I have spent the better half of the last four months searching for a replacement CD transport. We previously had a Japanese market Technics SL-P999 which was wonderful but was in need of replacement. I searched high and low for something which not only would be an improvement but would be a BIG improvement. Not only did I find it but I have to let everyone else know about it.

I have been reading Stereophile since 1992. Back then I was a broke 17 year old high school student living at my family's apartment. Could I afford ANYTHING in the magazine? No. Not at all. Could I convince my mother to buy a $2,000 CD player? Never in a million years. Could I convince myself that I needed to own something like this when I grew older? OF COURSE!

http://xkcd.com/841/

I bought a Shakti stone long ago when the world was young as an experiment. Parked on my old Jolida amp, it toned down an errant bit of grit in the highs. On my Prima Luna amp it did nothing I could hear. On my Emotiva amp it seemed to add grain (???).

As this thing is supposed to eat stray RFI, and as the computer is one of the noisiest things on the planet, might not these devices cut down on a computers RFI?

If so, how would that translate to the computers audio signal and where would be the best place to set the thing?

my analog brothers:

i am trying to decide if the time has come for a retip or replacement of my cartridge. it is a benz woodbody low output. it is probably 4 years old with 800 hours. this became an issue recently when i purchased a record that had been billed as excellent condition. it sounded fuzzy and distorted even after cleaning. other records sounded alright though. then i tried to play a piano solo record on christmas eve and had to take it off due to the distortion.

When I was young... I had a basic Hi-Fi system. Back in the 70's. Last Fall the hi-fi went belly-up after 30+ years. So I'm shopping for a replacement. Then I decided to come into the HD TV age and purchased an HD TV. While shopping for the TV I realized there's a whole bunch of decisions for choosing A/V equipment.

The album I want is here:
http://www.chandos.net/details06.asp?CNumber=CHAN%208870
Chandos claims that one can purchase downloadable tracks from their theclassicalshop.net shopping-cart web site (The Classical Shop is a division of Chandos Records Ltd). So for the Wm. Walton album, here is the product page Chandos links to:
http://www.theclassicalshop.net/Details.aspx?CatalogueNumber=CHAN%208870
The note at the bottom of the page says:
Format: DDD
Bit Rate: 24 Bit / 96K (Lossless)
More about their download formats here:
http://www.theclassicalshop.net/formats.aspx