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So here is Xavier's new kit he got for Satanmas, from helmet down to socks. He was so super excited, and I got one of the biggest hugs of my life when he opened this. An even bigger hug was a little while ago when I told him that if he gave me a large part of the $$$ he's saved up, I'd help him get a new road bike, since he's outgrowing his. Our goal is 1500 miles in 2017; should be an interesting year. Diamondback Podium 700c 46cm... which will be replacing his Diamondback Podium 650c, which fit fine in October, and now his knees hit the bars if he's not careful, as of November. I can't wait to get this thing here and built. **BRENT**

The Utopias visited at my house last week, in the company of my friend Jim. Pretty darned impressive. The speed and finesse of an electrostatic with the guts of a dynamic and all that cliche stuff. Wonderful top end. As in actually for real, not just prominent. Very fine resolution across the band. And super tight, tuneful bass. Somebody here (JP?) described them as "clean". That's pretty apt. They're fast,fast, fast. It's all the music and none of the noise. Sense of space was palpable in a way that I've not heard before, certainly on dynamics. In comparison to other headphones we had on hand, (HE-500s, HD-800Ses, LCD-3s) they were just "better". Of course, they cost twice as much as the next priciest unit. All were driven by my relatively modest Woo from either a Neko D-100MKII or vinyl. We didn't have a solid state amp on hand to try. All that said, there were a couple pieces of music that sounded more "whole" for me on the LCD-3s. Mind you, I doubt anybody would listen to those two phones for two minutes and fail to judge the Utopias better overall. Ditto for the other sets we had at hand. (But it does beg the question: what do the LCD-4s sound like?) So maybe we're not yet talking about the absolute bestest thing ever for all time past and future.. There's always a new world to conquer. If I was really in danger of writing that check, I'd want to listen to the Utopias for a pretty good long time to be sure they were the right musical fit for me, before putting pen to financial instrument. I listened to them for about five hours on one day. Which, now that I think about it, is something of an endorsement for non-fatiguing listenability. They were comfy, too. Maybe the comfiest I've felt. But I'm not really the princess with the pea as far as headphone comfort goes. Most of 'em seem to feel fine on my head. The Elears are very nice, but not in the same league, really. It's not that they're 80% of the Utopias. They're a different sort of thing altogether. A sample of the Woo WA 8 sort-of-portable DAC/amp was traveling with the headphones. It didn't suck, either. I thought it was curious that they would put it in the box. I mean who is going to drive $4K headphones with a portable? But it drove both the Focals really nicely.

Have you ever had the charging system tested? That kind of failure rate sounds like either the battery isn't getting charged properly or there's a slow/parasitic drain on the system when the car is off.

I think the Koss 950s are considered the "excusable purchase".

Thanks, this is good news!

Yes, they can be repaired. I did the exact same thing a few years back and my left earpiece met the tile floor at Office Depot. Same symptoms and all they had to do was either replace the woofer or tweeter. If you have the older JH13pro, maybe it is time to get an upgrade to the Freqphase model while at the repair shop. The bad thing is the down time. It took mine couple of weeks if not three. The repair was under $200 for me...can't remember about the cost of the upgrade.

I’ve had yet another terrible experience with Cam-Expert, a relationship of years has come to a head after getting back a front panel for the second time that was very poor workmanship indeed, the brushing was coarse and rough, the rear side screw holes for the stax sockets were still slightly out of alignment again (I managed to fix this by making the holes slightly bigger on the sockets themselves). Anyway... I did a bit of experimenting, I removed the anodising via a caustic soda bath and wet sanded for a brushed polished look. I did this for all panels, the result isn’t bad and I prefer the shiny appearance to the duller clear anodised panels, but it does leave the panels vulnerable to fingerprints and scratches easily. Here’s a pic of the results...

Rarest pressing of Sgt. Pepper's article from Analog Planet. This is a great interview of the mastering engineer down under that sheds some light on why some pressings are so different sounding. http://www.analogplanet.com/content/origin-rarest-and-most-sought-after-pressing-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band#tlr27Ei6GZ78KvJq.97

That's a good Son! Heal quickly Bryan's Mom!

And obviously length and girth.

The Carbon is purely an off-board build btw. The 2 power supplies; 1) The Golden Reference High Voltage (GRHV) these boards include bias and low voltage circuits. 2) The Golden Reference Low Voltage (GRLV) supplies. You need to chose between using the the supplied low voltage circuit included on the HV boards or use a GRLV. If you do use the low voltage circuit included on the HV boards you won't need the GRLV boards. I personally like the GRLV supplies and think they are worth it, YMMV. From here... the many gerber files are mainly sizing and split supply options, most of them will be a choice purely to suit your design requirements. Watchouts... Well I prefer stainless steel M3 socket screws for the cree and ixy devices, many builders here use peek screws, I haven’t had anything arc yet, just be diligent and ensure work is clean and solder joints are as smooth as possible. I completely flush the scrub boards with 99% isopropyl alcohol before powering up.

I'd have the battery tested, chances are it needs to be replaced. Or your alternator.

Sorry to hear that Wayne. I seem to remember someone having a similar problem and Mr. Harvey resolving it. I'm sure someone will pipe in with better info.

Nice hat!

I was trying to shore up my aristocrat credentials the other day, and digging through some Greek mythology. I noticed that Orpheus, the source of the world's greatest music, was married to Eurydice. Eurydice was stalked, chased, and effectively killed by a minor son of Apollo: Aristaeus. Pretty bold name for an amp, Justin

I've been meaning to get to this for the last year or so. I was motivated to see if I could get this down in size The current board is 4.8" x 6.8" and is an all in one. Everything from power inlet to outputs. I still have a few things I'd like to get to, including having an option for the regulators to be off-board as well. I'm using some Mean Well switchers at 24V for the +/- rails then using the TPS7A4700 / TPS7A33 for a second stage regulation down to +/- 20V. These regulators have 4uV / 16uV noise respectively (not bad). There's a switch in front that allows you to change between SE and Balanced inputs via some relays. Here are some pics of where it stands so far...