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Waiting for Jp’s arrival. He has a bunch of he has a bunch of headphones to try out with his Matirx Sabre DAC. I have HP1’’s with the J Grado amp (Gene’s gear) as well as my Lola’s and Matirx Mini Pro 3 Streamer.

The Flaming Lips covering Nick Cave is almost too much for my delicate sensibilities.

Tom Bihn would never make something as crappy as that so must be Red Oxx.

Homemade brioche-style French toast on a cold (12F) winter morning with half the house still in quarantine.

Yup, fucking cold. But I still got in a bike ride. The previous 22 winters have been downstairs on the trainer and I couldn't face another one.

Have fun, boys, it's like it's 2004 all over again!

I was out of V60 filters so decided to use my Aeropress (haven’t touched it in years). I need to get my ratio right but it wasn’t a bad cup using my Kenyan AA I roasted to about 1 minute into first crack. The Chemex is out for delivery so I will give it a try tomorrow morning.

Joanne didn't think so, especially with my shot going spare 😉

Mini Bundt Cakes (with optional Bulleit Bourbon shots)

It’s 35 degrees this afternoon, so decaf-iced-coffee-on-the-patio weather. Yes; I wear a pinkie ring: I don’t think anybody here is surprised.

^ Is that the new Red Oxx, or Tom Binh d-_-b approved audio gear basket? I can't tell from this angle. Or has Costco entered the audiophile accessory market?

Godspeed Mssr's. Bogdanovich and Poitier. You both moved the needle in my world... HS

A little latte with my Breville. 2.5:1 ground on the Niche (I love this grinder since I fixed it; it stays calibrated grind to grind now) and oat milk. Could have done art, didn’t. Delicious. Aetopress is good coffee, Mike. Chemex is too. Different, though.

What about Snoop Shelby's version? What does that do to your head?

^ that's what you call invested! Guatemala San Antonio Chaguite this morning ala Chemex. A lovely balanced cup...sweet nutty citrusey thing going on. Yum. Will torture myself with the espresso maker for my afternoon cup...LOL. HS

Heat is out. Cats whining. Space heaters on (it’s 7 degrees out). Made some Counter Culture decaf in the Chemex. Damn that is a good cup of coffee! Ground on the SSP burrs in the Ode, at a 6.5 indicated (which means nothing for anybody else with an Ode). Super sweet. Honey. Cocoa. No astringency. Not bitter at all. Enough malic to know it’s there. I went very fine. Will try the tornado at this grind point, if I survive the night! If I were given this cup at a good third wave cafe I would say “huh” in a very good way. If I survive the night I’ll be thinking about that cup for a while.

Condolences, Todd.

I'm not seeing any snow angels in these photos.

Looks like it found a good home. Slowly getting going on the cabinets, have the drawer boxes built. Not having to figure out any dimensions for them was really nice. Design the cabinet and have the machine cut the parts to size. Whatever that size may be.

(creamy coconut) Chicken Curry.

"Creamy Coconut Chicken Curry (30 minute recipe!) - The Endless Meal®" https://www.theendlessmeal.com/creamy-coconut-chicken-curry/

More jazz for a sunny morning. It's 14º (50ºF) outside, that should be 5-6º (41ºF) if things were normal. Enjoying of a few vacation days they owed me. Chick Corea Akoustic Band: Live I think I've posted this before. It's so damn fucking good

I built a blue hawaii with golden reference HV supply and the simple voltage regulator based lv supply built into the golden reference hv board. Later I added a golden reference lv supply which improved the sound a bit. I also replaced the diode bridge on the LV with a synchronous rectifier for even lower noise. The blue hawaii is a very good amp. Far better than anything I had listened to previously and was a quite straightforward build I did not modify any of the gerber files. I did solder the leds, the resistors you need to measure the voltage across to set the constant anode current and the adjustment pots onto the top side of the board for easy checking and adjustment. I managed to fit everything into one 400mm deep disapante case The T2 build is by its nature almost twice the size of the blue hawaii and of course more expensive. The pcbs are bigger, there's more values and components and more power supply rails and multiple transformers etc. I also had to modify the gerbers to fit my build style, selected volume pot and the case I wanted to fit the amp into. The T2 is just magical and is my daily listening device. If you only have the time and resources to build one build the T2 and get the best to begin with. I don't regret building the blue hawaii but I have not listened to it since I built the T2. I found the T2 build to be big but not difficult. I read the forum posts carefully followed their advice and used xicon resistors and ultrasonically cleaned the pcbs. I also measured every component with a LCR meter and transistor tester etc before soldering them in and checked everything multiple times... I even tested the zeners and diodes and matched all components between channels and between + and - halves of a channel. I actually finished the pcbs about three weeks before I switched the amp on.. I got locked into a cycle of checking and rechecking everything and was convinced I would get sparking or noise batteries. So far I have had no issues at all with the amp and the initial fear I felt from reading the forum posts on failed T2 builds has dissipated. most importantly the T2 has 4 more glowing valves than the blue hawaii and so looks better in the dark... but then the megatron has even more valves

No snow forecast here, but is -28°C (-18F) outside right now. Fuck this shit.

that looks very close to my design. no surprise i guess.

RIP Sidney Poitier https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/07/entertainment/sidney-poitier-death/index.html

RIP Peter Bogdanovich https://decider.com/2022/01/06/peter-bogdanovich-obit/amp/ https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-01-06/peter-bogdanovich-career-best-movies

Found out that the inside measuring portion of calipers are ultra sharp. They will make a nice pair of 1/2” deep holes in one’s knee if you are measuring on the ground and accidentally bump into them.

Spent too much of my day installing the bizarrely engineered 1250 cfm Dust Right wall mount dust extraction only to have the cheap ass bag that hangs below the filter tear in half while trying to stretch it over the canister.

RIP to an old High School friend Chris. He was So into music, both listening, and playing. He fronted a rock/punk band in Salem, MA for many years. Back in HS, he was heavy into the burgeoning punk scene, embracing the music and the style so very early. Yet he was one of the most kind and decent people I knew. He never drank or did drugs, he was so very tolerant of so many faults in others. And he loved his family and his dogs (he loved Sheltie's) with a vengeance. It sounds like he passed from COVID issues. (EDIT: Bacterial Pneumonia brought on by Covid. I'm pretty sure he was vaccinated too). Fuck Fuck Fuck.... My very favorite story about Chris: a couple years after graduation, I found myself in our hometown. Driving into a 5-way intersection in our downtown, I see Chris across the street. He was dressed wearing a T-Shirt from the band Discharge. I shouted out my window, "Hey, CHRIS....Discharge rules!" And he shouts back, "YO, Discharge....oh, HEY Todd...!" It was so much about the music for him. I can't seem to stop the tears....every time I think of him they start to flow. A pic from a few years ago, the 4 of us were pretty close in HS, Chris on the lower right. And then a video of him and his dog Beau.