I recently was at a friend of a friends home recording studio and was fairly impressed by what I heard coming from his Mackie monitors. I am looking for a second system in my home and am considering the possibility of running iTunes (via AirTunes) straight to these active monitors. Let me say that I have no idea if that is possible or what the "true" audiophiles might think about active monitors. Opinions anyone?

I use an iPod (regular, 40GB, not video/nano/etc) with Sennheiesr HD-515s. Are these headphones OK with it? I read some reviews which said they sound tinny, and now it's driving me crazy listening for it, but I can't make a comparison because I have no other headphones. I spent $200+ on these, too.

This isn't exactly the right category for this, but, it'll be as good as any given the choices. I saw Jake Shimabukuro live last night at Coda 34 in NYC. He was nothing short of mindblowing. He's like Segovia and Hendrix rolled into one, but, on a ukelele (proper Hawaiian pronunciation: ooh-koo-lay-lay = fleas jumping, describing the fingers on the small fretboard.) I bought two of his CDs (which he kindly inscribed for me) and listened to one last night - it's pretty well recorded, but with a full band and doesn't capture the purity and intensity of him live and solo.

Having lost lots of sleep since first reading this letter to the editor in the March issue, I feel I have no recourse but to turn to the rest of you for guidance. It appears that audiophiles, at least those of us frequenting this forum, are, "..a grumpy bunch of folks." Oh me, oh my, what can we do to shed that mantle and become enthusiastic so we can get a better grade in plays-well-with-others? Where can we find some of that positive energy which will make technology companies like us as much as they like the iPod and home theater crowd? This is no trivial request.