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HE90 "clone" first prototypes up and running as of yesterday: The drivers are all PCB based with 2um mylar diaphragms. They are about 3mm lower in height than stock to accommodate the cable entry and move the connections to the bottom of the drivers. The housing is resin 3D printed but this is the old version which has now been abandoned for a new one that has yet to arrive. Cables are King Sound (as I had some in stock) and allow me to fit it all in the same housing size as the original. The earpads are ones for the T+A Solitaire that are not a great fit but dirt cheap... so work just fine for this role. I've ordered new genuine pads but I'm not sure if Senn have any in stock. Next up is to refine the headband design and start to work on prototyping the metal back shell. Now I just wait on parts as usual... As for the sound, far from finished, even in prototype form but a HE90 with actual bass response... perish the thought!! ;)

Great day.

Some uncivilized music.... 😄 The Reverend Horton heat and Messer Chups. Messer Chups was my favorite of the 2, even though they were the opener; ghoulish surf-rock. Much fun! The drummer even liked my Mayberry On Acid III shirt!

I didn't manage birria tacos but I had a brain wave the other day that came out great tonight. There's a market nearby owned by an Indian American family who also sell quite serviceable curries and other Indian food made fresh in house. Chicken Tikka Masala pizza is supposed to be the most popular pizza in the UK and I've had a couple of decent examples over the years so I decided to make pizza with the market's curry. On the left is a saag paneer supplemented with a bit of fresh mozzarella, and on the right is the CTM. I separated out the chicken then used the sauce as the base, layered on shredded mozzarella, sprinkled on the chicken and added red onion. Both were delicious and will be repeated in future.

Toshiba Aurex system from the late 70s:

Happy 91st Birthday Arvo. Arvo Pärt: Tabula Rasa by Gidon Kremer, Keith Jerrett (1984) https://open.qobuz.com/album/0002894812099 Example: Learning more about Pärt... Like Glass above, I do like me some Minimalism.

Incoming Sony post. A stack of 90s. There is an entire subculture built around vintage Sony kit, for some odd reason. A lousy photo of some great ES. A clever redditor took a Sony ST-80F tuner and installed a Raspberry Pi (when they weren't $300), HifiBerry DAC+ Pro, and screen. He made his own UI for the round display shape. Similarly, this guy modified an ES tuner with a Raspberry Pi, OLED display and rotary encoder. Also, look at that goddamn ES tape deck. I would [Note from Legal: REDACTED.] to own one of those.

"Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit the army" 🤣

Vienna Teng - We've Got You ep Going with a friend to see her in my hometown (original, not current) this coming Friday. Beautiful, creative music, some humor, etc. Looking VERY forward to it! This ep has two "versions" of a song, then a combined version. Combined song:

The return of Saturday za. I ran out of pepperoni, so I fried up some spam and smoked pork belly. caramelized some shallots and garlic. on a sourdough crust of course, cooked on the smoker. she'll eat.

Four! by Hampton Hawes!!!!!!!!! Full playlist

Those look great, Al! I had some sweet chili salmon last night, with a broccoli salad, fermented ginger carrots (!), and a Paneer Paratha with some tzatziki on it. Nice mix of tastes.....!

Jiminy, over 21 hours on Tidal! Music on TIDALBill Evans - The Complete Bill Evans On VerveListen to The Complete Bill Evans On Verve on TIDAL

Mishima by Philip Glass, Kronos Quartet (1985) https://open.qobuz.com/album/0075597988956 Example: More Philip for fun. (probably should watch this at some point.) Followed by: Philip Glass: Mishima by Maki Namekawa 2018 https://open.qobuz.com/album/svzhtflbqsm9a Example: I really like the arrangement by Michael (also the conductor of Kronos Quartet above). Lends a more delicate nature to the work, also I like Piano. I didn't know Maki's work before this. Added things to my queue (now at 854 albums).

Somehow I lived until last night not knowing the great Rod Serling, of The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery fame, also had a short lived Western, The Loner, starring Lloyd Bridges. It’s available as a currently $10 DVD set on Amazon, but also on YouTube if others are as interested as I. The first episode, wordy for a Western, certainly feels very Serling. Love how the TV frame is tightly filled. First episode The rest https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnentduopWcJz29q7eTHh0MSFKoxeTClG&si=cfZ6oRZDWQFhMIOm

Sungazer - Perihelion Ex.

On the theme, and for those with long memories, a Fred's Streak.

As I have mentioned in Jacob's Jacobless Jacobing, I recently bought another micro PC for the purposes of installing Raspberry Pi OS (in this case Raspberry Pi Desktop.) The more I learn about smart devices, the more I want to return to monke build a proper standalone adblock/anti-tracking machine. Seriously. We live in a schizophrenic's nightmare. That 4K LG TV is like the offspring of the Five Eyes and Mark Zuckerberg. Your "Internet of Things" refrigerator is phoning home to China. A Russian has hacked into your washing machine. My solution to this Orwellian hellscape is try out a Pihole. Raspberry Pis, as devices, have become so cartoonishly expensive that it's actually a better economic decision to buy a low end micro PC (see above.) This thread will primarily serve as "lol, Knuckles thinks he's a linux geek" but will hopefully include at least a little useful info. The new micro PC, a Beelink SER, arrived today. I learned that the other low power micro PC I bought in 2022, a Minisforum UM350, is significantly more powerful than the Beelink. The former has a Ryzen 3 3550H (4 cores, 8 threads, better per-core performance, Vega 8 graphics) and the latter has a Ryzen 3200U (2 cores, 4 threads, Vega 3 graphics.) This is actually a good thing as the UM350 can pull up to 35W (I think mine is rated at 20W, but it's been ages since I looked that up.) The 3200U pulls 15W. Obviously, I will be running the Pihole 24/7 once it's fully set up. Also, I don't exactly need 3D graphic performance of any kind with it. The biggest surprise thus far is that I bought a unit that was not supposed to come with an OS and surprise, SUCKER! It's got Window 11 pre-installed. That OS is like a goddamn venereal disease. This evening I downloaded the Pi Desktop OS image. It's a svelte 3.4GB. I'm not sure I have the energy at this hour to format a bootable thumb drive and begin the OS installation process.

Happy birthday, Stretch! Here's a comic from 15 years ago.

DOH. You're right. The D200 was one of the last CCD Nikon DSLRs and that is the reason it's so prized by collectors and eccentrics. The only CCD body that followed it was the entry level D3000.

A Cultural Weekend. Saturday - Opera in the Amphitheater E.g.

Goddamn. Iron Maiden played Boston last night. For ...over 45 years, they have been consistently one of the best if not the best live shows in all of metal. I follow them on FB, like an unc (as the kids say.) They posted these photos: Wish I could have gone. Paradoxically, but unsurprisingly, it's much, much easier to get to BOS from W.Mass than it is from MV.

Grant Green’s Funk in France: From Paris to Antibes (1969–1970) Full

Yeah, but can they play live... yup Video quality is all over the place - but sound is good.

This stuffed-zucchini-boats-mushroom.pdf

(AI) This stuffed-zucchini-boats-mushroom.pdf

I spy a honda fit. The d200 can do no wrong* *As long as EV>10

Futzing with the D200, special "thumbnail" edition: " These are the original resolution as shot. Nice CMOS CCD color science at least.

Sunday - Flower Piano on a perfect day weather wise. Very civilized

These. Oh you want some clues?

Saint Coltrane: The Church Built On 'A Love Supreme'

Two Film Scores by John Lurie: African Swim and Manny & Lo Full

Lily wanted to come home for lunch today so I asked her if she was up for trying new tacos. She said yes so I tried my hand at Birria Tacos. I blended a couple recipes to come up with something. The day started with browning beef. Then cooking the veggies and rehydrating the peppers. Then everything was set to braise for 3 hours or so until it was time for assembly. They were tasty and will be made again.

Speaking of resolution options, Fuji continues to aim for a different audience...

I've got a Nikon D70. It's 22 years old now (2004). The soft plastic bits are getting sticky but everything else works ok, including the battery (I think it's much newer).

Thanks! LOVE Kate, Jane, and Happy, so that's a nice compliment!!

This was very cool, definitely going to dive into her music more. Reminds of the art-poppier side of Kate Bush/Happy Rhodes/Jane Siberry. I love good art pop.

Nice looking Fred's!

My thoughts Trying to spend less time on the phone I want one

so you need about 4 times the current just to drive the cable. so say 100ma bias. only the D&G can do this. or a 150+ watt speaker amp and a really large boost transformer. say a pair of transformers from a mc2300.

"You Can Have My Walkman, Just Don't Take My MixTape" https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/08/28/style/mix-tape-analog-music.html?unlocked_article_code=1.9FA.Aap5.CDGpwOT5lktS&smid=url-share

Tip Toe Very good. Clever script, good storytelling, awesome acting.

I haven't had much time for DIY headphones recently but I just sent for some parts to be made and one might be a truly unique stator principle. More on that later but I've been using these lately and finally post about them after seeing that SJY pile of fail: I found this Hifiman Edition X for next to nothing as the pads were trashed and both drivers were blown. Gotta love that Hifiman build quality... Anyway, the plan was to design some drivers for this shell and then make my own version of the Shangri-la as the stock ones are frankly utter crap. Given the complex shape of the baffle in these I put it off for months but finally got off my ass and made these: This is the same piece but reversible for each side. There is just enough space in the housing to cram Stax Lambda drivers in there and I just happen to have quite a few in stock... shocker. Then we ended up with this: The back grill was glued into place but with the driver glued to the baffle, it holds it all in place as there is no extra room in there. I added the coarse foam to back to make them look more stock as I didn't have any of that black cover Hifiman uses. The baffle uses the stock neoprene gaskets from the planar drivers and it's okey for the seal but not quite perfect. The drivers in these are Lambda Signature units (no real reason I chose those, just what came to hand) and the cable is a Stax extension cable. I added the strain reliefs to the housing and the cable is so tight in there that it doesn't need any more fixing in place. Then they were finished off with some sheepskin earpads off Aliexpress as the stock Hifiman units are trash. These are the drivers with the protective mesh in place (just as they were in a Lambda/Sigma) but I also ordered some baffles with slots cut in them so I could put in thinner drivers to have a bit more space behind the drivers.

I wasn't sure about posting this but it kinda had to be done. Pic is from HF and the usual nonsense in the peanut gallery there: So this is the Sirrah V3 from high-amp.de...aka yet another slight twist on the Stax SRM-1 Mk2 or derivatives. For me it is just the build here and well... the total shitbox we have here. First off, what's up with all the hotglue? As somebody who has built hundreds of amps at this point... I don't even own a hotglue gun nor would I ever think of using this crap. Some other goodies, top of the transformer sanded for it to fit in the chassis, no insulation on the mains plug which means this would fail even the basic CE tests, nice bit of cloth underneath the pot there to presumably stop it from shorting something on the board and I just love all the transformer leads, not twisted in any way, coming really close to the input wiring. The hand cut heatpads on the output transistors are also nice and I very much doubt that tiny ballast resistor for the bias supply is rated to 600V.... On top of that, look up the design of this thing. Basically a SRM-212 with a full size power supply and some things changed. +/-200V rails, no CCS for the VAS stage and very little power.

the noise spikes are 120hz (100hz for you) and due completely to the switching noise of the input diodes. every power supply, even tube rectified ones do this. The idea is to remove the spike noise, and its not easy. caps across the diodes, etc, just does not work. and by the way, so far, I can't even get close to these numbers with a shunt regulated supply, the noise rips right thru the main current source. 7815 is rated at 90 microvolts of noise (ti datasheet). which is great except that in the typical configuration the diode noise rips right thru, and is usually in the millivolt range. and the voltage stability is +/-4% over commercial temperature range. plus line and load regulation. S22, same thing, the capacitance multiplier at the input is useless. Some companies in the stupidly overpriced 3 terminal replacement business call this a gyrator. Nope, not a gyrator. yes it can regulate at 3V, but you don't want to do that. What you might want to do is use that voltage to calculate line voltage -15% for the absolute minimum voltage. Then make sure all the components are rated for line voltage +15% its all about heat in the pass transistors. if you want to go down to 8 volts, you have to change the series zener to 4.7v that zener is there to make sure the thing starts up under load. and change the reference to 5v here is the original design that was modified by ucc, then modified by me. http://waltjung.org/PDFs/Improved_PN_Regs.pdf