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Time for an update on the MA-90... or what ever I'm going to call this thing. This is prototype nr.2 and it seemed only fitting to put on the "Orpheus" IQ stand: So what's new, well the headband is now fully DIY with just the arc being borrowed off a Senn HD58x but they are all the same and very close to the HE90 arc in design. Then a custom adapter block in the HE90 style adapts it to the forks... which didn't come out quite right. A bit too long and too thick to bend correctly so I'll have to redesign them but no big issue there. The actual housing is mostly complete at this point but the biggest hurdle were the metal backs, or so I thought: In the end, pretty simple and I can mass produce them by hand in quick order. I've made about 20 of them at this point and they fit snugly in there, no glue needed at all. Inside there is a new baffle, new spacers and new stators but they will need further work. Mostly I have to move the contacts to better fit inside the housing and those are ready to be made. This set is fitted with the cheap Chinese Solitaire earpads and sound pretty good with them. They are 15$ shipped compared to the HE90 pads which are impossible to get at this point.

Lily asked for biscotti. So Lily gets biscotti. Mid-bake, before slicing and second bake. I'm told the sample was good. I'll do QC tomorrow morning.

Hello Sonoma! It's The Alpha Rhythm Kings Getting the Hep Cats and Cool Daddios swinging at the newly shaded Sonoma Plaza / Grinstead Amphitheatre for Music in Place

We saw this guy last night in Grass Valley. I've been listen to him since high school, so it was nice to finally see him live.

Apple galettes for a cold rainy new england day

Very nice! I happened to have some ear pads made locally, and they come out to be pretty close to HE90’s. I can send you a pair if you like. 😁

The new comment editing widget and I do not get a long, which makes sense as I didn't get along with the old one either. What I'm talking about with the EF 50mm F/1.4 and IR 5D:

Bill Frisell and Harmony Five in Berkeley. Good but not great set with cello man stepping on Bill too much for my taste. As one Berkeley hippie said in the elevator, "I just wanted him to rock out at least once!"

Not all 60s consoles are created equally.

Michigan tart cherry gallette with a layer of crushed amaretti cookies beneath the cherries.

Well if you have woofers, you need a meower too. Stands to reason.

I'm going to secretly buy 8 track tapes. I see a pattern.

Nice center channel

Funny enough I listed to the following about an hour ago... EDIT: Might as well add...

California Dreamin'

I will NEVER get over Pink Floyd's Animals 8-Track. Of all the long songs on that album, they had to break the very short Pigs On The Wing to go between tracks..... 😠 🤣

Simple opposing magnets are not stable. The only thing that is stopping this instability is the jewelled bearings - but because of the magnetic instability there is more force on the jewelled bearings to apply a centering force that might be naïvely be expected. I guess that is why the Castagna model A was pretty much the only tone arm to use the magnetic principle. Although at around the same era there was a design and prototype for a parallel tracking arm the used opposing magnets in a saddle arrangement; but that never made it to production. Now it is now possible to levitate stably. The idea being the the repelling magnets are stabilised actively using a set of coils. Around 8cm diameter (so not small) and because of the active control a potential source of electrical interference near to the cartridge. Then there is Meissner effect levitation. That is not entirely daft with high temperature superconductors. Of course it needs the superconductor to be cold enough, so a source of liquid nitrogen is needed. I've done exactly that as a table top experiment when my kids were small, and I was working at Oxford Instruments, so had ready access to chunks HTc superconductor, and a small expanded polystyrene pot for the LN2.

Okay - just one post of an old fav. Left us way too soon, I at least got to see his twice.

Agreed, best on what dimension? Composer?, Serving the song?, Technical Abilities? Innovation? Emotional Response? And from what perspective? Casual Listener? Fellow Guitar Player? Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. Plenty to Agree / Disagree on here, in terms of inclusion or ranking. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-guitarists-1234814010/ A few thoughts of the top of my head. Jimi, Because: Jimi A couple of treo's with a bright future ahead of them. Eric, Jeff and Jimmy. Jeff was probably the least conventional. Al, Paco and John. Friday Night in San Francisco anyone? (that's the concert, and album, Steve) G3 - pick a line up - in this case, Steve, Joe and Guthrie some honorable mentions. Prince. He too can shred. Roy Buchanan - The Best Guitarist you never heard of? Adrian Legg - technique in service of harmony and melody. Allan Holdsworth, The Guitarists Guitarist? Discuss.

Since it's his 100th birthday today going late... Full

Lauren Unknown Kenzo

Time Further Out Music on TIDALThe Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Further OutListen to Time Further Out on TIDAL in exceptional sound quality, or on your choice of serviceCountdown: Time in Outer Space Music on TIDALThe Dave Brubeck Quartet - Countdown: Time In Outer SpaceListen to Countdown: Time In Outer Space on TIDAL in exceptional sound quality, or on your choice of serviceTime Changes Music on TIDALDave Brubeck - Time ChangesListen to Time Changes on TIDAL in exceptional sound quality, or on your choice of serviceTime In Music on TIDALDave Brubeck - Time InListen to Time In on TIDAL in exceptional sound quality, or on your choice of serviceTheir Last Time Out Music on TIDALThe Dave Brubeck Quartet - Their Last Time OutListen to Their Last Time Out on TIDAL in exceptional sound quality, or on your choice of serviceTime Outtakes Music on TIDALDave Brubeck - Time OuttakesListen to Time Outtakes on TIDAL in exceptional sound quality, or on your choice of service

Haka Metal, the metal I never knew I needed

^ There are some fun live shows on Youtube. Here Rosinha de Valença's Um Violão em Primeiro Plano. Full

Anyway, this show really turned out to be special. Here’s a little making of video if you’re interested.

Thread resurrection and last 60 days of damage. Work bonus and too much time on eBay represented. Will now slow down.

Sorry. Not sorry.

Wynton Kelly Trio, Wes Montgomery - Smokin' at The Half Note CD Full

Phil Collins in his home studio, 1980s: I spy a TR-808, TR-909 and a LinnDrum.

1) Segovia 2) Hendrix The rest. I told myself I wasn't going to participate in the best guitarist thing ever again. Damn it.

Nancy WIlson/Cannonball Adderley - on physical CD

Inner Desert by Golsa Nazari (2026) https://open.qobuz.com/album/izp5eu9aa69uz Example: Found Golsa off her IG account - https://www.instagram.com/_golsanazari/ I do like a good handpan.

Sorry for the TL;DR, but this one is big for me. Short version: seek out Vienna Teng, she is a beautiful human being that plays wonderful music. A soul-filling day & evening this past Friday. My friend Melissa and I saw Vienna Teng in my hometown of Marblehead MA. In the afternoon, she hosted a Climate Change "Workshop" (she has an advanced degree in the subject). It wasn't a doom and gloom that I almost expected, but actually a bit inspirational and hopeful. We all came out with ideas and one or more things to put into practice. The evening show was just stunning! A solo show but she used things like tape loops, vocoder-style & voice duplication choral effects, etc., to make it seem a bit larger. She has one song that I actually emailed and talked with her about to request she play, called The Last Snowfall. A short but lovely song that made me think of Karen. In the weeks before she passed, we were talking about her two sisters coming up from different parts of NY state. A snowstorm was forecasted, and I was telling them they didn't need to drive in it. Karen - who did not love Winter - smirked a bit and said she wouldn't have to worry about snow or Winter anymore. A bit of humor in some pretty fucking dark times. Vienna played the song, dedicated it to me and in memory of Karen. Tears were falling, and my friend Melissa was kind enough to provide some tissues. We both loved the show and everything about the day, and remarked that just her presence and words & music raises good feelings and hope. Got a pic and a hug after the show. Quite the gift she has! Link to the video of The Last Snowfall: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FotpPHUgl_pvTJi_cdYRL3fMWtfpAbk1/view?usp=sharing Other pics, of the workshop and show.

Some more Garry

Tropicália ou Panis et Circencis (Latin for Bread and circuses) A Girl Meets Bossanova - Olivia Ong

Claire made the dough today for a cherry gallete tomorrow

A few highlights... The already mentioned in music thread James Kaplan's 3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and The Lost Empire of Cool (2024). A blast to read, though that may depend a little on existing knowledge of the reader. The three paths up to Kind of Blue and after, though many others are also covered. Really a portrait of a culture changing. Also heroin bad. I don't read enough fiction any longer for the following to carry any weight at all. Really, but Stephen Markley's Ohio (2018) is the best thing I've read by an author not named George Saunders or Cormac McCarthy in probably 15 years. Lots of people screamed at the time that this, not Hillbilly Elegy, was the text to read to understand Midwest disgruntled feelings and Trumps rise to power, and while that's probably unfair, it's a far better book (I hated Vance before it became popular!). Bias warning: although it takes place in a fictional town of New Canaan, Ohio, from references it can't be further than two counties from where I was born and raised. I don't think that's all of it though considering NYTimes, NPR, and other reviews. I "read" at a busy work time, so moved between the paperback and the audiobook and will say as the stories shift perspective between characters, the audiobook with its different voice actors, may help a little there. Heroin still bad. Gigi Otalvaro-Hormillosa's Erotic Resistance: The Struggle for the Soul of San Francisco (2024). I haven't finished this yet and I swear Melissa or Esmé may have confiscated my copy, but a fun read with lots of references to an earlier San Francisco and where the city differentiates from other US cities (more geo-bias). I'm cheering it on, but we'll see by the end. Can read about a related exhibit here. Some fun historical posters included in book. Heroine very good here.

Wow, those look great. I'd love a pair as I only have the one real set to play with.

I'd give them high praise if they used a more relevant leaf for the background of their PCB photos. They also missed an opportunity to use 420(unit) parts in every possible location. A 420pf cap could even be pronounced as "puffs". This makes me sad. I strongly dislike how they/you used the transformer hold-down bolt for your IEC ground. It can create a shorted turn in the wrong conditions. Give it its own screw, or use one of the screws to hold the IEC socket in. What is with the heatsinks in your last photo? Discrete opamp?

Lots of good ones in here. I would be remiss not to mention Steve Hackett (orig. Genesis)

For me, it gets a little muddy between technical abilities, and how the guitar playing impacts me/makes me feel. For that reason alone, my favorite is David Gilmour. What some people do with an acoustic or Classical guitar is absolutely amazing, but he hits me in the feels with a lot of his playing.

Their parent headquarters (SmugMug) doesn't look like anyone has been inside for two years. Nemo Gould's Technostalgia at The Museum of American Heritage (MOAH) Nikon D4 and CV 58mm f/1.4

Warren Haynes - Heavy country rock. Gov't Mule, Allman Brothers Band, varios Dead spinoffs, played in David Allen Coe's and Dickey Betts' bands back in the day. Can improvise with anyone, and doesn't sound like anyone else. Similar to what you describe with Merle Travis, I've seen Warren play his guitar licks while simultaneously playing the bass parts to Gov't Mule songs when they toured as a duo following the death of their bass player in 2001. https://archive.org/details/WHMA2000-11-08 Billy Strings - A shredder who plays bluegrass and country, with a virtuosity in improvisation https://archive.org/details/billystrings2023-08-24.4017vl Jimmy Herring - Guitar player for Widespread Panic. Was part of the greatest band ever, Col Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit, also the Allman Brothers, dead spinoff bands, etc. Derek Trucks - guitar from Tedeschi Trucks Band, formerly of the Allman Brothers Band and various dead spinoffs. First saw him at 12 years old when he was already amazing Jason Isbell - songwriter and genius with an acoustic guitar, his band is the 400 Unit, and he was in Drive By Truckers. https://archive.org/details/jason-isbell-2026-07-18