Any other old-timers care to share a sentimental journey or two?
20 years ago - a few years before I got into MP3 digital music files - I owned a California Audio Labs "Delta" CD transport and matching "Alpha" DAC that had a pair of 12AX7 vacuum tubes to add a bit of second harmonic and "buffer out" some of the supposed digital nasties. At that time I owned a pair of Apogee Centaurus Ribbon Monitors and a Jolida 202A integrated EL34 amplifier. All sitting on the top or my big classic oak roll-top desk in a tiny upstairs office in our condo.
I think my version of the Alpha was one of the first 24/96 DACS on the market, but MP3's were new and the first portable MP3 players did not appear until about 1999, so that DAC was strictly for my CDs.
About the same time that I owned the CAL Audio digital gear, the pioneering digital music software app "WinAmp" was released (1997?), and a few years later became my first computer MP3 player. It's hard to believe that I still use it to this day to play digital music files on my Windows 10 PC - and it does play FLAC and other hi-res formats. Also, I bought a Logitech Squeezebox Classic back in about 2004, and still use the Logitech Media Server-based Daphile digital music software in my main system, where it feeds my SMSL Sanskrit 6th DAC and Topping PA3 amplifier. (For portable use, I now use my Android tablet or Cayin DAP.)
Although I've never been part of the Apple/Mac universe/continuum, there are still some common threads that run through my years in computers and digital technology years with Microsoft, Linux and Android systems that go way back to 1984 and DOS 2. And these are all technologies that I never imagined in my youth, in spite of being an avid reader of science fiction. Any young person reading this can download and watch a couple of 1950's science fiction movies and see what my contemporaries thought the future would be like.
20 years ago - a few years before I got into MP3 digital music files - I owned a California Audio Labs "Delta" CD transport and matching "Alpha" DAC that had a pair of 12AX7 vacuum tubes to add a bit of second harmonic and "buffer out" some of the supposed digital nasties. At that time I owned a pair of Apogee Centaurus Ribbon Monitors and a Jolida 202A integrated EL34 amplifier. All sitting on the top or my big classic oak roll-top desk in a tiny upstairs office in our condo.
I think my version of the Alpha was one of the first 24/96 DACS on the market, but MP3's were new and the first portable MP3 players did not appear until about 1999, so that DAC was strictly for my CDs.
About the same time that I owned the CAL Audio digital gear, the pioneering digital music software app "WinAmp" was released (1997?), and a few years later became my first computer MP3 player. It's hard to believe that I still use it to this day to play digital music files on my Windows 10 PC - and it does play FLAC and other hi-res formats. Also, I bought a Logitech Squeezebox Classic back in about 2004, and still use the Logitech Media Server-based Daphile digital music software in my main system, where it feeds my SMSL Sanskrit 6th DAC and Topping PA3 amplifier. (For portable use, I now use my Android tablet or Cayin DAP.)
Although I've never been part of the Apple/Mac universe/continuum, there are still some common threads that run through my years in computers and digital technology years with Microsoft, Linux and Android systems that go way back to 1984 and DOS 2. And these are all technologies that I never imagined in my youth, in spite of being an avid reader of science fiction. Any young person reading this can download and watch a couple of 1950's science fiction movies and see what my contemporaries thought the future would be like.