Long time, no update
Well it’s been a long time since I updated this page and it’s time to write something.
The photography has taken a new turn. I’m now focusing (ha ha) on macro photography and I’m planning my new macro studio at home.
I’ve ordered a few parts that will make life easier, a new lens bellow and a 4-way focusing rail. New bouncers, light and flashes will be permanently mounted in the studio.
I’m also planning on taking the step to full frame rather than crop sensors but I doubt there will be any noticable difference in the shots. Maybe it’s just my crave for gadgets.
So stay tuned for updates!
Cable, wire or cord…
New front speakers purchased (Bowers & Wilkins DM684) and my old Tara Labs Klara speaker cables just don’t cut it anymore. I’ve been looking for a set of well documented cables that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg and they also have to look good. I needed 2 x 2,5 meter cables with banana connectors in both ends, I’m not going to bi-wire or bi-amp.
The brands and products I have been looking at are:
Van Den Hul / The D-352 Hybrid
- Ugly cable with no sleeves or anything
- Not many references
+ Good thickness
Chord / Carnival Silver Screen
- A bit to thin for my taste
+ People using smaller speakers like it
Audioquest / Type 4
+ Good looking cable
+ People love it regardless of speaker size
Supra / PLY/s
- Mixed reports
- Have to terminate it myself
+ Good thickness
The winner is….. Audioquest / Type 4
UPDATE:
The Audioquest cables went back to the dealer.
After trying out some Chineese cables (YYW Premium Gold Plated Audiophile Speaker Cable 2 x 2.5m) I was hooked. For a fraction of the price of the Audioquest I got this good looking, beefy cable that oozes quality! And the best part I can’t hear any difference at all!!
I upgraded my amp to a D3 A100 Class A amp from Swedish XTZ and the combo is amazing!
FLAC it all…
Although I know I have the nasty habit of getting myself too deep into all kinds of projects I felt that it was about time to get “rid” of my old CD collection.
I started out ripping all the CD’s into lossless FLAC and putting them onto a 500GB usb-drive. About 170GB later my collection was complete, now all I had to do was to connect my laptop to my amplifier and voila…. CRAPPY SOUND! I quickly discovered that I need some kind of USB to digital converter. The headphone jack on the laptop just wasn’t good enough.
While searching around the internet looking at various solutions I stumbled upon the Logitech SqueezeBox Touch and it’s rival Sonos. They play about every audio-format known to man and can handle surround audio, webradio and spotify (premium).
The Sonos doesn’t come with a display or remote, you can buy a remote for the small amount of 320EUR! Or control the thing with your iPhone or Android (not an option in my case). The Logitech comes with a remote and the base-unit has a touchscreen… so Logitech I got!
The SqueezeBox Touch have both optical and coax digital out, 3.5mm headphone out and standard analog RCA out. You can plug in a FAT32 or NTFS formatted usb-drive directly into it or have it connect wireless or by wire to your computer using the free SqueezeCenter software. The software can also be installed on a NetGear ReadyNAS which I already had.
Now that I’ve had the Touch for about a month I’m very pleased with it. The sound quality is very good although I’m comparing it with my Marantz CD-player.
I connected the Touch to my amplifier using a 1m Van den Hul “The Name” coax interlink cable and I really did hear a difference compaired to my old Clicktronic cable.