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Of course, it should be in this thread when ever they came out. It is essentially just the 252S with some weird stuff added to it.

Let's talk about Frankie, baby! In the early 1960s, Frank Sinatra commissioned a home hi fi that was an impressive mix of studio gear and high end consumer kit. The heart of it was a modified McIntosh C-22 preamp. It had one input that was three channel, made specifically for an Ampex open reel tape deck (visible behind Frank.) Studio recordings in those days were primarily three channel, with the center being for the lead vocals. Final mixes were almost always mono, of course. Sinatra liked to take home the day's recordings from the studio and see what he thought of them that evening. An artist taking home the actual multitrack masters might sound insane, but it was Old Blue Eyes in the 60s. Though visibly impressive, the three units below the Ampex are just VU meters. The tuner below the C22 is a Fisher. At the bottom below it are a trio of tape head preamps made specifically for the Ampex. Of course the tape transport, VU meters and preamps are all studio gear, not generally used by (or available to) the public. There were three power amps for the speakers (presumably Mac tube monoblocks, but there is basically no info out there.) They were in another room entirely. There was also a huge, broadcast grade turntable that its own closet. It had zero sex appeal, but what physically impressive. Even a stock C22 has complex mono/stereo routing. (I oughta know, I've owned two of them since 1999 ...for reasons I cannot entirely explain.) Based on my research there is conjecture that the television output was wired into the C22. Frank was an early pioneer in the world of home theater. In the bedroom, Frank had a high end Grundig all-in-one system. I can neither confirm nor deny if Nancy Reagan ever got to hear a tune or two on that Grundig. Thank you for coming to my TED talk, now help yourself to a pack of smokes on the way out.

Has anyone done a teardown of the new 270 energizer? I'm quite interested in the little thing.

We are off and running on the fund raising and 1/3 of the way there already, thanks d-_-b !

I Was thankful we were lucky with our timing. Others may not have been so lucky https://www.sfgate.com/centralcoast/article/big-sur-wildfire-22381679.php https://www.instagram.com/p/Db3V1TIFGzb/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== EDIT: California’s Big Sur sees evacuation orders as Timber fire grows https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/11/big-sur-timber-fire-evacuations?CMP=share_btn_url

I first saw this video in 1992. I was in WalnutCreek, CA killing a few minutes before going to work. My best friend and roomate, and then boss, Paul came down the stairs, saw tears streaming down my face and thought something terrible had happened. When I explained it was this video, he basically mocked me for being such a sensitive baby. The funniest part of that interaction was that he was a tiny, effeminate, obviously gay man, whom I had physically come to his aide several times when homophobic "tough guys" had threatened him. But that all being true, his 115 lb., nelly frame was absolutely right about my extreme sensitivity. I cry at sad TV commercials. I have no problem jumping into a group of assholes bullying some smaller guy, but show me a puppy getting a vaccination shot and I'm wiping the tears away. Anyway, more than 30 years later and this video still has me attempting to divert rivers of salty tears. There are reasons of course. I've been in that hospital room many times, holding the hand of a friend that wasn't going to make it. And I've also been the Son of a macho, Texan that wanted all of his Sons to be exactly like him. Then later in life he was cheerfully cooking breakfast for boyfriends that had stayed over. Pretty surreal when you grow up thinking that if he ever found out that I was gay, he'd walk away from me without ever looking back. Watching children grow up must be a magical thing. But watching your Father grow up into a caring, accepting human being is also pretty great. Oh yeah, this was about a music video...

It's like seeing a Bentley parked in a trailer's car port.

https://halou.bandcamp.com/album/wholeness-separation-w-sxx-2026-remastered-edition Halou, Wholeness and Separation (W&SXX 2026 remastered edition) Yes, I'm still smitten by their music, even if it is a remaster.

^ On that note, The Ultimate Bill Evans As Selected By Herbie Hancock, which seems in Japan to be titled To Bill Evans With Love – Selected By Herbie Hancock on SCM-CD.

Logged some hot miles this afternoon riding to York, ME. Feels like temp was 93F and it felt every bit of that. Thank god for a little tail wind.

The New Topographics https://subjectivelyobjective.substack.com/p/the-legacy-of-new-topographics-50

Done

Ride on Maine man!

I think it must be something with iPadOS or Firefox. I’ll try later on another browser or computer, if it doesn’t work I’ll tell you.

If it annoys you too much, let me know what you want to donate and I'll do it in your name. Thanks for kicking off the party, Mikey and Todd! I'm going to ride up to the Maine coast this afternoon for a friend's 50th and it's a scorcher! It's 9AM and it's already 80 in the shade. Good thing the ride will end at the beach.

Thank you all!

Also a little clarity on my side. I go back longer with Coltrane, but listening to a ton of nearly every period of Evans lately. Most importantly I’m currently reading the below (which so far has been great) so we’ll see where I end up.

That’s so great. Congrats. Must have been wonderful. About five years ago we had a small team reorg and everyone did a small presentation introducing themselves. Skills, likes, hobbies, etc. I mostly just played DakhaBrakha really loud. ;)

You know, it's fun that we live in a world where we can play these mental tiering games without consequences, but at the same time, I'm glad we live in a world where they all exist.

Done! And....