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Four pizza night: Shitake, leek, thyme, gruyere and fresh mozzarella Pesto mozzarella Detroit style -- one with pepperoni and one with Spanish chorizo and both with Jack / Colby

The best is the 007 Mk 2.718281828459045.. or 007 Mk e for short. It’s the most natural.

I really shouldn't, but I HAD to laugh.....

I dunno, I find the 007 Mk 3.14159265359 has a more... well-rounded presentation.

When in San Anselmo. Redwood Grove: ✅ Bourgeoisie at play: ✅ Itinerant musician: ✅ Comforts Chinese Chicken Salad: ✅

Finally got the time to mount the FLM ball head on my Bogen tripod which I bought back in the 80's. Started playing with and setting up the controls on the FLM ball head and I am impressed. FLM is a small German company and seems fairly unknown in the US. I also have a RRS BH-40 ball head. IMO, the relatively equivalent FLM ball head is of equal or better quality at a lower cost to the RRS ball head. I like them both. The FLM head does have some unique and innovative features which I find rather handy.

I just discovered Mark Lettieri made two albums devoted to the baritone guitar, so I am about to listen to Deep: The Baritone Sessions and Deep: The Baritone Sessions Vol. 2. Example that started me on this trip:

The snowmageddon has commenced here in southern NH. It started around 7am and has picked up significantly in the last hour. Winds are steady and not insane, here's to hoping they stay that way and the power stays on. Brisket production has already been delayed one day to allow weather to clear and avoid an interrupted cook. Bear in mind that the yard was 100% bare of snow yesterday.

Mmmmm pie...... Port modded I'd always pick the 007's as that unleashes their full potential but stock... well that puts the CRBN's on a more equal footing. The 007's are more honest over al but that can also be a detriment for some users and the CRBN would be a better fit with many music styles. They are more forgiving and warmer where the 007's will always be brutally honest. Also the CRBN's does things the 007's just don't do well, ease of fitment for one...

Built to Spill - Perfect from Now On

I sent Sam a PM with a link and an explanation of why, but if anybody is interested, This is the pitcher I steam with. It works very well for one drink, but is just big enough for two (ymmv, as I make traditional lattes, which are in 8 ounce cups). This refers to the 20 ounce version, of course: 12 ounce pitchers are very small. The uncoated, brushed interior of the Subminimal Flowtip increases nucleation points, but I’m not convinced I steam any better with it than a fully coated pitcher. The increased friction probably makes pouring slightly more precise, but I don’t do latte art, let alone need that sort of “advantage!”

What's the intended purpose? If that involves shooting people, you can just keep all the lenses (maybe you don't need all of them) and buy a mirrorless body like the EOS R or EOS RP with an adapter and your life will be a whole lot easier with the AF system, tilting touchscreen, etc. (and you can also try shooting video as well in some situations, really useful). If you are patient enough these two will pop up for cheap prices, barely used.

For the espresso-curious like me I thought this was a useful primer on some of the terminology and concepts that are getting discussed in this thread.

Thanks for the info, Jacob. Sipping an El Salvador Santa Rosa pour over...lovely. Damn Onyx Coffee Labs...LOL. I tasted the Oatly Barista oat milk this morning straight up cold....what one would expect of oat milk I think. A bit sweeter than I expected but pleasant enough assuming one likes the taste of oats. Nutritionally they contain similar calories, fat count although the cow's milk definitely has more saturated fats, sugars/carbs higher on oat milk and protein markedly higher on cow's milk. I used my frother (not the steamer on the espresso machine) and whipped up the Oatly. It does a nice job as far as creamy texture so clearly the added fat from the expeller oil does its job. I'll brave it in a cappuccino this afternoon and see how I feel about the flavor in coffee. Interesting experiment thus far. HS

Best wishes, stay safe, Nate.

Damn @Voltron, I'm hungry. Fax is on...

You can't even imagine how good they were!

I assumed Doug was recommending a jointer made by 92 year old dwarves that have been made by the same dwarves for 72 years and end up being harder to use than sand paper in jointing, so I can earn the flat surface. Anything Naaman recommends only fits in his ever expanding garage, weighs more than my truck and takes 320 weeks to show up.

Man, hard for old people to replicate the power of young people's falling in or out of love's all-in perspective (or at least fake it in song).

A few months after I tried the Lumin X1 (maybe not in optimal circumstances), the Gold Note DS-10 + PSU-10 EVO gets a two thumbs-up from me. I would love to know if there is anything better from the R2R camp for this price (or this level of sound quality for cheaper), but this unit sounds amazing with all my Stax headphones. Excellent versatility and build quality as well, changing settings that influence the sound could be interesting, but I didn't feel that was necessary. I don't like paying for something that I don't use, which are the internal PSU and even the headphone amp (which is quite powerful and supposed to be very good as well). Not portable like the Lavry, not that happy about giving up crossfeed, and there was this blinking blue LED at the rear that was probably tied to some wifi setting or something which I had to cover. Otherwise highly recommended. (like all reviews say, but they generally say the same about pretty much everything...) Well done, Italy.

I know the Ember was a game changer for my wife. With the kids running around, she was dealing with cold coffee multiple times a day, every day. I bought her the original 10 oz for her birthday a few years back, and when the 14 oz was released, I upgraded her that Christmas. 136 degree Americanos make Lauren a happy woman.

my latest is kgdynalobal9-cadcam which is version 1.2 i can't find anything with .4 on it if you are talking about kerry's board, that is not my property and i don't have the gerber files for that. or supply a link to a picture.

Now this X9000 thingy... I am waiting in anxiety for Birgir's impression on it, as it might sound good with the types of music he is listening to. I have borrowed one (with a DAC, amp, cables, the whole shebang) from a lovely owner due to his lack of time to listen for a whole week now, and I have changed my mind like 5 times. I think it is probably the fastest headphone I've heard with the best, ultra-precise spatial detail, very foot-tapping, this is the type of music where it is very impressive. but also the one of the most unrealistic (in the second one, it just goes to the next slow-paced track and it starts to sound weird). Yes, it reproduces even more of what's in symphonic music, if there is more textural information that makes the sound become more natural, they are kind of "overwritten" by its new technical level that it is playing at. Maybe I am clueless, but I think they have taken it too far regarding diaphragm thickness. They have managed to take the speed over 9000 (That's impossible!) I think it can be tuned to be better (waiting for the 'S' version...) I don't know what's the slowest, lushest amp possible to make it somewhat more enjoyable for me. (Or use several amps and change the sound depending on the music) But I don't see the point of buying the fastest out there to make it slow. Yes, it has mesh transducers like the SR-Omega with impeccable build, and you can actually buy one (with warranty), there are similarities, like big but lightweight, big stage, etc. but they sound nothing alike. I can see 009 owners seeing this as a big upgrade, that was the previous one I tested (not like this, unfortunately, only with the amp...) and I think it sounded "very intense" (restraining myself here), but the speed wasn't taken to this extreme level. I have also tested the L300 Limited and my impression of it is very much a love or hate thing. Basically, an interesting new transducer technology, struggling to get out. Compared to older Lambdas it is badly built, uncomfortable, unsealed pads means bye bye deep bass, trades airiness for precision, uneven frequency response. Maybe deliberate product segmentation? They have resources to do a Lambda that is miles better than these ones. Good thing they still have the 007 Mk2 at least...and they realised the screw-up with the supposedly 009-style diaphragm - they just won't tell us the units affected... For example, based on all the positive-negative thoughts about the Audeze CRBN, it seems that they have aimed to make it sound less ethereal (damped, weighty, not as ultra-fast) which I think is a good thing, but they have also lost some of the wow-factor. This is completely the other direction, and if it really has any resemblance to the HE90 I am all-in for it. In my very distant memory, that headphone still has the best reproduction of timbre and musical notes. They appear and disappear 'normally' with weight behind them. I couldn't care about blurry imaging, murky bass, upper register anomalies etc. However, looking at the whole picture, the Omega is starting to be more and more competitive now, an emerging superpower, like China. Kind of interesting to read the contemporary comparisons by darth nut, I think these newer, more advanced sources and amps can change the sound perception compared to way back then. Also, just a side note: some people not hearing certain things about KGSSHV etc. aftermarket amps not being that much better to a standard Stax amps may need to change sources(I wish some things would not take a step backwards in this earlier iteration, but overall more impressive and transforms some headphones and does not cost that much more than my modded 727), the two work together effectively as a combination. When I heard an expensive DAC last time, the amp and circumstances weren't that good. You can't just save on one and ignore the other because this review says it is the greatest value jada, jada... And you don't even need the SR007 etc. to be in need of this change. But some headphones definitely do a damn good job in a cheap system, it is just hard to back when they can sound similar, yet 100% better. Giving these back won't be comfortable one bit. I mean the amp & DAC (maybe cables), not the headphones. So, basically, he has one side covered and I have the other side covered... :) And of course, another new problem I have now, is that I have accumulated so many of these, and when the system is good, they just all become better at what they do best, a lot of them being too cheap to just ignore compared to the price of certain elements in the chain. I expected to play the elimination game a whole lot easier, it doesn't really work, but I need to change things at some point... But then again, there will be a time where we might be back to the normal universe from this alternative one, and there will only be precious little time left to actually sit down & listen to music (in a completely dark and silent environment, some headphones really need this, even the X9K becomes more impressive/less annoying with this mismatched system). Happy listening!

Thank you. Eventually I found it, among a lot of other stuff. A test board for the battery module. I probably did it in spring 2020. Left heat sink has FJPF2145 (org. T2 it's 2SC3675) and right has 10M90S current sink set to 5 mA. Just find +250V and -560V and you are ready to go.

I can taste again after days of fighting a cold. Bacon, tomato, avocado and cheese omelet. Crispy, homemade hash browns, toast and an Earl Beige.

The above misfortune was due to a battery problem in T2 amplifier. I replaced a mosfet j112(2sk246) and left the 10K trimmer in max position. My guess (I’m just an amateur but this is my theory) is the battery with the new mosfet tried to set voltage to more then 100V lower than expected. Resulting in damages to Q5, Q23, Q26 and D23 along with damages to the power supply. In order to find out what voltage cross 22R resistor R42 I put 27V from lab PSU from R42 to RV2 with 10K resistor in series. When measuring voltage cross 22K resistor of each battery I got 1V lower value at the battery with the new mosfet then the other three. That’s why I think there was more than 100V lower voltage at that battery. Now I have gotten really tiered of led batteries so I removed them and replaced them with those daughter boards. The amplifier has only modern components. To my ears it now works as good as the original DIY T2.

"Creamy Coconut Chicken Curry (30 minute recipe!) - The Endless Meal®" https://www.theendlessmeal.com/creamy-coconut-chicken-curry/

First steak in the Ooni. Pizza from lunch.

Inspired by Nate's leftover omelet, I built this leftover scramble.

Got together with some friends last night at the house, one of which brought pork pies from a tiny market in Methuen, MA that's been making them by hand for over 100 years. I thought one of the leftovers would make a tremendous omelet. I was correct.

Reduced “300V section” a bit more, to 150V. Now the high voltages are +/-400V, +220V, -310V and -460V. Graph below shows voltage cross 2sj79 (Q24/25) in blue and cross 2sk216 (Q26/27) in red during power on, wait 30 seconds and power off. I can’t hear sonically differences between original voltages and reduced voltages.

Several years ago I changed all LEDs (only three per channel compared to 25 in the original DIY T2) in my modified T2 to LM336 2.5V, a voltage reference device in TO-92 case (I also changed resistor values to keep desired current of the CCS). Pros LED/BJT see Lefferts_LED_Used_as_Voltage_Reference_ED_Feb_15_1975.pdf. Pros LM336/BLT see Sources_101_P1.pdf and Sources_101_P2.pdf. Overall, at least in theory, I think LM336/BJT wins. My version of LM336 have operational temperature up to +70 degrees Celsius and I don’t think I exceed that.

All the T2 amp boards are a single monolithic slab (except the version I modified). The non shrunk versions are more than 400mm deep and will not fit into most diy chassis like the disapante 400mm. Also they have solder pads for a very expensive and now not easily available volume pot. Original T2 uses almost completely obsolete transistors which are both very very expensive (if you can even find them) and almost all the sellers e.g. ebay etc are selling fake parts anyway. t2schem.PDF So if you have not got the transistors already from known good sources you are looking at probably looking at 10-30+ dollars PER transistor and there are a lot of transistors.... The original T2 amp board was massive... too large to fit into a 400mm deep case! so there was also various attempts to make it smaller: t2shrunk.zip Hence the number of different T2 gerber zip files. I would very roughly guestimate budget $1000 just for the transistors for the amp board. If you make a build error and the magic smoke comes out things can get real expensive real quick. Building an original T2 is going to be fraught with danger and failure unless you can find a reliable source of non fake parts or have them already for a know good source. You also need resistors that can handle the high voltages without the insulation breaking down. Xicon 273 series worked for me and KOA mf1/2 seem ok. PRP appear to fail. Joamat plus others worked on a version of the T2 which used mostly still in manufacture transistors but still requires 12 obsolete resistors: staxt2nc3fdh7.zip t2schemmodified.PDF shrunk version 398mm deep: t2shrunk2.zip shrunk version but with solder points for an alps potentiometer t2shrinkedv10.zip This is the version I built. Fortunately I purchased the obsolete transistors from a very well known forum member who purchased them from a known good supplier when they were still available. There is no known version of the full T2 that only uses modern parts.... independent of this there are also three versions of the power supply, (the golden reference power supply series is not suitable because it can't handle the high voltages required for a DIT T2). Joamat et al created a fully regulated version using the lt10 voltage reference: t2250kgsshv.zip t2hvandlvpsukgsshv2.zip (the same reference that is in the golden reference LV and HV boards so I went with this). The other designs use a ref102. t2schempower-2.PDF t2250.zip t2hv2.zip joamat told me the lt10 had lower noise and since I bulk purchased lt10 references I went with his psu boards. I posted the modified gerbers I made and a circuit diagram for the joamat T2 plus power supplies in this thread a short time ago in the diy t2 thread https://www.head-case.org/forums/topic/6837-the-ultimate-diy-a-stax-srm-t2/page/190/. The modifications to joamats gerbers documented in the post to fit my build style (one pcb per channel, no solder points for a pot etc), a few silk screen error corrections and placed a missing track in one of the psu boards and some more ventilation space for the 3W resistors in the psu boards etc etc.

Gah. Just went out and cleaned off part of the Fit so I could plug in its trickle charger. Yep, that's some fuckin' snow. Biting arctic wind as well. It's pretty awful outside.