Leaderboard

Not really buildling anything today but repairing. One of my COVID projects, the DIY Bluetooth Executive Speaker from Partsexpress, had stopped charging. I figured it was probably because I'd let it sit too long and the battery pack had dropped below the minimum charge level or it had a bad cell (it's a 3-cell pack). So it had sat, for like a year, languishing in the closet. I was just about to order new cells when I figured I should at least try getting in their, testing the cells and seeing if I could jump-start the cells back to the point where they'd charge again. In the end the hardest part was finding a charger that wouldn't over-charge the 3.7V cells. So a few cycles of charging the individual cells and I'd bumped each of them over 2V, got them back in the battery holder and plugged the speaker back into the charger. Bloop bloop bloop, it came back to life. I'm going to park it on the charger overnight (it's been 6 hours already without issue) and hopefully the cells will hold a charge and be back to life. One cell removed All cells back in and charging, yay!

As I am fond of saying, the size queens have a point.

Some uncivilized music.... 😄 The Reverend Horton heat and Messer Chups. Messer Chups was my favorite of the 2, even though they were the opener; ghoulish surf-rock. Much fun! The drummer even liked my Mayberry On Acid III shirt!

More goodness from Joseph Crowe Audio.

Toshiba Aurex system from the late 70s:

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.

First new cat species discovered in a hunnert years! https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdZki9zi3nc/

Happy birthday, Stretch! Here's a comic from 15 years ago.

Grant Green’s Funk in France: From Paris to Antibes (1969–1970) Full

Mishima by Philip Glass, Kronos Quartet (1985) https://open.qobuz.com/album/0075597988956 Example: More Philip for fun. (probably should watch this at some point.) Followed by: Philip Glass: Mishima by Maki Namekawa 2018 https://open.qobuz.com/album/svzhtflbqsm9a Example: I really like the arrangement by Michael (also the conductor of Kronos Quartet above). Lends a more delicate nature to the work, also I like Piano. I didn't know Maki's work before this. Added things to my queue (now at 854 albums).

"Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit the army" 🤣

I've said similar myself Knucks.

Used to own some Philharmonic Audio BMR Monitor speakers. Sold them to someone who has remained a friend. They just came out with a "Super" BMR Monitor, using (my favorite) Purifi woofer; bass down to 32Hz +/- 2db! Their finishes are quite lovely, including the one below. My Evoke Audio Eddie's are in the shop for blown tweeters. Apparently, the CSS Tweeters used aren't made anymore, so they're looking for good replacements. But I could even see these replacing them eventually!

As I have mentioned in Jacob's Jacobless Jacobing, I recently bought another micro PC for the purposes of installing Raspberry Pi OS (in this case Raspberry Pi Desktop.) The more I learn about smart devices, the more I want to return to monke build a proper standalone adblock/anti-tracking machine. Seriously. We live in a schizophrenic's nightmare. That 4K LG TV is like the offspring of the Five Eyes and Mark Zuckerberg. Your "Internet of Things" refrigerator is phoning home to China. A Russian has hacked into your washing machine. My solution to this Orwellian hellscape is try out a Pihole. Raspberry Pis, as devices, have become so cartoonishly expensive that it's actually a better economic decision to buy a low end micro PC (see above.) This thread will primarily serve as "lol, Knuckles thinks he's a linux geek" but will hopefully include at least a little useful info. The new micro PC, a Beelink SER, arrived today. I learned that the other low power micro PC I bought in 2022, a Minisforum UM350, is significantly more powerful than the Beelink. The former has a Ryzen 3 3550H (4 cores, 8 threads, better per-core performance, Vega 8 graphics) and the latter has a Ryzen 3200U (2 cores, 4 threads, Vega 3 graphics.) This is actually a good thing as the UM350 can pull up to 35W (I think mine is rated at 20W, but it's been ages since I looked that up.) The 3200U pulls 15W. Obviously, I will be running the Pihole 24/7 once it's fully set up. Also, I don't exactly need 3D graphic performance of any kind with it. The biggest surprise thus far is that I bought a unit that was not supposed to come with an OS and surprise, SUCKER! It's got Window 11 pre-installed. That OS is like a goddamn venereal disease. This evening I downloaded the Pi Desktop OS image. It's a svelte 3.4GB. I'm not sure I have the energy at this hour to format a bootable thumb drive and begin the OS installation process.

Bill Evans - The Paris Concert: Editions 1 & 2 Full (Edition 2 starts at 53:04)

Somehow I lived until last night not knowing the great Rod Serling, of The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery fame, also had a short lived Western, The Loner, starring Lloyd Bridges. It’s available as a currently $10 DVD set on Amazon, but also on YouTube if others are as interested as I. The first episode, wordy for a Western, certainly feels very Serling. Love how the TV frame is tightly filled. First episode The rest https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnentduopWcJz29q7eTHh0MSFKoxeTClG&si=cfZ6oRZDWQFhMIOm

1 hour and 48 minutes of new Camille! Lots of vocal overdubs with minimal additional musical accompaniment. Music on TIDALCamille - The Sound of MilkListen to The Sound of Milk on TIDAL in exceptional sound quality, or on your choice of serviceUnholy carp, I recognized the bass from two decades ago.

Yesterday I listened to a couple new hard rock releases: Playgrounded, A Flower to Water Villagers of Ioannina City, Venceremos Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, Shapes of Midnight

Is the HE-1 2.4um? Odd thickness that, as I believe DCA also use it for their sets. I just hate working with anything less than 2um and I have so much of the stuff, so that is what I use. As for the bias, any change in that will make a difference but higher bias is always better but comes with its own challenges. There is no benefit from using 230V and the SR-Lambda has its own reasons to sound the way it does, nothing to do with the bias. Blaming the diaphragm thickness for how something sounds is also very misguided, I adore the HE60 (which uses the same diaphragm material) and I also really like the Lambda Signature, again 1um. It's all about the driver tuning and what sound you are after. My issue with the HE90 was always the utter lack of meaningful bass output at certain spots and that's down to how they were tuned. Btw. the "clones" are now in a fully redesigned version of the housing (well I've sent out for a newer one still to be made) and fitted onto a NOS headband. First prototypes of the metal backs are also ready and look great. Just have to be fitted to the new housings when they arrive. Parts for the DIY headband are also en route and we'll see if that design actually works. Also probably the final prototypes of the "axles" so I should get them properly made soon. Those who know the HE90, know those are bloody expensive tiny pieces of plastic. Also new spacers, dust cover pieces and a redesigned stator too... Now fitted with real HE90 earpads and they have no reason to sound this good. Far from perfect but I'd take these anyday over the original. Still a tiny bit on the bright side and with a bit of a midbass hump Now I just need to make of these "clones" and cram a Stax Lambda driver in it. That upset so many people I kinda have to do it again...

This week's homework: DeAgostini Blue Note Best Jazz Collection Japan #6 Sonny Clark and #7 Lee Morgan Ex. I'm not sure it's terribly exciting for others to follow along as I digest these over the next few months so here's a list of all (that I have). The original series was extended to 80 discs if one wants to really complete. And then there was a second, different De Agostini Blue Note round on SHM-CD. And another Jazz collection across labels. eBay (and ChatGPT) can occasoinally be your friend. No. Artist 1 Miles Davis 2 Herbie Hancock 3 Sonny Rollins 4 Art Blakey 5 John Coltrane 6 Sonny Clark 7 Lee Morgan 8 Horace Silver 9 Bud Powell 10 Hank Mobley 11 Wayne Shorter 12 Thelonious Monk 13 Kenny Burrell 14 Lou Donaldson 15 Dexter Gordon 16 Grant Green 17 Kenny Dorham 18 Jackie McLean 19 Jimmy Smith 20 Freddie Hubbard 21 Miles Davis 2 22 Bobby Hutcherson 23 Clifford Brown 24 The Three Sounds 25 Curtis Fuller 26 Live at Jazz Clubs 27 Joe Henderson 28 Stanley Turrentine 29 Donald Byrd 30 McCoy Tyner 31 Herbie Hancock 2 32 Ornette Coleman 33 Horace Parlan 34 Paul Chambers 35 Art Blakey 2

DOH. You're right. The D200 was one of the last CCD Nikon DSLRs and that is the reason it's so prized by collectors and eccentrics. The only CCD body that followed it was the entry level D3000.

Futzing with the D200, special "thumbnail" edition: " These are the original resolution as shot. Nice CMOS CCD color science at least.

A Cultural Weekend. Saturday - Opera in the Amphitheater E.g.

Sungazer - Perihelion Ex.

Vienna Teng - We've Got You ep Going with a friend to see her in my hometown (original, not current) this coming Friday. Beautiful, creative music, some humor, etc. Looking VERY forward to it! This ep has two "versions" of a song, then a combined version. Combined song:

I'm about to have a bowl of "Red" that I cooked recently. I love chili but have to take precautions. I've taken 3 antacid tablets an hour ago. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. If I'm up all night with reflux, at least I have tomorrow off.

Vienna Teng, Inland Territory Music on TIDALVienna Teng - Inland TerritoryListen to Inland Territory on TIDAL in exceptional sound quality, or on your choice of service(Super smooth transition from Camille, by the way.)

Patio dining with the Brits.

Short answer: The Pihole dev team are still hosting it and not updating it. I only ended up having Pi OS desktop running for an afternoon. I've now got a fresh install of Debian 13 on the Beelink, connected to a monitor that it actually likes. Also, last night, on a whim, I installed Unbuntu on a mid 2010 Mac Mini I bought from ...some Head-Caser or another years ago. It's got a sputtering Core 2 Duo, but it does have 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. I think I'm going to use it to sing sea shanties.

Yeah, but can they play live... yup Video quality is all over the place - but sound is good.

A couple of days ago marked the 10th anniversary of the passing of Don Buchla. While Bob Moog was the "kindly grandfather" synth designer, and Lev Theremin was "secret agent" one, Don was the "I did acid in the 60s and came up with such radical synth designs that 60 years later the industry is still trying to catch up with me" pioneer.

This stuffed-zucchini-boats-mushroom.pdf

(AI) This stuffed-zucchini-boats-mushroom.pdf

I spy a honda fit. The d200 can do no wrong* *As long as EV>10

Sunday - Flower Piano on a perfect day weather wise. Very civilized

These. Oh you want some clues?

Great day.

HE90 "clone" first prototypes up and running as of yesterday: The drivers are all PCB based with 2um mylar diaphragms. They are about 3mm lower in height than stock to accommodate the cable entry and move the connections to the bottom of the drivers. The housing is resin 3D printed but this is the old version which has now been abandoned for a new one that has yet to arrive. Cables are King Sound (as I had some in stock) and allow me to fit it all in the same housing size as the original. The earpads are ones for the T+A Solitaire that are not a great fit but dirt cheap... so work just fine for this role. I've ordered new genuine pads but I'm not sure if Senn have any in stock. Next up is to refine the headband design and start to work on prototyping the metal back shell. Now I just wait on parts as usual... As for the sound, far from finished, even in prototype form but a HE90 with actual bass response... perish the thought!! ;)

Further update. At most turns, Ubuntu seems a bit more user. It has more useful things installed (it's also a much bigger installer, 3.4GB vs ~750MB.) The GNOME GUI is much nicer than ...whatever ships with Debian. Ubuntu gives you sudo access by default. On Debian I had to su and then enter a command I needed to google to add my account to the sudo list. Then I had to reboot log out and log in again. This might be no big deal for seasoned linux neckbeards users, but I had to learn and muddle through every step. Shout out to Proton VPN for being super Linux friendly. They have a whole page dedicated to installing their client, with easily copyable commands to make things go. On the not so plus side, Ubuntu could connect to my M4 Mini server's file system easily. Thus far, Ubuntu has refused to. I need to install flatpk next...

FTFY pkg install firefox

I've got a Nikon D70. It's 22 years old now (2004). The soft plastic bits are getting sticky but everything else works ok, including the battery (I think it's much newer).

Saint Coltrane: The Church Built On 'A Love Supreme'

"You Can Have My Walkman, Just Don't Take My MixTape" https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/08/28/style/mix-tape-analog-music.html?unlocked_article_code=1.9FA.Aap5.CDGpwOT5lktS&smid=url-share

I haven't had much time for DIY headphones recently but I just sent for some parts to be made and one might be a truly unique stator principle. More on that later but I've been using these lately and finally post about them after seeing that SJY pile of fail: I found this Hifiman Edition X for next to nothing as the pads were trashed and both drivers were blown. Gotta love that Hifiman build quality... Anyway, the plan was to design some drivers for this shell and then make my own version of the Shangri-la as the stock ones are frankly utter crap. Given the complex shape of the baffle in these I put it off for months but finally got off my ass and made these: This is the same piece but reversible for each side. There is just enough space in the housing to cram Stax Lambda drivers in there and I just happen to have quite a few in stock... shocker. Then we ended up with this: The back grill was glued into place but with the driver glued to the baffle, it holds it all in place as there is no extra room in there. I added the coarse foam to back to make them look more stock as I didn't have any of that black cover Hifiman uses. The baffle uses the stock neoprene gaskets from the planar drivers and it's okey for the seal but not quite perfect. The drivers in these are Lambda Signature units (no real reason I chose those, just what came to hand) and the cable is a Stax extension cable. I added the strain reliefs to the housing and the cable is so tight in there that it doesn't need any more fixing in place. Then they were finished off with some sheepskin earpads off Aliexpress as the stock Hifiman units are trash. These are the drivers with the protective mesh in place (just as they were in a Lambda/Sigma) but I also ordered some baffles with slots cut in them so I could put in thinner drivers to have a bit more space behind the drivers.

I have been wanting a MOPAR B-body restomod for some time. Thought I would buy a partly built project or the like and built to suit. Couldn't pass up this 1969 Road Runner that was on auction and local. The wheels could use some work, but such is life... Not much of a show car guy so I need to put some miles on her... HS