  Canada is making (slow) inroads on Digital Radio.  Read all about the government's stance on the subject here.

Oct 5th    Once again, its that lovely time of the week when the shackles are broken and we can go out and have real lives: Friday!!!  Lets kick off the only two days of the week which really matter with some cool rock'n from the oddly named HahaTonka and their even more oddly titled track: St. Nick on the Fourth in a Fervor - (F'k, I love Rock N Roll!).

Oct 5th    Pretty much every one of us has a shipload of MP3 files on our hard disk drives, CD-ROMS, thumb-drives and portable players (hell, there's hundreds of free tracks on this site alone!), but how many of you actually know much about the MP3 file format beyond "its a compressed file with stuff missing that we cannot hear" (in high-bitrate versions anyway).  Ya... didn't think so...  ArsTechnica (an excellent site by the way), has recently published a totally geeky, but eminently understandable explanation of the the technical stuff that makes an MP3 what it is.

Oct 5th    In case you haven't heard, Van Halen has crushed the critics and kicked off a tour that is getting nothing but rave reviews!  Fuck n A'!  Don't know about you, but I'll sure as hell be looking for tickets to this tour!  Check this site to see when the boyz' are coming to a venue near you.  As for my fellow British Columbians, dig it: Dec 5th / General Motors Place!  As an interesting side note: Van Halen has gotten even more "Van Halen-ish" with the departure of long-time VH bassist Michael Anthony.  Woflgang Van Halen, Eddie's son, is now the band's 'man of four strings'!

Oct 5th    In case you haven't heard: there's a monumental shift in Audio / Video / Computing technology coming down the pike and it has Billy Boy's name all over it.  Check out Microsoft's uber-cool new 'Surfaces' technology.

Oct 5th    Remember way 'back in the day' when The Cult was The band in North America?  Well, like so many other 'were it' bands, The Cult are making attempts to come back onto the scene, and they're taking a page outta' the new kids playbook by giving away a free track to the masses.  I have formulated an opinion on this material, but I won't share it with you, instead, download their 320Kb/s MP3 track and bend an ear for yourself.  (The site accepts any email / phone number / etc., just make some shit up and you'll be presented with a download link...)

Oct 5th    Never one to shy away from, well, pretty much anything... I bring you a taste of 'War Made Easy', narrated by Sean Penn.  I know that nearly half of my readership is made up of American citizens: I ask you folks to grab a copy of this movie an educate yourselves - (you impeached Clinton for getting a blowjob, surely Bush rates impeachment for being directly responsible for the brutal death of so many thousands of people?)

Oct 5th    Its that time again folks: Affordable Audio has published their Oct. issue and it appears the editor has taken my words - somewhat - to heart.  Down that with a gain of salt (perhaps a sea of salt), as: though he has included a promised 'blind audition', its with speakers - which I have always maintained sound different from one another, not with cables or other nonsense 'tweaks'.  That, and he has gone off on an absurd tangent about that favorite of the audionutbar, 'Fuses'.  Lets see now, he ...could... have performed an unsighted audition on fuses, and actually covered some new ground, pushing aside some of the hobby's lies and corruption for once, but noooooooooooo...  Nice work Mark...

Oct 5th    What the hell: More Music!  The weekend is upon us, more rockin' is in order!  Check out Parlor Mob's free track: Carnival Of Clowns.  It reminds me somewhat of the White Stripes, without the heavy rippin' blues barrage, and a whole lot more instruments thrown in: Crank It!

Oct 5th    Well, that's it for me for another week.  I'm making plans to hang with good friends, drink as much fine wine as I can drag outta' the liquor store and see if we can't get a few more rides in this year before the trails are covered in snow!  Hell, its been dumping in the mountains on and off for most of the past two weeks and I'm split between being stoked about the rapidly approaching boarding season and cool-weather climbing into the mountains on my bike...  I'll tap at cha' after the long weekend on Tuesday, or Wednesday... :-) - Rock on Brothers!  Here's a final touch to get you jazzed for the weekend The Deadstring Brothers - Heavy Load

Oct 3rd    Humpday it is!  I've started celebrating early with a very large glass (fishbowl is more accurate), of my favorite Cabernet Sauvignon, and a sizeable chunk of the darkest chocolate I could get my hands on ~ I suggest this recipe for all of you out there as well!  Lets kick off the midweek with a very fine track from fellow Canucks: The Sadies - Anna Leigh.  I've never really given this band much of a listen in the past, but after this excellent example of their work, I'll certainly dig deeper.  (192Kb/s - No DRM)

Oct 3rd    The next-generation Zune has just been announced: Check out the GizModo overview of the new line here.  This looks like a great new challenge to the omnipresent iPod - the likes of which I despise ~ ok, wearing my bias on my sleeve there...  Its just that idiotic iTunes software and the fact that it converts all of your perfectly good MP3s into M4U files and wastes even more space on your hard disk drive.  And how about the fact that Microsoft is releasing flash ROM software that will enable / implement, features available on the new Zunes - for the the (old) Zunes too!  That is cool as heck - Steve-O, you and the Apple boyz' could learn a thing or two from old Billy Gates!...

Oct 3rd    So I re-discovered Joost again last night!  What the hell is Joost?  Well, its the best way that I have seen to date for running 'on-demand-TV / on the PC'.  The picture quality is by far the best I have seen for full-screen resolution, and the selection of product is currently running at around 15000 programs.  Not bad for - Free!  Watched a few old NHL Stanley Cup finals and some Sports Illustrated programming (of course, only for the articles... and she had some really nice articles...).  

Oct 3rd    Since I'm currently building 'the ultimate audio PC workstation' at the moment, I've been scouring the wibbly, wobbly web for articles on tweaking PCs as audio systems.  Found this article by some complete nutbar who obviously has no actual OS coding background - as many of his suggestions are completely asinine...  There is also this - rather sane - article by a site called Music XP, which made a whole lot more sense.  Just thought I'd share that with all of you interested in PC music servers.

Oct 3rd    Been listening to a whole lot of Tom Waits lately.  Thought I'd turn a few of you onto his style with a link to some cat's website I found with Google... not my hosting folks!  Hell, if this turns a few more people onto his excellence and helps to sell some more concert tickets, it'll be worth it!  Warm beer and cold woman.  (I've been fu'n addicted to this track as of late - what a great, gravelly voice!).  Tom's style takes a certain kinda' acquired taste - I suggest you start with Rain Dogs and go from there...

Oct 1st    A new month, a clean slate - I dig it! In celebration of October, the month of my birth onto this rock, spinnin' round' the Sun, lets kick it (really) old-school: in my wanderings around the wibbly, wobbly web I've stumbled upon a site at McGill University called 'Coltrane Music'.  This page isn't, as the title might imply, all about Mr. Coltrane's music, rather, its a collection of 78-RPM tracks from many artists, in a wide variety of file formats, including; .Oog, .MP3, .WAV and .Aiff.  Take your time and read through the site, each track is succinctly described and in the tables below said descriptions, laid out for your listening / downloading pleasure - This collection includes well over 100 full-length audio tracks - enjoy! 

Oct 1st    Those of you who don't hear a difference between MP3 at 128Kb/s and MP3 at 256Kb/s (or better), might wanna' take a click over to 'FF123's' Artifact Training Page.  Grab a copy of FooBar2000 and learn to use it' s ABX utility: (download - install - run... the program and add files by selecting FILE / ADD FILES, locate the files you want to add - CTRL-click to select both files you just added / now, right-click on 'selected' files and choose 'Utilities-ABX Two Tracks - you must load two or more files in order to use the ABX utility)

Sept 29th    A rare weekend addendum: The site has reached over 35000 unique readers (!), and I just thought that I would reintroduce an old favorite of mine for those of you who haven't the time to search the past links: the only honest A/V magazine on the internet!  Check out the 14 absolutely free back-issues of The Audio Critic.  All those BS 'Audiophile' (cough), publications on the racks: forget em'.  Until something comes along to replace this zine', we're all a sorry lot of Audio / Video buffs in need of a reading fix...

Sept 28th    Fuh-freekin' Friday!  Whew!  That first week back at work was killer!  All I could think about was, well... doing something else that didn't involve work!  Luckily, I was in contact with yet another talented Canadian blues artist whose raw music kept me rockin'  through the mind-numbing events that made up the five-day workweek.  Allow me to introduce East Coaster Deak Mason and his track Where's The Booze.  If you want to hear more of Deke's talent, check out his MySpace page - where every track is downloadable!  Note that Deke is also involved in a punk rock project called Treble Kings.  You can check out that bit of madness by visiting their CBC Radio3 page.

Sept 28th    If you're a fan of 'Da Boss', then you'll be interested in checking out Bruce Springteen's feature page on Sympatico/MSN.  It allows you to listen to the entire album online!

Sept 28th    Just when you thought you've seen it all in online music sales: enter Mindawn.  These cats have carved out a unique niche in a crowded market by offering us not only DRM-Free files in the lossless FLAC file format, but also in the seldom-seen, but 'acoustically superior to MP3' - OGG file format.  Not something you'll see every day!  The place is chalk full of independent music, and the pricing schedule is more affordable then the offerings of iTunes et-al.

Sept 28th    I am continually making (derogatory) reference to DRM and I tend to forget that not everyone who reads this site is an audio-geek.  If you've been wondering what the hell I am talking about, check out The Electronic Frontier Foundations article: The Customer Is Always Wrong: A User's Guide to DRM in Online Music

Sept 28th    Lets face it: 95% of the stuff on satellite and cable television is complete and utter crap...  With very few exceptions: The Knowledge Network, PBS and perhaps APTN, regular cable television is a mind-rot!  Glad I got that outta' my system :-)  At any rate, I have recently been catching the odd episode of a Knowledge Network program called Wild At Heart.  This outdoor showcase employs 'regular / unscripted folks' instead of actors, and is based right here in British Columbia.  Each episode makes you wanna' get out there and kick some ass!  Check out the very well-designed web site, enjoy planning your next adventure or just get some meal ideas from their interesting outdoor menus!

Sept 28th    Well, that's it for me this week, I'm gonna stock up on wine and beer, go down and buy my Apex Mt. Pass, sharpen up the edges of my board and get ready for the coming winter festivities!  The season is fast upon us, our local mountains have been receiving dumps of snow on a regular basis, higher peaks surrounding the valley are snow-capped, temps are starting to drop and we even fired up the gas furnace this week!  Hell man, we'll be flying down the slopes, smiling at the powder from heavens before you know it!  With that excellent thought, I'll close with a taste of the amazing Sam Phillips!  Check out the smoky, bluesy tones of All Night

Sept 26th    Hopefully, many of you have already heard of our next featured artist: Ottmar Liebert - La Luna.  Ottmar has made select recordings available under an open licensing music system known as Creative Commons.  For more Ottmar, visit his free music site.

Sept 26th    The always-interesting Audioholics has banged off an article titled Speaker Spikes and Cones – What’s the point? which might just have a few of you scratching your heads over the practice of 'spiking' your kit, and the bizarre proclamations that audiofool zines' make on the topic.

Sept 26th    Here's something that'll mess with your heads: A cat who mimics the sound-effects of a Hendrix concert... with his mouth!  Most of you will remember this cat as the one who made all of the oddball sounds in the old Police Academy movies.  Turns out, he's still at it, but has gotten much better... check it out.

Sept 26th    In case you've been under a rock for the past 24 hours, you may not have heard that Amazon has bullied up to the trough and opened a music store of it's own: this one with high bitrate / DRM-free tracks from tens of thousands of artists and undercut Apple's iTunes store a few cents to boot!  Should be interesting to see how this pans out!

Sept 24th    Watched a series of videos this evening that made a lot of things finance-related, much clearer to me.  Its a five-part series on YouTube called Money As Debt (2006) - and I strongly suggest that all of you reading this take the time to view it.  What an eye-opener ~ hell of an education!  When you view the videos, it'll be a lot easier on the eyes if you use the little 'full-screen' icon that sits in the bottom, right-hand corner of the video player...

Sept 23rd    Short one tonight boyz', I'm dog tired from burning the candle from both ends.  As that was the final weekend of my vacation, I felt that I had better kick out the jams: or so goes the excuse for enjoying too much food and wine with friends!  Here's freedom's final hurrah then: Jamie T and his track Salvador.  Sounds a lot like classic Clash to my ears, and I dig it!

Sept 23rd    For those of you who aren't into punk (What!?), sooth your ears with four tracks that Ani DiFranco has made available via Download.com.

Sept 23rd    New Toys!  After several years of actively searching, I finally gave up on finding a sanely priced external USB or Firewire ‘sound card’, and popped for a new device that I’ve mentioned here on a number of occasions: The Asus Xonar D2 PCI interface-based internal card.  Just ordered it tonight; will have it in my hands in a few days and shall then give you all a full ‘review’ of the unit. Have a new motherboard, CPU and edition of the supposedly 'better' OS (from a sound perspective): Vista, on hand as well, which I’ll load this week. In order to deal with the main issue that audiofools whine about with regards to PC-based audio systems, I’ll mount the power supply externally. Coupled with the fact that the Xonar is electronically shielded and sports a 118BD noise floor, it should satisfy the audiofools out there that are too chicken-shit to conduct unsighted auditions of their own (but whom don't hesitate to spread lies about audio-tweaks left, right and center).  This will be the box that I’ll use for the long-promised ‘unsighted fuse audition’ as well as the power-cable, second RCA cable audition and who knows what else… amps, CD players perhaps?

Anyway, I dig using a PC for the auditions as I spend so much time with the damned things and understand them inside out (literally). I also look forward to employing it for true double-blind high-bitrate MP3 vs. FLAC vs. WAV auditions etc. as well.

Sept 23rd    Came upon yet another online music forum the other day, check out Canada Jams.  There is a pretty decent main website that goes along with it here.

Sept 23rd    Free - Legal - Television on the Internet from a major label!  NBC became the latest television network to plant a stake in its own piece of Internet video turf, saying it would make free downloads of first-run television shows available directly to viewers through its Web site.

Sept 23rd    The iPod has obviously spawned a thousand and one 'i' products to compliment it, but none have caught my eye like the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin iPod speaker system.  It looks like a grand-slam in the 'funky looks' department: how it sounds, I don't know.  If you live near a B&W dealer and get a chance to hear one I'm sure we'd all appreciate a line from ya'.

Sept 23rd    ...and finally, one of my favorites: more or less not much to do with A/V, but good fun: Is George Bush An Idiot? (don't answer that yet...)

Sept 22nd    After a two week vacation, what better than a weekend!? :-)   I'm really diggin' this 'not-working' stuff, I must begin a ritual of purchasing lottery tickets; perhaps I can hone my leisure skills further some day...  What better way to kick off a weekend than a little Neil Young - Ordinary People Neil is giving this track away to drum up interest in the upcoming LP: Chrome Dreams Vol. II.  This one is signature Neil through and through, if you're a fan, you will feel right at home with it.

Sept 22nd    So its finally happening: Car-audio systems without a CD player!  Blaupunkt has just released their 'Melbourne SD27' in-dash deck which eschews 'old-school' CDs in favor of memory sticks and direct-connection inputs, at a price that pretty much everyone can afford.  I don't see a USB port however, and feel that is an oversight...

Sept 22nd    Itching for a long read?  Rip into the latest edition of Affordable Audio magazine by clicking here to initiate download of the Sept. 07' edition.  Long-time readers know how I've torn a strip out of the rag' on more than one occasion - the editor and I have, um... quite different versions of the truth when it comes to cables and tweaks.  At any rate, go ahead, knock yourself out, its amusing if nothing else, and he does throw in a few tidbits now and again that are interesting.

Sept 20th    Wow!  There's a first in many years!  Our measly little Canadian dollar has reached parity with the American dollar!  Dudes and dudettes, now is the time to buy those cool electronic toys from across the border!  Nice!  For me, the places to shop are www.sweetwater.com (electronics), and www.pricepoint.com (Mt. Bike Stuff).

Sept 20th    Ya, I know - its been a while between posts...  Been on vacation, enjoying life as much as humanly possible!  This little province of ours is freekin' beautiful!  Spent some time in the Kootenays, a little more in the Shuswap and did the 'local tourist' thing to top it off.  Been laying low for the past few days, all of my clients think I'm still out of town - and I like it that way :-).  A short while back I was teased about not having enough blues / folk-ish music on the site (Hi Lou'): well buddy, here is a quadruple dose of it for ya' - Jim Byrnes  Didn't it Rain, Of whom shall I be afraid?, Today, Fortify Me.  While he isn't a Canuck, the music was produced in Vancouver...  These tracks are amazing, download em' while the Jim is feeling generous - as with all 'Free & Legal' tracks I post on this site, I have no idea how long they will be available, so grab em' while you can.  All are of quite good fidelity (160 to 192Kbs MP3 - No DRM)

Sept 20th    While its not specifically A/V related, it will definitely have an impact on our hobby: USB 3.0 is soon to be released!  USB 1.0 and 1.1 were slow as molasses in January at moving data (music, in our case), USB 2.0 was pretty damned fast, but USB 3.0 is set to kick some really serious ass!  Imagine this: a full 10-fold decrease in the time it takes to move your music from PC to portable device.  Ya, that's a full resolution (320KB/s), MP3 track in about the time it takes you to blink!

Sept 20th    The AudioFile: basics of uncompressed digital audio: Ars-Technica take a complex topic and puts it into simple terms we can all relate to.  A great article, and one of a number forthcoming - check it out, I'll try an keep you posted with updates to the series.

Sept 20th    Stumbled upon a new-to-me audiofool forum today: Audiophilia - Now, I've sworn off wasting my time in these completely messed up places, but if you have a bit of time to throw to the wind, and a mind that you are willing to subject to some of the most asinine statements ever put to the internet, then by all means check it out - just don't think you'll learn much from 95% of what you'll read there...

Sept 20th    Had an epiphany the other day: So there I was, in the middle of goddamned nowhere, at a bush-lake, cell phone in hand, hundreds of kilometers away from from a friend of mine whom I was speaking with - when it occurred to me: there exist some pretty crazy son of a bitches in the A/V world who proclaim that one has to keep their loudspeaker cables of uniform length or the systems sound will be 'off'.  What the hell does this have to do with my cell phone conversation?  Well, imagine this: there are a great number of cellular radio transceiver stations, each with god knows how much electronics and wiring with them, between myself and my friend (who was atop Apex Mountain at the time of said call), and for the life of me, I could detect no lag in the conversation.  I marveled aloud at this feat of modern technology, and that's when it hit me.  If we can be having this delay-free conversation, from these two utterly remote / distant locations, with absolutely shitloads of electronic kit between us: how in the name of all that is sane can some audioidiot tell me that he can hear the difference between a hunk of locally connected copper five feet long on one side of his stereo system and another eight feet long on the other!? The answer: Give me a fucking CN-Tower sized break!

Sept 13th    Ya, I've been late to the table with posts of late, and I have good reason to be MIA: Vacation!  Funk' N A' - I too deserve a 'time out' every now and again...  Been traveling a bit, kicking around with buds and avoiding work with every fiber of my being!  I've also been avoiding the site more or less.  However, I'm back for a short 'in and out', might not be posting for a few more days as I'm jealously guarding my time off, and hey, its the start of junior hockey season - and our boyz' haven't lost yet they season (6 games strait to date!).  Chew on this for a bit boyz': Grubstake - Midnight Creep  Its low down, dirty Rock N Roll, right outta' the swamps - but just listen to that crazy blues-influenced guitar playing!  192Kb/s MP3 - No DRM.

Sept 13th    ASUS's long-awaited 'Xonar' PCI sound card has finally hit the streets - and with garnered rave reviews everywhere as pretty much the best thing since short-shorts and natural blonds!  Here in Canada, NCIX is but one place to score yourself one at under two hundred bucks.  This looks to be an excellent solution for a PC-based sound source.

Sept 13th    Speaking of PC-based audio - check out this extensive list of external USB audio devices.  I was surprised to see so many products I've never heard of before - and I've always considered myself pretty much 'in the loop'...

Sept 13th    If you're interested in what's new in the Canadian music scene, be sure to keep an eye on the Western Canadian Music Awards site.  There you are sure to find a great many Canadian bands that you've never heard of, who are making wave in the music scene around the world.

Sept 13th    I fully realize that the usual 'geek links' that I provide are bloody long and perhaps a little painful to wade through, some of it is perhaps pseudo-sadism, others are the fault of the authors long-winded approach.  Here is one that's short and sweet, the author is discussing car-audio, but the notes are equally applicable to home audio projects.  The Oz Audio Subwoofer Cabinet Construction Guide

Sept 13th    Mostly because I F'n despise Apple's iTunes software, may I present: How To Break iTunes DRM

Sept 13th    Yes indeed, just what we needed: a further obfuscation of the format war...  Toshiba has just released a new spec' HD-DVD disk that carries slightly more than it's Blu-Ray counterpart.  Be the first to invest your money in this doomed format war... ya...

Sept 13th    Might be a while before I post again: thus, check out Canadian record artist The Twisters: Its Raining Baby.  This is some really great funky / blues from your fellow Canucks!  192Kb/s MP3 - No DRM.  (Check out their website for a bit more of their tunes, note that only some of the links are to full tracks)

Sept 7th    The weekend is upon us - Hail to the freedom from greed and kick open the gates of fun!  Man, in my constant hunt for music to present on this site, I sure come upon a shitload of really crappy tunes!  What's with all the whiny Emo music out there?  that, coupled with the electro-synth, Rap, freeform jazz and goddamned country moaning has gotta' be the biggest waste of hard drive storage on the fucking Internet!  Geeze' man, why can't more folks put out great music like Josh Ritter's To The Dogs Or Whoever

Sept 7th    I've spoken several times on the trend towards 'surround-sound-bars' in A/V systems.  This Week in Consumer Electronics sums up the current batch of Soundbars on the market.  I dig it! 

Sept 7th    Yet another chapter of the book of 'Fossil Rockers Return for more money': Genesis are back on tour!  Yes, those cats who brought us Abacab are at it again.  Learn all there is to know here.

Sept 7th    Dudes, the forum is back, sorta' on a limited basis.  Mostly its a resource for those who want to learn about audio from a truthful source, a [very] rare thing in this industry.  However, I continually receive  email from folks asking me to reopen the discussion site on a limited basis - not a full-scale attack in audiofool idiocy like it was previously, just a place to drop the needle, pour a glass, roll one up if that's your kick, and shoot the breeze.  Have at er'!  Speaking of emails, many of you have sent me missives, and I have not gotten back to you: sorry dudes, its just that I am one ultra-busy son of a bitch, and don't have much time for chit-chat.

Sept 7th    What will the audiofools think of this?  Atom clusters could store thousands of movies, says IBM.  But will we need special atoms to playback music on audiophile systems :-)

Sept 7th    And now for something completely different: (and sweet FA to do with A/V), Volvo Rethinks The Hybrid Car Concept.  Hey, this is a huge step in the right direction, make it run on something even cleaner than gasoline and we're halfway there!

Sept 06    Many of you will notice that I've slowed down on the posting thing: instead of daily, its become every other day 'or so'.  Its mostly because I volunteer with the local junior hockey team, doing a lot of web work and helping out wherever I can.  This takes a lot of my online time, disallowing me from frittering away on Cdnav.com.  This is neither good nor bad, its simply a choice I make - and another  bonus of not accepting advertisers on the site - who would dictate my input as thought they had a say in my life...  Ok, enough chatter: Rip into Thursday with an old Iggy Pop track - compliments of Sonic Entertainment Ltd. - Search & Destroy

Sept 06      Not something that my fellow Canucks have to worry about (just yet), but as i see that around half of my readership consists of Americans: Know Your Rights: What to do when the RIAA comes calling

Sept 06    Ya' all know I dig speaker systems above all A/V components: but what I love even more specifically are speaker systems that kick ass at a low cost.  Case in point - Logitech's latest speaker system, the Logitech G51.  Creative's www site shows it at $230.00, but I see it going for $170.00 Cdn. here.

Sept 04    Fuckin-A: Wasn't that a great long weekend - for those of you who live in Canada anyway...  I squeezed that sucker for everything it was worth!  Man I love life!  Lets celebrate the short up and coming workweek with a little bit O' southern flavored rockin' music from a band going by the name of Dollar Store and their track Scrap Truck. 

Sept 04    Those of you who peruse the Internet for music - the legal kind of course... will get a kick outta' this software application: WebRipper by Jan Eric Samsonsen.  This little beauty allows you to automatically copy every Audio / Video / Image etc. file from a given web site in a fraction of the time it would take you to do so manually.  I have it installed on several PCs and am blown away by it's efficiency.  Go ahead, point it at your favorite page and in a few clicks you'll be well on your way to musical nirvana!  Need some ideas?  How about this one: 10 Sites For Free & Legal Music

Sept 04    Wal-mart (cough) will begin selling DRM-Free MP3s via it's online music store.  Tracks will be available in bitrates as high as 256Kb/s.  Very cool!

Sept 04    In the market for a new pre-amp (with phono!), and want top-notch quality, but don't want to pop over a thousand bucks?  Have a look at what Audioholics had to say about the Emotiva Audio RSP-1 - they seem to feel that its the proverbial cat's ass: I quote "Opening up the RSP-1, we find a really well laid out interior with a separated power supply (utilizing torroid power transformer) from critical audio circuits, glass epoxy PCB boards, and low noise op-amps. But the quality doesn't stop there. We also find a toroud power supply, instrumentation grade inert gas filled relay switching with silver contacts, and 1% tolerance resistors. Film caps show up in all critical signal paths and the list goes on. This is truly a no expense spared unit. How Emotiva can put this quality of components in a $699 unit begs the question of what the other manufactures are doing with all that money they are making"
 

Sept 01 - Nice: we're enjoying the beginning of a Labor Day long-weekend here in the Okanagan and I just got back from watching our home-town BCHL Vees win their third strait exhibition game at the local area, [Hockey Rocks].  My little lady is taking care of her mom - so I get to sit back, hook up the laptop to the stereo, plop my ass down in the sweet spot with a drink, slice O spiced gouda and Alice Cooper - taken' me back to the 70's: Easy Action / Love it To Death and Killers...  Those of you who think Alice was just about twisted / overtly heavy rock, need to check out these classic gems: Alice with orchestration was a blast!  I've got my rig plugged into a 7.1 channel receiver with full 7.2 in place - and I'm messing about with various 'surround modes'.  Don't let anyone ever tell you that audio is only to be experienced over a 2-channel system: they're simply anal and full of shit.  Fuck em', blow your minds with some freaky surround matrix effects: it just fits reality more than a band which emanates from two point sources!  Speaking of heavy sound and Easy Action: if you like it raw as hell and completely old-school / excessively hard rock, do check out MySpace's music section for a band called Easy Action.  Pretty messy, but wow - these cats really get back to the core of dirty hard rock!  Take in all that the weekend offers my friends - and avoid work at any cost!

Aug 31st    Fu Ha Rig Nng A': Its Friday!  Man, I can't tell ya' how much I love Friday!  It might seem odd that a mind-mannered PC technician who rarely gets his hands dirty should get so wrapped up in having time off - however - I'm addicted to fun!  Shit man, given a choice between being on the water in my kayak, high up in the mountains with my best buds or sitting back with a glass of vino, some fine dark chocolate and herb-filled cheese: what would you choose...?  exactly!  It seems that the 'big bands' are starting to get the concept laid out by the independents out there - and have taken to giving away their tracks in order to get the public's attention.  Tonight's selection is from a country music band by the name of Little Big Town.  Check out their track I'm With The Band.  Not bad... not too bad at all...  Kinda' like the Eagles meets Fleetwood Mac of old.  PS: check it out: its the end of summer!  Funkin' A: snowboarding is only a matter of 13 weeks away!

Aug 31st    You long-timers know by now that I'm the kinda' guy who demands that folks cut the crap and lay it out in black and white / don't fill my ears with heresy that you picked up and repeated from some god forsaken A/V forum or corrupt audio magazine.  No, I only respect facts as presented in the form of: "here's a test we did, here's how we did it, go ahead and repeat the experiment and follow through with a peer review of your own".  In short, I detest bullshitters, which makes me quite unpopular in the A/V forum circles where crap is king.  What the hell am I getting at?  Check out the Journal Of The Audio Engineering Society's -  'The use of subwoofers in the context of surround sound program reproduction'.  White papers rule / Audiofools drool...!

Aug 31st    Oh shit: a whole new world of A/V cable-related products for the moronic audiofools to fuck with: MIT Harnesses Power Without Plugs...  I suspect that, in light of the fact that cables may eventually be superseded by wireless power transfer - we'll be soon faced with special zirconium-plated humidifiers and silver-power-coated air filtration units...

Aug 31st    A HD-DVD deck for sub-$200.00 Cdn.!?  Shit man, even with the foolishness of buying into the dual format wars, this is damned cheap!  A Canadian-based company called 'Venture' appears to be set for a holiday-season rollout of just such a beast.  Give it early to mid 08' and I foresee a shwack of dual-format decks in and around this price range!

Aug 31st    Ok, now off ya' go and have a shit-kickin' long-weekend, celebrate like its your last day on the spinning rock: cause ya' just never know...  Oh, and how about an old post / repeat for an extro... (cause its loud and I dig it!) - Grinderman: The No Pussy Blues CRANK IT!

Aug 31st    Couldn't resist one last blurb...  For those of you who haven't yet experienced the mind of Bob Lefsetz, tonight's the night...  Bob has just sent out an email discussing The Dixie Chicks 'Shut Up & Sing' DVD.  I wrote about this release in our now retired discussion forum some time ago, and agree with everything Bob says about the Chicks, their music and their refusal to play nice with rednecks and the American government.  Rent the DVD this weekend, experience the words of Bob when he updates his Blog site later this weekend with the story.  I dig the Chicks and I dig Bob.  They are both my kinda' people: unafraid to simply tell it like it it - fuck the pandering to folks who might make you money, to hell with conformity for the sake of not treading on toes: and most of all - thank [fill in your favorite God here], that there are still some folks out there who actually tell the truth!  I know our hobby needs a 'Bob' or some 'Chicks' more than anything - to put it back on track: when did lies and bullshit come to rule Audio / Video anyway, I was away from the scene for a number of years, and when I got back, what a mess...

Aug 29th    Well, so much for August 07 - I funked it up while coding this evening - if any of you have a copy of it in your Temporary Internet Files folder, do me a favor and send it along to me...  If not, oh well, rock on!  Found out that Download.com is hosting some of the new White Stripes on their site: all Free and Legal and such.  You can grab a copy of the new White Stripes tune Icky Thump by visiting this site, having a listen and then copy / pasting it out of the Temporary Internet Files folder on your PC...  The track kicks ass, as does so much of the Stripes work, go / copy / paste / crank!

Aug 29th    If the Stripes aren't your cup O' tea, check out the latest work from The Boss: Radio Nowhere.  The old cat's getting with the groove and actually giving away his music, even if only one track...  Hell, its pretty decent, if slightly forgettable.  Check it out.

Aug 29th    C-Net has recently begun an ongoing Audio-Blog 'The Audiophiliac', its yet not massive by any stretch of the imagination, but is interesting in a rampant consumerism kinda' way: Review their work thus far here...

Aug 29th    Ok, nothing to do with A/V, but last weekend in Whistler I had the time of my life on a massive bike trail called Comfortably Numb.  Took some pics: I'm the guy in the long-sleeve white shirt.

Aug 29th    Still hungry for more?  How about delving into another issue of the cable-freak riddled online rag' known as Affordable Audio?  Plant your tongue firmly in cheek and dive right in.

July 20th    Damn, the weekend: finally!  It looks like rain, rain and more rain here in the valley ~ heck, all across British Columbia for that matter: but that doesn't mean the record store is closed, nor the liquor mart!  Guess I'll have hang, soak up some good friendships and drink in all the things that this great life has to offer indoors.  While there, I'll crank up Tom Waits and his magnificent track Hold On (320Kb/s MP3 - no DRM - compliments of Anti-Records Ltd.)

July 20th    Hey PG and surrounding area: The Prince George Folk Festival is hitting your city the 27th and 28th of July.  Check out the event website for full details.

July 20th    Add Phillips to the list of companies that have released 'one-bar and a sub / virtual-surround-sound sound' options to the market.  I had expected that it might be a little lower priced than the competition, given the size and history of the company's offerings as well as the maturity of the genera, but no such luck.  A thousand bucks buys you the ability to, more or less, do away with surround-sound speakers in your room, instead relying on some psychoacoustic trickery and a the wonder of modern electronics.  I dig the concept, but feel that it should be offered at about half the price that it currently commands.

July 20th    This is good humor: The Top 20 Greatest Shootout Scenes.  Some folks have a hell of a lot of time on their hands, lucky for the rest of us!  I agree with their rating for number 1 by the way...

July 20th    I'm gonna' go easy on ya, since it's Friday and all: no uber-geek, heavy-reading posts today ~ how about some Zappa-Plays-Zappa!  The videos are quite decent resolution and give you an idea of what Dweezil is capable of - not too shabby covers of his dad's work!  The inflections in his voice are so similar to his fathers', its spooky.

July 20th    Tivo to release a newer, cheaper device in the near future.  Their 'Series 3' unit will offer many of the same features as its predecessors, but cut down on the price, fancy remote options, THX certification and hard disk drive space (which, I suspect, can be hacked and bolstered with a cheap 500 Gig unit).

July 20th    Forums shutting down: I’ve always maintained that I would continue to run the forum as long as I had time to do so, and was having fun doing it.  Well, I no longer have any spare time and the fun has gone out of it for me folks…  As such, I am announcing the closure of the Cdnav.com forum section as of this weekend, likely Sunday night.  Why you might ask?

1) I simply haven’t the time to add to it, or any other forums these days.  A few months ago I purchased a competitor’s business, and though I was pretty damned busy to begin with, I am now miles over my head with work.  The acquisition was one of those 'once in a lifetime / you'd be mad to pass this up, kinda' incredible deals, and I couldn't resist.  Now, with nearly 1000 additional clients to attend to, I am inevitably drawn into learning a great many ‘new to me’ / 'proprietary to their business' ~ software applications, internal & external network configurations and general client requirements.  Talk about time-consuming!  All this, while reading furiously to keep up with the constantly changing software applications and hardware interfaces that I am working with every day as well as climbing through the mountains of paperwork that once faces as an entrepreneur in this bureaucratic world.

2) I’m no longer inclined to spend time on A/V forums in general as, three-years into browsing them, I find it to be a massive waste of my time.  There is so very little actual learning to be done, as most forums are completely awash with repetitive heresy.  My little three-year jaunt down the rabbit hold known as ‘audiophile forums’ has been quite a trippy experience.  It’s a world that exists somewhere between a stoned flight of fantasy and the Twilight Zone…  I’ve had folk regale me with fantastic stories about how slabs of hardwood, cables, metal pointy devices and a myriad tidbits modified the electrical output characteristics of perfectly functional electrical components.  Heck, I’ve been an online witness to scenarios that even Dr. Spock wouldn’t have thought up!  Interesting minds we have out there – I am beginning to see why the human race is so messed up…

3) Hand-in-hand with point number 2: I’m completely disillusioned with the state of the hobby.  It’s utterly corrupt, deceitful and laden with misinformation.  Try to show someone that the only way to make an honest evaluation on it is to listen without physically seeing the component – and you are branded and exiled as a heretic.

4) The time I once spend pursuing A/V forums will be channeled back into my guitar!  I’ve been sorely neglecting one of my favorite musical instruments, and its’ about time to get back to the frets.  This evening I pulled the golden oldie’s that she was laced up with and ran sweet new strings… ahhh, very nice…

5) I want more time for pleasure reading!  I simply never sit back with a good book anymore, and really miss that kinda’ leisure.  Several are stacked up on the shelf, just waiting to be enjoyed, but I’ve had my eyes in so many A/V forums, they have simply languished on the shelf.

All of the interesting stuff from that we accumulated on the forums will be hosted on HTML pages and linked to the main site in the near future, especially the unsighted auditions: which for me, was more or less the whole point of the forums in the first place.

Those of you who have stuck with me through the various incarnations of the forums: I thank you very much: it’s good to see that there is a little light and truth in the darkness that has cancerously overcome the hobby of ‘The Audiophile’.  A few of you might lament the passing of Cdnav.com's forum section, but don't fret: among the 100+ forums listed in the 'Other Forums' section, there are a few decent sites: mostly technical in nature and / or pro-audio, which I recommend you become members of.

The main site will stay open, ‘business as usual’ for years to come, as its all about the only thing that really matters: Music!  Take these next few days as an opportunity to trade contact information with one another so that you can keep in cont