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I'm not an EV guy, but the lines on these are very nice. My buddy has one a few years old in the metallic green and it's a stunner. I do understand that, I want to say 2020 or 2021...the earlier ones are the ones you see used mostly and that's for a reason. The slightly newer ones improved a good bit from what I heard. Enjoy...it's a rental HS

Necro Part Deux. This will be an exceptionally long walk. As I have said a number of times on this site (and even made a thread about) I shave using an old time safety razor. It's a slow and methodical process. While I do it, I like to have a YouTube video or podcast playing. For years I lugged my laptop into whatever bathroom where I was shaving. I even set up a shelf audio system for the purpose in my old house. Super exciting bathroom pic. Not the power and USB cables at the ready. In my new digs, I have a much less space overall. Going from a 5 bedroom farmhouse to a compact (and energy efficient) ~1200 sq ft house has been an experience. I have an older iPad Pro that I got a while ago. I run the Orion browser on it, and use an adblock extension. I picked up the "iHome iDL 100" iPad dock at a second hand shop last year. It has two Lightning connectors and a USB input. Unfortunately, the design is too clever by half. The iPhone (small) and (iPad) big mounts only work if the iOS device is not inside a case. I keep my mobile devices in protective cases for obvious reasons. The USB input on the iDL 100 works just fine, so for quite some time I kept my iPad Pro mounted on it, in landscape mode, and fired up a YT video while I shaved. It was slow to get started, but it did work. As of a few months ago, Google has won the arms race against ads on iOS and I cannot get the above combination to work. There is only so much I can do against a 4 trillion dollar company. Enter the Alldocube iPlay60 Mini Turbo Android tablet. It's not rooted, but I can side load and patch apps on it. As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm using Morphe to patch the official YouTube and Reddit apps to remove all ads. Now both apps are actually useful and not absolute hell. The tablet works like a charm, but the iDL 100 will not connect to it at all. The two Lightning connectors are a non-starter obviously, and also the USB port only works with iOS devices. Also, I had some issues with that port failing to charge the iPad so I'd be hesitant to use it even if it did connect. The iHome does have an 1/8" stereo input jack, but the Alldocube does not have a headphone output. Precious few mobile devices do these days. A while ago, I bought a USB-C DAC maybe by JSAUX that also supplies power. As far as Chinesium cables and accessories go, JSAUX is a better one. I have used a number of their DisplayPort and high bandwidth USB-C cables (as well as irritating but necessary ones like USB-C to mini, not micro, USB-B). They have all worked exceptionally. The JSAUX DAC has a clear plastic top so one can see the chips inside. This is a recent trend that I find to be dumb as fuck. Ignoring the peculiar case choices, I tested it out in my main speaker rig using a 1/8" to dual RCA cable and it sounded ...fine with streaming audio. TBH the only time I ever focus on DAC quality these days is if it's actively horrendous or I'm doing careful listening at night. With that success, I found a 1/8" to 1/8" TRS cable and connected the JSAUX to the iHome ...and was immediately rewarded with 60Hz hum. No amount of fussing with it would fix the problem. The hum was bad enough that it was distracting while trying to listen to a YT video. Cursing, I went on Amazon and found a Y cable shaped DAC on sale for $4. It has a USB-C male on one end, and USB-C female and 1/8" audio female on the other. I swapped the $4 unit in for the JSAUX and no hum at all. Now I can listen to reviews of old manual focus lenses, tales of crypto scams, and how Demented Donnie Diapers is burning down the entire fucking planet while I shave. This has been your hood-fi moment.

Happy Birthday!

Ooooh, that was Elvis Costello, not Randy Newman. 🙃

One more…

cooked my first brisket last night. 7 lb. GMG Pellet smoker 185 for 4 hrs, 225 for 4 hrs, then when it hit 205 internally went to "warm" mode. Smoke ring is kinda visible, flavor is REALLY good and super juicy and tender.

Happy birthday!

The Continental (Peacock) - all John Wick fans must see (a prequel): Not to be confused with:

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Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

HiFIMan sale going on, and extra 10% off open box/refurb with code: CLR10POFF If anyone can chime in on if any of these are any good or not, I'm sure that'd be helpful to the 83% of us who don't follow this anymore and haven't in years. Edit: add-on cable deals if you spend more than 79$: https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/accessories-779.html HE-R10 Dynamic (open box) - 219$ wired, 329$ wireless (regular 1299$) https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/he-r10d-openbox.html Refurb 159$ wired, 259$ wireless https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/he-r10-dynamic-version-refurbished.html New 179$ wired, 279$ wireless https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/he-r10d.html HE-R10 Planar Stealth Magnet Version (open box) - 1499$ (regular 5499$) https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/he-r10-planar-stealth-open-box.html HE1000 Stealth Magnet Version (open box) - $939$ (regular 2999$) https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/he1000-stealth-magnet-version-open-box.html Refurb - 939$ (regular 2999$) https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/he1000-stealth-refurbished.html HE1000se (open box) - 1549$ (regular 3500$) https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/he1000se-openbox.html Refurbished - 1449$ (regular 3500) https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/he1000se-refurbished.html New - 1699$ (regular 3500$) https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/he1000se.html HE-R9 (open box) - 69$ (regular 599$) https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/he-r9-openbox-751.html Refurb 59$ wired, 159$ wireless https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/he-r9-refurbished.html New 79$, 179$ wireless https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/he-r9.html HE6se V2 (open box) - 399$ (regular 1899$) https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/he6se-v2.html Refurbished (EU Only) 369$ (regular 1799$) https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/he6se-v2-refurbished.html HE6se (refurbished) - 399$ (regular 1800$) https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/he6se-v1-refurbished.html ANANDA Stealth Magnet Version (refurbished) - 229$ (regular 999$) https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/ananda-stealth-refurbished.html New 249$ (regular 999$) https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/ananda-stealth-magnet-version.html Arya Stealth Magnet Version (new) - 599$ (regular 1599$) https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/arya.html Earphone sales starting at 15$ https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/earphones.html

Happy birthday, Rob!!!

I have a Taycan as a loaner while the Boxster is in the shop for a warranty repair. I kind of hated Macan EV, but I love this! These drive so so so well. Even in the base "4" trim it is quick, cruises beautifully, and is a wonderful place to watch the miles tick by. I honestly think most people I know who will never go to the track would be happier in one of these than something like a 911. If you want to go bombing on public roads, these things rock. If all you do is street drive, you can ignore the sports cars. Porsche is doing a lot of trickery with torque vectoring to help these things go around corners. The traction and stability control you can get in an EV is on a totally different level. This is not a pure driving experience and if you come from one of the sports cars you will feel it any time you get close to the limit. Still, no one will ever track these so it really doesn't matter. Sub limit handles great. I am impressed. The price on these things new is eye watering, but used or CPO I may have to keep my eye open in the future. This is an amazing daily driver. The higher trim ones must just be ballistically fast. It has all the power and speed of the performance Teslas only its from a company who knows how to make a properly fast car. If only they didn't cost so much.

Happy birthday young man!

For the drone of the leaf blower I would think most modern ANC headphones would be able to kill most of the noise but nothing is going to neutralize all of it. Best bet is likely to be to use ANC plus some ambient music to really drive it into the background. Best guess, but one that I haven't tried personally, would be the latest airpods + comply tips to hopefully gain a little passive NR.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Split Enz, True Colours (everything except "I Got You")

Happy birthday! (party favour noise)

Happy Birthday, Rob

Finally getting to this one, under a year - not bad. (since it is your birthday). --Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man, Appalachian Spring & Symphony No. 3 by Minnesota Orchestra (2012) https://open.qobuz.com/album/ip2njewvqsrsa I do wish for a high bitrate, but the performance and recording are first rate.

Cheers Rob -- Happy Birthday's -