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Remain in Light – Talking Heads (for the first time!)

Bachelor No. 2 or, the last remains of the dodo – Aimee Mann

The bench and chairs combo makes perfect sense and acomodates a flexible seating arrangement. I attempted a pre-storm ride to recover conditioning while maintaining social distancing...things did not go as planned. Thank you National Weather Service.

Toto - Toto IV

It's A-OK. I have had literally years worth of photos waiting to be worked with that I had just been too busy to do anything with until this recent pause.

It was worth the wait!

Last night about 30 people in our neighborhood managed to socially-distantly gather near a neighbor's house. The mom is a nurse, and volunteered to help in ICU with the COVID-19 patients. Thankfully she had plenty of PPE she said, but still a risk of course. We all cheered and clapped as she drove in the neighborhood. Their daughter, somewhere out West, was on Facetime with her dad, and she was balling. She's supposed to get married in early August, plans are certainly TBD now.... There are so many wonderful and amazing people in this world, and I'm thankful for them all!

Good combination: Megatron and SR-L700 Vinyl...

A milestone of my rare stax hunt: Quattro II🤪 So basically its a third-party CDP with a enlarged chassis, a very sophisticated power supply + DAC . They have separate power supplies for left and right channel as well as the digital section. The CD section has a plastic case but it is put in another aluminium case and on a wood base where the dac section is located. The CD pickup is Sanyo sf-88. Before the aged parts are replaced, The CDP sounded very neutral, fatigue-free with a special sense of spaciousness, but there was no real bass and dynamic. Then those big electrolytic caps are replaced with Nichicon KG , and Cardas rca and Furutech power socket are installed .After servicing the bass and dynamic is back. But it sounds a bit warm than before.

I posted a Chinese version of this article several months ago and now I translated it and put it here. I guess some people here will be interested. I hope you like it. Actually I have some more articles like this pending but I just don't have the time to write it up. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It all started about a year ago that a second hand sr-omega popped up in the local community. From time to time omegas show up on markets around the world but this one is different: an omega with 007 drivers installed. When the drivers are replaced, such omega drops its value to a fraction of its original. The seller listed it for 48888 RMB initially and sold it for like 20000 + at the end. When I first saw the listing, the first thing that caught my attention are neither the price nor the 007 drivers but one accessory laying aside, which is a pair of dead drivers I have never seen before. At first sight I know that it’s a prototype, a true unicorn that probably only one pair exists in the world. I am so curious on how it sounds and how it compares to 007 or 009 or the original omega. I messaged the seller right away and after some persuasion and explanation that I can give this driver a next life, I got it at a reasonable price. And it has become one of my biggest regret that I didn’t also purchase the omega itself that time, otherwise I can put it back into the place where the drivers belong to. Here is the driver itself. From this driver you can see several innovations made by Stax that has never been seen in other Stax models before it. The diaphragm is identical to a normal omega but the electrode is totally a different creature: copper plate similar to lambda sig etc. but much more refined. Over different regions of the electrode the thickness is different. The thicker copper comprises of the # pattern skeleton to give the rigidity while the thinner copper is perforated. You can see the same topology on 009 and 009s where they claim to have the MLER welding technology employed on the electrode. But this omega prototype electrode is in one piece and just as thick as a credit card. Furthermore, they rounded the edge of the perforation like what Stax does on 009S. Stax even make a sectional view illustration graph on their 009S promotion leaflet. Such treatment helps sound to radiate. To me it’s really impressive to see some characteristics of a flagship model today on a 30-year-old design. But Afterall it’s a prototype. It does have some problems: this electrode is too thin to give enough rigidity and prevent bending. They are curved to 5 o at most. Moreover, the area of attachment between the frame and the electrode is too small. It just peels due to aging. I see such defects in some modern designs too. Although its reasonable to have these issues because its 20+ years old, it does reveal that the one who designed it is not thoughtful enough. Perhaps that’s why it was never released to the market except the one on my desk. Besides the defects the design has, the driver itself is at a very bad condition. The drivers have been exposed to the external environment, so dust gets onto everywhere. The one who does not properly seal the package probably has never imagined that this driver will be repaired. It’s a pain in the ass to make the driver dust free again, especially when they are on the very fragile diaphragm. Normally I don’t accept requests to repair an exposed driver and I will give a new quote to clients who send me an exposed e-stat without telling me in advance . But I own this driver and I can bear the risk so that’s OK. The four electrodes are bent in different direction and magnitude as well as having detachment and failure of epoxy. Taking it apart and bent it manually is the only way out. It takes a lot of skill to bend a bent copper plate. Like you have to apply a certain amount of force on the copper and then you check how you have bent it by eye balling or a ruler, and you repeat this process a dozen times on one plate. You make it worse if you don’t know how. The most challenging part of it is that how much you bend an electrode actually affects the sound pressure on one side of the driver so at this point you just have to guess. I have neither the tool nor the file of the design, its all hiding in somewhere inside Stax’s archive library. At most of the time repairing a e-stat is more challenging and troublesome than making a new one. Aging will just make everything a mess and sometime you have to wipe the ass of someone who does not make the design good enough to withstand usage. Solvent removes dust and grease on the driver. It gets much trickier when it comes to cleaning the diaphragm. Effectiveness of a method to clean the diaphragm is an issue when there is just too much dust, not to mention the risk that you will break a diaphragm by puncture or sketch. At the end I decided to clean the diaphragm with solution. Although it will damage the coating, it means nothing to me as I can recoat it anyway to replace the old one which is probably damaged anyway. Cleaning done. They took away the dust screens so I have to prepare these as well. Last Step: assembly, the most important part of all steps. This several hours of work determines how long a driver can last before imbalance or noise occurs. Its my duty to make sure every edge and surface inside the driver is dust free. If not, dust will eventually get onto the diaphragm at some point in its service life and short the electrode and the diaphragm. Practically if the pollutant is much smaller than DS gap 0.5mm then its fine. All these procedures are done in a dust free environment. Soldering work Omega adopted a spring mechanism to connect the bias supply to the diaphragm. It is shaped like a tuning fork and it is odd (photo credits to audiohobby .pl ). I tried to make one but it just can’t grip firmly. After some days of having this troubling me I figured out a way, using HD600’s spring and I glad that it worked, at least for now. I used 007 cable, lambda sig headband, cnc machined and anodized aluminum casing and tailor made earpad. I am a proud Omega owner and I shipped the earpad for a clone. The result is satisfactory. I took away the back grill for inspection but I am kind of regret because I cannot put it back. The general sound signature of this omega prototype is somewhat identical to the original: natural, airy, transparent and clean. Its free of unnaturalness which can be found on 009 (please forgive me if you find this statement irritating, afterall the perception of sound is subjective). It has a larger soundstage than 009 for sure but I think 009 has more details than this one slightly. To me this prototype takes a midway approach between early-SN omega and Late-SN omega. It has a bit of the sweet coloration of an early omega while having much of the naturalness of a late omega. I found that early omega has a huge, diffused soundstage while a late omega has some in head effect which is unpleasant to me. Luckily this prototype is more on the early side. But still this prototype is different from the two regrading the proportion of width and depth of soundstage. I can’t explain more because I haven’t AB compare yet. What amaze me the most is how the prototype omega differs from the typical omega in the dynamic and bass region. The normal omega gives me an image of mellow, soft and relaxing in the bass region. Although 009 and 007 has better bass and impact I like the stress-free presentation of the original omega. The only thing omega put stress on me while I am wearing it is its price. In the prototype omega, I feel an enhancement on the impact, the speed and the amount of bass. Perhaps it’s the reason why they create this prototype, to improve on what the original is lacking. The density of imaging of sound also improves by a bit. Be caution that I cannot remove the effect of the different earpad and casing on the overall sound comparing to the original so the effect I mentioned above might be due to them. Despite all these merits, there is something lacking in this prototype: The openness of soundstage and the super-revealing details on the original omega. If omega scores 100 and 009 scores 85 in the aspect, I will give a 95 to this prototype. The transition from mesh electrode to plate electrode seems to be a double-sided sword. I remember in one of the Stax staff interviews they explained on Pros and Cons between mesh and plate electrodes. You give up something to exchange for another. Nothing is perfect unless you pay a double.

You just triggered me into listening to their album that's been getting the most listens here over the last year. Will the minor Little Creatures eventually become my favorite? I never really liked it on release (or the couple decades after).

https://memes.yarn.co/yarn-clip/3b7d8e18-7ecc-4c71-8ab6-3e879167b101

I watched this yesterday.

The Speedplays were chosen for the lateral freedom while putting the hammer down on the climbs. After two ACL reconstruction surgeries I felt this was the safest choice. You can;t really see it in the low light of the pic but the dark areas show off the carbon fiber really nicely which match the CF on the handlebars, seat post and fork. Old school but still cool me thinks.

So much this. Me too (I even practiced). I miss Pushy. (Someone had to say it)

Does it come in Moar Black?

Table updated. Received all but one payments. I have proceeded to contact PCBnet to place our order.

There is NO person more honest and honorable than Conan hosting a late night talk show on TBS today,.. that I've seen lately,.. with luxurious red hair,..

JH|13

Side 1—along with side 1 of King Crimson’s Red—is one of my favourite album sides of all time. And the sequencing—especially the way those last four tracks slow down—is just sublime. I think of it every time the concept of sequencing comes up.

Which leads to the biggie - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

Unholy carp, “...for the first time...”?!?!?

Qobuz is $15 and Amazon His Res $14 of that matters. It’s a price/convenience/music discovery question I suppose. Qobuz and Tidal have a free month trial if you want to give them a spin.

You should talk to @jp11801. He has a system I think he really likes and has been experimenting for some time.

I know it’s not what your looking for and you’d still have to solve the DAC question, but why not take thIs opportunity to liberate the local storage need and go full Tidal/Qobuz?

if you go the mac mini route i'd recommend getting an open box from best buy's website

So sorry to hear about ZoeBelle. Condolences to you & your family Brent. RIP John Prine

Two completely different creature, cant compare as if between two lambda models. The most obvious difference would be the soundstage. Its like a Jazz cafe VS a cathedral. The L700 sigma still holds lambda-level detail and transparency, unlike the original sigma. But the detail and the high frequency on the l700 sigma are just not as apparent as the L700.

Holy smoke batman that one expensive DIY line up. How does the L700 Sigma compare to the stock L700 in term of overall sound?

Alternatively coat a BMW with Vantablack

Damn. Just came across his first review... by Roger Ebert.

Sorry, Brent. RIP Hal.

Table updated.

My condolences, Brent.

RIP ZoeBelle. Glad you got to spend some quality time with her. I'm sure that she appreciated it.

Loved it and I finished a season in record time! Gee I wonder why?

RIP ZoeBelle.....glad you gave her a good period of time, Brent. Best to you and family....

RIP pup We should all be as lucky to spend our last days in such a loving family.

avantgarde acoustic zero 1

ZIJKeE3.mp4

Spring is sprung here in LA. From LG G8 w/Lightroom:

Lily still loves cooking shows and recently has been bugging me to have a cake-off with her. It was my turn this weekend to make my cake for judging. She helped me in preparation for making her cake next weekend. It's a chocolate cake with dark chocolate frost and chocolate ganache and raspberry filling between each of the three layers of cake, topped with more frost and ganache. It was fun to make, I'll report back with how. it tastes later. Maybe not professional grade, but at least the flour that I buy at the grocery store is going to good use. I rode 30 miles to prepare for the fact that this cake is allegedly nearly 1000cal/slice. EDIT - not sure I ever posted a "complete" picture of the kitchen, if not, this gives you a good idea of what it looks like now.

Here's my KGSSHV build to offset all the fantastic, professional-looking ones posted in this thread (milling your own front plate?!). I had an old computer case lying around, so used that as the chassis. Thanks a lot to Spritzer. I started with his kit and BOM, and then exchanged about a hundred emails with him. I lowered the values of the pull-down resistors on the amp boards to eliminate hum. Other than that, the thing worked the first time. The player is a HiBy R6Pro, and I'm listening with Koss ESP/95X phones from Massdrop.

Left to right: 404, L700 and 507 Sigma The one with 404 driver is more laid back and has more colouring while the 507 one has the best transparancy . But the L700 sigma is the best with a very full bodied mid bass and excellent 3D- imaging and soundstage I have never heard of in any other headphones. Love all three of them