Voltron

Another fine weekend for music in SF: Friday: *Robert Plant and Alison Krauss with T Bone Burnett at the free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival at GG Park 3 blocks from my house. Good stuff from Raising Sand, a slow, swampy version of Black Dog, and Plant's solo hit In the Mood. Good sound and pleasantly free. *Sigur Ros at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. The rain held off until their encore, which saved it from being a washout. They were excellent and sounded so close to their recordings at times -- without being sterile or canned -- that I was amazed. Four guys can make a lot of sound. Interesting shots from mini-cameras were on mic stands, under and on keyboards, and under drums made for very cool projections behind the band. Lots of bowing on the Gibson Les Paul and gobbledigook singing, and I loved every minute. Confetti cannons and lots of fog rounded out the image. Opening band Parachutes, also from Iceland, were pretty good themselves, and came out for extra drumming duty on Gobbledigook, which was the last song before the encore. Nice. Sunday: Back to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival for a nice variety *Bonnie Prince Billy *Elvis Costello and a bunch of people: guitarist Bill Kirchen, fiddler Fats Kaplin, keyboardist Audie de Lone, and singer/guitarist Jim Lauderdale. They did lots of Elvis hits and when Lauderdale came out they played the Dead's Fire on the Mountain. *Iron & Wine, Sam Beam solo Some people stayed and watched Greg Brown, my wife went and say Earl Scruggs instead of Elvis, and she also stayed to watch Peg Young and hoped for Neil to show up but he did not (at least until she bailed). Oh, and she and my niece went to see the opening act on Friday morning, which was MC Hammer with 30 dancers. They loved it, as did the hundreds of school kids who were the primary audience. Good stuff as always. Financier Warren Hellman pays for this event out of his own very fat wallet, and he has allegedly worked out an endowment to keep the festival going for at least 15 years after his death. Should be going for a good long while.

That thing is John McCain?

Thanks Nate and Grahame. I am not likely to keep the covers on at all, but switching them did widen the soundstage dramatically! Thanks for the tip, Grahame! Billable work is only enhanced by music, so the only thing keeping me from working is setting it up, taking pics, and posting here.

I think the TTVJ amp sounds warm and clear and wonderful all at the same time, and it is the tubes that are used that create these wonders.

I will post some more pics in show us your gears thread, here is the HeadRoom Audiophile Desktop in most of its glory. Still need some bi-amp speaker cables and an IC from VVA, but it is in place with temporary cables and making me happy as I type.

Tyll talks about the power needs either in his first post or in the link. Please don't use that freakish Yoda thing as your avatar. Please.

That's one of the stupidest things I have heard today, and you are in heavy competition because I have been watching Sarah Palin try to "debate" Joe Biden.

Back at MOA, a few of us put together a little package for the father-to-be. Nate just sent me the most awesome pic of Lily in the most appropriate onesy that ever was. She is gorgeous and very fortunate to have you, geek daddy.

While I would never call you a saint, Mike, I agree with Nate that two new amps makes more sense, and I thought you have been having trouble with them throughout. Didn't know it was a one-man company, which does excuse things a little in my book. Good luck in any case.

What the fuck, Mike. Did you buy those things new? Sorry for the hassle but it is big of you to stick with them.

Good luck Ken! Correct answer is obviously Zamfir, King of the Pan Flute.

That would take longer than setting them up, which I may well do tonight if I stick around here long enough...

There are three boxes from HeadRoom torturing me right now. I simply do not have time to set up the new system and I am not sure whether I can do it later today or tomorrow either. Argh!

Understood. The other reason I asked was the big chunky plug jacked into the output on the Micro Portable in this pic. I wondered whether it was connected to a helmet or something other than regular IEMs. Plus, I just love the fact that the XM is playing Barbara Streisand, Draw Me a Circle.

Ain't that illegal/inadvisable?

You live in Montana! Nice work Tyll! How does the sound get into your ears?

I would like some smoked meats from Schwartz's in Montreal after all the poutine talk. I wouldn't mind a little poutine on the side, but I needs me some smoked meats. Been to Montreal only once in my life, but want to return. Vive les Qu

And who is the most recent beneficiary of JP's gear-flipping tendencies? Hmm, I wonder...

Possibly, even according to Harry Westfield of VPI. Check out Hoffman forum's thread on this because it has other links that follow the issue.

VPI rim drive:

Fuck, I never even got to tell him he's a douche! I saw this last night briefly but did not have time to respond. Oh well, you guys did a fine job in my stead. Too bad we won't have PP's insightful commentary to broaden our knowledge base. Maybe we can get that sales engineer to join up to make up for this loss. No, I don't think he ever did in any detail. I recall people asking him repeatedly and then him posting a non-exclusive list of a few shitty headphones but I don't think he really responded. He doesn't have much experience with quality headphones, and he never had any real basis for his massive defense of the Proline (Pro) 750. Did he ever disclose his alleged "audio profession"?

Well, then he might as well just donate the $2500 and keep the damn kidney.

Gorgeous as always Peter. I was just at Tioga/Tuloumne/Lembert Dome on Saturday, and stayed near but not on June Lake. Nice spot on earth.

Why do you need to wait until payday to donate your kidney?

Agreed.