Stereo circa March 2009 part I

Pass Pearl, in an old vacuum sensor case. I would put this phono pre up against any. It truly is an absolute monster.

Pearl boards. 40mF of capacitance per channel. (Yes, the "m" stands for milli)

Toroid, rectifier, and first 10mF of capacitance. RARRR!

7 watts of class D power from sure electronics. This board really shines with fullrange drivers. Crazy bargain.

part II

Close up of the SP 10. Rega 250 tonearm, with pete riggle vtaf. Running an AT 440 MLa on this bad boy. The plinth is something my friend Scott and I knocked up last Saturday am.

SPIKES!1! and a cord mess.

A London Decca cart. This came on a random turntable I acquired. Thank you Patrick for the ID. It wouldn't track when I mounted it. I took a look at it under the scope and saw that the tie back loop had come off the stylus. I gently nudged the stylus under the noose. Hopefully it plays next time I try it.

Zerodust and Carbon brush. Two accessories I wouldn't live without.

A brief moment in stereo time, March 2009 part III

Conrad Johnson Sonographe SG-3. The 1" delrin platter and nice bearing make this an awesome suspended turntable.

Thorens TD 160 with Mayware Formula IV arm. Arm is actually disconnected in this picture.

A good view of my mess

Iso-stress conditions under an elliptical tip

Fall postview.

October, yay.
A presidential election between a geriatric, a nutcake, an inspirational story, and a rail commuter.
Adrian spent four nerve racking days weaning while C caught some Nevada sun. She came back for the worst of it though. He's doing much better, getting and staying asleep. He's also getting adept at taking records out of their sleeves. I've asked C to try and get some of the nice record storage boxes from our brother in law. They'll get packed up and put away until I get my very own hifi room. I'll most likely be packing up the turntable as well. That means it'll be strictly digital around here. Hopefully I can get a decent optical dac to go with this mac. At least it seems to play music without crashing.

speaking of mac crash. i initiated my third hardrive in this lemon. thank steve, you're advertising scheme has tricked me into a computer that's worse than any pc i've ever owed. i'm a mac. thursday is backup day.

ps. mac users should be using silverkeeper. great program, and has saved my lemon flavored tush.

TEETH/diarrhea/WEENING

so, as my first twice in one day blog, i'm going to just say that today has been pretty tough.

a-drain is going through a rough patch here, and the wife and i are at our wits end. she's got him sleeping in her beco carrier right now, but he wakes up if she stops walking. he's got extremely light (like the walls of an apartments) diarrhea, his eye teeth coming in, and we've been doing the weening thing for the past week.

yeah. it's been a long day. probably going to be a long night as well.

coffee of the sunday

type: guatamala finca la florencia 100% bourbon.
roast: fluidized bed 80 s after first crack. (city +)
brew: french press

and?

Dry Fragrance: A little on the mild side, subtle flowers? 4.0
Wet Aroma: Smells like good coffee 3.9
Brightness/Acidity: ZING! 9.1
Flavor Depth: Tons of spice. Is that mint? 9.0
Body/Movement: A little on the thin side. 2.8
Finish/Aftertaste: A happy goodbye. 9.1
+50
-------
87.9

sweetmarias.com score: 87.3

by popular demand: the mess

So, this is where the magic happens. I just mentioned last week that I love coffee. As I write this I'm enjoying a Honduras Organic Maracala -Cocosam Coop via the aeropress that I got as a present. The aeropress makes a great (and strong) cup of coffee. The Honduran is decent... certainly not the best I've ever had, it's far too light and bright. The fluidized bed roaster certainly doesn't help, even at darker roasts it seems to attach a lightness to most coffees.

The roaster is a freshroast plus 8:

From coffee

Which sets nestled in by the la pavoni grinder:

From coffee

(I'm working on getting a baratza. No need for anything more than that as I don't really do espresso)

These two machines comprise the 'lower level', as we rise in elevation we see the nesco and the frech press. This is the french press I keep at home. I also have a bodum 'kenya' that I keep at work with the aeropress:

From coffee

As we pan out we see the giant mess that is my coffee corner.

From coffee

A brief rundown here:
The table itself is made from a randomly extra cabinet door that was behind our fridge. The legs were purchased for $5 each from retro petes in St. Paul. The shade was sewn by my wife. It's a cute take on 1950's life. My favorite is the child in the backseat asking "are we there yet". It reminds me so much of adrian. The little white plastic thing next to the grinder is my scale. 75g batches, oh yeah. The small canning jars are a great way to keep the coffee from excess oxygen after roasting.
The mess is mine. I'm not much for wiping up any stray grounds, and when they get wet they seem to magically stain the table.