Bob Stern

In my opinion, the audiophile "truism" that inserting a preamp between a source and a power amp adds some benefit is a myth intended to sell more equipment. If the output stage of the DAC were somehow inferior to the preamp, it would be no less inferior with the preamp inserted. At the other logical extreme, how about cascading several preamps to get even more of the alleged benefit?

Definitely do not insert analog attenuators between the RME DAC and a power amp. The hardware auto reference level will automatically insert the optimum analog attenuation to maximize the digital bit depth, i.e., minimize the amount of digital attenuation.

Conflating "recent" with UDM is misleading. Edge, UniFi and UDM are product ranges distinguished by intended user (pro, semi-pro & consumer, respectively), not by newness. The UniFi and Edge routers, switches and access points do not require a cloud account or remote access, as I stated above. (In fact, the Edge Routers had a significant firmware update 4 months ago and a dnsmasq security update 2 months ago. They did not impose a cloud account requirement, and they turn off by default phoning home with usage statistics.) The branding waters are muddied by UniF

Like you, I've read reports of peculiarly heavy use of swap storage on a 8 GB M1 Mini when the programs running didn’t seem to be using anywhere near that much RAM. So 16 GB seems safest.

In case anyone's wondering, Ubiquiti Edge and UniFi routers and access points do not require use of cloud servers or registration on Ubiquiti's website. Although Ubiquiti's marketing encourages you to buy a Cloud Key device to configure a UniFi network, they actually have a free UniFi desktop program that does the same thing without accessing Ubiquiti's servers. (Edge routers and switches don’t use a desktop program. Like most routers, their configuration GUI is built-in as an http server you access from a browser on the local network.) I'm not defending Ubiquiti by

Ubiquiti and pfSense both have a steep learning curve. I chose Ubiquiti (Edge Router 12) largely because they have a great forum in which very knowledgable users answer questions. Before I chose Ubiquiti, here's the best tutorial I found on pfSense: https://nguvu.org/pfsense/pfsense-baseline-setup/ Ubiquiti's access points are all called UniFi, but beware that the routers & switches divide into 3 product ranges with very different configuration interfaces: Edge — pro oriented UniFi — pro/consumer hybrid Dream Machine (UDM) — consumer; incompatib

Yes, but an extremely small number. I only know of two examples: the Cypress String Quartet, and a harpist whose name I forgot. I suspect the more common strategy for gaining publicity is to offer free selections on YouTube.

The 1957 orchestra was not the NYP, but an ad hoc orchestra in Los Angeles called the Columbia Sym. that CBS assembled for the sole purpose of recording Walter.

A certain excommunicated forum member could expound on that.

Mitch & Chris: To give this new software better exposure, I suggest you retitle the topic "Focus Fidelity digital room correction software". I initially ignored the topic because I thought the software was focussed on desktop speakers. (Forgive the pun.)

Thanks. I'll just order that one then.

As far as I can tell, Persian is the brand name, but the tea actually is from Sri Lanka. Wherever it's from, it does get good reviews on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Persian-Tea-Pure-Ceylon/dp/B07YM2HZRJ

Chris, are there 1 or 2 other Darjeeling teas you strongly recommend from Young Mountain that have a markedly different flavor so I can try some contrasting styles?

I'm pretty sure Jussi said that HQP Desktop does not support automatic sample rate switching for streaming input. I'm not sure whether HQP Embedded is more capable in that regard.