“Can you (or anyone posting here) recommend a PC card with audio-in that can convert A-D with precision?”

Well, as Paul Rodriguez sez: “Could you be a little more vague?”

You didn’t say how precise – or how much… but I tell anyone who’ll listen that unless you simply must have the best (for ~10X the price, or more), then you can’t go wrong with one of M-Audio’s cards.

If stereo 24/96 in and 8 channels of 24/192 out covers your needs, then the Revolution 7.1 is the ticket. I find it gives up very little sonically to my FireWire MOTU D/A (which cost me 8X as much… I’d bet one or another of their cards’ll do what you need. I can’t tell you about how good their support is since I’ve never had to call ‘em.

BTW, I too worship at the altar of Bowers & Wilkins. One day, I’m going to retire my beloved all-KEF main system to another location and replace ‘em with B&W 800s powered by Krell HTS. But no time soon, the KEFs still transport me to musical paradise…

- – - – - – -

#37 – TJG

“Thanks for the tip. Denon and Meridian. I need a new player…”

Depending on what you’re willing to spend, even the entry-level Denon universal player DVD-1930CI is the most bang-for-buck of any player out there at ~$300 street price. But for under $700 you can step up to the 2930 – and it’s worth every penny. Above that, the price / performance ratio falls off rapidly…

As far as Meridians are concerned, don’t even look at ‘em before taking your heart meds first… their entry-level player is $4000; at the other end, their 808 Signature Reference CD player / preamp is ~$15,000 – but you can save big money on power amps by connecting them directly to Meridian’s own DSP7000 digital speakers, for a mere $27,500 additional…

My advice: unless you just hit the lottery, get a Denon.

would people complain about DRM if the company GAVE AWAY the hardware — and a basic package of content — and then payed for it with advertising?

One thing I resent about DRM is that it violates my belief that I own the music and should be able to copy to my various players.

But if the hardware and content were FREE, then I wouldn’t resent so much being forced to listen to commercials or not making copies.

I imagine that a some sort broadband audio/video player would be pretty cheap to manufacture in mass quantities.

#29 – Lauren – Thanks for the tip. Denon and Meridian. I need a new player and appreciate the info. You too, BubbaRay.

36 – Doug – I’ve seen a good argument that killing off the music communities centered around P2P in a time of homogenous corporate radio is what really sank CD sales. And now they (and their owned senators, like Diane Feinstein grrr) are killing off internet radio, the last remaining open non-fee music community. If that argument is right, CD sales will now slip even further. I haven’t bought an RIAA-member CD for a long time now and I’m not about to start, but if Folk Alley and a few other radio stations fail the way Sisyphus Tracks recently did, I will certainly miss them.

SN – sorry I came to this thread so late. Grouching aside, it’s quite interesting.

my issue with DRM is practical, not ideological. it makes hassles for the people who have the DRMed media (ie the people who paid for it), while not doing anything to those who obtained it illegally (stripped of DRM on BitTorrent). not to mention that it puts the media companies in an arms race (vs millions of bright teenagers) that it cannot possibly win.

if it’s good. it’ll make money. without drm thanx

It seems to me that without some sort of DRM the authors of works will not get paid for their work. Do we – as a society — really want this?

I have lived in countries where there are no copyright laws (or not enforced) and the creative community is teeny. The whole culture is poorer for it.

I started putting my LD collection into dvd’s just because of this. Not to mention lasers have a finite lifespan. Mechanics too.

We’re screwed anyway you look at it. The difference is that Sony just stopped pretending.

If you’ve never heard these speakers, I urge you to give ‘em a try.
http://www.bwspeakers.com/

#20 Lauren, I’ve got a Rotel that has served me well since 1996. Hope that Denon is still working well. Can you (or anyone posting here) recommend a PC card with audio-in that can convert A-D with precision? Thanks.

On the one hand they say trust us, buy our stuff and then every time we turn around they’re putting date rape drugs into our drink.

They deserve gnutella et al.

No more new Sony hardware in my house. My recent home theater upgrade, roughly 3k$, Samsung + Harmon Karden.

What I had before, bought in 1997, was a Sony Trinitron 32″, Sony DVD, Sony VHS, Sony Dolby surround. Speakers non-Sony (PSB).

My only Sony hardware left in my house currently is the aging Sony PS2. A far cry of ten years ago.

Stupid comments? The story is about DVD. Not Bluray, not HD-DVD. Just plain old DVD.

“Now, bleed. Bleed. Bleed.”

As long as you read. Read. Read.

Preferably before your lovely simplification makes it clear you didn’t even read the article, and probably not even the excerpt.