Recent content by daveloc

The answer to your question is actually "the inability to defer gratification" ;) When computer-based music playback first appeared, storage capacities were limited, so very high levels of compression, typically MP3@128kbps, i.e., under 10% of CD's basic data rate, were chosen for both download...

+1. I've gone back to CD from computer based music, primarily because the need to switch on a video device and navigate a menu system that's unique to the playback system is just more trouble than it's worth compared to "drop disc in tray, push to start playback". If you have multiple users in...

This is sort-of-possible but it's not clear whether HFPA does it. CD only has one format, so any player plays it. SACD has three formats, the location of each is detectable in hardware so the players can be preset to whichever you want, and even default elsewhere if that one isn't available...

I think any debate about the potential of BluRay for high quality audio has to look at the total package and not just the bigger numbers attached to the raw datastreams. Take any CD, stick it in a CD player OR DVD player OR DVD-Audio player or SACD player OR BluRay player OR most games consoles...

Although all HFPA discs should *play* on any BluRay player as BigBoss says, there may be issues with compulsory downsampling of optical and coaxial digital outputs preventing the use of existing audiophile DACs and forcing reliance on the player's internal conversion and analogue outs. For...

I'd like[/b] to to move at least my leisure computing activities (video, music, web browsing, personal email etc.) down to a tablet — games are already on console/HDTV. But there seems to be a concerted effort on the part of tablet makers to turn out devices that just don't fit my bill. Here's...

No-one can recommend a Blu-ray drive for Mac without incurring The Wrath of Steve™ ;) Try copying your message header into a search engine box for more details and options.

Maybe text emoticons would be a bit less intrusive? <grin>

In twenty years of owning Macs I've never applied a bought upgrade over the original major point release (System 7, 8, 9; OS X 10.4, 10.6 respectively), I just wait for the next machine. Although the nominal cost of the upgrade has dropped, it's £50 extra for the near-compulsory Magic Trackpad...

The Waterfall glass speakers, like the Niagara or Victoria, could be particularly good in surroundings designed to exploit their transparency — or if it were possible to rig fibre-optics or lava lamps internally without affecting the sound... ...I'll go and lie down ;)

Assuming no compilations, live, soundtracks, classical, etc., etc. Bill Bruford: Feels Good to Me (a surprise inclusion, but it just keeps getting played) Dixie Chicks: Taking the Long Way (less two fingers than two barrels...) Bob Dylan: Blood on The Tracks (best divorce album) Genesis...

Actually, I originally got round to spelling her name correctly (unless Wikipedia and Facebook are also wrong) ;) More top tens, and less kibbitzing, please? <giggle>

If it isn't I'd be grateful if you'd post links to more appropriate ones ;) I was more worried if this was the right forum for mentioning William Shatner ;)

Painful; top ten prog, or top ten female vocal, or top ten beginning with L, I might be able to cope, but getting down to just ten causes real pain... Breaking the 4th Wall — The Reasoning (top neo-prog) Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) — Darlene Love (Phil Spector; nothing succeeds like...

For music, now almost exclusively CD, hires DVD/BD when available, plus a little DAB timeshifting. Having spent most of the nineties converting from analogue to digital, and most of the last decade experimenting with computer-based media, I've given up and gone back to physical copy. Might need...