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We have every other form of cooking thread, so why not baking? I'll start with today's lunch, leftover from last night's dinner ... Clearly nobody is going to hire me for my crimping (or photography) skills. But they were delicious nevertheless. The crust is a rough puff pastry made with 1/2 whole rye flour. The filling is yellow potatoes, peas, green onions, and chevre.

From a few days ago: whole wheat focaccia with fresh mozzarella, parmigiano, and grilled onions and shallots.

I might have to report you to https://cornishpastyassociation.co.uk/

I'm terrified of mountain lions, but pumas and cougars don't bother me.

I'd never be allowed into the UK if I did.

Obviously I have no issue with cross generational relationships.

Yuge cougar fan.

^^Nice ride! Daylight and daytime temps are beginning to conspire against longer road rides around here (not to mention kids' sports) so I made the most of the hour of free time that I had yesterday before dusk.

Hand pie then?

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn’t particularly want to spend the money anyway. She is super happy with the Bonavita. We figured out a recipe for pre-ground coffee, as her son is sort of noise-shy in the morning until he gets into his cartoons before school. Worked pretty well!

I've also purchased from The Music Room and had good experiences. One of my customers had to go through two exchanges with them once, but in the end everything worked out well.

^ this which led me to watch this v

No, no, I assure you that it is perfect in every conceivable way. The sound, the design, the way it makes my bowel movements smell like fresh cinnamon rolls.

That's the ultimate reason I ended up doing the CCS mod on my SRM-T1S. In stock configuration, it was a good match to the SR-L407 that came with it but it definitely underpowered my 007, to the point I started hitting the well-known difficulties with higher volumes spritzer alluded to above. Things are a lot better now, also considering I'm currently unable to afford a BHSE or even a KGST (custom taxes here in Brazil are no joke). Likewise, the CRBN is pretty much out of reach for me right now but one can always dream... That also raises an interesting point. Hi-end dynamic or planar magnetic headphones usually need a (more often than not similarly priced) suitable hi-end headphone amp to drive them at their best. It makes absolutely no sense to buy a Focal Utopia or an Abyss AB-1266 Phi TC and then plug it straight to an iPhone or a mainstream DAC, when you can get close enough results on such devices spending about one order of magnitude less. Of course, you can also do it with such headphones, but then you'll leave so much refinement on the table, you are no longer doing it for the sake of sound quality but rather of something else. If you take that into account, the estat proposal of always factoring a matching amp/energizer into the cost+practicality equation no longer seems so absurd at the hi-end level.

I've bought a few times from TMR, decent folks to deal with. That price is about on par for a used T2, you may be able to negotiate with a person for slightly less.... But all that said, why get a T2 when the X1 is out there? 😄 (seriously, I moved from the T2 to X1 due to a nice deal on the X1; and it IS better....not sure SO much better for the price, but definitely better)

Had a nice 2.5 hour local ride. Also broke 4000mi on the odometer.

Yesterday at my soon-to-be stepson’s best friend’s younger brother’s birthday party (say that three times fast): “hey, nice watch.”

That’s the upgrade model, with heat control (I think) and timer, Nate, but yes: that’s the one. Here is the more basic one I am talking about, which just has a rocker button (press and hold to turn on pre infusion, which stays on until you unplug it, and then turn on/off, basically). I like it a lot.

Seems expensive for used. What's a "muted Brooklyn+"?

I really have no fear of bugs, rodents, snakes or the other creepy crawlies that many fear. However, that clock tells me that it's time to get the fuck out!

A friend of mine paid me in Costa Rican coffee. They're pretty delicious:

I have finally completed my "return to the hobby" stack, by finishing up a recasing and upgrade of my 13-year-old M3. The design itself is 16 years old now, and it still has the same compromises from way back then..... but with a modern OPAMP, easy to drive phones and reasonable execution, I still think it sounds bloody marvellous. Highlights are a HiFi2000 galaxy case, FPE panels, ADA4627-1B OPAMPs, TKD 2CP2511 pot, 2" sinks and 110 mA output stage bias, complete electrolytic re-cap with Panasonic FR and Nichicon UHE, S11 at 27V, magnetically shielded SumR transformer (30VA, 12+12V), Cree zero-rec Schottky diodes, and a deliciously gaudy volume knob (so shiny, I had to edit out and hide my own reflection!). Sitting between the R-2R DAC and Focal Clear as my office rig, I'm a very happy camper.

For what it's worth I found this multipart interview interesting. It's Chord-centric, but could apply to other FPGA implementations, including PS Audios. It’s also a comparison across DAC types. I don't know enough to determine the accuracy of the comments.

I've mentioned in another thread how much I've underestimated the advances in dacs in the the last decade. Although there are other recently introduced dacs I'd love to hear (looking at you Denafrips Pontus) I couldn't love the Chord Qutest more (well, maybe if it had balanced outs and a power switch). If someone is compiling a list, you may want to add it. If I didn't have other financial pulls (damn you photo gear) I'd probably have picked up a second unit for a different system. Gave up local digital music storage nearly a decade ago, so Roon is a complication here. All Quboz, Youtube, streaming radio, various other streams now (when not playing vinyl).

I don’t like any of these people, so it is fun to watch them fight.