Doesn’t look like many people around here are taking the quarantine very seriously. I am keeping my distance and being very careful. Will go the park later in the day and check things out. If course I will take precautions and stay away from people.
The weather is really starting to get warm. The pollen is really starting to bother me as well. I read something saying the pollen is going to be bad this year… Something wonderful to add to the quarantine! 😅
I purchased a diy mini split which I will be installing next week. Hopefully I didn’t bite of more then I can chew with it! If I am successful I will install a multi head unit next year upstairs with ceiling mount cassettes. I don’t want to work up in the attic in the summer so I will do that work on the winter.
One of my top 5 favorite albums of all time is MCMXC A. D. from Enigma. After a lengthy search I was able to get a limited edition of this on colored viynal! Still looking for the rest of the Enigma catalog but this is an excellent start.
This is a great album to listen to in a dark room and chill. If you have never listened I recommend it highly.
Since I have been traveling to NYC for business and pleasure quite a bit. ( Before this crazy lock-down) I have been looking for a good way to take high quality tunes with me. I didn’t want to go down the DAP route because my phone has a shitload of storage space for music and an unlimited data plan so using streaming services is a no brainer.
My original idea with to get an AudioQuest Dragonfly Red or Cobalt. It has a great form factor for traveling, super light weight and it can do MQA . Of course that would be logical so I eventually settled on a Chord Mojo… something super cool looking with colored marble buttons but a bit inconvenient for traveling due to it’s size.
Chord Mojo
So why did I pick this heavy ass aluminum block to carry around with me? Many reasons actually! The build quality is first rate, it’s a solid block of Aluminium. The marble buttons are dead sexy and the use of different colors on the buttons is cool. The volume buttons cycle thru different colors as you raise and lower the volume. The power button also changes color with the sample rate of the input signal. Getting past all the superficial beauty of this thing lies a little monster of a device. Chord doesn’t do an off the shelf DAC chip like most devices. Chord uses a custom FPGA chip with an upper sampling rate of 768kHz/32-bit . It doesn’t do MQA but it does DSD 256! If that wasn’t enough the headphone amp on it is hella powerful. It will l be able to drive anything I’ll ever get in the future to hearing loss levels, and do it super clean.
I was also looking at getting the Chord Poly which adds the ability to connect the Mojo to Roon and stream via bluetooth but I found a cheaper route! Enter Ropieee for the Raspberry Pi. Ropieee adds all the same functionality but is a bit less elegant looking. I have it running on a RPi3 which has more then enough cpu cycles, it works flawlessly. I have the pi powered from a USB powerbank so it’s portable and has clean DC power, less electrical noise and less jitter passed on to the Mojo. I can’t justify spending $600+ on a device that does the same thing as a $35 RPi and 10 mins of time setting it up.
Mojo via ropiee as seen in Roon
Anyway thats about all I have for now. If your looking for some high quality tunes while you commute I highly recommend the Mojo and a Tidal Masters subscription.
Since I think I will be working from home this summer I decided to get a mini-split AC. I’m going to attempt to install it myself and if it goes well I will buy another one next year and do the 2nd floor.
Been having problems with crickets this year as well. Since I really don’t want an exterminator in the house I decided to spray the house myself today. It was super simple but handeling the chemicals is a bit nerve-racking. I bought the professional products an exterminator would use on the internet and already found 4 of them dead. I am thinking about canceling my service and just doing it myself from now on. It’s way cheaper and not hard to do!
Not much else going on here, I have been trying to get out when it’s nice and walk on the tow path in town. It opened up again so no more walking in town. I was going to get a bike but decided that it’s more likely that I would hurt myself and I don’t want to end up in a hospital even if the risk is minimal.
Hope everyone is doing well in lock down! I have been busy with work so the days are going really fast and keeping me busy.
I was told to work from home going forward unless needed to support production in Mahwah. I’m taking advantage of the lack of a commute to listen “Diamonds” the new album from The Birthday Massacre.
It was pressed on purple vinyl so it looks kinda jazzy. The recording level is quite quiet so expect to need to crank your amp… The pressing is not dead quiet either so you will have some pops and crackles. I wet clean everything before it goes on my table so it’s not dirty! The noise adds charm to the music. 🙂
The songs themselves are quite good. Another winner for the band. If you like a darker sound with female vocals this might be for you. The lead singer is no Amy Lee tho! If you have a MM cartridge you might not need to crank the gain as much as I did with my MC.
I solved my toilet paper problems… All it took was a pandemic! I bought a bidet toilet seat. This thing uses technology to wipe and dry your ass. It even has a carbon filter to tame your stank. 😂
I got the same one as zeos of z-reviews on YouTube. If your interested I would suggest you take a look. He goes over all the features and shows how easy it is to install.
I have never tried a bidet but I have been thinking about one for about a year now… I like the idea of a shower clean butt… 🚿😬 I might put an update here once I give it a spin but if you can’t find toilet paper in the end times… A bidet might be your salvation.
Got this record by Power Glove… It’s a glow in the dark limited edition… It’s worth over $100 on discog! Which is way more then I paid!
Glow in the dark Power Glove limited edition!
On top of that it’s pretty good! I do notice that it’s not a quiet as black vinyl but it’s not that bad.
I joined because I wanted a fun way to grow my collection and try new bands. They look at your discogs, last.fm activity and Spotify… Unfortunately I don’t really do Spotify but I have Tidal and Qobuz updating Last.fm so they know my odd taste
I deleted Facebook and Twitter. I stopped using them after the fiasco but didn’t delete it. I totally unhooked myself from its fake news and time sink. Glad I did and I recommend everyone do it to.
It doesn’t smoke and the reels spin but the transport logic is totally messed up. I think the 30+ year old electrolytic capacitors are the problem. I also got the tape path modification from BottleHead which should bring it in line with higher end pro units. It’s going to be a learning experience because this sucker is fiendishly complected. If I get over my head I will take it to Skyfi and have them rebuild it. Below is a picture of one… it’s dead sexy, and mine has one up on this one… I have the wood sides… they don’t make them like they used to thats for sure!
She’s a big girl probably around 70 or 80 lbs! I was looking to get a Pioneer RT-909 but this baby became available at somewhat of a reasonable price so I jumped on it.
I haven’t started working yet because I have been studying the schematics and the exploded diagrams to get a feel how to even dig in to this thing. I don’t want to cause any harm as some of the parts are unobtainium. I also don’t want to mess with the heads as it looks difficult to get them aligned.
Apart from audio things have been about the same as usual. I have been busy at work and home. I spend my weekends between Frenchtown and LIC. I have a vacation planed for Europe this year! Its the first real vacation in well over 10 years for me. Thats about it for now… I’ll be back once I have time.
