Category Archives: Rant

Silly audiophile claims … 2

Posted on December 1, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Once I went into a hifi shop, which shall remain nameless. The owner was one of those who believed analogue to be clearly superior to digital. The same shop, at another time, insisted that a high quality composite video cable … Continue reading →

Posted in Analogue, Audio, Mysticism, Rant | 3 Comments

If Audiophile USB cables are valid, then …

Posted on November 29, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

… surely we need audiophile network cables — CatAudiophile, perhaps? — to make sure the packets of precious audio digits are streamed without degradation from server to client. But, OMG, what about wireless! If you’re streaming over an IEEE 802.11n … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Cables, Mysticism, Rant | 2 Comments

Appalling: ‘audiophile’ USB cables

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

The gains in low-end body and punch, midrange spaciousness and detail, and high-end smoothness alone are significant. So sayeth What Hi-Fi. Apparently if you spend 50 UK pounds on the Wireworld Ultraviolet USB cable (I’m assuming one metre), that’s the … Continue reading →

Posted in Cables, Mysticism, Rant | 13 Comments

A Letter to the Old Country

Posted on November 17, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Yesterday I received a Blu-ray player produced by a very highly regarded UK company, which shall remain nameless. This is not a cheap Blu-ray player. But oddly it seemed rather deficient on the HDMI audio output front, not having anything … Continue reading →

Posted in Admin, Blu-ray, Rant | 5 Comments

Just what you want to see on parcel tracking

Posted on October 7, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

My youngest daughter is waiting for a new iPod Nano, ordered on-line. This is the tracking page for the item from TNT International: SZ1 is somewhere in China. It took one day to get from there to Hong Kong. Three … Continue reading →

Posted in Admin, Rant | Leave a comment

More government crap

Posted on October 6, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has selected me to undertake its ‘Economic Activity Survey 2009-10’. Bugger it. That means I have to fill it its twenty page form. Have to. Or do I? I have been carefully ignoring it for … Continue reading →

Posted in Admin, Rant | 3 Comments

Frustration, for want of a numeric keypad

Posted on August 8, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

This past week or so I have had sitting in my office, too large to lightly put aside, a 55 inch Samsung LED/LCD TV. It looks lovely with its aluminium bezel, and its extraordinary sub-8mm panel thickness (over most of … Continue reading →

Posted in Rant, Testing | 1 Comment

Perhaps Not So Evil Monster (Formerly: Evil Monster)

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

In my last post I issued a tepid condemnation of Monster Cables’ litigation practices. This evening I followed a link in the show notes for Dave Hitt’s podcast to get a sense of how much Monster Cables seems to be focused … Continue reading →

Posted in Cables, Mysticism, Rant | 8 Comments

Monsters and High Definition

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

I’ve previously mentioned the Quick Hitts podcast a couple of times. Dave Hitt has a superbly professional manner and tone in his podcasts on his wide ranging, but generally fairly libertarian subjects. I find a great deal to agree with … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Giveaway, HDTV, Rant, Value | 4 Comments

Saturday morning equipment abuse

Posted on April 11, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

TNT carriers seem to be a bit short staffed at the moment. Half an order for some review products failed to arrive with the other half, and another full order simply hadn’t arrived as this last week drew to a … Continue reading →

Posted in Equipment, Rant, Testing | 6 Comments