The On-Topic, OFF-TOPIC Thread

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Yes yes, with Gin, and not that awful Blue Sapphire, but something like Beefeater. And yes, not too dry, but not with that awful Martini and Rossi “vermouth” that only sells because of the name. Maybe go for the imperfection of a Gimlet by using a cocktail onion instead of an olive or twist.

And always, always, always lift a toast to the late Dorothy Rothschild Parker, American poet and writer who famously wrote:

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“I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
After three I’m under the table,
after four I’m under my host.”

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Six, solid, months …

This thread is so underused …

Dorothy is a gem.

…

A rare weekend at “home” … and “Debby” comes to visit (that’d be “Deborah” where I come from, or, maybe, “Debbie” if we were were “all colloquial-like”).

Most of late Friday and all of yesterday was decidely “don’t put shit in your ears/on your head, that’s in anyway connected to the mains” and/or “using the shower/tub is a really bad idea” territory.

Today has been calmer.

And we’re not nearly in the “thick” of it.

But my pool is definitely now of the “infinity” variety …

… and local electrical disturbances have finally receded to the point they lend themselves to using actual, mains-powered, gear.

Am I waffling?

I’m waffling, aren’t I?

I’ll stop waffling …

…

It’s been months since I’ve had a good, protracted, critical-listening session with anything but my AirPods Pro 2.

They’re great.

For the sheer number of scenarios they can, enjoyably, address … I can’t think of anything better.

BUT …

And it’s a BIG “BUT” …

Three hours around the pool with an N30LE feeding EE Odin, or half a day with an HA BHSE → SR-X9000, or HM1 → ZMF Atrium or LCD-5 …

… well …

… it’s a stark contrast.

And then there’s my “completed this weekend” DIY T2 …

I want a “Kerry-built” version to compare to (and I’m not taking pictures until I properly “case” mine), but … well … I want to see what a HeadAmp “Grand Cayman” can do … but … well … DAMN.

Different flavors between SR-X9000 and Audeze CRBN to be sure, but both are mesmerizing …

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Got pastrami and fried zucchini with ranch right after donating blood at a Red Cross location. You know it’s authentic when the sauce cups are huge and the bathroom in the back is the size of a broom closet. That’s how you know the restaurant is a gem.

‘Murica

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I have been wondering how the Campfire Orbits are. Know anyone who’s tried them? Right now I’m mainly using WF-1000xm4 with Azla Crystal TWS tips, and I adore them so much I purchased a blue leather Miter case. It gives the ear buds quite the premium look. AirPod Pro 2s are great on days I need convenience though.

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What Kind of Headphones Would a Politician Wear?

Had this thought for the On-Topic OFF-TOPIC thread. While I know that we don’t do politics, I thought it would be fun to play around with what kind of headphones our current slate of major party candidates would be wearing. Would love to see other people’s choices too.

Well here goes, in alphabetical order by last name.

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I see Harris as a Beats girl.

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Trump, always the rebel, doesn’t do headphones. It never gets better than reliable Realistic 1000 speakers from Radio Shack.

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Vance? The Marine marketeer would choose Campfire Polaris. Nautical, and can isolate you from office mates.

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Walz? The teacher/army reservist has to like the radio-operator vibe from your basic Grados.

That’s my visualization of the cosmic all. What’s yours?

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I think Kamala would be an AirPods Pro 2 person, and I can see the Donald wearing a Dyson headphone/respirator thing…

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Trump is currently having trouble wearing headphones,

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and Harris is more likely to advertise toothpaste than put on headphones.

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Anything political:

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Hello,
I would be interested to know whether your partner shares your enthusiasm for audio in general or headphones in particular? For example, my wife has little interest in music and has absolutely nothing to do with headphones, amps and DACs. As a result, she can hardly understand why I watch four-hour live streams of my favorite reviewers (+ Catwoman) and have fun doing it. How is it with you? Do you share this hobby with your partner?

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Nope

Yep

My wifu and I share hobbies with each other, but do not share hobbies. In other words, we don’t have the same hobbies but we share with each other about our hobbies extensively and have an interest in what interests the other. We also participate in each other’s hobbies.

Examples:

  • She pushed me for years to try tube amps. I resisted for many reasons but finally gave in a couple of years ago
  • She has demoed many of my headphones and amplifiers and given her own opinions
  • She has supported purchases of limited availability or preorder items even when I did not have the budget saved yet
  • She is coming with me to an upcoming local headphones meet because it will be a very laid back BBQ and happens to fall on my birthday
  • She knows who Resolve, DMS, and Oratory1990 are, and probably a few others too
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My wife loves headphones. On me. Late at night, instead of me playing the stereo.

She likes music, likes listening to speakers and modest volumes, even moderately loud when the mood strikes. We go to concerts. She will listen to something on headphones if I have then queued up and want her to hear something. She clearly appreciates the quality of the Nectar Hive, Rosson RAD-0 and the ZMF Auteur Classics. But she never just listens to headphones. In fact, she listens to stuff on her iPhone when she has perfectly good iPods Pro 2 nearby.

Car speakers - that’s a different story. She’s always rocking out in the car.

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Random Musings

Recent CanJam

I didn’t go; and didn’t want to (at least not for the gear) … which has been a theme for me for a couple of years or so … but I do still read the post-show reports/impressions etc.

But … in “related” or “adjacent” matters:

  • Audeze’s CRBN2 - definitely an upgrade I’ll be taking; especially given their generous “loyalty” upgrade price (was very surprised that an upgrade was offered at all).

  • HEDDphone TWO GT - I really enjoyed the original, sonically, but I was at the limits of fit/comfort (ironically I got the extension parts, a week after I sold them). Wasn’t in a “headphone mood” for the Two, but the changes to the TWO GT sound intriguing; so may wind up picking these up.

  • RAAL 1995 Imannis - you would think I’d have had more interest here, given my gushing praise for the SR1a. I finally heard them, just before my last vacation (in a non-CanJam/non-demo environment) … and while I understand why people rave about them - they’re not for me.

    I still have my SR1a, though I don’t use them now. What they did best vs. everything else, beyond detail and dynamics, was spatiality … and where I can run my speakers 24/7 that’s no longer a factor - and they’re not on the same plane with a ~$2M speaker rig/room.

    While my Imannis listening didn’t give me the opportunity to do more than trivial “amp rolling”, and though the results were superficially (or initially) extremely impressive (“wow” in fact), I just didn’t find them musically engaging over the course of several hours.

    I’m just not in the market for >$9K headphones, with special requirements, that don’t have the SR1a spatiality, and are a bit wonky tonally (without, quite, the “fun” of, say, the AB-1266 Phi TC with it’s different, but also-wonky, tone).

    Three years ago, maybe even two, I’d have been first in line for these.

Used Market

I was just perusing various WTS listings, and was a bit surprised that the used market for headphone gear is not only still depressed, but how heavily depressed it is …

  • Stuff listed at prices that wouldn’t have taken an hour to sell two years ago, that has been listed for a year (or more).

  • Current items that, in near-mint condition, are listing for <45% of their original (never mind current) price.

It’s so far off what I’d consider “reasonable” from a seller’s perspective, that I’d rather not deal with the nonsense that is selling anything online and just put the increasing stack of gear I’m not using in storage … potentially forever, than take the current prices.

Surprises

  • Still finding the Cayin N30LE w/ IE600 and HD660S2 to be damn near nirvana. I have higher end, more technically capable, gear in multiple categories, but that trio is unfailingly engaging and emotional.

  • AirPods Pro 2 still consume most of my listening time, though I’ve been getting a bit more time on proper IEMs and headphones of late.

  • I’m surprised there has been nothing REALLY interesting (to me) in the IEM space since the ODIN. At least not that you can actually BUY.

  • My bet on Abyss coming out with a successor to the AB-1266 Phi TC has consistently failed. Those launched in 2018 … with no update (that I’m aware of). Figured I’d wait a generation out; didn’t expect it to be more than half a decade …

  • Still not missing my HE-1.

Very Random Stuff

  • Nice to see that, the audio and AI centric IP I spent several million developing (a good chunk of which was in massively parallel/AI cloud-compute costs), and sold (for a very worthwhile return), actually made it to market*.

    I can’t say where, how, in what form, nor from who … NDAs etc. (so no point in asking/speculating … I can’t/won’t comment) … but it is personally gratifying.

  • Finished my DIY T2 build … the electronics at least. Still working on getting it properly cased (big, custom-milled, polished copper ..) before showing it.

  • Atari 50: “The Anniversary Celebration” was a lot of fun.

  • As was Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story.

*The first time I did something like this, around streamers, it just got buried. Or, at least, “bits” were used, but not the whole. Not a big deal; I got paid well for it, but it’s always nice to see the fruits of one’s work actually make it to market.

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Surprised and Delighted …

Last night was my first night at the Florida Grand Opera …

I’ve been an opera fan since my mid-teens.

My fascination with, and love of, opera began, decades ago, with “Carmen” …

… it nearly ended there.

Or, at least, “Carmen” delineates, exemplifies, and punctuates both the best and worst (or perhaps most disappointing) operatic experiences I’ve had. And that’s despite the Seattle Opera’s enviable, and well deserved, reputation, and many productions enjoyed there.

Last night was … unexpected.

There are many wonderful cultural aspects to Florida (despite all the “Florida Man” perspectives). In particular, Latin American influences on music, dance (Tango, here, is … I don’t have words …), and food, are rich, colorful, incredibly varied and unfailingly delightful. Though it is certainly not limited to those styles.

Seattle certainly had a wider gamut, and where the classics are concerned a deeper repertoire (or attracted a more expansive range of productions).

I digress …

To this point (nearly four years now), I had not managed to attend the Florida Grand Opera. Which is, for me, the oddest arrangement … it puts on three, maybe four, productions in a season. Those run, in Miami at least, for just three performances (with another two in Fort Lauderdale).

So, I have to say, I wasn’t expecting a lot.

And I was wrong.

So very wrong.

In every important respect.

Last night’s production of “The Magic Flute” was fantastic.

Different, creative, to be sure … with a modern overlay that, at first, had me thinking “Oh no, not again”; its fantastical settings projected within the context of modern(ish) youth and a game of Dungeons and Dragons.

But … magnificent.

I’ve seen about a dozen productions of this, around the world, and I think this is my favorite. It’s certainly the most creative, with very clever effects and use of physical stage/sets and projected imagery.

And it was completely accessible to any level of operatic inquistif.

“The Magic Flute” is a very accessible* opera to begin with (despite being in German), being full of fantastic creatures, adventure, a classic love/rescue trope, and, of course, its comedic nature and singspiel arrangement.

In this particular case, the “spiel” elements reverted to English, with the “sing” in the original German.

Honestly … brilliant.

And if this is, in anyway, typical of the FGO … then their production of “Carmen”, in April 2025 is going to be a real treat.

…

I’m always going to have a special reverence for the “great” Opera houses (and especially Covent Garden, Vienna, Venice, and several here in the US even) … but this was just not unexpectedly wonderful … but absolutely fantastic in its own right.

Amadeus

On a related note, being a Mozart piece (Die Zauberflöte), it triggered rewatching my absolute favorite movie, “Amadeus**”.

Last time I watched that it was at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, the movie being projected while a live orchestra played the actual score.

*That it is relatively short for an opera, just two acts, helps here.
**Though it bears little to no resemblance to actual history and which contains much that is apocryphal or, at least, wildly inaccurate.

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Nice to hear you’re finding some constructive entertainment in the wilds of the Floridian peninsula.

Amadeus is a very good movie. I think my favorite scene is the one where Mozart touches up Salieri’s Requiem in D Minor. Certainly one of the apocryphal incidents.

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TL;DR: @Torq thought Florida’s opera scene would be:

But it was:

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Not sure where this belongs, but it seems sorta on-topic, off-topic.

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New Jersey Drones

My theory is off of Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica album.

Oh Frank, the blimp the blimp
It’s the blimp
The Mothership
Tits tits its the BLIMP!!!

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Ayo resolve

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So the commercial advertising wizards that I allow to populate a home page just for kicks presented me with this:

4 Channel Professional Audio Stereo Headphone Amplifier | Seismic Audio

What a steal!! 15 five star reviews, no negatives and only $22. Now I have a solution for people needing extra headphones at my desk at work. I simply plug the output of the Eufonika OTL into this baby, and the ZMFs and 300 Ohm Sennheisers into it, and we can all enjoy quality music.

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Another forum I’m on has a topic for Dad jokes. This showed up today.

Last night I yanked out a couple o’ nose hairs just to see if it hurt.

Judging by how fast my wife woke up screaming… I’m guessing the answer is YES.

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