Wmcmanus

Hopefully, Jeff and Dom can make it.

I drive about 30k miles per year in total, but over 20k of that is in the US when I'm wandering around in the motorhome (plus the vehicles that I drag around in the trailer) for 4-6 months per year. There isn't exactly a whole lot of sight seeing in Cayman once you've been here a while, so I tend to stay put and listen to music. The Pontiac is used for going back and forth to town, but I've also got a Vespa and a Ford Edge. The Edge was initially bought for Tanesha #1, whom I was madly in love with. But apparently she didn't feel the same way and eventually she broke it off and returned the vehicle. Now that Taneisha #2 is in the picture (and quite pregnant), she's not terribly fond of driving the Edge (it being tainted and all), so she normally drives the Pontiac and I drive either the Edge or Vespa, depending on my mood and the weather. Here's a couple of pics of the Pontiac, taken just now on it's 3rd birthday. It's been a good car, although it does have a couple of little rattles that I haven't quite managed to locate. Nothing too annoying, except that it was my first new car ever in my life, and I just figured it would be perfect forever... ya, right! Notice that my neighbor's granddaughter managed to work her way into the second pic. She probably thought it was quite odd that I was taking pics of my own car and dropping the top just for the effect.

Hey, that's cool. Looks like I'll be able to make it as well.

Oh, I did that today too. But it was just a matter of paying for a routine inspection and registration renewal fee. Can't believe I've had this car for 3 years already. Only 16k miles and still looks new.

Ah, shit sticks! I was 2 minutes behind the other turd who posted on the thread, so I'm still RS-1-less. Thing is, the guy posted "Nice price" or some stupid crap like that (the kind of post I'm forever deleting in FS threads), but didn't say, "PM sent" or "I'll take them" or some such. So I was fooled into thinking the butt munch was just spam posting, and wasn't a serious buyer. Not that it bothers me that some ass wipe arrived on the scene just minutes ahead of me.

Test drove an '07 Hummer H2 SUT that a friend of mine is selling. I honestly thought I'd like it a lot more than I did. It wasn't that I didn't like it, but it wasn't the "buzz" that I thought it would be. Just a big and clunky box and not particularly responsive to driver inputs. Besides, 1) he's asking too much, 2) it's a totally impractical vehicle in Cayman where the roads are narrow and parking spots are even narrower, 3) it costs KYD 1,000 = USD 1,250 per year to register a Hummer, whereas other SUVs like my Ford Edge that it would replace are only KYD 185 per year to register, and 4) my nuts aren't so small that I need a phallic symbol to feel good about myself. I think this is essentially what he's learned as well. (Don't know about his nuts though.)

RS-1. I think. Just PM'ed the guy, so unless someone jumped in before I did. The deal seemed right, and I've been thinking about getting a pair for years now. I really want to like them, so I'm going to put them through the paces, mostly with rock. F/S: Grado RS1 Headphones...ONLY $430 FIRM! - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio Guess I'll need to settle down again. The RS-1, W1000X and T1 should keep me busy for a while.

That seems a lot more reasonable to me. Can't imagine anyone would want to gut their HF-2 though. It would seem to me that since the sonics turn out the same in any event, the best approach would be to start with the cheapest headphone that fills the bill, presumably the MS-2 or 325.

I just thought they looked purdy so I figured I'd give them a shot. Not expecting much in terms of sonics so if they do impress me in one way or another that will be a plus.

W1000X now on the way from Price Japan.

Until today, I didn't know about this new W1000X thingie, but it sure looks nice, and a couple of people seem to be at least moderately impressed with it's sound. So suddenly a new 'need' was created in my feeble little mind and then online shopping hysteria took over and the next thing you know I'd clicked my way into a 'deal' with the good folks at Price Japan for a pair of these rascals. Side issue #1: They're priced at $523 to the US (with EMS shipping which I've always used with them and have never had any problems), but then you can either pay via PayPal credit card (for an additonal $18 ) or via a bank wire transfer (which would cost more than $18 and would require a trip to the bank). What I found strange was that you didn't have the option of choosing PayPal and then within PayPal selecting the instant transfer option. Or more accurately, you could still do this (and I did, in fact, pay via an instant transfer), but Price Japan's system is set up to automatically link you into your PayPal account with the added fee (of $18 in this case) tacked on. I just paid the $541 total (via an instant transfer) rather than bucking their system. I could have initiated my own payment to them rather than following their auto link, which would have allowed me to pay $523 instead (since they shouldn't be charged a fee given that I paid via an instant transfer), but I couldn't be bothered (and figured it might mess things up such that they wouldn't send them out right away or whatever). Instead, I wrote a note about it in the comments box, asking them to refund the additional $18 if they are not charged a transaction fee from PayPal (which they shouldn't be, unless my understanding of instant transfers is wrong). We'll see if they refund it. I doubt it, but you never know. Side issue #2: I never ship anything like this directly to Cayman or else I'd have to pay a 20% import duty if I did. So I've shipped them to Young Matt in Tampa who'll also be receiving a pair of Beyer T1's fairly soon from TTVJ. I'm not sure when I'll be able to make it up there again, but most likely for the weekend of March 5-6th when everyone is planning to get together for a mini beer meet. Anyone who is passing through Tampa in the meantime, feel free to give Matt a shout if you want to give them a listen. I know already that he'll think the W1000X suck, because he thinks that about all AT cans. But he might like the Beyers! If he doesn't, I hope he'll be quiet about it until I can give them a listen.

Not good, Al. Really sorry to hear about this. I used to get that as a kid and remember it well. Not fun at all.

I messed with a newbie just for shits and giggles: Is censorship healthy - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

Just read through this thread for the first time. Glad to know that he has ultimately delivered on his promises. Always good to have more alternatives. People's impressions as to build quality and sonic performance will vary, of course. But at least they've sorted out their mail problems in Canada.

^ I haven't read the stuff at the links you've provided, but it's my understanding that the warranty is only good for one Kindle replacement! Don't know where I learned that, maybe here. But who has ever heard of such a thing? Design something with an inherent product defect built into it, then weasel out of the warranty with a "tough luck" one replacement only clause, even though the replacement unit you send out also has the same design flaw and is equally prone to failure. I don't like it at all, but hopefully won't ever have a problem with mine.

Celebrated my girlfriend/Baby Mama's birthday today. She's complaining about getting so old (27). I really feel for her. Spent some time with her family and watched some mindless crap on TV. Awesome jerk chicken though, so that part was good. The flowers that I got for her have totally taken over the house with their sweet but overpowering smell. Now I can't wait for them to die, dry up, and quit giving me headaches.

Steel building wouldn't work. Not enough space, and then there's the ugly factor. But I could see where it might work for some people. Buy a new house? That's a possibility, but building a new house would be better. That way, it could be designed to include an HT room and a dedicated audio room as well. Just not in the budget for now. In a lot of ways this would make more sense than adding on because going from 2,500 sf to 4,000 sf means that you end up with a house that emasculates the lot. Better to start with a 1/2 acre lot (or bigger) than crowd a 1/3rd acre lot. Thanks for the congrats Vicki and Dinny.

I think I got drunk and stumbled into someone else's forum. Oops, sorry about that... no wait! The names all look familiar... what happened, did someone move all of the furniture and paint this place a different color? At least now I'll have the presence of mind to remember which forum I'm posting on! It felt really weird and more than a bit awkward when I sent Jude a PM about something from HC about a month ago.

Congrats, Brent, on your 400th post!!!

You guys are offering some pretty good ideas. Lots here to mull over. I'm trying to think how an exterior entrance into the attic space could work. I really like the idea of busting out a roof dormer that is tall enough to house a set of sliding glass doors and thus also sport a small second floor porch. My thinking might have been a little uptight on this whole thing! I've always thought about putting a dormer in the front of the house, probably because that's the way people normally do it. Makes for better pics and such. But at the back of the house in the middle part, there is a 20' long porch with 2 sets of 6' wide sliding glass doors (4 doors in total). It might be possible to mimic the look of the ground floor with 2 sets of glass doors up there, along with a second floor porch. It would have to be set back much further than the porch is on the ground floor, such that the roof line above the doors would be steep enough to clear them and not look like it's hankering down on them. But that's part of what of the design would need to incorporate. In other words, when you start cutting out a large section of roof, you then need to build up higher to cover your newly created area. I need to take a stroll out into the back yard now!

Happy birthday, Dom! Time to break out some special buds.

I'm still trying to figure out which one of you bastards did this to me! Due towards the end of April.

Bad link, but that's Ok. No reason at all that I couldn't do that, except that I'll probably want to convert the attic into livable space at some point. It has the potential to add 500+ extra square feet of living space. It would be easy enough to put a bathroom up there and use the rest of the space as a huge bedroom or lounge area (pool table and the like). So one solution would be to simply put in a staircase of one variety or another. Simple. Only problem is that in the meantime, I need to use it for storage space, and thus will need to have a wide opening to get the larger items up and down. Up now for a couple of years of storage, and down whenever stuff needs to come down. Figured if I put in the attic lift for now, that gives me a chance to clear out the space I'll soon be needing such that a baby's room can be set up. Some of the stuff that needs to go up there won't fit up any staircase I could install given the space limitations. Once the attic lift is installed (or whatever I might do in lieu of this), I'd double up the floor joists, put in the plywood floor, an a/c system, some basic electrical (wall outlets and lights) and sheetrock the walls and ceiling. It would be quasi livable space but only used for storage for now. The "redneck elevator" would be fine to use to get myself up and down now and then, but would not be a permanent solution when it turns into livable space (i.e., when I've added storage space elsewhere like in a separate building in the back). Like I say, it's complicated. Maybe I'm just tired and thinking out loud too much! BTW another possible use for the attic lift would be to provide a pretty cool balcony seat for movie watching! The lift would be installed toward one of the back corners of my present HT room (which doubles and tripes as my main audio room and my living room). So you could wind it down, hop on, and then wind it about half way back up, and watch a movie while you're sitting on the platform. I could even put one of my D-Box chairs on it.

This would actually be perfect if only there was enough headroom in the attic space above the garage. Problem is, even where the existing attic stairs are (the usual pulldown flimsy attic stairs), there is a/c ductwork in the way, and not nearly enough vertical clearance once you're up there. So if I'm going to cut a bigger opening in the ceiling joists to allow larger items to be stored up there, I'll have to do it in the living room, right off of the kitchen. Don't think I'd get approval from the other 1/4 for that. She's not my other half officially. I've still got a majority interest in my life at this point, but I think this would violate the peace treaty we made a while ago about house related matters. Basically, I'm free to do anything I want with audio equipment and such, but I can't be doing the kinds of things they do on the Man Show. Probably should get an engineer to look at it. I thought I'd be alright installing the attic lift in the corner I have in mind because all of my interior walls are made of concrete block construction with rebar and poured concrete in every other block hole, and very solid extra wide footings down to Mother Earth. Problem is with the pulley system, the weight of the load goes straight down in the 4 corners. Thus, I can't rely on the structural strength of the walls that the motor assembly would be mounted on, since the load gets transferred elsewhere -- to the attic floor as well as the roof joists which is where you tie in the 4"x 4" posts for each corner. So, ya... it's not something you can assume will work without a glitch. I don't want to be causing sags in my roofline, or worse! But with the right advice, I'm sure there would be a way to put in more vertical support to ensure that wouldn't be a problem since the interior walls are load bearing and can be used to anchor any necessary roof jacks to. Were it just me, like it's been for 47+ years, that's exactly what I'd do!

The spot I have in mind (which is the most out of the way in terms of traffic flow) would require a small spiral staircase or something like the attic lift, or possibly Kevin's idea of a smallish scissor jack. Actually, that would be quite the conversation piece! But as he said, I could keep it outside and use it to get on the roof, etc. There are two other spots where regular L-shaped staircases could be put in. You would have to put a landing about 3-4 steps up, then turn 90 degrees and climb the rest of the way up into the attic space. But that's in the front room of the house, so I think it would look a bit awkward there. There is an archway spanning a 6' wide opening between two large rooms along that wall, so putting in a staircase there would break up the uniformity of that look. Unless, of course, I were to put two L-shaped staircases in, one on each side of the archway, which is another thought I've played around with, but that then doubles the cost and more importantly, takes up twice as much floor space.