Craig Sawyers

I come from the North East of England, invaded over the years by various Scandinavian invaders. In my local dialect Kirkfjall is Church (Kirk) Hilll (Fjell)

That is the only problem with the LX-Mini, it absolutely looks like a drain pipe and rubber coupler. The trick is disguising it to look less like what it is made from http://www.linkwitzlab.com/LXmini/Gallery.htm

It really shows how many outrageous speakers I've subjected my wife to over the years that she thinks the LX521 is a distinct improvement on what has gone before! Maggies, Martin-Logans, Podium 1; Quad ESL57. So yes - I can see where she's coming from!

It may seem perverse to consider building something, but these http://www.linkwitzlab.com/LXmini/Introduction.htm take a lot of beating, and can be built for not much more than $700 for drivers and all hardware, and including the DSP crossover. And you need four channels of amplification, which of course costs some more. Such as https://emotiva.com/products/amplifiers/xpa-gen3 for about $1k, but there are many options. You can get a kit from Madisound https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/2-way-speaker-kits/lxmini-linkwitz-lab-speaker-kit-pair/ for a number of kit options. Someone who had built a pair came along and we did a shoot out between the LX-mini and my LX-521. Apart from a comparative lack of bass, the imaging and neutrality were just as good.

Farage is a dangerous fucker. And his involvement with Trump underlines that in spades. He has cultivated a cheeky chappy, beer drinking, man of the common people persona as head of UKIP (the UK Independence Party). But scrape the surface and you find that he made his money out of being a commondities broker. So not so much a man of the common people really. But, considering that UKIP have one single MP (out of 650), he commands a wholly disproportionate level of publicity.

That is a big time in your son's life - congratulations to both you and him, Todd.

Hey - no sweat; you all gave us hope for a while

It will be if relativistic baseball takes off http://what-if.xkcd.com/1/

Yup - the've got the budget, they've got the show - I'm pretty impressed with what I saw

If he did it is not in any google news feed.

Three days after the Grinning Man, we went to the (London) Old Vic last night to see Glenda Jackson as King Lear. There are actually two productions of King Lear in London at the moment, one with Jackson and one with Anthony Sher. The Jackson one was the real deal - with Celia Imrie as Goneril, Jane Horrox as Regan and Rhys Ifans (he was Spike in Notting Hill) as the Fool. It was uncut, starting at 7pm and ending at 10:30pm. Jackson has returned to the stage aged 80 after 23 years in politics as a Member of Parliament (Labour party). Another standing ovation. Absolutely stunning; a review here https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/nov/05/king-lear-review-glenda-jackson-old-vic .

It seems to me that

Went to see The Grinning Man, a dark new musical based on a Victor Hugo's book The Man Who Laughs. This is at a small theatre called the Bristol Old Vic, the theatre that has been open the longest in the UK, opening its doors in 1766. The director of The Grinning Man is the same guy who directed War Horse It was bewilderingly good - I am still reeling at the whole experience. It was the last night - and it has only been running for one month. But that will not be the end for a production that was several years from first concept to the stage. I would say it was certainly destined for the West End, and for Broadway - For me it had more impact than Les Miserables, and deserves real success. A standing ovation, and tears shed by the audience, and oddly by the cast - although that was probably final night blues. There was a silent movie made of the book in 1928, and the story of facial disfigurement was the inspiration for The Joker. http://www.bristololdvic.org.uk/grinningman.html

That good sir would be most helpful - thanks!

The definitive version, from the concert tour we saw. It has just reduced me to tears

For me the thing that was causing a phasey sound in the bass was the chimney above the fireplace. That gave an organ pipe resonance at 30Hz and harmonics (60, 120 etc Hz). Cured it by stuffing the chimney with a load of old clothes that I'd been storing up for gardening etc in. I was keen on using Monster Traps on the rear wall http://gikacoustics.co.uk/product/gik-acoustics-monster-bass-trap-flexrange-technology/ which were very affordable. Unfortunately the WAF actually went negative, something I did not think was possible. That was very much a one sided discussion

Excellent links, Grahame.

What a truly rotten 24 hours. Leonard Cohen, Victor Bailey and now Robert Vaughn.

^This. RIP, far too early. Here, in full flight in solo bass of what has become the jazz standard Birdland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9UCBsXI4LI

I have not, but have heard they can work well - the microphone in a smartphone seems to be of very high quality with a rather flat frequency response. I'd have to poke around on the web to substantiate that, but recall I've seen this written down. But I bought my XTZ unit a decade ago before smartphones were the palm sized high grade computers they now are. If I were doing measurements starting right now I would certainly research what the capabilities of my phone were and what were the best apps.

The two disc 180g vinyl of Famous Blue Raincoat (20th Anniversary limited edition) has some tracks that are not on the CD. Which came as a pleasant surprise when I played it. In the liner notes is a copy of a letter she sent to Cohen in 1956, when she was 9, about Song For Berndette. And also Cohen's reply. Just shows how a kind reply can have lifelong musical repercussions. Just tried to find a price for these - of course no longer a current pressing, and which now changes hands for $2000. Holy carp.

If you want to look at room modes, there are a number of apps for smartphones that should work quite well. I actually have one of these http://www.xtz.se/product/room-analyzer-ii-pro - well actually the earlier version. But they are dead easy to use; in USD it is about $270 (or a couple of hundred quid in across the pond money, where I lurk), and use a laptop to run the software. And if you put the microphone bang on the line of symmetry of your speakers you can check for matching irregularities by storing the frequency response of (say) the left speaker and then overlaying the right speaker.

Oh bugger. That is a major serious gob smacking loss. We were lucky enough to see him when he returned to touring maybe 8 years ago - and he was absolutely amazing live, one of the best concerts of all time. I have it on DVD, CD and black vinyl and will listen today in honour of a great man.

Happy birthday!