Category: News

I made a killing on eBay… I got a Okki Nokki record cleaner for super cheap! Holy cow does it make a difference. I have a Genesis album that would always skip since new… I just cleaned it and the skip is gone! This think is amazing! It’d not for everyone tho… It’s kinda big! Here it is set up on a small folding table.

It’s got a turntable that slowly turns in both directions. You apply cleaner and spread into thr groves with a brush. Once done that arm swings onto the record and vacuums up the dirty fluid. I think from now on I will clean everything before playing… No pops no nothing in silent portions of the music!

Decided to partake in Record Store Day this year! It was fun, lot of colorful people… As in actually colorful hair! I picked up a few records… As in records not CD’s! I like being more involved in the music now…. To see the mech\nanism in action… The jacket art and notes. You you still have a turn table I recommend you pull it out and dust it off!

I also picked up this entry level table and put it in my game room. It’s becoming a nightly thing to listen to while I chat with someone special. 🙂 That’s a limited edition of the Machu Picchu album by Tangerine Dream spinning.

Bentley has been having leg issues and has spent some time in the hospital lately. He is now 90 lbs and I think thats way to much for him to carry around at his advanced age. He has been staring at me for an hour now! He really wants food but i’m not giving it to him like he’s trained me to! I’m positive I’m on his doggie shit list for sure now… I’ve also not been walking him alot and have him confined to two rooms! He really should be thankful as the vet ordered cage rest. I don’t have to heart to confine him to jail when he didn’t do anything to deserve it. Have to see if the parents can resist his pleading eyes… 🙂

I’ve been listening to alot of music lately and it hit me like a ton of bricks. The problem with modern music apart from it all sounding the same is dynamic range. New music has a ton of audio compression applied during mastering. This is not the same as digital compression mind you… much more data is lost. Audio compression basically makes the music louder thereby reducing dynamic range and the subtle features of the music.

The older recordings I’ve been listening to on vinyl sound alive. They have dynamic range, though was given to mic placement and the engineers knew what they were doing. Ever wonder why vinyl sounds better then CD’s even tho CD’s are technically superior? The masters are not compressed! A compressed audio signal will cause the record lathe to carve a bigger grove, this reduces the recording time! The CD and other digital media have a better dynamic range but the mastering brick walls that range. Thus hobbling the format and keeping it from truly shining.

That’s my rant for today!

Here is the stove up and running! It really reduced the amount of oil I used this winter. Should be alot more noticeable next season because I had some permit issues which delayed install.

Looks kinda dark but trust me it was kicking off quite a bit of light. I’m not a photographer so that’s the best I can do!

Hanging out listening to Steve Vai and re ripping my music. It’s slow going but once I’m done I will have everything shared accross all my audio devices in uncompressed FLAC. I will be setting up a Roon Nucleus to share to all my Bluesound endpoint.

I just got a professional CD resurfacing machine so if anyone wants some CD’s fixed let me know. I had alot of CD’s dammaged from me taking them in the car and this fixed over 98% of them.

I’m back into the high-end audio hobby now that I gained more room at home since my divorce. Been hanging out at Audio Connection when I can to listen to all sorts of new things. John has not changed in all these years! Awesome guy.

Craziness at work so chilling at home listening to music is what I needed today!

I spent some time this weekend painting again… this time I re-painted a room I had done for Patricia. It’s officially done and now I need to get the entire second floor carpeted. I will have to wait a few weeks because I need to get some time to get out and look at colors and get samples. Going to do all the rooms in the same carpet to make it easier on me and the installers.

I decided to swap my listening room and living rooms around. I think the sound will be better because I can put the speakers on the short wall and have it work with the room layout. I am still not sure on the speakers and electronics but I have an appointment to demo some new gear soon.

I will be ripping apart the living room next weekend and getting it ready for painting… I will probably get the ceiling and 1st coat on color on the walls. Not sure if I will be able to do more then that as I’m a bit anal retentive when it comes to painting and work really slow and careful. I will get some pictures up as soon as everything is finished and all the furniture and equipment are in place.

On a side note I finally got the permit for the stove install. The building department wanted a survey for this work… not exactly sure why that would be a concern for a pellet stove with a vent the size of a dryer… I guess they needed to feel important. Anyway I should have it installed sometime next week depending on the installers schedule… would have been nice to have it last week… with the cold… my pipes froze up in the bathroom… I think the stove would have prevented that.

Spent most of today painting. I decided to finish upstairs so next week I can start on my current living room… which I decided to make my new listening room and make the room with the stove my new living room. I think it makes more sense to have the TV in the room with the stove so it’s more cozy in the winter. The only problem I see will be in the summer when it’s hot… I don’t see a way to air condition the room easily… but that isn’t a real problem because I have a smaller TV/game room upstairs which will be air conditioned… so no issues unless I want to watch a movie on a big screen… then I am out of luck.

I spoke with my audio dealer and I think I will be upgrading my speakers to something smaller which will fit the room better. I think I will miss the big imposing Model 3’s but the new model will have a more subtle and sophisticated sound which I think will be nicer. I will post more once I get some time to listen to them and the proposed gear driving the show.

Not much else to report on, my birthday was uneventful. My life is basically alot of painting, fixing things and cleaning around the house! Not very exciting but it keeps me busy on the weekends. I’m planing on having a game of thrones party once the series starts up again so I need to get everything in place for that.

My car is still at the dealer for the DPF issue. I’m thinking seriously about trading it in… I was hoping to get a few more years out of it but a week down time is unacceptable. I have a down payment on the 8th gen Golf R but I might have to compromise and get something sooner… I priced out a Audi RS5 but I don’t want to run something that expensive into the ground with all the mileage I do… I need something cheap that gets good mileage and is reliable…preferably German and definitely not a Toyota… Will see what this week brings… if I don’t get it back this week I will most likely make a purchase.

Not much else to report at the moment…

I found a cool new use for a roller lifter… Ya know the ones you use to lift drywall into place. It’s perfect for lifting a refrigerator to get a rug under it! I had to do this alone, not even Bentley wanted to help! With a lifter its a snap. So if you find yourself needing to do this head down to Home Depot and hit up the drywall section!