Although I hate to see anyone banned I would like to thank Stephen and JA for being evenhanded in their approach.

When a hardcore objectivist and a hardcore subjectivist are banned at the same time it is much easier to see the ban is for rule breaking rather than philosophy.

I wish neither had needed to be banned.

I have been looking for a budget < 1000 USD all tube phono stage, I found the Tetra and Aikido kits created by Glassware Audio http://glass-ware.stores.yahoo.net/aiphpcb.html. I found the price and tech specs good. I would like to know if anyone here knows of a review , or owns or has tested one of this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2FEDNAqmmI

Christ.., that is a terrible , horrible take....

I started listing to higher quality songs recently, flac, up to 24 bit 96kHz, but they are playing through my Thinkpad Laptop and Bose Tri-Port Headphone. After reading through lots of blogs and Stereophile.com I decided to spend some money on a better listening system. My spending limit is $2000, thank you Tax Refund. Anyhow, I though about buying better headphones, either AKG 701, Sennheiser 650 or 600, and of course a DAC/Amp, I was looking at the Benchmark DAC1 Pre or USB. So I have few choices and don't know how to decided on which headphones to buy and which DAC to buy.

I purchased one of these after seeing it on the CES wrap up for $500. I'm totally shocked at the performance of this device. It sounds glorious, and I'm listening to it right out of box. It is a USB DAC and Class A headphone amp in one little tube. It also has adjustable gain (a small gain "knob").

I'm going to echo rgibran's comment at the end of the blood-soaked Scharf Lexicon thread and say great job, Kal.

Everyone who jumped the blunderbuss and accused Stereophile of shilling for high end abusers should read it.

I have a fondness, if not love for the following:

The Danish jazz/rock group Kam

I just got a diagnosis of tinnitus a couple of days ago, after having ringing in my ears for a week or so. Obviously, this has had an effect on my enjoyment of The Hobby. Anyone else dealing with this?

After a lot of careful thought and debate, we have banned Michigan J. Frog and RealTraps