Craig Sawyers

That turntable was a real beast. Apart from pneumatic suspension, it had a vacuum hold down for the record (with the pump in another room) and an air bearing linear tracking arm. The ultimate deck IMNSHO.

One of the finest speakers I heard were the Rockport Arrakis, in non-ideal conditions at an audio show. Using a pair of Upsilon power amps. Heaven knows how they got the speakers into the hotel room used for the demo at 900lbs each. At least it was on the ground floor! Like these

A good friend who runs an audio accessories company (one of the good guys - not a snake oiler) visited the Wilson room when David Wilson was still alive and at the helm. After listening for a short while, he said quietly to Wilson "I think one of the midrange drivers is connected with the wrong phase" Wilson went into a major rant, that it was impossible a driver was wired incorrectly - yak yak yak. My mate shrugged his shoulders and went back to his own room. After a while one of the Wilson techs came and apologized for Wilson's rant, and told him that he was absolutely right - the left hand speaker has one of the mids antiphase.

Well, expensive though that Sony device is, it undoubtedly is a thing of beauty.

Stripped pine audio?

We went to see an absolutely hilarious new comedy at Chichester, in the tiny 300 seat Minerva theatre. Called "The Unfriend" https://www.cft.org.uk/whats-on/event/the-unfriend This was directed my Mark Gatiss (Mycroft Holmes in the series Sherlock), and had a cast of 7. Including Amanda Abbington (Dr Watson's assassin wife in Sherlock) and Reese Shearsmith (Inside no 9). It was belly laugh funny.

The infamous Telarc 1812 with cannons that can push even a good cartridge into leaping out of the groove was a digital recording.

I have all my super random passwords in a Dashlane data vault.

Like the doggy. And I have to say you look very slim and fit looking these days, sir!

This hit the BBC news last night. Just awful. So difficult to understand. RIP the 14 small children and one teacher. How will the parents of the 14 cope? Arming the teachers will do diddly squat to deter atrocities like this.

The place to go for open baffle theory and practice is https://www.linkwitzlab.com/

Coffee is NATO plot to indoctrinate Russian people with Western ideology. We reject this "coffee". Big Brother Putin will instead supply Victory Vodka. With apologies to George Orwell.

The guy in the video runs this outfit https://www.lathamtimber.co.uk/products , and sells a whole lot of interesting decorative products including Valchromat. Different thicknesses and panel sizes. Wonder what the acoustic properties are like? How dead etc. Just seen this on his site "Please note: due to the nature of our business and our delivery vehicles, we are unable to supply to the general public."

Have a spectacular one Brent!

Who can possibly forget his movie music for Chariots of Fire and Bladerunner? RIP Vangelis

How do you like them bananas 🍌

Happy birthday!

Went to see Wagner's opera Lohengrin last night at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. This was the final part of my awesome series of birthday presents - this one from my wife, long planned and two months afterwards. It was bloody awesome. Everything was perfect - the setting, the set and lighting, and an Internationally renowned top flight cast of singers. https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/lohengrin-by-david-alden-details With various courses of an excellent meal in the intervals. Carole was not a Wagner fan initially - but I've converted her. She was in tears of emotion by the end of the overture to Act 1 (honestly - so was I!). Now Wagner the man was a loathsome individual. Anti semitic, hateful towards his contemporary composers, and impossible to work with - a micromanager from hell. He described Brahms as "That bastard, Brahms", and put it about that Brahms' music was inspired by shooting birds from his balcony with a "Tyrolean bow" (there is actually no such thing) and listening to their dying cries. His dreadful reputation was not helped by Hitler being a Wagner fan, and it representing the pinnacle of music for Nazi National Socialism. Putting the awfulness of Wagner to one side - he was one hell of a composer! You just have to divorce the man from the music.

That is truly amazing. But it looks like the sort of creation that he probably made a bunch of prototypes to work things out. That in no way takes away the raw skill in someone so young, or the astonishing result.

Alternatively

Actually last week walking in Orkney and Shetland. Orkney is flat with wet pools and quite boring geographically, Shetland is much hillier and nicer to walk. Weather was uncharacteristically superb; the whole area is known for torrential rain and gale force winds, often together. Jarleshof is a Viking trading post on Shetland. The Old Man of Hoy is a famous 450 feet sea stack, and is notoriously difficult to climb. Scara Brea is a stone age settlement on Orkney. Note the stone sideboard! Real Flintstones. And two pics of us.

Couldn't resist posting this - what cats think