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Hiss Golden Messenger - Terms of Surrender. This is an artist that Tidal's auto-suggestions turned me on to. Really mellow, folk/alt-rock-ish. Relaxing and nice to have on while working. I'm a fan.

It's a compromise to be sure, but driving to and from work is one of the few times during the day when I'm alone and can consume something like an audiobook. No option to read during that period and very little time to actually read.

Reviewing the end. The 21st Century Record Player

The other effect of getting new pads is that I can safely turn the volume up a little higher. The old pads had lost so much material and volume that I think I was squashing them closer to my ears to get a good fit. The new pads definitely feel thicker and softer and there is a little more space between the drivers and my ears now. The HP-2 also stay more firmly on my head, requiring much less fiddling to get perfectly comfortable. So I listened to The Cars (1978) HDCD tonight. It's an album I know really well, and the effect is more than placebo. I did turn the volume up a little bit, but there were things I hadn't noticed before and overall I was enjoying the album more than I expected, thinking I'd been overplaying it. The first thing I noticed was that Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr's voices were a lot clearer and more upfront – I had always found them too distant and indistinct before. The other obvious improvement is the soundstage. It doesn't get any bigger but stereo pans and reverb are well integrated, and the arrangement of the physical instruments (or the engineer's arrangement) is precise and realistic where it was hazy before. The crescendo on the last track, All Mixed Up, gets loud, but the instruments stay separated instead of colliding in a noisy muddle like they did before. Drums and basslines are more urgent, timing seems tighter, and rhythm is more prominent. The HP-2 are fun again. I really enjoyed the guitar solo bit at the end of Bye Bye Love, which I had never noticed before. It was clear as day with the new pads. Treble rolloff is gone and voices and tones sound richer and more natural. I'm a happy camper. I'd been slowly becoming more and more dissatisfied with the sound of my system, and I guess part of the problem was the steady deterioration of the pads. A few months ago, I noticed that holes had opened up on the rim where my ears were touching the inside of the metal cups. Turning up the volume didn't help much, either – it was the same flat, lifeless sound, but amplified. I think the new pads are focusing the sound of the drivers where the old pads were "leaking" the sound. Do not underestimate the effect of the right pads on HP-2s. More to come. Old pads:

I received a set of the Deluxe Flat Pads yesterday (as well as a set of regular Flat Pads – hedging my bets). They look identical to the regular flat pads, except they have a small silver marking on the inside edge to distinguish them. I only had time to listen to one track this morning (from The Cars, naturally) – it did sound really good. I'm looking forward to a lot of re-listening in the next couple of days. I was a bit dissatisfied with the sound from my Grado HP-2 recently, and I wonder if it was because the pads weren't "sealing" anymore.

The cost of making music went down, that’s what killed it. IMHO Every idiot who thought he could make music did.

I bet it is pretty cool to listen while watching upside-down sharks swim by.

what could possibly go wrong? Treehouse at the Lions Sands Game Reserve. Sunburst Peak, Mt. Assiniboine Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada. Click for slightly larger.

For creepy. Playgrounds from hell. And whoever thought that this was a good idea for kids?

aging is a factor - but 'video killed the radio star'

Book Club Chicken Tikka Masala Book Club desserts Cherry Pie, Chocolate cake, Scoop VHL. I don't mind it when Joanne hosts book club. And not being a member, I don't even have to read the book!

I left my new omega book on my wife's desk at her clinic with a note. This is the response I got later.

^^ That's essentially my issues with any "overly smart" smart watch. I swear there has to be a sweet spot in this ecosystem for an Apple product that does most of what the current watch does but has 5x the battery life and is wi-fi only. I'd buy that in a heartbeat, if they put it in a round case. Picky, I am.

I remember listening to this album thousands of times on my 944 Turbo S

Thanks. I also don't think the cheaper Watch will kill FitBit or Garmin. Hurt sales, most likely. That said, I vastly prefer both Garmin and Fitbit smart watches to the Apple Watch despite them being less capable. I mean as a gadget lover I completely get the appeal but at the same time there's exactly one device I'm willing to accept that I have to plug in every night, my phone. And that's mostly because I don't need or want it at night (again, yeah, I'm a prematurely old fart, whatever). I use my watch as my alarm every day and I want a silent alarm since when I wake up is not necessarily when my wife wakes up. Speaker if SWMBO, she has said Watch 3 and the charging drives her a bit nuts. Despite topping it up while she's in the shower getting ready it has left her stranded without a watch more than just a few times. My current Garmin smart watch is near perfect (for me). It notifies me when stuff is happening on my phone, allows me to clear notifications, ignore phone calls, track activity, track sleep, and I haven't charged it since last Thursday. The battery is sitting at 65%.

Head Case disagrees.