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In an earlier era, I was a regularl reader of The Online Photographer. I haven't kept up with it in years, for a host of reasons ranging from lack of interest to not really gleaning much worthwhile info to entirely too many Amazon affiliate links. One of the entries on TOP from 15+ years ago was "No one cares how hard you worked." I took that one to heart. I've spent ages editing a photo only to earn a collective shrug. Conversely, I've had SOOC jpegs from years ago that get attention to this day. With that in mind... OnnnnOn two occasions recently I've had the hood on my 17-40mm misaligned and not realized it. It's not super noticeable in the viewfinder and I don't chimp (stare at the LCD like a monkey) much. The misaligned hood only shows up in super wide angle shots, say 17-20mm. On Saturday, I had that problem for the entire shoot and didn't noticed until I was done. I have had quite a job with the Healing Brush and Spot Healing Brush tools in Photoshop, painting out the upper left corner of dozens of photos. When that doesn't work, I have to crop. Sometimes, both are necessary. Also, as was the case last year, the lighting conditions were harsh and difficult. I'd already edited 30 or so photos in Photoshop before I decided I was unhappy with the results and ran them through Luminar 4. Let's talk about Luminar for a moment. I pirated it 5 or so years ago. I liked it enough that I bought it. It does a lot with pseudo HDR math, similarly to what smartphone cameras do. The advantage Luminar offers is that it has sufficiently deep granularity in its controls that it's possible to reel in the more cartoonish aspects of HDR. With careful tweaking, Luminar allows for improvement of the dynamic range of images without looking like Photomatix vomit ca. 2006 or Facebook family vacation photos. L4 is no longer updated and in its final state is a quirky and buggy app. I have to make a copy of every photo I feed it because if I use the original, L4 will delete it. I learned this hard way and had to do serious work to replace all the originals Luminar deleted when I discovered this "feature." The app dev Skylum is now pushing the successor, Luminar Neo. They want it to be rentware like an Adobe product, but they don't have ADBE's clout. There is a lifetime license. I bought it on sale months ago for like $120. I am ...underwhelmed. Some of the UI is better than L4, but Neo is enough different that my workflow is much slower in it. Also, said UI is basically a new coat of paint on the same old engine. I find this displeasing. So far I have edited 102 photos (ya rly) including in a number of cases several edits of the same image. If you're really impatient, they're on my Flickr page. It has been been uncharacteristically hot and humid here on the Vineyard, and I swear I can feel my brain swelling. I went over my work earlier and found I had uploaded dupes of at least four different photos. Then there's the issue of figuring out which photos to post here and arranging them. It's exactly like a DJ set in that regard. Anyway, here's a nice bright rear end to tide y'all over while I finish editing The truck. I'm talking about the TRUCK. Stop looking at me like that.

I wasn't sure where to put this either but this should be rare enough, the Sony ECR-800 energizer or the ECA-80 to be precise. Now there is a bit of a backstory to this one, I've never found a ECR-800 but I found this one for a song in China so I had to snap it up. It was in a bad way when it arrived, damage all over and the back sockets all a bit crooked but the worst was inside. See, Sony in their infinite wisdom, used a mercury switch for the input switching and that had broken in shipping. There was mercury all over the inside so I had to clean everything and dispose of it properly. It's a shame as its a very early unit with the custom Sony sockets, they later moved onto using Stax 6 pin sockets with these. I let it sit for probably a year before I decided what to do with it as so a full rebuild was in order. These are 100V only so for my use I need a new transformer, I fitted an IEC on the back, new binding posts with the switch function bypassed and all caps replaced. I also fitted a 6 pin Stax socket to the front as I don't have an ECR-800 and if I ever find one, odds are it will have that plug. Plus this works nicely with Stax normal bias sets. For the circuitry as it is a bit odd for 1978 or so. Most of the what's there is a protection circuit and output relay but the gray brick on the bottom is the bias supply, a DC/DC converter. It has clearly seen some use as there should be paint on there but it seems to work fine and there is clearly a ballast resistor in there too. It's also odd that the transformers have two sets of wires so each socket is fed from its own set of wires. See the 4 purple bias wires too, they are all common on the bias supply.

Read this a few months back, but as Beinart is making the rounds.

I like that riser for the power switch and the tubes visible through the front.

x2 I'd consider it a gamble and not put any more into it than you can afford to simply lose. Keeping in mind that if it breaks within that warranty period, the person providing the warranty is the same one who failed to fix it in the first place.

After around 7 years away from DIY, I got back into it a few weeks ago and finished this KGST. It’s been nice reconnecting with the bench. I still have a Carbon and a BH waiting to be finished (PCBs are populated, just need to design proper enclosures). Hopefully it won’t take me another 7 years this time...

Picked up another classic Kona.

Nice Obit on Tom L in el reg Including this gem "He remained active and engaged even later in his life. Rapper Tauheed K. Epps, who records as "2 Chainz", sampled Lehrer's song The Old Dope Peddler [PDF] for his track Dope Peddler, asking permission to use a snippet. Lehrer wrote back: As sole copyright owner of 'The Old Dope Peddler', I grant you motherfuckers permission to do this. Please give my regards to Mr. Chainz, or may I call him 2? " https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/28/tom_lehrer_dead_at_97/

You must have been very, very tired...

That looks rather old and not fun at all to work on. When was this made, the 90's?

I currently have an Odyssey Stratos Plus power amp which I have used for I guess going on 20 years and have been pretty satisfied with. I was thinking about upgrading it as these have gone from the Plus model to Extreme models. Klauss of Odyssey is now offering a Kismet amp. I can get my Stratos upgraded to the Kismet pcbs with a larger power supply for a fairly reasonable price. However, I ran across an opportunity to get a Mark Levinson No. 23 for around the same price as upgrading the Stratos. Reliability is a large factor in my decision. I've read a number of threads on diyaudio related to repairing Mark Levinson gear, and most of them seem to be a massive PITA to work on. This amp is no exception. The amp I am being offered would be coming from a Chicago dealer. It was repaired by Stereo Rehab in Chicago with some thermal issues (one bad channel). The explanation given doesn't really make a lot of sense to me, and I can post that if anyone wants to see it. Stereo Rehab is not an authorized ML repair facility; they do warranty the work done on this for 1 year. My only interest in this amp relates to the superlative reviews it got, and thoughts from some that these still hold their own with pretty much anything on the market. They apparently were very well built (and designed), using high quality parts, but the parts and architecture of these is jam packed together. Cosmetically, the amp looks virtually new, at least outside. Any thoughts on this appreciated. Right now, I'm leery and leaning against going for this.

I think you'll like this one. A different take on "Now We Are Free" from Gladiator. Regardless of what you think of them, the Russian version of The Voice is stacked with talent.

That sounds delightful. I've only made the traditional spaniard ones with the toasted almonds in the center. HS

Are you OK? That tirade would have to be the least intelligible one I've ever read. Maybe a giant and calm edit would improve it so I (and probably many others) could understand what your point is.

Long post, ADHD warning, am old school. With respect to the usual suspects and in danger of disrupting the circle-jerking? Which, by all means, keep at; The 007 variants were as non STAX as they could possibly get. - Certain people that would have found nirvana(tm) decades ago if only they'd bought a certain Sony, or specific Fostex/Audeze/Rosson headphones? They elected not to. Went the hard way (read: "i ride the different rain", read: i just must spend more, read: i feel so refined), when all they'd have had to do was find the chain that would be best for said type of headphone; and between interface/transport, DAC, pre-amp, amp and cabling, it does exist and in infinite variations. Only of course, they do not "believe" in chains, or do not "believe" in the need of a pre-amp, or do not "believe" in cabling, or, reasons. And instead, we're.. here. For nigh two decades now, congratulations One headphone gave them something they'd not heard before; but only because they were clueless, blame's on them for sheer ignorance. Put differently if it helps, not sure when people needing anything (insert adjective) low end pronounced or focused went for STAX? I mean, since when exactly? That's right, since never, not until that accursed thing came out. And sadly it sold well rather than flopping; sadly, because it showed, even to STAX, where the curve is. And i do blame each and every one for re-inforcing said conclusion (be it due to ignorance or monetary gain mind, yeah?). Find a few people with big pockets, there you go with the trend shifting, just like that. There were, are and shall remain many, many headphones for those folks, but.. they're not niche now are they. Where's the class, the individuality if you will.... if only you knew how many times i've seen this. Four+ decades and three continents over by now. - Contrary to elitist, individualistic, circle-jerking-focused belief? The world does not revolve around you. Sorry to break it to you. Head phones requiring significant power, ergo headphones that require significant investment in amplification, are headphones most folk cannot buy, not if they know what they're doing (and folks usually don't, not even here; i do read). The money involved to do it right is just prohibitive. You can have a halo product or two, as it drives sales all the way down, but you need a realistic approach. What you're wishing for would close STAX down, not help it grow back up; may not seem so in this glass bubble of a virtual corner, but out there, that's where it'd lead. Competition in what you're after is beyond fierce and they're too old to play the social media hype game. Entering the rest of the issues STAX faces, because those exist, yes.. nothing to do with 007 however, nothing at all. Kindly keep it real and differentiate your bloated self-want from the expansive reality governing one entire ecosystem. Kindly. Just because someone needed to say it. I mean we read your posts, if once in a while you get to read ours, yeah?

Sorry for the double post, everyone. I was curious how one sources AEO-7. Here in the US it seems very hard to get since most chemical manufacturers will only ship to industrial buildings and labs. It's not like I'm trying to buy a 1 ton drum of the stuff but alas.....

Bacon wrapped, Goats Cheese stuffed (pitted medjool) dates.

I'm really thinking that they "gimped" the 007s design on purpose.... They moved away from the gold plated fiberglass electrodes to what appears as aluminum electrodes just like 009 and Lambdas. The outer area that was solid on the previous iterations of the 007 have also been reduced probably to reduce capacitance, but this decreases the damping on the membrane. I'm sure that the new 007 probably presents with a degree more of that midrange "rising response" that we see on nearly all the other STAX using similar design philosophy and brighter treble. The pads now resemble the dimensions of the 009 especially with the uniform opening. I think that a big part of the 007 sound was the D shaped pads which would distribute front volume modes better than a uniform circle.... The 007 was a distinct tuning in the line-up and they for reasons only known to god put it in line with the rest... Some sorta 009 lite design. I can't say I really like STAX sacrificing the engineering of their older models for "easier to drive" alternatives that don't sound as good....

Beautiful fare! What did you stuff the dates with, Grahame? HS

I guess he gave up the ghost when he heard Dr. Demento announce his retirement and the end of his show.

Had some friends over. Started with this. Lots not shown. Ended with this. (Ice Cream not shown)

RIP Tom. Listened to him a lot growing up. The Pigeons are safe now...

I'm a bit late but Happy Birthday, Antonio!