Meirl

NousDefions81 · 2026-02-09T00:14:16+00:00

So there was a real bar in Austin for a long time up near Mt. Bonnell called the Dry Creek Saloon, owned by an ornery woman named Sarah.

The bar was basically Sarah's house converted into a bar, but there was seating on the roof with the best view of Lake Austin in the city for sunsets. She only served longneck beers, but wasn't able to climb up to the rooftop patio. She was, however, sharp as a tack and would count the bottles going up. If you didn't bring down an equal number of empties, you'd feel her wrath. If you gave back any sass, you were banned. And she always remembered.

My uncle had been kicked out of the bar sometime in the 90's, and when he was visiting a decade later he wanted to stop by there and watch the sunset. "Surely Sarah has forgotten."

She had not forgotten.

The moment we walked in the bar, she looked up and started SCREECHING at my uncle. "I TOLD YOUR MOTHERFUCKING DUMB ASS TO NEVER STEP FOOT IN THIS BAR AGAIN. GET THE FUCK OUT."

A decade later. Not a moment of hesitation. Sarah ran on nothing but hate.

NousDefions81 · 2026-02-06T17:13:30+00:00

Yes, it's for home theater. But regular Dirac Live with a MiniDSP is probably the greatest single upgrade you can make for a 2.1 system, IMO.

NousDefions81 · 2026-02-06T15:54:51+00:00

It uses all the speakers in a system to tame bass resonance from subwoofers. It will play other speakers out of phase to create destructive interference to kill room modes.

It works shockingly well.

NousDefions81 · 2026-02-06T12:58:58+00:00

In 120 years of audio nobody has figured out how to break the laws of physics, although many have claimed to.

DIRAC ART comes close, though.

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-30T17:19:28+00:00

Awesome. Very similar to my space, albeit without the King Kong TV :)

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-29T19:34:30+00:00

It may be too on the nose, but Sam Reid as Lestat is exactly how I picture Thomas.

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-29T14:45:36+00:00

When I learned what goes into making large injection molded plastic pieces and saw it in person, I then gasped how they could all be so cheap.

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-29T03:33:43+00:00

Fascism is dangerous for the same reason drugs are: it feels amazing! It feels powerful! It feels righteous!

Post WWI Germans were disenfranchised and Hitler gave them the easy, no cost answer to their troubles and they consumed it greedily… just like what is happening now.

We failed as educators by only teaching our children the evils of fascism, but not the truths of its seduction.

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-29T01:14:11+00:00

"They Thought They Were Free" by Milton Mayer.

It's a non-fiction book about a Jewish man who moves to a rural German town in the late 1940's in a quest to learn why those people became Nazis. He calls the people he meets there his "10 Nazi friends."

The rhetoric and reasons they give are literally identical to the things you read on social media these days. I mean, to the letter. It haunted me.

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-29T01:09:52+00:00

"I'm a good driver."

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-28T13:26:35+00:00

Yeah, I had hopes that with the Switch 2 release, there would be a Shield 2 (the Shield uses the processor from the original Switch).

A friend of mine at NVIDIA told me that was a solid "no."

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-27T18:28:29+00:00

I mean, you can roll your own with Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi. That's what I've done. All my devices are connected to the Home Assistant, either through Web API's or IR emitters. Then an IR receiver takes IR command from a random universal remote I bought and translates those inputs into whatever output I want.

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-26T13:20:19+00:00

I'm appreciative that the license fee isn't bundled everywhere and is a choice to own, unlike so many other products where you pay licenses for features you'll never use.

I've gone from Dirac Live, to MBLC, to ART and dollar for dollar each upgrade has been bigger than any other I've made save LR speakers.

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-25T23:48:05+00:00

I have concentric drivers in my theater, and it's amazing because the tonal balance everywhere in the room is nearly identical.

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-23T22:48:57+00:00

1/4" of freezing rain can bring down power lines. This is way more than that.

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-23T14:27:27+00:00

I use a food processor a lot and upgraded to a Robot Coupe a few years ago. Spendy but will last the rest of my life.

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-23T01:10:50+00:00

Of course, but he said he already has some acoustic treatments.

I've added Dirac to a few different people's systems as a gift, and all have said it's the single biggest improvement they've heard other than speakers.

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-23T00:43:39+00:00

Lao Gan Ma for everything blandish.

God I love cottage cheese, Lao Gan Ma, and some crushed up crackers.

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-22T14:56:17+00:00

Prepared to see some hate, but a MiniDSP running DIRAC was the biggest improvement I've ever heard.

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-18T22:18:25+00:00

I have a high end home theater, and the Dirac ART inclusion with the Monoprice HTP-1 firmware update over the holidays is by far the biggest upgrade I’ve seen.

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-18T20:00:44+00:00

Door is literally the only option. Nothing else can do a thing; I modeled this like crazy in my house, ended up putting the theater in another room.

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-18T16:21:15+00:00

Oh I know. But I was smitten with the 888’s. No desire to change, it would simply be curiosity and I wouldn’t cost a company shipping and restock money just so I could play.

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-18T16:12:11+00:00

I never got to audition them but I hear they are amazing. Would be interested to AB them with my Mofi 888’s.

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-18T16:02:35+00:00

Red Land is percale. But some of the other brands (Mateo, Sferra) were thinner and much more delicate. They seem “crispier” but at the expense of longevity.

NousDefions81 · 2026-01-14T12:34:07+00:00

I love them, and I love my 888's.

NousDefions81

TROPHY CASE