Leaderboard

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.

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.

You inspired me to get off my ass and work on my first real mod for the Traeger, a magnetic cutting board to mount to the top of the pellet hopper. I used the Shapeoko to machine a pocket into the back side of the cutting board as well as to make the recesses for the magnets. Then used the laser engraver to etch Traeger's logo into the top. I'll probably make a fancier version at some point but this will do for now.

Delivered this cutting board to my sister who is a lifelong quilter. *snip*

Got the Brooklyn Bridge this afternoon. Still have a ton to figure out, but just listening to HiRes via Qobuz on old Emotiva power monitors I would say it is a hell of a DAC. Shilling will begin soon with an unboxing video. Stay tuned.

Getting ready to reheat for dinner but early snacking is promising.

Was able to sneak in the REL subwoofer with nobody noticing. Not that hard as it is remarkably compact.

We adopted a dog! Her name is Olive 🥰

Science begins at midnight tonight. 8-1/2 lbs, before trimming, a little over 6 after. It's mostly the flat with a little point left for making some burnt ends. Plan is to have it ready to pull off around noon so plenty of rest before dinner and no stress.

Thanks for the update Bryan Just pulled the trigger on a Clearance REL T/7i from AA (Audio Advisor).

Spent the evening trying to figure out why my mom's car died in the middle of her driving it. I managed to track it down to the fuel pump, which was so much fun to actually replace, but it got the car running again.

Made some simple clamps for the Shapeoko out of some scrap red oak. Don't have a finished picture because I don't have a flush-trim router bit to cut off the tabs. Still learning feeds and speeds so the finish is also questionable.

I assembled some 170Wx1 ICE amplifiers, that will power a pair of passive tapped horns for subwoofer duty Channel 2 (XLR input, 8 ohm load) Channel 2 (RCA Input, 8 ohm load) Channel 1 (XLR Input, 8 ohm load) Channel 1 (RCA Input, 8 ohm load)

So when I got my case I got pretty upset with the looks of the power switch: So I search around the house for what could be used to improve this and found and unused aluminum kitchen drawer handle. Nice looks, hollow and easy to cut. A couple of minutes later:

Decided to try some non-brisket things on the Traeger. 1. 3-2-1 ribs (rubbed, used too much brown sugar, will adjust down next time, but still came out great) After 3hrs in the smoke 2. Bacon wrapped armadillo eggs (stuffed jalapeños wrapped in sausage) ^^^These were delicious. Also, definitely not sad that I went with the bigger model Ironwood as I also tossed some chicken breasts on there for good measure and didn't have to to use the second shelf and worry about cross pollination from the non-pork product.

Steve bought the makings of a couple of feasts at Costco yesterday, so Claire and I made one last night. Grilled halibut two ways, grilled marinated shrimp, green beans with shitakes and shallots, and corn. Claire also made a strawberry-blueberry galette but I don't have a pic. I'm still full.

So, back on topic, I decided to get back into DIY and actually build something. Parts Express Executive Bluetooth Speaker. The cabinet still needs finishing, but it works and sounds pretty darn decent.

NOLA Brio Trio set, Mike and I heard these at the Florida Audio show and really liked them. I just picked up a set and am blow away with the tone and timbre of these

Plays to the strength of the Cicadas, plus it is a great album for us old guys.

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

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

That's sweet Nate! As for me... I'm planning on getting back into vinyl, so I purchased a Parasound Zphono USB. I can also digitize any albums I might want to. But that left me with a dilemma, as the rack I built for My Parasound Z stack won't fit any more gear. So today I built a new rack to accommodate all seven Z units. It's in the first coat of finish, and I still need to attach the rack mounting hardware, but it might just resemble the speakers I built about 2 years back. Pics within a few days.

Peach cobbler, to take to Milo's house for dinner.

I bought a pair of Kaldas RR1 cups/drivers/pads from the previous owner about 2 months ago. They squealed, Aumkar had generously replaced the headphones for him - and didn't require shipping back the original bespoke hardware. These were among the first RR1 produced. I've been totally stir crazy due to the lockdown. Though the most I'd played with electrostats was removing rotted foam from a set of lambdas, I figured this might be a fun project to tear down, and if I'm lucky restore. I modded an old Hifiman headband, and bought a cable from Mjolnir audio. I immediately heard the electric squeal, but it would periodically go away. I had a full 2 hour stretch of silence where I realized these were awesome headphones. Though I was biased towards my Koss ESP95X - after a head to head listening session, I had to admit I liked the Kaldas more for everything but treble. Unfortunately, the squeal and/or buzzing from the left earcup grew to become practically continuous. So I used Joamat's instructions to investigate and completely disassemble the left earcup. They were fairly easy to disassemble, except for one bolt that sits right behind the mini XLR connection. The mini XLR pins being so small, and me being TERRIBLE at soldering - I tried to avoid undoing the solder joint, but broke one of the wires. If you do this, be careful to undo the wired connections last, there are tiny M2 nuts that will fall out if you're not careful. After that, I found basically the same issue that Joamat found, the Bias wire was broken, and there were strands inside the female thread of the housing. It's possible that one strand got into the driver and caused the whine and buzzing. I liked the bolted assembly, and wanted to keep the headphones easy to disassemble, so I soldered in M2 terminal connections as shown. I had to use longer heat shrink tubing because I had wiring exposed at the mini XLR connection. I used a grinder on a dremel tool to make a larger hole in the cover - I found when I assembled initially, that I caused a short and lost volume out of the left earcup. To fix it - I ended up resoldering two of the wires at the mini XLR connection. Then I blew compressed air across the driver and stators, being careful to expose the driver for the most minimal time possible. Then I reassembled as shown including the two dust covers. Eager to test my work, I reassembled the headphones and connected to my Stax SRM 717. The left earcup was completely silent - success! Funny thing - the right earcup started squealing even louder! So I repeated the process of soldering terminal connections. When I reassembled, the right earcup still squealed. I was super frustrated, but went back and did the step I skipped, I blew compressed air across driver and stators. And that seems to have solved the final issue. I've now listened for about 10 hours with almost complete silence. To be honest there's been a handful of times, totaling maybe 30 seconds where I heard a slight buzzing, and thought "Oh no! Not again!" But shifting the earcup slightly cleared it immediately. My ears touch the dust covers, so I suspect it's a different issue entirely. Perhaps with a shift, my ear presses against the stator. The final picture is of my Frankenstein Kaldas RR1 conquests. I contacted Aumkar, not for help - but to suggest a few manufacturing improvements based on my findings. Aumkar was very kind, suggested that I solder directly to the bolts - and then informed me that he'd already incorporated all of the manufacturing improvements I suggested. So if you order a Kaldas RR1 conquest now - it will be more robust than the initial versions. Overall - I think this is a great product, and Aumkar has been a pleasure to chat with. If you're willing to buy an energizer separately, these sound better than the Koss, and far better than the L300/L500 I used to own. I hope Kaldas will produce a sequel. I like these headphones so much I'm having Vesper Audio quote out slightly thicker pads so my ears don't touch - and I ordered touch up paint to fix a couple spots I scratched or gouged during my project.

I have an open box Brooklyn DAC+ someone returned because it didn't have ethernet I also have an open box Brooklyn Bridge someone returned because they didn't want ethernet If anyone is interested.. 😙

You guys are crazy and certainly not trying to help this poor guy. The obvious answer here is the AKG K1000.

Ha. Thanks all for your help. In the end I went with a Magrette Regattare Tiki for a decent price in comparison to the other final choices. New Zealand Post, US Customs, and the local Post Office did everything they could to get it to me by 2024, but it arrived a couple days ago. A little too big, a little too heavy, but uncomplicated.

smoking some grass fed meatballs for lunch

Maybe if you smoke enough they actually start to sound good? 🤣

jh13

I’ve moved to stronger psilocybins and now enchanting sirens follow me wherever I go.

Well, actually Sunday & yesterday...in order: Fired my lawn-cutting guy Mowed & trimmed my own lawn for the first time in 4 years Realized how grossly out-of-shape I am The good news are: My push-mover fired up on the first try Since I'm still working from home, I can split the lawn-cutting tasks across at least two days to create a built-in lunchtime exercise activity

Hats – The Blue Nile

Some of those leftovers, plus the addition of some Bourbon/Bacon sausage, made for an amazing lunch!

Jim, I was going to argue that it's quite possible that it could belong to a married gay couple. Then I noticed the plywood speaker and component plinths. Not possible!

Another KGSSHV Carbon lives! Thanks to @sorenb @Kerry @simmconn for the help on bias voltage. I used 2 x 120v 0.5W and 2 x 130v 3W in the end. The 0.5w parts work well. Next steps: cable management, re-case, increase heatsink size.

Smoked some beef ribs today. Working from home rocks!

Aja – Steely Dan

Alanis ... Jagged Little Pill Because 25 years ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagged_Little_Pill She's aged better than some of us

early dinner.

So I built I fire today... This will eventually be a golden reference bias supply / doubler (because over-kill has no limits). My probe apparently touched something it shouldn’t have. Quite the spectacular fireworks. My heart is still racing

I'll just leave this here:

Over the weekend I met up with friends and had my first meal at a restaurant (outdoors) and hung out with those friends and others (also outdoors, on someone's roof deck) for the first time since March. That felt really, really good. I hope this virus continues to fuck off and we can keep making progress in getting life back on track.

Not grilling, but cold smoking... 😎 made a zero cost cold smoker with Epson workforce pro ! ... ;} So, my very very old Smoky Joe with a coil burner stolen from an old electric oven wired for 120v {aaa, I just soldered a plug on it} a chunk of drier hose {drier didn't need that much anyway}, built a rack inside box from scrap wood. Cut a hole. Done. Smoked for 20 min on a small charge. 88 degrees in box. Will test it out for real with hickory and smoking rye grains.

Woops.

Finally completed the dynahi. I really enjoyed this DIY processing. Based on previous experience, this time I spent more time on selecting parts and adjustment, also increased heat sink size, quiescent current increased to 75mA. The gain keeps the original design value (200K/10K) and there is no background noise even using high efficiency earphones. Thank you everyone for your experience and information on this thread.