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Spent the 4th up in Maine, our condo association had a mini-parade of kids and golf carts (~ a dozen carts, several made up quite well); also a pic of my next-door neighbor Michelle and her two - used to have 4 - Samoyeds, beautiful pups! Also visited one of Karen and my favorite places, Cape Porpoise....sat and contemplated life a bit there.

Sending a hug your way @skullguise.

Had some free time so on went the 007Mk1 pads: These are the 71xxx type but fitted with new foam so not stock, not that a 20+ year old stock set would be fine now. First impressions are okey, the sound has a tad more space around it and the top end might be a bit better but a particular frequency range has that "sheen" to it that is not natural. I'll spend some more time with this setup Comparison of the stock pads on the right and 007Mk1's on the left (with new foam so a bit puffier than normal). Now the Kennerton pads vs. the stock ones. This is with 007 mesh installed but much smaller opening area. Thicker leather too. Finally I wanted to try and show just how shit the stock pads are: The red line on the right hand pad, that's the edge of the foam and where the leather should start. It's off by some 5mm or so in the middle and the same on the other side. I'm not sure if the foam is simply rotated out of alignment or if it is cut incorrectly but the pads are sealed so no way to simply peel them open like the older pads. Both pads are also crooked and just cheap crap. Stax you can do so much better...

Latest additions. GT4RS and BAC Mono I do fit the Mono, just can’t breath

We went to Musaafer in the Galleria (Indian). It had been a few years and I have to say they have upped their game which was not too shabby previously. We went the tasting menu route and had to take the main dishes to go we got so full....first world problems. Here are a few of the dishes. HS

More HDD cleanup

Lucy Dacus - Limerence

Chicken Tikka Masala

I'm still in the honeymoon stage with my DAP to really know how I'm going to feel about it, but just in case anyone else is considering separating out portable audio old school/cassette/MiniDisc/iPod style from the phone and notifications and with headphone outs and decent power, the often recommended HiBy R4 is on sale for Prime Days for $199. Not the model I went with, but then again this wasn't on sale then or I may have. You just have to get around the "anime" design and a little weight.

Was going to put these in the Slow Forum thread but figured we could use some kitty posts

Before: 2 After: Greek Sheet Pan Chicken Instant Pot Lemon Rice

Yup smoker still works. I had a good chunk of it as sushi last night, sans wasabi, which bummed me out, but the fish was yummy. And the chunk of freshly smoked for supper tonight night was lovely. Also receently 10lbs of pork belly {not pictured}...

Stern Grove picnic, with a few city friends

Just dropping in to say Hi and glad to see F1 fans still here. A fairly decent season so far, hoping Ferrari can pull their thumbs out. Cheers!

Some interesting vehicles at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

weeee

When a comedy band writes better rock songs than most rock bands

Deck, Greek Sheet Pan Chicken and Lemon Rice.

"Anime" = "Cyborg-inspired Industrial Design"

The Secret of Monkey Island Opening Theme Téir Abhaile Riú - Clannad, 1976 (I did not know Enya was part of their family)

Figured i'd finally go through my tubes, sort them out a bit. Too many to catalogue properly in one go (which is why i never bothered) Was never quite meant to become the hoard it is, but.. left Luxman with crates worth of stuff, left ML with yet more crates, then isn't life funny when none are what you "wanted" for your then current system a few years later, so there you go buying more when they were still crazy cheap. Then you buy yet some more, because what if, right? You haven't got everything. And, yeah Sorted four 24"x16"x16" crates full of NOS tubes. I'd say 6-7 more to go; some other time. It's 23:28 and i'm spent. (actually 60x40x40 in cents, but i figure that's close enough?) So far am going with input/output/rec, US-EU/RU. It's gonna take some time. One of many things i miss dearly? Proper packing cartons. Yes, really. Nothing decent in EU. ECT/load-rated? Don't even ask, they'll think you're so funny. Not sure they know what this is down here:

With help of above Mini Hot Plate I managed to build another three small regulators. Here they are on a “motherboard” with rectifiers and electrolytics to achieve 12VCD. The trimmers are for adjusting output voltage, 2.5V for 2A3 and 5V for 300B. Now I want a regulator for 6,3V and 7.5V. The buck converter above is limited to 5.5V, so might try LMQ66430. @Shawn What inductor did you use with LMQ66430?

Well Hello Stern Grove SF Symphony in the grove! Ukulele hero antics from Taimane Hoops and "herbal" wafts, because SF. EDIT: (Shareable) SF Chronicle article for more context

Took a ride in a Jaaaag from the future, to solve the last mile problem.

🫐 🥞

May be worse than that and see below, however the above R4 was $50 more everywhere (including Hiby) for the 3-4 weeks I searched and only lowered on Amazon a few days ago. I did see a SmallRig tripod whose sale price was the same as everywhere else most of the time though. Guess it depends. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/07/amazon-grocery-deliveries-prime-day

Ha - I literally watched this two days ago.. I watched the series when it came out and I owned it on tape. This vid did help me understand some things. I have watched some reactions to the series, and it is mostly people saying, WTF? most of the time... Great series, great use of stillness and the sound of cicadas. Anyway - The player looks cool, I don't think it fits my use case...

Not going to go see them on tour but that doesn't mean I can't dust off the old records and jam out.

Thanks. XGL6020 inductors are probably excellent. With TPS62913 I use Wurth 2.2uH 4.4 x 4.1 mm, which works all right. I don’t change anything when switching between 300B and 2A3 (except from filament voltage). Both tubes need 3.6K cathode resistors @20mA. EL34 needs 1.6K and EML 20B needs 0.6K. I use small daughter boards with resistors and jumpers to change cathode resistance.

No tweezers were harmed in the making of this plate.

Dang an entire kitchen just filled with people with tweezers..

Part 2 just dropped: Part 1, if you don't know it:

4 Hours of Imola - race highlights (European Le Mans Series):

Brit Picnic @ https://nativeplants.org/

Have you ever heard the 003 / 001 mk2? I kinda agree with this, but you can make some of the new Stax stuff sing with some EQ and a few mods. I had a L700 mk1 that was pretty magical after some fettling, and same goes for the new X1. But the old stuff did do it out of the box, and modern day Stax are certainly way past their prime and tuning seems to be a lost art for them. Or making headphones that properly fit human heads.

Deck, Red, White and Blue, Blueberry Pancakes, Nice Cup of Tea. Happy 4th, Y'all Y'all.

Re: The 'old guard', that's the theory.. in practice, well, it's never quite been implemented (lest we factor in certain companies that literally took what came before them but wasn't patented and re-made it with cheaper mats [and a worse audible outcome!]). I can only give younger generations kudos and salutations in 3 sectors and 3 sectors alone: - Speaker/headphone drivers, cartridges and tonearms. And all 3 came with direct consequences. Not the thread to expand on that though. As to ES labs specifically? - I'm still waiting for the "new" electrostatic that has the magic the old STAXes did; think Hayashi's time. Thinner diaphragms and unicorn dust fused diaphragms aside, the magic was lost after 1995. Slight, occasional, strictly technical improvements aside, they were also noticeably dryer, up to a lot, downright clinical in recent all out efforts; and noticeably forward/direct, all of them. Compare the original Lambda nrm/pro to anything releasing after '95. Folks don't seem to get it the way i do maybe, but part of what made STAX what it was? Was that magical character. Never since, other makers like ES labs included. If you've heard a decent pair of OG Lambdas or Sigmas (non-arced, non-imbalanced, driven well but not obscenely well), you know what i'm talking about. It was never about the outmost fidelity; never. It was about the character. Which's been lacking ever since. ES didn't tick that mark either. Was lucky to "get" one from the usual channels, would have regretted paying for it personally. - And at 2K a pop? With Chinese manufacturing costs? You're kidding me? Do forgive me for not crowning the man as a "savior", of anyone's. Yes? *2K for the cans+shipping mind. Customs fees on top, lest we neglect. Say 2.5K a pop? So no, i don't do see where ES Labs "comes in" to save the day. Unless of course we yet again go back to "i -personally- can". An ever-decreasing niche of individuals. And again, it lacks the magic the old STAXes did. Not even close, sorry.

Not yet open but I have one client, and he just happens to be a bit of a car guy. Every time I show up at his garage some new amazing car shows up. Came in today and these showed up. They also arrived with a new 911 Turbo S, but that was at his house.

Deck Greek-Style Braised Chickpeas with Tomatoes and Orange

No pics of the actual dinner (last night) and lunch (today), but had some very yummy sausage. Standalone last night, and in a wrap with apple BBQ sauce today for lunch.

Balanced meal??

More the weekend, but we got a fatty mass surgically removed from the doggo, but 2 nights in of course she rips out the stitches AND her drain tube (and most likely ate it lol) requiring her to go back in and get stapled but as you can see she is doing well 🤣

smoked salmon is back on the menu boys... This time I went with chunks rather than one full slab. I like it so much better. it makes life so much easier and now they're bite size.