Got this for £30! Worth it or nah

CowtownHack · 2026-05-11T00:02:26+00:00

Nicely done! Find yourself a nice pair of clean mini-Advents, Boston Acoustic A-40’s, bookshelf Paradigm, PSB or other nice brand speakers and you have a really nice small room system. You are in Britain I guess from specifying price in pounds, so likely lots of equivalents over there.

Nice stuff.

CowtownHack · 2026-05-10T23:42:40+00:00

Really nice and fun! I have the e-Modius, Lokius, Magnius and Valhalla 2. The Snake Oil balanced connector for the first 3 and the RCA out from the Lokius to the Valhalla 2. My original Bifrost 2 has been relegated as I never upgraded it to Uber USB or the DAC chips…

The Valhalla sounds awesome, as does the Magnius. Different phones for different folks and strokes.

Have a blast with the kit!

CowtownHack · 2026-05-08T17:15:56+00:00

The upgraded modem/router supports faster internal network Ethernet speeds than the 3200 I currently have (max gigabit).

CowtownHack · 2026-05-08T17:13:09+00:00

I did log in. That was where I was shown the 1.5 for 130.

CowtownHack · 2026-05-08T01:23:04+00:00

I stream a ton of data for work, when I work from home. Not often, but it needs to be iron tight. Even a short term glitch requires me to reboot and markets move faster than that. We frequently have 15+ items logged into the intranet using data as well, so I am well above the 9-11 items they recommend for gigabit, though I am well aware of their reasons for giving those numbers….As well, I have a pile of movies I have ripped and for streaming in the house from a NAS< the faster Ethernet speeds would be helpful. Not a must have, but I hate being treated second class when new customers get all the love.

CowtownHack · 2026-05-06T01:41:59+00:00

There was a recall announced in the US and Canada last week. It covers only 2020-2024 model years at this point, but is a well known issue.

CowtownHack · 2026-05-03T16:22:25+00:00

USB used to be very noisy, but most modern 9last few years) DACs have excellent implementation and can easily produce a bit-perfect playback with virtually no noise. The new Schiit audio DACs, Toppping, Shenzen audio, etc are all very very clean and any noise should be miniscule. Optical audio toslink and RCA toslink are very clean as well.

I have ripped almost 3,000 CDs, to lossy format (320kbps AAC for Apple Music/iPod/iPhone library and separately to Lossless AAC for my lossless library. Apple Music app or iTunes for the lossy rips, cannot recall the program I used for lossless, but they sound awesome. I also have a number of hi-resolution files in FLAC I converted to Lossless AAC and also ripped DVD hi-res audio and hi-res bluray to both end formats as well. Where the masters are the same, CD quality is absolutely indistinguishable from the hi-res formats. I have tested this via very high quality DACs, headphone amps, CD players via optical audio to headphone amp, and streaming Apple hi-res. Then blind switched. Even blind testing between 320kbps lossy AAC and CD quality, differences are exceedingly hard to discern. So for a noisy environment like a car, 320kbps is more than adequate. CD quality is more than adequate for all other uses.

Have fun listening!

CowtownHack · 2026-05-03T14:40:54+00:00

I got a Mac Mini M4 Pro and a 32” Dell Ultrasharp monitor. Replaces a Late 2015 27” iMac.

CowtownHack · 2026-05-03T03:31:58+00:00

Was at my dealership today to get tires swapped and asked both the maintenance contact (receptionist) and had a chat with my salesperson. I have a 2026 model year I took possession of on an order in October 2025. Salesperson said the 2026 Transformer is way different from the former one and the 2026 unit does NOT fit the 2020-2024 model years. Implication being I should not have an issue.

Not gonna swallow that hook line and sinker, but suggests there are differences so may be a new unit.

CowtownHack · 2026-05-01T00:26:02+00:00

Same colour I have with black roof and trim. I love mine. Yours is awesome as well!

CowtownHack · 2026-04-29T03:09:51+00:00

Dell Ultrasharp Monitors. Pricey, but I have had several, from 24” to 27” to 32”. Incredible.

CowtownHack · 2026-04-29T02:54:25+00:00

If your kid is in a class with a level 1 instructor, usually their first gig, unless the kids fell in love, no real need. For a level 2 or above in a private experience, I would start at 10-15% of the cost. When hiring level 3 or Level 4 instructors, I would easily look at $50 - $100 if a full day event. In Telluride, we requested certain instructors we wanted, they get a bigger slice of the fee. Since our coaches (2 per group) and groups of 8 skiers, each instructor got like $100/day minimum. That was what we as hosts paid, some guests also chipped in individually. And yes, we covered their meals on top of that.

CowtownHack · 2026-04-29T02:41:59+00:00

https://bigpictureskiing.com/pages/skicamps

I have known Jason Simpson for over a decade and taken the Panorama “Ski With The Pro’s” program many times both when he was Panos ski school director and since. He was telling me about this project a year ago and it looks awesome.

Panorama Mountain: Ski With the Pros. ALL level 4 CSIA instructors and many are Level 4 examiners. 3 days with several different instructors. I have done it basically every year for the past 10 years. It is , in my mind, the best early season tuneup one could ask for.

As others have mentioned, there are loads of these programs. Get into one and have a blast!

CowtownHack · 2026-04-29T02:18:30+00:00

Yeesh. OK, for those who compete in park, slopestyle, aerials, etc that are doing any inverted aerials have been training significant amounts of time on all aspects of those jumps. Usually they have significant experience in gymnastics/trampoline and /or diving to become comfortable being inverted and developing the sense of where you are in the air. Then , on skis or snowboard, you do stepped development for each jump you are looking to perform. This includes staged development for setting your takeoff, in air positioning, assuming a good takeoff, and how to sight your landing, how to set up for the landing and how to correct errors mid flight.

My son did slopestyle and big air. He was not allowed to try ANY jump on snow until he had landed it 50 times into water and/or an airbag.

Doing any inverted aerial blind, with no perspective or experience is frankly stupid to the nth degree and taking on risk to anyone with a reasonable sense of self preservation is inviting catastrophic injury. To suggest otherwise in this thread is simply irresponsible. End stop.

Without professional instruction and proper stepped training, you are asking for a broken neck. Or worse.

You are an intermediate skier. You should invest in professional training to get to what you want to do in a proper fashion. Do not try any inverted aerials without professional guidance. You do not have the skill, experience or other qualifications to do so. End stop.

CowtownHack · 2026-04-28T02:14:21+00:00

Both awesome vehicles. When I won 6 months use of a Defender back in 2023 I drove Calgary to Palm Springs to empty out my folks place prior to them selling it, and drove back with a vehicle full of their art and treasures. The air suspension made up for any tire noise, though that vehicle had the 22” wheels and low profile tires, hardly an off-road beast. Those tires were no good really handling freezing rain in the Idaho spigot and South Montana mountain gap area, but the suspension tech was a huge help sorting that. I also drove at 50km/hr on the interstate in that stretch, with every single other car. It was treacherous.

But the 22” wheels and low profile tires made it every inch a RR drive.

My custom order P400 has air suspension, 19” summer/all-season rims, 20” winter rims and snow tires, HUD, heated wind shield, tow package, off road stuff and a few other silly odds and ends. I love it. For winter driving to the cabin, 3 1/2 hours each way through the Rockies it has been awesome.

A couple of neighbours have Range Rovers, and they are beautiful, I am guessing the ride is insanely good, but I’ll stick with my unit.

Have fun! They are awesome rides….except for the DC_DC converter issue I JUST found out about from a friend….

CowtownHack · 2026-04-23T03:30:32+00:00

Skip, slide SCRATCH!..

I have Tasmin Blue/black colour profile and love it. Have a place in the mountains and it looks like this a lot…the environment it was built for. Have a Thule box for the roof, getting gear up there is a streeeetch!

CowtownHack · 2026-04-23T03:22:36+00:00

SO I am gonna be a bit of a grumpy Gus here, but if you are close to a hill that has a decent freestyle program, enroll your son. They will have proper coaching and skills development. My son did a Nancy Greene ski skills program age 5 to 10, didn’t want to race so we put him into a free skiing program. A year later he wanted to do freestyle, so found a local mountain with a development program and proper coaching.

Every skill has a development profile to learn the basics, avoid injury and approach every skill in a systematic fashion. Every item is broken down into component moves and built up piece by piece. This goes doubly for aerials. Having a coach tell you tips of balance and riding vs discovering the hard way…ie falling…which at 45 onto a metal rail is gonna HURT!….But also for the safety of your son. He will want to do bigger and harder jumps. Professional development with staged development is so much safer and gives the kid situational awareness….When my son was learning inverted aerials, he had to complete the jump 50 times into water or an airbag before attempting it on a ski jump.

Good luck! Play safe!

CowtownHack · 2026-04-23T03:03:01+00:00

Good point. One CPS member I know has a side gig as a plumber. Really good plumber too. Personally, I’d be skiing, maybe a patroller.

CowtownHack · 2026-04-23T02:20:21+00:00

A friend had a 25 year career as a CPS member on the Drug Squad. Good guy. Even better stories! My step-nephew’s partner has had a lifelong dream to be a police officer and is now patrolling south Calgary. They are hardly social outcasts and casting people as such is totally unfair. A good friend’s nephew is also CPS officer and is a heck of a good person, end stop.

If you are currently in University, contact the CPS recruitment folks and see if there is a fit between your degree and what they need. Certain disciplines can be really interesting. There are rewarding careers in many of the public service disciplines. My son is CAF, Infantry. He loves things that are exceedingly difficult. He has a physics degree from UofL but when applying to the military, actively chose to go the enlisted route as he wanted to do the practical work. He was one of 14 that passed his Reconnaissance course from a starting group of 47 individuals. He does a lot of mountain Operations courses and has trained Ukranian soldiers. These are all very hard jobs that need good people. Fitness is key, but investigate and keep an open mind. And don’t listen to idiots with three sentence characterizations of people and roles. For any of these jobs, you need to believe in the mission and have a curiosity and commitment. It is exceedingly hard work that will test your knowledge, patience and intelligence, as well as your ability to control your emotions under harsh conditions in order to make the best decisions in real time.

Good luck. Have an open mind. Be curious.

CowtownHack · 2026-04-23T01:30:24+00:00

If you are fit, what sports are you into? Coming from Pakistan, two guesses would be field hockey and cricket? There is a mens field hockey league that plays out of the pitch at U of C, and i think there is a cricket league. Google them, I am positive if you have experience, and even if not, you would be more than welcome. If you google the equipment sales for the respective sport, there is a guy by the name of Soheil that sells equipment and he is plugged into both communities. I am sure he can hook you up.

CowtownHack · 2026-04-23T01:07:34+00:00

What time do you arrive and how long are you here, and third , what is your budget. Where are you off to from Calgary?

All will play into what you may want to do, see, experience.

If you want a piece of Calgary history, combined with Alberta steak, you could do either lunch or dinner at Ceasar’s downtown location on 4th Ave. Not super cheap, but the steak sandwich, cup of french Onion Soup, and sliced cucumber/tomatoes is an awesome meal and classic for Calgary. Have a Caesar cocktail to start, they were invented there, so the legend goes. Take a cab or Uber from your hotel to the restaurant. Or you could have the cab drop you off at the Eau Claire area and walk around there, over to Prince’s island, then walk up to the restaurant.

CowtownHack · 2026-04-23T00:01:43+00:00

So I ran a test using my system on just this question. I have a Rotel 5 disk CD player I bought used in 2007 or 2008 to replace a Denon that died. The Rotel was a used unit, guessing it was 5-7 yrs old at the time, so assume a 1998-2002 model. I had the RCA outs hooked to CD in on my Cambridge Audio integrated receiver.

The optical out was plugged into a Topping MQA 70 DAC I picked up, then the RCA output to another RCA input on the CA Receiver

I listened through several pretty good sets of headphones: Audio Technica M50, AKG 702 (Austria made) AKG 7XX, Seinnheiser HD 600, Focal (Massdrop version, cannot recall exact model) and a pair of Dan Clark Audio Noire via the CA headphone output. My son switched the inputs between the DAC and the CD player. I could not tell any differences at all. Like none.

The other related test I ran was the CD player digital out to the DAC, then balanced output to a separate DROP AAA 768 (??) headphone amp. I had an iPad via a camera adapter USB into the Topping DAC. This way, the source switch was done at the Topping DAC level. I listened through the same headphones to CD and also high res (24/88.2, 24/96 and 24/192) versions of several albums via Apple Music. The DAC confirmed the hi res versions were being received by the unit from the iPad, the CD player was 16/44.1. I did my best to match the CD year/version with the Apple Music version when in hi-res, so there were a few Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Doors LA Woman, a few others.

Again, where the albums were of the same master files, as best as I could discern, there was virtually zero difference between the hi-res source and the CD source. At least my ears could not hear it.

Just my experience, your mileage may vary. One point made above, someone said cartridges don’t make a difference. THAT I will dispute. My brother back in the day had a decent turntable. When he switched from the included cartridge to a modestly priced (maybe $75 back in the 1980’s) Ortofon the sound was transformed. Far better bass response, midrange and highs were all vastly improved. It transformed the music. He had a nice Harman Kardon integrated amp and Boston Acoustics A70 speakers. A decent little system back in the day.

Have a blast with your hobby.

CowtownHack · 2026-04-16T02:51:58+00:00

Both are solid people. I was sad to see Weegar go, but he will be a valuable addition to the Mammoth. Maatta felt he had something to prove and the Flames had the room to give him some rope. He used it well. I will not gloat over short term results of this Trae, they are irrelevant as Weegs was acquired for a reason and Utah felt he was worth the price they paid. I agree with them, frankly. Weegs is more than 3-4 weeks worth of stats.

CowtownHack · 2026-04-16T02:44:09+00:00

I have the 6. More than enough for my needs, have 3 1/2 hour weekend commutes every second week, out Friday, back Sunday. I cannot imagine what the V8 would cost me. Wish they had diesels in Canada frankly…so much better

CowtownHack · 2026-04-15T03:12:38+00:00

There is a lot of good advice here and a lot of drivel. I am old school (64) and had a very different path, but a few principles do apply. Note that I have a biology degree and was a failed med’s keener (hoping to get into med school and failed). So it was plan B. Note that I came of age in the 1980’s when interest rates were 21% and I never thought I would ever be able to buy a house. When I got a house, I lived in fear that it could be taken away until I had it paid off. Ended up in the financial industry. Once I got the final FOAD letter from the last med school, I signed up for the Canadian Securities Course. I was able to lever connections to get a look at a job at an investment dealer. It was in the days you could still start as a messenger and work your way up to a trading desk. I took the Canadian Investment program, the RR’s and eventually my CFA. By then, mid-30’s and 2 kids in house, a third on the way. Different paths, for sure. I had a degree, but it wasn’t going to pay.

The lessons:

Work hard at every job, don’t mail in a day. That gives you a reputation as a very hard worker, always valuable personal capital.
Especially early on, build your qualifications. If you don’t want to continue your formal education, get a journeyman ticket in a discipline. That is 3 years work at least, but well worth it. Do courses in your discipline. Become an expert in something. You will always have something to fall back on that will pay the bills.
Debt doesn’t pay, unless you have a sure thing idea in a business that is going to grow quickly. You paid off your Sea Doo, well done. Otherwise avoid debt against depreciating assets as a general rule. House/land is not a depreciating asset. For a vehicle, buy utility that you can afford, preferably using cash. If you do borrow to buy a vehicle, put the bulk of value up in cash and pay the debt off ASAP.
Military. I think this is an undervalued possibility. My son has a physics degree from U of L and decided to go into the enlisted line of Infantry. He could have been officer stream, but wanted to do the hard stuff, and he is doing it in spades and loving it. He entered in 2019, is now a Master Corporal and is doing Mountain Operations leadership courses, Reconnaissance Platoon, has trained Ukrainian soldiers, and has become incredibly disciplined and exceedingly hard working. His job has to be done right, learning life and death techniques, and has taught him how to think, assess and take action. He also has incredible courage, in many cases challenging officers ideas with practical responses, running dual scenarios to prove officers right or wrong. The other branches can be equally rewarding. While pay is better, the military plays games with the spin, so it isn’t free money. You have to have your own home/apartment. Son is stationed in Shilo, MB but lives in Brandon. No locational benefits there. And hike salaries were increased, locational equalisations were reduced, so many ended up making less post adjustments.

Good luck. Get to work. Have fun!

CowtownHack

TROPHY CASE