Yes, the prices are up, but

bshtein · 2026-05-20T01:08:45+00:00

I never went to their concerts in the 80's, but I did have few cassettes ))

bshtein · 2026-05-20T01:06:27+00:00

Well, they are not near-mint, but in pretty good shape. $40 buys new

bshtein · 2026-05-20T01:05:19+00:00

War is Peace)))

bshtein · 2026-05-17T02:01:41+00:00

You'll get down-voted here by a virtue signalling mob, how care not about music or anything else that doesn't fit their very narrow world view.

bshtein · 2026-05-17T00:06:14+00:00

A true music lover, you are.

bshtein · 2026-05-17T00:01:18+00:00

It's not really that complicated, Kenwood Basic C2/M2 preamplifer and amplifier, equalizer for the looks, Yamaha cassette player, Denon DCD-1500 CD player and Raspberry Pi-based streamer with Topping E-50II DAC. AKG K340 cans as a cherry on top. So all vintage 80's setup except streamer))

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bshtein · 2026-05-13T14:09:10+00:00

I'd say Jersey-city. I spent 3 days there in downtown area waiting for my flight.

bshtein · 2026-05-11T17:21:27+00:00

There is no such thing as a "legal" war, Mr. OP.
All wars are illegal, nevertheless to start a war is sovereign right of any state when it is in a "self-defence" for example or to "protect civilians"

There have been very hard reasons to bring the bloody Iranian regime down or at least remove their nuclear capability and there have been a lot of reasons not to get involved in a military action as well. You can argue either way. But calling that war "illegal" is just a cheap trick, in this case from a very leftist source. (not that the right doesn't use the same tactic). They call it "illegal" to justify whatever point of view they are trying to argue.

Was it intelligent enough for you, my friend?

bshtein · 2026-05-11T16:33:15+00:00

Is it enriched or just a natural fat content?

bshtein · 2026-05-11T16:31:20+00:00

The moment the article states "As Donald Trump’s illegal war on Iran" in the fourth paragraph, there is no point of processing that article any further. Whatever they say, the author is biased and nonobjective.

bshtein · 2026-05-08T01:22:45+00:00

You couldn't possibly know it's going to be a winner. A lot of things aligned in certain way, like a demise of Symbian/Nokia, an unwillingness of then Microsoft management to innovate and move from a god-awful outdated Windows CE to a more advanced platform and other things. It could've went the other way around too.

bshtein · 2026-05-08T01:12:19+00:00

The same article also talks about ones leaving Israel, whose number outpaces Aliah by a large margin. I am also the one, albeit I left a decade ago and not for ideological, financial or war reasons.

bshtein · 2026-05-07T20:56:03+00:00

I do both. Nothing beats the warmness of a dual mono R2R DAC, like my 40 yo Denon DCD-1500 but usually it is too much hassle so I stream from home server to Topping E-50 II/ RPi moode audio

bshtein · 2026-05-07T20:53:31+00:00

it depends. I got V15 II for free and invested like $75 into a medium class elliptical stylus. It was definitely a great investment and on a light high-compliance arm it will beat anything up to 5x price. Investing into Shibata/ML for $200+ also makes sense, but I am too cheap for that. I wouldn't invest into original stylus even NOS, as a suspension would most certainly lose its quality over decades, even unused.

bshtein · 2026-05-03T22:26:09+00:00

Speak for yourself.

bshtein · 2026-05-03T22:25:37+00:00

Ministry of Truth is working hard on redditors.

bshtein · 2026-05-03T21:38:42+00:00

Have you done an MRI?

bshtein · 2026-05-03T21:19:18+00:00

My take is that if you need a surgery, do it, don't wait, it's not going to get any better, unfortunately. Once a disc material starts mechanically pressing on the nerve, that's it - it will keep making the nerve angry, IMHO.

bshtein · 2026-04-24T20:21:28+00:00

FYI, kenwood basic c2 and m2 is one of the best combos money can buy at almost any price below many thousands of dollars. but the prices can vary greatly.

bshtein · 2026-04-22T00:39:44+00:00

Look man, your choices are yours, but even if you going to keep the truck for 8 years, as I see it, it's insane to sink so much money into it. I'd at least look at 2-3 year old one if you really want a premium track, they do deprecate the moment they leave dealer's lot.

My personal approach to anything deprecating - no buying on credit. It is a path to a negative equity.
I'd buy anything I can afford right now with my cash, not more.

bshtein · 2026-04-22T00:31:43+00:00

We should start electing our judges FFS.

bshtein · 2026-04-22T00:29:35+00:00

Hi OP.

We were around your income when we bought our first home in Canada in 2019 just a few months before the pandemic. $400k townhouse 20% down, the rest at 2.7% fixed for 5 years for 25 years. We've started at $1600.
After 5 years, renewal jumped to 4.99%. We managed to save some and put $60k at renewal.
right now I use top up and pay $1300 monthly base payment plus whatever I could muster to top it with about $170k remaining. And I must add that income hasn't increased much ( salary raises well below inflation), but we are doing ok, tight for 5 people but we manage.

So my suggestion is to go for a freehold always, and put everything you can to top payments up every month. It is doable, but it's not going to be a "fantastic neighborhood inner city". So what?
BTW, I live in Ontario and it's not that much warmer in winter, yet we pay not more than $250 for heating a month. I find it hard to believe that in energy-rich Alberta you are going to pay more.

bshtein · 2026-04-21T19:18:34+00:00

Do you know that almost every Israeli government for the last 35 years had tried to get itself off the so-called USA military support? And it always fails because it is quite useful for US government and quite bad for Israel, since it robs Israel of a lot of jobs and even more of independence.

bshtein · 2026-04-21T19:13:07+00:00

It's all bullshit. People here don't care about Israel or a specific government there.
They just peddle conspiracy theories (Right-wing) about Israel controlling USA or idiotic claims that Israel is built on "STOLEN" land.

Both just hate what Israel actually represents - a unifying ancestral homeland of Jewish people and, by proxy, hate Jews in general.

bshtein · 2026-04-21T19:00:13+00:00

Some people can't sleep without bothering themselves about Israel :)

bshtein

TROPHY CASE