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Finished the front panels on my phono pre. Nevermind Stephen “Bishop”’s creepy photobomb ...

After almost three and a half months, the KGST is finally in operation, and is sounding great. Thanks to all who have responded to my questions and given guidance. I am really surprised at how good the 40 year old headphone sounds with this amp. Special thanks also to Bigir and Dr. Gilmore for such wonder contributions to the community.

The replacement input jacks for my Fluke dmm finally showed up. When I desoldered the old ones, I found something that wasn't as it should be, and perfectly explained the problems I'd been having with the meter. A $20 part this time, and another piece of test equipment is back in working order.

Hatchbacks, I don't know about hatchbacks. I like hatchbacks, Joe wanted to ban hatchbacks. For 8 years Joe tried to ban hatchbacks. I stopped that. The country loves hatchbacks, but Joe tried to ban them. Now we have the greatest hatchbacks ever, that's because I stepped in and stopped it. I designed new hatchbacks myself. Some people think that was Ford and Chevrolet, but it was me. I made the greatest hatchbacks the world has ever seen. Joe wanted to ban hatchbacks, but I stopped that.

FYI, I did a small update to the forum software tonight. It did not go smoothly, if you are having any issues with images, etc not loading properly please try clearing your browser cache to resolve it.

Marc is 76 years old today, but doesn't look a day over 45. That could have something to do with his head always shrouded in pipe smoke. I've been inches away, but never had a clear view. Or possibly it's his career that keeps him looking younger. He's a towel boy at a posh country club, and the constant steam must be the answer ( I realize that some of you think he's involved with software, but that's just his cover story ). Maryanne sent me a pic of the cake she baked, just beautiful! Have the best day ever Marc ( if that is indeed your real name )!

Not actually cooking, but making tuna salad. I like my tuna salad loaded. Red Bell Pepper, Onion, Heirloom Tomatoes, Pickles, but not just any pickles will do, Kalamata Olives, Crumbled Bacon, Albacore Tuna and Ciabatta Buns. When I'm ready to serve I slice some Avocado, then add some French Fried Onions. Yes, I'll be cleaning my countertops!

Just fixed my recently sold Linn Basik tonearm on an Ariston RD80 deck. Buyer rang me to give me the great news that he had loads of white noise and couldn't get anything from the right channel! Ooops!! Picked it up off him and found that when the cartridge had been fitted, the sprung pins in the tonearm/headshell connector were gummed up and weren't springing back. Lots of solvent spray and a bit of persuasion from fine needle nose pliers. Woohoo! Problem solved. Happy buyer and even happier me. Can probably afford a better camera now and post better pics!

Dammit Brent.

Finally got around to installing the replacement IEC inlet / EMI filter on my spectrum analyzer. Hit the power button and it powered up as it should, thank satan. Then I ran a signal into it and the results were a bit... strange. It displayed the frequency way offset from what it should be, and there was some weirdness in what was displayed, and the problem was the same on both inputs. So I went into the self-test menu and most stuff was fine, but every test for the digital filter board errored out. Oh dear. It seemed fine and reseating it didn't accomplish anything, so I spent the next couple hours with the service manual, checking voltages, clock signals, data lines, etc. Everything seemed to check out fine. Everything suggested it should be working. I decided on a whim to run the self-test again, and... it worked? Hooked it back up to a signal, and... it's fine now? Wat. I dunno what the actual problem was, maybe one of the other boards I pulled in the process of checking things needed to be reseated, maybe it just needed to warm up for a while longer to shake off the cobwebs, who knows. All I know is it's finally working again, and all it took was a $16 part, so I'm happy.

Cheers!

Goddammit Brent, this is why we can't have nice things.

It seems quite obvious to me what happened. Brent must have put biscuits in the oven, which started the Earth's magnetic field to shudder, but then he started grooming that enormous head, lost all track of time, and the biscuits burnt, rendering them not worthy of consumption. Therefore the Earth's magnetic field returned to normal. Elementary really.

I paid money to see them in SF a day or two later. It was awesome to see them live because I was constantly listening to Boy. The October album tour was later in 1981 and their Warfield show was one of the best and most memorable concerts of my life.

Gorgeous Ambrosia Maple! Nice craftsmanship too! Impressive for a man of 76.

Gorgeous, Marc. That is one monster of a phono preamp.

I don't know how handy you are, but if memory serves Ikea has similar legs for sale. Some 1/2" Baltic birch plywood, a sheet of Black laminate and you can create a very nice desk built to your specifications.

76 years old? i have wines older than that. Happy birthday youngun'

That concert and hearing for the first time in an concert space, certainly an acoustically great full concert space, but sounds I never had similarly before, a person within sight, but down the isle, rotating his thumb on a water bottle label, a foot slightly shifting, in likely a still shoe, a row back and down... I mean even when I type that it sounds like an exaggeration... except I mentioned both after the show. I'd never experience massive group silence before. That degree of silence anyway. Even it it was interrupted with yells. Artist v. audience is always an interesting battle, but Jarrett made me a convert to his side. I can't thank you enough for the invite. I hope Jarrett can find contentment within his situation and maybe even find a way to still musically create to his high standards. And sorry to hear you've gone through it Dusty.

Amos Lee "Spirit"

literally never listened to this U2 album before. so now I am.

I’m so confused right now. J-pop but it’s actually prog. And it’s not even fake.

And Romeo Void!

Not sure if you were in the Bay Area back then but I got to see them at a free concert in the San Jose State student union. I ran across this poster on KFJC's archives. Great album but who knew they'd get as famous as they did (I never woulda guessed)!

Duck breast with mushrooms and gravy and tomato/beet salad.

Nice retrospective on U2's debut album, Boy, on tidal this week. https://tidal.com/magazine/article/u2-boyhood/1-75052 What a debut, man. Still holds up 40(!!!) years later.

Incredibly sad. I can't imagine Keith Jarrett being unable to play the piano. Ric and I were in one of those audiences that he harranged for coughing too much, and many in the audience turned against him and openly heckled him. A meaner person might suggest a karmic retribution, but even that night he returned to the stage and took requests until he got back into the music and played quite awhile longer.

Thank you everyone! It was a great day! My favourite band, Al1ce, sung me "happy birthday" on their Twitch stream! Bucket list item -- check!

All worked well. Sliced up the ply into 1” strips and then used the pocket jig to make a frame. I think 1” is too narrow so will probably do 1-1/2”.

And back to the technical with Ron Jarzombek and Blotted Science. What?

And then today, Still Life and Wilderun by Veil of Imagination and some Ne Obliviscaris. -- I have no idea who these people are. Getting more ideas from this list: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/sam1oq/extreme-progressive-metal-genre-draft-and-opeth-worship/ I seem to remember @cetoole citing one or two of these titles as his favourites of all time, don't know if that's still the case. Taking a small break from that for Mono, Inc.'s Welcome to Hell, which is nicely gothic for the season.

The Opeth trifecta: Blackwater Park, Ghost Reveries, and Watershed.

The Grassy Knoll (1994) Like a David Lynch dance party. One of my desert island discs.

Right title (lower right) wrong picture, lollers. really nice instrumental prog rock/metal from Poland (you can tell from the diacritics) Up next: Ne Obliviscaris

12" vinyl. Flippin' fantastic on my Musical Fidelity Roundtable!

I'm listening to this now, very interesting

Just bought a japanese hifi magazine issued back in 1995. It has the great omega+T2 combo on its cover with four pages of technical info of the t2. A nice collector's item under $20.

I was just watching some of his videos last week.

RIP James Randi Thanks for exposing the charlatans.

Continuing the 2020 news... Keith Jarrett Confronts a Future Without the Piano The pathbreaking musician reveals the health issues that make it unlikely he will ever again perform in public. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/arts/music/keith-jarrett-piano.html?action=click&module=Editors Picks&pgtype=Homepage