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Alec's been on a big 90s alt rock kick and has been sending me some stuff I'd honestly completely forgotten.

Said À bientôt To Ms. Chloe (Bananas for scale)

Flux by Alison Goldfrapp (2025) https://album.link/smrhsjppkm4kz Example: Much needed goodness...

Celebrate the 43rd anniversary of Compact Disc! Abba's eighth and last album (until their 2021 comeback), The Visitors, was the first commercially released CD (by Polygram in Germany) today in 1982: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/the-first-commercial-compact-disc-was-created-43-years-ago-today-nearly-one-billion-cds-were-shipped-per-year-in-early-2000s No, I don't own any Abba albums. I went down the optical rabbit hole again this weekend and concluded that anyone investing in SACD is going to spend a lot of money unless they buy used equipment. Your best bet is buying a used Sony or Marantz player. Yes, you can get DSD output from some Sony players' coax and Toslink to a compatible outboard DAC. Doing a little more digging - TEAC is your friend in old audio formats. There are lots of weird Chinese grey-market products and TEAC still makes several CD and cassette recorder decks - in particular, the TEAC W-1200 Dual Cassette Deck and the PD-301-X CD Player and FM Tuner. They're not audiophile products, but they serve a growing demand for vintage physical media. The cassette deck also has an ADC converter to output digital to your computers via USB. They also have a combined CD player/cassette deck in the TEAC AD-850-SE - a monster of vintage audio and karaoke. Good luck balancing it on your head. Some reviews say the PD-301-X CD player scratches discs, so buyer beware (I don't like slot-loading CD mechanisms in general). Some analysis and criticism on the W-1200 cassette deck output and mechanism (premature head wear?): https://www.reddit.com/r/cassetteculture/comments/1gcsvqj/teac_w1200_test_and_measurements/ If you want an optical drive for your computer or laptop, I recommend Pioneer's drives. I think these are the last high-end Blu-ray/DVD/CD burners that will be made, so get them while supplies last. Also, I learned that Cyrus Audio in the UK was taken over by its board manufacturer, SMS Electronics. They claim to manufacture their CD equipment in-house, which is really unusual for a small manufacturer - most hi-fi players use commonly-available CD and DVD lasers and transport mechanisms. They've discontinued their high-end XR lineup and introduced a new 40 series range. The 40 CD player is $4,000 (£2,995.00), which seems kind of expensive.

Wow, I know she did some pop earlier, but jeeeeeeezus...... 🤣

^I need to watch "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert". It's been a minute: Watch Terence Stamp’s iconic scene from Priscilla, Queen of the Desert | News | Independent TV

The Day of the Jackal (Peacock) - series based on the 70's movie of the same name. Really good!

That's never going to happen and interesting to see the headband on what was probably a prototype.

Alien Earth. Ok, wow! VERY strong start. Let’s see if they can keep this up! I’m very much enjoying this.

3.5 hours of GPU things.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Black & Chrome edition is available for purchase on Apple TV for $4.99 for anyone interested. It's a little dark, but I think it looks better than the Fury Road Black & Chrome version. May help those with CGI issues with the color.

Brazilian rhythms on a summers day. Nice.👌

@spritzer great post! We need that picture of you wearing them!

And this is actually Mr Jecklin back in the day And later in life

Time for a necro bump but this arrived a couple of weeks ago: Naturally I bought them used as I always wanted to try these and well... they are some of the worst headphones ever made. Seriously... this is so fucking bad it isn't even funny. Now they barely fit my head so that might be a factor but they are somehow very peaky and dull sounding at the same time. Open baffle and all that but the sound is just all over the place. I'm sure these would benefit greatly from an adjustable arc setup and some earpads to close them up. Maybe something like the PMB units, an L-shaped pads at the back of the ears. At the same time I got these, I refurbished what might be the most disgusting SR-Sigma I've ever seen (though the drivers were fine), and they are much better in ever way. Super soundstage, nice extension at both ends of the spectrum and they just sound lovely off a SRM-313. Now I naturally had to rip the Transdyn box apart and well... It doesn't start well, this is the power switch. Yeah... one trace of something conductive and all hell would break loose. Bia Bias supply and why they have it half populated for 230V and then add more parts for 115V is beyond me. Just throw a transformer on it (also for safety). Speaking of which... Gotta love it seeing this trash in there. Rifa caps known for going bad and blowing up right on the mains. This set is fitted with a motorized RK27 but I didn't get a remote control with it. The sensor underneath the front panel. This is actual Transdyn module and I can't say it made much of a difference to me. Another angle. The actual power amp driving the transformer: Not sure what Icepower model that is, haven't looked into it yet. This is certainly a way of doing this... It's hard to tell but no insulation on the mains wiring here either. I don't know what to think about this setup but it does work but looks very silly indeed. I'm tempted to design something long the lines of a 4070 arc setup which would carry the weight and be adjustable as this is not comfy for me. The space between the arcs just isn't wide enough for me. This cable is super thin, roughly 5mm in diameter and to think of the voltage in there... I hope it is made out of something very insulated. Genuine Fischer plugs though these are not the special HV ones used on the HE90 Just normal pins and 12mm across so a S104 plug if I remember correctly.

Also Terence Stamp at 87 https://www.salon.com/2025/08/17/terence-stamp-general-zod-and-film-icon-dead-at-87/

Ronnie Rondell, Pink Floyd's 'Wish You Were Here' Stuntman, Dead at 88 https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/ronnie-rondell-jr-stuntman-wish-you-were-here-dead-obit-1235410240/ https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c05e0z9lj3mo Ronnie Rondell Jr. Dead: Pink Floyd Album Cover Stuntman Was 88 https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/ronnie-rondell-jr-dead-stuntman-pink-floyd-1236346066/

The Ring Brothers going up market.... HS

Those of you familiar with Leprous know that Einar has a killer high voice, that can probably match the A-ha guy's.

Car detailer Larry Kosilla from NYC Auto undertakes a full restoration of a 1991 VW Golf GTI Mk2:

^^^ I bet the one with Spice instead of sand is outrageously expensive! 😄

Necro bump. headphones carry CD player, remote and jewel case above user’s head for on-the-go music

More cat, sitting, cat-sitting.

Increasingly speciality releases are probably where Blurays are headed. Especially ones with sand. https://viavision.com.au/shop/dune-1984-limited-edition-sandbox-4k-uhd-3-disc-blu-ray-imprint-collection-426/?srsltid=AfmBOoqKuPw9nvK8XEuyf92EvTV1yyFFEKfXZ_M_OAP-yIg4vJ2Y7Zaf# https://diabolikdvd.com/product/dune-limited-sandbox-edition-imprint-4k-uhd-blu-ray-all-region-preorder/