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Gwar co-founder Chuck Varga, aka "The Sexecutioner" https://metalinjection.net/news/gwar-co-founder-chuck-varga-a-k-a-the-sexecutioner-dead-at-68

A while back I bought a little widget to make music listening on iPhone less painful. This was before I got my AirPods Pro Max II AKA My Idiot Neighbor's Life Insurance Policy. The unit is a Fiio KA15. It's a tiny thing with a USB-C gozinta and 3.5mm single ended and 4.4mm balanced gozoutas. When I wasn't looking, 4.4mm balanced became the New Hotness. I picked up a 4.4mm Senn cable a while back as part of a larger purchase. Every review says the Fiio works with iPhones. Me: [connects Fiio to iPhone via USB-C to Lightning cable] "See anything?" iPhone: Nuh-uh. Me: What I if I let you upgrade to the new version of iOS you've been after me about for like a fucking month now? iPhone: Dunno, we'll see. Me: [upgrades] iPhone: SUP, bro! You've got liquid glass now. Wanna take a tour? Sure ya do! Check out thi... Me: [tries widget] iPhone: Still nuh-uh. iPhone: Hey, now'd be a GREAT time to finish setting up your iPhone! Me: ... iPhone: ApplePay is right here, you should totally set it up! Me: I will literally throw you into Jernegan Pond. Meanwhile, Google: Hello! Yeah, we're tracking your every move. Did you know you scratch your nose with your left hand more often on odd numbered days? Anyway, yeah, foobar2000 for Android is a thing and since you're signed into Google here, you can remotely install it on your only Android device (don't worry, we know all about that, too!) with one click. Android tablet: This Fiio widget works just fine. We'll make foobar use it by default. Foobar2000: Yeah, I see all these mp3s on the SD card. Did you know you put the same Alcest album in there twice? Me: [exasperated Malcolm Reynolds dot gif

A few highlights... The already mentioned in music thread James Kaplan's 3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and The Lost Empire of Cool (2024). A blast to read, though that may depend a little on existing knowledge of the reader. The three paths up to Kind of Blue and after, though many others are also covered. Really a portrait of a culture changing. Also heroin bad. I don't read enough fiction any longer for the following to carry any weight at all. Really, but Stephen Markley's Ohio (2018) is the best thing I've read by an author not named George Saunders or Cormac McCarthy in probably 15 years. Lots of people screamed at the time that this, not Hillbilly Elegy, was the text to read to understand Midwest disgruntled feelings and Trumps rise to power, and while that's probably unfair, it's a far better book (I hated Vance before it became popular!). Bias warning although it takes place in a fictional town of New Canaan, Ohio, though from references it can't be further than two counties from where I was born and raised. I don't think that's all of it though considering NYTimes, NPR, and other reviews. I "read" at a busy work time, so moved between the paperback and the audiobook and will say as the stories shift perspective between characters, the audiobook with its different voice actors, may help a little there. Heroin still bad. Gigi Otalvaro-Hormillosa's Erotic Resistance: The Struggle for the Soul of San Francisco (2024). I haven't finished this yet and I swear Melissa or Esmé may have confiscated my copy, but a fun read with lots of references to an earlier San Francisco and where the city differentiates from other US cities (more geo-bias). I'm cheering it on, but we'll see by the end. Can read about a related exhibit here. Some fun historical posters included in book. Heroine very good here.

^ There are some fun live shows on Youtube. Here Rosinha de Valença's Um Violão em Primeiro Plano. Full

Was: Wes Montgomery, Tequila (because what else would I start with?) Is: Wes Montgomery, Movin' Will be: Wes Montgomery, Bumpin' (I couldn't find those compendiums on Tidal, so just going to listen to a whole bunch of Wes Montgomery instead.)

Hi everyone, I’m currently restoring and tuning my Stax SRM-3 electrostatic amplifier and could use some advice regarding DC offset adjustment. So far, I’ve built a capacitance multiplier for the high-voltage power supply rails, and the result has been fantastic — the background is now dead quiet! With the noise floor taken care of, my main focus now is getting the DC offsets properly dialed in. Currently, I am measuring the following DC offsets: - Differential Offset (Stator to Stator): ~6.3V on the Left channel, ~11.2V on the Right channel. - Common-Mode Offset (Stator to Ground): Quite high on both channels relative to ground. I have redrawn the complete amplifier circuit in LTspice (attached below). Please note that I haven't populated the specific resistor values on this schematic draft yet, but the component topology and transistor layout strictly mirror the circuit. I would really appreciate some guidance on where best to insert adjustment potentiometers/trimpots into this topology to allow precise nulling of: 1. Differential offset (balancing L+/L- and R+/R-). 2. Common-mode offset (nulling relative to signal ground). (As a side note: my ultimate plan for this unit is to eliminate the volume potentiometer entirely and feed the amplifier directly via a balanced input. I already have a clear plan for that front-end modification, so right now I’m strictly focusing on getting the core offset adjustment sorted out on this topology). Thanks in advance for any insights or schematic markups!

Anyway, this show really turned out to be special. Here’s a little making of video if you’re interested.

R.I.P. Pete Byrne Naked Eyes by Naked Eyes (1983) https://open.qobuz.com/album/m4rz8tz0qib5b Example: I didn't follow them past their 83 first album, but it was enough. (RIP)

The legendary ‘Tiberi Tapes’ reveal new sides of John Coltrane, even to his biggest fans https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/coltranes-shadow-tiberi-tapes

These are made identical to the real ones. The leather is lamb skin though. PM me your address and I’ll send them to you.

Thanks for the suggestions Peter. I had earlier searched for a reasonably priced used Sun Bear set, but not recently, so just checked again, and unfortunately the same (outside Encores). Will keep an eye out. Streaming until found. For Miles holes, great nudge. There’s ever so slight overlap with Ultimate Miles, but not enough to stop me. Also related, there were two recent box sets I forgot to include in the photo and one of those was his The Original Mono Recordings Columbia set. No overlap with the Prestige collection, just a smaller Miles hole. All open for suggestions.

that's a staccato discrete opamp, swapped out the stock opa2132 for it.

We saw this guy last night in Grass Valley. I've been listen to him since high school, so it was nice to finally see him live.

Nice! Just a suggestion: Sun Bear is my favourite Keith Jarrett bar none. Going to listen to those two Wes Montgomery compendiums (I need to discover him more). And this is possibly peak middle period Miles Davis: https://www.discogs.com/master/976004-The-Miles-Davis-Quintet-The-Legendary-Prestige-Quintet-Sessions It's like a superset of the G-droppin' albums: Cookin' Relaxin' Workin' and Steamin' And ... and ... and ... Sorry, I'm just excited for you, vicariously.

Wow, those look great. I'd love a pair as I only have the one real set to play with.

Very nice! I happened to have some ear pads made locally, and they come out to be pretty close to HE90’s. I can send you a pair if you like. 😁

Thread resurrection and last 60 days of damage. Work bonus and too much time on eBay represented. Will now slow down.

Sorry. Not sorry.

Brothers in Black. A twink Johnny Cash tribute band. What's not to like! Seriously though, the middle kid has a so so voice, but I love watching him play the stand up bass, especially that slapping technique. The youngest with the long hair is a pretty good picker, but the oldest and quietest is the most talented among the three IMO.

Thanks to Doug's post, I've been listening to all of Muireann Bradle that I can find. Never had heard of her, but now am a little obsessed.

There are so many variables. When I say favorite guitar players, I'm asking for your personal favorites, not who's better than whoever. I'm also not asking as some sort of silly debate. I'm asking to discover new music myself.

I'd give them high praise if they used a more relevant leaf for the background of their PCB photos. They also missed an opportunity to use 420(unit) parts in every possible location. A 420pf cap could even be pronounced as "puffs". This makes me sad. I strongly dislike how they/you used the transformer hold-down bolt for your IEC ground. It can create a shorted turn in the wrong conditions. Give it its own screw, or use one of the screws to hold the IEC socket in. What is with the heatsinks in your last photo? Discrete opamp?

Time for an update on the MA-90... or what ever I'm going to call this thing. This is prototype nr.2 and it seemed only fitting to put on the "Orpheus" IQ stand: So what's new, well the headband is now fully DIY with just the arc being borrowed off a Senn HD58x but they are all the same and very close to the HE90 arc in design. Then a custom adapter block in the HE90 style adapts it to the forks... which didn't come out quite right. A bit too long and too thick to bend correctly so I'll have to redesign them but no big issue there. The actual housing is mostly complete at this point but the biggest hurdle were the metal backs, or so I thought: In the end, pretty simple and I can mass produce them by hand in quick order. I've made about 20 of them at this point and they fit snugly in there, no glue needed at all. Inside there is a new baffle, new spacers and new stators but they will need further work. Mostly I have to move the contacts to better fit inside the housing and those are ready to be made. This set is fitted with the cheap Chinese Solitaire earpads and sound pretty good with them. They are 15$ shipped compared to the HE90 pads which are impossible to get at this point.

This is the second revision of Parker's Associate headphone amp, he called it The Executive. Tom from eta headphones helped him organize the PCB order and BOM list for diyers. For more info check out Parker's topic on the eta headphones discord in the System Dump Engineering topic I think his idea was a modern CMOY but taken to the limits of refinement with a single opamp and a nice power supply for a super transparent linear amp, also he made the executive better able to support discrete opamps. My friend Micheal Amster built mine for me since I'm all thumbs and my last couple of diy kits did not go well. I made a few appearance suggestions to Micheal when he built my amp definitely influenced by all the cool diy amp builds I followed over the years on this forum from cool dudes like purk and john mcclean I just received it today so I'm in the honeymoon period but I'd say Parker achieved his goal, it's super detailed and transparent, punchy bass, extended sounding highs and lows. a very "hifi" sound. Finally I feel like my beryllium tweeters are achieving their full potential listening to things like louis armstrong - st james infirmary The only appearance detail I might change, I had him put the power button right next to the volume knob because I wanted maximum space for the laser etched LOGO on the left.. I probably should have put the power button on the far left with the logo in between it and the volume knob. Also the logo is a bit faded out on the silver case, it would look better on a black case. the only deviations from the stock parts in the BOM I asked for were the EIZZ stepped resistor ladder attenuator and changing feedback resistors from vishay dale 10Kohm to vishay bulk foil 1Kohm to change gain from 10db to 1db(better for near field desk use when used as a preamp) and bulk foil is supposedly nicer than vishay dale. Then I replaced the stock opa2132 with a staccato discrete opamp I'm really enjoying it with a Laiv Verse r2r dac as the source and Dunu Mortise full size dynamic driver headphones. This isn't a high power amp so might not be great with difficult to drive planars. I've heard it's low noise enough for iems so might test that soon. It's working great as a preamp to my speaker amp/desk speakers too more info https://etaheadphones.com/products/executive hope it doesn't sound like an advertisement, I JUST got it today lol so I'm fully in the honeymoon phase. I also recently got a eufonika h5 hybrid tube headphone amp with 4W output I also really love for a different sound

The new comment editing widget and I do not get a long, which makes sense as I didn't get along with the old one either. What I'm talking about with the EF 50mm F/1.4 and IR 5D: