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Took Suzy for a nice drive through Napa.

Everyone knows the Go-Go's. In 1980, when they were a (pop) punk band, they recorded a version of their future hit "We Got The Beat" with Paul Wexler at the helm and releasted it on Stiff Records (a label best known for ska, early punk and new wave.) I remember hearing about the original version many decades ago. It was only available on vinyl, the original 7" was rare and kind a spendy and we weren't in the Information Age yet. Now of course we have the world at our fingertips (and the ocean at our door.) A guy I know who does very fastidious vinyl rips gave me a FLAC copy on slsk. Also it's on YouTube of course: It ...kinda rocks. I like the Go-Go's with rough edges.

^ This On Giacometti Hania Rani 2023 https://album.link/i/1657231124 Example: I have been waiting for this for over two months. Ever since Tidal showed me the album as a new release in December: I was all excited to have new Hania for the holidays. And all they gave us was two tracks and everything else grayed out. It was a long winter. So, then I had it as a mental note that on Feb 17th, I will get the full deal. I would say it is worth the wait, but then again there were two months that I didn't get to listen to new Rani. It is a really good album though. Overall pretty mello, but good themes and great recording. Her music harkens me back to when I first heard Philip Glass, and was introduced to a new world of music that I didn't know existed. The use of a close mic on a mechanical piano is not new, but she writes for it, so it is another percussive element that is planned for and enhances the music. It will stay at the top of my queue for a while.

Cupertino Brunch

Such great stuff!

Alambari DakhaBrakha 2020 https://album.link/i/1503194996 Example: {Their most Metal song} I am sure that I got them from Ric (or NPR - I have never seen them both in the same place together.. hmmm.) Finally getting around to giving this a good listen. In a word 'awesome'. Wild themes, well recorded, no apologies, certainly defies a pure classification by me. I don't want it all the time, but when I do, there is very few that can scratch that itch like them.

Maybe https://www.viki.com/tv/35630c-because-this-is-my-first-life-series ?

No, it's Netflix. It might be a country thing. https://www.netflix.com/title/81167119

Late to the party. Happy Birthday Steve!

Happy Birthday, Steve!

Happy Belated Birthday!

Anybody claiming that Stax bias voltage needs to increased, immediately file that with "doesn't know what the fuck they are talking about".

Kenny is one of my favourite jazz trumpetists. This is the one album that comes to mind when I think of him. Billy Childs - Rebirth

After having a look at the Japanese Stax repair page (with the help of Google Translate), I learned that Any international inquiry regarding servicing ( / getting parts for?) Stax products must go through the official Stax distributor in one's own country (that was the only piece in English in the whole page, by the way); The 007 Mk1 can still be serviced by Stax in Japan but with possible substitution of parts. I reckon that in the particular case of the 007 Mk1 this includes the sound elements - they're indeed probably replaced by current Mk2 sound elements. My email contact with Edifier on my issue wasn't helpful, so yesterday I paid a visit to Edifier's showroom in São Paulo. They agreed to have a look into how to contact Stax to diagnose (a bit moot after one sees the pictures above) and to have a cost estimate on the repair. Let's hope... My impression is that nobody came to them before for this since they started distributing Stax products in Brazil... There was a good thing that came from that visit already, though: they had a small listening room full of Stax gear, among them the SR-009S, so I could listen to it for the first time. It was powered by the Stax SRM-700T energizer and sourced by the famed (or infamous?) PonoPlayer DAP, spearheaded by Neil Young's PonoMusic until its demise in 2017 (my first time seeing one of those as well). I've listened to the following tracks, which I had a good memory from listening to them with my 007 rig: David Bowie, Space Oddity (2015 remaster); The Doors, The End; Yes, Hold On; Glenn Gould, Toccata in E Minor, BWV 914 by Johann Sebastian Bach. I know I'm about to undertake quite a tricky comparison - I'm actually comparing two completely different audio chains, not just the cans. I'll try to make the best out of it. The comparison will be mostly against the 007A since my Mk1 has been out of commission for a while and I don't trust my impressions so far back in time with enough details to serve that purpose. Even though I had never listened to the PonoPlayer before, I do know it's powered by the Sabre ESS9018K12M DAC, which is inferior to the newer and more powerful ESS9028 PRO DAC in the Fiio X7 MkII DAP, which I do happen to own. Since I can safely say that the Fiio X7 MkII is quite inferior to my RME ADI-2 desktop DAC in every way except perhaps on soundstage rendering, which is somewhat wider on the X7 MkII, I believe I don't need to fear any comparisons on the DAC side (badumtss). Both cans are very different. The 009S is quite comfortable with the right adjustment on the headband, but you need to find the precise angle to put the headband on for a proper seal. There is also significantly more space for the ears inside the earpad cavities than with the 007A, perhaps even a bit too much (the Mk1 hits the sweet spot in that regard). Regarding sound, the first thing that came to my attention about the 009S was its soundstage - it's significantly wider and deeper than that of the 007 (even the Mk1, I daresay), probably to a large extent due to its earpads. The directional imaging was also superior, seemingly due to the wider perceived soundstage. However, the layering was clearly inferior - there was only "really close" and "quite far" with the 009S, unlike the subtle multilayered imaging of the 007 as already reported by Birgir here on HC. If you take into account the 007's more compressed soundstage (at least in my rig), it only makes that even more impressive. The 009S is ever slightly more resolving than the 007A to my ears, but not sure if that difference is enough to make it more resolving than the Mk1. Instrument separation is comparable, maybe with a slight advantage to the 009S. Regarding bass, there is no contest - the 007 clearly wins, the 009S's bass is just too thin and lacks slam. The energizer may be also playing a role here - the SRM-700T uses the same tubes I'm using on my T1S (a pair of 6SN7GTB's) but it drives them at a slightly higher output voltage (340V instead of the T1S's 320V) and, more importantly, a higher plate current (each tube section's plate is loaded by a Dale NS-7 1% 7W 47kOhm resistor, which amounts to 7.2mA/section). Increasing the CCS's current to 6mA/section as planned for the near future may improve things on my side. With 4.9mA/section I still think that the Raytheon / Toshiba 6CG7 tubes sound slightly more refined on the T1S, despite the clear improvements on frequency response both at higher and lower volumes with the Tung-Sol NOS 6SN7GTB's. Regarding timbre, it's a more nuanced matter. I really liked the 009S with solo piano in Glenn Gould's track - the wider soundstage together with that makes for quite a vivid impression of a grand piano in a concert hall, whereas the 007 sounds more like the instrument is in a studio room or perhaps as if you were sitting on the performer's bench. Obviously, it doesn't feel as if you were playing the piano. No sound transducer can convey that feeling - you largely listen to it with your bones through your fingertips, as well as with your ears, as you play. For human voices, though, it's a different story... The 007 is definitely more natural and pleasant. I'd need to listen for more varied tracks and a longer period of time to form a more complete picture of the 009S's timbre against the 007's. That will have to wait for another visit to Edifier's showroom... Hopefully they'll have a SR-X9000 for testing as well by then...

Sakura Sushi. And it was great! As was the Bill Nighy movie, Living!

New Hania Rami

About half of this coffered ceiling and 1/3 of the wainscoting was missing. I had to manufacture some of the trim that is no longer available. Painters have done a fantastic job making my work look even better.

Oh, I did get my VST 18g Basket in the other day. I have switched over from my 20g. It is working great. As I thought the automatic grinder is now dialed in to 20g in (down from 22+). It took a few pulls to get the grind and extraction right with 2g+ less coffee in the basket. But it is pulling really nice and even and giving good extraction as I am now grinding finer with this setup. With the 20 in and about 42 out in about 35 seconds. The final bag of Brazilian roast from Dan tasting good.

Some jazz fusion this morning

DAT stands for Data All Trashed

I can say that 20 year old cassettes sound a WHOLE LOT better than 20 year old dats.

Book Club Food Oh, and there was Chocolate Raspberry Cream Cake for dessert. Well, it would be rude not to.

Trade roasters don’t fuck around.

R.I.P. comedian Richard Belzer at 78...