Leaderboard

Finally done! I regrettably sold my previous KGSSHV Carbon a while ago, this one’s not going anywhere soon. This is a 400V, 19mA version, using the ground plane amp board, Sumr transformer and Goldpoint V47 attenuator. I bought the heatsinks from China and had all the drilling and panels done at Front Panel Express. I pulled out the Canon 5D from the cupboard for some tasty shots.

It's been a month but the CRBN is finally here, well this is actually the second set I've received. First set was one of two units to have an assembly issue which Audeze have now identified and fixed. I sent that one back and they sent a new one out. Now these are loaner sets but if I want to keep it, I will buy it. Just wanted to make that clear as I always own everything I tear down. The first set was setup to make it easier for me to take a peek inside so the pics I'll post later, will be of that unit. They are identical though and to say the CRBN looks gorgeous... well that would be an understatement. First thing that came to my mind when lifting out of the sturdy aluminum flight case, was a comparison to the Hifiman Shangri-la jr. Similar price range (I paid 4000$ for my set back in the day) and by comparison the Shangri-la looks like a 200$ Aliexpress special. The carbon fiber headband, the forged carbon earcups and nice thick leather earpads. Yeah, this is for sure no Hifiman product and it really puts Stax to shame with their shitty SR-009 headband design. Not that I was expecting anything less from Audeze but the attention to detail is nothing short of exemplary. Nice long strain relief on the cables as they enter the cups, the quality of the Stax plug, the sheer comfort of having these on the head (even with my melon of cranium) and the list goes on. The only issue I could find with them (and it was true of both sets) is a rather strong chemical smell as they are fresh out of the box. It doesn't bother me at all but it might bother some so best mention it. In terms of amp requirements, they are rather power hungry. It was a clear design choice to make them a bit less sensitive so the amps need to be pushed further in terms of volume level but it's nothing extreme. I had a KGSSHV in my system when the first unit arrived so I kept that to compare against the new one. It drives them just fine but the Carbon is a better choice with roughly 4 times the power. I would place the KGSSHV/KGST as the baseline for them to get excellent performance and it only gets better from there. Now it's been only been an hour or so with this second set (a few days with the first one) so it's early but first impressions are great. To keep it short, it's what the Sennheiser HE90 could have been but never managed to do. The CRBN has that same ethereal, diffused quality but with far more midbass and bass presence. They are not the bass monsters which the 007's can be but there is enough there and they are not bright or forward sounding at all. I'll post some more impressions later and the teardown pics as well.

Finished up a Soekris dam1021 build. This is the new rev7 board with a lot of improvements trickling down from the flagship dac2541. HiFi2000 case, FPE panels, JLSounds I2SoverUSB v.III input, LT3045-based power supplies, direct R-2R output intended for my headphone amp, and buffered output for my powered desk speakers. My aesthetic stylings and DIY skills haven't advanced even the tiniest bit since 2010, but I like the brutal elegance and minimalist functionality. Most importantly, it sounds really nice.

Working on my first ever coffee table. Have the base built, but not finished. Next up is making the top which is going to require me to learn Fusion 360. Top is going to be 2” thick in the middle with a radius on the bottom following the radius on the top of the base.

It's been a while since I built something goofy just for the sake of building something goofy. This is a JFET buffer pushing a stepup transformer (LL1674) to a 71A parafeed output stage using some custom Lundahl parafeed outputs. Tubes are CCS loaded with CCS driven filament supplies and shunt regulated bias. HT PS is choke input with a small regulator before the CCSes. The driver PS is dual Jung regulators. Sounds lovely other than for the slight hum that eludes me. It's surely something stupid that I won't find without rewiring the whole thing.

FWIW, this is a really nice TV. Picture, out of the box with no calibration, looks better to me than the plasma. Sound is at least as good as any soundbar I was likely to buy. I've heard speakers that cost about as much as the TV itself that sound worse. The interface works great. I'm not happy I needed to buy a new TV, but I am definitely happy with the one I got.

Everything in F360. Since that part worked out I threw caution to the wind and did the top of the coffee table.

I wasn't good about before and after photos but many of you have been here. We ended up taking down the garage door and cutting it into pieces. We kept the center section as a @guzziguy memorial right at the point it cracked under BMW pressure. 🥴 By getting rid of the garage door and all the oddly beefy structure supporting jusGara at door, we gained 100 square feet and a whole lot of headroom in the now 425 square foot shop. Very excited to get the slab redone and the new outer wall framed in, let alone the Oneida dust collection system put in... IMG_4965.MOV

More progress, it’s been a while since I tested one of these, I used Soren’s adjustment method for the CCS which worked well, dialled in for 19mA

Rolling to the course.

Finished college applications for Colorado State, Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill. Three down and at least three more to go.

Not any more.

I've been working on a bunch of small projects with the laser lately, including a few custom coasters for friends and such. Even made a batch for Andrew's baseball coaches. The one in the background is the prototype, the foreground the final. We gave them to them last week and all thought it was pretty cool. I'll post some of the other stuff after an even that I'm making them for and we'll see if others post some stuff that I've made for them.

First test part cut with Fusion 360.

SR-X9000 (flagship model with new fixed electrode MLER-3) officially announced in Japan - MSRP 693,000 yen - Official release date 8th of October, 2021 - Mesh stators (used in SR-X Mk1 and SR-Omega), diaphragm area 20% larger than SR-009S - Lighter aluminium housing with tilt guard mesh structure, 434g weight (excluding cable) - Stainless steel arc assembly - Detachable cable (2.5m and 1.5m length supplied) - Paulownia storage box https://www.phileweb.com/news/audio/202109/16/22761_2.html Looks like a modernised SR-Omega, cheapest domestic price 623,700 yen here: https://www.fujiya-avic.co.jp/shop/g/g200000060690/ US price 6200$ EU price 6850€

I've also been introduced to Avishai...

It was a great day. Winds for the second half of the ride were a bit painful but we all made it and thanks largely to you guys, fundraising was another huge success.

Last good, hard training ride in the books. I'll spin a few miles this week to keep the legs moving but I feel well equipped for the century.

Last night's dinner - all homemade - lobster pie, reverse seared filet mignon, seasoned potatoes.

No worries Brent and thanks to everyone that has supported this. The team is currently the fourth highest fundraisers having met our overall goal and the event itself is doing amazing. Training continues to go well although it was a light week this week with multiple work events and remnants of a hurricane pushing me indoors. Still, I'm feeling well prepared and will spend part of this weekend making sure the bike is good to go for next weekend.

Cyclone Al, cleaning up after a long day of wood shop demo.

I saw him in concert. It was at a high school gym in Anchorage. The power went out in the middle of the concert. Was off for about 45 minutes. He told stories in the dark the whole time, then finished the concert when the power came back on. Best concert ever! RIP Tom.

Got the first stage of my next project working, an amp that started out as a Menace clone and has changed a bit over time. 6SN7 input stage, CCS with a 21st Century Maida circuit as the B+ supply.

So Colin and I heard from someone (@grawk, perhaps) that Costco had some OK-ish steaks. Slim pickins, but we found some that didn't look too terribly bad. Wagyu cap, seasoned with salt overnight and left on a wire rack in fridge, then hit with ground peppercorn before hitting the Weber. It didn't suck.

I'm thinking a full-power iPad mini is going to be a great fit for a lot of people. Going to upgrade the kids from XRs to 13s at Christmas and just deciding on color for my 13 Pro Max -- the new blue is a little too powder puff and the gold is OTT, so I guess we're back to the good old black or white?

It's always great to have new sets to play with but the recent Stax sets have just been such a massive letdown. The 009BK is the only one of the recent sets I've actually kept but that's more down to me needing to have a set of 009's rather than using them for fun. The 009S is such a disappointment... Speaking of the CRBN... I'll be posting about that soon as I have them sitting on my head right now... Ohhh and teardown pictures as well.

EU/UK don't know fuck all aboot biscuits.

It is, I took elements of things I like and kind of put it together in my head. So far so good🤞

Yeah it allows you to do some some things that normally would be really difficult. Great thing is once it’s it’s all designed, it’s easily repeatable.

Jim, be careful with Fraternity choice. Not trying to be rude, but hazing on anyone over 50 can be rough.

Some progress on my end, the amp is up and running now. It only took a new KGSSHV psu, new transformer, new power switch and I also swapped out the Stax socket as that nylon one just bugged me. I also dropped the voltage from +/-400V to +/-350V as hacking up the amplifier boards would have been a lot of work and the lower voltage negates most of that. Couple if funny things, the sheer number of misspellings on these boards is hilarious, bias is always written "Bisa" and look carefully at the text on those amp boards for some hilarity. One other thing, I was going over the PSU board and noticed one thing, the caps for the bias supply are 630V rated... now to generate the bias this is a voltage doubler, it takes the raw AC input (which is 325V or so) and doubles it. For that the parts need to be rated at least double the input voltage and guess what... 2*325V is more than 630V. That is assuming the line voltage remains stable and there are no spikes. Yeah everything done to save just a little bit of money.

Since they haven't built a strip club next to the Gaylord yet, it's a no for me. Right or wrong I've apparently put my life on hold the last 16 months. I can hang on a little longer. Maybe I can start planning Red Neck Jam.

Just picked up Lance at LAX returning from his short visit with friends in Italy. He comes bearing gifts- Note one was lost to the assholes in customs and their sloppy methods of inspecting luggage for weapons, human trafficking and drugs.

When all you have is a RSA Predator?

Recoated the diaphragm, reassembled and the issue persisted. Took apart the headphone plug and found the hose clamp shorting all 5 outer pins. Even without the hose clamp, all 3 wires to one ear are shorted together. Wired the driver straight to the energiser board and, sure enough, it sounds wonderful! Time to make a nice replacement cable. The old driver sounds noticeably worse than the one I re-coated, so still a massive thanks to spritzer for the tip. Pissed off that I ignored that 1) troubleshoot the easiest and most obvious bits first; and 2) electronics is the science of contacts (as the old Russian saying goes).

and

I just started the demo a little early.

Just got this new seiko SLA021J a week ago was worried it might be to huge but I think it works well.

Too late. Nagged a used unit for $650, got tracking number from seller today.

ODE TO SPAM. Most of you know that I'm a country boy. I may be gay, but I'm still a child of the woods. I was born and raised in Alaska, but my parents are both from South Texas. I grew up on Texan and Mexican food. Biscuits and gravy for breakfast, enchiladas or chicken fried steak for dinner. I always say I spent half my life in a tent. Sometimes we'd be in the middle of nowhere for weeks at a time. We relied on Moose and Caribou to fill our freezer. It was a fantastic way to grow up! I cherish those memories. Because of the long trips miles from civilization, we needed food that wouldn't spoil. One of the items we always had on these hunting trips was Spam. When the bacon ran out, it was Spam and eggs for breakfast. Even at home there was always Spam in the cabinet. Having two older Brothers, the lunch meat was often gone when I went to fix my lunch for school. So I'd break out a can of Spam. It started as my only alternative, but I quickly developed a taste for the stuff. Even to the point that I'd pass over the ham or roast beef cold cuts for my good friend Spam. Even today I feel the craving a few times a year, and I overcome the judgment of others as I take the Spam from my cart and place it on the belt at the checkout. Like a full moon to a werewolf, I felt the calling yesterday. So I loaded up a few cans of my old friend, along with other grocery items. Today I went to make myself a sandwich for lunch, and while grabbing pickles from the fridge, I spotted a jar of Tostitos salsa con queso dip I had picked up with tortilla chips. Hmmm? A healthy slather of the queso dip on a slice of the bread and some thick Spam slices, and a new favorite was concocted. A side of Grillo's pickles and Cheetos puffs, and lunch for a King was served and fully enjoyed! OK, King of the trailer park maybe, but I can live with that. I'm mostly English, Irish and Scottish, with a little dose of White Trash to round things out. D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S !

Working from home today, dealing with whatever is left in the fridge syndrome and happened upon what I believe to be a winner. Smoked pulled pork and eggs fried in bacon fat, eventually topped with cheese and some of the aforementioned bacon

Normally I'd post something like this in Slow Forum, but I think it fits here: I'm more than a bit allergic to excessive patriotic iconography ("the last refuge of the scoundrel" and all that) but this display is really well done and all of those guns are of major significance in American history.

"Charlie is good tonight, ain't he?" 😥

Where's Jello Biafra when you need him? 😄

Actually Friday, but forgot to mention voting against the recall of California Governor Gavin Newsome. Not if I can help it Republicans!

Still don't think it is a good idea.