And so the next major audiophile engineering challenge is, err, well what?

[Filterlab]

Not exactly radical, but I think there's a huge market for the dac/preamp with remote control.

Seconded. Offboard DACs are really big news at the moment as more folk discover that (almost) any digital source running through a quality DAC can sound amazing.

[tfarney]

Yep, I know what it's like!

Quite often our American members post prolifically when they first join and then disappear. There was a guy here called 'Bajagringo' who was just like that - really good contributor and then all of a sudden he was gone... I know it's the nature of the beast with forums but it's still disappointing when it happens.

Hey, at least you know you're wanted

Marco.

It has been an interesting few weeks and relevant to the subject matter on AOS. I'm an independent marketing consultant. Most of my big projects have been managing brand transitions, and companies just don't transition brands in an economy like this. After about 2 months worth of work in the first 8 months of this year, it was time to find something steady to supplement the small marketing projects that are still coming in, and get access to group health coverage (something folks from every other first world country in the world don't have to worry about...). I've ended up working for Magnolia, a high-end A/V store within a store, inside of Best Buy, America's most successful consumer electronics chain.

It's not really high-end in the purist sense of the word, but pretty good stuff -- Pioneer Elite, Denon, Vienna Acoustics, Definitive Technology, Martin-Logan, etc. If I'm going to work in retail, this is probably about as much fun as it's going to get. I'm enjoying it a good bit. And learning more about big flat-screen TVs than I ever intended. Sorry for the thread drift. Just wanted to say that I haven't been ignoring my UK friends, I've just been in training for my second career as a hawker of expensive home theater kits!

Tim

[Filterlab]

It's not really high-end in the purist sense of the word, but pretty good stuff ... Martin-Logan...

I beg to differ, MartinLogan is very high end, even their entry model is well within high end.

[tfarney]

I beg to differ, MartinLogan is very high end, even their entry model is well within high end.

I stand corrected, but to tell the truth, I greatly prefer the performance of the Vienna Acoustics, and even a couple of the Definitive Technologies. There is something amiss in the mids of the Martin Logans, to the point that I actually prefer their less expensive model with the conventional mids and ribbon tweeter over the electrostatics. And they don't seem to image well. The sweet spot is very narrow. But don't pay too much attention to me at this point. I've spent WAY too much time with WAY too much gear over the last couple of weeks. I'm not sure I even know what I'm hearing at this point.

Tim

[dmckean]

Yep, I know what it's like!

Quite often our American members post prolifically when they first join and then disappear. There was a guy here called 'Bajagringo' who was just like that - really good contributor and then all of a sudden he was gone... I know it's the nature of the beast with forums but it's still disappointing when it happens.

Hey, at least you know you're wanted

Marco.

We always come back eventually.

[Steve Toy]

I guess that as a newcomer to the audio forum world we at AOS value sustained input from (almost) all of our regular posters in the absence of any real prolific yet low quality and negative input as seem elsewhere.

[Labarum]

Not exactly radical, but I think there's a huge market for the dac/preamp with remote control.

Agreed.

How about it Stanley? Not much of step from your DAC.

Next step: DAC/Preamp with integral streaming receiver. A clone Slim/Logitech Transporter, but costing less. As I understand it all the Slim Software is open source, so a bit of reverse engineering ought to be possible. For myself I wouldn't even need a display as that could be on the control device - Laptop, phone, whatever..

How about it, Stanley?

[Primalsea]

I don't know about the next new thing I would just like existing things to be designed properly.

It seems impossible to buy any electrical items these days that don't have some weird operational quirk.

Even Apple don't seem to get it right much. I've used macs and pc's for many years and it all seems to be backwards steps along with the forwards ones.

[Neil McCauley]

Even Apple don't seem to get it right much.

Such as?

---//---

[jandl100]

Not exactly radical, but I think there's a huge market for the dac/preamp with remote control.

Have a look at this eBay auction ....

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MESE:IT&ih=015

(Self-serving plug for own item up for sale! )