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Cicada season is over, lizard season is in! Oh and this is always in season.

Oh and the defender of the internet

I'm not sure why so many people are stunned to find out that Heddy Lamarr was a genius? I guess they still have a hard time realizing a person can be both beautiful and brilliant. I'm constantly a victim of this same stereotype.

Actually these Sony portable DAPs do sound really good. If you own easy to drive phones or IEMs, I think you will be mightily impressed. I sold my Pico Power once I bought my Sony NW-WM1A which was released back around 2017 or so. Its 4.4 balanced output is also powerful enough at 250 mw at 16 ohm to drive a 300 ohm Sennheiser. To many the old WM1A is neck to neck sound wise if not better than the Mojo Gen 1 and you don't need a digital transport. You don't need to buy the latest Sony money box. A used ZX507 can be purchased for around $300 to 350 now and they sound considerably than any iPods or iPhones. The battery is easily replaceable as long as you are handy with soldering iron and wiling to DIY. The flagship WM1ZM2 Walkman is crazily expensive at $3600 or so but it does sound excellent when I auditioned it. Of course, don't expect Mini Dynalo level performance but it isn't that far off either as long as you are not driving difficult orthos. I do actually have the less expensive model, the WM1AM2 and I highly recommended it.

So, I have made some progress on my project (Re: Prokofiev Concerto #1): I have made a secondary pass for all the above, plus a new one that I found - which is a good one: I didn't start an elimination process yet. But I did get rid of two of them because there was a flaw in the streaming version. For some reason, at least on TIDAL, they are jacked up. Not that these are bad performances or recordings, but as soon as the issues were present (a buzzing in one, and strange warbling dropouts in the other) I knew that I would not turn to them again. And they were not at the top of my list either. For the rest of them, I have put them in my initial ranking order, and I am going to make a final pass. Starting from the lower rankings and work my way up, I will make my final adjustments from there. I have also been going up the listening chain as well as I continue to refine my selections. I started with just my JBL Tune 125 bluetooth earbuds, running either off my laptop or phone. They worked well. For this current batch, I used my ETY-ER4 running out of the Alienware M17 AMD, which I have discovered has a very good headphone out. The final listening sessions will be running my full desktop rig - HEOS -> Marantz model 40n -> Stax SRD7 -> Stax SR-007. So I am going for increasing levels of resolution to dig deeper. I have not posted much in here - but this is the reason why. Back to work.

Inside every man of questionable beauty, is a young, beautiful soul trying to come out! Set that beautiful, young soul free Brent!

Hedy Lamarr. Apart from being drop dead gorgeous she co-invented spread spectrum communication as a secure communication method as WW2 was getting going.

Oh man, I just heard about Bobby Caldwell. Two things: Two: I can't think of a better tribute.

Just for shits and giggles, I did something suggested in case of air bubbles (this can cause the same symptoms as what I have): turn it upside down and shake the shit out of it. That got me one shot before the loud buzzing and lack of water flow returned. I think that’s pretty definitive that the pump is shot.

Hah! Fortunately I found a reasonably local (in Louisville, a city I like, and I’ll visit Prima while I’m there) espresso machine shop that does Brevilles. They think it’s the pump, and I’ll have the o rings replaced and the boilers descaled while it’s open. Should bring the machine back to basically new for a few hundred bucks. A lot cheaper than buying another one (I really like the machine; I would replace with the newer version, almost certainly), I just need to figure out when I want to drive to Louisville.

Not at all. It is simply that Hedy Lamarr is principally known as an actor. The equally striking lady below is the founding CEO of Oxford Quantum Circuits, at the leading edge of product development in Quantum Computing https://oxfordquantumcircuits.com/ At the helm of a company currently with 79 staff and rising.

Brent has no such problems.

We just call that a nipple stimulator in the gay world.

Sleaford Mods - UK Grim It sounds just like the album cover looks - Its catchy - I like Ex:

Indeed. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/bombshell-hedy-lamarr-story-documentary/9906/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cocktail-party-physics/hop-skip-and-a-jump-remembering-hedy-lamar/

Kevin is now working on a new amp that uses 2 car batteries and a coat hanger as the load

Well, usa_love is right about one thing. Those Mjölnir Audio guys have a terrible reputation. Especially on head-case. Especially among the stats fanatics. Especially in the Stax Mafia. Which totally doesn't exist. Do I have to put /s? I feel like I have to put /s.

The aim of the thread is to consolidate all the info that is out there of old and frankly strange electrostatic headphones we come across. I really should have started one of these back in 2005 when I started my collecting but hindsight and all that... So I'll start off with one so rare that there is pretty much no info out there for this set. Here is what it looked like when I got it: These were made by Audiotec in France and aside from some brochures back in the say we know nothing about them. There isn't even a model number on them or a left-right identifier. They are quite big, roughtly the same size as the SR-Omega and the back of the fork is pretty much a clone of the SR-1,2 and 3 setup Stax used. Here are the earcups opened and these do have the honor of having a truly unique earcup design. No screws as they use nails which are friction fitted. Very secure assembly but an utter pain in the ass to disassemble... Not sure what is up with that baffle. It made of the same material as really old PCB's but those traces don't go anywhere. Driver lifter out of its cradle and doesn't this look familiar. Turns out that it's the same or very similar driver to the ones used in the Stax electret models. Never seen one with the mineral wool damping pad being a part of the driver housing though. Same pic but showing a bit more of the green wool pad used on the back of the driver. This keeps the driver in place against the baffle similar to the Magnavox sets but it's a far from ideal setup. There is also very little to keep the back wave from colliding with the front and that foam around the driver is decomposing quickly. Showing the connections inside the cups. The joints simply have fiberglass insulation pushed over them but not secured in any way. Yet another thing that needs to be fixed... Here is the original 6 pin DIN connector. Oxidized all to hell so I simply removed it. Now the important bit, how do they sound. Well I don't have the original adapters so I had to make due with what I have at hand... I knew that the stock transformers used with the Audiotec stuff had very high stepup ratio (1:65) so it was no surprise that the highly modified SRM-007tII didn't manage to drive these even at full volume. I do have a few KGSSHV's here and they did a stellar job with a very balance sound signature. The bass is a bit odd given the housing and all the colorations it adds but not bad at all. Finally here is how they look now but I'll do some further mods to them. They really need a new cable and some baffle insulation... Last but certainly not least, great thanks to Luc for giving me this set to play with.

I got some wood stuff!

Or it is time for the HC Breville Mafia to kick in to action.

There's Dartmouth, MA and Falmouth, MA. Then there's what appeared on a Cape Cod weather report: Someone's got a Fal Mouth indeed.

From a couple of weeks ago - breakfast for some distinguished guests who were staying with us. Out of season plums and frozen peaches are both delicious when baked.

There is no Stax mafia....

Loved this....

Jasper says hi 👋

Oatmeal Johnny has settled in pretty well, a couple months in. He has slotted straight into “like Dunhill, but young.” Even Silver would agree, I think.

RIP Bobby Caldwell. 71