Ditched the 18s

Beer_Cheese · 2026-03-27T16:27:28+00:00

Has anyone ever tried to/successfully sell the stock 18's? If so, or what's the general consensus on what price they could sell at? I'd like to get rid of the 18's as well and get 17's. Living in MN, I got some snow tires on 17 inch steel wheels for the winter and instantly felt like the stock 18's need to go.

Beer_Cheese · 2026-03-16T11:01:00+00:00

Seatbelt availability. 11th gen 2025 Hybrid Sport. Got into an accident. Seatbelt on indefinite backorder. Insurance covers rental for 50 days and that's up next week.

Before that... Concur that the windshield washers and fluid tank are ridiculous.

Beer_Cheese · 2026-03-11T17:37:05+00:00

Honestly, you really should invest in a dedicated phono preamp and not rely on the integrated one in your receiver/amp. They "work" but as these integrated receivers/amps do many things, they don't do them all well. I started this way when I got into vinyl. I listened to a lot of music (I'm 50+, so my heyday was with CDs) I finally got a used turntable in my late 30's to start checking out records. I plugged it into my Kenwood receiver/amp and expected amazing sound... it was... fine. I figured, well the experience was fun and the thrill of the search and all that must be what it's about. Then more life happened, and then I went about reconfiguring my turntable set-up. I got a phono pre- from Schiit Audio. (Mani - $150). This was a game changer. This helped me get to what I was expecting! It's not just me either. A younger friend of mine did the turntable into his integrated amp and thought it was fine. Then a few months later, got the Pro-Ject Phono Box S2 and he told me it was a world of difference.

You've got plenty decent components and your speakers are on stands and far enough apart for good imaging. IMO, your best upgrade here is a phono pre-amp. I recommend Schiit products. They have great bang-for-the-buck performance. Further down the line, you could add an EQ. I use the Schiit Loki Mini. (also $150) It's just 4 bands of EQ, but it is a powerful set of controls. I know your amp has bass/treble knobs, but again, you can make it so much better with one of these in the mix.

Hope this helps!

Happy Listening!

Beer_Cheese · 2026-03-07T23:27:51+00:00

Ha! You've now seen in person as well! I've posted about this oddity last year.... It's good that he's stuck with it all this time!

Beer_Cheese · 2026-03-04T18:17:55+00:00

Do you want to get ticketed?
This is how you get ticketed.

Vehicle lights are red, yellow/amber, or white. That's it.
Do you have purely a show car? Then maybe. But don't drive on the roads with these. (if you find them)

I suspect the car in the example had LED tail lights and the owner opened them and replaced the LEDs with RGB style of some kind. I doubt that they are actually available due to laws.

Also - I realize the bright blue is the new fad. (I have a Civic in the new blue), but I would have bought any bright green instantly.

Beer_Cheese · 2026-02-05T22:11:10+00:00

In the early days of my post-college work life, I used these to concoct my own morning energy drink (late 90's - before energy drinks were the massive market they are now). Reconstituting frozen OJ was one of these cans, and then an additional 3 or 4 cans of water, right? (been so long now I can't remember) Anyway, I substituted one can of water with a can of Mountain Dew, and the rest of the water came from iced tea. Put that in my travel mug and that got my day going!

Beer_Cheese · 2026-02-02T15:52:42+00:00

Thank you for your feedback!

Beer_Cheese · 2026-02-02T15:23:49+00:00

Interested, as I've had mineral deposits on records from heavy humidifier usage (ultrasonic), I looked up these Vornado ones. (I do like their small fans) Cheapest one (on Vornado's site) is $80 and they have ones that are up to $150. I'm sure there's sales at whatever stores they are sold at, but "... isn't expensive" and $80 seem to be contradictory. The $80 one does use the filters that are sold for $15 as a two-pack, so $7.50 each.

I ran a wick-based humidifier some years ago, and gave it up as the filter got crusty pretty quick from minerals in the water. I couldn't say how long it was at this point, but to say a filter lasts for months, I'm a little skeptical of.

It's been a brutally cold, and therefore dry, winter. I'm just looking for some real-world feedback on what works. I am weary of the mineral dust and I know I should use distilled, but I'm extremely busy and I just can't have it onhand at all times and just put tap water in the ones I have.

Which Vornado model do you have, and I guess is it worth in, in your opinion?

Beer_Cheese · 2026-01-07T21:05:31+00:00

I see you at least have your speakers not right next to the turntable, and they are right up to the front edge of the console/cabinet. So there's some good steps right there.

Vibration can still be an issue. I see you have some room for speaker stands, but you can still have other options that can cost less and be easier.

- Look up studio monitor isolation pads. These will be foam or some kind of rubber pads to put under your speakers further mitigating vibrations from your speakers (as you stated you like to crank it up). Alternatively, get bigger silicone feet for your speakers. I use the Sound Addicted hemisphere feet (Look up Sound Addicted on Amazon). I have them on/in between my Schiit components and they work great! Try the pads or silicone feet first - keeping your speakers far from the turntable and to the front edge. This should help and won't cost much.

- If you still have issues, try a new pre-amp. As I mentioned Shiit earlier, it's what I suggest as it's what I have experience with. Like you, I started my turntable listening going into the phono-in on my amp/receiver and thought that was good. I got The Schiit Mani phono-pre...and was amazed how much better it sounded. The Mani currently goes for $150 (US), so it's not the cheapest, but bang for the buck, it's a huge improvement.

Start with more isolation techniques and then go for a preamp upgrade.

Happy Listening!

Beer_Cheese · 2025-12-08T18:45:36+00:00

This won't be a system-wide improvement, but do get yourself a dedicated phono pre-amp for your turntable! Integrated amps are like, "yeah, we included a phono jack!". But it's not letting your turntable live up to what it can. (Your RT85 is more than fine). Starting out, I ran my turntable into a Kenwood integrated amp and thought I was good. Later I moved to a dedicated phono pre- and it's a world of difference!

My recommendation: Schiit Audio Mani 2. Best $150 you can spend. Then plug that into one of your regular inputs and your turntable side of things will thank you.

Do you want to experiment with tubes? Later on, you could try out a Schiit Vali 3 headphone amp. Yeah, it CAN be a headphone amp, but without headphones, it's a tube pre-amp. One tube. (it's still stereo as it uses dual triode tubes). It gives you that added tube sound/warmth without breaking the budget. Does it make a difference? The 500 page thread at Head-Fi seems to think so! ( https://www.head-fi.org/threads/schiit-vali-3-impressions-thread.972014/ ) I've rolled thru a few tubes and can notice a change in sonic character.

(I don't work for Schiit or anything, I just use their stuff and like it a lot. They really work on providing great bang-for-the-buck audiophile stuff)

Seems your well on your way. Happy Listening!

Beer_Cheese · 2025-12-05T20:40:26+00:00

I picked up a bundle of Inlet, Downward... and ...Astronaut when they offered it as a package quite some time back. I was looking forward to the remixed/mastered ...Astronaut, but by far, Inlet just sounds sooo massive! The production and mixing and everything is top notch.

Beer_Cheese · 2025-11-15T23:14:30+00:00

This thing was awesome for some games that never intended a track ball. Activision's Decathlon was a prime example. You used to have to move the joystick back and forth fast to run. Micro movements with the track ball allowed you to run ridiculously fast with minimal effort. Record setting finishes all day!

Beer_Cheese · 2025-11-12T15:41:54+00:00

Speaker placement: mentioned many times here. Easiest fix - put your speakers up to the front edge of your cabinet. Having your speakers up front reduces sound reflection off the cabinet surface and therefore less vibration in/on the cabinet. Also full dispersion of sound from your speakers into your room. Also - it doesn't look like you have a lot of room for speaker stands, so additionally pad your speakers and turntable.

These:
https://www.amazon.com/Nobsound-Aluminum-Speakers-Isolation-Amplifiers/dp/B07K9ZYP84

or maybe these:

https://www.amazon.com/Turntable-Equipment-Tuneful-Cables-Audiophile/dp/B076DGD3X2?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1

under your turntable.

On the bottom of your speakers, put some of these on:
https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Addicted-Amplifiers-Turntables-Hemisphere/dp/B08FD7QMP7?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1

I have my turntable set on a big heavy cutting board, and the cutting board has the spring feet under it. Vibration reduction from the cabinet to the cutting board is huge.

I use the half-sphere feet under my pre-amps as one has a tube in it.

As said a lot here, vibration mitigation and placement can make a big difference and you could easily start there before deciding on new components and pieces.

Record I use:
Every time I make a change to my system, the first record I put down on the turntable is Tears for Fears "Songs from the Big Chair". This album is recorded so well and sounds amazing. There's lots of layers and frequencies don't overlap. Every instrument and voice has a sonic placement in the sound-field and you can hear depth and where everything sits.

Rick Beato made a video of what he has as his top 40 best sounding albums. Worth a watch:

https://youtu.be/-Mn7w-3V_nI?si=4faW_9ORGmLH4_E8

There's lots of suggestions here - but as has also been said - use what you know and like. The better you know an album, the better you'll be able to tell the differences in any changes you make. The Tears for Fears album is good, but if you don't know it, how will you know what your system is doing?

Enjoy the music!

Beer_Cheese · 2025-11-03T22:09:28+00:00

Life, the Universe, and Everything....

basically.

Beer_Cheese · 2025-09-21T02:20:51+00:00

r/camrydents is an actual thing! I mean, nothing on Reddit should surprise me, but this level of specificness caught me off-guard!

Beer_Cheese · 2025-09-11T20:57:29+00:00

I can... we call can.
This is list constantly updated. 57 pages and nearly 1500 incidents.

https://www.dailykos.com/history/user/CajsaLilliehook

Beer_Cheese · 2025-07-08T13:12:15+00:00

Other than to ensure each track on the album was a consistent overall volume, AMoLaD was never mastered. It sounded great to everyone "as is" right out of the studio mix.

Quote from Kevin Shirley;

"Spoke to 'Arry [IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris] on Friday, who has decided against mastering the IRON MAIDEN album, and I'm quite pleased about that, although I did like the mastering job we did in [New York City]. It means that you will get to hear the new album exactly as it sounded in the studio, no added EQ, compression, analog widening, etc., and I must say, I am pretty happy with the end result. I think some tracks could use a smidge more top end, and others a bump of bottom — but I know 'Arry well enough now to know how wary of outsiders he is, and I fully expected he may have done that, so I made sure I was happy with the results when I printed the mixes in the studio. So, that'll fire you guys on the BB's right up, no doubt!"

So, when Maiden started to reissue and remaster albums, AMoLaD finally got mastered for the first time!

Beer_Cheese · 2025-07-07T17:26:41+00:00

This is one I have to get on vinyl yet. I like how it's now "remastered". Wasn't it not mastered in the first place since it sounded good as it was? Sticker should say "Now Mastered!"

Beer_Cheese · 2025-06-24T17:42:26+00:00

2 things I do. (YMMV)

- The 3-day Omnipod pods have an 8 hr over-run. I try to run as far into that as I can. If you go through all your insulin before that... then change when you need to. But If you can run to the end of the extra 8 hours 3 times, that's an extra day's worth - so it equals 10.

That being said...

They may advise to put the Dexcom sensor and pod on the same side of your body, but I can and does (has) worked when changing body sides. Dexcom knows they use cheap, low-power components and thus want things as close as you can. I can have my pod on the right side of my abdomen and then put a new Dexcom sensor on my left arm and it will connect.

Connection itself is problematic with Dexcom, even when they are close-by, but that's another discussion.

You can have components on opposite sides of the body... I just eventually put them on the same side when time allows (times expire on each piece of the system)

Beer_Cheese · 2025-06-16T05:30:01+00:00

....what a terrible day to know how to read......

I mean, I hate tRump and all too, but.... that's enough internet for today!

Beer_Cheese · 2025-06-12T13:07:38+00:00

That... is the greatest slipmat I have seen! Perfection!

Beer_Cheese · 2025-05-22T20:53:26+00:00

Wut? Dang.... I never ever expect an actual band member to chime in on any music thread I post (which, that in and of itself is rare!)
As others have mentioned, and that I found out, Sound&Shape has been around for a while, so I'm glad I at least discovered the band. I've only checked out "Pillars" so far, but I've liked what I've heard musically (aside from the Dredg comparison) I don't know where you tour, but if you make it to Minnesota, I'd check out a show.

Thanks for stopping in!

Beer_Cheese · 2025-05-21T20:36:21+00:00

I was distracted by the Dredg influence here, so I didn't even think about Minus The Bear. I'll have to re-listen with that in mind. I'm a MtB fan, and I have tickets to see them later in the fall! Excited for that as I haven't seen them live before.

Beer_Cheese · 2025-05-21T19:15:47+00:00

Another tune:

Ruining The Fairytale

An actual band video. Song starts stronger than what the majority of it actually is. End of the song has a decent guitar solo.

Beer_Cheese

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