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The short version is, you don't know what the fuck you're talking about. Raw RMS power doesn't matter for electrostatic headphones. If you don't have the right pin-out and the correct bias voltage, then everything else is moot. They just won't work. And running either Focal's Utopia, or the...

You need a very specific amplifier for electrostatic headphones. You CANNOT run them off a regular headphone amplifier, no matter how powerful, and if you want to use a speaker-amplifier you still need a "Energizer" in the mix. It's not about "power" (I*V) but about having a) the proper...

No, it's purely about accurate reproduction. No additional capabilities at all (at least not that are in anyway attributable to the architecture of the DAC). Leave the Magni 2 where it is. The Modi Multi-bit is a useful, and relatively easily audible improvement over the D/S versions of the...

I can certainly understand that. However, on Windows you're going to need a driver, at least, regardless of whether you use Toslink or USB-Audio 2.0 connections since Microsoft still doesn't support USB-Audio 2.0 out of the box. If Windows vendors are still bundling tons of crap in their...

USB Audio (Isochronous mode, i.e. what you're using with a USBA 2.0 Async connection) does not do data-retransmission. The power lines on a USB port from a typical PC are often very noisy and that noise can get injected into the circuits of the DAC. VERY few DACs, especially entry level stuff...

I'm not saying streaming is bad at all; in fact I subscribe to TIDAL, Spotify, Apple Music and Prime. I use those services extensively for listening at the office, finding new music, and for various parties and functions at my home so that there is always suitable music available. Also, they...

They don't. In fact none of the vendors that offer high-resolution downloads use DRM. Which is exactly my point - you couldn't buy a DRM-encumbered file if you tried. DRM on purchased music is done (outside SACD) - it's been over for years, both for lossy iTunes/Amazon Music stuff AND for...

Its losslessly compressed, however. So once you unpack it, the data is the same as the original file. Not the case with MP3 etc. Though I'm sure you know this.

I'm curious as to where one would go today to buy a DRM-encumbered music-file that wasn't also legally available, for the same price, as a DRM-free file. You know, unless you're buying your music on SACD. But as downloads? No idea who's selling in an non-DRM format anymore - I think you'd...

Except what the rumors are talking about is them offering high-resolution streaming (24/96 or higher). Everything else is extrapolation of what that might mean (for no benefit, so there's no logical reason to do it). All streaming music services are DRM-encumbered anyway, so if Apple use a...

Songs purchased from iTunes have no DRM. They did in the beginning, but it's been years since Apple removed that across the board. Apple were the ones primarily responsible for DROPPING DRM on digitally purchased music. Even high-resolution files, rather limited though the section...

I'd go for a Surface Pro 4 or Surface Book (I hate the name) ... but for two things: 1. I'm long since done with the nonsense that is managing a Windows machine properly for personal use. 2. I prefer my hardware not to ship requiring the "Heatlesjizz Removal Kit". I remember around the launch...

Radically different? It has a touch-screen and the keyboard comes off. Apple made touch-screen devices workable long before Microsoft (Windows Mobile was only usable with a stylus, even if the screen could recognize finger input, and TabletPC only recognizes pens on an active digitizer - touch...

No profit-making corporation in the US (or anywhere else for that matter) pays any tax at all. Their customers cover all of it. 100% If you think, even for a moment, than even a cent/penny of what a "corporation pays" in tax is coming out of anyone's wallet but yours then you are...

Seems a bit daft. With there being an iPhone/iPad app for Amazon Prime Video, unless Apple are blocking such an app for the new Apple TV, I'm not sure what the problem is. The coding delta for tvOS is almost non-existent. As much as I use my Prime subscription, and as much money as I spend...

The HD650s scale very well, so while they will benefit from higher-end DACs and amps they’re going to sound amazing with the Modi 2U/Magni 2U combination (and it’ll drive them to ear-splitting levels if you so choose). They are most certainly not wasted on that combination and...

iTunes does neither Vorbis or FLAC. There are plenty of third-party applications that do, most of which are seriously compromised in one respect or another (and that's speaking as a Mac user): Amarra sounds "good" (if artificial), but it's extremely buggy and has a horrendous interface...

VMs are not a panacea. There's a belief among many that what goes on in your VM can't affect the host; that's demonstrably incorrect. Hypervisor breakout exploits are a fairly hot topic and a serious concern.

If I'm paying for a product then it works the way I want it to, or it doesn't get bought. Microsoft's track record, recently, with updates isn't great. That includes with Windows 10. I don't want a warning about a pending restart; I want control. That Windows still needs to restart for...

It's this sort of un-verified nonsense that has several of the C-level IT types I consult for asking for a path away from Microsoft platforms as fast as possible. I'm disinclined to act in Microsoft's defense here ... maybe this stuff isn't enabled in the Enterprise builds, maybe it actually...

I'll exit the conversation here. I don't run Windows personally anymore, so it doesn't affect me there. No amount of pontification or argument will convince me that "apps" on Windows will be more than an afterthought and will continue to come in anywhere but a very distant third place to iOS...

Since there's nothing I can do in an "app" that I can't also do in desktop software, I'm unsure just how I'd leverage the cloud in an "app" that I couldn't similarly leverage anywhere else. Sure, there are things I can use a tablet for that a desktop, or even laptop, isn't suited for. Not sure...

Until Windows 10 is a significant majority of the Windows install base, then apps for desktop users will remain a niche/curiosity at best. One or two, or a handful, of only-available-as-an-app releases isn't even a drop in the ocean. You can't get around the fact that it's going to take a...

But ... there's no reason that Hyper needs to be an "app" or on the store. With Windows, as with on OS X, there's a well proven mainstream way to get software for it ... no store, and no special market-limiting coding required. Unless I needed the store as a distribution mechanism, I gain...

I live in one of the cities that passed the $15 minimum wage; it's having some interesting effects. One example is people asking for fewer hours as the new wage is making them ineligible for various low-income benefits, programs and credits. To accommodate that an employer has to have more...

I will say that, if I'm going to be giving a tip below the expected norms then you, as the wait-staff, will already be WELL aware there is an issue; if you've not corrected it by the time the bill is paid then you've no reason to be surprised or upset.

I travel extensively and have never noticed any lack of service in countries where tipping is not the norm (and some you just don't do it in as it's considered an insult). Generally it's excellent, provided you understand the cultural norms at work. For example, don't get impatient that you're...

If you don't like apps, you don't like apps, in which case you're not hindered by Windows Phone. Not sure what phone you're referring to there. I'd say at peak we had anything up to 100 different devices, iOS and Android, for testing and that was never a concern. I don't remember the...

When I still owned a mobile dev studio we looked, extensively, at the store and the apps available, as did our clients. Fundamentally, no one cared. Our clients would either skip a windows mobile port entirely or just build standard Windows applications so they could hit the maximum number of...

If the stock configuration is "better" than anyone else would give them, that still doesn't mean it's appropriate for their work style or flow. It's not just about power/the biggest spec. The cost of a system, and the minimal IT overhead it takes to manage a few exceptions, is such a tiny...

No, it's not. The flash chips are soldered to the main board.

1000 people surveyed, given proper random distribution of the sampled set, would yield a confidence level of 99% with an internal of 4 for the entire US population.

That's because different people have different definitions of "best" based on their particular needs. There aren't many cases where "best" is universally, definitively, completely clear cut and purely objective. If you limit your criteria to what the phone can do out of the box then maybe...

As a developer, and as someone that owned and ran a mobile development studio (sold it recently), I’d say that this is potentially interesting – but only given a number of caveats. As a studio we saw so little traction on Windows Store Apps I actually shut down that part of the...

I'll say, upfront, that I'm not a Windows 8.x fan. Even 7 took away things that, as a developer and technical user, were a pain in the ass, at least 7 was the best implementation of Windows to-date. The list is completely lame, and a stretch at best. There's nothing truly compelling about...

While I have no interest in one of these (I like my Swiss mechanical exotica far too much), the really inconvenient truth here is that Apple are very likely going to make more money in the first day of actual sales than ALL the Android Wear and proprietary alternative competitors have since they...

Reviews do not "a winner" make. Let's see how it actually sells. Q4 Results will be most interesting.

I'l grant you that it's a very cool and impressive app. It's also Windows only; so a plus for that platform and, right now, something that iOS simply couldn't support and would be limited to a small fraction of Android devices. It's ALSO ... ridiculously niche. I compose and perform music as...

That's not been my experience even on current Atom devices, unless by "image editing" you're talking about poking pixels on a single layer. A few, standard, non-destructive adjustment layers, an image bigger than that from a cellphone camera (and I'm not talking about the big files off my...

It's a bloody Atom. For $500. They were a shitty value proposition at $250. In the eyes of the average consumer it's competing with an $80 device. Fine for Office/Mail/Facebook ... but neither of them are doing anything useful in Illustrator or Photoshop.