BAASnotes.com – Bay Area Audiophile Society

Invite to THE Show in Denver in September

FROM “THE SHOW”:

If you are involved in Home Theater…….This is the place to be during September.

T.H.E. Show Denver is Sept 4 – 7 during CEDIA…….and we have large exhibit rooms still available. Society members can receive a 20% discount OVER our already low published rates on our website.

Audiophile Society Members are also invited to exhibit at T.H.E. Show Denver…..AT A 20% DISCOUNT.

Call us at (702) 242-4545 with questions or to reserve spaces.

It’s (Almost) Official – The CD Player is no Longer #1 with Audiophiles

According to a recent Stereophile poll, audiophiles now rely on musics servers more than CD players.

In fact, there are now 4 server listeners for every 3 CDP listeners!

My own experience supports this.  In fact, I have not even turned on my high-end CDP since “going server”!

Not only is my server more convenient, it sounds better!

Note: I use an external DAC (with both).

Want to go to THE Show?

For the first time ever, BAAS members (and those of select other audiophile societies) will be invited to The Home Entertainment Show in Vegas during CES.

Specific dates are January 9-11.

Here’s what we know so far:

After a decade of being exclusively a Trade-Only convention,
T.H.E. Show Management and its Exhibitors have decided
it’s time to open the doors to all those who truly love and
appreciate High-End Audio.

As you probably know, T.H.E. Show occurs each January, and
this year we want to include YOU and YOUR MEMBERSHIP from
Noon on Friday the 9th, through the closing of T.H.E. Show on
Sunday, Jan 11th.

[ Thurs & Fri until noon will continue as Trade Only ]

T.H.E. Show annually touts over 200 exhibitors in over 100 active
display suites and recently expanded into both The St Tropez and
Alexis Park hotels, allowing the return of software/rare record & CD
exhibitors including Classic Records, The Music.com; Elusive Disc;
Reference Recordings; Acoustic Sounds; Cisco Music; Music Direct;
Straight Ahead Records; Discland and many more.

You will be seeing new equipment from around the globe, much
of it before its public release dates and many features will be aimed
directly at the Audiophile public:

• Discounted hotel accommodations
• Exclusive high-end oriented “guest speakers”
• Endless networking possibilities
• Participation in Demo Sale items on the final day
• Discounted tickets to many Cirque du Soleil presentations

And, much more…

See you there!

“Music” Leads Video Games Growth

Much has been written about the demise of the traditional music industry.

There’s also been some commentary about where commercial music is heading.

But the most-overlooked area of development is probably video games. In fact, while many areas of gaming seem to have reached steady-state growth, music gaming is booming. And it’s multi-generational. Whole families want to be guitar heroes….

Click here for more.

Peter Gabriel Says iTunes Is Too Powerful

In a wide-ranging interview, PG talks about how the internet is changing music distribution, his notion of an ideal web site, and his upcoming album.

Among other things, he says iTunes is too powerful (Amazon and others are changing this) and that the record labels can and should morph into ‘services businesses’ catering to artists.

Read all about it in this video clip.

The Perils of Audiophile Solder

To my growing list of “audiophile stuff that doesn’t work” I must now add solder!

Here’s what Bruce Rozenblit, owner of Transcendant Sound, has to say:

Don’t  Use WBT Solder On My Kits. I have had to repair a couple of kits recently that used WBT solder.  The flux used in it does not properly wet the metals used in terminal strips and tube sockets.  It just doesn’t stick and flow well to them.  It works fine on gold-plated terminals.  Beginners think solder is supposed to act this way and don’t realize what is going on and get bad joints.   Do you yourselves a huge favor and just use Kester brand solder.  I use Kester 245.  If you want to use a no-lead variety, use one of theirs.  In fact, don’t use ANY audiophile grade solder on my kits.  I don’t know what’s in them.  Several kits use a bare heavy copper wire as a ground buss and some have  reported to me that they had great difficulty soldering to it.  I could not understand what the problem was.  Now I realize that they all were using some kind of audiophile grade solder.   Solder has nothing to do with the way an amp sounds but it sure can ruin a kit.

I myself have had mixed results with some name-brand solder that I bought from Parts Express. But never a problem with Radio Shack brand! Go figure….