I think it may be that only equipment of a certain level is the type able to show up these differences, hence those who maintain the differences DON’T exist, seem to be listening on “budget” Hifi setups at best

Oh good grief…

Are you really telling me that I can’t tell the difference between speaker cables because I haven’t got expensive enough equipment ?

And that you are prepared to prove it by using CD’s as reference material ?

Are you aware of quantisation error and digital dither routinely present in CD’s ?

I am aware of that.

Good… difficult to tell on this thread what background / knowledge anyone has…

As for the Quads; you would have thought they would have been immune; as a manufacturer they were of the opinion that speaker cable was unimportant unless excessively long and thin ….

A tube amp I had at the same time wasn’t affected like this.

That’ll be because tube amps have output transformers and so the external load isn’t directly coupled into the power stage of the amplifier; A well designed* solid state amp should be immune from this kind of artefact.

* NAIM excepted

Edit: Simply because I’ve never seen how they’ve engineered the output stages of their amps; I’m actually rather curious as to what aspect of the cable is important to the behaviour of the amp.

as far as my ears and music-appreciation brain circuits are concerned…

Perhaps you missed that bit.

You are correct; I did – however are you claiming there was a difference; or are you happily acknowledging that whilst there might not be a measurable difference – spending £70 made you feel like you had improved your hi-fi in some way ?

Double blind trials!

Wouldn’t this require no one to know which cable is which until the experiment is over ? ;)

If the results from here are anything to go by; I know what my money is on…

Double blind results

Damnit; I promised myself I wouldn’t bite…

I spent £70 on a “Graham’s Hydra” powerfeed for my stack and it was money well spent

I’m sure that it’s neatened up the cable spaghetti behind your stack a bit; but beyond that it’s just a hard wired 5-way adapter. What effect could it possibly have on the sound…

not true, In fact I’d happily prove it, anyone down south fancy bringing along some cheap speaker cable and I’ll swap the runs on my system. You can then, for yourself, hear the difference.

A better test would be to let someone blindfold *you* and then ‘maybe’ change out your cables for cheap ones and see if you could tell the difference – you reckon you could ? (any cynic in the south east up for testing MrNutts hearing ability?) – I’ll happily send down some ‘premium’ cat-5 speaker cables…

Spaghetti perhaps.

Maybe he hadn’t even connected them at all…

absolutely tons of bass detail and even a good chunk of volume

hmmm…

@druidh

Well spotted :)

I used some cat 5 cable I had hanging around to make up some speaker cables; even took the trouble to bi-wire and everything. Expensive cables are for mugs people with exceptional hearing…..

Then the wife (just to wind me up im sure) got me socks that have days of the week written on them

I – along with my two brothers; was given the same present.

Of the three of us; the running joke was that one would wear the correct pair on the correct day; one would wear a pair; but not always the ‘right’ one and that I would at least be wearing socks…

Opens ‘inferior’ Co-Op Wheat Beer

That’s far from inferior; it’s re-labelled Acrobrau (as is; I believe Waitrose wheat beer) – I didn’t realise they still sold it; it must just be the ones near where I live that have stopped stocking it – damn !

Macs do more with less

Arguably for some stuff yes; the base operating system certainly has a smaller footprint and requires less resources. However for any modern gaming (especially on a laptop) then raw power is king.

Oh and fwiw (in case I come across as some sort of windows fanboy) I dislike both options and would prefer to stick linux on it. That’s not something I’d recommend in this instance tho ….

I quite like Macs; but to pay nearly 40% more for an inferior laptop seems a bit ott – especially if you are interested in playing games; where the extra performance from the GFX card and the higher res display could make the biggest difference. Get the cheaper one; put £20 in the bank every month and enjoy your £700 lump sum at the end of three years by buying some new bike bits :)

Oh and parallels is fine for productivity / office apps; but I certainly wouldn’t use it for gaming.

Someone will post a Whyte PRST next

Only to happy to oblige; this is mine before I covered it in mud – I think the black forks make all the difference :)

Whyte PRST-4

+1 on taping yourself in – I did three bedrooms in our victorian house and the dust was horrific. A decent mask is essential.

Yes – it won't be slower than the original drive

I must be incredibly lucky then – I'm still on my first set of egg beaters (I forget how long I've had them, but it's an early set with the rubber plugs in the end instead of the screw in cap) I actually greased them for the first time this summer; still going fine; though I've gone through a few sets of cleats.

Nobody translate post 4; or we shall all die of laughter !

Bar mount seems fine to me; I use the small 'O'ring with 25.4 bars; could almost get away with the big one; so suspect it would be fine for 31.8's

They can get a bit warm; I've not noticed a problem; but I tend to run them on the low setting unless I need the high; and it's only really noticable if you are stationary – the mount is plastic; so bar choice won't affect anythng.

Yes the switch glows – mine is green; and goes red when the battery starts to get low; which it's only done once so far – I didn't run it till empty; so can't tell you how long you get from there though – I don't find it distracting at all.

As for 3 hours on max – It's probably not far off; again I've not truly tested it. I rode for ~ 3 hours with a mix of max and mid and the red light came on just as I was finishing. It's a 4-cell pack too. I think trout's orginial article checked the runtime.

Really ? I very much doubt that. I was in a car-car accident and when I reported it to the police; was told that unless someone was actually injured there was no need – and it certainly doesn't sound like the van driver was injured….

I've got the last ever (as far as I'm aware) Whyte PRST-4; with T-FOUR forks from a JW-4 as they'd run out of PLUS-FOURS which it should have come with. It's about 5 months old now; but all the components on it are 2005 vintage.

I've got a Cateye Astrale on my road bike; it's got a cadence sensor and is designed to have the wheel sensor on the back wheel; In fact; I'm pretty sure most of the cateye ones that include a cadence function are the same.

I got it so I could keep an eye on my cadence; I'm not sure there's much benefit to monitoring wheel speed on a turbo trainer ?

+1 Ultra Gator Skins; most puncture resistant tyre I've ever had – my spare tube has seen no action at all this year !

YGM :)

Book a session of indoor karting at Daytona in Trafford Park; good fun it is.

Not necessarily :) – Point your phone at http://www.bbtracker.org/wiki/Download and see if you can download and install the latest version; if so you can try other Java based GPS progs that do similar / the same as MemoryMap. bbTracker is just a simple piece of logging software; other free java GPS stuff will allow you to upload maps and create routes to follow

Hmm – from what I can see it runs Windows Office Mobile 6.1 under whatever OS LG use for their phones rather than being a true Windows Mobile 6.1 device

what's the error message ? Is it definately a cab file for the right version of WM ? (Not trying to be patronising)

What version of windows Mobile does it run ? Check the config for the usb connection and see if it is configured for Mass Storage instead of ActiveSync – I have to remember to swap mine depending on where I'm using it

You can also install apps on WM phones by copying the cab files across and then selecting them on the phone; possibly a way of doing it ?

competitivecyclist.com has an online fit calculator – takes a bit of time to get all the measurements in, I used the figures it give to set up my road bike and it's only needed slight tweaking to get me really comfy on the bike

Personally I'd spend a little more and get something like this

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/22-Iiyama-PLE2208HDS-B1-Widescreen-LCD-1920×1080-5ms

Clubber – you'll probably be fine then; that's about how my eyes felt on the odd occaision I slept in my old monthly disposables.

Just remember to write the date for changing on your calender; if you get on with them too well it's easy to lose track of how long you've had a pair in for …

hmm – hopefully not; though stuff like that has never bothered mine :) I even managed to wear a lens inside out for a whole month – the optician was particularly impressed when he did my eye exam ! If he hadn't noticed that the text on the lens was back to front I'd never have even known.

I'd recommend you get some lens-wetting drops too; if you are borderline then a couple of drops in each eye before bed and in the morning can improve things

have you ever accidentally slept in your normal lenses ? How were your eyes the next morning ?

I've used monthly continous wear lenses for about 7 years – I get on with them fine; don't cause me any problems and find them very comfortable.

Based on other peoples views and experiences however – I am fairly unusual.

I'd give it a try – waking up in the morning with perfect vision was amazing the first time !

Comparing a brand new plasma to an old CRT isn't really fair though is it

er.. I wasn't – the 7 year old plasma is in the living room; the CRT it replaced is about 2 years older and spent 5 years in the sitting room until we moved house and gave it to my Gran – I think that's a reasonable comparison.

Rockhopper – you must have never seen a decent plasma screen then – either that or you've only seen panels that are too big for the room they are in. A good quality panel at an appropriate viewing distance for the size is amazing compared to even an expensive CRT – I've got an SD Panasonic plasma that will be pushing 7 years old this winter – picture quality is amazing compared to the near top of the range (when bought) Sony Trinitron it replaced.

I'd recommend that if you do get one; don't skimp – Pioneer / Panasonic are the best if you go down the plasma route; make sure it's got "True" HD; that is that the native resolution of the panel is 1920×1080 – you can pick up the TX-P42S10B for about 700 notes and it's a belter. If you haven't already got one I'd also buy a decent AV amp and a set of 5.1 speakers – but that'll add a considerable amount to your budget. Don't buy a £100 amp and speaker package – it'll be awful.

take out all the bulbs in the bathroom; then try it again – if it still stays off then the fault is with the wiring, or a different bulb somewhere.

I've been wearing continuous wear lenses for about 7 years now; and it's fantastic being able to see when you wake up and not having to mess with lenses every morning/night. I seem to be one of the lucky ones however; lots of peope I know who have tried them didn't like them or found them uncomfortable after a few months (like ebygomm) and switched back.

I'd give them a try and see how you get on; but be prepared to swap back if they cause you problems.