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One for Dusty ...

we actually got a longer run than most. It was pretty cool. And I really dig the ARM system. They're doing cool shit.

I've got most of Snakefinger on vinyl (and a lot of The Residents). Last time I saw them was 1985.

If I had to choose an interface/soundcard today, it would be a tough choice IMHO. It seems like every day a new enticing unit hits the market. SSL, Cranesong, Universal, Antelope, Focusrite, Apogee, RME, Merging... Even though I'm usually not the guy who asks for help, I would consider making a list of my "must haves" like connection choices and my "dream list" like what I "might" get into in the future, and call a reputable source like Vintage King Audio or Sweetwater for their opinion. I bug the guys at Vintage all the time and I'm usually glad I did. Should say that I've got a coupe of Metric Halo interfaces that I love. A LIO-8 3D (bought from Voltron and recently upgraded) and a ULN-2 I've had since 2009 (I use for location recording).

^ Chunk! Then there is the raccoon whisperer https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/lifestyle/retired-rcmp-officer-finds-new-career-as-raccoon-whisperer-1.4061502

Oh duh, sorry- RME Fireface UCX in this case. RME make wonderfully boring soundcards and have for years. Effortlessly clean and clear, rock-solid clocks, great drivers and spec sheets that don't lie. Not cheap, but I should have remembered "buy cheap, buy twice", which was very true here.

snakefinger still remains as one of my favorite musical discoveries.

Apologies for the super-delayed response! Personally, I'd be inclined to ignore MOTU these days. I know they used to be go-to option once upon a time, but there's a bit of a stench of decay around their driver support and maintenance these days- I think that function could be the responsibility of an unhappy skeleton crew. They seem to take a lot time to track OS changes and bugfixes can be painfully slow. I don't use a lot of MIDI personally, I have MIDI I/O on my FH-2, my soundcard and on the main Euro sequencer if I need it. I think if I was after a lot of ports I'd probably be looking at this: https://www.iconnectivity.com/mioxl Lots of people seem to be happy with how solid they are- they seem to be sufficiently boring, which is what you want in such a device 😎 Oh, while we're at it, treated myself to a new non-budget soundcard, it has been years since I had anything decent quality at home. Suddenly, recordings aren't muddy any more, even when internally mixed on the modular and output via the little output module- clearly the bottleneck was the cheap soundcard. Behold a quick test recording: It sounds clean and clear without being harsh, praise be! Straight out of the modular, no post-processing. I am a happy bunny.

That video lacks nudity.

The Cherry is lighter than the speakers, but will darken quickly next to the window. I have a vented front plate coming for the top space. The cooling fan sits in that space, and is really quiet.

I have a baby SRS-2170 set that I bought as new old stock a couple of years ago, and also picked up a well-worn but interesting New SR-3 and SRD-5. I now want to venture deeper down the Stax rabbithole, with two great deals available locally. The first is new in box, local stock SRS-5100 (SRM-353x / L500 Mk I) going for around half the normal retail price, and the other a year-old SRM-353x / L700 Mk I eBay-import for 20% more. My current feeling is that the expected superiority of the L700 trumps the sweeter price and local support of the L500 set. From what I have read the L700 pairs better with a warmer amp, and the 353 may be a little too edgy. I've also seen references to mods which sorts out the 353x's sound (I expect by biasing deeper into Class A among other things). Is there a "compendium" of SR-353x mods somewhere?

I just listened to that whole album. Delightfully madcap.

EbsjB3aWkAYM0O3.mp4

I had a friend in High School who loved them, as well as several of the other Ralph Records artists.....(The Residents of course) EDIT: just found the song he loved to play the most for me

Happy belated Birthday! Work had me offline for most of the last 2 days so blame the government, we probably deserve it.

Hey,.. It's not like Summit has slipped to the bottom of the charts! You're still working on the peak of the Mt. Geekdom as far as I'm concerned. All hail Grawk!

That ARM system is a beast, and it’s good someone other than Cray or IBM is at the top, honestly. Keeps them on their toes. I’m hopeful that I can continue to be employed working on summit for a few more years at least, and maybe stick around long enough for whatever the next wave of HPC will be.

#ChairPorn

Belated Happy Birthday, Krug! Hope you enjoy some this weekend.

Happy belated birthday! (party favour noise)

Had a arborist come out to quote on trimming some of our trees. I think this may get expensive.

Very nice Steve. You should definitely send pictures of the finished unit to Parasound.

Chiayi, Taiwan. 21/06/2020. Unknown Ecuadorans. Police detain armed militia members after protestor is shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Nose Bros. Rick Astley's 1st tour in 89, backstage in Vegas. Ol' Woz is looking pretty youthful these days. Graveyard (1700s) with portal tomb (4000 fricken BC), Co. Waterford, Ireland. Nardi Giannini ND750 Bisiluro 1955.

OK - I sprung for a Chinese one from an eBay seller for sixty quid and free shipping. We'll see. It'll take a couple of weeks to get here. Chinese can often be quite good with what they say it is worth on the customs form, so it sneaks past customs.

The Entech meter has of course been improved upon by the Chinese https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07NY21XG2?pf_rd_r=1BCER1ZTYCX3V67DZW7G&pf_rd_p=e632fea2-678f-4848-9a97-bcecda59cb4e . There is an image of the circuit board; trivial it is not. At least the Chinese one shows a value in millivolts of noise, and does not have a random knob. So there is at least a pretense of it being an objective measurement rather than Entech's random number. Looking further it covers 10kHz to 10MHz, much wider than Entech's, and is multi-standard - so you can plug it into both 120V 60Hz and 240V 50Hz.

Like many people here, I use the hospital grade cords... They work great.

This. All of this. I used to build my own power cables too, but mostly just for fun and I don't think I ever spent more than $20 or $30 in parts which still felt silly.

Buy audio components with competently designed power supplies. A $3 inductor does way more than any of these cables or conditioners.

I used to make my own power cables also, but the reason had nothing to do with the sound. It was to have them exactly the length I needed. Now I have a whole box of different length power cords that does come in handy.

Life can be difficult growing up with a "hipness" level far exceeding those around you! 🤪

$135 for an IEC power cord is a lot of snake oil. I've built a few Bob Crump Asylum power cables, and honestly can't tell any difference between them and generic hd 14ga IEC cables. For a CD player, very little current so even 16ga would be just fine.

Second coat of finish. I still have rack rails to install, to hold the gear. The holes are vents, which will get black mesh behind them.

Two more photos of the above: Unrelated cable management:

SFJAZZ: WAYNE SHORTER CELEBRATION PT. 2

Yeah, I'd go for that as well, hell even the Massdrop ESP950 at 500$ is better than this shit. Also bonus bit, there were holes in one of the dust covers. Yeah...pure quality. I just quickly patched them up with some tape until I have time to replace it. Also there was a small port on the cable entry which I plugged. There are also holes next to the swivel axis so I plugged those too. A small improvement to the bass or it was due to the cable... not sure. Need to do more testing