Stop Frame

No sooner do I brag about my little stack of Schiit then it breaks. One night, for reasons unknown, the wall wart power supply for the Magni amp/pre-amp died. I speculate that as it shuffled off to the electrical afterlife, it sent a spike through the system. This didn't damage the Magni and it may be a coincidence, but I had left my Zeus headphones plugged in and they were dead, probably murdered in their sleep. The result was me exploring warranties and how well each manufacturer responded. First, the great one, Schiit. Sent them proof of purchase (via Amazon, silly me) and voila, within days I had a replacement wall wart. The Magni still works like a charm, and my stack of Schiit is back in businss. Second, the nightmare. I purchased my Zeus headphones via Amazon, but it wasn't Amazon making the sale or even a sale that was "fulfilled by Amazon." Instead, it was the HiFiGo store. Out of China. Lesson learned, pay attention to what "store" you're buyin...

There has been a recent uptick in stories about a phone that went on sale in September 2020, which seems a little strange until you realize the phone in question is more than a little strange. The phone is the Microsoft Surface Duo and I was one of those silly people who purchased it on day one. The Duo was first shown at an MS Surface Event in October 2019, almost a full year before it went on sale. I was immediately enamored by the products Panos Panay, the MS executive overseeing the Surface Product line, was showing. This included the Surface Pro X (which I bought and still use), the Surface Neo (a product that now will never see the light of day, demonstrating an the Windows 10X operating system which also will never see the light of day), and the Surface Duo, our subject for today. The Duo is built around the concept that two screens are better than one, no matter how large that one screen may be. If your computer setup utilizes more than one screen, you already have a clear idea...