acidbasement

Very cool. I am fortunate enough to live in an area where I see owls somewhat frequently - mostly great horned and great grey, though there are other species about too. They are super cool.

Happy birthday!

Okay, it was a small gathering - four of us in total. There was a large amount of gear, however. Headphones HD600 HF-2 woodied by Headphile ATH-700 ATH-900 Realistic Pro-30 ortho Yamaha HF-2 ortho Fostex TRP40 transplanted into Phiaton cups HD25 DT1350 DT250 I was surprised to like the HD25 as much as I did. Not enough to go out and buy a pair, since I have no need for portability, but I liked it better than the DT1350. Maybe just because the DT1350 is way more demanding about what angle it sits on, and how good the seal is. The Realistic Pro 30s sounded absolutely great, but they weren't big enough for my head, and caused my ears some pain. The Yamaha HP-2s were my favourite of the orthos, and possibly my favourite of the night. A funny thing I noticed was that they sounded better when I had them on backwards. The treble became much more clear. I was surprised at how incredible these sounded, completely unmodded. I have a set of HP-3s, and I had to put them in different cups to get them to sound anywhere close to what I consider good. The woodied HF-2 stole my heart at the last Winnipeg meet, but I found it unsuitable for metal at this meet - there was some muddiness in the midbass that bugged me. I didn't hear anything that made me want to trade in my HD600s. Not worth writing home about (IMHO): ATH-700 (not bad, but slightly muddy bass), ATH-900 (too bright), DT250 (not overly offensive, but not great), DT880 (a bit too bright). Amps Bottlehead Crack Apex Butte (on loan to head-fi's Armaegis from TTVJ) Pico Slim Miu MRK1 (a modified clone of Grado RA1) cmoy We did a lot of back and forth between the Crack and the Butte. They both drove all the headphones present with loads of headroom to spare, and sounded good doing it. The Butte was a bit brighter sounding than the Crack in general, but I would be very happy to have either of them in my house. I built the Miu MRK1 a couple of weeks ago, after winning the kit in a contest on HF. I believe its design is based on a modification of the circuit used in Grado's RA1 amp. I know the Grado amp doesn't have the best reputation, but we were all pleasantly surprised by the MRK1. It was a quick and easy build, and it sounds good. Not in the same league as the desktop amps we listened to, but it does the job well enough depending on the application.

I haven't heard the new album yet. I guess my question was more general, as I've never seen Opeth. Do they put on a good show, worth a three-hour drive? I'm looking forward to the Korpiklaani tour, with Arkona opening, greatly. http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.Net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=163366

Was it a good show? They're touring near me in the next month or so.

As far as I know Edgar Meyer is considered the best double bassist in the world. He's one of the only classical guys of whom I'm aware who can improvise like a jazzer. I've seen him a number of times at Telluride Bluegrass with Béla and others, but never with Zakir. He's an astonishing talent; you're in for a treat.

Oh my, I'd love to attend that fest. If time permitted, I'd travel serious distance just to see Béla Fleck perform with Edgar Meyer and Zakir Hussain. Winter is coming and time is precious, however.

Welcome. May your skin be thick.

May your enemies tremble at your feet today, Deepak.

If it's another HF2 but cheaper on the second-hand market, I expect I'll be buying one at some point.

As far as I know I'm the only Manitoban posting on HC, but in case anyone is going to be in the area, we have a small Winnipeg group from the other forum who meet up semi-regularly for food and gear. The next one is Sept. 27. If you're interested, either post here or in the Winnipeg meet thread on HF, or PM me or whatever.

A cockatiel. He's a bit shook up right now, but seems to be slowly getting used to his new home.

Good luck and stay safe out there.

Have you checked any of these out? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collaborative_software I see there are several collaborative calendar programs in there.

It's obviously a matter of perspective. Some of us don't want megabuck headphone amps (I fall into this category, though I grant you this may change if my wallet ever fattens), and are perfectly happy listening to music on systems that others would describe as barely adequate. For people who aspire to higher pricepoints, $500 buys a starter amp. Thanks for the review offer, Todd.

I'm halfway though For the Win by Cory Doctorow. It's an interesting look inside the world of gaming and gold farming in MMORPGs. While it's a work of fiction, and a very entertaining one at that, it's also quite educational for me, as someone who is completely outside that world. Highly recommended.

^Neat. I wonder how the graph would change if violent behaviour due to drunkenness were added as a category.

New Tom Waits album out Oct. 25.

Ya, I've noticed some current metal releases are sounding much better than they did four years ago. Even Blind Guardian's most recent one, while not the last word on dynamic range, at least does not seem to clip (amazing, considering their horrible history in this regard). That probably sums up my recent experience with most new metal albums: they don't clip anymore, but they're still compressed as hell.

Happy birthday dude.

I like. A lot. It looks badass and it suddenly made me realize that the white background feels harsh on my eyes at night. Now I'm not going to want to surf away from here - adjusting back to bright websites will hurt.