MarkusBarkus

...they would be too stiff for the new gear and new locations. I purchased four Westminster Lab monos and their pre. The various radii for bridging cables, etc. won't work. I would have no qualms about the Iconoclast, if they fit the new schema. Instead, I have a bunch of Masterbuilt cables inbound next week.

I am selling the Iconoclast because I have four new Westminster Lab amps and a pre coming next week, which requires reorganizing gear locations, as well as purchasing new cables. I really like the Iconclast cables, and if they worked in the new set-up, I would have kept them. I would still highly recommend them.

SOLD!

Selling my beloved StraightWire Level4 (Reference) Crescendo3 speaker cables. Length is 6' (actually 81" end-to-end). Spade to Spade. These things are fat and stiff, and they sound great. However, I have new gear coming and these cables will not fit in the new component locations. I purchased these cables in January, 2019. I have changed many things in my system, but never these cables, as they sound great. I bought them from a local dealer, but I have NO factory packaging. Price will reflect that, as well as their age. I will carefully package to protect them during shipping. These cables currently sell for $2,576.00 at The Cable Company. I am looking for $899.00 and I will pay shipping within the CONTUS. PayPal Friends & Family or bank transfer please. Thanks for looking. From the manufacturer: "Crescendo 3 speaker cable offers technical and sonic advances the over the highly acclaimed original version. The inner core has seven equal diameter TPR hollow tubes vs. one large PE tube. This allows for greater flexibility and lower mechanical resonances. The (12) large conductive groups have modified Dual insulation of soft" Foam PTFE and "hard" Foam Polypropylene. Conductor group resistance remained the same while compression was modified. Crescendo speaker cable was the first Compressed Conductor Technology (CCT) design produced by Straight Wire. This design combines the best attributes of solid-core and stranded conductor technology. Extreme care was given to the degree of conductor compression and pressure of the Foam Polypropylene insulation. Crescendo 3 provides mechanical and electrical advancements beyond original Crescendo speaker cable. Lifelike preservation of low level details coupled with unmatched dynamics and detail are easy to discern with this cable. It synergizes reference caliber components to provide captivating performances. IBW (internally bi-wireable cable) Clear Jacket over Black/Gray Fiber Braid. 27 mm (1.07") diameter."

Selling my *excellent* Belden Iconoclast UPOCC XLRs as I have purchased new components which require a new location/orientation, and longer ICs. Model: Iconoclast OCC 4x4 XLR Cables (pair), 42 inches. Purchased from Blue Jeans Cables/Iconoclast in February 2021 for $2,100. Looking for $975.00 per pair (I have two pair for sale/see other ad). I will pay shipping within the CONTUS. Condition is "as new." Includes factory spec/test sheet. I do not recall any "factory" packaging, just plastic bag in UPS small-box. PayPal Friends & Family or bank transfer please. NB: These cables are stiff and will be sensitive to the fixture orientation and distance between components. If you need more info, please ask. Thanks for looking.

Selling my *excellent* Belden Iconoclast UPOCC XLRs as I have purchased new components which require a new location/orientation, and longer ICs. Model: Iconoclast OCC 4x4 XLR Cables (pair), 36 inches. Purchased from Blue Jeans Cables/Iconoclast in November 2021 for $2,100. Looking for $975.00 per pair (I have two pair for sale/see other ad). I will pay shipping within the CONTUS. Condition is "as new." Includes factory spec/test sheet. I do not recall any "factory" packaging, just plastic bag in UPS small-box. PayPal Friends & Family or bank transfer please. NB: These cables are stiff and will be sensitive to the fixture orientation and distance between components. If you need more info, please ask. Thanks for looking.

...LUCK! I used one of my three wishes just for you, Alex! Hmmm. Now how much taller do I really want to be?

...there are a lot of folks, and videos supporting the concept, that just collecting the wires together and twisting on the wirenut creates the desired twist and secures the connection. I don't buy it for a minute. You really should collect the wires and twist them up with a good pair of lineman's pliers. The connection twisted up nice and tight with pliers creates a kind-of "screw" that the nut can really grab and thread onto. That is a secure mechanical connection. And if you poke the wires into those holes on the back of a duplex and think that's OK...good luck. You're making mechanical connections, and the tighter, more secure, the better. Heat and vibration are your enemies. Tighten 'em up, folks!

I have the MSB Reference dac and added the Digital Director when it was introduced. I really enjoy the Reference, and have found the DD adds a little bit more "image" to the sound. That said, I think it should be demo-ed to ensure your system benefits from its characteristics, as it was not a head-slapping upgrade here. One should also be aware of, and review, the new Cascade dac and relevant upgrade policy valuations, IMO. Some folks were not happy with the new program introduced at the 2024 Munich show. They were changed, and now dealers have a big role in the trade-in process. Not trying to talk you out of it, or ding MSB, just suggesting you evaluate your options now and for the future. To restate: I enjoy the DD and am glad to have it here.

Curtis Counce Group, Sonority. So very listenable, enjoyable. A lot of fun. Tracks recorded in '56 and '58.

...this just hit my inbox from The Cable Co. We interrupt your regularly scheduled newsletter to bring you this important Audio update! Last this week, we received an e-mail from Tidal stating they were moving on from MQA and would now endorse FLAC. Although this news is likely to be pretty distressing to a number of avid MQA fans who really enjoyed this tech, nobody in the Audio industry should be surprised by this. Competitor Qobuz embraced FLAC as their delivery mechanism very early on and that very popular lossless audio codec has been near ubiquitous for over two decades. MQA on the other hand suffered from a number of debilitating issues. First was the complexity of MQA's encoding and decoding process, internally dubbed by Meridian as "digital origami". Requiring two stages of conversion (hardware and software) to achieve maximum resolution is a heavy lift for any device manufacturer. However, the real impediment to implement turned out to be the MQA chip itself. Meridian was charging premium prices for the chip itself, as well as a licensing fee, which didn't help, however, many digital designers grumbled about the requirements for stuffing an MQA chipset into their tightly organized boards. Over the years we heard complaints from engineers about the chipset adding noise or jitter which needed to be addressed, to engineers being forced to modify their rigidly controlled power supplies to accommodate the new chip. Then there was the simple fact that MQA (much like HDCD and HD Radio before it) had to be engaged in order to generate that superior sound quality, something which compromised the rest of the board's structure reducing sound quality for all other non-MQA sources. The final nail in MQA's coffin, however, appears to be that it was an answer to a question nobody was asking. The entire point of MQA was to use their highly complex "fold and unfold" technology to losslessly reduce a large audio file down to a manageable size so it could be easily sent through a network. Had this streaming tech been introduced just five years earlier, it would have become the standard of the industry. However, MQA was released in 2014, just after ultra high-speed internet and gigabit WiFI connections had become widespread and thus the bandwidth issue of transmitting large audio files became irrelevant. The Free Lossless Audio Codec (aka FLAC) also has that all important word "free" in it. Importantly, FLAC does not require any additional chipsets, is compatible with virtually all streaming devices and was available long before MQA was even a twinkle in Meridian's eye, so it already had a large number of rather avid users. Does this spell the end for MQA? Perhaps. But then again, maybe not. Meridian has been trying to get mainstream audiophiles to adopt their compression technology since the days of DVD-Audio. What started out as Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP) got a haircut and a shave and transformed into MQA. Interestingly, the computing, chipset and licensing requirements for MQA are precisely the same things that killed MLP a decade earlier. As it turns out, manufacturers do not like being forced into paying a competitor for their technology and if there's a free option...

...discontinued, but still loved and going strong over here!

Friday night Monk-ey business.

RIP: Phil Wiggins.

...I don't agree with this at all. Admittedly, at first I was off-put by the nom de plum, but interestingly, the net effect was that I had to focus exclusively on the results. And a wee bit later, the technical discourse. What I was unable to do was to judge the results as wrong, poor quality, etc. because I didn't know the pedigree, or didn't know I had an aversion to names that end in: vowels, consonants, sound foreign, sound southern, sound like my ex-wife's, etc. which BTW are stupid biases that we may not even know we have. There are many reasons folks use pseudonyms online. Happy Listening--- Markus "Not Really" Barkus (believe it or not).

...some of us are hoping the new Taiko battery and BMS can up the game for audio. Expected to ship after the Munich show; expected to be shown at the Munich show.

...residential buildings don't have to comply as if they were hospitals. It's a different aspect of the code spec. Sure, it's all covered by the NEC (in the US) but the context/application matters. Even wet environments or places with corrosive aspects, etc.

...it's not that it's wrong; the NEC wasn't developed to sound good to audio folks. There are things we can do that are code-compliant *and* enhance our gear. I think that was the earlier point. My power is pretty good here and I have taken pains to optimize things; for me, the Stromtank made no difference I and an audio friend could discern, in multiple arrangements (eg: server only, server and dac, etc.).

...how about a Mundell Lowe two-fer tonight. Laying on the floor with the dog vibe, to hell with the sweet-spot chair. California Guitar is a lot of fun. Slinky, stinky west-coast jazz. The "Satan" side shows his chops as an arranger. Sounds so much "of a time" and place to me.

I have enjoyed reading your posts here, but your perspective regarding forums differs from mine. Of course, sites want interesting content. Of course they want "clicks." Of course they sell ad space. How do you think they survive? And presumably, you recognized these characteristics before you posted your first post. IMO the risk and financial investment to create a site and keep it going is often overlooked. A comment like: "...but give nothing in return..." supports my assertion that you seem to think this way. So, on one hand, you say it gives nothing in return, except you publish here, which provides you with *something* right? And as a side point: publishing in multiple places is largely a cut/paste operation, right? Unless you are referring to the over-head required to manage a site; in which case, circle back to above comments. I hope you'll keep posting here, but understand if not.

...I never argue with "voices in my head!"

...and what if the requirements for a Roon integration are not fully aligned with "your" concepts regarding sound quality? The "your" here is Aurender, but could apply to other integrations. Perhaps integrating their API opens ports and signaling which requires alternative strategies for noise management.

RIP Rudolph Isley. So, a two-fer today. "Testify." Old School Isley Brothers from 1964, featuring Jimmy James on guitar. AKA: Jimi Hendrix. If we were "making out" in the car in the 70s, there had to be some Isley Bros. playing! Smooth. Funky. And gettin' it done. "Testify" is an earlier vibe.

...expected or not, a loss is an emotional blow. Glad you're keeping busy as a distraction. Best from Rochester.