Axpona and catch up

Thanks to all the people that came by our room to hear DirectStream on the Emerald Physics Loudspeakers. We had a lot of nice feedback and I am always appreciative of meeting new people, answering questions and having a bit of fun. And shows are fun. The only downside to this show was when the danged fire alarms went off on Saturday. I am not sure I have ever heard anything quite so loud. And there's nowhere to go and escape the noise! In hindsight I wish we would have taken a PWD to do an A/B between the two, but we had plenty of tracks where we could compare a CD version vs. the DSD or high resolution PCM copy. What was fascinating was watching people's reaction to just how close a good old Red Book CD is to even a high resolution DSD copy of the same, once upsampled and converted to DSD on DirectStream. Yesterday, Sunday, I managed to listen test 40 new DS, most passing with flying colors. I am pleasantly surprised just how good and close the DS sound to the reference. I have listen tested many products over the years and I would have to say DirectStream is more consistent than any product I've yet auditioned. I hope to finish the balance of the testing on Monday. They should be shipping out as planned. Lastly, the new Community Forums are back in business. Yes, I know, the new website's had some serious teething problems and they are not over yet, but we're getting there. The new forums is even mobile ready, so give it a try on your phone. If you have a moment, please head over to the forums and let me know if you run into any problems or have any suggestions to make it better. In fact, it'd be cool if you'd post your thoughts on the forums!