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For some reason, the text didn't save.The cat on the bed is Jack, the wild one. He's seems comfortable enough to snooze with his feet in the air. He's the top cat on the sofa, the other is Ebony, my 20 year old. A long time ago she was just a sad sickly little kitten in the animal shelter.

living on the wild side... i teaspooned some Laphroaig into a sampling of this year’s batch (now 11 days in). honestly? tastes great. just a trace of the smoke and it adds some more rich, earthy stuff in the taste that is totally unique. all bow down to the PEAT NOG

Bonus:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/12/07/rapper-turned-cat-man-who-is-busting-stereotypes-with-his-love-felines/

Blimey - 20! That is impressive Ours is either 17 or 18, and eats like a horse. Deaf as a post now, lost a couple of teeth, and too old to get out of the garden any more - she can't leap onto the fence. And she doesn't groom so well now, but thinks I am the cat god when I get the comb out! But she does all the usual cat things - feed me, cuddle me, let me out, let me in, and sleep for 18 hours a day.

Excellent. I'm looking forward to talking like T-Pain in Zoom chats, in any event, even if pop superstardom doesn't happen.

Happy Birthday Todd. What the hell are we going to do with you Steve???? In reality, without your caring personality, this would be a much darker place. Thanks Mr. Tice!!!

Dusty's right. TC Electronics, Dynaudio, Tannoy, TC Helicon are all smaller fish under the same corp umbrella. About the only thing they have in common are (sometimes) consolidated customer service pools, warehouses and shipping. Many have long and important places in pro audio. I remember when TC Electronics released one of the early interfaces with 96k converters! Imagine that! And their Icon 6000 System is still coveted in big post production film studios (Skywalker Sound, Sony/Universal) where they still apply the same algo reverb presets to lots of AAA films.

The Record Doctor V seems quite reasonable at $199.00.

That's tempting and I don't even know what I'd do with it!

It's really nice having the Colossus back home. It's like one of my children. I loved the time I spent designing and building her, and my collaboration with Marc. I definitely couldn't have completed the project without him. And again, a big shout out to Naaman for reuniting me with Colossus!

It's finished! Colossus is back in action, and better than ever. I certainly spent more time tweaking this time around. I think it paid off. I have the Hudson HI-FI Bigfeet between the stand base and top, then new isolation feet on the Colossus and I added more shot inside the plinth. It's sounding really full with great bass. Lots more listening to do!

Happy Birthday to my New England partner in crime! Here's to hoping you had a great day @skullguise.

I like the Kreg Automaxx bench clamps.

vpi 16.5 with disc doctor record cleaning fluids. I have cleaned my entire classical music collection (1500+ lps) on it. I have two arm wands, one for the cleaning fluid and a seperate one for the distilled water wash cycle. I also use the disc doctor replacement arm wand pads - a lot cheaper than buying a complete new arm wand from vpi. the machine is not that quiet, there are grinding noises from the motor and the vacuum pump is quite loud but it has worked very well for me. I almost had a keith monks. A hifi shop I used to frequent often was closing (the original owner had died some years before and his son taken over but had died) and his grandson was going through the estate. I went through the ex-owners record collection pointing out some of the more rarer and nicer records (they were all played on only high end equipment, cleaned with a keith monks before playing and mint). The grandson was totally clueless about the value of the lps. I assumed he would either sell the collection in parts on ebay or go to a specialist dealer. I purchased a few records myself (I was fairly short of money at the time) and asked about the keith monks. The grandson said it was for sale but had no idea about the price. At the time I did not have enough spare cash to make what I thought would be a reasonable offer i.e. multiple hundreds of pounds. I found out a few days later rather than ebay it the grandson threw it away! He sold the entire record collection I guess about 750+ lps on bulk dirt cheap to a dealer.... sigh A sad end to my favorite hifi shop. I found a while later that someone passing by saw the keith monks in the rubbish skip and took it.... the hifi shop was in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere so I hope it was another patron of the hifi shop. Even sadder (for me) was the ex-owner had made reel to reel recordings over many years of live classical music radio concerts broadcast on BBC radio 3 on agfa pem368 tape ar 7.5 or 15 inches per second, on either a high end teac, ferrograph logic 7 or a tandberg td 20a reel to reels. I asked about these recordings... the grandson said he had erased them all.... sigh

Hope you had a superb day, Todd!

Happy Birthday, Todd!!! I wish you had a great day.

The stage production was two nights. Quite intense at the time. Watched the film version too. Hard to wrap my head around seeing it again.

Angels in America I've heard from people for a long time that this is one of the best things HBO has ever done but I never got around to watching it before. Yeah... its pretty great. I don't think I've ever get tired of watching Al Pacino yell at people. Makes me want to see it on stage some day when our current plague is behind us.

Happy birthday!

Yeah, I know Bobby’s comfortable when he lies on his back and exposes his belly...right in the middle of the hallway. And Skye has been particularly cuddly these past couple days, she fell asleep in my lap today, after headbutting me near to death! 20 years old! That’s awesome.

Happy belated birthday, Todd! (party favour noise)

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Todd! Hope it's been great.

Happy Birthday Todd!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Todd!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday Todd! Hope it's been a great one! Cheers!

Damn, I was busy today and forgot to look. Glad you caught this Nate. Happy Birthday to one of my favorite HCers! Hope you had a great day Todd!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HeadAmp-Gilmore-Lite-Headphone-Amplifier-/184552802883?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292 Old Gilmore Lite currently at $99 on ebay, ending tonight.

Looks totally awesome! I've always thought that audiophiles would do much better to find a local(ish) craftsman to build their stands to order than to spend the outrageous sums the guys touted by the magazines demand.

It's that time again... Separated the point from the flat so that I could do burnt ends tomorrow night from the point. Flat will be split across both nights since untrimmed this was a 14lb monster (not converting to kilos). I'd bet that I trimmed a good 4-5lbs of fat off of it.

So, here is the other side of the wall behind the TV - putting a receiver in a garage is either genius or the worst idea ever. I got a nice cover for it to attempt to keep it somewhat clean, but time will tell. Got the wiring as tidy as I could. with eARC I don’t think I really will need a remote. I am using two wires from an Ethernet run for a 12v trigger to switch over subs to HT duty and could use another pair to run an IR blaster if needed. there is a plate that can be installed on the Arlington box but I am not sure how I would get the wires out. I do imagine this will be a good source of A/C leaks during the summer time but not sure what I can do to make it any better than what I have. ... plus there is room for a garage turntable!

Nice job Marc! I'm now done with my latest project. Building two turntable stands back to back, I learned a few things. One, was that I'd like a second shelf above the record storage shelf, accomplished. Two, is that I'd like some kind of stop to keep the records from pushing in too far on the shelf, accomplished. I used Amber shellac on the base to try to get that golden tone of the Burled Maple top of the Colossus. Worked well, and it also provides a complimentary warm tone next to the Cherry of the Parasound tower and speakers. I also like the dark top with the Colossus.

Stream 22 Bond films for free (w/adds). https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/4/22154044/james-bond-free-marathon-youtube-peacock-plutotv-hulu-amazon-netflix

Version 2.0 – Garbage

Dude, I’m a serious musician and I totally agree with you. Tangential story: I cut my teeth on my high school’s ARP 2600 with a busted keyboard, so I spent my first year finding unorthodox ways to create melodies ... and I did. When I went to the guy I bought my own ARP 2600 from, in 5 minutes, I was showing him stuff he never even dreamed of.

Same as above, but in picture format: SR-007 Mk1 SR-007 Mk2.9 Blu tack SR-009 SR-009S Here is how the SR-009 reacts to having a bad seal on the sides of your head (and thus 009S as well). Again, thanks to oratory1990 for his detailed testing.

Hi all, New guy again. I received the ES Labs Sigma with 404 transducers yesterday. So, grain of salt and all... They're lovely. They sound great on chamber music, and the sense of space is really nice. Significantly darker sounding than the L700. Also a bit rounder the the 007 MK2. Meaning, I think they either have a dip around 6K or a boost around 300Hz (or both). My biggest issue is efficiency. Orchestral crescendos produce significant clipping. I just can't play them loud enough compared to the L700 or 007 (which will also clip on occasion compared to the L700). Now, I'm new to Stax, so I'm not sure if I'm hearing the KGST go into clipping or the drivers are reaching their excursion limits. Maybe when I get my SRD-7 from Birgir, and hook them up to my Bryston monoblocks, I'll be able to get more SPL out of them. Time will tell.

How are those Armour clamps holding up, Marc? I’m going to use a lot of their T track for the CNC hold down and like the clamps but I bought one from Amazon and it came DOA.