MexicanDragon

Happy 21st birthday to my daughter Zoë! I know I've known a lot of you since she was around 2-3 years old, and somehow she made it through to adulthood. Here she is at her birthday dinner with her future MIL, having her first legal drink! (And one of the very few she's ever had.) I'm really proud of her, and she had a good day. Her past two birthdays have been bad (tested positive for COVID in 2021 during her fall break an hour before she was leaving for the airport to fly home, and her now fiancee (Michael, above) had just driven home to CO, so she wound up in AZ all alone on her first birthday away from home. Today? Today started a new trend in her having good ones. ❤️

Contrary to my dismissive stance of Steve's "Brent always <something queen related joke>" eventual reply, I do have to say that she was correct on this one. Devon? P'shaw.

Bah. Why do you have decent headphones along with a pile of nonsense?

I feel like I should wait about 100 hours before replying to this, but... in.

Fatty.

I haven't had a drink at home in a fortnight, but I have a couple inches of whiskey left in a 1.75L bottle. I'd be doing Jimmy a disservice if I don't kill it. *Cheers*

I found out today that a close friend from Chattanooga, Jimmy Burgess, passed away on August 16th. I met him through Mensa, but he was a bit atypical of the people I normally come across. He had more stories than almost anyone I've come across, including being a pit boss at Harrah's, carrying duffle bags of cash to deposit at a bank after a big day at Ringling Brothers, stationed in Hawaii during a stint with military intelligence, and he'd always join me after meetings for the after party, which sometimes involved a few, but often involved the two of us going somewhere and drinking/talking for hours. Most of the time I've known him, though, he was working at a recycling center. He'd often have people drop stuff off which was still in good working order, so he wound up liberating it from a sad fate. He lived across from my grandmother's house, and I had a ~cousin who lived next to him and found out they would barter/trade all kinds of things. There was a time we were at a dinner and I'd mentioned that my receiver had a channel die earlier that week. At the end he was like "follow me to my car, I have something for you." (No, Steve, not that.) He had a 1200$ Denon receiver that was pre-HDMI, so it was being tossed. The audio section, however, worked flawlessly, and continued to power my Rega Jura speakers in TN until I moved out. Last year, I had a friend who had been abused by her then-BF with whom she lived. She didn't have anywhere to go, so I called up my buddy Jimmy and he got ready and went and rescued her from a bad situation, took her out to eat, talked and drank for hours, then got her set up in a hotel for a couple days. Today, she's doing great, has an amazing new job where she's even been able to pay for her mom to get two surgeries she's needed. When I moved out of TN, my house had been a wreck, and all the packing/boxing up/getting rid of stuff that was supposed to be done by the kids' mom hadn't been started. We spent hours and hours while I was there for 4 days working on it, and he kept going over and taking care of anything that needed to be done over the next month while I was 2500 miles away. He was a good friend, and I'm so glad we got to hang out in July when I went to Chattanooga to visit, just didn't realize it was going to be the last time I saw him. RIP, Jimmy. 1943-2023

I think it's probably better for @Grahame to take a swing at anything Android-connected; what do you think @VPI?

Understand. Actually though about you the other day for some reason. I'll PM with chat info (Discord.)

Dude! Where have you been the last 9 years?

Diet Coke and The Beach Boys 5th row center, but the bloody chairs were aligned wrong to the stage, so it was just a hair left of center, but still, not too shabby. The Beach Boys obviously had to give it up to the greatest Beach Boy, Sir Uncle Jesse. Sadly, he wasn't there this day, but they're playing Vegas in a couple weeks, and I wouldn't be surprised... The Beach Boys covering The Ramones - Rockaway Beach Rockaway Beach - The Beach Boys covering The Ramones.mp4

Man, not until you were in your 30s? Damn. Glad you got something finally, though.

Was thinking for temporary/secondary system, just after a move or something, but looks like it was @mikeymad who had one for a second system. But, seems like it was I who posted something about the wow and flutter being less than ideal: Guess I could only remember about half of the conversation from 8.5 years ago off the top of my head. Alas. But if you want to do just one speaker, and have it be decent, you could try going with a Klipsch The One II. Amazon has one for 159.99$ (normally 300$), has switchable phono pre or stereo line in. It also does BT so she could hook her phone up to it and have music that way. https://www.amazon.com/Klipsch-Heritage-Wireless-Tabletop-Stereo/dp/B08XLPJ8GZ?th=1 But, congrat to her for being into it at all! Hope she loves it.

329$ with built-in phono pre, which is why I discounted it. I know some people like it, but IIRC, @morphsci had one and had crazy wow and flutter measurements a few years back. Ms. Swift deserves better, no?

The Pro-Ject Debut III at 249$ should be better than the Sgt. Pepper's Essential III, theoretically. All of these below have built-in preamps, and most of them (if not all) can be switched off if she wants to start fucking around with a money pit of audiophiledom. The Sony does have BT and USB, so while we may cringe at that, it could be a big selling point. She like the Beatles? 50% off the Sgt. Pepper's Pro-Ject (249$) https://www.musicdirect.com/equipment/turntables/pro-ject-essential-iii-beatles-sgt-peppers-special-edition-turntable/ Black Pro-Ject Debut III (249$) (normally 500$; see a pattern?) https://www.turntablelab.com/collections/sales-specials/products/pro-ject-debut-iii-phono-sb-turntable-piano-black Need BT? Sony for 250$ https://www.turntablelab.com/collections/best-turntables-by-price-ttl-levels/products/sony-ps-lx310bt-bluetooth-stereo-turntable-black If you wanna chip in some, I've been happy with this Denon with 2M Red, but unfortunately it's 150$ more than when I bought it https://www.turntablelab.com/collections/turntables/products/denon-dp-300f-turntable-ortofon-2m-red-upgrade This one is the cheapest most people should go, and it used to be about 100$, but they added an X to the model name and it's 149$ now. Bright side, if you wanted it tomorrow, you could go to Target or Guitar Center and get it, though price match to anywhere if at Target, as it's 169$. Colors: Black, Gunmetal, or for some reason, Brown. https://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/audio-technica-at-lp60x-fully-automatic-belt-drive-stereo-turntable/l47542000001000

Her budget, or your budget for her? If it's the latter, SMH.

https://vpiindustries.com/products/scout-21-turntable

I like doggoes

https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/24/sony-is-buying-gaming-headphone-maker-audeze/ This should be interesting…

By the time @cetoole would build it, I'd have a job and could afford to pay you to do it. By then, you'll have 2-3 new amps out.

@justin - Would this be a good project as a first build should I want to bring @cetoole out of retirement for "guidance"?

The Man In The High Castle Currently on S2.

@DouglasQuaid Introduced me to this one. I *loved* it. Wish it would've had at least one more season, though.

^^^ Pedestrian games for the proletariat. A proper game was announced today. Ladies, gentlemen, lawyers, may I present: Killing Floor III