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Thanks all, had a lovely low-key birthday at home!

Before we miss another Peter's birthday, I'll do the honors. May your day be gloriously black. Or purple. Or perhaps both.

John Denver sings Black Sabbath's War Pigs (but not really):

Party favor noise! Cheers

Jump Up Calypso by Harry Belafonte (1961) https://album.link/i/1087856305 Example: Did I recently watch Beetlejuice?... may be... But regardless, a really good and fun album. It has Jump in the Line, but his voice on Kingston Market is so good.

Here's a bit of history, the original HeadRoom Max Balanced Headphone Amplifier prototype: It sold for $850 apparently, which seems like a bargain to me.

Continuing the theme of "fix shit yourself" I completed the two week journey that was bringing a Ryobi One+ battery back to life. It had sat (incorrectly) on a charger for too long and discharged itself to the point where it could no longer be charged. I suspected the batter was fine. Problem one - it has one effing torx safety screw so a quick shopping trip to Amazon for IFIXIT's smallest kit with the right bit and the chassis was opened. From there I could check the cells, see that none were shorted they just all had very low voltage. Problem two - how do you trick the charger into thinking the battery is ok? A few YouTube videos and some hacking of wire later and I was able to float the battery up to ~13V which was enough to get the charger to recognize it and fully recharge the battery. Sure, I spent $15 on the torx bit but I didn't put an otherwise functional battery in a land fill. I call that a win.

Happy Birthday, Dusty/Peter !

Yesterday to London to see Oedipus. Astonishing, modern version of the Sophocles Greek classic with Mark Strong and Lesley Manville. Two hours without a break. If and when it gets to Broadway, go and see it. Write up is here https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/oct/16/oedipus-review-lesley-manville-and-mark-strong-electrify-ancient-saga-turned-political-thriller

Your lisp does not keep that comment from qualifying as sexist. Oh wait, now I see it. Nevermind.

I spent a fair bit of time with the Utopia at the audio show yesterday, definitely the most fun I've had since listening to your PS-1 setup back in the day. Punchy as hell and it just doesn't compress or soften even if I played very dynamic music way louder than I'd usually listen. Pretty much everything I've heard other than my LCD-XC and the RS-1/PS-1 will soften & compress to some extent, my Senn 580 and AKG K340 do it, and so did the Focal Clear I tried out yesterday. My first impression of the Utopia was that Focal took an RS-1, fixed up the treble tizz and bass, and then just cranked everything to 11. I can also see where @EdipisReks1 is coming from regarding the soundstage & placement, it's definitely more of a Grado soundstage than my LCD-XC or K340. Audezes are the best I've heard so far at creating a believable sound field, that is, not only placing voices & instruments in the correct place, but also getting them to project properly. For instance, a timpani will make a sphere of sound whereas a trumpet will make a cone of sound, most headphones I've heard will make both of them into a ball-ish shape. The Utopia has a sizably smaller soundstage than my LCD-XC and at times it did feel a bit cramped like there wasn't quite enough space for all the instruments & voices to breathe & project properly. I get why an audio engineer wouldn't want to use these for mixing. Overall, I think it's the best dynamic headphone I've heard so far. If I hadn't heard Audezes I don't think I'd have any real complaints on the Utopia. This is definitely another headphone which I need to hear in a quiet room to hear what it can really do.

Finally got to hear the CRBN at the Toronto Audio Fest. I camped out all morning at the Audeze booth and listened to the LCD-2, LCD-5, and CRBN since I wanted to know how they compare to my LCD-XC. I have very little experience with 'stats since I don't know anyone in my area who has one, only ones I've heard was some entry level Stax (crap) at a meet like 20 years ago and a SR-404/SRM-717 combo a fellow head-fi member had. 404 was nice on some music, but dynamics, impact, and bass were lacking, it couldn't rock or boogie. Show conditions so can't really tell much about low level detail or resolution, once I got to around the LCD-XC level it's all fairly similar, I'm not going to pretend I heard a bunch of details or room echoes in the LCD-5 or CRBN that I didn't on the LCD-XC. But the good news is the CRBN can rock out to Black Sabbath and Motorhead, and it can groove to Bob Marley though I do wish it had a bit more bass & impact like the LCD-2 or XC. Soundstage is nice, perspective seems to be a bit further back which I prefer, the LCD-XC sometimes puts me right in the conductor's position in an orchestra which can sound a bit wonky depending on the music. Overall, it sounds like an Audeze which is a good thing. I think the LCD-5, XC, and CRBN are more alike than different, being a closed headphone the XC has a sizable advantage in show conditions so I'd definitely want to spend more time with the flagships in a nice quiet room to hear how well they can resolve low level details, room boundaries, and all that other stuff that's hard to hear in a noisy room.

Well those are technically mating calls, so I'm going to have to go with yes.

The older Stranglers stuff is awesome. One of my best friends moved here from England in the late 70's, brought us his taste in music with The Jam, The Stranglers, etc. Since then, he's seen them many a time, met them all, is part of some informal (and also another formal IIRC) fan club. And most recently, took his 3 kids to visit family and see the latest incarnation of the band in a town where his cousin lives. And his most exciting part was that the original drummer's (Jet Black) widow - who is close with many of the fans - invited him and his kids to stay with her one night. Lots of stories, boatloads of memorabilia, and he got to "hold Jet Black's ashes" in the urn. As creepy as it sounds, he said she was a wonderful hostess and they all had a great time. I haven't listened to much of their output since Hugh Cornwell left. I also got to meet them in 1983, when a guy in my dorm was a co-op for CBS records. They owned the sub-label the Stranglers were on, and we got to take JJ Burnell to a local college radio station for an interview. Some great memories.... All THAT diatribe said....I hadn't heard that Prong cover before, and it's quite good!

RIP Paul Di'Anno, the original vocalist for Iron Maiden.