Found this very interesting announcement on another forum - Linn to Cease Production of CD Players. The article gives hard numbers on the decline of CD player sales and the rise of their DS networked player line. It's been baffling to me for some time how so many hi-end vendors continue to release new CD players.

http://www.carolinachocolatedrops.com/

[image]http://www.roisindubh.net/ccd/images/splash1.jpg[/image]

and this man

http://otisgibbs.com/about/

[image]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/79/212709701_1192cbc4d0.jpg?v=0[/image]

http://www.trustedreviews.com/mp3/review/2009/11/18/Sounds-Good-To-Me/p1

TBOMK, certain tests (jitter) require one to place o-scope (or other test instrument's) probes on IC pins (or ckt traces). Can someone explain how one can do this and not affect the performance of the device. E.g., digital electronics require shielding, so taking the cover off and probing/testing effectively removes some of the shiled.
Also, how do you (Stereophile) probe today's ultra-small ICs (SOP, MSOP size, etc.). "Very carefully" or "We contract out to mosquitos" do not qualify as answers

This is really minor, but the behavior is probably not what the user expects, so I thought I'd mention it. If one is looking at reviews and sorts alphabetically, it appears that the sort is case-sensitive. This can give some odd results. To see this, go to the Stereophile home page, and under "Amplification", click "Solid-State Power Amps". Then, in "Sort By:", click on "Title". At the bottom of the list, click on the number for the last page. You'll see that "darTZeel" and "mbl" come after "Yamaha", because of the case-sensitive sorting - probably not what the user expects.

May 1-2, 2010 is coming sooner than one thinks and time to make plans to attend. This year the AKfest is situated in Detroit's affluent Novi suburb.

Last year the AKfest grew to some 56 exhibitors who demonstrated their components to over a thousand visitors. It is fast becoming a premier event for the midwest/atlantic areas.

For more information please check out:

http://www.akfest.com/index.html

As audiophile I

John,

Your December AWSI is so beautiful. Thank you.

I wonder if others feel the same.

jason