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In a Jazz mood so far today. going since 6:00am. Wynton Marsalis "Black codes" Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery "Dynamic Duo" Bill Evans "waltz for debby" Shelby Mann/Bill evans "Empathy" Duke ellington & Johnny Hodges "back to back" Play the blues

Lamb tacos Home made masa tortillas, turmeric rice, and 48 hr sous vide lamb with rosemary, with sriracha

http://www.mcelhearn.com/pono-music-for-your-pets/

the other day i replaced some $100 power cables with monoprice because they were the length i need. Brand new cables (and cheaper)....absolutely no difference.

You do have a point there and I know that this is a purely psychological phenomenon. It doesn't exist in the sense that we can't measure it, caps don't magically change after being charged/discharged a few million times (100 hour burn in). It is also a pure fallacy to think that a one 5 minute session with any component will give you an an accurate impression of its signature, our senses simply aren't that good. They also just make up shit and lie to us... those fuckers...

Because Headcase, I bought a Fisher AG-7 "spacepen" and a 400G Bullet Pen. I have not actually used either *much* seeing as how I only received them a few days ago, but here are some quick first impressions. I realllllly wanted to like the AG-7, but I'm finding it too lacking. I'm not a big fan of the balance of this pen. The center of gravity is a bit closer to the clicker than the tip than I'm comfy with, and I'm not really a fan. I think I am just used to neutrally balanced or tip weighted pens and this just feels weird. The grip of the pen is also thinner than I like. I guess with no gravity pulling the pen around it might not matter. It is heavier than the 849 I have gotten used to, but still lighter than a Rotring although both have better subjective balance than this. The clicker definitely has some metal on metal contact, and scrapes as it goes down but seats with a very positive click. The button release is pretty neat. Ignoring the scraping clicker, the fit and finish of this pen actually feels quite good. It is all metal, and will probably outlast me. I also got the 400G Lacquered Brass bullet pen. I was not sure how I would like the bullet pen, but I must admit it is growing on me quickly. I had previously used HALF of a bullet pen - with no idea what to do with the cap. Whoda known, but with the cap on the back of the pen, it handles like any other full sized pen! The balance is biased towards the tip of the pen, which I like and the weight is nice. Like the AG7, this pen is on the slim side for my tastes, but I see it as a backup for my primary pen, or something to jot quick notes in the car. My only other complaint about this pen is that it tends to sit in the EXACT bottom of my pockets perpendicular to my leg where a full size pen stays more or less straight up & down parallel to my leg. It is probably better suited to being tucked into a wallet, or left in a cup holder in your car which is where mine will live. Seeing as how I am me, I removed the Lacquer from the pen within 12hours of receiving it. I will not be able to comment on the durability of the lacquer, as about 2 minutes soaking in acetone and another 30seconds with a scouring pad made short work of it... The patina of naked brass, combined with the unusual spiral decoration is giving my modified pen a nice well loved look.

metallica - black album some high rez version, think it is a vinyl rip. sounds amazing

EOSE2837B by drjlo1, on Flickr

Expectation bias works in both directions -- if you don't expect a difference, you probably won't detect one.

Even those of us "burdened" with experience (paraphrasing my favorite saying in Icelandic) still get a bit lost sometimes by just how good this stuff is. What bothers me about the whole burn in crap is this assumption that our senses and auditory memory are perfect but components made to tight specs somehow drift in a way that can't be measured but is clearly audible. It took me two weeks for the shine of the HE90 to wear off and I've only become more critical in those 10 years.

As a Stax newbie myself, it took while to fully appreciate the depth of nuances that my SR-009 deliver over dynamics. Had them 6 months and still experiencing new aspects to the SQ. Whether that is measurably "real" or not, I don't know or even care. Just makes each listening session with them enjoyable.

Also, because it will never completely go away, you can always bring it back by listening to a reference system. Or, you know, real life.

I know I will get ripped for this, but even if burn-in is 100% totally on the listeners end, e.g. Psychological, how does that translate to not real or doesn't exist?

There is Stax newbie burn-in.

There is no such thing as run/burn-in

Koss ESP950 extension cable works just fine. Ask somebody in the US to order a few for you and drop in an envelope.

Just finished binge watching House Of Cards S3

I had mine done and it's totally worth it

Yup, and they sure can rock. Bass has that slight reverb to it which suits rock perfectly. I'll reserve final judgement until I've plugged the ports and played with the pads. This is a bloody good start though...

An hour or so ago I got a brand new SR-007Mk2 delivered to me serial SZ3-2029. First impressions are positive, the fit out of the box is good and the midrange issues I had with the older Mk2.5 are gone now. The bass is a joke as is to be expected from a ported design but it is at least mostly controlled and only falls apart at a limited range. The top end is not as smooth as it should be but it might just be due to the earpad position. More updates coming and we'll see how long I'll last until I've ripped them apart to mod.

dsd

That sucks. It's happened to me also. _________________________ Better Call Saul pilot. Fun to reenter this world.

second loaf - much like the first....

I was born in a country that is no more - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. At that time just about everything was scarce as cavities on hens teeth. So basically if you somehow got something, you surely needed to able to fix it. Have you seen plastic bags being machine washed and then fitted with cotton inlays to keep them go longer? I have. My pops, after he came back from serving in the red army (he was lucky to be dumb enough to tell the conscription commission that he had relatives in US, which saved him from Soviet-Afghan war), scraped up enough cash to buy a Sharp two cassette decker from sailors. That catapulted him to the top of his local crowd of 20-somethings. He was able to copy records, which at that time meant being the local music kingpin. Records were rare and usually came from the same sailors or were ripped from foreign radio transmissions. The main man who did the first copies was called the The Great Audiopirate - if you somehow got your hands on the second copies, everyone would automatically worship you because evidently you were "up-there" pretty high. Usually second tape copies went to high caliber underground discos, then they trickled down through further copying through guys like my dad. The funny thing was that due to the quality of these records being abysmal, many of the older folks don't recognize western music from that time being played from good records - things like cymbals were absent in these records. So when I came into this world I had more music at my disposal than 95% of the other kids. I also had many peers who taught me interesting things like soldering, basic electronics and making explosives (strangely enough that's also a big thing in our family). I also learned to read at the tender age of five, which meant a lot of reading and rapidly widening my worldview through various encyclopedias and Jules Verne books. Yet the affliction of audiophilia came much much later. I've loved music all my life, yet the thought of "better playback" came to me at the age of 23 when I also had the cash to make some of it come true. My mother flew to NY that year and bought a Grado SR80i for me with the money I gave her. The next year I went to study to Iceland...