SwingDJs

Eyeball wrote:The only down side is - what happens if your HD fries? Do you lose thousands of tunes? Without a back up, you die, right?

That's always a possibility, but with how cheap data storage is it's easily avoidable. For example, I have four copies of my music:

1. The original CD.
2. The MP3 on my laptop.
3. The backup of that MP3 on an external drive.
4. The "time machine" backup my Mac maintains on a 2nd external drive.

And technically I have a 5th... on my iPod... but I'd hardly count that as a backup.

Mr Awesomer wrote:

Eyeball wrote:The only down side is - what happens if your HD fries? Do you lose thousands of tunes? Without a back up, you die, right?

That's always a possibility, but with how cheap data storage is it's easily avoidable.

As long as you have a backup in a different physical location, I believe a person is at even greater risk of catastrophic loss with a traditional vinyl collection than a hard drive. While hard drives tend to fail much more often than a closet full of vinyl, with vinyl you don't have any backup in the case of broken water pipes, fires, earthquakes, thieves, or 5-year olds.

If you're wise enough to create backups of your data (you are backing up even your non-music data, right?) and keep at least one copy elsewhere (e.g. a desk drawer at work), it'd take either an extremely unusual set of simultaneous failures or a regional disaster for you to lose your music.

Brent

These days I have been seeing 1.B TB hard drives for $169 a Fry's, storage will only get cheaper.

Assuming, you don't have more than 2 or 3 TBs of files. I would get three hard drives at whatever size fits your space needs, after you back-up your files to the drives. Drop one one of them off at the office, or even better, leave it with a friend in a different city, whatever, just not where the rest of your music/files are. I would leave it there for a few months, switching it out every so often.

Use the the other two for more regular backups. The offsite backups protects you from a disaster at the house (although it happens, one of our local DJs collections was decimated by a house fire last fall and he did not have the proper back-up system in place). But, everybody is likely to have a hard drive just freak out and die, so you should back-up things pretty regularly.

This is close to my system, although, I am stuck with a bunch of smaller drives.

Nathan

I appreciate all the info and the setting straight, guys.

It's unlikely that I will ever get all my stuff converted. Huge project, but I may embark on a smaller effort some day. In any event, it is good to be clear on the 'real reality' and not what I thought was the reality.

He's raving about this unit for iTunes

http://www.jazzwax.com/2008/05/thumbs-up-to-do.html

And this one for CDs.

http://www.jazzwax.com/2008/05/thumbs-up-to--1.html

For the serious(ly insane) audiophiles, Plasma Arc Speakers are just what they sound like - no box, nothing but a plasma arc:
http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2009/04/plasma-speakers/

Jered

Eyeball wrote:He's raving about this unit for iTunes

http://www.jazzwax.com/2008/05/thumbs-up-to-do.html

So he reckons this digital-to-analog audio converter makes a big difference to the sound of Jazz in iTunes -



http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/system1/d ... r/dac1-usb

Any thoughts on using monitors as home theatre speakers? or even just computer/bedroom speakers?

My computer speakers are slowly fuzzing out on me, and while browsing around online for some local used gear I found some decent Yorkies and KRK monitors. I know monitors are means for a studio and are "nearfield" and all that, but do they sound all that different in a larger room? Just exploring my options here.

*bump*

So, I'm in the market for something for the living room of my new house. Does anyone have any recommendations for speakers or amps (ie brands/models)?

Toon Town Dave wrote:*bump*

So, I'm in the market for something for the living room of my new house. Does anyone have any recommendations for speakers or amps (ie brands/models)?

Speakers makers have their fanboys, and are always going to come down to personal preference. Personally I've always had a soft spot for JBLs. I like that they always have a nice "lot of bang for your buck" option in their lineup. If I were in the market and putting together a surround set up today I'd probably go with 2 ES30's up front, an ES25C in the center, 4 ES20's for surrounds and the ES150P sub. Certainly not high end speakers, but definitely get the job done well at a good price... though I'd also be very VERY tempted to step up to the L8 series.

I happen to be in the market for a receiver but am waiting for an update to the Marantz NR 1501... mainly because my new entertainment center is forcing the small form factor. It's got everything I want, but it's only 50w per channel. Supposedly the updated model is gong to be 80w per channel which should be a good amount for the size room my home theater is in.

I picked up some used Paradigms off Kijiji and really like their sound. I got a pair of similar B&W speakers a few months later and didn't like them at all. Both run through an old Sansui amp.

Surreal wrote:Both run through an old Sansui amp.

Which Sansui and from when? I still have my 1000X receiver. I never knew the 70s are regarded as the 'golden age of stereo equipment' until recently.

Surreal wrote:I picked up some used Paradigms off Kijiji and really like their sound. I got a pair of similar B&W speakers a few months later and didn't like them at all. Both run through an old Sansui amp.

Looks like you're about a year to late to grab this gem:
http://www.canuckaudiomart.com/details/ ... amplifier/

Eyeball wrote:

Surreal wrote:Both run through an old Sansui amp.

Which Sansui and from when? I still have my 1000X receiver. I never knew the 70s are regarded as the 'golden age of stereo equipment' until recently.

Actually, I have two vintage amps. A Harmon Kardon 330B, and a Sansui... argh I forget the number, AU-something. I kept the HK for myself gave the Sansui to my parents.

It would be interesting to do A/B tests of the old stuff v the new. I have not used my 1000X in a long time. About 10 years ago in a 'antique' shop, I found the exact same model for something like 9 dollars, so I bought it.

Some people claim they can hear/feel the difference between old and new gear. Just wish they had remotes!