Please recommend tutorial articles that recommend some basic starting-point room acoustic treatments, for stereo music reproduction. I'm thinking of basic approaches like the "live end / dead end" treatment; opposite-wall treatment to tame slap-echo; area rug placed to absorb first-order reflection from speaker to listening position; using furniture to absorb reflected energy; using bookshelves to diffuse reflected sound. Different viewpoints on "how much absorption is ideal". Just the basics, before one purchases the expensive room-tube treatments.

http://broadcastengineering.com/audio/crown-international-60th-anniversary/

Who made it, does it sound better than a reptile model, or one with goose egg skin? How much would you pay for this? http://www.zucable.com/images/birth-big2.jpg

Can you identify this cable, price, sonic virtues, looks like 26,000 other ones, how much should it be $23 $12. or $3,000? http://www.zucable.com/images/pil-big3.jpg

Hello.

A few years ago, I purchased a cool stereo rack with a flip-up victrola style top. This was perfect for me since I had a turntable.

The rack was damaged and had to be discarded. I am desperately looking for another stereo rack like this, and cannot find one anywhere. Can anyone recommend a site that has this kind of rack? I have seen the kind that come with a built in stereo system or a turntable with a victrola style top, but I need just the empty stereo rack.

Thanks.
George

Considering a PS3 with Yellow Dog Linux installed (terrasoftsolutions.com). Price right: fast linux workstation using IBM Cell, blu-ray disc player, & game console. But the output must be hooked up either with HDMI cable or DVI cable. The proffered advantage of HDMI is that it bundles audio and video into HDTV, whatever. O.K.--but what I really want is to get the audio signal over to my power amp. Does anyone have experience with this? SONY STYLE "thought" I could take the sound out from the HDTV. This is too many steps, I think.

This seems like a good place to start. When you are deciding on a new CD player, amp, speakers, etc., how do you decide what to listen to first? Of course, the final decision will be made after listening, but there can be so many choices, especially in the <2K range. For example, how much emphasis do you put on:

1 Reviews
2 Recomendations (forums, etc.)
3 Specifications
4 Same brand as amp, turntable,... (do components of the same brand generally "work better" together, is it easier to get them to work well together?)
5 Upgradeability

Thanks all,
Chris