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Performing last minute gear tune-ups for Lance and his competition in Columbus. Received word last week that Lance has been named to the USA Fencing All American first team and USA Fencing All-Academic first team for this year. Hopefully if he has a good competition these recognitions will help when he meets the college fencing coaches he has scheduled with there in Columbus. He is scheduled to fence Junior Men’s foil, Junior Men’s epee, Senior Men’s foil and Division I Men’s foil. Division I will be the toughest because it will have all of the best college fencers and three US Olympic fencers competing. This is a very tough schedule so hopefully he can hold it together and feel good about his performance when it’s done. Yikes!

Kaldas Research This was my first booth I went to at CanJam. I was super excited to listen to them and talk to Aumkar about them. At the booth, they had RR1 with a KGSSHV Carbon hooked up to a laptop with their own music source and another RR1 with the Koss energizer and an aux cable for our own music. As such, I spent most of my time with the Koss energizer. Before I dive into my first impressions, I have an L300 at home, but had not used it in a week. I was not able to a/b compare the Koss energizer with the KGSSHV carbon. Build/Quality: I love the build on these. Compared to my L300, these feel a lot more sturdier and look better in my opinion. Even though the retro look of the Stax has its own appeal, these just look more modern and don't feel like they'll break when i hold them in my hands. Aumkar set the height to one size for canjam, which was a hair loose for my head, but nothing to complain about. He probably did not want people to adjust the sliding mechanism as these were probably his only 2 pre-production units, and he probably didn't want them broken. He told me that the chassis is CNC'd from aluminum(not sure on the metal), and it felt like sturdy and durable. The headphone was comfy and i don't think i felt any glaring hotspot. I'm also not very sensitive to headphone weight. For reference, I can wear my OG HE-400 for a few hours without complaints, so I may not be the best person to evaluate this. I also liked how the RR1 uses mini-XLR plugs on the headphones and a stax pro bias connector for the plug instead of being hard wired or using some new connection. My only downside is with regards to handling this headphone, and it is quite minor. In front of the RR1,there is an interesting sheet on how to pickup the headphones. You are supposed to have your hand over them vertically when you pick them up instead of horizontally. I think it was to proctect the e-stat drivers, but I could be wrong. Aumkar can correct me on this if he views this post. Wish I had taken a picture of the sheet. This is the only complaint I can think off in regards to build/quality, and it is minor and maybe a little nit-picky. Sound: Most listening was done off the ESP95x. The first thing I wanted to test was the bass extension on these as that is what everyone has been raving about. Hot damn these have bass for an e-state. Now its not like Fostex bass, but it is nice tight bass comparable to the VOCE. I have not listened to the Sr007 Mk1 so I cannot draw a comparison to the bass on that. When I put on "Why So serious" by Hans Zimmer and fast forwarded to ~3:25, I was able to get it to arch(wet, flabby noise on e-stats), but compared to my L300's it extended deeper and didn't arch as long. Honestly though, that song destroys a lot of headphones so I'm not too concerned that an e-stat couldn't handle the section from the very beginning. I'm curious to see if the KGSSHV would've helped the RR1 with that section. Now with bass done, lets move on to the treble. These have the great e-stat treble that I have come to adore. Orchestral pieces sound great with lots of "e-stat air". Nothing comes of as overly piercing or underwhelming. I wish I had my L300's on me so I could compare them side to side. I know they at least meet it, but cannot comment if they are significantly better. I won't comment on mids as i am still gaining my footing around this area and did not really try to evaluate them because i was having a hard time hearing my own music as is. Some guy next to me really loved "The Weeknd", which I do too, and had it on very loud. As a result, I could hear the song very audibly and clearly bleed into my music. I also won't do soundstage for this same reason wayy too much ambient noise and am not comfortable just yet. However, I will say that it didn't sound super upfront or narrow like my HD6xx. I did not test imaging because I forgot too. Oops. I also wish I could've a/bed the Koss amp the KGSSHV amp to see how they impacted sound differences, but it would've been difficult, awkward, and rude to take up both amps simultaneously. Before I jump into some final impressions, I just wanna talk about Aumkar quickly. It was a joy talking to him, and I wish I had asked him more questions about e-stats in general as he was clearly very knowledgeable about them. He dropped everything to pursue making the RR1, and i wish nothing but the best of luck to him. I I appreciate how, he is not rushing to take people's money as he does not think his own product his ready. He also states that the price on the RR1s will not go up at all. He is a breath of fresh air in the headphone world, and I deeply appreciate that. These are a day 1 buy for me simply to support him. If I somehow find another chance to listen to these and do a complete 180 on my impressions, i will still buy them simply to support him and his company. Even if the RR1 turns out to be a failure, which I do not think it will be, I have full faith that his next product will be even better than this. Final Impressions: These are a phenomenal value at $500 dollars. The bass is tight and extends well whilst still keeping that e-stat treble to die for. I think this competes with the L300 and Koss ESP95X in price range, and if it does, i think it will firmly trounce them and be the king of its price bracket. These are a day 1 purchase for me. I've attached some pictures. Apologies for the potato quality in advance.

So you want more Moth Audio?

I bought a 55" LG OLED about a year ago, maybe less. What a stunning device. Of course with any TV you have to go through all the set up process, because out of the box might not at all be what you want to look at. But usually there is something on the web about most models and what the recommended settings are, and for different ambient light (daylight, artificial light, darkened room etc). It was the previous year's model. The only difference with the new model was some minor differences in the computing engine - but the OLED panel was the same. Last year's was UKP1,300, this years was UKP3.500. No brainer choice! Likewise with Sony - there seems to be no doubt that it is better than an LG with the same screen size, but with a big price tag premium.

Totally digging on the Eastern European (WTF, auto predict, you’d rather suggest Eurovision before European? Fuck you. Just fuck you.) folk vibe of Ben Caplan.

Great deal, this wont last long Audio History In The Flesh

Needs no introduction...

This is my kind of joke. Since there's no Open Reel Deck Porn thread ...yet. Grassi Lakes - Canmore, Alberta.

The album originally came out in 2014 on Psychonavigation Records. It was my album of the year for 2014, oddly enough. It's the Bandcamp re-release that's new. Oliver Lieb has worked as a mastering engineer for years now and his skills in that area really show in his own work. OL is an absolute master at using reverb and EQ to arrange the elements in his tracks in a glorious fashion. I am actually envious of any Stax owners or HCers with serious speaker rigs who get to hear Inside Voices. It's such a 3 dimensional experience even when listening to it via, say, comparatively humble HD580s and a HRMH.

https://youtu.be/AzEBH6DZJVk

https://www.rtings.com/ has some thorough reviews and settings they used for calibrating their samples (see if you like the modes they select / recommend, setting values are a guide/starting point, as values will vary by individual unit / panel) This chap https://www.youtube.com/user/hdtvtest seems to know his stuff, with his own unique "style"

I downloaded and listened this afternoon while I did work around the house. A few things: It's two 1 hour mixes. Being a DJ, I'd have preferred individual tracks, but I'll take what I can get. The actual release is a pair of .wav files. Apparently Ae haven't heard of FLACs. Fortunately it's trivial to convert them and add tags + artwork. Being me, I cropped the massive image that was in the zip file to a square an embedded it in the FLACs: As for the music itself ...ayep, that's some late 80s/early 90s rave. It's decidedly weird by the standards of the genre and still recognizable as Autechre. There were parts of both mixes I quite enjoyed and a not insubstantial number of parts I could do without. I do love me some golden era UK rave sound, but I pretty particular in my tastes. There is some fantastic Ae analogue synthesis going on at times.

Horseshoe Bend. Click for slightly larger.

After living with one for a week, I would say the Sony OLED beats out the equivalent LG in every way but the operating system. Android is such a clunky piece of shit for a TV...or phone. ? The weird speakers built into the A9F are excellent for TV speakers.

Went to the place today for that alligator strap and had it fitted there. I like the strap a lot and it’s very well made, although I’m not so keen on the deployant buckle so think I’ll have a buckle I’ve spare fitted locally. While there I asked the guy to use the Rolex spring bars, which meant those end link had to be removed, I’m happy with that though because it looks better without, problem is those Rolex spring bars must be too thick because the strap is catching on the watch and leaving a mark, so tomorrow I’ll see about using thinner spring bars. Here are some photos with one showing the mark.

Just finished testing a new version of the battery with the LT1021-7 reference. From what I can measure, it seems quieter on the scope (mostly above 25KHz) than the LED version. It's nice to be able to test without risking the whole amp I'll probably start using the LT1021-7 in the GRHV supply as well since it needs less current to operate. I'm currently feeding it about .94mA with the base of the transistor it connects to pulling about 70uA from that as well.

Other references to the loss - Sheryl Crow: Universal Studios fire destroyed all my master tapes https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48745638 Here Are Hundreds More Artists Whose Tapes Were Destroyed in the UMG Fire https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/magazine/universal-music-fire-bands-list-umg.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share