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Poulet à la Normande with a flambé in progress Et fini

So I have preliminary permission but I will likely fly in as I can't leave until the third and have to be back to teach on the 7th. Luckily there are direct flights between Daytona and JFK. Are we all staying at the (I still can't bring myself to call it CanJam) event hotel?

Dew eet Purk! Grahame, I just looked at Jet Blue and there are $128 round trips from SFO, and on Virgin it is currently at $267 round trip. I didn't go through the deal portal on Jet Blue but the prices were as low as $65 each way. It seems like we can get something very reasonable regardless. JP and I talked through some plans this morning, and I want to float some ideas: Hotel: I booked a room for JP and me at the Head-Fi event hotel, NY Marriott Marquis. I think Raffy and Mike are looking at hotels nearby. Times Square isn't the greatest but it seems easiest to congregate in one neighborhood. JP has also mentioned the Aloft Hotel in Brooklyn where we stayed a few years ago because Brooklyn is more fun that Times Square. Anyone want to shift there or have a better place to congregate? Meet Attendance: The HF meet runs from 10-6 Saturday and 10-5 on Sunday. People can decide on attendance for themselves, but it seems the prime day for getting the maximum number of Casers together is Saturday. Perhaps we should plan excursions and get-togethers during the day Saturday and leave Sunday more open for HF meet. Even if people go to the meet Saturday, they can still link up with the party train later in the day or evening. I am personally planning to go on Sunday morning/noonish. Friday: Whoever is available should try to gather near the hotel or pick another spot -- Manhattan cocktail bars? Ginger Man, Blind Tiger, Proletariat and/or other beer joints? Saturday: After breakfast, I want to bolt for Other Half Brewing in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn to be there by Noon. JP suggests getting there by opening time is critical because of the small size of the tasting room. If there is a can release that day, some of us might want to be even earlier. After Other Half, we could make our way to Williamsburg, Brooklyn where some of our favorite spots are located, including Spuyten Deyvil, Torst, Barcade, Fette Sau BBQ, etc. We could also end up back wherever we are staying for late night antics. Again, I am just throwing out ideas so we could pick another itinerary or locale so speak up. Sunday: The meet starts at 10:00 so that is where some people will go for a few hours or all day. Others can be tourists, get drunk early, wander the streets, whatever. We should pick a dinner idea for those of us staying until late Sunday or Monday. Monday: Breakfast or other plans? Airport runs. Plenty of food for thought. Not a lot of need for truly concrete plans, but it's still fun to think about and it allows the one-day folks to make arrangements.

I'll likely take the train down for a day to see everyone, though I'm not sure I care to see what the latest IEM tip manufacturer has on offer. And my door is open if anyone feels like venturing up to beautiful Hartford ...

I'm going to say yes since my best scenario will probably have me in town less than 24hrs. Ideally I'll drive down in the early morning, spend the day with you fools and drive back early the next morning. Currently seeking a copilot... @skullguise

I barely have plans for tomorrow, let alone February. I'll play it by ear to see where others are going to be, so I should be able to accommodate whatever works best for you.

Jet Blue are having their "A December to Adventure / 12 Days of Deals " in the run up to Christmas. New deals announced 1PM EST / 10AM PST Daily http://www.jetblue12days.com/ Of course their web site is currently under heavy load, after yesterdays from $20 one-way offers but checking via https://www.kayak.com/flights I see SFO<-> JFK for $129 return! for the time in question ... https://slickdeals.net/f/9503740-hot-jetblue-airlines-rt-airfares-from-new-york-boston-ft-lauderdale-and-los-angeles-san-francisco-128-nonstop I may need to work on Joanne, or offer her the prospect of a weekend in New York with/without you lot!

Did you guys catch that? All drinks are on Chris in NY!

"See You Tomorrow"

No, look again. That was aimed at MPI. Just giving him more crap for CJ10, because Head-Case. Well, if you want to impress us, ride your bicycle there.

All this talk of R2R DACs pushed me to future proof my setup. Just bought a DAC with PCM1704s and PMD100, so now I can relive HC circa 2010. I still also have my Parasound DAC1100 I bought from a member here, which uses PCM63s.

Luck, but you don't need it, you'll be fine! Cheers and bon voyage.

Nice, which DACs use PCM56? I wanted a PCM1704 DAC in case of 24 bit high res but to be honest, I don't think anyone cares about HRA outside of some audiophiles. Also, you seem to have collected a ton of R2R DACs over the years. Any thoughts/preferences? Looks like bog standard opamp implementation that most of these DACs use, straight from the datasheet. Nice, I guess, if you don't want to deal with recapping older units and SMD and whatnot.

My wood working friend is in Carroll Gardens/Red Hook, in case you feel the need to go shopping after drinking ...

Doug - what day were you considering heading down on the train? I keep telling Allison that we need to visit...

This is shaping up to be a great get together. I would really like to meet everyone finally.

Be there in spirit = you're sending booze? **BRENT**

Happy belated birthday!

Teriyaki beef tips -- I cut the cooking times in half (because all of mine were coming out well done with a burnt crust since that first one a couple weeks ago), and it came out perfect.

Happy birthday Todd!

^ That's a good post.

I went to the funeral of an old friend today. He had something sudden and catastrophic happen to his heart last week. We weren't really close or anything, but it's a small town and we've been in the same circle of friends for 25 years or so, so it's still a shock. He was 42, single, no kids, he was a passionate artist and all-around excellent dude. He went in to business, built an amazing greenhouse featuring weird edible cultivars and novel hybrids as well as the standard (garden variety?) bedding plants. It was always a treat to visit him. He never had regular hours - he was just open if he was there, and closed if he wasn't. We called him JK, and we're going to miss him a lot.

Those kids are old enough to watch themselves for a few days!

happy birthday Todd!

Thanks All! Had my annual fish dinner, local restaurant does this great dish with baked fish (used to be catfish, now snapper) in a jambalaya like sauce with andouille sausage, shrimp, and some veggies over rice. Accompanied by a nice IPA, and apple crisp dessert. Fat, dumb and happy. Life is good, especially so for a night.

On my builds, which are all balanced inputs with Neutrik XLR connectors, I tie PSU ground to the chassis ground (star ground) which is then tied to the AC ground. No ground connection between the input XLR and the amp's input. The input XLR ground pin is tied to the chassis as is suggested by the white paper "pin 1 revisited" by Rane. For my Carbon which has the GR LV and GR HV PSUs, I run a heavier gauge wire between the ground of the two PSU and run one of the PSU's ground to the star ground. Seems to work very well for me.

I believe "hooning" is my favorite term of all time. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Happy Birthday, Todd!

Happy Birthday Todd!

Happy birthday!

About Spin wheels. Someone remember the Trek Y-22?

Interesting. Effectively engine mounts at the rear of the car that act like a variable shock absorber. That's a lot of technology for an engine mount, but it's pretty cool as well. Looks like Honda has been using it quite a while...they never cease to amaze me. The famous GM LS motors are basically knock-offs of Honda technology. On my car, I went with a motor plate at the rear (racing hard core is plates at both front and rear) and it definitely provides more torsional stability in the front of the car especially at hard launches...early on when I'm really thumping the motor. That means less drama getting the power to the wheels and keeping everything as stable as possible. Cool stuff. HS

Free pastries at work! I probably shouldn't do so many carbs, but it's free, so I'll take it...

Correct on the Parm but the green stuff was chimichurri. They were delicious.

I picked up the Utopia recently, echo John's comments regarding sound. This weekend I was at a local dealer's, they had the Elear and Utopia out for listen. Indeed, not exactly the same sound signatures. Elear is still quite good at $1k, but Utopia is definitely more refined, better highs, more balanced overall, and more transparent. The bass on the Elear seemed fuller, but the Utopia is MAYBE as deep but definitely a bit more controlled IMO. EDIT: BTW, driven by an Arcam CD player, so source wasn't up to snuff. Told them they should put in a new source or set up a good DAC. So my observations could even be understated.....

Amazing day on the trails. Xavier, two friends, a dad, and a friend's sister. The Garmin watch paused and didn't auto-start so I don't have the distance, but 6-8 miles of single-track at least. Some of the kids were getting tired so I took them to the parking lot via road whike the dad who was sticking with his little girl for miles got to cut loose and chase down the fast kid. One of my favorite mountain bike rides of all time. **BRENT**

Yes, I agree the embargo hurt innocent Cubans, but what's the alternative? Castro didn't leave us a lot of choice. Yes, America wants it's enemies, real or perceived. That's how the military machine stays in motion. It is very sad. War is business. He went far beyond that. Look up the firing squads. He made it clear immediately that he had no intentions of giving up power, or holding elections. Not only did he kill his opposition, but he had many revolution supporters shot as well, because he thought they held too much power. He ripped children from the arms of their parents at will. He stole property and wealth on a whim. He was your average megalomaniac dictator, nothing better. My point is that the mere passing of time should not lesson the actions of a tyrant. Let's just hope that Cubans can have a better future starting now.