aslan7

I think I may have listened to Natalie Merchant's "Tigerlily" at least 1000 times via ....MOFI vinyl....streamed.....CD....& DVD audio. I just can't get enough of her!

Wow. Great find and an even greater story Wayne! Congrats!

Awesome David! Thanks for the update. Rockin Black Sabbath I see ??

Ahhh then I'll rephrase... Chop's--Gilmour--Bill D C-1 listening experience = Aslan7's--Gilmour--Marantz listening experience. :-)) Rock on brutha!

"Sorry I jumped right it. I guess I missed the intro requirement." No intro post required, yeliab1....just love to hear the stories and see the pics. Thanks for starting the new thread. Great equipment you got there. Very cool with the PL powering the woofers and the 15 on the horns. Bet she sounds sweet! ...and again, welcome aboard.

Awesome list Kelly! Some real cool audio pieces there. ...and welcome to the CarverSite my friend. How do you like that Cambridge Center channel speaker? Btw, we love ALL audio (&video) here--but of course we have an affinity for Carver creations. Yes, please post pics. And welcome aboard the Carver express!! You'll fit right in with us audiophile nuts.

1. Actually, if you click on the article link, the very first paragraph explains the Mpeg4 container concept. (I did not want to add words like container & Mpeg4 in the body explanation as these terms can tend to confuse folks) : "M4A, short for MPEG 4 Audio, refers to a compressed audio file in the MPEG-4 container format. Although the only official filename extension defined by the MPEG-4 standard is .mp4, MPEG-4 files that only contain audio typically have a file extension of ".m4a". The .mp4 extension is used for MPEG-4 files containing both audio and video. Songs that include copyright protection have an .m4p extension. Apple Inc. popularized the .m4a filename extension, which is used in iTunes for songs encoded using either the lossy Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) or the Apple Lossless (ALE, ALAC) codec. M4A audio files with Apple Lossless compression are generally about half the size of the original file whereas those with AAC lossy compression can be as small as 1/10 the size of the original file. Note that AAC was designed to be the successor to MP3" 2. The 2 different M4a filename encoding "formats" (lossless & lossy) were explained above. 3. Trav is converting higher bit rate M4a lossy (his Itune downloads) to MP3 lossy files. (not lossless to lossy). Sound difference will be negligible as noted above.

SHORT ANSWER -- In your case, the sound quality will be very close. Convert my friend. If you want more of an explanation, read on. Travis, M4a files can be lossless, (and thus larger files) which means very little compression and preserving much of the original song recording. OR in your case, lossy M4a files--which means they have been compressed to make the files smaller by using coding algorithm's that take out much of the information that is believed to be inconsequential to the listener. Since you downloaded these files from Itunes, they are in the lossy AAC (advanced audio coding) format. In a perfect world, we would want our cake (lossless) for the best sound quality AND have unlimited hard drive space to contain these much larger files. MP3 is also a lossy (highly compressed) format. It is a more accepted standard (although M4a is catching up) but just slightly inferior in sound quality. Most folks would probably never hear the difference. However, us audiophile nuts just might This difference becomes almost negligible at bit rates above 128k. Since you are converting 262k lossy M4a files to lossy 256k MP3 files, you most likely will not notice much difference. A quote from "How stuff compares": "M4A audio with Apple Lossless compression delivers the best sound quality since none of the original signal is lost. For M4A audio encoded with AAC lossy compression, blind tests indicate that it provides greater sound quality and transparency than MP3 files coded at the same bit rate, particularly for bit rates at or below 128 Kbps. However, as bit rate increases and more of the original sound signal is preserved, the relative advantage of AAC over MP3 becomes less obvious." Thus...convert away. One other note, if you do own Lossless files (FLAC or ALAC, Wav, etc.), you can always convert to lossy and lose sound quality... but once it's converted to say, lossy MP3....it's gone. You cannot take lossy and hope to convert to lossless adding back all the original coding to obtain the original file. Here is the link if you desire more reading: Cheers How stuff compares -- m4a vs. MP3

Congrats on your (I'm sure) storied career Dano. If anything, it is quite a feat to go 35 years at the same company - or derivation thereof. Welcome to a new chapter in your life.

Very cool story Doug! Kindred spirits. You are right at home here my friend.

Hey welcome to the forum 666mojo! So glad you found us. The great news is SEA has a fix for these babies. He will chime in shortly or you can PM him. How did you acquire your platinums?

I can highly recommend the DVD version of Tigerlily which I just picked up. Spectacular! The CD version is very good. The Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab 180 gram 1/2 speed "original master recording" 45 RPM vinyl is not very good at all. Booooo.

Doug, after a year of being on the CSite sidelines, we our honored to have you "in the game" so to speak as part of our active forum. You have amassed a wonderful combo of Carver and Polk beauties over the years my friend. ...& the glass etched Carver/Polk signs add a nice touch. When those Polk's first came out, I used to drool over the magazine ads showing Dr. Polk leaning on them. I think I even taped a few of those ads up on my college dorm room wall. Are you running everything at once or do you have A/B speaker switches? I count 7 speakers up front. Talk about a wall of sound! Tell us about that day in 1991 when you discovered Carver. Dealer demo? Friend's suggestion? Again, welcome aboard the Carver express--where OCCD runs wild. You'll fit right in.

Ahhhh, great to have your wisdom over here as well Slonar. Both sites offer something for everyone and we welcome you to the Csite family. I wish my iPhone could display the pics from your link. From your listing, it appears you have some fantastic equipment. Please post any pics if you can on this site. We LUV pics! Did you see those amazing's on eBay that have been listed now for a few months with the honeycomb woofers? I cannot believe the price he is asking. http://m.ebay.com/itm/172494828016?_mwBanner=1#vi__app-cvip-panel

Hey Slonar. Not sure how you slipped through our radar, but I want to officially welcome you to the CarverSite. We are so glad you found us! We have quite a few folks here with knowledge regarding your question. They are busy but should chime in shortly. How did you become interested in Carver speakers? By the way, I am a silver owner myself with original woofers that have since been redone. They are not the honeycomb type, however. Hope you can stay a while and welcome aboard!

They will dominate your room with your ceiling height. From Steve Hoffman: "In a nutshell, electrostatic speakers sound different from cone speakers, not necessarily better or worse. They are competitively priced. Despite their sleek appearance, they still dominate the room and require a large space to sound their best. I have a love-hate relationship with them. You must listen to them in person, however, and decide for yourself if you like their sound. No one else can make that decision for you." I've also heard some faint buzz during listening sessions due to receptacle power requirement --although this could plague many systems. I for one will not tolerate any noise with music not playing or during playing of quieter selections. I think you should give them a go for kicks. Then come back to ribbons ;-))) http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/electrostatic-speakers-are-they-worth-it.54724/

My 17 year old's jazz trumpet idol-- Doc Severinsen

I just picked up a mint condition jazz LP in Omaha, NE last night for $3 at the local antique store. My 17 year old son's idol is Doc Severinsen. He asked me to keep an eye out for any. I'll have to check the label for the aforementioned. Thanks for the heads up!

Wow, those look simply marvelous, Paul! Nice job...and such a great idea for tube storage.

You always bring a smile to my face itchy