Actually you didn't put it there for "grammar whiners" as they wouldn't have anything to whine about considering it wasn't a grammar mistake - you used the wrong word altogether.

Awesome. Bag End in the home market? Never would have thought.

How about the Olympus SP-590UZ? 26x optical. That's as good as it gets.

No Denon, no NAD, no Harman Kardon, WTF?

They both seem about as good. I went with LCD...rather spend the extra cash on a power conditioner with an isolation transformer to get those 'blacker blacks'.

Wow, that's handy. If only I hadn't just got a DMP-BD35.

I believe they are still making turntables...including a fourth generation of the CS 505 and they still come with Ortofon cartridges.

Actually, in the 80's and early 90's a "name like Marantz" produced some products which could be deemed completely excrement but happily they are back on track now. This receiver looks like a monster.

Fluorescent lights need a choke aka ballast, aka inductor, to regulate the current flow through the tube's conducting elements. Early CFLs, and many non-compact fluorescent lights used a magnetic ballast, an actual inductor. Worked fine, but it was heavy, expensive and bulky. Luckily inductors can also be simulated using an electronic circuit, which is cheaper, lighter and more compact, but has a few of its own issues which these days have more or less been overcome, minus the fact that CFLs like many electrical loads, introduce distortion into the electrical supply they use.

Awesome, I just hope they are mercury free because if so, I'll grab a bunch.

I have a bunch of LED lights, they replace many kinds of halogen potlight bulbs like GU10s, MR16s, PAR20, etc...but they are all a little lacking in the brightness area yet and the ones I have all are 'pure white', aka a "nice" institutional and sterile blueish light(since buying them, they have released a 'warm' version too). My mom hates them, and most people aren't crazy about them, but since I only have them in my washroom right now, I really don't mind the colour of the light. They're only 3 watts each, and considering I can now accomplish in 12 watts what I was accomplishing in with 200, I think I can deal with it. Only problem is they're still too expensive to be cost effective up-front - only in the long term. I bought them from this place, which also sells pre-built 9 watt potlights...

http://www.insaini.com