Hopstretch

Happy birthday!

Let's just hope Nate didn't jinx it!

I'm more of a curl-up-into-a-baller.

J.M. Coetzee -- Disgrace I took a couple of his classes in college and he was a fucking dyspeptic old bastard well before he got run off into semi-exile with nothing but a Nobel prize for his pains.

Yeah, the OS is the real story and once they get that sorted all sorts of good hardware will follow. Can't wait, if only because I hope the prospect of serious competition will keep the pressure on Apple to improve their platform as well.

Went to meet an old friend who's been having a hard time recently, ostensibly for lunch. Turned into a full-on whiskey binge and epic bitch session. Rolled home after dark to receive a deserved ass kicking. Thinking about ordering take out.

According to the LD web forum, they've found some better (18dB) fans to put in the next batch and will provide these free to current owners if you contact them.

Yeah, we won't be able to claim they squeaked by us, that's for sure. Oh well, anyone but the Phils.

It's a negotiation. If you want $350 and think it's worth $350, then all you say to anyone offering less than $350 is "Thanks, I'd like $350." This tends to make lowballers go away and reveal the people who are actually willing to pay $350.

Four new 235/65R17s. Not the most fun way to spend that kind of money, but at least it's immediately apparent they are much better than the original tires which came on the car.

Gratuitous beaver internals shot.

If you can't handle teh glossy oh noes, Amazon has the previous $2,500 Macbook Pro on sale for $1794 plus $150 mail-in rebate.

Got the Audio Advisor catalog in the mail today and the big push is on the recently-released $1,995 Bryston BDA-1 DAC, which looks quite interesting on paper. Any thoughts from the resident DAC gurus on the basic design? The manual is here.

Indeed!

Kitchen Nightmares. Gordon Ramsay is an arrogant prat, but the utter fucking cluelessness of most of the "proprietors" he's dealing with does make this quite entertaining.

As big a fanboy as I am, that's tempting fate!

If they did a simple consumer USB DAC of similar quality at a lower price point they'd make bank. But it would be going outside their core focus and I doubt we'll see it.

Those were probably the LS-9s? AV123 produces some incredible bargains, but they're always all over the place, "introducing" two revolutionary new products for every one they actually ship. Those LS-9s originally sold at $3,995 -- which must be some sort of price/performance record. I think they're $6K now. There's also a more practical line array with six ribbons and eight woofers for less.

Woke up hungover. Blew away the cobwebs with a brisk 5K run. Waiting for the wife and kids to come back from the store so we can go and get brunch.

Seconded. Really enjoyed your report. Thanks! PS: If you like the Monitor Audio sound, you should definitely try to listen to a pair of their GS-60s as they would likely be right up your street. Or you could haunt Audiogon until a pair of Dunlavys show up somewhere near you. Pretty much the holy grail for those who primarily value speed and impact. They sell quite cheaply, mainly because they are all but impossible to ship at between 200 and 500 lbs a piece.

L.L.Bean is still pretty much what Abercrombie used to be anyway, so no great loss in the cosmic scheme of things. Or Orvis if you have money, I guess.

Based on the design they appear to be, um, drawing inspiration from -- I would have guessed a lot more.

From this, it looks like they're doing I2S over HDMI. Is that novel?

How much were the Tyler Decades? That new PS Audio stuff is hawt looking, too. How did it sound?

Nope, but yo Momma sure liked it, Opie!