Tardcore

I got Breakin' up in my left speaker and up in my right.

YMMV but I took a chance on the Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness LP set for $30 Used-Like New Amazon Warehouse and it arrived in perfect condition new in shrink wrap. I couldn't find anything wrong with it at all. May have been simply an unopened return.

One could quibble over some of the comparisons above (last year's MBA would probably compare more closely and at that point the price advantage is gone), but I think your conclusion is generally correct. I am by no means a pure Apple fan boy. Up until ~3 years ago, I would not even consider purchasing a macbook. My only point is that they actually are pretty price competive when you can find a direct comparison.

We'll make it easy. Just find a specific alternative to the new MBA that the OP is looking at for $1100 http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MD760LL/A? 1.3Ghz dual core i5 (Haswell) 4GB 1600MHz LPDDR3 RAM (optional $100 buy up to 8GB) Intel HD Grapics 5000 128GB SSD 13.3" screen (1440x900) And by form factor I just mean general quality of materials and finish. (aluminum body vs plastic, quality of keyboard/touch pad, and so forth). I think these things have value but it's easiest to just start by comparing the hard specs above.

the notion that you can build a comparable laptop for less generally proves out to be a myth. Even if you completely ignore build quality and form factor, the budget laptop usually has a lower quality screen or sacrifices the SSD.

I would go with the ram upgrade. Unless you are doing processor intensive work, you likely will not notice a difference between one processor and the other, but it might suck more juice on average.

I think 128GB is satisfactory for many users given that they are careful about the amount of media (particularly video) that they store locally. When I bought a Macbook Air a few years ago, I went with 256GB and am not sure it was really warranted. I pay the $25 for itunes match which basically means that I can download anything in my collection from the cloud and it does not count toward however much storage I get from icloud for free. The ram upgrade is probably a good idea though.

I think they updated last year with retina displays.

They just refreshed the Macbook Air, so I would go that route. If you plan to upgrade the ram, you have to do it at time of purchase. take a look around www.appleinsider.com. I think they had a coupon code of some sort through one of the popular online Apple retailers.

Start letting drunk/drugged up Americans into your country and you'll get more bands in your Riot Fest lineups. Sunday is pretty stacked honestly. 5 bands that I would like to see.

I am Satisfied.

Replacements confirmed for all Riotfest locations. Rad. Now...just gotta work out a trade. Fallout Boy for the Stooges.

here's an article about the Replacments/Riotfest speculation: http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/blogs/211296491.html

If I come up with a reason to make the trip to Chicago, I might pick them up myself. I think you could do a lot worse for the price and even if you do ultimately decide to go with something else, you could surely flip them without taking much of a loss (if any). They look like they are in perfect condition. I apolgize for the lack of a direct link, I cannot access CL from work.

Think of it like zip compression. If you take a large text file and zip/unzip it, you don't wind up with a text file with missing letters.

Interested to hear what results you get. I would like to move to something smaller than the floor standing speakers I currently use. If you are in a position to make a move on some speakers and don't mind a short road-trip, there are a pair of Wharfedale 9.1s on Chicago CL for $125. Might be a good comprimise vs a pair of 10.1s if you don't mind going used.

If you're still in the market, I see a used-like new PM5004 on Amazon this morning for $191 http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B003R7KMTC/ref=sr_1_2_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1371046600&sr=8-2&keywords=marantz+pm&condition=used

it's kinda nice to be able to skip out on the headliners. Gives you a head start on the crowd to hit the after-show.

Hope away, my friend. Personally, of all of the pie-in-the-sky canidates I have heard so far, the one I would really like to see is the Replacements.

Not sure that I would read too much into those posts. He posted a Sex Pistols flier not too long ago. Op Ivy would be pretty rad. However, they probably fall into the "long shot" end of the speculation spectrum (right behind the Replacements rumor). Looking at some of the more pragmatic possibilities, I would be ok with Green Day--it beats some of the alternatives that have been mentioned (Social Distortion).

FWIW I picked up both of these at the RFTC show in Long Beach, CA last weekend.

'Sometimes too much to drink is barely enough' - Mark Twain

What speakers are you using? Is more volume your only goal?

Platform/Neoprene pad(cut using only the most precise techniques) I wound up using 2 pieces of neoprene pad between the rack and a 18 x 12 x 2.25 inch thick maple butcher block cutting board. There's probably a better solution out there, but this should at least be an improvement.

One thing I find confusing about the speed box upgrade is that Pro-ject's website states the following: "Debut Carbon and Debut Carbon Esprit can not be used with the Speed Box II because they require a 230 volt connection." (http://www.project-audio.com/main.php?prod=speedbox&cat=accessories) Do people basically ignore that warning? If so, on what grounds? am I missing something?