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Belated happy birthday!

Oh we are so fucked. If Brent had that good a time yesterday there is like 100% chance of Armageddon today. I better walk the dog before the comet hits.

I can build a Megatron XXL with 300B tubes for a fraction of that price.

That's a brilliant idea!! They were always a bit too loose on my melon of a head.

This was introduced at High End 2025 in Munich and here is a blurb about it There are no internal pictures at all but it sure looks like they stole some of our Megatron here. Yeah, if that is the case, that is not okey. At first I didn't know what driver tubes were used and since those look a bit like 6N6pi's... I thought "well that is stupid but it might kinda work if used with some transformers". No... it is far worse. Single tetrodes, likely triode strapped, so are they trying to out compete the Woo WES for the worst all tube electrostatic amp design...or maybe the Triode H1? Time will tell but there simply aren't enough tubes here if the EL34's are used as current sources. Now we get to the proper stupid shit... why have that bias adjustment? It's the same garbage as ifi have been doing and just as retarded. It simply shows a complete lack of understanding at the principles at play here and is a good way to burn up some headphone drivers. Are they switching in different ballast resistors and limiting the output voltage swing to match the bias? No, probably not so let's pump up that X9000 to 720V and burn it up. Yup... what a brilliant idea.

Quite a large German outfit, that also has a major vinyl record and music division. https://in-akustik.com/about-us/our-team/

Those insane phallic speaker cables are these https://in-akustik.com/ls-8005-air-pure-silver-007714683par To you sir, $89k for a 3m pair.

Thanks, everyone! Really appreciate the sentiment, Al. Been a really rough time as of late, but birthday was a good day. Went to Bateau, a place @cetoole and I have been meaning to go to for over 7 years. Finally went, and while not the best steak I've ever had, it was really enjoyable. Started the evening with some local wines from the bike shop across the street, Metier. 5pm reservation, so we could get first choice. These were the options on my birthday. Pupperz Cowz Appetizer Onions on the side, obvsly Mmmmm, brioche Salted butter with burnt kale wrap, or some nonsense. The salt on top of this butter wasn't the best thing of the evening, but like... top 3. Beef-fat washed walnut old-fashioned Cheeseburger croquette... slider Colin version We got the 21-day dry aged 18oz bone-in chuckeye and the 126 day dry aged 5oz sirloin tip cap, both med rare. Lemon-herb butter on the chuckeye and bone marrow butter on the sirloin tip cap. Nori butter on the side for Colin. I tried it; not my scene. You'd probably all love it. Mashed potatoes. Milk, butter, potatoes, and gruyere. Some wine Colin knows the name of A little token from the place Finished it off with a little complimentary cookies and creme foam Rest of pix: https://imgur.com/a/birthday-dinner-2025-bs1yDDT

This With a new friend, "Mochi" She even got on well with Joanne But She had to leave with her parents to go to Truckee for the weekend. It was nice to meet you Mochi!

Last year I sold a domain I had for 20 years or so. It quickly became into a crypto site, but has now turned into an AI site.

Where was I? A different crop of this photo was the background for the website for my lighting company in the 00s. I turned off auto-renewal for that domain last week. Soon it will redirect a gambling site, I'm sure. 1 second with the camera placed on the sound booth. A breakbeat DJ and tattoo artist I knew in the 00s. I put a 300W moonflower light with a yellow gel behind him. A actual turntablist and not merely a DJ. Same 300W moonflower. Hannah under the lights. 1/30th, F/2.8, ISO400. I should add at this juncture that I cleaned up most of these shots with Topaz Denoise AI, which is a very 2020s anti-noise app. 00s noise reduction apps and plugins left a lot to be desired. I don't know who this long haired woman was, but she was quite photogenic. In this second shot, I originally cropped out everything and it looked terrible. Almost 20 years later, the rest of the frame serves as negative space. A very slow Sunday evening. Originally I cropped out everything except for the lissajous pattern. Now the photo is an available light study. As I mentioned previously, 2006 was an insane year. There are quite a few photo sets I haven't even looked at yet. A DJ I knew turned 30 in May of '06. He threw a party at the expensive yet shitty club where I worked sometimes. I couldn't use fog in there.. ...because it set off the fire alarm. Pic from 2005 very related. Early in the night. 0.4" with the camera placed on the bar. I elected not to use noise reduction on this one. I didn't like this shot in '06, but revisiting it, I cropped it square and now enjoy it's near abstraction. Wise DJs bring at least one opening act. The birthday boy picked the fella above, which was a wise choice. 1/6 handheld, which was quite reasonable with a tiny focal length P&S. As above with different lights on. I really liked this one in '06. I still do. The party got kind of wild. Birthday DJ reacting to a request to play ...not house music. This was a meter malfunction. Notice my photo tag. This is an image I did not re-edit. A case where motion blur actually improves the image. 1/15th handheld. 0.4" handheld. I have no idea. It looks neat. 1 second handheld. I braced my back against the wall of the club and held my breath. The answer is still "no" even if you play with your hair. Sneak peak for next time. This is a project that's going to take the last half of forever.

Relived first meal outside the house after the lockdown. Also annual heart stress test.

I’ve got my ES2a for a while now. The biggest improvement over the ES1a, in my opinion, is the headband. With the proper clamping force, they don’t fall off my head like the ES1a. So, I ordered the new headband to replace the one on my ES1a. Now my ES1a feels like different headphones. It’s well worth the upgrade. 😄

Had the day off yesterday (company has "wellbeing days" the last couple of years - thanks Covid!), so went to Stanford's Cantor and Anderson museums. Chuckled at this Tony Oursler animated sculpture-projection which seemingly judged you as you judged other works.

Happy birthday Rob!

Happy birthday! I recommend listening to The Clash. That's not necessarily birthday-specific -- it's just always a good idea.

Happy birthday! I hope you don't fall off a bike today.

Happy birthday, young'n.

Happy belated Birthday.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Brent! I entered a whisky lottery for you this week. Oh wait, that was for me. My bad.