Judging by last week's results, industrial design clearly matters to many readers when it comes to audio products. So it raises the question: Has there ever been an audio product that you did not buy because of how it looked?
I have always enjoyed quality music, from my guitar to the sound coming out of my speakers. I recently acquired a pair of M-Audio AV 40's, which sound OK. I do have a Harmon Kardon AVR 100 receiver and a Harmon Kardon cd player I acquired from a garage sale. My tape player is a nakamichi. I currently only want to update my speakers, as I think it is the weakest link. I am wanting to stay below $400 USD at this time, so I can only update one component. Since I have a receiver that amplifies, I think I should go with passive speakers instead of these M-audios.
I really enjoyed John's article although I think he is missing a key ingredient. Would we save a lot of money knowing in advance what we would be end up being happy with? Yes, of course but I would argue that part of the enjoyment of being an audiophile is the path along with the final destination. I too started small with Arcam and entry level Thiel speakers but as I came to realize what I had been missing it was quite a lot of fun to set my sights on new components and mix and match.
Wilco-(The Album)
Great Lake Swimmers- Lost Channels
Dex Romweber - Ruins of Berlin
Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears - Tell Em What Your Name Is
John Doe & the Sadies - Country Club
Obits - I Blame You
Dan Auerbach - Keep it Hid
Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens - What Have You Done my Brother
Dinosaur Jr - Farm
Buddy & Julie Miller - Written in Chalk
Willem Maker - New Moon Hand
Heartless Bastards - The Mountain
Bonnie Prince Billy - Beware
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
Vetiver - Tight Knit
In his review Michael Fremer wrote: "at some point soon the floodgates will open, and you'll be able to download hi-rez digital files of all your analog favorites."
I will be thrilled if Mr. Fremer's prediction becomes reality in the near future. I would purchase considerably more albums if all recordings (new and old) offered high resolution downloads; and a really great audio hardware delivery system for $15K or less.
very handy, and according to the white paper, much faster/efficient than the PPPS version.
set mine up earlier... everything being resampled ditheredto 32bit/192 
(I posted this question earlier--did it get deleted for some reason???) How does it make sense to compare heavy-gauge Naim speaker wire to Radio Shack 16-gauge dinky-wire? Why not at least compare the Naim to zipcord of the same gauge. It's not too surprising that 16-gauge wire doesn't give you great sound...
www.tonepearls.com
crazy-assed audiowitchery notwithstanding, that demo track is incredible!