Leaderboard

Lage was just fantastic - i believe this was pretty much a unplanned jam session that shows off his talent https://youtu.be/Yrryw0HxV-A

Shelly, Marc, Claire and I had a great time at the Village Vanguard seeing John Zorn's quartet with Julian Lage. Great stuff. Sorry that our Travel Team time has again come to the end, but I am really glad we're getting the band back together! Next time we need even more participation. This place is right next to our hotel. I'm thinking I need to get some dumplings to keep the streak going...😁

Dinny had so much fun at our reunion, he decided to come back today!

Yep. It looks like this guy is targeting Birgir specifically.

It was great to see some old friends this weekend and make a few new ones. Hopefully it can be a little sooner until our next chance to get together.

I did. He confirmed it’s not a 300B output. He said the 300B isn’t powerful enough so it needed a Mosfat for the output, but I’m not really sure what that means. reference: CanJam NYC 2023 Impressions Thread (February 25-26, 2023) | Page 16 | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org so lets be specific 1) mosfet for output. lets rephrase that. 4 x apex class C high voltage power opamps. 2) 300B not powerful enough? pair of tubes is good for 18 watts. more than enough to damage your hearing. All of my tube designs that use el34 you can substitute emission labs 300b. with an adapter and extra filament transformers. Works great. plenty of power. including bh, gg, t2 and megatron. and justin's grand cayman. just because jack does not know how to correctly design amplifiers with 300b...

Long live the beautiful, beautiful music!

14 years later. This might be a record

BLT from Perry's deli in Fairfax.

Kerala Dust - Violet Drive. Singers voice and the overall chill feel definitely reminds me some of The The, with modern touches....which is a good thing.

Yeah,I'm not so sure about this one but naturally it will be ripped apart.

It was in a loud meet room but I thought the Corina sounded fantastic from Justin's amazing new chunk of aluminum with an amp in it. I also heard the X9000 for the first time and that was pretty damn good too.

Yeah, ASR pimps topping hard. I think Amir has a relationship with them. I won't bother reading... I wonder if he measured it correctly given past estat amp history?

I'd probably not dive straight in with Swift development for the iPhone, the learning curve will be somewhat steep, if you've never programmed before. Better to explore the fundamental concepts somewhere more friendly first, an introductory Python book/course might be good, it's a popular teaching language. We are not born with an intuitive grasp of things like object polymorphism and inheritance after all

Tchaikovsky/Sibelius: Violin Concertos Kyung Wha Chung, London Symphony Orchestra, André Previn 1995 (um - Nope - that is 1970 - this date must have been the remaster) https://album.link/i/1452191392 Example: Not much to say about this. Chung (at 22), LSO with Previn on Decca. yup yup yup yup...

I don't know where the rest of the chumps are but the cool kids are all here

For those who don't recognize our friend.

It happened!

On the plane! See y’all later!

This week I was browsing the net and I came across this: http://bbs.erji.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2239622 Now it is all in Chinese but these were the first pictures of the insides of the Woo Audio 3ES. This was an amp I never really paid any attention to, I'm so fedup with Woo and their sub-par crap, but finding internal pics does warrant a look. First off the pics aren't great but at least there are some schematics there and we need to try to verify they are correct. We have no further info than this as I can't find any more internal pics, so this is what know at this point. First the PSU: Now, nothing new here, same old crap Woo have been building for years but why place the output sockets right next to the power transformers like that? I mean the whole idea behind a two box solution is to place the noisy power transformer away from the amplifier and thus the output, not run the signal back into the PSU and have the output sockets right next to the, rather large, radiation field of the EI power transformers. Makes no sense but things are about to take a turn to the worse: Now... here is where things start to look a bit off and I'm going to see if anybody can spot it without venturing further. Now neither Kevin nor I can read Chinese so the markings on these two schematics that were included meant nothing to us: We focused on the tube schematic and wondered how this could work, I mean it is a simple grounded cathode 6SN7 input with a 300B cathode follower output. We are not dealing with a lot of gain here so at first the schematic had to be wrong, no way to drive electrostatics from this. Then Kevin figured it out, this is just a preamp, the latter schematic is the output for the headphones and what is that... it's a fucking Apex PA97 opamp!!! https://eu.mouser.com/datasheet/2/156/pa97u-1853045.pdf Go on, double check the pinout against the datasheet and look at the recommended values. Now look at the internal picture again and follow the wires, input selector is on the left and the preamp/headphone selector is on the right with the red wires. What's there next to the back panel with 4 identical modules and a shit ton of hotglue? The electrostatic module... which is made up for 4 of these which cost around 100$ each in bulk. This is a 14k$ amp! Now we don't know what is on the heatsinks next to the tubes, has to be a TO220 size part but no way to see what it is. The rest of the schematics make sense though. B+ goes directly onto the 300B plates and there is a grid resistor next to the "G" pin with the cap from the 6SN7's right next to it. Two large resistors next to each filament pin too. Then we have the large, brown, resistors going off the B+ to feed the 6SN7's and two identical plate resistors for it too. . Now what is the problem... well I can't see anywhere on the Woo site which says this is a hybrid amp, they talk about the 6SN7's, 300B's and the rectifier but nothing about a basic opamp outputs for the electrostatic outputs. Let's just quote them: "The new 3ES achieves the most ambitious dream in the audio world". Yeah... not so sure about that... Funny enough, clones of the Stax D10 are surfacing in China now and I have one. Guess what that one uses? Apex opamps.... and I bought one for 250$ shipped to me and it fits in the palm of my hand. Below are the rest of the pics from that Erji post for posterity.

Makaya McCraven: International Anthem @ Public Records (Volume 3) Looks like it's a Qobuz exclusive.

Plain English with Derek Thompson: The Science of How Music Hits Have Changed in the Last 60 Years Derek welcomes Chris Dalla Riva to discuss the subtle and not-so-subtle ways that music hits have changed since the 1960s Worth a listen.

I listened to the Cortina three times, twice off a BHSE and once off the new GC amp. Unfamiliar sources are an issue plus regular meet conditions but there was something about the midrange that bothered me, like an etch to voices which came off as very artificial but I need more time with them to nail it down. I also feel that headband is utter trash, on the second time I put them on my head the headpad caught on the metal springs causing the headphones to make a very lough "twang" sound through the earcups. I prefer the older type on the Voce, seems much more solid and better made. I'm also not sure if these are worth the price, just put them next to the CRBN and it looks like some cheap fake out of China, The headpad and earpads feel cheap and nasty and not high end in any way. This is always a personal thing but they were both sitting in front of me and they don't look, or feel, like a comparable product. The biggest issue for me though are the people who were there from DCA, I mean fucktards doesn't really cover them. I know fullwell I can be brash and bombastic but these people are utter fucking idiots. I went to their table to try the Voce and wanted to know when they were fixed as the original release of the Voce... they were fucking awful. This earpads never made any sense and it's clear to anybody who has messed with electrostatics for s long time. Same issue as with the King Sounds back in the day and they now, too, have moved to new earpads. Now the guy there, who was quick to point out he was the president of the company, said this gem when I said the Voce was awful, "Ohhh you like electrostatics so you don't like bass!" Yeah... and he also wanted to ask if I had ever designed headphones and when I started to listen, he ran over to Justin to bitch about me... which I heard most of. What a fucking idiot. Then we have the lady who was there, when I said matching of earpads was stupid loudly said this "SIR, THEY ARE HANDMADE!!!" Well fucking duhhh, all earpads are handmade outside of the molded ones super cheap ones. Most of my life I've been making things by hand, which have to be extremely consistent and it is easily done with far worse materials than these. Now I reached out to two manufacturers and asked if they had measured earpad effect on the sound. 0.1-0.4dB is worst case and with large production runs of earpads they are much closer. So the bottom line, the people making them are fucktards but I need to spend more time with the headphones. I don't feel they are worth the extra cost over the Voce, which looks much better made, and now sounds far better than they did. Add to that the Audeze CRBN being sold as B-stock for less than 3k$ and this becomes a pretty hard sell.

Unrelated -- me, earlier: The Church's new one, Hypnagogue -- as is typical, very very good. They seem to spend more time creating their slightly mellow, slightly psychedelic art-rock (E.G. "Destination", Gold Afternoon Fix, Priest=Aura, Sometime Anywhere, &c.) than any kind of sequel to their biggest hit, the wistful ballad, "Under the Milky Way", for which I admire them. Quaffable.

They're also two of my favourite violin concertos (well, top 13, anyway). Will give it a listen.

Kevin Gilmore once said Shure KSE is the best portable stats (iem closedback)

Happy Birthday, Naaman!

Party hearty Naaman! Cheers!

Or his maid has?

Pfft! Next thing you are going to tell me is that he has developed a fondness for Maraschino liquor.

In the zone

Loved this....

We’re here…

Holy shit, post of the fucking year. I know, it's only February, I don't give a shit. Hey Dinny!

It's nice to see familiar faces, even if only by pictures. Have great fun folks!

Fuck off birthday boy!

Nope

Soon, we're heading to get some lunch at a restaurant JP picked because it sounds like a porn name. JP, Adrian, Marc a d I are heading out shortly if anyone wants to join. Silky Kitchen https://maps.app.goo.gl/Q6FSBpAosuAwFA4CA?g_st=ic

I really need to list all of the cables I have acquired, that I no longer have need of. Lots of different adapters too. I might do that soon, and list them for shipping cost. Somebody could be putting them to good use. 90% of my currently used cabling is from Fitz. Love the quality, aesthetic and custom lengths!

I use a bureau to store some of my stereo cables. One drawer each for IC's, speaker cable, and power cords. Cleaned out my speaker cable drawer, as well as consolidated some cables I had in my closet.... This - plus 2 other sets not in pic - is extra....Jesuit Christmas, I'm a hoarder! 🙄😄

^ My preferred spot.

What's the phrase, "In California, Snow is what you drive to, not in" ?

As am I. Snow lost it's charm for me long, long ago.

Just finished working for the day. Now packing and drinking. Looking forward to see y’all tomorrow!

I look forward to trying these out but the damping does make the worried. DCA feel the need to add damping to everything while being shit at doing it, I mean the Voce was pretty much terrible in ever way. Also the matched earpads has to be the stupidest shit ever, this is worse than Hifiman levels of utter BS.

I am scheduled to get in on Friday around noon so once I check in, it'll be a game to find the rest of the crew. Definitely down for dinner Saturday but I have nothing else to add as this will be my first time actually spending time in NYC. Edit: Have I mentioned I am excited to see some of you for the first time in like 8 years? I am very excited.

I can't afford a real coffin and plot, so he's killing two birds with one stone. Now I'll have a place to rest. Awesome work Milo!

This is not directly related to the original topic, but ...the tiny Windows box I bought from BozosPenisRocketFund.com arrived today and I don't feel like making a general bitching about Winders thread. So this is my first experience with Windows 10. It's been updating off and on for two hours now. By Gaben's Grizzled Grin, this is why we pay The Mac Tax. For all of the questionable decisions and bizarre choices that Tim Apple makes, I cannot for the life of me understand how people use Windows as their primary OS. If I didn't have Mac hardware, I'd probably grow out a neckbeard and attempt to learn some flavor of linux.

Jeez.... OK. Jim and I apparently think alike.