HiWire

Annie – Neon Nights (EP)

RIP, Al Jaffee. You brought so much joy into our lives.

Darko's Sony 306 review... initial bass and noise problems fixed with a firmware update with additional battery drain at no extra charge... Sony vs. Gary Shanling:

Apple sells a Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter that might do the trick. It's not too expensive.

Yes, Apple discontinued FireWire support in Monterey, so you should keep it below that.

Yes, I used dosdude1's installer to install macOS 10.15 Catalina on a 2008 MacBook and several other Macs. There are a few gotchas, but it mostly just works. Newer versions of the patchers (supporting macOS 11, 12, and 13) require OpenCore Legacy Patcher, which is slightly more complicated to do. Catalina Patcher: http://dosdude1.com/catalina/ Discussion thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-10-15-catalina-on-unsupported-macs.2183772/

You should still be seeing classical music in iTunes. I notice that Apple just updated iTunes for Windows. The Apple Music app was first launched on macOS Catalina (10.15) in 2019, so you'd have to update to at least that to subscribe to Apple Music (which is required to get Apple Music Classical)... if Apple updates the app. Otherwise, you can still purchase classical music through iTunes, but you can't get the other features... Other than being able to find music more accurately (using their metadata), the benefits of the Classical app seem to be lossless, hi-res music and spatial audio. There are also some limitations: you need minimum iOS 15 on your phone and it excludes users in China, Japan, Korea, Russia, Taiwan and Turkey. Also, there was a news item recently claiming that Apple is planning to remove services from older devices and operating systems: https://www.macworld.com/article/1684118/apple-services-stop-working-older-devices.html – iOS 11-11.2.6 – macOS 10.13-10.13.3 – watchOS 4-4.2.3 – tvOS 11-11.2.6

It's possible they're thinking of merging the functionality into the existing macOS Music app (and not separating like on the phone)... then we could expect to see it once they merge the new metadata (composer, etc.) into the interface.

I think the Apple Music Classical app is only available on the iPhone right now. Not sure why, but it really limits their chance at success (I think more people would listen to Classical on a computer).

Happy Birthday!

AMD and a 16-inch version of Framework laptops coming up: AMD: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/03/framework-gives-its-modular-laptops-13th-gen-intel-cpus-and-finally-an-amd-option/ 16-inch: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/03/frameworks-next-project-is-a-16-inch-modular-upgradeable-gaming-laptop/

The players look great. Do you like those protective cases and what kind of headphones do you hook up to them? It looks like a Kimber cable in the jack.

Yes, I'll follow them to PetaPixel and I also hope the DPR gets archived.

I love that site! 📷 Someone should crowdfund to continue the site.

Happy Birthday!

Kate Bush – The Sensual World

Yes, Sony has a very distinguished history of making great-sounding portable players (though not all of their products have been great). I do find their flagship pricing excessive, but these are low-volume products in 2023 and the A306 is cheaper than most of the Astell&Kern players. I'm still listening to my portable CD player, the Sony D-EJ2000. It drives Alessandro MS-1 headphones and Sennheiser Momentum earbuds without a problem. My main issues with Sony flash players has been price, battery life/replacement, and software. There are a lot of complaints about short battery life on the players, as well as operating system clunkiness and stability. Sony tried to fix that by moving to Android OS, but it's a work in progress. The NWZX707-B ($899.99) and NW-A306-B ($349.99) are now officially listed as available for pre-order on Sony's website. I hope they end up being quality products! We can expect to see official reviews when they become available. I doubt I will buy one myself, but I'll pick up the 707 if it is Sony's last player. From a value perspective, it's much easier to continue using my Apple iPod Shuffle (4GB) or my old iPhone 5S (32GB) as a portable player. They have great battery life, the 5S has a headphone jack and Bluetooth for speakers, and their quality is decent for portable use in noisy environments.

The Kills - Midnight Boom

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Boomers rejoice! AM radio wants in on the nostalgia boom:

What do they say... only the good die young. Checking out Morphine's Cure for Pain.

Oops! Too much coffee this morning. That would explain why the testimonials were so polished... Still, I'm checking out his music too late.