I haven't taken the plunge, and I've never heard the new formats, but I have a suspicion that neither format will ever get off the esoteric ground on which they both seem to reside currently. Mass market will decide which new format, if any, will replace CD's. The benefits of SACD and DVD-A, as measured against CD's, just aren't enough to prompt Joe-consumer to start buying SACD's and stop with the CD's. Most people don't listen to music in settings that take advantage of the sonic benefits of either

I'm not so sure you want to toe in the speakers more to get a bigger sweet spot. I'd aim the speakers 20 or so inches behind your head (more if you want to experiment with the size of the sweet spot). Any adjustment one way will emphasize one thing and compromise another. You'll just have to play around with the position of the speakers. A fellow from Singapore who used to frequent this forum had his RF-3's out from the wall behind the speakers by about 3 feet and flush to the side walls. He found

Try this experiment, and also do it with your power conditioning equipment installed: pick a track of music with which you are intimately familiar; play it during the day on a weekday several times (over several weekdays?) and really get to know how it sounds; then play it late at night a few times (3:00 or 4:00 in the AM). Notice a difference? I did.

Mr. Bungle - California

When I did the comparison I described above (Theta Jade vs. Onkyo Integra), I was expecting the difference to be almost impossible to hear. The difference was clear and it was worth the money I had put into the new transport and cable. As both units were feeding the same digital processors, and the only difference was in cables, transport mechanisms and the addition of a jitter filter to the Onkyo, the differece in sound HAD to come from jitter and/or the transports' reading errors. You shouldn't

marksdad: I sent you an e-mail. I just want a simple home theater, and I don't really have the room for another pair of rf-3's, so a pair of rs-3's would likely suit me just fine. I also want to minimize the expense, as I'd like to keep my spending money flowing into the 2-channel system. Thanks for the beta!

Jitter: When music is converted into a digital signal to record onto a CD, a vocabulary is used that is specific to the format (CD, SACD, DVD-A, etc.). In other words, the CD format has a set of values that correspond to musical information (tone and and volume, I guess). The more storage capacity in the format, the more values in that format's set. Now, music before digital conversion is made up of an infinite set of values (frequencies and intensities). Conversion into a digital format requires

Many people have noticed a marked difference between coaxial and toslink digital interconnects. They both transfer S/PDIF encoded signal, but the interconnects have been isolated as sources of timing error (jitter)-- toslink more so than coaxial. You should experiment with both to hear what you like best, but a good rule to go by is to use the unit with the most recently designed DAC. Newer DAC's tend to do a better job than older ones (nevertheless, you should listen). If the two DAC's are about

I started my 2-channel journey with RF-3's. Now the bad boys are sitting upstairs unused, and I want to proceed to developing a home theater system using them. I plan to get the Outlaw 1050 used or new, unless y'all can recommend something comparably priced and nice-sounding (I don't much care about features or ease of use). I do want to get the remaining speakers used, so I was hoping you folks could give me a good idea of how much the following speakers are going for used and in great condition

Roller bearings have received much praise in the recent past as superior to cones and squishy feet. There is a manufacturer that offers such bearings for $99, but I can't remember which. Look on www.audiogon.com at the tweaks section and you'll find such devices (look for the $99 price).