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It's not something that I've quite done yet, as the official offer won't be until next week, but I have accepted a position at Miami University. It's a pretty perfect fit for my background and education, I'll be visible to the whole campus and, unlike so many academic staff positions, it has a built-in growth path. It's nice being the first choice, instead of the second, for once. It will be a bit of a commute to get from Cincinnati to Oxford, but I imagine that we'll move there fairly soon (Oxford is a beautiful semi-rural town, and Miami's campus and the city of Oxford itself are regularly rated as some of the best places to work and best places to live, in the entire USA, with Forbes having rated Oxford as the very best college-town on more than one occasion). I'm pretty excited.

My uncle contacted me out of the blue, this week. Apparently, in the mid-60s, my father owned a Universal Geneve, which he traded to his younger brother (my uncle, and the only one of five siblings still living) for something that my uncle can't remember, after my dad bought the GMT Master. My uncle wore the watch for years, but stuck it in a drawer after buying his first Rolex in the early 80s. He apparently recently found the watch in said drawer, going through things after finally retiring, and is sending it to me. I assume it's a Polerouter, of some kind, but I really have no idea. I'll report back when I have it, which should be next week. I'm sure it will need a full service. I'm excited.

Reassuringly so?

The T4 will basically incorporate the design changes that were shoehorned into the T3 with better heat dissipation, a lower noise floor, a better power supply, and a bit more output power. And a nicer case. It is a nice evolution but not a huge change. The T5 is a different animal, but it will also be considerably more expensive.

Congratulations Jacob - awesome! That is quite a month - married, and a new job. Mind you, when I saw Oxford, I thought "That'll be a hell of a commute"

They’re Back (as it’s already December 8th in the UK)

Problem is that I'm now wondering if I should give the Utopia's a try.

This is actually about a week old news, but last Wednesday night I was up in the UK Dark Peak district doing night navigation practice. The temperature was -5C with a strong wind, so about -15C with wind chill. This was with a trainer called Chris from Beyond the Edge http://www.beyondtheedge.co.uk/ . I drove up in the late morning, and we started the exercise actually in the light, at about 3pm. But by 5pm it was dark, and we continued on until after 9pm. This is all to do with navigation strategy and accuracy with a map and compass between places set by Chris basically in the middle of nowhere. Chris, is ex Army and climbs big stuff - he summitted a 6000m peak in the Himalayas earlier this year http://www.beyondtheedge.co.uk/chris-summits-kyajo-ri/ , he's a mountain rescue leader and trainer, and is an all-round crazy fitness guy. Anyway, this is sunset. Four layers of thermals and a jacket, and lots of layers protecting the crown jewels.

Here it is as requested. Hopefully I get another next year.

^^Pics of the jacket??? I spent the afternoon testing out various types of motorcycles. Need to settle on exactly what type of bike I want to start with so tried out a bunch of different brands and types of bike. Mostly focused on the Adventure bikes as I thought they are the most practical. The main issue I had with them is they are really tall but seem to handle fine. Tried the Ducati which seemed to have all the right tech and was sportier than the Triumph Tiger which is at the top of my list so far. Then the 2017 Tiger 1200. The new model will not be in stock until March and is a big improvement on these, in tech, engine, etc. Like the looks of these a lot but it is even higher than the Ducati. Not as sporty feeling as the Ducati either but more comfortable. Then I tried something in a different class, the KTM 1290 Super Duke. Really fun to ride but not as useful for road trips, etc. Ran out of time so did not get to try any of the cruiser type bikes, but that should happen this weekend. I did however take part in my favorite part of starting a new hobby, buying shit.

Silicone Carbide... that's what makes it tick so...Carbon.

You've gotten me interested in the Clear and the Utopia now! Haha.

Much love.

Mmmm, bag of dicks, my fave! Congrat Jacob!

I love the Utopia and they demand very little in term of amplification compared to other highend headphones. I get *excellent* results out of my Sony NW-ZX300 Balanced output.

Happy Birthday Todd!

Happy Birthday!

Happy belated, Todd!

Happy Belated Birthday!

Miami seems to be one of those places where people stay for decades, and I'm sure Oxford itself is a big part of it. I'm excited. I'm less excited about the moving process, but I have a while before I need to worry about that.

Good news! What's the job?

I figure that you may want to settle down by now.

Another factor to consider is the build quality. The 007 and 009 are both very well built, solid headphones. The L500 and L700 look to have more plastic parts?

I have both the 009 and the 007 Mk 2.9 with port mod. At the last Albuquerque meet, out of 6 listeners, 3 preferred one and 3 preferred the other, driven by a BHSE - I told them the 007 is less efficient so they needed to turn up the volume a bit to compensate. I slightly prefer the 007, as to my ears the 009 is a bit on the bright side, and the 007 Mk I is a bit on the soft/dull side. FWIW, recording engineer Bob Katz also prefers the 007 Mk 2.9 with port mod as being more tonally accurate, and Tyll at InnerFidelity seems to like Bob's modded 007 more than either the 007 Mk I or 009 based on his comments from Big Sound 2015.

Candidate finally showed management potential. Shame.

I think you're a damn handsome man.

"Y'all lame AF. Eat a bag of dicks. Peace!"

G'luck, Greg! Me: Packing up desk to leave Blue Cross after 8? years of underemployment. Exit interview in 70 minutes. I didn't wear a suit to it; hope they don't mind. I've made my list for things to do today... If I get 70% of it done before I fly out tomorrow, it'll be awesome.

So I picked up a Focal Clear and prefer it by a long shot over the Mrspeakers Aeon Open. They are both running through Raffy's Extreme. I am selling the Aeon on HF and have a chance to pick up an ECP BD for the Aeon plus some cash. From what I am reading, the BD should be a good match for the Clear. Any thoughts?

Thanks all! Yesterday mostly sucked during the day. I had to work instead of taking the day off, and ended up having to escalate a VERY late-reported issue by our EU Finance team. Something they had almost a year to review was raised as an issue about 1.5 weeks ago, and will now likely cause us to miss a milestone of providing some important information to our CEO. Lovely.... But later in the day, had a really good 1-on-1 with our CIO, who noted how much praise I and our team is getting worldwide, and also will have our back on this latest issue. And at night, I got to have my annual Birthday Dinner at my favorite local fish restaurant, with the woman I love and my mother-in-law (who was on good behavior). Then capped by a short-but-sweet call from my son at college. This morning, after staying off Facebook for many weeks, I logged in to see almost 100 well-wishes. Cause for smiles!

I think it depends on your preferred tonality balance. For me, the 009>>L700>>007mkII progression tilts the perception curve toward more bass and less treble. I think you're coming from the 507? If so, the 007mkII will likely sound most different from what you have now (but still great, I use those more than my 009's out of my Carbon).

Excellent news Steve. Fingers crossed for a quick recovery. Thanks Shelly. I also have the m51 in the BHSE setup, replacing the Oppo. I definitely am impressed with the sound because the Oppo was no slouch.

I don't have the L700 and never had the chance to try one either. I do have the 007 MK2.9 and it works well with both my Carbon and SRX Plus FWIW.

Have yet to hear a bad sounding ECP amps. Hell, I auditioned four of them and ended up buying all of them. Thank god now I am down to just the Ravenswood & L3.

Let's be clear, Todd. Doug doesn't make "lowly" amps. Some are more costly to make than others but none are lowly.

They are making me a pretty tempting offer on the 2017 Tiger 1200. Triumph is throwing in the full hard case set, a $1400 value and low interest and no payments until April if I take one of the 2017s instead of waiting for the 2018. Thinking this one might end up in my garage. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I pulled the trigger and bought one. New toy and all, but man I’m really loving the sound of this thing. Finally a not-fucking-around, dead serious ultra High-end dynamic driver headphone that isn’t cheaply built and/or uncomfortable. This is how an expensive headphone should look and feel on and off your head. I know a LOT of effort went into that Beryllium driver, but its shocking to me just how smoothly, accurately and realistically it can convey every little harmonic and dynamic swing of an orchestra, from deep bass to the highest of highs. I’d even go as far as saying I’ve never heard treble so smoothly extended and cleanly and naturally textured from any transducer that I can remember. The 007s might have the ultimate upper hand on the mids and deep-bass (altough this is, amazingly, definitely no slouch) but on dynamics, treble coherency and ultimate resolve I rank the Utopia as a superior performer personally. A fine recording of Verdi’s Requiem Dies Irae popped up earlier and the dynamics actually scared the crap out of me, while every little component in the recording was kept clear as day and separated in a free floating three dimensional space. The sound isn’t thin or lean at all, it’s lively, powerful and authorative and ready to fight should it be called upon to do so. This is the best dynamic driver headphone in the world to my ears and, all things considered, somewhat deserving of its high price relative to cheaply built crap a la Hifiman and Abyss. I’m just blown away by its capabilities, and it achieves this driven from a Chord Mojo should you want to stay ”portable” with something like just an iPad and Tidal HiFi.

The BMW 1200 GS is worth a look too.

Was turning left on a green light when a lady driving a huge SUV hit me square on the driver side. Jumped out of her car and yelled, " oh my god! I didn't know there was a light there. I didn't see it!" Paramedics and police arrived and her story changed to "he jumped a red light." 3 police officers couldn't find any witnesses but out of nowhere someone yelled, "whatever the lady is saying is correct." Apparently, this was enough for the crash investigator to determine that I was the one at fault and gave me 2 tickets. My few month old Civic is likely totaled. The lady is/was visiting from Puerto Rico, driving a rental car without any identification and denied having a cell phone even though she was the first one to call 911...The police crash report only has her address in PR on it with no other information. I am not sure how the Police just let her off the hook and blamed everything on me. There are two cameras pointed straight at the intersection but the police department says they are only for determining light cycles. When I asked them why the lights need a camera if they are on a timer, I have been hung up on twice after essentially being threatened to drop the matter and just pay the fine if I don't want things to get worse. Fuck Florida.

Keeping an eye on this all the while trying to stand still in 30-45mph winds.

Well thats 2:10 I won't get back ... and it took 3 people to write it. Lyrics Gucci Gang, ooh, yeah, Lil Pump, yeah, Gucci Gang, ooh Gucci gang, Gucci gang, Gucci gang, Gucci gang Gucci gang, Gucci gang, Gucci gang (Gucci gang!) Spend ten racks on a new chain My bitch love do cocaine, ooh I fuck a bitch, I forgot her name I can't buy a bitch no wedding ring Rather go and buy Balmains Gucci gang, Gucci gang, Gucci gang (Gucci gang!) Gucci gang, Gucci gang, Gucci gang, Gucci gang Gucci gang, Gucci gang, Gucci gang (Gucci gang!) Spend ten racks on a new chain My bitch love do cocaine, ooh I fuck a bitch, I forgot her name, yeah I can't buy no bitch no wedding ring Rather go and buy Balmains, aye Gucci gang, Gucci gang, Gucci gang My lean cost more than your rent, ooh Your mama still live in a tent, yeah Still slanging dope in the jets, huh Me and my grandma take meds, ooh None of this shit be new to me Fucking my teacher, call it tutory Bought some red bottoms, cost hella Gs Fuck your airline, fuck your company Bitch, your breath smell like some cigarettes I'd rather fuck a bitch from the projects They kicked me out the plane off a Percocet Now Lil Pump fly a private jet Everybody screaming "fuck West Jet!" Lil Pump still sell that meth Hunnid on my wrist sippin on Tech Fuck a lil bitch, make her pussy wet Gucci gang, Gucci gang, Gucci gang, Gucci gang Gucci gang, Gucci gang, Gucci gang (Gucci gang!) Spend ten racks on a new chain My bitch love do cocaine, ooh I fuck a bitch, I forgot her name I can't buy a bitch no wedding ring Rather go and buy Balmains Gucci gang, Gucci gang, Gucci gang (Gucci gang!) Gucci gang, Gucci gang, Gucci gang, Gucci gang Gucci gang, Gucci gang, Gucci gang (Gucci gang!) Spend ten racks on a new chain My bitch love do cocaine, ooh I fuck a bitch, I forgot her name I can't buy no bitch no wedding ring Rather go and buy Balmains, aye Gucci gang, Gucci gang, Gucci gang Lil Pump, yeah, Lil Pump, ooh Songwriters: Gazzy Garcia / Brenden Murray / Nealy Gerrell Giovani Gucci Gang lyrics © The Administration MP, Inc You Might be right, though. Adolescent music preferences have been linked to problem behavior in cross-sectional studies. Particularly, preferences for loud, rebellious, and so-called “deviant” music predict externalizing problem behavior, such as minor delinquency and substance abuse. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/2/e380

Had the soccer carpool today and the 12-year-olds made me listen to "Gucci Gang" several times while conducting an animated discussion about who drinks more lean, Lil Pump or Smokepurpp. I'm not super optimistic about the future generation ...