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On the way to Bodega Bay for some fish and chips, and a walk, we stopped in Bodega, to admire the School house from "The Birds" and The Church (St. Teresa of Avila) Ansel Adams took a picture in 1953 So I did (composition from memory), on the last day of 2021

We just put the house on the market. Shit is getting real.

I wanted to show off the sign that Steve engaged Naaman to design and carve on the ping pong table. It is a beautiful piece of cherry that will age along with us, although unlike is it will look better over time. I haven't really organized the stuff on the peg board, it's just there temporarily because I'm trying to get everything out of the old shop space.

Waiting for Jp’s arrival. He has a bunch of he has a bunch of headphones to try out with his Matirx Sabre DAC. I have HP1’’s with the J Grado amp (Gene’s gear) as well as my Lola’s and Matirx Mini Pro 3 Streamer.

I've had my eye on these for the last year or so but waiting for a cheap set to come up. There are three versions they sell and I found the cheapest one for sale, brand new in the box with the transformer adapter. I'll take some pics of the system tomorrow (shortest day of the year here so... yeah not great for photos) but I've at least a pic of the headphones and the internals of the transformer box. Here they are and I quite like the looks and the build quality. They are using mini XLR's which is not ok but questionable connector choices are a theme here. The stock cable is beyond crap (more on that tomorrow) so I'm using a Stax PC-OCC off my RR-1's. They feel substantial but also light and fit my head snugly at the largest extension. Carbon Fiber headband and the leather is nice. On their site they claim the Minima is supposed to have pleather earpads but these are clearly genuine leather. These look very similar to earpads I've bought from China in the past and nothing wrong with the quality. I shone flashlight through the driver to you all could see the structure, very unusual drivers here. Now onto the adapter box... yeah this is not good. That's it... and yeah there are so many issues here. Let's start with this gem: It's hard to capture on "film" but the IEC input and the fuse holder are completely uninsulated and mere millimeters from the metal frame of the transformers. Thankfully the chassis is earthed but yeah, this is not to code and an instant CE violation there. In the first picture you can also see there is no protection for the transformers at all and we will get to why that is an issue. Now the active parts: The bias supply is driven directly off the mains, no isolation between you and the wall. Now this was commonplace in the 70's but now... I'm not sure this meets any modern standards. The bias supply is a simple voltage doubler and for 117V they just add another doubler on top. There is then a 600V zener clamp to make sure the bias doesn't rise above that threshold. None of this has the elegance of the Stax bias supplies and frankly this is just sad. For instance the LED for power indication is driven directly off the mains, through one tiny resistor. Now you might notice those 3 pin XLR's there and yup, they are the stock outputs for the Euridiche, the Stax output is just for convenience. One of my biggest gripes is with using XLR's as they are in no way rated for these voltages, especially the cheap, no-name, units they are using. Also check out the clerances on that PCB.. bias and high voltage signals less than 1mm apart. Then we have what scares me the most, see those traces which go right to the edge of the board and into pin 3 of the XLR's...? Yeah that is the bias so 600V is sitting there, pressed right up against the chassis with exposed solder connections. Sure this is after the ballast resistors (one 4m7 for the Stax and separate 10M units for each side of the XLR's) but still... They have a lot of faith in the powder coating on the chassis. Finally the Stax socket, 3D printed and fed directly off the XLR sockets. Almost no way to actually cram a Stax plug in there but you know, I almost had to use a hammer. 😉 Then we come to the final issue, on paper these appear to be Stax compatible despite the stupid XLR connectors and similar bias supply but nope... they are so inefficient that my usual test amp (Icepower 50 module with a preamp tacked onto it) was at max volume to get these to my normal listening level. I plugged in my test SR-207's as well and they were at half volume using this transformer box. As seen in the first pic, I've fitted them with a Stax plug but they make the Carbon CC work for its pay so yeah, you need a very powerful amp to drive them. Now finally, how do they sound... pretty damn nice actually. 🙂 This is off the Carbon CC prototype in my rig right now and they are very balanced sounding, slightly dark sounding but very mellow and open. They are not overly forward or bright, unless when called to be and I can listen for a few hours with nothing bad to say really. Bass is plentiful and deep, midrange has a nice presence to it and the soundstage is pretty good. Top end is a tad dark but it is very mild and they make for a relaxing and pleasant package. So TL;DR... great headphones that are let down by being too inefficient, frankly unsafe transformer box and stupid cable/connector choices. Change the cable to Stax and drive them off a powerful amp and the sound is great.

I've spent some more time with the headphones now (when I really should be testing out the new CRBN) but I like these a lot. They really do nothing wrong, soundstage is a bit flat (flat earpads though) and they aren't great with small detail retrieval but other than that they are neutral, honest sounding and I can spend hours listening to them. Now for the wanky things (besides that name, seriously... anus in your company name can never be a good idea ) such as the box these ship in: Almost Voce bad but at least it is well made, unlike the Mr. Speakers box. Here is the silly dual cable for these, male 3 pin XLR's on one end 3 pin mini XLR's on the other. It feels terrible and I'll rip it apart later. What truly bothers me is this shit, these are cheapest XLR's you can buy short of the knock off Neutriks and they are pushing 600V bias and 200Vrms through this? Yeah it's not ok... I'm thinking about what I'm going to do with that energizer as the transformers seem to be pretty decent. Probably just fit my own PSU to it and change it to three Stax sockets that the headphones actually fit into.

i'm done

Lily answered the call.

Looks like it found a good home. Slowly getting going on the cabinets, have the drawer boxes built. Not having to figure out any dimensions for them was really nice. Design the cabinet and have the machine cut the parts to size. Whatever that size may be.

From all the research I was able to do, I don't believe this is the case with this. But I'm still going to disappoint everyone, because I can't think of another cordless tool that I could use, or fit in the van. This will go to restart the savings that got decimated.

Dominos or pocket screws? I decided to test the drum sander I finally got set up in the garage and all the new sanders by building an edge grain cutting board for the kitchen today. Only 30 more hours of sanding and some finishing left

I do not take as many photos as I use to at racing events, but this caught my eye and I would be remiss not sharing. At last October's Texas Mile I had the pleasure of drooling over this Koenigsegg Regera. Truly an engineering feat....and...it comes with its own tuner (a breathing one with a charming accent...). The owner appeared disappointed with his speeds and left before the wind shifted to our benefit but we did get to see it make a few passes. HS

George Baselitz exhibit was already on the list but we went today to honor the architect as well.

Steve, just saying, I had a really excellent shawarma at Splitrock in Fairfax while drinking beer with Al today and highly recommend you direct $12 of your stimmy windfall that way. Get the lamb.

Just received an unexpected stimulus check from the state of California. $600 dollars is a nice surprise any day.

First steak in the Ooni. Pizza from lunch.

Oh, and speaking of UC Davis, I saw Desmond Tutu speak while I was in school there. It was during the anti apartheid demonstrations and the UC system was rife with sit-ins and students occupying buildings, etc. It was a truly moving experience, even in my animal house phase (has it ended?). I had been working as an intern for the California Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy and he spoke too. The magic of the internet produced a video of the whole event, so I'm going to relive it shortly. Here it is in case anybody would possibly be interested. https://video.ucdavis.edu/media/TutuA+A+Celebration+of+Human+Rights/1_lsfznxso/25823992 RIP Bishop Tutu

Hey sacd_lover here. Have not been on the board in years. See lots of names I know .... tkam, kevin gilmore, mexican dragon, blessingx, Dusty Chalk etc... Hope everybody has been well. Just picked the latest thread to reintroduce myself.

Well, Merry Christmas to all the Ceasars too!

Second vanity complete. Definitely going with a larger reveal for the kitchen I’m going to do next.

so here is what is going to happen. birgir will use his contacts to purchase one of these if it exists. Then he will determine if he likes it or not and will publish pictures etc. He has yet to publish pictures on the other 2 (or is it 3) stax portables. If he likes it, and if its really $400 then i will buy one. Because there is no way i can build one for $400.

It's currently 0F here, and didn't get above 6F today, with windchills way into the negatives. The dog pretty much told me to fuck off while walking him this morning.

Went a little crazy today and in the morning while I had time I candied some chopped pecans for use later in the day. When I finally had more time, after making dinner, I made maple frosted pecan scones.

Today's adventure entails mortising 22 door blanks to fit in existing door frames. First I need to cut the blanks to proper width, as the old frames are about 1/4" smaller than the new blanks. Then I use my lockset mortising jig to drill out for the knobs. Then I use my hing mortising jig to router away the hinge inset. The self centering, spring loaded drill bit makes quick work of attaching the hinges.

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.

A little misguided use of English by this lotion store in Paris. And a fun translation for a manger scene. And Baby Jesus is in fact chillin in his crib

Thanks for all the birthday wishes everyone. Our original plans for a walk on Stinson Beach were scuppered by the following early morning tweet "MARIN SHERIFF: Marin is under Tsunami Advisory. Stay out of coastal waters until clear" So made other arrangements inland and had a very pleasant day. No bacon as such, Does Crispy Pork Belly count? At least I got to witness an impressive sunset prior to my Birthday on the walk back from Tiburon (When technically it would have been my Birthday, in the UK)

We came to possibly the lamest conclusion, all three are pretty awesome. We had way different rankings I preferred the lcd5 of the three amd Mike the he1kse. The lcd5 to me was the most revealing of the three and had the wettest midrange. When a headphone out details the HE1kse that's impressive and the lcd5 did just that. I love the other two as well and could easily and very happily live with any of these. Hifiman wins for comfort and least picky of sources while holding its own in every audio category we compared them in. I do think the adx5000 is the mofo steal of the century at almost half the price of the HE1kse and less than half the price of the lcd5. Very very fast sounding extremely dynamic but can be slightly thin sounding. Both the adx5000 and lcd5 improve with eq and take eq well the HE1kse doesn't need much.

Vinyl Qobuz

Thanks for the birthday wishes. I spent my actual birthday ...being sick. I've alluded to some of the issues I'm facing (including 9 hours in the ER a month ago). I had a followup appointment at the local medical establishment I use last Tuesday. They called me the Monday before and cancelled it. I dunno if anyone's noticed, but it turns out that the US medical care system is under great pressure for some reason. Who knew? The good news is that I'm not dead, and by the end of the month I'll have a new iPhone (my current one is a 6S, which came out in the fall of 2015) and a shiny new (and expensive AAF) 16" Macintop. The means I might actually be back on the air before the collapse of modern civilization.

Going to have a go at ping ponging my first set of cabinets with Mozaik. Pretty advanced software that I’ll probably never fully learn, but pretty cool knowing once I have a decent grasp of how it operates I should be able to make any type of cabinetry relatively easily.

Rainy day listening

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

my lever machine showed up. There were some initial indications of it’s italian heritage, but once I disassembled it and connected the pressurestat, I was able to pull a tasty, tho slightly long, shot my first try.

From dinner last night, homemade nachos carnitas w/ pico and cheese, served with homemade guac and sour cream.

Brings back memories of putting woodscrews through my Cannondale Red Shred mountain bike tires, back in the 80's. I'd pick screws that were about 1/2" long, then screw them through the knobs of the tires, then put in a protective liner, then the tube. Worked great, with the added bonus of texturing your slippery, icy walkways.

The winter rig, built last year as a COVID project before it became impossible to find reasonably priced used bike parts, performed very well. Especially once I realized I was running the tire pressures way too high.

Put together a vanity.

On FB there's a "10 year challenge" to post pics current and 10 years back....this one took the cake (pun intended!)

A good summation of the state of headphones over the last five plus years. A gluttony of riches. And endgame for everyone.

Homemade brioche-style French toast on a cold (12F) winter morning with half the house still in quarantine.

We've gotten pretty steady snow so far this morning in south-eastern NH, probably 4" or more and it's still going. Honestly, I'm glad. Winters of shitty rainy weather with marginal snow are far more depressing than a proper kick-you-in-the-face brutally cold and snowy affair.

I say, ignore Nate's warning and buy some cool shit then scream about the consequences in four months. Life is worth living on the edge if it's worth living at all.

Congrats. Watching Mindless Consumerism thread.

More jazz for a sunny morning. It's 14º (50ºF) outside, that should be 5-6º (41ºF) if things were normal. Enjoying of a few vacation days they owed me. Chick Corea Akoustic Band: Live I think I've posted this before. It's so damn fucking good