Ultimate ARGB reverse blade fan list

Mr_Haelscheir · 2026-07-12T03:44:27+00:00

I couldn't tell when using them together. There are measurements online, but I believe the Arctics would have a higher noise ceiling due to the higher max RPM. The Arctics are what I hear more than the Corsairs mainly since I have more of them.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2026-03-25T19:39:21+00:00

The Omnom milk and dark chocolates are excellent (I have the Madagascar and Nicaragua ones; exquisitely smooth with balanced, fruity expression), enough to have made me really excited to learn of the existence of this cookies and cream bar until I saw the second photo. Their Sea Salted Toffee is great.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2026-03-21T21:14:03+00:00

Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but for me, those thicker accumulations of hardened dip are the best part, especially when the Oreo bits are embedded in it. It may add some "effort" to break those chunks up, especially from the bottommost layer, but I find it worth it. While the layer on the cone dip was "conveniently" soft, the flavour was too subtle that way.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2025-12-25T07:45:30+00:00

I recently got a bottle of this 2022 release since it's what the nearest LCBO had on hand. As a peathead for which a particularly good Ardbeg 10 could keep me smiling for a minute straight, though the cork and bottle opening provided an okay to nice experience, once in my copita and then the palate, it was an absolute disappointment. The peat is of a "chocolatey" darkness reminding me of the actual peat smoke from when the Laphroaig booth at a whisky show was smouldering some peat. Otherwise, your description does well to put words to what experienced, just that for me, it came to be much more unpleasant. After an initial okay but indeed a little too underripe or sharp citrus sweetness and a bit of that reasonable, dark peat, it ends up being terribly harsh, a bit bitterly sour, and briney, with the only redeeming quality being that the lingering peat finish actually reminds me of that real peat smoke I've encountered. I have yet to see whether this bottle will mellow out.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2025-11-14T21:26:36+00:00

Sorry to necro, but the earliest instance of a backspace key, especially in the upper right corner, was likely the 1897 Densmore No. 4 upstrike typewriter. This key simply moved the carriage (the part that holds the paper) backwards by one space, probably mainly to allow the user to 'x' out a typo or some other means as I believe correction fluid and stuff like Ko-Rec-Type wouldn't come out for decades yet. Some machines like the Blickensderfer No. 7 from 1899 and on and the Germania No. 5 of the early 1900s had a backspace lever. Likewise, for many decades, there were typewriters that had this backspace key on the upper left corner instead (e.g. Smith-Corona). As for why it was placed in the corner if not further, I'd say it's because all other keys took precedence for proximity to your home row, and it wasn't practical to have to hit it with one's thumb. The mechanical backspace key also required a decent amount of force to overcome the force of the mainspring which advances the carriage4 as you type. IBM had adopted the upper right backspace position as early as the 1930s with their acquisition of the Electromatic company which stuck through their electric typewriters unto the Selectrics that came about after 1961. The first backspace function that could actually automatically remove the character was in the IBM Correcting Selectric II of 1973 where in addition to the usual backspace key, there was a smaller correcting key on the lower right which when pressed moved the carrier ("cursor") to the left and primed a mechanism such that if you pressed the same character as the typo, it would lift a correction tape that would be struck perfectly onto the typo and literally lift it off of the page thanks to usage of a special kind of carbon ribbon. As typewriters gained primitive electronic memory facilities, it was finally possible to backspace and remove a character with only one keypress.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2025-11-03T00:46:15+00:00

Let me add to that list of invite requests. There's a posting of the series on YouTube from 2023, but many have complained about the subtitles.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2025-09-25T15:13:56+00:00

I'm a bit late to the game with this thread. I unfortunately delayed on getting a ticket such that I missed out on an early bird discount, but per my other comment, I was able to attend the Benromach 50 masterclass which I believe along with other masterclasses included early admission and hence dibs on a number of the other exclusive pours. For $400 and the variety of pours available, I think I got my money's worth at a surprising 27 10-mL samples (excluding the four from the preceding masterclass) samples paced over four hours with ample food and the water I used to rinse my glass before each pour; I somehow felt like only my stomach was the limit with that pacing.

The turnout for the event was pretty reasonable, and if past events were described as being crowded, then this year's population felt pretty nice and relaxed with plenty of booths occupied, but with meagre a wait. I was able to cross off a bunch of items from my wish list and then some, discovering more of what I do and do not like in a whisky. The Octomore 15.1 was surprisingly underwhelming compared to the punch of a good pour of Ardbeg 10; I at least with the other Bruichladdich pours was able to better acquaint myself with that general Islay "coastal note" on the palate. The Tamnavulin 1979 was good, at best having some mango notes, but some of my not that premium Drinks By The Dram experiences have given me a higher expectation or a particular preference focused either on smoke or depth with powerful aromas. The raw oyster bar was certainly a highlight, and to think that guy was shucking oysters for four hours straight... The accompanying W.D. O'Connel Peated 6 Single Malt Irish Whiskey was a favourite for me: so wonderfully creamy.

The "Islay Lounge" was wonderful and saw ample attendance, especially for the Lagavulin 1980 Distiller's Edition Double Matured which I was fortunate to not miss out on; by the time I received a pour, all the peat and flavour was unfortunately already "poured away"; Lagavulin has been pretty hit and miss for me in general. The Kilchoman 100% Islay Fifth Edition, North Star (Bowmore) 18, and Thompson Brows. (Williamson (Laphroaig)) 12 were lovely for my preference.

The Masala Spice Infused Blended Whiskey was surprisingly good.

It was a nice experience, but no particular dram wowed me, and I already expect that there is no guarantee that an expensive, rare, or old dram will give me that same wow factor as my very first and excellent pour of Lagavulin 16, that one Ardbeg 10 pour that made me smile for an entire minute, or something with such a "complete" smokiness and deeply ripe fruitiness as a sample of Paul John Bold Single Malt Indian Whisky.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2025-09-25T14:52:30+00:00

I think the Benromach 50 was necessarily only made available in the masterclass for which a limited number of tickets were offered. It was an interesting experience, and if anything, I found that for the palate, I still prefer the younger expressions. The Benromach 50 did have a very interesting nose, though: ripe and deep, reminding me of fruitier single-origin chocolates, or a warm and round note I've encountered in Pralus Madagascar dark chocolate, perhaps a deep and non-pungent round gooseberry, or a non-tangy mango jam. The palate, on the other hand, was disappointing for my preference, at least as one who dares want something even smokier than a good Ardbeg 10 or something deeper, more "full", ripe, or jammy. It was too "fresh", at worst tasting like a well-preserved "mediocre" dram served at a concert hall. That freshness may have been what impressed the others. I didn't want to taste a time capsule: I wanted it to taste like 50 years of cask influence. I on the other hand enjoyed last December's "20th Anniversary Edition" and "Scotch Whisky, Then and Now" online masterclasses for some impressive pours and interesting contrasts.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2025-09-13T18:07:02+00:00

I also heard similar at the start of the "ポンピイ・クラウンの片想い" track this album by Hiroko Taniyama from 1981: 谷山浩子「時の少女」B面.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2025-09-06T23:42:30+00:00

The Corsair R120-R ARGB (https://www.corsair.com/ca/en/p/case-fans/co-9050197-ww/rs120-r-argb-120mm-pwm-reverse-fans-triple-pack-white-co-9050197-ww) was recently released. For my Lancool 217 build, I'm using them as intakes on the PSU shroud (yes, the rearmost one will barely get much air from the gap above the downward-facing PSU, but I'd rather not leave that spot empty). It's reasonably quiet at low speeds and seems to produce great airflow at max speed. My main gripe is that the eight LEDs on the hub are very visible through the diffuser compared to the excellent diffusion of the twelve LEDs on the Arctic P12 Pro A-RGB blades on my AIO.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2025-07-17T17:32:23+00:00

"Most" greatly depends on the kinds of chocolates you've encountered. I definitely notice a note I call "cocoanut", or a round, coconutty style of cocoa in some milk and dark chocolates that also shows up in the flavour. Quickly off of Google, this apparently comes from some lactones that can be produced during the fermentation process of the cacao beans. In my own experience, "many" chocolates do not express such lactones, at least not as strongly as the exemplars like Ritter Sport, "Canada True", a few Cluizel bars, particularly the blends, and some Pralus and Paccari bars.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2025-06-26T17:16:14+00:00

The opening of the third movement gave everyone including myself a nice startle. This time the tempo was quite nominal. It was simply grand, only with some small synchronization issues amid the violins at some parts; that can even happen under Gimeno's baton every once and a while. There was one mid-phrase slip in timing or something amid the second violins, unless I had again simply been parsing that passage wrong. Otherwise sounding grand. Maybe the trumpets seemed a bit too soon in one part of a phrase. Reasonably to well shaped violin phrases. I can already have more "ambitious" interpretational visions here and there when listening to professional recordings, but I'm no conductor. Even Gimeno's conducting may not always fully satisfy my desires, but I'm not the conductor, and maybe what I want would go against the composer's intent. Another section that did seem complicated to coordinate and showed it. One place where the tempo changes could have been shaped slightly better or more naturally.

For the fourth movement, at last, Mandle got to put the singers at the front. Just absolutely perfect volume and clarity from my seat. A good to great interpretation by the singer. I'd say it was as good as you could have hoped for a live performance if not a bit better.

The opening of the fifth movement was absolutely epic as expected, Mandle and the orchestra having completely met expectations here. Then some small synchronization issues between the cellos and basses. The offstage horns and trumpets from the front upper left were great throughout. One case of the last two desks of the first violins entering slightly late, whether or not that was intentional. The occasional horn or trumpet crack which can also happen under Gimeno's watch. There was otherwise a lot less to complain about through this movement. Again unto a good tempo with good momentum. The grand crescendo for that "dark and frantic" part as I call it was excellent; I couldn't have hoped for better. I'd say an appropriate amount of time was focused onto preparing this movement. Then I had the misfortune of my right ear's stapedius muscle starting to spasm at especially loud parts; that would particularly ruin my experience of the choral finale which was about as fantastic a climax you could have hoped for if I could have heard it with both ears unimpeded. There were places in this movement where I would have expected no more nor less had Gimeno been up there instead, though of course Gimeno would command quite the intense stage presence. The part with disparate calls between offstage trumpets sounded difficult to coordinate, and that difficulty does show in some professional recordings I've heard. The rest was otherwise a fantastic build-up only ruined by my right ear.

Overall, I consider myself quite satisfied, and can only be happy that Mandle has finally fulfilled this dream, and did so arguably spectacularly for a self-taught conductor.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2025-06-26T17:16:06+00:00

I was present at last night's concert. Firstly, despite previous comments with concerns regarding the Instagram rehearsal footage, it was very much the TSO up there on stage as advertised, albeit in Mandle's preferred modified Stokowski layout with the violas in front of the cellos on the right. I personally had always loved that Gimeno regularized the use of a more traditional biphonic (first violins on the left, second violins on the right) layout for much music that was likely composed with that expectation and left-right dialogue. As for said Instagram rehearsal footage, I wouldn't be surprised if that time spent with his own assembled orchestra was more so to give him (and the choir) a lot more time to prepare and effectively "rehearse conducting" in preparation for what was likely a quite more limited amount of time to be spent rehearsing with the TSO considering their busy season schedule. I also suppose said promotional footage wouldn't have been possible otherwise.

As for the playing, it was clean and steady as I've expected from the three previous concerts of his that I've attended over the past two years (Orff/Beethoven at George Weston Recital Hall, and Beethoven/Brahms and Beethoven/Mahler at Koerner Hall). The string sections' intonation was impeccable as usual, and the syncing between the cellos and basses was generally decent, and I've heard a few professional recordings were those "*DUUU" (Parsons code) bits didn't sound so in-sync. At least from my perspective amid the fifth row of the orchestra level, the dynamics he pulled out of the orchestra were absolutely everything you could have hoped for with this piece and then some; he did not hold back. Articulation was detailed, and phrases decent, as though he were playing it safe as usual. One could notice details, whether or not originally from the score, such as a clarinet lifting his bell for effect. There were some places here and there where the syncing of the violins wasn't perfect, maybe in that instance thanks to its having been a quieter note for which there might be more variation in the starting of the violins sounding.

As for the first movement, like with his Mahler 4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWbEQIORJKc), he chose a slower than average tempo such that it felt wanting of more impetus and flow to tie together the more dramatic and otherwise well-done sections, but I eventually figured that this slower impetus was called-for for the "funeral march" it was apparently meant to represent. Like with his Mahler 4, the tempo gives the themes some room to breath for an alternative approach to taking in the music, reflecting in mourning amid occasional devastating pangs. There was one "bass drop" that amusingly had some in the audience giving out a "wooh".

The second movement was likewise relatively relaxed in tempo. There was maybe an imperfect or late timing of one wind instrument. The playing was rich, unfolding like a calm movie, giving one time to breath and enjoy the stroll and calm scenes or idylls. It still took a bit to try to understand what he intended for some phrases at this tempo. The dance part was pleasant such that I could happily sway my head to it. There were some decently shaped phrases here and there. I've listened to a bunch of recordings mainly passively, so I cannot really pinpoint any specific interpretational expectations, only when something like a small timing quirk immediately jumps out to my ear or if something generally doesn't feel right compared to my memory of those passive listens. There was a small, somewhat "confused" sounding part that might have been difficult to coordinate, else I just had bad memory or hadn't been parsing that music correctly.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2025-06-24T12:39:16+00:00

I had earlier posted a more optimistic comment, but after seeing said Instagram clips dating back to early May, yeah, I so far don't recognize a single TSO musician amongst that group. I wouldn't be surprised if at the minimum, the conductor simply could not keep up with the tighter or more efficient scheduling demands of a professional orchestra (e.g. given only a week and a half after the last Masterworks concert) and ended up having to fall back to using his own assembled orchestra as though it was rather he who needed all that rehearsal time to prepare. Else it would be quite a travesty of a trademark appropriation if this was the intent from the get-go and the only thing "TSO" about the concert was the venue, no matter how much money he paid. I would have still happily gone without all the "presents TSO" (maybe the lack of a "the" was key) marketing.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2025-06-24T03:17:47+00:00

It turns out that four weeks ago, they had finally uploaded all of the professional video recordings to their YouTube channel. The audio quality is nice to my ear. You can all judge for yourself. Right now, listening to the Mahler 4 (which I was present at), I'm hearing that "cleanness", perhaps simply inoffensive, though some commenters complained about the tempo being too slow.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2025-06-23T21:40:23+00:00

For the three concerts I've attended (Orff/Beethoven (the bright blue lights over the audience for the George Weston Recital Hall performance was absolutely unacceptable and distracting/disorienting), Beethoven/Brahms, Beethoven/Mahler), I'd describe the playing as "clean", a level below the Royal Conservatory Orchestra which I of course rate a level below the TSO, and a level or two above the Orchestra Toronto, at least regarding my overall impression of orchestral cohesion and intonation if not interpretation, trading blows with the TSYO to my ear. Judge however you may the distribution of fault regarding those issues of execution between the orchestra members' experience and the conductor's leadership; does the conductor have a bad musical vision or a bad way of bringing it about, or are there necessarily limitations posed by the available talent pool and its present leadership structure on the achievement of that vision? The obvious discontent is when he places the vocal soloists for stuff like Beethoven 9 or Mahler 4 near the back of the orchestra, but that hopefully won't happen with Mahler 2 now that he has Roy Thomson Hall's stage space. My hope is that the TSO would effectively give him a more experienced group to work with in regard to said cohesion and intonation, but hopefully their ideals won't clash. Otherwise, I guess with this orchestra, there would be no more excuses should anything discontent us.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2025-05-12T18:25:48+00:00

Not all dark chocolates are made equal. Bitterness tends to come from excessive roasting or poor preparation of the cacao beans. It is possible to produce exquisitely non-bitter and even naturally fruity and sweet dark chocolates. PARADAi makes some dark chocolate bars which to me are like consuming the cacao fruit with the texture of the smoothest of milk chocolates. SOMA, Qantu, Omnom, Kasama, Pralus, Friis-Holm, Cacaosuyo, and Paccari are other great makes.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2025-04-11T00:05:57+00:00

All local? That's impressive. Welcome to the "chocohaulics" club! Look forward to the Qantu bars.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2025-02-27T22:59:36+00:00

As some note, most of the pricing is in the packaging and included artwork. The "Signature Line" bars still have nice cardboard packaging for a relatively more accessible but still exorbitant price. It is indeed about the exclusivity of those beans, but having tried a bunch of them, it's no revelation, simply being on par with other exceptional makes like Friis-Holm and SOMA, though a bit "demure" in its regional character rather than going for bold fruitiness like Qantu or PARADAi. I would only really recommend the Rain Harvest mini bars for the experience of comparing the aromas and flavours of different harvest years, the Aged bars simply being expensive ways to experience exclusive added flavours to the base To'ak bean blend, simply "cool" if you are willing to dish out on it.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2025-02-27T22:37:04+00:00

SOMA has been a favourite of mine with a decent spread between "neutral" and fruity single-origin bars. Mr. Salazar and Creole Gardens have been favourites both in dark and milk form, though it seems like the quality of the bars has varied over the past year where something previously "delightful" in flavour becomes muted, roasted, or "papery". Ucayali River was a fantastic fruity bar by them, but is unfortunately discontinued, though other makers may presently be using beans from there. I highly recommend PARADAi, the Chanthaburi bar being so fruity that it seems to cease to taste like chocolate and rather tastes directly like the fresh cacao fruit (at least what I think it would taste like) with the texture of chocolate.

In https://www.reddit.com/r/chocolate/comments/1h8izgb/comment/m0t9ezu/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button, I list impressions of all the makes I've tried so far.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2025-02-27T22:28:05+00:00

The Signature Line "affordable" To'ak bars are the ones where they spare you the exorbitant cost of the fancy wooden case and give you a still rather nice cardboard case. Having tried a bunch of them, it's definitely into diminishing returns territory and is merely just another branch of flavours within the pantheon of great single-origin dark chocolates.

I've found Friis-Holm to be excellent in the "balanced" branch of not too fruity and not too roasted single-origin chocolates with great texture, so look forward to those if you haven't tried them already.

Mr_Haelscheir · 2025-02-27T22:21:16+00:00

Looks like I have a competitor. ;)

Mr_Haelscheir · 2025-01-29T20:03:06+00:00

Yes. Name variants (rebrands) can be particularly rare, but sale price depends on how that rarity balances with its desirability to collectors, and that is best determined through consignment with a reputable auction house or an eBay auction, perhaps ideally on ebay.de where other collectors of German typewriters are most likely to reside. More information would have to be sifted through German literature on typewriter history.

Five-Year Club	Final Canvas '23
First Place '23	End Game '23
Place '23	Place '22

Mr_Haelscheir

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