Category: News

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!

Wow, I had Spotify running at a lower bit rate and didn’t notice it… I thought I had a speaker issue! I just set the bit rate and everything sounds better now. Getting back into the hobby now that I have a dedicated listening room in the house. Working on getting a roon server running and am getting an appointment for a consultation with John and Audio Connection and see if I can trade some things in for newer equipment. I really want a 275 in the system and a new CD transport.

My car has been in the shop for a few days with a DPF issue. I am not sure if it has something to do with the emissions “Fix” VW preformed on the car but I have a feeling it does…. DPF is part of the emissions system and it’s one of the new parts that was swapped on the car. Hopefully I will hear back soon with good news. I have a deposit in for a 2020 Golf R so once that comes in I will have a second car I can use when the TDI breaks down.

I finally got the listening room painted and ready to go. I moved all my audio gear down and set it all up on new audio racks. I plan to upgrade my speakers soon as well as trade in some of my old gear for new. Everything is starting to show it’s age so it’s about time to refresh it all with new. I will post some pictures once I am finished… the thing that really makes it cool are the LiFX tiles I installed on the walls… without a woman saying no I can do some really neat stuff around the house! The tiles morph colors or respond to the music. If you can sneak them by your wife or significant other I would suggest them!

Having the fireplace guy over soon to give me a quote on a J0tul wood stove insert in the living room! I am really looking forward to getting that work done. I really like having a nice fire. Probably not going to be installed this season but it will be something I will do over the summer. I think I will have a new mantel installed as well as I don’t think the one I have will work well with the insert. Anyway I will write more later.

New find out of Sweden… EBM and what sounds like some analog synth!