Well I know my playlist for tonight.  :/  sorry to hear he's died

honestly can't remember for sure... pretty sure I remember seeing a keyboard player to the left of stage in back, but whether he was synthesizing bass lines??... the bass player was up front and dramatic, he got lots of attention.  pretty gutsy bass at the concert too.

It's easily heard and annoying.  I can't believe they could be so evil and not think it matters.  Sure people can listen through it, like bad am radio, but it does make music less enjoyable.  Oh well, I only listen to ripped  CDs, but I don't like it when the keeper of the keys degrade the product.

For about a year and a  half or more, I started hearing a slight imbalance in the system.  I found myself using the Pass xover Rt/Lt volume to shift the top end of my speaker to the right. Well this doesn't really cut it because it was only one driver messing up (a 7" mid which sounded fine on it's own, I've got 4 total in the system; somehow it's sensitivity got mismatched to it's partner?).

Well, spent some time and found the driver pair causing the mismatch (I took out both cause I never knew which side was off), and replaced them with some different drivers (same company; same configuration;  different model), and woohoo, balance is back, and with my choice/blend of drivers I'm very happy with the change of character of the speakers. 

It's been something I've"ve been wanting to do for awhile now.  And although my soldiering skills suck, it all seems to work.  yea for me  I always say I strive for tonality first... but I like me a great soundstage too.

Why can't you drive the CAT amps directly using your DAC outputs and XXHE as a volume control?

umm this is kind of a coincidence, but I sent Peter an email recently about my JL3 mono amps that I need to let go of.  They are indeed excellent amps.

Thank you for this post.  My huge speakers are long in the tooth (or is that me) and I'm beginning to think drivers are not matched anymore, along with some super tweeter concerns.  I like a good stereo image (along with all the more important stuff) and after reading I'm starting to think I'd like to build the S5s... but I go at these decisions very slowly now.

Well,
I was thinking about upping the video card too, but I'm just going  to use the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT card I've been using forever, at least for awhile.  SQ has been great (from my old build; new I haven't finished yet), the biggest difference in SQ I still hear from my system is still differences between day and night listening and I don't know if a low powered video card is going to make that difference go away (aww to make all my listening experiences sound like the SQ of a 2am listening session when the electrical is quietest).

The things (like 32 gigs of memory) may be overkill, but is it going to hurt?  Are there items that are detrimental in my list above?  Maybe the huge PSU is overkill, but it has some of the best specs around?  It is the one thing I changed out already and I think it may sound better than the old PSU, or has done no harm.

I don't know what I'm doing electrically (much), so I doubt I'll be taking a soldering gun out anytime soon.  Other than that I do what I can.  At least my system can tell me quick enough that that "capacitor" card from China was wacky unstable in SQ in my system.

Thanks for that Peter.  It will see some games too...I count on XXHE dealing with the big video card, no?  When I'm listening to XXHE it's always in minimized mode display off.  The firewire is a b connection to the dac.  I think the MB only has a.

Parts I've settled on.  This build needs to do double duty as XXHE & Movies/internet.  XXHE will be on its own exclusive HDD w/ OS (should I move to Win 8 for this??).  Movies/Internet will be on another HDD with it's own OS.  I'll just move the sata cables around depending on what I'm using the computer for.

ASRock X79 Extreme4 LGA 2011  ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157282
(thanks Arjan & Peter, this was a good buy)

Intel Core i7-3930K Sandy Bridge
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116492

G.SKILL Trident X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231590

CORSAIR AXi AX1200i 1200W Digital ATX12V
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139039

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099
(Man this thing is big and heavy; I don't know about it hanging off perpendicular to the MB)

SYBA Low Profile PCI-Express 1394B/A Firewire Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124072
(I have an older pci firewire card I've been using, but I bought this cheap thing to compare/ the old pci card needs to be powered; this new pci-e card doesn't... we'll see)

ASUS Black SATA Blu-ray Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135252

For the rest of the parts,
I have two older computers (my old XXHE computer and a game machine) that I will pull parts from as needed and end up with my new XXHE computer and another computer I'm giving to a friend so he can rip his collection.  I'll tell you later here what parts I scavanged.

I'll try all the various settings I have for DDR I have when I get the new computer put together.

Is this still how you feel Peter or Nick?  Any newer ideas about how to treat memory with XXHE?

On this page the memory they have from
DDR 1600
to
DDR 2400
Which direction should I go considering a XXHE computer?
Thanks

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=G.SKILL+Trident+X+Series+32GB+%284+x+8GB%29+240-Pin&N=-1&isNodeId=1

or maybe I should ask...
what timings should I shoot for?

Well I'm looking for a PSU for my new build so thank you for posting the info.  Any other thoughts on these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139041

or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139039

edit
hmm
they seem to require software to run them?  I wonder if you really need to run Cosair's software.

Hi
The FF800 DAC uses 2m from the computer, then a quick analog interconnect jump to the PASS xover, then a long analog ic jump through the wall and to the amps!

Wasn't there talk of using one PS to run the MB and another PS to run peripherals?? something like that?  had to run a shortin jumper on one PS to fool it into thinking it was also connected to a MB haha.