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No sir/madam, have not. In-ears just aren't for me, though i have of course read impressions/seen relevant DIY threads here for amplification. * you could call me old school on that one, but.. dispersion and propagation have their very distinct set of rules. You do not bend time within the human experience field, you do not bend space; and they do require both! ** but i'm an old fart, so yes, there is the possibility i'm missing out! As to EQing, again, call me a dinosaur, but how do we EQ? By compressing first. Physics. Would i want to do that to my sound signal (degrading) so i can then play with said degraded signal some more? Personally no, though i do understand its allure. I try to stick to hardware EQing, costs more, but i dare say it's worth the time and effort. Even sticking to the digital domain as one primarily does, when talking about electrostats. We agree on tuning, i hear you.. I fear it's a correlation of factors beyond our control.. 1) see recent recording "trends" (vastly cheaper, switching power supply based crappola recordings, "heard" on vastly cheaper pseudo-'monitor' headphones). 2) see recent listening trends; digi-can samples cooked on a Mac, expected to be heard from an iPhone. 15K total recording costs? Yes, why spend more. 3) see recent types of music; minimal number of instruments (if any real ones at all), specific frequency fields -mids- they operate at. Does a "high end" audio company follow suit? Can it? Not sure if that's a solveable one! And my humble apologies for perhaps typing too much, by all means send an expletive or two my way, shall rectify accordingly in the future, lol

Barely 30' before the race, it's raining and they're warming up on "intermediate" rain tires; the green band ones. I'm not sure Max is the best on wet track.

Lewis gonna send it in the rain, if his team let's him. Maybe Kimi will take out Max again to make sure he gets out of his contract.

Today's race is going to be fun, especially if it rains, which very likely will do.

I used to hate him with begrudging respect for his skill, which is immense. Now I can see how good of a step-dad he is (respect), prolly gonna be a good dad (see above,) and most importantly, he has a miniature dachshund named Nino. His dog is definitely superior to him in every way other than driving, but now I can just dislike him whilst rooting against him and Red Bull, and everyone who had a hand in fucking over DR3.

Like him or not, Max is a legend. https://youtu.be/d5wyPynDBxc?si=vq7t9GhkhBA9uPko

Brit Picnic @ https://nativeplants.org/

I put that in my queue yesterday. Looking forward to listening.

Had some free time so on went the 007Mk1 pads: These are the 71xxx type but fitted with new foam so not stock, not that a 20+ year old stock set would be fine now. First impressions are okey, the sound has a tad more space around it and the top end might be a bit better but a particular frequency range has that "sheen" to it that is not natural. I'll spend some more time with this setup Comparison of the stock pads on the right and 007Mk1's on the left (with new foam so a bit puffier than normal). Now the Kennerton pads vs. the stock ones. This is with 007 mesh installed but much smaller opening area. Thicker leather too. Finally I wanted to try and show just how shit the stock pads are: The red line on the right hand pad, that's the edge of the foam and where the leather should start. It's off by some 5mm or so in the middle and the same on the other side. I'm not sure if the foam is simply rotated out of alignment or if it is cut incorrectly but the pads are sealed so no way to simply peel them open like the older pads. Both pads are also crooked and just cheap crap. Stax you can do so much better...

I felt a bit hopeful after the X1 release as it was a large step up from the L300 but the first one failing like that did sour it for me bit. Still they are nice enough for the price even if the ES-1x does the same idea much better. Granted at twice the price but more comfortable and far better build quality. As an update on the 007S, I've used them a lot over the last couple of days and they are not "gelling" for me at all. On some material they are just fine but not so much on other songs. I always have this feeling it is a superficial look into the music, it lacks the depth of the older units and the SR-Omega. Voices have this 2D feeling to them and not 3D as they should be. It is subtle thing but apparent after a few hours. Detail is also simply not there that is readily apparent on a Mk1 or 007A. Transients have an edge to them that is just annoying with some material, loud crescendos bite way too hard for no reason. I'm still on the Kennerton pads as the stock pads still smell awful after letting them sit with air blowing over them. I might try some refurbished 007Mk1 pads or have something custom made....

Ukraine is now on their own if Trump cuts missiles delivery. Game over.

Earlier today: Mozart by Andrè Schuen (2025) https://album.link/zc3gjd890sm4w Example: Released today - I usually don't go in for much choral/opera recordings other than full operas. But I thought I would give this a try and was very happy I did. Mostly selections of Figaro and Don Giovanni, along with a few others. The performance is good, and the recording is impeccable. When the hour was over, I wanted more, good testament to the album.

RIP to Julian McMahon (left). I enjoyed him in Nip/Tuck, and remembered he had a part in Red. Secret battle with cancer, it seems. https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/04/entertainment/julian-mcmahon-death

Have you ever heard the 003 / 001 mk2? I kinda agree with this, but you can make some of the new Stax stuff sing with some EQ and a few mods. I had a L700 mk1 that was pretty magical after some fettling, and same goes for the new X1. But the old stuff did do it out of the box, and modern day Stax are certainly way past their prime and tuning seems to be a lost art for them. Or making headphones that properly fit human heads.

Deck, Red, White and Blue, Blueberry Pancakes, Nice Cup of Tea. Happy 4th, Y'all Y'all.

🫐 🥞

I don’t think Leno hates Ferrari cars. He hates how Ferrari as a company treats their customers.

Yummy chow! HS

Ukraine accuses Putin of humiliating Trump with devastating attack on Kyiv. Russia launches record number of drones and ballistic missiles in seven-hour assault shortly after its leader spoke to US president.

Re: The 'old guard', that's the theory.. in practice, well, it's never quite been implemented (lest we factor in certain companies that literally took what came before them but wasn't patented and re-made it with cheaper mats [and a worse audible outcome!]). I can only give younger generations kudos and salutations in 3 sectors and 3 sectors alone: - Speaker/headphone drivers, cartridges and tonearms. And all 3 came with direct consequences. Not the thread to expand on that though. As to ES labs specifically? - I'm still waiting for the "new" electrostatic that has the magic the old STAXes did; think Hayashi's time. Thinner diaphragms and unicorn dust fused diaphragms aside, the magic was lost after 1995. Slight, occasional, strictly technical improvements aside, they were also noticeably dryer, up to a lot, downright clinical in recent all out efforts; and noticeably forward/direct, all of them. Compare the original Lambda nrm/pro to anything releasing after '95. Folks don't seem to get it the way i do maybe, but part of what made STAX what it was? Was that magical character. Never since, other makers like ES labs included. If you've heard a decent pair of OG Lambdas or Sigmas (non-arced, non-imbalanced, driven well but not obscenely well), you know what i'm talking about. It was never about the outmost fidelity; never. It was about the character. Which's been lacking ever since. ES didn't tick that mark either. Was lucky to "get" one from the usual channels, would have regretted paying for it personally. - And at 2K a pop? With Chinese manufacturing costs? You're kidding me? Do forgive me for not crowning the man as a "savior", of anyone's. Yes? *2K for the cans+shipping mind. Customs fees on top, lest we neglect. Say 2.5K a pop? So no, i don't do see where ES Labs "comes in" to save the day. Unless of course we yet again go back to "i -personally- can". An ever-decreasing niche of individuals. And again, it lacks the magic the old STAXes did. Not even close, sorry.