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Indie folk about a rough breakup in the middle of a pandemic. If you're in that kind of mood.

It's interesting to me that they apparently didn't do very well in 2020. While it was a shit year on the whole, it was actually a very good year for most consumer audio companies. I hope they manage to stick around and release an actual successor to the HD800S.

There are other moods?

Just ordered a handful of their different blocks. As for the rails, I used the Kreg ones which do have adjustable screws to keep them slop free. Did the superglue attachment method and then screwed them in place.

I think there is deliberate slop in the mounting system to make up for measurement failures if they are small. Need to route out some T Track slots on the base before I start mounting anything anyway. Garage is so cold work is happening in only short windows. I use the Grrrrriprrr on everything. Seems pretty great. I have been looking for the blocks to use at the router table but have not found them yet.

Set up the Murder Machine with its tiniest bit for an almost imperceptible to the eye round over for the sled tops.

Have an amazing day!

As much room porn as it is anything else.

Brands come and go. I've been around long enough to see the demise and reprise of vinyl. Audiophile headphones are a relatively new market through my eyes. And IMO they've oversaturated the market with too many brands. Someone had to fall victim.

Fried soft shell crab po'boy and Zapp's voodoo chips and king cake for dessert. Laissez les bons temps roulez!

Can someone politely suggest they sell off the soundbar business to fund the headphone business?

It is a pity this kind of news. I have always thought that Senn sells products with an excellent quality/price ratio. I still remember when Antonio recommended the HD600 to me back in 2008...

Good review, and I agree with almost everything you've said. Not a cheap product, but a very good one.

If I have my little router table set up outside, I don't bother with a fence. If I'm inside, I like the dust collection the fence provides. But as Nate stated, I back it off about 1/16th".

My 2¢, the fence is likely to cause accuracy and repeatability issues but I, like Naaman, welcome its use as a dust collection element so I usually leave it backed off just a touch to make sure that I'm getting solid contact with the bearing on the bit. I've definitely had to run pieces through multiple times when dust built up along the fence or a little chip of wood got in the way.

Yeah, the Jessem lift is so Purty I do not want it caked up with dust. I use a straight edge to line the bearing with the fence, so it is technically being used, just no reason that I can come up with to not use the fence.

Rambling through William Eggleston's Democratic Forest

Robert Caro - The Path to Power What can I say? Best book on politics I've ever read. Maybe best book on history I've ever read. There are certain books that I know if I see them on someone's shelf that we will get along instantly. Caro is a national treasure. This is so well written and so meticulously researched. It is a 1,000 page monster but it goes down smooth because the history, cast of characters, setting and Caro's prose are so compelling. The first book is less a strict biography of LBJ but more a history and study of America in the beginning of the 20th century with LBJ as a the central character. Texas politics, the Hill Country, the Great Depression and the New Deal all are described so brilliantly. I hope to finish the other 3 volumes this year. There is a chapter in the book about the daily hardships of rural America pre-electrification that is just an absolute knockout and can be read on its own as a great piece of non-fiction.

And few other videos on its creation. https://www.openculture.com/2021/02/the-beach-boys-brian-wilson-beatles-producer-george-martin-break-down-god-only-knows.html

You'd still probably align them the same way. Put them in the slots, put some double sided tape on them, set the sled on top, flip it over and drill pilot holes through the threaded inserts, or just trace around the rail to find its position. If they are sufficiently slop free, they shouldn't need to be very long. I've used the incra version. They are fine, but I usually just end up using wood rails instead. That said, I have never built a forever sled. I build sleds as needed for particular projects, so I don't care if the rails swell in 6 months as it will be in the trash by then. This is probably not a best practice, though. FWIW, I do like Microjig. This is one of my favorite things: https://www.microjig.com/collections/grr-rip-block

Slight risk of bias as I bought these (although I wouldn't make a big deal out of it as I've owned stuff 5x the price and pretty well hardened by now) but wow these headphones are pretty fawking good. Frist of they're built really well, like better than most headphones at any price. My Utopias were made of mostly plastic and the headband felt kinda fragile. These headphones are solid as can be. The earpads are breathable, don't get hot/sweaty (downside there is a bit of leakage) but are still soft and conformable. The headband puts absolutely 0% pressure on top of my head and the weight really isn't a problem at all. I like when my premium headphones have some weight to them, people who complain about these should try Audeze XCs. The entire headband/joint/spring assembly is brilliantly engineered and feels very premium. The metal ear cups are really nice as well although my pair did come with 2 very minor little imperfections in the finish which is unusual for an apple product. The ANC/pass-through is super intuitive as expected and there is no audible hiss in the active modes unlike most if not all of the competitors. Finally a precise, rotatable dial for volume adjustment instead of these laggy touch pads or cluttered button layouts where you still don't know which buttons to press even after years of ownership. The sound out of the box is aight. Solid ass bass, bit boosted although it's down in the sub regions. The treble is a bit muffled with some sparkle up top. Sound is pleasant and obviously default tuned to be inoffensive yet detailed with most mainstream music. Leaves a bit to be desired for critical listening. BUT here's the thing most people won't do or even know about. There is a hidden setting on iOS devices that unlocks the full potential of these headphones. With the "balanced tone" option these headphones are essentially corrected to almost perfection. The excess sub-bass goes away and the treble fills in without compromises. Now, these headphones can be used for critical listening. Thank you Apple you beautiful sons of bitches for thinking of us audio purists with these headphones even though this setting is not marketed/easy to find and at this time isn't available on Mac OS. Unlike most AirPods-settings that sync across the cloud, this is a device-specific setting which is kind of a shame. But I'll just use my iPad or iPhone as it's just wireless/plug & play anyway and I stream everything. I still don't understand the case. Either it's so brilliant and amazing my mind can't even comprehend or it's just a turd that 10+ apple designers somehow collectively fucked up. Either way these headphones are worth the price IMO.

Got back out for a longer ride today, on packed snow it's a total blast. On loose stuff, not so much (as expected). Really looking forward to riding these trails in the spring on this thing.

My friend Man managed to interview Emma from Sirenia (!) and confided in me that he has an interview with (the) Anneke (!!!).

The Leftovers More than a little contrived, melodramatic, nihilistic, preachy, and silly(!) – just my cup of tea. Some odd parallels with the pandemic situation, so somewhat prescient.

That reminds me that I received the second shot of the Pfizer thing past Thursday. Still alive. Penis becoming an annoyance 🤷‍♂️

Tennessee must be a coincidence. Doesn't look like our biscuit boy at all...

I listened to Dune this year and enjoyed it thoroughly. The sequel, no thank you. It was a total struggle and it'll be the last of the series that I bother with. In other news I (unsurprisingly) took @en480c4's recommendation and have now listened to Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth. The former is effing fantastic. The second was more difficult, for reasons I will not divulge (spoiler) but finished incredibly well and has me looking forward to the final book in the trilogy to see where the story goes. The audio books are highly recommended, the narration and narrator are brilliant.

"Sennheiser announced on Tuesday it’s looking for a new partner to buy its consumer audio business, which consists of headphones and soundbars. It’s going to shift its focus entirely to professional audio, including its Neumann microphone division and what Sennheiser calls business communications." Source: https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/16/22285497/sennheiser-investors-selling-consumer-headphones-soundbars-business This is pretty sad. Makes sense why Axel Grell left now. We haven't seen any really new high-end product from them since the HD-820, and it sounds like we shouldn't expect anything else to be forthcoming. The HD600/650 and HD800/S are my two favorite headphones. I don't think they are going away any time soon, but I doubt Senn is investing heavily in any successor models.

I didn't build shit today, I took it apart. Forgot the before shots but there were lots more cabinets in there. Along with some potentially anti Semitic graffiti.

Not really snow related, but here's my forecast. The kids had two days of school this week.

Someone dropped off 3 bags of sugar cereal at my door this morning and I am very confused.