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Ooo olde Reks is back. Welcome to HC. Sorry about your thin skin.

I'm hoping I can get back to riding soon. It's driving me nuts that my working out is so limited these days. Besides, Raffy put a lot hard work into getting my bike back in shape:

Jeff, I honesty choose bikes based on whether or not they look like something I'd ride. Honestly. I look at the Jekyll, giggle like a little kid and go hit the trails. Based on that sophisticated analysis method my $$ would go towards the CC. In actual riding news I got out on a very nice, 7.5mi MTB ride this afternoon after work. I'm not sure there's a better way to end a work day.

Purk, I'm sorry to say this but your co-worker, who may be a genius (not the kind Brent claims to be, I mean a real genius) and way smarter than me but he is an idiot. And Grahame, if Purk's co-worker was a state, he would be Florida.

I'm OK with those that don't vote. That is as long as they shut the fuck up when the elected individual does something they don't like. No vote, no opinion!

I can't vote but this election has been a crazy. 3.5 more years before I can sit on my citizenship test. Took me almost 10 years to get my greencard through work authorization.

No, dude. I'm 100% cool with anyone who votes, assuming they have the legal right to do so. It's those who don't vote that should be ashamed of themselves.

*Grabs popcorn and waits for Santa* **BRENT** Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

Yeah - they are weird objects. A star has to be greater than about 8 solar masses to gravitationally collapse into a neutron star at the end of its life. Much more than ~30 solar masses and you get a black hole rather than a neutron star. Both these exotic objects are supernova remnants. When a large star runs out of fuel, it collapses bewilderingly quickly - a few seconds - producing a huge amount of exceptionally hot material (mainly as a result of mechanical bounce - first the core collapses, then the outer shells of the star go inwards at about a quarter the speed of light, hits the collapsed core, bounces, and comes out again very hot indeed). Also, since a star spins (pretty slowly), as it collapses the spin speeds up, like a figure skater spinning on the ice can speed up, due to conservation of angular momentum. A neutron star can spin anywhere from once every few seconds up to about 1kHz, and emit a beam of radiation along its spin axis at the rotation speed. That was discovered in 1967 by a then research student called Jocelyn Bell in Cambridge UK using the radio telescope there. Initially tongue-in-cheek christened LGM for Little Green Men, she later figured out could be a spinning neutron star - now known as a pulsar. Her research supervisor Anthony Hewish won the Nobel prize for her work, and she got diddly squat. The fate of our star is different - since it is below something called the Chandrasekhar limit for formation of a white dwarf (>~1.44 solar masses; he figured that out aged 19, back in 1930) it will progressively bloat and cool when it runs out of fuel, swallowing up all the planets to earth and beyond, and becomes a red giant. Lucky for us not for quite a while yet, even though our sun destroys 5 million tons of material every second in nuclear fusion. To put that into context, a 10MT thermonuclear bomb destroys 0.05kg.

Servants really come in handy, don't they

Nonsense! I actually think you're highly IRREGULAR!

Oy, stay dry.....as someone posted to FB (with a pic of an older Walter Matthau IIRC): it's better to wake up and pee, then to pee and wake up. Lots of 'weeners tonight in our neighborhood, was nice to see; 9 bags of candy and literally 4 pieces left. We get some "imports" from other neighborhoods. In a bit of reverse racism, I always notice the Hispanic visitors to our somewhat lillywhite area are always the nicest and most thankful folks, every year. But the kids were pretty great all around this year with costumes, some new families have moved in with some way cute little buggers.

Yeah - I know what they meant. But if you knew nothing about a subject (which they clearly did not) you'd get someone who knew to check it; well I certainly would. And if they meant approximately, then either write the word, or an abbreviation like approx. Then there is no ambiguity. But then again, I'm just your regular pedantic asshole

Yep, they're awesome. Hasn't been a lot to be excited about since the HD 800 came out, but this is one exception for sure. While the Elear is very nice and enjoyable on its own, the Utopia breaks new ground. I simply haven't heard a more balanced, nuanced and coherent sound from a headphone... ever. Treble seemed absolutely spot-on. Very, very impressed.

Hi Sam, I have MK1 and not MK2. Don't get me wrong...I absolutely love the sound of the pairing but I also notice that the sub-bass was just a touch strong for me in some recording. This is really not a big issue but just something that I notice. Same source but likely not the same cables however. I love the KGSSHV carbon. Its a stellar amp and I do enjoy both the SR009 & SR007.

and he *used* to run the office.

I like Head-Case better with Mike around!

From that I think we can guess the candidate too.

I personally don't understand why people get as upset as they do about the presidential election. Outside of about 10 states near that center line the rest of our votes don't matter that much. Thanks, electoral college! I'm not really sure what the founders were thinking with that one other than saving those of us in the more solidly red or blue states from the onslaught of political adds you guys in Florida and Pennsylvania must be seeing any time you turn on the TV.

Yeah, the O2 on anything less than a KGSSHV is not optimum, you really need to experience them on a TOTL amplifier and DAC. I'm definitely not hearing thin or bright with the 009 through my gear, this is definitely an area I'm most sensitive too and cannot tolerate in any shape or form. Has anybody heard the Utopia direct from a Chord Dave? this combo has my attention.

Again, Zach, there is no requirement that you be an asshole. Just in case you didn't read the fine print.

I took off the pin to go into the polling location.

Is electioneering not illegal in Texas? Assuming you wore that pin to your pulling place...

Boards came in yesterday. I am happy to report that the rectangular plate-through slots come out as intended. Will take and post a photo when I get home early enough from work to catch some daylight. We still have a few GB participants that have not made payments yet. Please PayPal to .

Forget the V4, V5 should be out for the Xmas rush............

the release date for the v3 will be announced in a moment

My HEK V2 just came in yesterday and so far this is a nicer sounding headphones than the V1. Better bass and very smooth presentation. Soundstage is no longer diffused and fit & finish is much better as well as better wearing comfort. I like it better than my trusty HD800 and the Elear that I auditioned recently. I do like the Elear a great deal but its lack soundstage wide & depth got to me. The V2 is a very enjoyable headphones and it sounds marvelously good out of Doug's ECP DSHA-2 prototype.

Seeing your bike is enough to get me back out on the road. For the time being I am trying to pick up a gravel bike for some great crushed gravel trails I have in my neighborhood. Looking at some Cyclocross bikes and some gravel bikes ranging from a low end Diamondback w/ Ultegra Diamondback to a Niner Cyclocross CC or Gravel Gravel or a Pivot w/ Ultegra Pivot Just looking for something basic so I am leaning towards the super cheap Diamondback, but the others appeal more to my snobbiness. :-)

Excellent work you are doing with the controllers, Kerry. I’m trying to learn how to program the Arduino. Below is an Arduino UNO with an OLED and a rotating encoder. Turning the encoder - volume goes up/down. Encoder knob pushed toggles mute. If rotation while in mute the volume is changed, but takes effect first when mute is off again. Last volume value is stored in EEPROM and is called back next time controller is powered on and it starts with mute on. I don’t know if this really works - I don’t have a digital attenuator.

This ^, It definitely takes away the moist brown factor - and there goes 95% of marketing strategy....

Don't go dragging actual physics into this.

O2 has gain of 10db max electrostatic amps have gain in the range 54 to 60 db pick absolutely the most noise free input fet or bipolar you want, and you can't get to those noise numbers at 54db of gain even pumped liquid helium devices used in nmr cryoprobes (costing about $500k these days) have more noise than this. I have 2 of these and a lot of experience with the parts inside. the dscope as well as audio precision and every other digital computerized thd meter have maximum voltage input limits. So the question is whether they used an input attenuator to generate that, and in any case what the input impedance the amplifier really sees. Because even at 100k input impedance, the meter has a much lower impedance than the headphones would have at 1khz. Measuring this accurately is very hard. Generating bullshit numbers is easy. Every one of the ss amps i have built has a thd of less than .01% with an appropriate 10x attenuator running 95% voltage swing

I keep thinking this show is going to talk its foot off the gas pedal and I keep being wrong. Loved the use of nine inch nails this week.

Fried chicken and waffles with bourbon maple syrup

This too. Sorry Dusty. Also voted. Dropped off my mail ballot at a nearby collection place. There wasn't another voter in sight.

Somewhere in Gran Canaria...

^That, Jose, is a serious bike. How's this for bike madness

Hifiman is just one of many manufactors trying to benefit from a market where most seems mostly occupied by having the latest ( equals the best'st) and having the best'st, they can nurse their neurotic concerns in regards to choice of color.