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Alex and I wish you a merry Christmas.

Kawai CA78 - just got it set up yesterday. This thing is heavy but we got it to the third floor. It’s leaps and bounds better than my old Casio PS20.

Yeah, I also like that one a lot. Not quite up to your guys levels, but my wife got me this for Christmas...

Cognac Butter Lamb Chops, crispy garlic green beans and truffle oil and buttermilk mashed potatoes.

No, I don't think so. There are new avenues to go down but I think current Stax just don't "get it" in the sense that they did back in the day. Now old Stax did a number of missteps when we look back but there was constant innovation and they never shipped something like the 507's which just sounded vile. Some were bright, some a bit dull, some had other issues but the tonality was never way off. Stax now are trying new things and refining the old designs but I don't see any true innovation at all. I don't really agree wrt Sennheiser as the HE-1 is just a rehash of the HE90 with no real progress and so much of the system is just purely there for the wank factor. It is certainly a better packaged system and in terms of industrial production Sennheiser never cease to impress but the sound...yeah leaves a lot to be desired. I really, really wanted one until I heard it but now I don't really care for them unless I can buy a set of the phones solo and rip out the amps. I must admit though that the resurgence in electrostatics is enjoyable though they aren't all great. The Monoprice one gets a bit tiresome after a while given it's massive bass deficiency but they are nice and comfy. I'm running the Voce now on Ether2 pads I think (the ones with the square opening) and they are an improvement over the stock ones but having just swapped over to the 007Mk2's...the difference is startling. How anybody could give the Voce "best headphones of the year" award just goes to show how useless and clueless the industry media is. Anyway, the Shangri-La was a surprise too as it sounds decent, horrible build quality but at least they sound ok, I've already bought the Jade II with the amp but I'm not sure when they are shipping out to me. If they sound similar then throw on them a new cable and it could be a decent set.

Got lucky today at a small local shop 😄

Getting to know the bike quite a bit better, we definitely get along. Still not ready for full send.

500 dollars of shininess. 😬 Yumi had to work until 11pm last night so it was set up when she got home. Hopefully she'll get some time to play it tonight before we leave for Cal/Col. Thanks for the recommendation. The Kawai dealer here was awesome and great to work with.

Prepped breakfast for tomorrow morning. 1. Blueberry-Stuffed* French Toast (*not really stuffed...) 2. Same bacon/spinach/Swiss quiche noted above.

Look like you finally forked out the 500 extra Just wonderful, I wish Yumi loves it and plays a lot on it for your delight.

not now, but last night local boeuf, marinated, seared served on sticky rice, reduction of marinade for dippin sauce, homemade pickles from lemon cucumber sourced from coworkers garden pickings, homemade kimchi on day three of fermentation garnished with freshly toasted sesame seeds, and simple sho chiku bai sake for sipping was oraait

Chuck was fun - and they found a way to have Sarah in her underwear in almost ever episode (good writing)

Happy Birthdays!

I just reread diamond age and snowcrash. Holy crap I forgot a lot in 20 years. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I'd like to chip in here. On different tracks I sometimes had a slight preference for the sound of the GG or the BH, but overall I had a slight preference for the sound of the BH. This impression was pretty fairly arrived at as each amplifier had the same power supplies (all golden ref), wiring, volume attenuator and casework. The GG did have 450v supplies and the BH 400v. The volume was equalised as accurately as possible. It was a wrench but I had to part with one of my babies as couldn't justify keeping both, so the GG has gone. I did hear the new 009S with it and the combination was, on a short hearing, near perfect. I have noticed after many builds of Kevin's designs my preference has been for the versions with tube OP stages.

While waiting to have my Omega FOIS "gifted" to me for X-mas I had a weak moment and pre-ordered one of these. It is a Baltic Aquascaphe in the blue sun ray dial with gilt finish. A retro inspired divewatch. Nothing too fancy, but it caught my eye. Pre-ordered so I won't see it until mid-next year. A "micro brand" assembled in France. I ordered it with both the tropical style rubber strap and the "beads of rice" 316L bracelet. I like that they're quick release for an easy swap. Double domed sapphire crystal and sapphire bezel. Good for 200M, but I would never dive that deep...i find most the fun stuff is above 100' and generally 20-40'. I don't dive that often these days so this is more about the aesthetic including the 39mm sizing. The movement is a Miyota 9039 automatic with a 42 hr reserve. Reliable, basic and helps keep the case at a relatively thin 12mm. I've been spending like a sailor at port in Bangkok... HS

Pretty fun. Big Band/Swing arrangements of his back catalog. He can still sing!

Cassandra Wilson "Traveling Miles" She has a nice version about "Time after Time"

The second half of this year's Mattnog was consumed at my family Christmas dinner last night. I feel bad that I forgot the nutmeg shavings at the Stretch Christmas gathering because it really does add to the experience. This year confirmed that I need to make a batch every year. Next year I'm going with top shelf booze across the board. And some super farm-fresh eggs. It's a nice tradition and a good way to remember Matt the Younger in a positive way. And Fitz, you can't fuck this up if you follow the recipe. Go for it in 2019!

Dessert(s) Including Mince Pie (& whipped Cream)

I'm a fan of that too. Very restrained, classic design -- some might say boring but they're idiots so we don't have to listen to them.

Now here is something that has been out for a while but I've never really looked into. Now these carry a wide variety of names and there is a plethora of models but they are all pretty much the same, hybrid units with an electret driver to cover the top end and a regular dynamic driver for the rest of the spectrum. I decided it was time to look into this so I bought two units, the Mitchell and Johnson GL2 and some Cyberdrive unit for 30$ which looked the same as the GL2 minus the wood. The GL2 arrived first so some pics: Here the baffle which shows how the drivers are setup Small transformer and 10uf/50V NP cap are all there is to this and the electret driver is clearly angled. Now with that thick plastic sheet on the back of the driver... yeah it won't play nice but then again the housing design here is crap so that's probably why they did this. Let's just call it extreme damping... I played around with them for a bit and tried to upgrade the cap from the ChangX shit they had in there. Minor improvements but these are pretty crappy headphones to begin with. Now a couple of days ago the Cyberdrive units arrived. I forgot to take a picture of them before I stripped them down but they look like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/CYBERDRIVE-Noise-Cancelling-Over-Ear-Professional-Hi-Fi-Deep-Bass-Wired-with-for/223201026938?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649 Now from the outside, these are clearly made by the same OEM as the GL2 even though the finish may be a bit...crap on some of the pieces. All of the chrome pieces look really cheap but they are identical to the same parts on the M&J set. Now for the nitty gritty... Yup, same baffle piece.... Same everything really except the cap is a different brand but that is to be expected as the production could be spaced a bit apart. Same PCB and the same transformer too... Yup... everything is the same so any claims that the M&J units are somehow better (as I've seen on HF) are just as baseless as most things over there. I have little doubt the entire product line has the same stuff in there. Since these are horrible headphones that I'm never going to use, let's do some digging: It's hard to see but the angle on the electret driver is some good 30°compared to the baffle and it partially obscured by the dynamic unit. I need to dig out the LCR meter to measure the drivers but I did some quick measurements on the transformer. It is clearly some off the shelf unit and the primary measured as almost no DC resistance (0.1ohm) and the secondary was 3.3K so high ratio indeed. I am going to do some more experiments with these though so I'll update in the future.

New Music Matters SRX test pressings!

Beef Short Rib and polenta Pescatore pasta Affogato Cappuccino