haemphyst's new system

tcss wrote: Guys, guys, guys. David, Uncle Bob will not leave you twisting in the wind. Next time you come see me bring the X-001 with you. I will gladly do a return on it. You just have to promise to stop crushing the Alpine tech guys LOL!

I never crushed anybody! LOL Yep... Second call confirms the first call. Lossless formats are supported FROM the iPos ONLY, and ONLY if encoded with the security-hole-riddled bloatware, know as "iTunes". iTunes will NEVER be installed on any computer I own. Alpine can get bent! I'll be seeing you soon, Bob! Thanks, by the way...It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

OK, I've given up, completely. I ALMOST thought I might buy an iPos (CompUSA has them on sale right now - 80G for 349. I thought that was an OK price...) But I wanted to try to hack my way around the iTunes. (Tech Tip: For those of you that DON'T know, you can copy all your music off of your iPos by locating a hidden directory called \iPod_Control\Music. The music files themselves will be in \iPod_Control\Music\FXX. You don't HAVE to authorize every computer you connect to your mp3 player. The directory and file names will be randomized, and will be nothing you can recognize, but if you have a codec intalled in your computer for WMP or WinAMP to play aac or m4a, you'll be able to play them. The tag information is NOT cryptic - it's plain text, and XP will show you the tag info, simply by hovering over the file name. There are also MANY programs out there that will rename your files "en masse", based on this tag info. I use Easy CD-DA Extractor. $29 for a lifetime of free updates! It will convert from the iPos .aac or .m4a to .mp3, as well as rename and file in any directory structure you'd like, ON THE FLY!) Anyway, I tried copying Apple lossless directly to the \iPod_Control\Music directory, thinking that if it is ON iPos hardware, it should see it ok. Nope. No love. If the iPos can't see it to play it, external controllers won't either, and if it's not put in place by iTunes software, it (the iPos) can't see it or play it. So, I won' be having an X001 in my dash, I'll NEVER buy another Alpine product, Steve Jobs will DEFINITELY NOT be getting any of my hard-earneds, (whew! that was close...) and Bob will be getting a box in UPS, well packed and insured! Sorry for all the ranting up to now, kids. I just thought everybody should know what they might be getting themselves into with the purchase of an Alpine X001. Alpine SAYS it's all about the iPos lover, but REALLY it's all about who's in bed with whom. Corporate inbreeding at it's finest, kiddies! iTunes NOT an option, if you truly want the "BEST POSSIBLE SOUND". (And that's a quote from Alpine, themselves.) If .mp3 is good enough for you, I still HIGHLY recommend this unit, it really is a fantastic idea, if limited to compressed, lossy music files, i.e. WMA, MP3, and AAC.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

I can't wait for an "mp3 player" that supports ogg and flac!

Hell-OO-O I've been saying that for years! (Well, since I discovered .FLAC, anyway.) The Kenwood Music Keg was RUMORED to eventually support .FLAC, but I haven't seen it yet. I did actually find a portable machine with .FLAC support, the Cowan iAudio, I think, AND it had a radio with radio to memory recording capabilities. Just checking right now, and I see the new D2 from the company DOES INDEED still support .FLAC. I might be looking into one of those! I understand the need to reduce power consumption in a portable unit, and less processing means less power, but in a car, where power capacities are effectively INFINITE for an .mp3 (i.e. compressed or "portable" audio) device, ALL the portable formats should be supported.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

hustlin247 wrote: so wheres the pics of the isobaric sub setup?

It's (they're) on the way... still in the very detailed drawing stage. I haven't even put saw to wood, yet. The enclosure/rack is going to be a pretty tight fit, with the required airspace, the HUGE vent, (some compromises will be made, sadly... not bad, but still.) AND room for 3 amplifiers, 2 caps and a second red-top. There won't be any space to spare!

hustlin247 wrote: and what is the reason for being able to unscrew the TCsounds?

I don't inderstand this question. Do you mean "Why do you need to be able to remove the woofers?" If that is the case, I need to be able to remove the inside (buried) one, in case I were to blow it. If not, please expand your question a bit... Tell me exactly what you want to know! It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

system looks great, i cant wait to see how the isobaric setup works out btw, i know this is going way back but did you every get my reply to your PM from wayyyy back when?

Oh... My... God... These PDX amps are INCREDIBLE. I haven't put them in the car yet, but I needed to see what I was in for. I pulled one out to my living room, with my 100A power supply, and proceeded to run one of the 4.150s through it's paces. Bridged mode: What can I say? Powerful, musical, dynamic. I was able to wrinkle my 52 inch ribbons full length, with "Kiss the Girl" from the Little Mermaid soundtrack (don't knock it, it's an AWESOME reference recording) which I have discovered though previous experimenting happens at approximately 280 to 300 watts. My usual amplification for the ribbons is an NAD 216THX, rated at 220 watts per channel into the 4 ohm resistive load presented by the ribbons, and it can't wrinkle 'em. I heard no sense of strain, just music. My ears couldn't take any more, and I heard no clipping or excessive distortion. What distortion I DID hear was probably from my CERTAINLY non-optimal room, and all of it's terrible reflections, and/or my ears complaining. Stereo mode: Even better. I know... but it WAS! I ran all 4 drivers in the system off that amp in 4 channel mode, using the built-in crossover. The highs were even smoother... The mids were even MORE liquid. MILES ahead of the NADs. The bass... oh, the BASS! I didn't try that (running bass) in bridged mode, but in stereo, it was deep, controlled, accurate bass... FAR better control (even with 1/3 the power) than the Adcom GFA565 powering the woofer section right now. I have never HEARD those systems sound that good, LITERALLY!!! All I could say was "WOW! I mean WOW!" Are the SURE that it's only 150W x 4? The sound was FAR more powerful than I would have imagined, especially from such (relatively) modest power output, and even MORE amazing was the fact that it did all this with my painfully inefficient ribbons! The crossover and pre-amp section are very clean, and perfectly serviceable... They do an admirable job at their jobs. The crossover has a WIDE range of settings, I want to say it's 30 Hz to 400(?)Hz. PLENTY of range for most systems. Anybody contemplating full-range digital owes it to themselves to get a look at these amplifiers! Alpine and B&O have teamed up in an over-the-top fashion, and hit it out of the park! Damn, Bob! You gotta dump the JL stuff in your car and get the PDX's going in there! No messin' around here... I'm completely serious man!It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

And to think I was worried how "The world's most critical ear" would react to these amps! Soon to be available at a Walmart near you. LOLThere is no such thing as free installation!