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Oh you heard about the Accent wall in the lounge? Lighter/ Darker / Shorter / Longer ? Previous short / long comparison OK long it is, But Rich Cream? Or Desert Tan? The Correct Answer, as always, is: Yes, Dear.

With leftover pulled pork in the fridge it was time for nachos.

(or rather what the painter did today)

Gag-ish gift as in stocking stuffers. Forgot to post as I don’t even currently have the vinyl rig connected, but all the best holiday 2025 Tiny Vinyls. Reconfigured listening rig soon.

After mornings outside when the temps are in the 30s I could get used to going out when it is already 70 at dawn in Hawaii.

We had a friend with "taste" come and have a look, and apparently What we want is "Desert Tan" Capturing the sunbaked warmth of a desert landscape, this yellowish tan is low-key yet luxurious. https://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-colors/color/2153-50/desert-tan Well OK then. The Office Renders look Ok. Like I have a choice.

Had Joanne compare similar different greens under various lighting conditions in various locations. Apparently getting Gemini / nano banana to replace wall colors in a picture isn't good enough 🤷‍♂️ Also, how many greens are there. Many many many apparently.

Well I've been away and a certain SR-009D showed up in the meantime... Sorry for the crap picture but I've only had a couple of hours with them and I should have been in bed an hour ago... First impressions, I like the color but it's clear that Stax have cheaped out with one of those surface treatments that are so popular in China. Nothing as nice as the 009BK here, it's that matt but shiny black except in the grove on the back. It's okey but we are clearly seeing production moving away from Japan here of crucial parts. Same is true for the earpads, very different from regular 009 pads and the smell and feel is identical to the various earpads I've been buying from China. Nothing wrong with that really... if they didn't resell the 10$ pads at 200$. They are also odd as they don't seem to fit nicely on the headphones but feel nice, much better than the 007S trash pads. They are similar to the Omega pads in some ways, large opening and pretty thin. The headpad seems also different from the older models so likely a new supplier there too. Same basic thin pad design though but a bit wider overall compared to the L500 part I have on the MA-009 in the picture. Same cable as the SR-X1 and the 007S. I'm not in Japan so I'm not getting the shorter cable as instead of throwing them into the boxes, Stax wants you to send in for them, in Japan only. Gotta love companies living in the 70's. As for the sound... I was expecting to hate them but no... these are the first 009's that aren't way too colored for their own good. For the most part, they are easy to live with with plenty of bass and presence. Maybe a tad dull and uninvolving at times but still easy to get long with. Now they are not perfect, there is a distinct "bass drum" resonance on many tracks and some certain ranges make them way too shouty in the midrange but it's far from as bad the originals or what the hell the 009S was. Nice controlled soundstage with some depth to it, good extension on both ends of the spectrum so yeah... I'm pleasantly surprised. I haven't detected any of the serious driver resonance issues as with the 007S either. Only a couple of hours with them but some volume matched comparisons with the MA-009, I prefer the fuller sound of the latter but it's not a long way off. I do feel the irony of me finally tackling the long planned project of fixing the 009's, only with Stax releasing a new version which doesn't suck like the older ones at the same time. Still, this is good move in general and at present I'd recommend these over the 007S and the X9000, let alone the older 009 models.

Hank Mobley - No Room For Squares 192kHz on Qobuz Ex.

It’s alive! Getting the offsets adjusted is so touchy…finally got it below 2mv as it drifted about. Did it without heatsinks after being on for a while. It seems to settle in around 14ma with the LTST-C170CKT LEDs and the 402R. Running 240R vice the 255R. Will likely let this cook for a while and see if it needs any tweaks. That front panel light is a bit bright…may need to tone that down a bit… 🤓

looks like my lumberjacking will have to wait a bit. 🪓

Cooked yesterday in a marathon session so that dinner was a non-event (prep wise) tonight. Chicken shawarma with homemade naan. The naan was all I managed a pic of.

Paul Motian - Paul Motian box set (from the Decca digging). First CD purchase in awhile. Ex.

Took the new bike out for a first ride today. My new shoes (five ten) need to have the release adjusted, because when I stopped, I fell over because my left foot wouldn't let go. I need to adjust the front brake, it's grabbing intermittently. It could use some minor fit adjustments, but over all, I'm pretty happy with the fit, I got the right size. The big issue is I haven't ridden enough to make a difference since I met my wife in late 2020, so I'm in AWFUL shape. I was gassed after less than a mile. Kayaking isn't a particularly aerobic exercise. I'm gonna set up my indoor setup with my old bike and see if I can get slightly less out of shape before trying anything not mostly flat outside again.

‘I’d never heard anything like it’: the prepared piano revelations of jazz star Jessica Williams Dave Brubeck called her a great and Mary Lou Williams gave her advice. But the prodigy grew frustrated with jazz, quit and started dismantling her instrument. A superb new reissue showcases her findings https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jan/05/jessica-williams-jazz-prepared-piano-blue-abstraction

Death by Lightning Highly entertaining for history nerds (raises hand). I absolutely recommend this. Only four one hour episodes so commitment is low.

I do have a type and it's doubtlessly-very-accomplished-and-respectable ladies in hot pants.

And don't forget the old chestnut of having a feature wall in a deeper / darker shade so that you can struggle over two colors in one room!

In case you need to replace the onboard battery.

^^ thanks youtube copyright whatever... Anyway - this has a groove. Just have to get past the 45 seconds of the most boring intro ever...

ok, this is head case :), what do you mean by inexpensive? I found it almost impossible to motivate myself to ride a purely mechanical trailer. Just got bored. I would get any trainer that would connect to zwift, and would read https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/11/trainer-recommendations-winter.html to get an idea about what the options are.

To be determined (most likely the sturgill)

Dunno where Woot is getting these from, but they have new Nikon D800 bodies going for $629. While a couple of notches below the latest D810 model, this has to be the best deal in full-frame DSLRs atm.

Crew fell six trees yesterday, and one more this morning. All about 2' diameter. I have a lot of cleanup work to do. So I bought a beefyer chainsaw. 16” 56V. I still have a tree that should be topped, but not critical. Edit: We did take out one green one - it had no more friends to protect it from the wind.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DTIw5mdDvq2/?igsh=MWRhbW02MGx3c2x3bQ== This could be amusing.

Fat squirrels and fat(?) cats to follow. Possibly some dupes. Xreffing is a PITA. Squirrel tongue! These shots were taken only a month ago. When there's sufficient snow on the ground, squirrels will eat the berries. I spent new year's eve with 3 octogenarians (one of whom will be turning 90 this year) and 2 cats. Wisely(?) I brought my 85L and iPhone. Gidget vigorously investigating what's going on with Peter's trouser leg. Gidget is a gray card with legs. I've mentioned in the past that I really like the Moment app for iOS. It has great manual white balance. I need to xref what kelvin value I use it in and start using the same on the DSLR. Shot with tungsten white balance and then adjusted in Photoshop. To be fair, Gidget does have a lot of brown in her coat. Molly displaying her usual aggrievement at the presence of humans. Gidget absolutely savaging my knee with all four paws. She didn't draw blood, but it sure felt like it.

I thought it was released in English...

I'll take Things that never happened for $500 Alex...

Jenny Lewis @Austin City Limits on PBS

lumber-jacking?

Ditto. I have a Sony UHP-H1 as an SACD player, so it's probably not comparable to a stack of separates from dCS or EMM Labs 💸 There have been very few pop/rock albums that were recorded for hi-res from the beginning - the few recordings were usually converted from old masters. I have a few jazz and classical SACDs, but most of them were also from old sources (1950s-60s) so it's hard to say whether the better sound quality comes from the format or the number of times the masters have been fixed and edited. In general, I get the impression it would take a knockout recording and an extremely expensive chain of equipment to notice the difference - also, I think people underestimate how good CD quality can sound on modern equipment. In the early days of hi-res, I think much of the novelty came from the new multi-channel mixes (like 5.1 or more), rather than the actual quality improvement on a stereo recording. And don't get me started on HDCD... Personally, I'd still rather buy CDs and SACDs than invest in a high-res digital streaming or files library setup.

I do a lot of live concert recording at 96/32 or 192/32, and so I do playback at that, but as you say, the primary advantage is hi res sources are likely better mastered. 48/16 has plenty of dynamic range and resolution for most recordings.

I don't know about the new MS Windows logo

Watching on Amazon requires selecting German as the language and English for the subtitles, which is a huge improvement over the trailer of dubbed crap. 👍🏻

So, funny thing. I checked the "DJ edits" folder on my server. First of all, the last edit I did was July of 2021. Sadge, as the kids say. Second of all, in there is "Hooverphonic - Mad About You (Live at Koningin Elisabethzaal 2012) (no applause).flac" which I did sometime in late 2014 apparently.

2 current sources now. 1 between unreg caps and passfet. other current source between regulated caps and output. kgsshv600vpowerv2 - CADCAM.ZIP circlotronpsupdated2cs.pdf

Red Eye (UK) - season 2 brings Detective Sargeant Hana Li (Jing Lusi) back, this time substituting the confines of the US Embassy in London as the locale. Lots of twists & turns, and of course you don't know who is really who. Easy watch, especially if you liked series 1:

The Copenhagen Test (Peacock) - A government operative-turned-analyst discovers his eyes & ears have been hacked to transmit what he experiences to an unknown destination. The government agency he works for tries to make his weakness a strength by putting him back in the field. A "Quantum Leap" sort-of feel (to me anyway), and likeable actors make it an easy watch. Bring along a big hunk of your suspension of disbelief & have fun.

Ha ha. Baron Trump-konnen. Similar fatness, similar colonial intents with force, taking possession of areas for natural resources, similar survival of assassination attempt(s).

Shot at Lexington Pride on a Rollei 35 using Kodak 200.

Some homemade pizza.

Lets not forget the Henry Kissinger got the Nobel Peace Prize after destabilising Chile under the socialist government of Allende, and putting in August Pinochet - a torturing, disappearances human abusing right wing dictator. And Chile was a whole lot further from the USA than Venezuela. Slight personal recollection. My Dad was in the Merchant Navy the early/mid 50's to mid 60's in (by today's standard) tiny oil tankers. The ship used to dock at Punta Cardon in North Venezuela to the oil refinery there. So Venezuelan oil was a thing way back

Dead Like Me

I'm rather fond of the panorama modes on the GFX100RF. This is a raw conversion in Lightroom with basic edits. The M4 Pro Mini I picked up chews through the raw files out of this camera a lot more effectively than the base M4 did. I need to try the Ricoh wide angle adapter that I picked up for the 100RF. Somebody did the math and with the adapter you can get the same FOV as an X-Pan, which is exciting (I always wanted an X-Pan).

Finished watching the Beast in Me on Netflix, I have to tell you a must watch.

michika: chill mix with Japanese grandpa at a stationery shop

My existing direct-drive trainer had started to had multiple signal drop issues so Santa was kind enough to bring me:

colnago c50 with super record 11 and shamal ultra wheels. It’s officially the riders fault when I can’t go up hill or fast.