aerius

All the Focals were running on Naim Uniti Atom amps with tablets to stream Qobuz . Didn't bring my own gear and no way to hook it up anyway, but I did plug a USB drive with my music into it.

I spent a fair bit of time with the Utopia at the audio show yesterday, definitely the most fun I've had since listening to your PS-1 setup back in the day. Punchy as hell and it just doesn't compress or soften even if I played very dynamic music way louder than I'd usually listen. Pretty much everything I've heard other than my LCD-XC and the RS-1/PS-1 will soften & compress to some extent, my Senn 580 and AKG K340 do it, and so did the Focal Clear I tried out yesterday. My first impression of the Utopia was that Focal took an RS-1, fixed up the treble tizz and bass, and then just cranked everything to 11. I can also see where @EdipisReks1 is coming from regarding the soundstage & placement, it's definitely more of a Grado soundstage than my LCD-XC or K340. Audezes are the best I've heard so far at creating a believable sound field, that is, not only placing voices & instruments in the correct place, but also getting them to project properly. For instance, a timpani will make a sphere of sound whereas a trumpet will make a cone of sound, most headphones I've heard will make both of them into a ball-ish shape. The Utopia has a sizably smaller soundstage than my LCD-XC and at times it did feel a bit cramped like there wasn't quite enough space for all the instruments & voices to breathe & project properly. I get why an audio engineer wouldn't want to use these for mixing. Overall, I think it's the best dynamic headphone I've heard so far. If I hadn't heard Audezes I don't think I'd have any real complaints on the Utopia. This is definitely another headphone which I need to hear in a quiet room to hear what it can really do.

Finally got to hear the CRBN at the Toronto Audio Fest. I camped out all morning at the Audeze booth and listened to the LCD-2, LCD-5, and CRBN since I wanted to know how they compare to my LCD-XC. I have very little experience with 'stats since I don't know anyone in my area who has one, only ones I've heard was some entry level Stax (crap) at a meet like 20 years ago and a SR-404/SRM-717 combo a fellow head-fi member had. 404 was nice on some music, but dynamics, impact, and bass were lacking, it couldn't rock or boogie. Show conditions so can't really tell much about low level detail or resolution, once I got to around the LCD-XC level it's all fairly similar, I'm not going to pretend I heard a bunch of details or room echoes in the LCD-5 or CRBN that I didn't on the LCD-XC. But the good news is the CRBN can rock out to Black Sabbath and Motorhead, and it can groove to Bob Marley though I do wish it had a bit more bass & impact like the LCD-2 or XC. Soundstage is nice, perspective seems to be a bit further back which I prefer, the LCD-XC sometimes puts me right in the conductor's position in an orchestra which can sound a bit wonky depending on the music. Overall, it sounds like an Audeze which is a good thing. I think the LCD-5, XC, and CRBN are more alike than different, being a closed headphone the XC has a sizable advantage in show conditions so I'd definitely want to spend more time with the flagships in a nice quiet room to hear how well they can resolve low level details, room boundaries, and all that other stuff that's hard to hear in a noisy room.

Pelageya letting loose and having fun She usually performs old Russian folk songs about people dying and stuff like that.

I don't understand a word of Russian, but man those harmonies are sweet.

I've been around gay people since early childhood so it's pretty normal. My childhood friend who I've known since before we could walk is gay and we both knew he was gay by the time we finished junior school. Had several other gay classmates too and it was no big deal, most of us had way more difficulty dealing with girls than gays. Which isn't to say everything was great for them, it wasn't, 1980s Canada was more progressive than most places but gays still got lumped in with the nerds and picked on about the same amount. By the 90s when I was high school everyone was pretty much the same, there were very few distinctions between races, sexes, nationalities, or whatever. Pretty much every social group was actually diverse, the group I hung out with had blacks, Indians, Asians, Pakistanis, whites, a couple gays, and a few girls too. It was like whatever, we're just people. At the same time, I did have TV & internet so I could see how different things were in other places and I was like "you can't be serious, what is wrong with people?" And that's when I began to understand why gay pride parades and other such mass celebrations are a big deal.

Wrote another paragraph of the Audeze LCD-XC review I've been working on for over a year. I'm only 5 paragraphs in and I've already rewritten this cursed thing more times than I care to count. There's nothing wrong with the headphone, but in some ways it's so different from anything else I've owned that I've had to rethink a bunch of things I thought I knew about headphones and then try to put everything into context.

If advanced aliens saw what we're doing they'd be far more likely to drop a planet killer asteroid on us.

The dance is pretty good too.

Damnit. I hope my LCD-XC doesn't die anytime soon.

Grab a conversion BB for either Shimano or SRAM cranks. https://wheelsmfg.com/bottom-brackets.html?cat=900 I know Shimano has some Tiagra, Ultegra, and Dura-Ace cranks in stock in their North American warehouses. SRAM should have some stuff too, but I can only check their Canadian distributors and not the US ones.

Apparently, the RS range is getting the hemp treatment. RS1 and RS2 are now going to use wood & hemp housings.

Full face helmet for bike parks and other primarily downhill trail systems which are served by chairlifts or lift shuttles, open face helmets for almost everything else.

Personally I find studded tires aren't worth it unless the trails in your area ice up badly from repeated freeze/thaw cycles. Regular tires have plenty of grip on fresh snow or even hard packed snow, it's not until the trails turn into a sheet of ice that studs come in handy. On the other hand, all it takes is a patch of ice in the wrong spot to put you in a world of pain.

Using a King 1000/6000 combo stone for sharpening. If I really ding up the edge I'll rough it out first on some 180 or 400 grit sandpaper stuck on a piece of plexiglass. I've had the Ruike for a bit over 2 years and so far I'm really happy with it. It beats out the old Kershaw/Ken Onion Vapor as the best beater knife I've ever owned.

The Ruike P801 is my beater knife of choice. It's cheap enough that I don't care about hacking the edge into things I probably shouldn't and dinging the crap out of it, yet the performance is still good enough that it holds its own against knives that are 3-4 times the price. The only thing I'd change is the ball bearing blade pivot, they're unsealed bearings so they get gunked up easily, I'd rather have cheap & cheery bushings since they're more resistant to crud. Also takes a surprisingly fine edge, out of all my stainless steel knives only the Benchmade 581 sharpens to a finer edge.

For Benchmade and pretty much every other manufacturer, stay away from M390 steel and its equivalents in 20CV and 204p. The heat treats are very inconsistent and in the vast majority of cases you just end up with a knife that costs twice as much and performs exactly the same as 154CM. The Benchmade 581 which I own and the Spyderco Paramilitary 2 are about the only production M390 knives that perform well, but even then there's enough variation in the heat treats that some of them are only holding their edges half as long as expected. I can't recommend buying one given the chances of getting a lemon. As for Benchmade in general, I have more of the knives than anything else since I like their design, but their value is kinda lacking. They're prettier and fit my hands better, but in terms of performance or build quality they're barely any better than the Kershaws and Spydercos I own which are about 2/3 the price at most. The only Benchmades I have which feel like premium products are the 750, 690, and 581.

Took me a couple years to track one down in my size, but it's sure worth the wait.

Figured I'd drop by and see what's up. Been doing lots of riding and not much computer time these days. No hospital trips this year so it was a success.

My new bike saved me from several hospital trips this year so it's definitely a success. Smashes out downhill runs better than anything short of a dedicated downhill bike, and it's still light enough that goofing around on my local trails is still fun.

Decided it was time for me to join the 21st century so I bought myself a carbon full suspension bike with carbon/aluminum wheels. I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up in the hospital by the end of the year, this bike just begs to be ridden at ludicrous speed on every downhill.

Neko Mulally. 4th place at the downhill world championships in Hafjell. With NO CHAIN!

Yup, have a KS Supernatural on my bike and have ridden a bunch of other droppers. How useful it is depends on the type of trails you ride and your riding style. If there's lots of steep technical trails or trail sections, a dropper post is worth its weight in gold. If you like to ride aggressively and want to get the damn seat out of the way when charging downhill, get a dropper post. If the trails are fairly tame and you never feel like the seat is in the way when riding tougher sections, there's no real point to having a dropper post, it's just extra weight and one more thing to go wrong and put your bike in the shop.

It's "safer" in the sense that you won't go as fast so falls & crashes will generally do less damage. But you may end up taking more falls since a hardtail isn't as forgiving of mistakes as a full suspension bike, and things that you currently get away with on a full suspension bike may get you splatted on a hardtail. Best way of riding safely is improving your skills while knowing where your limits are at a given time. Mastering Mountain Bike Skills is a great resource for leaning new techniques and improving your skill base