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Speaking of: Released on Wednesday. Chopin: 24 Préludes, Ballade No. 4 & Piano Sonata No. 2 by Eric Lu (2025) https://album.link/hj55qbvfbjcp4 Example: Winner on Warner. Good recording, and performance is top notch. Looking forward to seeing how he grows.

Posting this here instead of the "Consumerism" thread, as likely only viewers here would possibly find this interesting in any way. I've always wanted a try a medium telephoto on my full-format DSLR, mainly for portraits. So, when an inexpensive Rokinon 85mm 1.4 in the Sony A-mount sat on B&H's used site for a few weeks, in a weak moment I succumbed to the temptation & placed the order: Literally the first snap from my A900, in a dark living room with one lamp lit, at f1.4 yielded this, which shocked me in its [insert typical "medium-format like" or "3D" quality superlatives here], particularly since it's manual-focus with the usual sliver DOF at minimum aperture: Of course, I've yet to reproduce anything since that approaches these qualities. So clearly I got very lucky on my first snap & will have to invest more time to learn how to get the best out of this big chuck o'glass. Also, so far I've only shot in B&W (which is my current favored MO), and yet to play with the color output (and deal with the reported CA at minimum apertures). But it's a beautiful piece to fondle & hear the clicks from the aperture ring.

Exactly the right number of lemons were used to make this ( the above, with lemon rice) no more, no less.

How many lemons were slaughtered to fulfill your epicurian desires? It leaves a sour taste in my mouth Sir!

Mediterranean Lemon Chicken Thighs With Veggies

They are just floating around on the Chinese market, there is no one seller doing this AFAIK. The one I bought for myself and the one I gave to Kevin are not from the same seller and used different Stax plugs. Btw. they all come with 5 pin plugs but should never be plugged into Pro bias, 200V max bias for these.

ICONOCLASTS by Anna von Hausswolff (2025) https://open.qobuz.com/album/vrn194ll38ouc Example: Released today (happy ween). I have seen a few posts from way back, but never made it to my queue. Good stuff, some complex compositions and mixes of genres and styles.

Who helps me finding a chinese? Had a chat today with the Staxmafia boss, he didn't do the names, but indicated that some time ago, a chinese was selling this modded set with stax plug... Does someone want to be a spy? Or if you do not wanna do the name, also some hint about getting to him would be appreciated? Thanks a lot 😁

"The Böcker Agilo pays for itself several times over, in only seven minutes" https://www.instagram.com/p/DQMWps8goRf/ https://metro.co.uk/2025/10/23/shocking-video-emerges-louvre-heist-thieves-efficient-escape-24510085/

surprisingly on something like a 727, the peaks are already clipped at moderate volumes. so this will let all the wonderful dynamics thru. and damaging you hearing, definitely.

Ordered a couple of tubes last week. The USPS has them circling the country. They started out in Chicago, came to Memphis distribution center, went to Mobile, then Nashville, back to Memphis, down to Jackson Mississippi. They are back in Memphis now. I live outside of Memphis. How does this keep happening?

Though running it close to max bias will probably damage your hearing.

max voltage swing is 4 x bias. so 580 x 4. the amp does loose about 20 volts of voltage swing, so 600 is a nice number. same voltage the koss uses. also the rating on the pnp transistor. could cut the voltage to 550v for a bit more margin.

Wow! But just for my understanding, this is the limit after which damage to earspeakers can occur, right? I mean, so much power is really needed to drive the most demanding e-stats? Or is it thought as an exercise of pushing it to the boundaries ?

Tasty Fish and Chips, Beet Salad @ Andy's Anchor Bar

The war and treaty at the bijou in knoxville

It looks like Western Digital is having serious problems with its older SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) hard drives. High failure rates of Western Digital Blue and Red drives of 2-6TB have been reported: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/hdds/wd-launches-investigation-into-problems-with-its-smr-hard-drives-the-same-drives-that-got-wd-sued-in-2021-now-reporting-failure-rates-due-to-fundamental-flaws

Finished it last night. Pretty good.

"15 Worst Audiophile Snake Oil Products That Break the Laws of Physics but Still Sell in 2025" https://www.headphonesty.com/2025/10/worst-snake-oil-products-break-laws-physics/

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Op. 47 by Howard Mitchell (1959) https://album.link/trxprptjq5zr7 Example: Noise floor is a little high (hiss), but it made up for by getting very loud and being a great performance.

I was lucky enough to meet Prunella Scales around 20 years ago. She gave an acting masterclass to our local pro theatre company, Creation Theatre, that for some reason we got invited to. She was very nice, and was really tiny.

Timothy West - also a great actor of stage and screen - predeceased his wife Prunella aged 90 in late 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_West