You make an excellent point about the term being viewed negatively. My circle of friends view me as an "audiophile" and as having "golden ears", and do not understand my hobby. As you mention, they have their own hobbies, and I sometimes do not quite get them! But, we accept and do so willingly without ill will.

I have always viewed "audio" as a hobby, and attempted to get as close to realism with the pieces in my systems. If that meant looking at alternate/different views on technology, than I would do so with guarded optimism. I have a scientific background by nature and profession, but still believe in my ears to a certain point. If you have the means to purchase more expensive equipment, and that is what you choose to do believing that you are closer to your promised land (and I am sure we all have different end goals), then that is wonderful.

However, the mind does not always remain open when something conflicts with our views. THAT is a shame, as even if you cannot/do not share the views, it can only broaden your experience level when attempting to judge. Too often there is a war of words over differing viewpoints. These are caused by many things, but I read them all and try and gain something from them. I may not agree with all the points, but that is by choice, experience and done with an open mind.

Anyway, I have and do own an array of equipment, some of which has been mentioned in this thread. I attempt to remain realistic in my pursuit, and do not "wear it under anyone's nose".

Ok, enough rambling!!!!

How did page one of this thread get so W..........I..........D.........E?
Can Someone fix that?

1st pg.is a big pain in the arse to read.

It's what happens when people post pictures that are too large...

Or when people's resolutions are set too low... Looks fine to me at 2048x1536 and even if I lower to 1600x1200 just a tiny bit of scroll. I do have to admit that on my secondary display (17" LCD at 1280x1024) there is signitificant scrolling required... But that's what my 21" CRT is for.

Obviously, a computer attack from the "way too big picture posters", a little known, anti-Audiophile splinter group.

Sure, 21" screen, no problem, but on my 15" widescreen laptop, it's still a little wide.

Try downloading Opera (they have a Mac version). Opera offers page scaling that also scales the pictures, unlike IE and Netscape that only change text size. Opera also has mouse gestures and countless other bonuses to make browsing easier, but there are too many to name. The only complaint I have about it is that some javascript pages give me trouble. I guess maybe Mozilla Firefox would be a good alternative for me (but I'd have to give up my prized mouse gestures).

But I LIKE Firefox!

DJ,

Opera, IE, and FireFox all include autiomatic image scaling features, but none of them work with INLINE images. That feature only works when you view a linked JPEG in its own window.