Voltron

I was updating the post to make it less cryptic.

This was last night, but close enough. I had dinner with Claire, my five siblings, and their spouses. It was fun and raucus with lots of loud personalities involved. One brother started off the gift-giving, or re-giving, with a long story about realizing that morning that he hadn't thought of a present and set out to find suitable re-gifting options. Whiskey Stones were the first thing he thought of because he got those for Christmas and doesn't drink whiskey. The obvious next step was finding that bottle of single malt that somebody gave him long ago that was still in the box. Well, the fact the box was falling apart was a hint that it might not be pristine, and inside turned out to be a half-empty bottle appropriated by his kids at some point that he gave to me anyway: Next up, one sister gave me one of these self-monitoring Jawbone things she got at a conference recently. She didn't really think I would use it but thinks I am more tech-y and therefore more likely to try it. Claire may do so, although the aforementioned brother had an even fancier model on his wrist and wears it all the time. One brother had no present (and I was glad because he has no money to spend on me) and another brother gave me one of those tattoo sleeves so I wore that the rest of the night to intimidate the waiters. I'm sure that was lying around their house, but he didn't make a big speech. Lastly, my other sister gave me real presents that she bought for me in Cuba last week (professor exchange trip). There are a couple of Cuban CDs, one of the lame band she saw at a bar (including No Woman No Cry and a salsa version of Let It Be) and one of a hip jazz combo. The main present was the awesome mojito glass with recipe and muddler from La Bodeguita del Medio, the bar where Hemmingway hung out. The muddler has a reproduction of his note to La BdelM on it. Cute touristy and Cuban. The Che hat is really hers although my other sister who re-gifted that Jawbone thing was shaming her into giving me the hat, and she apparently slipped it into the bag. I'm giving it back. Anyway, that's my nutty family in a nutshell.

Why?

^^Listen to them, Haj, unless your wife likes fiddling with charcoal and tending fires and generally futsing around rather than just turning it on and cooking or smoking. I personally have used my Traeger pellet grill/smoker just like any other grill with good results. The only limitation is indirect heat and lack of very high temps. It gets up over 500 deg but you need direct flame for some things like for searing meat. Ideal situation is a Traeger plus a small cheap gas grill with decent flame, but I would pick the Traeger if it had to be one or the other.

Awesome, G-Man! Shill away, Tyll! I'll definitely go back and pump it a few times to see what crap other people write in response. The smurf blue cable is not Cardas Neutral Reference to my understanding. That is a different cable for speakers and interconnects, not for headphones that I recall, and is way more money. The Fat Pipe was a HeadRoom exclusive Cardas blue (then grey) cable with a different shielding or just different sheath. Tyll should be able to clarify because he was hawking them at meets back in the day and I thought they were among the best, especially for HD600s.

Excerpt from my response on InnerFidelity: I have always favored the 650s, but I do not agree that they are much warmer and certainly not "too warm" or veiled when cabled and amped right. I wrote a Head-Fi review of replacement cables a million years ago and still feel the same way (all my personal taste, ymmv, blah, blah, blah): 650s sound their best with SAA Equinox and other fast, resolving cables, and 600s sound best with copper cables like the Moon Audio Blue Moon or Cardas Fat Pipe. Balanced drive does make a big difference, especially with fine OTL tube amps or really good SS amps.

No worries, Kerry. I will report back and get in touch directly if there is a need.

No. They don't.

My guess is your chance of receiving the NAS is 0%. As Dusty or somebody said yesterday, they used the model number, which happens to the same for the two items from different manufacturers, and screwed up the add by putting the description of the Synology NAS drive with sale price for the stupid wall mount they actually were meaning to sell. Weird, but it is the only thing that makes sense. I doubt they even have any of the now-discontinued drives...

Nope, it does make a difference like the Sigmas. From Tyll's review: "With normal speaker listening, the wavefront is hitting the side of your head and ears at an angle. To mimic this geometry, Sennheiser mounts the HD 800 drivers slightly forward of your ears, and slightly angled back towards them. The larger diameter and angled geometry of the HD 800 driver produces a wavefront that arrives at the ears in a more natural way than with traditional headphones and allows more of the normal reflections at the outer ear to occur, which allows the brain to understand and localize the sound it's hearing significantly better. The result is significantly improved imaging." So true! I was the one who screwed up because I took the pic from the wrong side!

Are those orange half glasses part of the cans?

I loved her first records and saw her live at least once or twice, and really had a hard time understanding this mess. I listened to the whole fucking recording from Yoshi's and her apology is such horse shit. Lying bigoted cunt.

Low, The Invisible Way (produced by Jeff Tweedy)

When JP and I went to CES for the HD800 release, I had a great pic of him blissing out with the cans on backwards. I promised not to post it but that was more understandable because they were brand new and unknown to anybody. And besides, JP didn't wear them over his hair.

Thanks all! Working today, but sushi dinner and chocolate cake with my family later tonight will be fun. I've got to think about the right beer/cocktail accompaniments for those diverse food items... Cheers!

Congrat on your find, and best of luck with the BH. Truly a wonderful amplifier.

Wow, thanks for the great response and all the information. Of course, I sat down the headphones for awhile with everything on and now I do not hear the sound. By both sets of tubes I meant the input and EL34 and I just switched them from left to right. Does this amp self-bias? Maybe switching them did something. I don't know jack.

Ugh. I moved my DIY T2 from Mayberry back to SF without incident but was listening tonight and there is a persistent static crackle in the left channel. Same on two headphones and same after switching both sets of tubes from left to right in sequence. Any suggestions?

Well done Raffy!

Anybody going to go for the first handmade watch from Detroit named after shoe polish?

I just noticed that Colin is dancing in the Google doodle for St. Patrick's Day!

I was joking about the Argentine pope, the Falklands and such, so I made Argentina cocktails and then grilled some lamb chops and asparagus. Sacrilicious.

Oops. Cast on my right hand.

Lack of caffeine even has you mixing up Mikey and Steve! That must have sucked Dan. I hope the back is better for your gig, Lain.