Knuckledragger

Twofer (or twoFUR) today. ZeosPantera is a guy who wears a GoPro, yaps at great length and ostensibly review headphones gear. It is my understanding that he is somewhat well known on that other site. I have watched his videos on and off for years. I don't think I've ever made a product purchase based on Zeos's reviews, but his content makes good "second monitor" entertainment when I'm doing something else. Zeos is know for a few things, he's got the gift of gab (45 minute video rambling on about a DAC/amp combo), his absolutely cringe taste in anime waifu art, and his various cats that make cameos in his videos. For years he had a small gray cat named Drake that is one of the mouthiest creatures I've ever heard. His persistent, insistent meowing is the stuff of legend. I happened to be checking Xitter (not something I normally do) and saw that Zeos had posted this: Very sad. His videos won't be the same without the Chorus of Drake. I'm not sure if YT deep links work on HC. The timestamp I used includes an earful of Drake.

This is a bit of an obscure one, but still significant. RIP Mickey Mann. Via the official Orbital FB page: I first head Pressure of Speech's "X-Beats" in a DJ mix, sometime in the mid 90s. At that point there was no Discogs, no P2P, and remarkably little info online. In 2002, I asked about it in the techno room on the then-new Soulseek. One of the UK denizens said "Oh, that's the sound engineer for Orbital." Some time later, I paid $25 on eBay for the 12" (a lunatic price for the time.) I was mortified to learn that the remix I liked so much was NOT on the 12". Eventually I got my hands on the Phase 1 CD an deduced that the track that moved me so much in 1995 or so was any version of X-Beats, but in fact "Elone," specifically the Pressure of Speech 12" Version. Elone got mislabeled as X-Beats on a number of compilations and bootlegs in the 90s. As much as I tend to romanticize that decade, especially compared to the oligarch-driven, AI-generated hellscape in which we now reside, I do grant that it was a right royal PITA to be into obscure electronic music in the dialup era. It is a moody, timeless classic to this very day. Times like these makes me wish my radio station was still going, so I could build a set around it. More on that later. Much later.

RIP Daveigh Chase, 'The Ring' and 'Lilo and Stitch' star, dead at 35(!)

Audio Technica makes a $108,000 headphone amp. The selector switches are unlabeled, so there's a handy wedge-shaped guide that sits below the amp. That is certainly a design decision.

My reaction to the Knicks winning.

I'm slow on the uptake. Is "Cary Audio standards" a good or a bad thing? P2P always looks like a bit of a clusterfuck to untrained eyes. "That's well done" and "What a complete and utter shitshow" aren't that visually different. Unless it's McAllister (or late stage Rotenberg) tier work.

I went on a deep dive through Jacob's photos on FB. These are some shots he took over the years that AFAIK he did not post here: The opposite focal point of this shot (where the gate is in focus and the house is OOF) would be interesting. I think the slight vignetting here is an artifact of the lens, not a software filter.

RIP Gene Shalit, who passed at the tender age of 100.

Zoomer meme.

It flew off the WWE headquarters. That is entirely too on the nose.

Half my Steam friends list is playing FH6 and nothing else at this point.

Not a person, but RIP Juno Download(!) The DJing world has been moving to a subscription model for a while now. djay Pro, one of the most popular DJing apps, is designed around the use of streaming services. From the comments section of a DJ I know:

RIP Marcia Lucas. Not only did she put up with being married to George Lucas, she took the steaming pile that was his ideas and turned it into A New Hope. George Lucas is the definitive example that it is better to be lucky than talented. At every turn, he blundered into meeting people with abilities far beyond his own who could elevate his murky and misconceived visions into cultural touchstones. Peter Crushing was the absolute master class at portraying a bad guy. Sir Alec Guinness could inflect the most hokey dialogue imaginable in a way that resonated with like six different generations. James Earl Jones had the voice of all time. Irvin Kershner was a deftly skilled directory with decades of experience. Unlike George, Lawrence Kasdan actually was an accomplished screenwriter. Also Carrie Fisher was lighting in a bottle. I'm sorry, this is about about George's ex-wife, not The Neck himself.

Nato and EU condemn Russia after drone hits Romanian residential block. Romania is part of NATO.

Apple discontinues the Mac Pro with no plans for future hardware.

"It'd be a lot cooler if you did.

Long story short: Donny Diapers got buttmad because Stephen Tyrone Colbert was mean to him on air. Larry Ellison bought CBS and put his bratty kid David in charge of it. David fired Stephen to stay in Donny's good graces (and to get various corporate mergers approved.) Stephen made an appearance on Michigan public access TV. Stephen put the results up on YouTube. YT is now blocking searches for it(!) There are many guest stars.

Point the first: Generative AI is the devil. Point the second: Locally generated (as in on one's personal machine) is the devil we know. Point the third: I told point the second to render "A Mexican in his mid 40s, with a beard, celebrating his birthday. His head is a giant biscuit." It shat out this: Point the fourth: I am now more afraid of AI than I was before. Point the fifth: Feliz cumpleaños, FATHEAD.

RIP Rapper Rob Base, known for 'It Takes Two,' dies at 59 after private battle with cancer. I was there in '88 when this dropped. It turns out he was internationally known.

I'm having trouble finding a news source, but I learned (from Toby Marks of Banco De Gaia of all people) that Dick Parry died. He was a hell of a session musician, best known for his work with Pink Floyd. His sax solos are legendary.

Necro Part Deux. This will be an exceptionally long walk. As I have said a number of times on this site (and even made a thread about) I shave using an old time safety razor. It's a slow and methodical process. While I do it, I like to have a YouTube video or podcast playing. For years I lugged my laptop into whatever bathroom where I was shaving. I even set up a shelf audio system for the purpose in my old house. Super exciting bathroom pic. Not the power and USB cables at the ready. In my new digs, I have a much less space overall. Going from a 5 bedroom farmhouse to a compact (and energy efficient) ~1200 sq ft house has been an experience. I have an older iPad Pro that I got a while ago. I run the Orion browser on it, and use an adblock extension. I picked up the "iHome iDL 100" iPad dock at a second hand shop last year. It has two Lightning connectors and a USB input. Unfortunately, the design is too clever by half. The iPhone (small) and (iPad) big mounts only work if the iOS device is not inside a case. I keep my mobile devices in protective cases for obvious reasons. The USB input on the iDL 100 works just fine, so for quite some time I kept my iPad Pro mounted on it, in landscape mode, and fired up a YT video while I shaved. It was slow to get started, but it did work. As of a few months ago, Google has won the arms race against ads on iOS and I cannot get the above combination to work. There is only so much I can do against a 4 trillion dollar company. Enter the Alldocube iPlay60 Mini Turbo Android tablet. It's not rooted, but I can side load and patch apps on it. As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm using Morphe to patch the official YouTube and Reddit apps to remove all ads. Now both apps are actually useful and not absolute hell. The tablet works like a charm, but the iDL 100 will not connect to it at all. The two Lightning connectors are a non-starter obviously, and also the USB port only works with iOS devices. Also, I had some issues with that port failing to charge the iPad so I'd be hesitant to use it even if it did connect. The iHome does have an 1/8" stereo input jack, but the Alldocube does not have a headphone output. Precious few mobile devices do these days. A while ago, I bought a USB-C DAC maybe by JSAUX that also supplies power. As far as Chinesium cables and accessories go, JSAUX is a better one. I have used a number of their DisplayPort and high bandwidth USB-C cables (as well as irritating but necessary ones like USB-C to mini, not micro, USB-B). They have all worked exceptionally. The JSAUX DAC has a clear plastic top so one can see the chips inside. This is a recent trend that I find to be dumb as fuck. Ignoring the peculiar case choices, I tested it out in my main speaker rig using a 1/8" to dual RCA cable and it sounded ...fine with streaming audio. TBH the only time I ever focus on DAC quality these days is if it's actively horrendous or I'm doing careful listening at night. With that success, I found a 1/8" to 1/8" TRS cable and connected the JSAUX to the iHome ...and was immediately rewarded with 60Hz hum. No amount of fussing with it would fix the problem. The hum was bad enough that it was distracting while trying to listen to a YT video. Cursing, I went on Amazon and found a Y cable shaped DAC on sale for $4. It has a USB-C male on one end, and USB-C female and 1/8" audio female on the other. I swapped the $4 unit in for the JSAUX and no hum at all. Now I can listen to reviews of old manual focus lenses, tales of crypto scams, and how Demented Donnie Diapers is burning down the entire fucking planet while I shave. This has been your hood-fi moment.

I realize this is the Mac thread and not a headphone one. Serious question: Are there a set of BT headphones out there with better noise cancelling ("ANC" as the tech bros call it) better than the Airpods Max(2)? I am now in the market for one.

Gay rights and longtime Democratic Congressman Barney Frank dies at 86. I have mixed feelings about this one. Barney was a trailblazer in a much earlier era. He also had (and I steal this quote) a sense of humor he wielded like a wrecking ball. I have never seen anyone make Republicans so buttmad on the floor as he did. He's also one of the few politicians who ever directly took on Wall St. in my lifetimes. With that said, he spent his retirement years undoing more or less all the good that he did in office. He became a lobbyist for the very financial institutions he sought to regulate previously, he went after trans people directly and in his final act as a public figure, attacked Graham Platner. Way to shit on your own legacy, bud.