Smash Boy

There's at least one (if not more) six figure turntable, so naturally elite cartridges can/will be pricey too. A $50k D/A converter for "analog sounding digital", haha. Law of diminishing returns still applies, but for the super well heeled audiophile, this is their custom built hyper car. It still fascinates me how people so jaded by exotic car and hyper car prices seem so shocked at how much audio gear goes for. At the rate audio tech moves versus other tech, what is great now will still be great 30 years from now. It still will be working well with decent maintenance after many years.

I'm hearing the 720S is highly underrated. Meaning it's putting down around 720 at the wheels. Plus it's quite a bit lighter than an f12/812 by order of at least 600 lbs. If that's true, then 812 stands no chance. 720 at the wheels is already in the 840 hp range at the crank. So with the turbo cars, it's hard to know where they stand without the dyno results. The NA cars are usually about as advertised. It's pretty simple: All these cars have dual clutch transmissions, similar gears and gear ratios, launch control, etc. comparing rwd to rwd, there's no real advantage either car comes with to aid off the line acceleration . It really comes down to power/weight for the most part. A legit 790 hp/4000 lb car doesn't get annihilated by a legit 720/3300 lb car. Lose maybe but not annihilated.

A 6 cylinder and a 12 cylinder tend to related when it comes to fundamental tone, only an issue of extracting it from the 6 cylinder with cylinder arrangement (Inline versus Vee, vee angles), firing order, etc. Then there's the cross plane versus flat plane crank angle as well. It's why 4 cylinder engines and flat plane crank V8s tend to sound similar, as opposed to 4 cylinder and cross plane V8s. A BMW M1 race car, Dino 246/Lancia Stratos V6, tuned 911 RSRs sound really good and unlike most 6s....the GTR I haven't studied too closely why it doesn't sound all that good, but merely being a 6 doesn't sentence it to death. Compare and contrast the various V10s that are out there -- Viper, Gallardo/Hurcan, Carrera GT, LFA. Cylinder count is part of it, but not all.

LA, Viper continues to look great. Glad you are happy with the way it sounds and rides.....everything else was expected to be great.

Curious why all the hate? The car has nice interior and sounds really good. Better sounding than some Ferraris and Lamborghinis. I don't necessarily need all that jazzy bodywork, but that 3200 style boomerang taillights extended over across the trunk is nice and would be enough on its own with the right wheels.

Really like this Davide Cironi cat......he speaks to the enthusiast's heart even more directly than Chris Harris... I recommend his channel.

This company DesignQ knows what they are doing. Most people felt the Coupe/Spyder from 2001-2007 were a bit bland, but this company spiced it up tastefully in a way Mansory wishes they could do. http://www.designq.co.uk/maserati-4200-q-spyder

This is a nice vent thread about social media. I concur with most on here about all of the garbage relating to social media. One good thing FB and Twitter have done is give a look at the nature of people that they don't realize they are giving off. You can know people a long time and have a good read on them, then look at their posting nature and see a side of them you didn't know exists. We are also a part of this too, although the quieter you are on it, the less you will broadcast on it. I've noticed myself and a few others have reduced their FB posting content quite a bit. FB is nice to have to keep track of what's going on back home when you are halfway across the world. I couldn't imagine living remote without it... Twitter is good for those people you care to actually follow, and it seems to be a more ideal platform at times than blogs, forums, etc due to its instant nature. For example I will follow numerous insider personalities on Twitter the instant NFL free agency hits in March and follow all of the transactions in real time.... The business side of social media might be its best asset. Gary Vee will swear it's the most important thing ever, but at the very least it's relevant.

Dominant in different racing series. RIP.

I've never used more than a headphone jack direct when listening to computers. It's usually good enough for what it is, and I never sought the hi-fi experience that way. If the external sound card has an output for a D/A converter ("DAC"), then I would get a decent DAC and start from there. I haven't played with a computer sound card in forever, so not sure if all of them have these outputs or just a select few. The DAC will improve the analog output you will get as opposed to running the standard analog output straight to an amp or direct to headphones. You can choose to run an amplifier if you wish for greater quality, but of course this is up to you. A Cambridge Audio DAC Magic is a nice starter DAC, costs around $500 I believe. It can take in coax, optical and even USB. I'd recommend that: https://www.cambridgeaudio.com/en/products/...ma/dacmagic-100 With respect to the output connection itself....coax over optical if given a choice. A lot of lower end gear has eliminated coax, but if it's available it's better sound. BTW, I recall now using a laptop at an audio show among other input sources. We just used USB to a DAC and it was fine. Headphones? Provide a budget and/or goals, and we can go from there. If you have nice hardware, headphone quality is not as critical. If you run a nice DAC and amp, then a low end pair of headphones will usually sound better than high end headphones fed straight from the headphone jack. This is the same principle with speakers in general, not just headphones. Amp? Not a ton of choices out there for headphone amps. I know Woo is popular, but I haven't listened to them to vouch for them. This might be out of your budget, but it's what I'd use: http://www.synthesis.co.it/roma-roma41.php The Grommes PHI-26 headphone amp was a favorite about 10+ years ago when it was still around. That's another one I like.

Going off of this blindly (i.e. not having driven the new GT), it appears the GT is superior in driving dynamics to most cars out there. People are raving about the steering, and it's a legit race car converted to street car....not the other way around as is typical. Visceral items such as exhaust note is a different story perhaps (which was a huge strength in the last car), but there are other cars better suited for that and it never stopped people from buying Vipers for what it's worth. Lap times would not enter the discussion for "changing the game", IMHO. Eventually there will be a Plastic mess-06/ZR1 or GT3RS which will displace it at that (if a good ole ACR hasn't already), and will still fall short of driving dynamics. From what I gathered, the new GT is competing more with hyper cars than entry level L, F, and P cars. I don't see how the FGT could sell otherwise as it would lose traditionally to the European exotics by being a Ford all things being equal.

The 720S is the first Mac outside of the F1 and P1 I have really warmed up to (the MP4-12C was ok in that it might not have been exciting but wasn't as polarizing as 570/650/675). It seems like Mac still hasn't learned how to provide that Italian car edge to their exotics, both visually, aurally, and feel wise, outside of the F1 which was built in a time when almost all cars had character. Other than that it seems awesome. At a certain point you wake up and see just how much performance some of these cars are throwing down these days, and in a multi car collection it seems like a must have.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

I believe the kneelers are working out an agreement where they will stop kneeling in exchange for some social justice initiatives taken on by the league. Seriously.

It's about time the football gods reversed course with this team. From 12/14 to 10/17, it's been nothing but bad news one after another. The 30 for 30 on the post Harbaugh self destruction will be one for the ages. This up and coming QB situation feels different from last time ( ), and a great way to end the year. To not care about the draft pick is great, and it's possible to fall out of the top 10 this coming weekend, when #1 or #2 was all but a sure thing about two months ago. Glad you had a good time at Levi's....about f'n time! As for the rest of the NFL, slowly the changing of the guard is coming.........Eli, Roethlisberger, Rivers, Brees, even Brady.....you have to wonder how much longer they have.

If there is a creator or god, he must have a say in aliens and other life form no?

A lot of good assumptions and thoughts here. Some scary concepts that I never considered before, like aliens being invisible to us. I think while we assume that aliens must all be advanced (for the ones that have supposedly ventured to Earth, they'd have to be), there exists the possibility of course of mundane "human like" creatures or "animals" to currently be inhabiting far away galaxies that have no way of reaching us like us getting to them. It only takes a sun-like star about 93 million miles away from a planet to have life form that we know it, and that could easily occur in multiple occasions.

I'm going to go out on a limb and be cocky and say the universe hasn't made a Lamborghini. A faster car sure, but not as cool or good looking.

Did anyone see the new suites on Singapore Airline's A380? It is a bit bigger than Emirate's first class and if you have two tickets side by side, you can roll the partition down for a full size bed with partner. Will try to get the video. http://uk.businessinsider.com/expert-revie...e-suite-2017-12

This was a sidebar topic about mono for guys like us. Was never intended for someone starting. I just jumped at the word and didn't focus on what was being talked about.

The vinyl stuff would be costly if you're trying to keep stereo capability within the same system. Absolutely. As an added system, it's just another system. And in that respect it's cheaper. The actual hardware, everything is cut in half.....drivers, cabinets, etc. Many of the mono setups I've heard have been open baffle. And then there's the practical part of not having to really setup the system - you just put it wherever you want as there's no stereo system to achieve (at least with one speaker....two speakers running mono might be different story). Big vs. small room not as critical either. The listening experience is different and takes getting used to. It's not for every type of music either. It will be quite awhile before I get to that level, but it's a cool thing to look forward to.

All this mono talk above is teasing me a little... There's been a captivation by mono recently in the hi-fi world. It's not so much a replacement for stereo but a supplemental system on top of having stereo. A different type of listening experience, sometimes better than stereo. Cool to come full circle on stuff like this!

Heathrow can be a little problematic, beyond being a bit of a drive from London. On a return flight back east on BA from JFK to LHR and a change of airline to Emirates, I was forced to leave LHR through immigration and walk back in the main entrance. The BA attendant at JFK seemed annoyed that I wouldn't fly all the way with his airline and it seemed like he was punishing me (for trying to save a few bucks or whatever), but what he didn't know is that I added the LHR/JFK roundtrip leg last minute. Then the kiosk check in was a bit of a challenge compared to the norm. Meanwhile I once flew in one day from Auckland to Melbourne to Singapore to Bangkok all different airlines and made it all the way to Singapore without having to worry about luggage. Wasn't an issue at all in Auckland. ----- I've always liked Atlanta-Hartsfield.....many good memories flying in and out on business. Huge af but didn't seem to bother me. Probably the best airport car rental place in the US.

LamboCARS was the original comprehensive true Lambo enthusiast site. A lot of good time spent browsing there.