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In its present configuration there is no advantage in having the Oppo connect via Ropiee directly to the network. However, the Oppo will eventually be replaced with a minDSP SHD so I can use Dirac Live since I now listen mostly with speakers. The Oppo will be moved down to my bedroom so I can listen via headphones at night. The network connection will make its move totally seamless.

I still haven't done anything meaningful with the D200 and 300mm. As I have said before, 300s are not casual lenses. I did take a nice stroll with the 18-200mm a few evenings ago. So far my experience has been the opposite of what I_D described. I like the lens better at longer lengths than I do at the wide end. Of course this is based on a sample size of "strolling down my street in the afternoon" so it's a meaningless assessment. With that said, all of these were taken with the 18-200mm: Two deer finding something good to eat in the field behind the home where my cousin (once removed) and her husband lived for decades. 200mm F/8, 1/100, ISO 250. The back yard of the same property. The current owners use the house for vacations in the summer, so no one actually "lives" there (this is Vineyard 101, I'm afraid.) The flowers frame are hydrangeas, which are hugely popular round here. The colors they display are soil dependent, so some people get blue and others might get pink or purple. I like the gradual DoF the 18-200 provides here. 170mm, F/8, 1/90, ISO 200. One of the many small trees on the farm across the street from me. Bokeh is nothing interesting but again I like the DoF. 200mm, F/5.6 (which is to say, wide open), 1/125, ISO 200. The famous Sweetened Water Farm horse barn. There is an absolutely fugly McMansion behind it, and I had frame carefully to only get the barn in the shot. I posted this to the private MV group saying as much an a whole bunch of people got very bent out of shape at me calling the house in question ugly. 70mm, F/14, 1/60, ISO 250. Nothing says Edgartown like white picket fences. 70mm, F/7.1, 1/80, ISO 250. A section of fence I've photographed a great many times. 40mm, F/9, 1/320, ISO 200. The same view, more or less, some 20 years prior taken with a PowerShot S60. I'll win no awards for the composition on this one, but the light is pretty. 50mm, F/6.3, 1/60, ISO 200. Looking out one end of my driveway. This shot is fine, but it illustrates everything I don't like about wide angles on small sensors. The exaggerated distances drive me nuts. I think prevalence of cameraphones are most of my reason for this aversion. Slightly less fisheyed wide shot. 18mm, F/7.1, 1/200, ISO 200. TBH I should have stopped down a couple more stops. I still barely know how to wrangle the D200. Gidget the kitty enjoying her new digs. There's a long story here, but the short version is that the daughter of two friends of mine moved to MV full time and brought her two cats. 70mm, F/5.6, 1/640, ISO 400, meow.

Very cool, Jim! And yes, the new unit is a great price. The previous units could be bettered by a cheaper NUC running Roon Rock for about 1/3 to 1/2 the price. Smart of Roon to recognize and deal with that. I use a NUC at home with a 2TB internal SSD, and a NUC in Maine with a 3TB (I think) external drive. Both work well and as you say come up quickly and easily after shutdown or power loss.

Got my new power supply ready for my KG amp collection

So I have been running Roon as my go to audio software for listening to my digital library and integrating it with Tidal and Qobuz. The software works very well and they have kept upgrades. I have been using a 2018 Mac mini to run my Roon server and it has worked very well though not without a few hiccups in keeping it running on a continuous basis. A picture of that setup is below. It consisted of the mac mini and a 10 TB USB disk to hold my library and Roon backups, a 27” monitor, wireless keyboard and mouse. The previous generation of Roon nucleus appliances were quite pricey compared to the Mac mini so I never really considered buying one. However when they announced the Nucleus One for $499 that changed everything. The nucleus has an advantage over the Mac mini as you can install an additional drive internally to hold your library so even with my $600 8TB SSD the price was actually less than the Mac mini and external USB drive. Obviously the Mac is capable of doing more than the Nucleus but I was only using it as a Roon server. So the primary goal was to simplify the setup and hopefully provide a more stable platform with higher up time. Replacing the Mac with the Nucleus One allowed me to get rid of the pieces below. This is all now doing duty as an additional workstation in our guest room. The new audio system is below. It has been very reliable and has been running continuously as long as power and the network is up. It also comes back up with absolutely no intervention when power/network connectivity is restored. It has also motivated me to reconfigure my network as we have both a personal network as well as the University network. Prior to this last week neither my Ropiee devices nor Roon Arc worked. But after a weeks worth of network reconfiguring and port forwarding hell, everything works correctly. I now have the Oppo attached directly to the network via a Ropiee device and I was able to use my iPad to connect to my Roon server from work using Roon Arc. I am happy with the purchase and most people with standard home networks should be able to get everything working in a day. The longest part will be transferring your library to the internal disk if you decide to go that route. It does have two USB ports on the back so you can also use an external disk. EDIT Note. Corrected price of Nucleus one from $599 to $499

Back in '83 I was building a mall in Juneau, Alaska. Some of the Pages working at the State Capitol threw some incredible parties. One page by the name of Jay King threw a Bob party. They put on reruns of The Bob Newhart Show, and everytime someone on the show said Bob, you had to drink. It was a very fun party. Later that night Jay King performed many Michael Jackson songs, and did them well. You probably wouldn't know him by name, but 3 years later Jay King became the front man of Club Nouveau. They had a huge hit with a remake of Lean On Me. R.I.P. Bob.

Really liked him. Not much else to say. Glad he got to live a full life. RIP.

totally 100% safe. looks like about 100kva. proper personal protective equipment required. typically 600v if its to generate 3 phase. makes the stuff birgir is doing to e-cars look tame.

My first "serious" test for the next cycle here in Gran Canaria. It is practically the same route as the race. Thought and mood are something very curious... while I was climbing, although I was having fun with the beautiful day (we reached almost 40º C) I had the sensation of going slower than usual and when I returned home I was quite tired. I thought it was the treatment's fault but nevertheless, when I saw the data this afternoon I saw that not only climb faster but I also set significantly better times. Sea of clouds in the north of the island In Tejeda it´s the Parador (something like a Hotel) Top climb Jose needed breakfast today....

I had the 18-200 with my D200 for a while in the way back days. Loved the camera, that lens less so, it wasn't bad, but clearly wasn't that sharp off-center much above 50mm. It was a heralded, sought-after lens in the time, but I found it pretty overrated optically. I think I ended up with a Tamron 17-50 2.8 that was more to my liking, as my main zoom until I moved to the D700 a couple of years later. That 300mm lens you got there, on the other hand, should be a great lens so long as you find use for it and can get things in focus.

I updated the firmware in the D200 (which was still running v1.01, from 2005). It was a peculiar, but reasonably painless process. So far my hit rate with it has been spectacularly bad (business as usual more or less.) I'm going lug the D200, 300mm, and a [gosh darn] tripod down to the docks and photograph some of the famous sights around here. I display classic Vineyarder behavior in seldom leaving my yard, never mind going to any of the famous and scenic places around here. In my defense, there's summer people everywhere.

^^ TICE comes running to post....

Bob Newhart, famed comedian and sitcom actor, dies at 94 https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/article/2024/jul/18/bob-newhart-dead-comedian-sitcom-star