The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

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Stinkin’ Badges!

by 40 Comments

Band t-shirts? Nope I don’t do them anymore. Just t-shirts in plain solid colours but I do still wear badges. On one of my worker jackets I wear a badge that used to belong to my wife. It’s depicts a portrait of Emily Bronte. Donna bought it many years ago on one of our visits to Haworth, she was a bit of a Bronte fangirl. On a completely different worker jacket I have a pin badge from the Parrot Club. On my Belstaff I sport a Hope Not Hate pin. I have been unconsciously collecting badges of all sorts for many years. I seem to have accumulated quite a few. Anyone else still sticking pins in themselves or is it just me?

It could be heaven or it could be hell.

by 34 Comments

I’m sat sitting here on my trusty if some what battered old couch listening to Ivan Moravec playing Chopin nocturnes and it struck me that I would be more than content if this was playing in the lift to heaven assuming that my trajectory will be in an upwards direction on my journey home. So I’m curious what’s playing in your lift to the great beyond or conversely what’s accompanying your plunge into the stygian dark of eternal damnation?

Tweak.

by 44 Comments

Another decidedly niche audio offering from me. Sorry. In another elsewhere, yes other elsewheres are out there, I know it smacks of disloyalty but now and again wanderlust must be assuaged. Anyway in this other place a fellow posted a piece about his experiences with ‘audiophile’ quality ethernet filters and such like. Snake oil ahoy I thought but I persisted and became intrigued as I am a little bit obsessed with reducing electrically generated noise in my kit and this post was in that ballpark. I started digging into it and came across the ifi Lan Silencer. It’s fair to say I was somewhat sceptical about this little device but it’s not ruinously expensive in audio terms at £89 and is returnable for up to thirty days if one is dissatisfied with it. So I thought why not I have nothing to lose and sent for one. It arrived late yesterday evening and I duly installed it. I slotted my ethernet cable into the female port and the male end of the little doohickey into the ethernet port of my streamer. I booted my streamer up and selected an album I know well, Myopia by Agnes Obel and settled back » Continue Reading.

Qobuz Connect.

by 52 Comments

This is niche even by niche standards. First a smidgen of background. I dumped Tidal because it’s started getting glitchy. I resurrected my Qobuz account as a replacement and was pleased to see that Qobuz were finally getting around to implementing a Connect feature so I applied to beta test it and was accepted to do so due to my having the requisite kit. I ‘m pleased to be able to inform any Qobuz users here that the feature is very robust and to all intents and purposes flawless, it’s certainly quicker and more reliable than Tidal Connect. Anyhoo the point of this post is to inform any Qobuz users here that may be interested that the Connect feature is going to be rolled out to all subscribers on 5th May. Look for an app update. Wasn’t that exciting? I can sense the euphoria coming at me through the force.

Free Ear Strokers!

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Prynhawn da. Just popping in to offer up a pair of Dali floorstanders free to anyone who would care to call upon me at my bijou council penthouse here in The Tropical Socialist Paradise of Wales. It’ll be a two man job. They are chunky boys. This is genuine offer prompted due to my installing a new pair of lughole ticklers. A little information for those who may be interested and require it… they are two way bass reflex speakers with a front bass port, 90.0 dB sensitivity with a nominal impedance of 6 ohms. Dimensions are in inches (H x W x D) 38.5 x 8.1 x 12.3. Frequency range dB (Hz) 40 – 26.500. PM me if blah blah blah. Hope everyone is fine and dandy. Over and out.

Tidal again and a sorta giveaway.

by 15 Comments

To those few amongst you who may be interested I’ve just received an email from Tidal informing me that from 10th April they are rolling their Hi-fi tier and Hi-fi Plus tier into one single tier and charging one price. In the UK access to all the various bells and whistles will be £10.99 per month. That’s a saving of £9.00 per month for subscribers to the Hi-fi Plus tier. Not everyday something gets cheaper… Also while I’m here I have three one month subscriptions to Ted Gioia’s Honest Broker Substack on er…Substack to give away. If you want one PM me your email address and I’ll sort it out. First come first served.

ATM. A tedious tech post about SSD cards.

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As I mentioned elsewhere I have a new toy. In the underside of this new toy is a compartment easily accessed by the simple act of unscrewing a small plate that covers the aforementioned compartment. Exposing this cavity one can insert an SSD card of up to 4tb capacity. I have no experience of such esoteric devices and was wondering if I need to purchase an SSD card with or without a heatsink. Fitting it will be a doddle once I scrape the cash together to purchase one however I not certain if a card with a large heatsink will fit. Would a card with a slimmer sticker type of heat dispersion suffice assuming thata heatsink type is considered desirable? I intend using this internal storage to rip some CDs to it along with digital flac files purchased from Qobuz. My thanks in advance and anticipation. You there boy! Wake up at the back! There is nothing inherently funny about the word cavity!

Starfield.

by 49 Comments

Is this a first? A pop song based around an as yet unreleased game? I can’t in all honesty say I’m nuts about the song but the game…oh yeah can’t frigging wait. Some of us get to dive in on the 1st September on early access me included and I don’t think I’ve felt this excited about anything since I first realised that girls were different to boys.I am sixty seven years old.

Tidal Flac.

by 116 Comments

Tidal flac is now a reality for hi-res streaming. With the demise of MQA this was inevitable and I for one couldn’t be happier. I have never been convinced by MQA. I could see the point of it if bandwidth was an issue but it isn’t so all I and many others have wanted from Tidal is hi-res flac. Neither of my external Dacs are MQA compliant that’s how much I deemed MQA a necessity. So here’s the burning question Can I hear a difference? I played the latest offering from Terrace Martin this morning through headphones and it sounded sublime at 24bit/64k but it’s early days yet and I need to do a lot more listening before I finally nail my colours. Why you may ask haven’t I simply switched to Amazon or Qobuz instead of waiting for Tidal to see sense and ditch MQA? Well firstly they haven’t exactly ditched it. It’s still available as they add hi-res flac alongside it. I believe they currently have an offering of six million songs in hi-res flac with more being added all the while to the current catalogue of over 100 million tracks. Secondly I just prefer the UI of » Continue Reading.

ATM. Glass fuses.

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This is a decidedly niche. A fuse blew in the Dac I use in conjunction with my headphone amp. It occurred after restoring power to it after I had disconnected it to install some new feet to it’s underside to increase the air flow around it as it gets rather hot after an hour of use. Anyhoo I found the fuse next to the power inlet on it’s rear and discovered that the manufactures had supplied a replacement fuse inside the case for such an eventuality so I swapped them out and all is now fine and dandy once more. However being someone whose default position is to worry I would like to buy in a small supply of replacement fuses in case it decides to throw another wobbler. This begs the question that I hope some kind individual on here can help me with namely which fuses do I buy? I know the fuse is a fastblow glass fuse measuring 5×20 mm and around one end of it is embossed the following F200mAL250/ this means bugger all to me so can anyone interpret this in a way I can understand. Also are nutjobs who replace fuses in audio kit » Continue Reading.

Headphone Giveaway!

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As some may be aware I have developed a bit of a headphone habit. This has entailed my acquiring a number a different cans in recent years. Along the way I thought I should add a couple of closed back pro headphones.They sound perfectly fine especially if put to there intended use, recording, mixing etc. I have since added some headphones that fit my use better so I am offering these two headphones up for free to anyone who would like them.They are superfluous to my requirements but hopefully someone may get some usage out of them. I would appreciate having my delivery costs covered. Thanks. Both pairs are as new and will be sent in the original packaging along with any accessories that came along with them when I purchased. They are…

Rode NTH-100 Impedance 32 ohms. Sensitivity 110db. Single ended 3.5 mm with an included quarter inch adaptor.

Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro. Impedance 80 ohms. Sensitivity 106.58db. Single ended 3,5 mm with an included quarter inch adaptor.

Let me know if you want one or both pairs in the usual manner and we can take it from there.

P.S. If the mods think this should be » Continue Reading.

ATM. Custom Headphone Cables.

by 71 Comments

Hi. I post seeking assistance and or advice on something rather niche. I recently acquired a new pair of headphones. They sound splendid but there is a problem. The cable is awful. It’s too short, aesthetically it borders on the offensive and the build quality of it is flimsy. It works fine but for the reasons above I would dearly like to replace it. My question then is obvious I guess. Does anyone know of a reputable builder of custom cables? I can’t afford silly money or indeed any money right at this moment but for future reference your valuable advice would be gratefully received. Thanks.

Jazz daddios.

by 14 Comments

This is coming up on that You Tube on the 23rd of this month. It may be of some passing interest for the resident hep cats. The You Tube channel in question is apart from this upcoming showcase of fresh new jazz well worth perusing. Some stunning music for people with functioning ears and minds.

ATM. Streamers

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A lot of my listening is done via streaming. Before the vinyl purists start I know I am evil incarnate but living in an already cluttered one bedroom flat I really do not have the space for a vast record collection so needs must. At the moment I am streaming flac and hi-bitrate music files to my Marantz amp via an Audioengine B1 Bluetooth receiver in Aptx through a toslink connection. When the music arrives through my Dali floorstanders it sounds pretty acceptable but I am wondering if when I can eventually afford it should I invest in something like the Bluesound Node 2I streamer which I could hardwire via Ethernet to my router and so eliminate the need for Bluetooth. Would this improve the sound enough to warrant my saving up the cash to invest in it? Anyone got any idea? No rush as it’s entirely dependent upon my making some sales or getting some commissioned work in which is as always in the lap of the gods. I’m all ears. For the sake of clarity this is entirely a question about streaming sound quality. I have no downloaded music I wish to stream and in a one bedroom » Continue Reading.

What do Artists listen to all day?

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I’ve been practicing again. Small monochrome pieces. Two of them. They are as yet incomplete. Works in progress. Continuations, extensions, ruminations. More shit. Anyhoo I thought it might be of absolutely zero interest to everyone if I told you what music has been keeping me company as I make marks, dots and lines. Started in at 6:00am by mixing up four batches of lamp black. Four different saturations, four different densities of pigments. First up. Poseidon by Lau Nau. Followed by Origin And Echo by Snow Palms. Tea break. Mixed up a small quantity of violet using ultramarine and a touch of windsor red accompanied by Hexadic III by Six Organs Of Admittance. Followed swiftly by The Crowneater the latest album from Alder & Ash. The images are becoming clearer now. I am beginning to see what needs to be retuned. What I need to adjust my thinking towards. This means a slight swerve towards some jazz namely Moving Cities by Antoine Berjeaut and then Swagism from Ghost-Note followed by Do Not Be Afraid by Vula Viel. Lunch. Suggestions for other assorted noises are welcomed. Music definitely influences outcomes.

2019 Best of – The Pencilsqueezer version.

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I’ve not presented a list in the end of year malarkey gubbins for many a moon and I won’t be doing so again this year no siree Bob. However I will submit this wee list of the 2019 recordings that have helped keep me hog’s hairs supple and moist on more than one splattering outing. So without further blather off we go. In no particular order of excellence.

Shake Stew – Gris Gris. Nicolas Parent Trio – Mirage. Greg Foat – The Mage. Greg Foat – The Dreaming Jewels. Cochemea – All My Relations. Alfa Mist -Structurlism. The Comet Is Coming – Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Mystery. The Comet Is Coming – The Afterlife. Ezra Collective – You Can’t Steal My Joy. Joe Armon Jones – Turn To Clear View. Lorenzo Feliciati & Michele Rabbia – Antikythera. 75 Dollar Bill – I Was Real. Matthew Halsall – Oneness. Resavoir – Resavoir. Slow Meadow – Happy Occident. Wayes Blood – Titanic Rising. Fred Pallem – L’ odyssee Remix. Caterina Barbieri – Ecstatic Computation. Michael Kiwanuka – Kiwanuka. Nils Frahm. All Encores. Bersarin Quartett – Methoden Und Maschinen. Jacob Collier – D’jesse Vol. 2. Ruby Rushton – Ironside. Floating Points » Continue Reading.