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I have been getting back at this..working up to a limited run of these as the STAX SR-X9000 and Audeze CRBN have made that need to happen. But the chassis is extraordinarily expensive and difficult to produce, so I am working at ways to fix that. Also need to put it on the scale, thought it was 45lb but feels more like 60lb haha. It's really not that big of a footprint (13.5x18), but it makes the BHSE look like a toy. Power consumption is 190-200W depending on tubes, with 90-100W of that being heaters. The bottom of the amp is ice cold and the top is pleasantly toasty. The first 3 stages have recessed slide switches on top to switch 6.3 to 12.6v heaters, so common tube types are: 1st: 6SN7/12SN7, 12AU7 and many others w/ 8 to 9 pin adapter 2nd: 6SL7/12SL7, 12AX7 and many others w/ 8 to 9 pin adapter 3rd: 6N6P, ECC99, 12BH7A, possibly others such as 5687 w/ pin-out adapter 4th: Emission Labs 20B-V4

Had a really good service for my Brother, with an amazing slideshow. Several people told some great stories about him. Just really nice.

I was on a Boat Past the Golden Gate Bridge To San Francisco Where I had a virtual interview, Aced a test (6/6) and answered some questions, which meant I was approved to take an oath later on. Before: Took an oath, which included obeying laws, something which other particular oath takers and keepers seem not to have been doing . ( Sorry ' Liz) Got a personal Message from Joey B But that's just between him and me. 😉 After: And then with my new cultural sensibilities, I felt the need, The need for speed . And then came home. Q: Fellow citizens, how long do I have to wait for the desire for an F150 with a rack of AR-15's to manifest itself, as it doesn't seem to be happening yet? Should I be concerned? Joanne is scheduled for similar ( minus Tom Cruise) on Friday.

Not today, but yesterday: Yumi accepted a job in Durango and we are under contract for this place. Higher interest rates and COVID pricing is a bitch but at least we’re not buying in CA. Time for another HC meet? We got a big basement god people to crash in. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/96-Walker-Ln-Durango-CO-81303/13939794_zpid/?utm_campaign=iosappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare

I bought an e-bike. Specialized Turbo Vado 5.0 Super Light 2022 edition. Claire got a 4.0 step-through.

Stop me if you've heard this before ... Boat Bridge City But this time I came home with a hybrid American wife! What a country!

Up in Maine for the long weekend, after some quick but heavy rains got a nice view (our neighbor's place is basically the same as ours).

opened up the weber a few weeks ago and the rusted bottom dropped out and the thing collapsed. So... steak florentine

Sitting at Anchorage airport, waiting for my flight home. It was a fantastic trip but I miss Suzy.

^^^ Always buy the thing you want to ride, don't really worry about anything else. Me: finally recovering enough to get out for a proper ride in the woods.

I've hardly taken photos in the last however many years, but what I have been doing since I got this shiny M1 Macbook Pro is blowing the dust off my editing skills. July 1, 2006, the first week I had my EOS 30D and its "better" kit lens. October 4, 2006. Taken by a friend of mine with his Kodak V570 panoramic camera. A photo taken by an unknown person with an Olympus C3040 Zoom point & shoot, sometime in 2001. I found it in a folder of images all from the 00s that I had not thought about in over 15 years. I'm not entirely sure how I ended up with this one, but I suspect the woman in frame sent it to me in hopes I'd clean it up. Well, here I am a decade and a half later. The original jpeg was quite a mess: low resolution (far below the C3030Z's native 3.3MP), poorly exposed, set to sepia tone (ugh), and with a couple digital glitches in it. I fixed ...most of the problems. I ran it through Topaz Labs' Gigapixel AI software, which upscaled it hugely, then converted it to black & white in Photoshop, manually adjusting the settings. Finally I did a bit more work on the levels. I did not attempt to fix the jpeg glitches, but a friend of mine stepped up and made use of his Photoshop skills. I actually like the photo now, as a character study. May 26, 2008. This chucklefuck destroyed a tube guitar amp he borrowed from me. May 26, 2008. The fella on the left is now a moderately famous YouTuber, known for his extended reviews of the Disney Star Wars films. July 19, 2013. Taken on the side of the road in Hadley, MA. A farmer came by in his tractor, stopped it, got down and yelled at me for trespassing (I was 5' off the road.) I told him I was leaving and got TF out of there. May 19, 2019. IR 5D + 17-40L @25mm. I spent considerable time editing this photo then prompty forgot about it. November 6, 2021. Two antique lamps I restored plus a network switch. iPhone 6S. December 21, 2015. Same lamps during the day. May 18, 2019. IR5D + 17-40L @25mm. April 27, 2022. iPhone 13 in an Aldi Parking lot during the golden hour. July 6, 2008. Taken at a party in a club in Springfield, MA where I only worked once. April 25, 2019. Taken with my IR-modified 2001 vintage Canon PowerShot G2 and a wide angle adapter. I cleaned it up using Topaz DeNoise AI then loaded it into Luminar 4 where I made a bunch of tweaks and applied a lookup table. Lastly, I did a bunch of further editing in Photoshop. I did not attempt to correct the somewhat comical fisheye effect caused by the wide angle lens. It doesn't bother me too much. April 17, 2019. iPhone 6S. No edits at all. Februray 18, 2019. Very odd light in my yard. iPhone 6S. May 6, 2019. IR 5D + EF 50mm F/1.8 (Mark I). The sleepy little street I live on. Oct 9, 2009. The absolutely ancient mixing console from a now-closed nightclub. A re-edit of a photo I took with the mighty Canon EF 85mm F/1.2L USM that a friend rented and let me borrow for one evening. The 85L is one of those magic lenses that lives up to and even exceeds the hype surrounding it. Revisiting the image, I de-noised it using a Topaz plugin in Photoshop, made adjustments and applied a lookup table in Luminar 4. Then I imported the photo back in to Photoshop, further adjusted the levels and did a de-noise pass to remove posterization artifacts. There is "narrow depths of field" then there's "85L depth of field."

Nothing too amazing or intense, but I wanted to try the new bike on White's Hill, where Claire has always had to stop a couple of times to get over on her old hybrid Trek. We both went up and over without stopping and then went to lunch. Eventually, we want to ride all the way out to Point Reyes with more hills along the way.

Congrat Shelly! As for myself, packed for a trip to Alaska tomorrow. Going for my Brother's memorial. He passed last winter, but his wife wanted to have the memorial in warmer weather. I'm happy about that, because when I was up there for my Sister's passing 3 years back, it was Christmas, and cold, and dark and depressing as hell. I haven't been up there in the summer in at least 15 years. Actually looking forward to it.

Watched Milo rescue what we assume was a waterlogged field mouse of some sort. We just happened to wander into Stretch's garden and Milo miraculously spotted what he first thought was a mole, in a PVC drain pipe. He was barely able to keep his head above water. No telling how long he was trapped in that pipe. Assuming he fell in while looking for a drink. Milo was able to grasp him with some kitchen tongs Stretch grabbed. He set him in a bushy area to hopefully regain his strength and resume his/her field mouse duties.

the perfect amount of sear.

Damnit guys. After seeing your posts ^ I was intrigued and started looking at reviews. Yesterday I had some time between my Niece's commencement at Portland State and a celebratory lunch @ Salty's so I stopped at River City Bicycles and test rode one. Bam. Done. I ended up going with the 2021 model to save a few bucks & because I actually prefer the display up on the handlebar (even though I know it's a much less sophisticated display than the ones on the 2022's). Those are just excuses for the real reason though: I like the color. I will definitely be getting the extended battery once they are available 😁

Well I think we are already Vermonters as we went shopping in New Hampshire today.

Thanks to the great work from @Mirko and advice from @kevin gilmore we just finished retrofitting the GS-X MK2's power supply with a custom made GRLV. I haven't had the time to really sit down and listen to it but first impressions that the amp is quite a bit smoother and more detailed now. 😃

It's more power than BHSE, but not by much. There isn't really much point. There are already several competing tube amps that put out less voltage swing than STAX's entry level amps. Pushing the envelope on component specs to achieve another fraction of a dB more output wasn't the goal. as for the price, well over 10k. there is absolutely no way this amp wouldn't be. I could exceed that in bill of materials easily. How much is the MSB, 40k? The Sennheiser HE1 w/ headphone is $59k. The Shangri-la Sr w/ amp is $50k. This will be much, much less than either of those and sound better with SR-X9000 or CRBN.

Updating more DIY mesh stators. Glue the brass holder to the copper sieve with ERGO 5500 or 5900 then cut off the excess copper mesh with a nicking tool. Stators mesh size in the picture below ranges from #180 to #400，It is better to use a higher number mesh for making DIY mesh stators, the mesh with lower number size is difficult to glue...This may be the reason why stax no longer produce the original omega . Both omega and x9000 use about #80 mesh for their stator, and it is not easy to fix #80 mesh by hand, x9000 solves the problem by using thermo compression bonding...

Well, Nutella cost us $1,300 and counting today. Against our better judgement, we left some party decorations up for Piper’s birthday week. Found some chewed pieces of plastic streamers on the ground yesterday morning, and she didn’t finish her breakfast so I feared the worst. After multiple rounds of vomiting, including parts of streamers, she spent much of the day at the emergency vet. Long-story-short, looks like she’s going to be OK without surgery. I’ve admittedly been a bit of a mess… It was not a fun night, or enhaoyable day waiting to hear. And everyone was determined to welcome her home.

There were 3 post acquiring citizenship action items (in no particular order) https://risccmke.org/en/after-naturalization/ * Inform the SSA of your new citizenship status. Done. Surprised that USCIS and SSA don't do this automatically, joined up government and all that, but was done in under 5 minutes once my check in number was called. Maybe it's another check and balance? * Register to Vote. Done. Can be done online here in CA. Straightforward. No overt signs of voter suppression. Found the idea of having to chose a political party strange. https://my.lwv.org/california/article/how-choose-political-party-when-registering-vote Given that voting is supposed to be a secret ballot, And that the "Father of the country", George Washington foresaw problems with them. https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/the-first-president/political-parties/ Time to read his farewell address. Maybe I could take the approach of an ex-work-colleague, who, while being a gay San Francisco liberal democrat, registered as a Republican, so he could see what they ("the enemy") were up to. Thus he could vote for the most unelectable candidate in the primaries, and would share the contents of their talking points , or campaign contribution begging letters that they mailed to him, with us. That was enlightening. * Apply for a passport. One of the unintended consequences of becoming a citizen is that we are "trapped" in the country, until we have a Passport in our hands. With a green card we could re-enter the country, but we had to hand that back in. So no Passport, no legal re-entry. We have to apply in person at a Post Office for a new passport, and then wait 8-11 weeks (or 5-7 weeks if expedited) based on the current State Department processing times. No immediate passport appointments locally because: reasons (COVID?) But we did manage to find an appointment next week in Sonoma (Boyes Hot Springs!) as the earliest accessible appointment - so a day in wine country, shame! In the meantime I guess we are "stuck" with Hawaii as our deferred travel vacation choice for now.

Captain Obvious here: I maintain that Wilson products look uniquely angry at the listener.

Given, as an American Citizen, by choice (rather than by accident of birth), I took an Oath, to "support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic" . So, not in this timeline.

Congrat mate buddy. Nice one! Yee haa!

For anyone interested. Yes, the little boy with the straw cowboy hat, holding the little dog is me. Also, the three of us boys in the barber shop was when we first visited my Grandparents in Texas, and when they heard we were from Alaska the newspaper came and took our picture. I still have that clipping.

Ethel Cain - Preacher's Daughter I recognize that this is extremely on-brand for me, but holy hell this is good.

CNC project two nearing completion. I hate applying finishes.

Welp. I scuttled the entire setlist I spent this week putting together (~85 to 90something BPM) so I can work in a deep house track with Julee Cruise on vocals (which is a breakneck 116BPM.)

As I was downloading the Costco app (because I lost my card). When you see it...

I'm so hetero when I'm in Alaska. Yes, that's me manning the grill. Fake it till you make it!

Went out for a ride with Xavier and Colin last week. I've almost recovered from the ride, so finally able to post it.

Since I can't afford a 392 Wrangler, and really don't care for the stock Rubicon shocks, I did the next best thing... Swapped in a set of like-new take-off Jeep 392 Fox shocks. Soooooooo much better. The stock shocks were way too soft, and Jeep would rock so much when shifting, and brake dive was horrible. These are firmer and took care of those things without making the ride harsh at all. I also finally got my 1901 Maine state flag fender vent decals on. I mean, it's still not a V8 Wrangler, but stickers add more HP anyway, so I figure I must be ahead.

Steve will not like the timing of this one, because it's one of his favorites. I made Japanese curry with chicken, potatoes and carrots using the frozen curry blocks I made a couple of years ago. The blocks did not suffer from their long rest, and I have a few more blocks, so I can make it again when Steve is here. 😁

I'm really fortunate to have the Trackhawk, TMoney...thank you. Liking how low maintenance it is especially driving it around TX and not having to worry about potholes nor clearing parking stops, etc... It's funny that you mention the Porsche Turbo.... I'm starting to fall in love with a 2007 Turbo stick car. It's a bit of a project...60k miles and a lot of love bites. The interior is a bit of a mess and I'm working on sorting it out...got a used passenger side door card I need to install. The car is a lot more enjoyable than I expected... HS

My friend took a few photos. This is the lever action air gun that had the note inside it: This is the mid 19th century Werndl: Video on the Werndl:

Once again I was going to post this in slow forum, but it's actually a better fit here. I gave away a bunch of guns this weekend (like half of head-case: "Reeeee!") which mostly consisted of antique air guns, black powder long guns and one very strange .22 rifle. The dude I gave them two is a long time friend of mine and was very happy to get them. Hilariously, at least one of the black powder rifles is too long for his gun safe. It is from 1867 and Austro-Hungarian in origin. Another long example is an air rifle from ~1919 that was used for military training. He discovered a note inside it that provided some provenance: In encouraged my friend to keep the note and try to preserve it.

Second best thing to a DD in California.

red actually. was looking at the green egg but the kamodo has an infinitely better heavy duty spring loaded hinge that holds the top in any position. total weight of this beast is close to 400 lbs. not easy to move. but unlike the weber which topped out at about 450F, this easily gets to 900F. tonight, tomahawk steak.

I'm very happy to see that your house is LGBTQ positive. Fly the flag!

Saw this and literally thought, "God bless them for having the sense to use the best parts available."

Needed a little mental purging to finish off the night. This fit.

A good friend who runs an audio accessories company (one of the good guys - not a snake oiler) visited the Wilson room when David Wilson was still alive and at the helm. After listening for a short while, he said quietly to Wilson "I think one of the midrange drivers is connected with the wrong phase" Wilson went into a major rant, that it was impossible a driver was wired incorrectly - yak yak yak. My mate shrugged his shoulders and went back to his own room. After a while one of the Wilson techs came and apologized for Wilson's rant, and told him that he was absolutely right - the left hand speaker has one of the mids antiphase.

And if you can't hear that, you should hang up the cans for good cloth ears.

My Revox PR99 playing an STS tape.

Lol! I’ll be staying at Rice, at least for the foreseeable future. Would need to switch fields (data science/AI/machine learning probably) and get a work from home job to move out there permanently. I really only need to be at Rice during the fall and spring semesters and can probably visit once a month during the fall semester.

Not today but yesterday. Caught a rattle snake on my back patio and chased a coyote out of my driveway. Now waiting for a Yeti to walk into my back yard looking for my wine stash.

No fairies envolved except the one eating. Brisket at Stretch's.

H8 u ;)