PJ20, Upcoming Reviews, Product News, RMAF 2011, and a CA Site Update

Hopefully all the US based Computer Audiophile readers had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. My weekend could not have been better. I attended PJ20 at Alpine Valley amphitheater in Wisconsin. <a href="http://destination.pj20.com/">PJ20</a><a href="http://destination.pj20.com/"><img src="http://images.computeraudiophile.com/ca/icons/ex.png" style="padding: 0pt 0pt 0pt 3pt;" alt="link"></img></a> was a festival put together to celebrate Pearl Jam's 20th anniversary as a band. There were some great bands on two stages, but the real events were Pearl Jam's incredible sets Saturday and Sunday. Now that summer is pretty much over here in Minnesota it's time to get to my backlog of components to review. I have a HiFi store's worth of great stuff already in my listening room and more on the way. In addition there are very cool product announcements directly related to computer audio coming soon. Plus RMAF 2011 is right around the corner.

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<b>PJ20</b>

Many CA readers know Pearl Jam has been my favorite band since I heard the album Ten back in August of 1991. I've seen Pearl Jam play a few venues from a Lalapalooza set in 1992 on Harriet Island in St. Paul to last weekend's PJ20 shows at Alpine Valley in East Troy, Wisconsin. By far the best concert I have ever seen in person or on video was Pearl Jam's festival closing set Sunday evening. The band played 33 songs and continued well beyond Alpine Valley's curfew with three encores. Chris Cornell joined the band for four Temple of the Dog tracks including a duet with Eddie Vedder on Hunger Strike. Also joining the band on stage for various songs were Liam Finn, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, John Doe, Glen Hansard, Mudhoney, and Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age. Pearl Jam even dedicated its Grammy Winning track Spin the Black Circle to independent record store owners and customers. This was truly one of those shows that most people only get to see on television or via a grainy YouTube video online.

Coming to select theaters September 20, 2011 is the Cameron Crowe produced Pearl Jam documentary called PJ20. Based on Cameron Crowe's previous music related work on films like Almost Famous, Singles, and Tom Petty documentary Playback I can't wait to see PJ20. Here is a trailer for the PJ20 documentary.

http://player.vimeo.com/video/26633994

<b>Upcoming Reviews</b>

Upcoming product reviews on CA include.

<ul><li><a href="http://www.olive.us/products/music_servers/olive6hd/overview.html">Olive O6HD</a><a href="http://www.olive.us/products/music_servers/olive6hd/overview.html"><img src="http://images.computeraudiophile.com/ca/icons/ex.png" style="padding: 0pt 0pt 0pt 3pt;" alt="link"></img></a></li>

<li>Meitner MA-1 DAC (no website yet)</li>

<li><a href="http://www.gracedesign.com/products/m903/m903.htm">Grace Design m903</a><a href="http://www.gracedesign.com/products/m903/m903.htm"><img src="http://images.computeraudiophile.com/ca/icons/ex.png" style="padding: 0pt 0pt 0pt 3pt;" alt="link"></img></a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.aurender.com/">Aurender S10</a><a href="http://www.aurender.com/"><img src="http://images.computeraudiophile.com/ca/icons/ex.png" style="padding: 0pt 0pt 0pt 3pt;" alt="link"></img></a></li>

<li><a href="http://tad-labs.com/en/consumer/c2000/">TAD C2000 Preamp/DAC</a><a href="http://tad-labs.com/en/consumer/c2000/"><img src="http://images.computeraudiophile.com/ca/icons/ex.png" style="padding: 0pt 0pt 0pt 3pt;" alt="link"></img></a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.musicalfidelity.com/products/M1-Series/M1CLiC/M1CLiC.asp">Musical Fidelity M1 CLiC</a><a href="http://www.musicalfidelity.com/products/M1-Series/M1CLiC/M1CLiC.asp"><img src="http://images.computeraudiophile.com/ca/icons/ex.png" style="padding: 0pt 0pt 0pt 3pt;" alt="link"></img></a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.berkeleyaudiodesign.com/">Berkeley Audio Design Alpha USB</a><a href="http://www.berkeleyaudiodesign.com/"><img src="http://images.computeraudiophile.com/ca/icons/ex.png" style="padding: 0pt 0pt 0pt 3pt;" alt="link"></img></a></li></ul>

<b>Product News / Announcements</b>

There are some very nice product announcements dealing with computer based audio coming up. Of course I don't want to steal any manufacturer's thunder by breaking the news early, so I won't. I will say I'm attending an event "overseas" in a couple weeks and will have full details to share with CA readers at that time.

Also, a vendor approached me about building and selling C.A.P.S. v2.0 servers built to the exact specifications set forth in the C.A.P.S. v2.0 article. Things are moving forward nicely. I expect to have an announcement in the coming weeks. Computer Audiophile will not make a penny on C.A.P.S. v2.0 sales. Collecting a percentage or anything of that sort just didn't feel right.

<b>Rocky Mountain Audiofest 2011</b>

<a href="http://audiofest.net/">RMAF 2011</a><a href="http://audiofest.net/"><img src="http://images.computeraudiophile.com/ca/icons/ex.png" style="padding: 0pt 0pt 0pt 3pt;" alt="link"></img></a> is right around the corner on October 14-16, 2011 at the Denver Marriott Tech Center Hotel. It should be another stellar show. So far I am scheduled to open the show on Friday at 2:00 PM with a seminar dedicated to the <a href="http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Computer-Audiophile-Pocket-Server-CAPS-v20">C.A.P.S. v2.0</a><a href="http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Computer-Audiophile-Pocket-Server-CAPS-v20"><img src="http://images.computeraudiophile.com/ca/icons/ex.png" style="padding: 0pt 0pt 0pt 3pt;" alt="link"></img></a> server. Hopefully many CA readers can make it to the show this early. If anyone is interested in additional seminars please let me know and I'll get it setup if time permits.

<b>Site Update</b>

Last but not least, I want to thank the dedicated Computer Audiophile readers for their support of the site. Last month CA was so busy that we hit our monthly bandwidth limit causing the site to temporarily go down. Sure that's problem, but a good problem to have. Nonetheless, I will be upgrading the site to a new server fairly soon. This will increase the speed of the site nicely and give us enough bandwidth to grow for some time. In addition to hitting new bandwidth highs CA reached 175,000 absolute <u>unique</u> readers last month and over 1.1 million page views. The site continues to grow thanks to the contributions of every single CA reader. Without you guys CA wouldn't exist!