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This is a small project paying tribute to stax mafia. So I called it stacked mafia. I am going to build several amps in the same boxes. This is the first one. The Carbon with two boxes, GRHV, GRLV, 23 stepped VR. Planned by my friend and I and built by @ang728. Here are some pics. One GG is also done and more amps are in progess. photo credit to ang728

When in Rome ... Technically on Sunday, not today.

My quality of life is better at the beer box per hour rate than it was when my firm was charging $915 per billable hour. for my work.

I used Safelite on the RLX about 2 months ago without an issue. I turned it in last weekend so no idea on how it would have been long term. My daughter also used them for her 2005 Honda Civic and it seems to be okay so far. They are timely and convenient at the very least. Since I don't own my cars, I don't really care what parts they use as long as they do what they are supposed to do. Picked this up a week ago: Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

for GG

That should be a blast Jim! Have a great time. I got a box of Texas beer plus one bad-ass SOB from Utah and chicharones! I should do more half-assed legal work for Naaman because this is a sweet payoff.

Katz may be very successful and experienced, but I've never heard of him, other than innerfidelity. Then again, I don't really listen to jazz, which going back to his reference recordings, seems to be where he exists. This isn't the first of his articles that I have read; guess he's just not my cup of tea. My undergrad is in music (percussion performance) and I spent quite a bit of time playing with symphony orchestras. I'm well aware that different examples of the same acoustic instrument sound different. My idea of a natural sounding recording would be this one, which in my opinion (and my brother's (trumpet)), is a recording that sounds to both of us like the CSO in orchestra hall, back when they had a phenomenal brass section (Herseth/Jacobs, et. al.). That said, I would rather listen to a so-so recording of a great performance than a SOTA recording of a so-so performance.

Hearty Lamb Stew

Probably 2 x BAI until recently...

The problem I had with Safelite was due to waviness and distortion in the glass. Drove me insane. More insane, anyway.

Slow day in .ru

I had nothing but bad luck with Safelite and non-OEM glass, back when my ex-wife's car was vandalized over and over.

Sounds to me a bit like like extreme ironing

So, half assed work at $XXX/hr... Carry the 2. Not a bad haul for 3 minutes of work. **BRENT** Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

It is a really big thing, extreme ironing. Google it and look at the images. People try to do it in ever more beautifully crazy places.

I'm not applying too much thermal grease on ceramic thermal pads and angle brackets but sufficient to have good thermal contacts My approach is applying thermal grease at about pea size then screw all the compoments together,let the pressure spread out the grease.

Ghost Recon: Wildlands is having a free open beta this weekend and I think Brent and I are going to check it out. It is 4-player co-op so if anyone wants to join in go ahead and give it a download. Steam Link (scroll down and click "open beta"): http://store.steampowered.com/app/460930/

Happy Birthday Al!

I love that about Schnabel, because it was one example of many of his uncompromising musicality. He had a stronger forward drive and sense of pulse than anyone, even Richter. Probably overdoes it a bit in the onslaught that is his Hammerklavier, though Anyone who wants to delve a bit into his methods should check out on youtube The Teaching of Artur Schnabel with Eunice Norton.

This. Or just let him go back to doing his own show which was better than the crap they rolled out last year under the the TG banner.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, some performers like Glenn Gould were/are avid proponents of studio editing and getting heavily involved with the process. Bit of a funny dichotomy to his inability to stop humming and gesturing during recording. He even fashioned his entire public persona from this same mentality, with many alter-egos and especially in his "interviews" which were all pre-coordinated and more like performance art. He was also a hyponchondriac with no real feeling for temperature (probable fibromyalgia), who took a ton of meds for problems that didn't really exist. What is real is what you perceive to be real, I guess is the takeaway.

How is that even possible?!?

That seems like a rather flip comment. Consider this. You've heard live unprocessed sound, right? So you think you know what a live piano sounds like? A few years ago I was shopping for a piano. Every piano I played sounded a little different, some dramatically so. And that is true of EVERY acoustical instrument. Every live venue sounds different - Chicago Symphony Hall does not sound like Boston Symphony Hall. Different locations in the same hall sound different. I'm very used to the sound of a live piano - I have an excellent 7' grand piano at home. But the sound of a piano at the player's bench is not the same as the sound of the piano for someone listening to it seated several feet away. The first Stereophile test CD had J. Gordon Holt reading an article he had written, recorded using several different microphones. His voice sounded different on every microphone. So when you're listening to an "unprocessed" piano recording which you THINK sounds like a piano - what microphones were they using to record it? What hall was it recorded in? Where did thy place the microphones? What did that specific piano sound like? If you think about it, there is a processing step in even the most purist recording, and that is what microphones are chosen to do the recording, and where those microphones are placed. Because every microphone sounds different, and every location for those microphones sounds different. Those are the choices of the recording engineer. And by and large, we as consumers have no fucking idea about either, because that information is rarely published, and even if it were, most of us wouldn't know how to interpret it anyway. At best, the most we can say is, "gee, that sounds like my memory of what A piano sounds like." Note I say "A" piano, as most of us have never heard THE piano that was actually recorded. A mastering engineer is at least several steps closer to the original sound than you or I will ever be, unless you record your own reference material. They at least might have heard the original sound, in the studio or hall, perhaps chosen the microphones, have some idea of what was laid down on the tape. And, Katz has said that although the majority of his masterings have required some "sweetening", some have not, so he has certainly heard and mastered unprocessed recordings. And even if he is using "processed" recordings, he at least should know better than most what the recording "should" sound like. Look, I'm not saying that Katz is the be all and end all. I am saying that he is a very successful and experienced sound engineer and his descriptions and opinions are well worth listening to. Specifically I take his evaluation of tonal balance seriously because that is something that mastering engineers tend to be very particular about. But for the rest of us, who are using recordings where we don't know what microphones were used, where they were placed, what the original instruments really sounded like in the acoustic space they were recorded in, well... And that's assuming we are using acoustic instruments recorded in a live space for reference, and not a processed studio recording that never had an independent existence to begin with. Sure, one can criticize what amp he has chosen to test the headphones with, etc. That's perfectly legit. Any subjective review is only a guide, anyway. My tastes and priorities may be different, my reproduction chain is almost certainly different, there is definitely room for honest disagreement. What a dull world it would be if everyone agreed with me!

I saw the P5 in Minneapolis years ago. It was an odd and fun show - I feel like a remember there being a dancing bear with a snare drum. I have been listening to this. I don't really like anything else Fugazi did, but this EP is just about perfect.

Last night, but: Caesars Salad Black truffle sachetti in a Parmesan cream and porcini mushroom sauce This is like reading a Playboy magazine that doesn't have naked pictures of women. [emoji848]

Well It happened yesterday but @Sherwood sent me the pictures today. We organised a small Istanbul Head-Case meeting with Tyler Abi. at his house. It was increadibly fun. Here are pictures: The case filled with my digital section (MHDT Lab Atlantis, Gustard U12) and some interconnects. And HD 800 S... And Whole table: Me (sorry for the stupid poses, I cannot do otherwise) and Tyler Abi: Thank you Tyler Abi again and again for your hospitality. I had a great time. And ofc, @dsavitsk, The L-2 amplifier sounds great sir.

Vince, John is a meticulous graphic artist and builder. Below is a Carbon designed and built by John, sitting on top of a KGSSHV off board designed and by John and assembled by me. The knobs are stainless steel on the Carbon and titanium on the KGSSHV...