A bit hilarious of a choice, no?. Sorry to say, but the SME 20/12 is in a totally different league to the VPI SSM Ref - and, of course, in a totally different price band too.

If the award is for value for money, then perhaps VPI's own Classic or the TW should be taking that particular prize.

I was curious as to why no Maggies made it into the recommended components.

It seems to be widely agreed that the 1.6QR, for instance, is one of the great bargains in the audio industry.

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Rhino Records, the label for several major artists (Led Zeppelin, Emmylou Harris, Doors, Modern Jazz Quartet, etc.) is now offering lossless downloads of portions their library - http://www.rhino.com/shop/format/Digital. The formats are Apple and WMA lossless and FLAC. The pricing is $14.99/album and $1.49/track.

The pricing is a bit high as you can buy the CD for less and rip it, but it's great to see a major label opening their library for at least CD quality downloads.

I am a new member of the site, but a long time music aficianado, just getting into the world of high-end audio. My current setup is as follows.

Macbook Pro w/itunes
Time Capsule with mixture of ALAC and 320kbs MP3 (215GB of music, 1000+ albums)
Arcam AVR100 Receiver (Connected to MBP via toslink)
Arcam DV88 DVD Player (Connected to receiver via Digital cable to receiver)
2x B&W DM602S3 120w speakers (QED cables connected to receiver)
1x B&W LCR60S3 120w speaker
2 Atacama Stands
Grado SR60i headphones

http://www.toomuchjoy.com/?p=1397

death to big record labels