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Kept it simple this year. Turned out pretty good...I shorted the cooking time, but I'd pull it off a few minutes earlier for a bit more rare goodness. Wifey made some great sides. I need a sugar detox.... HS

colnago c50 with super record 11 and shamal ultra wheels. It’s officially the riders fault when I can’t go up hill or fast.

Went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. Another Jewish friend joined, and a work colleague/friend who is Indian (and leans towards Buddhism). Was a fascinating 4.5 hours (!!) of conversation: religion, philosophy, jokes, and just good stories! Incredibly nice people!

I did Chinese takeout, as I do every year. It was delicious.

Rack of lamb at the lake house tonight. Everything turned out perfect. Food coma, then pecan pie if I can fit it in.

Artisan hand crafted whipped cream And Tiramisu

My existing direct-drive trainer had started to had multiple signal drop issues so Santa was kind enough to bring me:

Merry Christmas I made the output board for D&G and tested it with +/-400V and 845 tubes. Seems to be working as there's 44v across the cathode resistor. I was planning on using +/-1250V but the C3M mosfet blew up on the circlotronps because 1n4007 diodes aren't rated for that voltage.

It's those Blue LED eyes, right?

It tasted shockingly like the apple pie. 😜

Chilaquilas for Xmas lunch.

You didn't list a pricepoint, but considering that she's not an audiophile I'm imagining the budget will be on the lower side? One of the guys at work owns these and they're impressive given the cost.

Happy AI Birthday, Ric.

No... it is not shit and fart...!! thank you very much... Now try to unhear that.

Thanks Dusty, and I think you are right about the Sonys because I just found those

I don't know why anyone, other than the hardest core of audiophiles, would want any headphones with a wire anymore. So no specific recommendation (except that the B&Ws are overpriced for what they are, but you probably assumed that already) but a recommendation to look at Bluetooth phones.

Resurrecting a random thread rather than starting another. I got asked for a closed headphones recommendation and I am out of it on the current market. She is not an audiophile and doesn't want to spend a ton, noise canceling is ok but not critical, and doesn't want ear buds. Any thoughts?

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Ric!

Happy Belated Birthday Buddy!

Happy birthday, Ric!

looks exactly like him /s

This thread was so long ago that I don't even remember posting in it, I tried to take a guess at what I picked 12 years ago and the only one I got right was Black Sabbath. That one remains on my updated list but everything else is new. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath. Still one of the most fun albums to listen to for me, I've played it countless times over the years and it's still one of my go-to albums. Deep Purple - Concerto For Group And Orchestra. You can tell Blackmore's a bit sulky on some of the songs, but when he's into it it's fun as heck and shreds hard. Bob Marley - Babylon by Bus. Almost all my favourite Bob Marley songs on one album, with live energy & improvisation. Pelageya - Girl's Songs. Russian folk/rock/jazz songs, I don't understand a single word but Pelageya is such a good singer that it doesn't matter. Very interesting & different music than what I listened to for most of my life. Tito Puente - Tambo. Has more of a tribal/jungle beats vibe than his other albums, more percussion, less brass. Fun as heck, and it'll stress a lot of hifi systems.

Happy birthday, Ric!

This And This

Thank you everyone! Chill day with the in-laws. Whisky, apple pie and a rumored cake later. Hope everyone is having a Merry Midsommar!

That looks so good!

As long as you’re participating and not just spamming you’re good

Happy Festivus..

When it is cold and wet outside, Zwift is just the best. Also, good news. @MexicanDragon will be joining the HC-Zwifters soon!

It started with repairing a badly damaged shangri la jr driver 2 years ago, I almost rebuilt the set from the diaphragm to the stators，and of course the dust cover😦 The first thing I discovered is that the 'nano-technology' used by hifiman actually comes from the covering used by indoors aircraft model enthusiasts，the name is OS film and it is still available on ebay or https://www.indoorffsupply.com/shop/os-film-25ft-roll-1 the driver of the hifiman estats is completely glued which is similar to the early stax lambdas, but hifiman glue is significantly worse...after opening the driver i found that they only use OS film for their dust cover, the diaphragm is another PET film ~ a little bit thicker but with much better strength. In order to repair the diaphragm, I found a seller on Alibaba who can provide samples of Toray PET film with thickness below 2 microns at an acceptable price，and use the inner tire stretcher to stretch the film like any other diy estats ，Then test it with a 10" subwoofer and minidsp umik-1 to find proper F0. conductive coating is another serious problem，I've tried quite a few methods including antistatic agents like licron crystal, ANTISTATIK100，floor cleaner，carbon-based coatings such as graphene, and alcohol-soluble nylon, even tried nano-silver wire solution and metal evaporation...Some of them are sensitive to humidity, some arcs，some are ridiculously expensive, some have uneven surface resistance distribution, and some are sensitive to temperature changes. Yah~ finding the proper conductive coating is the most difficult part especially for a layman. unexpectedly, I tried to search for hifiman patents, hoping to find something useful... here's a patent showing that they used some kind of metal oxide nano particles as conductive coating for their estats. emmm，very interesting...🙄 By consulting with chemistry professionals, I decided to try a solution called ATO (antimony doped tin oxide), there are many antistatic agents I have used before have ATO ingredients though. I got some ATO alcohol solution at concentration around 10~15%, it works really well, and coating appearance is somewhat identical to hifiman diaphragm! The last thing is to repair stators. hifimans probably use #150~300 brass mesh and solder their edges to a 2mm thick aluminum base plate PCB board, then glue the rest of middle part. I've tried tensioning those brass mesh with embroidery frame and manual screen stretcher，but it is not tight enough to stretche brass mesh in this way, the mesh itself is too strong to tighten it up... then I found some brass sieves with different meshes on taobao and these machined copper screens are perfect for making DIY mesh stators... after everything's ready，i desoldered OG brass mesh, cleaned the copper foil, applied low temperature solder paste, and carefully soldered the new brass mesh with a heat gun. During the process of repairing shangri la jr, I started planning to make some bigger mesh stator estats... of course，the target is its big brother shangri la SR😈I received a set of the first batch of shangri la sr made in 2016，here is the headphone inside，yap~inherited the tradition of hifiman with such horrible workmanship...😱 however，SR sounds not as technical as the X9000 though，but with more pleasant and passion. SR uses 3mm thick aluminum base plate PCB instead of 2mm on JR version，2 black things in the middle are to prevent the diaphragm from attaching stators，The D-S gap is around 0.7~0.8mm(thickness of glue included) which is identical to JR version，active area is close to 6400mm² ，that is pretty large diaphragm size for a commercial product though，but less 5300mm² of area on stator allows air to pass through. I tried to use the 3mm FR4 board as mesh holder at first time，however，mesh stator disassembly is not an easy job...therefore，I changed to use 1.5mm brass plates as the mesh holder and glued the copper mesh to it , brass mesh is also replaced with higher # red copper mesh for more convenient adhension. I spent most of time adjusting the tension of the diaphragm and finally found the tension needed for F0 similar to OG SR ,the clone driver has a slightly enlarged diaphragm(6839mm²) ，0.73mm fr-4 pcb spacer， and everything is screwed to the housing cover. The frequency response of clone and SR are generally similar，but the sensitivity difference between the two is about 1.5dB actually，SR is more diffused...clone one sounds a bit more clearer. SR has obvious recession between 1-2kHz，it may be caused by a sealing problem in the space between the driver and the earcup.... It's unlikely to be solved without EQ, but it doesn't sound as bad as it looks from the graphics. one more thing... Every shangri la must have a throne , so I made one for my mutation🤣

I just got a colnago c50 with super record 11, but no pictures until Christmas because it’s under the proverbial tree.

Starting to look the part!

A Hundred Miles or More: Alison Krause Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: Elton John Brothers in Arms: Dire Straights Shadowland: KD Lang The Dream Academy: The Dream Academy

Yeah, I don't know if I could even pick just 5...still...so I guess I haven't changed much, but my old top 5 are no longer my top 5, so I'll give it a shot: 1 & 2: Animals and Wish You Were Here still, but I don't listen to them much, even though I have the WYWH Immersion box and Animals remaster with me, they're both unopened. So they might still be my favourites? I do still love jazz (Keith Jarrett's solo piano concerts, like the Sun Bear box; Return to Forever/Chick Corea/Al Di Meola; et al), but the new number one in that category has become: 3: Hiromi's Sonicbloom, Time Control -- it still has to be part of her Sonicbloom group. I mean, I love all her stuff, but her work with David Fiuczynski and the others was just peak. Shoutout to Greg Howard (RIP) for the single most electrifying solo instrument performance, Water on the Moon. 4: I do still love prog, but my tastes have mellowed so I'd have to go with Porcupine Tree's The Sky Moves Sideways. 5: I do still love what I used to call e-metal, but the public seem to have settled on calling it "electro-rock" (Curve, Garbage, Stabbing Westward, Placebo, Muse, Kardi, et al), but this is an easy one, as I still listen to all of their albums regularly, so pick any: Al1ce, The End of the Beginning, The Thirteenth Hour, As Above So Below Plus, it's also Post-punk! 6: My love for all the various incarnations of synthesizer-based music (from "Kosmische Musik" to synth-pop to ambient) isn't well represented here, as is neither all the centuries' worth of "classical" music or "instrumentalism" (Jean-Michel Jarre, Mike Oldfield, Vangelis, et al), so... Isao Tomita, The Planets

Necro-ing this because I needed something to listen to and this seemed as good a thread as any to find a good album. It is interesting how little my tastes have changed in the 12 years since I posted here. I'd still have 3 of my 5, easily. Sub the White Album and Joshua Tree in for Stevie and Miles and I'm basically in the same ballpark I always was.

A breakfast almost worthy of a Grehaem. Venison snausage and bacon hiding in the periphery. I would also like to note that this is what happens when you give the humble potato to the French. 🫣

In case y'all don't think I'm eating (enough) (Round a friend's)

The Cure's Perry Bamonte Dead at 65.

This is the statement, translated: ...so I don't think they are going to replace them. The Shure KSE's are also discontinued with no replacements that I've heard of.