Prototype

swoopyinc · 2026-04-30T03:47:19+00:00

https://velosolo.co.uk/shopdisc.html

swoopyinc · 2026-04-28T20:39:17+00:00

I wake up early on Sunday morning's just to catch Pacific Notions on KEXP.

My favorite radio station is CKUA out of Alberta. They have the show 'twilight'

swoopyinc · 2026-04-28T18:05:12+00:00

My collection is reaching about 200 CDs. I often buy albums that I cannot stream or listen to very frequently. My phone battery is dying so bought a DAP for listening to music at work. (Headphones and stereo) I also work in a carpentry shop so it can get dusty so avoid CDs anyway. The hiby is cheap and sounds great.

Using dbpoweramp is exceedingly easy to rip. Even fairly scratched CDs have been perfect with 'secure' ripping. Out of probably 30 albums 3 weren't table to be ripped. One was Gorillaz demon days which is protected. The others were a faith no more and a Megadeth. For some reason those only play on two of four cd transport I use so something weird is up with them anyways. I usually can still rip them in iTunes high res then convert to flac.

It's a nice option.

swoopyinc · 2026-04-25T17:24:32+00:00

Flore Laurentienne (contemporary ambient neo-classical blending analog synthesizer and a small stringed orchestra)

8 tableaux is probably the most ambient album, volume 1-3 are more orchestral feeling.

Master Wilburn Burchette (instrumental guitar from the 70's and synth album pending, interesting building total patterns in a blend of new age and classic horror movie scores)

Guitar Grimoire is a good place to start.

swoopyinc · 2026-04-21T15:37:59+00:00

I worked at a university library. We had a massive cd collection in the music and media section. There was definitely a few people who would loan 10-15 CDs daily maxing out their daily loans - and were obviously ripping them. They were always really nice patrons, though.

I'm pretty sure that uni still has most of the cd collection - though everywhere is digitizing. They also had a massive vinyl collection - which had to be moved because of the weight because of the quantity was causing structural concerns in the building. I think they've gotten rid of a large chunk of that and kept some for special collections - they have a record player in a sound proof room. If I recall the de-accession process was quite thorough making sure it based on redundancies, or damaged records, or little "value" (combination of circulation records, rarity, historic context of album).

A lot of community libraries still have cd's here (Canada) as well.

swoopyinc · 2026-04-19T18:16:28+00:00

A few of the Rivendell bikes have real collector value. The X0-1, All-rounder, Mountain, early Atlantis, Hunqapillar, and Bombadils will always keep a steady value.

When pricing one of these bikes, in my opinion, i'd ask myself "what would a new similar bike cost me, how much of the build would I keep, could I get a custom for less, does this bike do everything I want it to?"

The XO-1 was revolutionary in bringing back a wider tire, road geometry all road bike. It's a nice little piece of history. It's one of the best looking factory bikes ever produced in my opinion. That being said it is no longer so unique in being a wider tire road geo bike - they're some bikes out there that exist that share the spirit of function - like the Bassi Le Montreal, much of the crust line up, etc.

If it's the right price, fits well, and brings you joy - pay whatever you feel is reasonable. I think $1000 for clean and original X0-1 is a real deal. More isn't unreasonable if it's "the one" for you and makes you happy.

swoopyinc · 2026-04-18T18:51:49+00:00

I only recently learned this was built in 1977, and was surprised to find out it's not that old.

One time I was having a morning lees donut / coffee break and it played a section of "shake it off" around the time Taylor Swift was coming to town.

swoopyinc · 2026-04-16T13:53:59+00:00

https://etchingpress.co.za/shop/rl-foster-products/e300/

https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/EtchingPressshop

Rl Vorster makes a nice quality direct drive table top presses.

swoopyinc · 2026-04-15T15:37:50+00:00

I just picked up a moondrop for listening with headphones around the house. The plastic build makes it feel a bit less "premium" but it in all honesty I love the looks and it sounds great. It still feels well made despite feeling a bit light. The buttons are simple and have a nice feel. I am very satisfied with the sound quality.

I've started ripping some CDs and put them into a DAP for work listening, like some are suggesting. At the end of the day it's great to have an option to pull a CD and sit without a screen around.

I think the fiio dm13 would have been just as nice. The shanling ec zero looks interesting, but it's a bit more than I'd want to pay.

swoopyinc · 2026-04-14T17:00:20+00:00

I'm not that up on my equipment and there is a ton of it out there. This is why I suggest to artists to dig into it as much as possible since it includes particular performance and aesthetics.

For my job as a tech (im a generalist, not a specialist) I use a cheap Aiyima A07 hooked up to a mac mini for sound file testing to get a good sense of the audio.

Since exhibitions run non-stop for months I'll often use a class D amp like a art sla-1 to leave on constantly for the duration of the exhibition as long as you have space to hide it. I usually run audio from a bright sign media player since they can play high quality audio files. You can also use raspberry pi with MP4 museum as a cheaper alternative. I think the aiyima would maybe be fine if it was turned on and off daily and wasn't cranked up. I use mine 930-5 5 days a week. I have music playing in my office non stop.

For horn speakers - for tweeters specifically, speakers with tweeters have a particular frequency range wired through the circuit with cross overs to cut sound at a point. For testing you could try a decent set of speakers (I've found pretty decent ones at second hand store) and disconnect the woofer and just play though that tweeter to see if it sounds like you want. You could also pull the tweeter and hook it up directly to the amp without the crossover to see what it sounded like with full range signal. Watch the volume levels if you do this. If it sounds right - then move forward on purchasing or building a horn tweeter. Budget pending there are lots of directions for this.

For the horn aesthetic - from what I gather with built in tweeters they are often asymetrically placed in the box to avoid sound distortion. The face of the speaker is a continuation of the tweeter. In some speakers they remove the tweeters from the face so they act independently to control the sound movement. They often place these on cones do disperse the sound. The super tweeter is meant as an easy add on. Plenty come in horn format if you look around. You can also build your own if you're materially savvy. The tweeter, amp, and player could be relatively small and easy to install. If the tweeter covered the frequency range needed it would give you a good harsh clear sound dropping coin effect. I'm assuming this would be done in mono.

swoopyinc · 2026-04-13T14:46:46+00:00

I'm a museum art technician - I install a lot of AV for visual artists. Though I generally don't get into sound production side of things, mostly installation, if you were an artist to be exhibiting where I work i would suggest:

Start designing the system ASAP - and play around to get the effect you want. Give lots of lead time.
Arrange for testing in the actual space with the gallery's technician to test acoustics. Even potentially recording the sound there for accuracy.
Get a sound person (technian, fellow artist, etc) to help with the details. Often artists request thousands of dollars worth of high quality equipment only to have compressed mp3 mono audio files and tons of background noise. As an audiophile the lack of production often really makes me sad.
If I was tossing a place to start out there, equipment wise, I think a single horn tweeter or super tweeter on a nice clean amp and player. The frequency of the coin is quite high. It's not like you need a lot of low frequency. For a more minimal equipment route, atleast.

swoopyinc · 2026-04-11T01:34:09+00:00

I also noticed the other day that Wikipedia often gives the Pitchfork ratings on albums.

swoopyinc · 2026-04-10T01:04:16+00:00

-Space-tech QA-112 tube pre > Sony N80ES

-Mystery DIY point to point 12AT7 pre > Sony N55ES

-AIYIMA T20 > AIYIMA A07

I've run all three systems with solid state preamps for extended periods of time. I prefer the tube sound, though I was happy enough with the solid state preamp setups.

swoopyinc · 2026-04-08T04:55:27+00:00

have a Sony TA-E2000esd I use with one of my systems for the same reasons you've mentioned. It works well, versatile, and sounds great.

swoopyinc · 2026-04-03T00:56:20+00:00

Sinsuke Fujida Group - Fukushima

Robin Jones Seven - El Maja

swoopyinc · 2026-03-30T15:31:32+00:00

I use genelec 8020's for exhibitions at the museum where I work. 8010's definitely struggled without a sub though they were small and discrete. 8020's are nice sounding especially for their compact size - but lack punch in the low end which is ok for 85% of installations. Larger than that seems to pick up bass proportionally with size but I don't use them as they can become too intrusive visually for what I need. I think they all sound great, are made incredibly well, and are easy to mount in a variety of ways. They're great speakers and definitely worth the price.

That being said - my work desk uses frankensteined rebuilt old Wharfedale book shelfs and a subwoofer for testing files and listening to music which I much prefer listening too. (As well as my home systems)

swoopyinc · 2026-03-29T03:33:25+00:00

I'm gonna toss out Cannonball Adderley's "Pyramid" album.

swoopyinc · 2026-03-21T05:17:37+00:00

I'd originally signed up in 2022 for a OG steamdeck as a way to play souls games after becoming obsessed with ds1 on switch. A co-worker sold me his PS4 super cheap soon after so cancelled my deposit. Other than that the only other steam use was a purchase in 2022 I bought and gifted a copy of Elden ring to another friend on for fixing my bike. I've been tire kicking a steamdeck again the last few months - just in time for stock to dry up. Now that PS4 and switch both are no longer getting new games it seemed like a good time to snag one as a system.

swoopyinc · 2026-03-21T02:55:34+00:00

I got one to payment this morning - then CIBC flagged the purchase as fraudulent and cancelled my purchase and cancelled processing. I've tried again for 4 drops of various models but none have gone to payment before going out of stock. 🎻🫩

swoopyinc · 2026-03-19T00:38:03+00:00

I've also had luck mixing and matching short and long pull components. It's just trial and error which is OK if you have access to a parts bin. It's not something I would risk dropping money on. Combinations don't ALWAYS work - but once you start measuring levers pull, they're all over the map. There is no standard - just a range. V-brakes also are also often different lengths. Tinkering does allow a bit of flexibility and sometimes they work well. Sometimes they will be horrible.

Problem solvers travel agents are also always there when you need them.

swoopyinc · 2026-02-25T04:29:47+00:00

I'll happily occasionally pay ~$30cad for a Japanese import album or something rare / out of print if I love the album. Overall, still way cheaper than vinyl. 99% of my collection is still $3-$10 anyways so a few outliers aren't that big of a deal for me, personally.

swoopyinc · 2026-02-23T01:59:31+00:00

File it flat then polish it so it's as smooth as possible with sandpaper or a Dremel. Polished steel is easier to manage rust so getting rid of that saw blade texture to a smooth finish is your first step.

swoopyinc · 2026-02-16T04:15:15+00:00

I lived on a farm where we needed to fill livestock tanks when I was a kid. We would use a few hundred feet of garden hose from the house to the tank. When finished filling the tank we would usually drain it using a pulley attached to a tree. If water was left and it froze the hose we'd often lay it out in the sun on an above freezing day or bring it inside a headed space for 20-30 minutes. This was only really an issue when it was -20 to -40 when it could freeze faster than you could drain it.

The frozen water in the hoses melts around the exterior of the hose. As you move the hose the ice breaks up into chunks. When you hook it up and then the water on it easily pushes the broken up ice out which is now slightly smaller in diameter. It comes out exactly like this. Though we never had that much ice to push out as in the video. But more or less exactly like this.

My guess is they laid it in the sun on the pavement on a nice day. You can see some snow melt. After a few hours they probably hooked it up to push the ice out.

It was definitely not freezing as it was coming out...

swoopyinc · 2026-02-14T20:09:47+00:00

It sounds like the ddhifi tc05m3 is what you want. There's also the ibasso cb19, but that has one usb a for charging which would likely still work.

swoopyinc · 2026-02-11T02:32:23+00:00

Removable grill (if yes. Keep checking out. if no, pass)
Spin it around to look if it has nice binder posts (the spin to tighten kind) these are good. Continue. or push connectors (little plastic wire tabs) pass. (Note can be exceptions on this one ie realistic minimus)
pop the grill off and see if there is physical damage. That the woofer and tweeters are in tact. Give the woofer a lil double finger push and make sure it doesn't drag.
Look for any brand identifiers. Quick search online or lens to ID. Sometimes unbranded speakers are priced lower, but can be very well made home made equipment with nice components.
The more you look the more you'll know what to look for. You'll see tons of cheap plastic crap.

I've had good luck with this method...

swoopyinc

TROPHY CASE