Cat Clyde & Eric Johnson Concert @ eTown Hall ~ A Rip With Wilks Before & An Awesome Show 29Mar26

The Mini-Rip... I headed to Boulder for a Cat Clyde concert today and went up early in the FlyBox to say hi to T&L and give Wilks a taste of Porsches in canyons. He has a motorcycle himself and buzzes the canyons in good weather, so he knew a good route for the time allotted, Left Hand Canyon to Pk2Pk Hwy. We had a blast ripping the tight canyon with confident corners at speed. Sure we hit traffic now and again; some would let us pass, others not. Still it was good seeing and rippin' with my old friend. No pics; I'm a dumbass, but I think Wilks liked the ride.

The Venue & Offer... After dropping Tom back home I was quickly off to find nosh and the show venue, eTown Hall. I grabbed a sammy at Snarfs, found street parking, and hit the queue by 5:45pm, my objective. I was 3rd in line for 6pm doors ~ I didn't expect that! Folks around me said for the GA-VIP tickets I had, even for the great shows, there's no rush at this venue. The hall was 'cute' and is actually a Town Hall for other Boulder events. It holds just 200 people in seats and pews on the sides (remnants from old church). Sound was OK but small ~ I was just slightly askew of center and hear the imbalance. I held 'Gold Circle' tix for +$20 and sat anywhere in the front 3 rows. Being just 3rd in line I sat in the 'center' of the first row along with Carl, #1 in line, and a huge live music fan. I was slightly to the side of the center filming camera position but the operator said he'd stay low the whole time (and did). I've seen eTown vids on YouTube and production is strong. There were many cameras but none in my way... this was a taped event to be streamed later and on YT. Simultaneously it was cast on radio on 100 US channels; eTown is recognized my NPR as a player. I wasn't allowed to take pictures or videos during the show so all I have is before and after.

The Format... I wasn't expecting the staged format with hosts Nick & Helen Forster introducing, interviewing, and collaborating with the artists throughout the show (can't call it a concert really as it is tightly produced by the locals for radio and YT vids). They also featured a local author Hillary Rosner, a prof from CU, an animal person concerned for what humans are doing to them, whom Nick interviewed between Eric's set and Cat's set. While a surprise to me, it was all actually pretty cool ~ we sat in on a clever radio studio music show. I didn't like that I was asked to clap wildly and hoot prior to everything starting (to be used a audience excitement fill), and I was a weak participant there. I don't even like when artists ask me to do shit like wave or clap or sing a line or dance. Don't look for me on YT vids as they just wanted my voice and hands, and you won't get much of that either.

The Performances... Here it shines even brighter. I came to hear Cat Clyde, a rural Canadian sourced spectacular folk & rockabilly singer-songwriter with clever lines and funky chops. But, I was completely pleased with the co-artist playing this night, the 13-album, silver-tounged, IL now LA-based, Grammy noms, obtuse leader of the Fruit Bats (he really is the Fruit Bats), former Shins member, and co-founder of the wonder-star band, Bonny Light Horseman, Eric Johnson. What a lineup! They did not disappoint. Eric opened, and was solo; his playing is strong as is his writing but his voice is other-wordly excellent. I was mesmerized sitting on his capo. I love the Fruit Bats and BLH and live from row 1, this was amazing. Then, full band in tow, full makeup on (kind of odd but I expected nothing really), mostly wailing great tunes from her latest excellent drop 'Mud Blood Bone,' Cat Clyde takes the stage and fill the room with completely engaging vocals and material. Contralto with funky breaks, eclectic vibe, and backcountry playing yet modern aware sentiments in the lyrics... she delivered with a full band. The lead guitar was present on his riffs and good, but the show was all Cat. Thank you both. I only scored Eric's setlist and he didn't sign as I didn't see him at the merch table. I didn't wait for Cat to show at merch and I own all the music already. Cat's setlist was well known by all and needn't have been written down I sense - very professional delivery with little banter. Yet, she was a hoot during interviews and the extra session on covering classic 'Bye Bye Love' where the house band and Cat & Eric all played. Really good show but I'm aware each artist basically only plays 30min on the night... that said, the artists that come to eTown Hall are excellent and nearly all in my wheelhouse. Look for these YT vids when they hit your streams.

The Friends... Worth noting are my wingmen at the show in row #1. The traveling hockey dad to my left had two sleeves of tats and came for Eric. I engaged and he works and spends much of his time and money supporting his kid's hockey dreams on travel teams. Yet he grabs ~20 live concerts/year. To my right was Carl, #1 in line (though just 5 min before me ~ local knowledge). He's a single Boulder guy building spook satellites with Ball Aerospace. He was a fount of info on music and especially concerts... our tastes were very similar and we'd been to many of the same shows but how could we not as he now scores 120 concerts a year!!

Fishin' The PT In A Chill ~ Good Quantity; Modest Bugsign @150cfs 27Mar26

I headed to the Ark tailwaters today despite the precip & cooler temps. It was 40° or so with 150cfs flows steady. I started at ~11am and caught 2-3 fish an hour at Nature Center before heading to Valco Ponds in the St Pk for the mid-afternoon pass. There wasn't much bug sign but for a small mayfly hatch in the PM; the spinner fall brought smaller fish to sip. On the NC section in the AM I caught fish on the oil can Perdigon and flashy midge emergers. In the PM, mercury midges and mayflies (especially Destiny's Child) drew attention. Solid 18'ers but no >20" fish today... mostly ladies. The bite was not 'on' this day but it was fun with fewer fisherman out due to the uncomfortable weather... that's all relative though; my hands were cold but it's often much colder in March in CO... the warm winter lures one in. I used the Rodfather True Five today and it laid the longline nymph rig out there 90ft easily.

Springtime Summit Stuff ~ IoT, Movies, Old Folks' Event, On The Blue: New Cutthroats, Pizza, & Spring Corn 23Mar26-26Mar26

Kala & I are up in Summit checking the Nest, attending events, and doing some sporting stuff. I first observed the lack of snow, weird year for sure. Then I added a temp sensor to the new boiler when it went over pressure and we didn't have hot water or heating on arrival. Zooz sensor was integrated with alerts on my SmartThings.

We saw Mercy on the NestMT, decent SciFi actually ~ cautionary tale regarding AI.

We went to a Longevity Project panel guided by the Summit Daily editor. It was packed but we got good seats and chatchkis and met some cool people and panelists. It's a good reminder that aging is Summit is really only for the healthy ~ there are precious few services here for the elderly.

I fished the Blue in town on Wed and caught a number of 14" cutthroats (must've been a stocking session) on the red/black PopTop emerger midge in low afternoon flows, but gorgeous weather. I used the Rodfather True Five today but sure didn't need it for landing. Where are all the big cutbows? It was kindof crowded and while I stopped at the "cop hole," it was occupied so I just left.

Closing the day was a nice stop 'out' at our fav pizza spot, Last Chance, and their taphouse spot, Cove & Craft, in Keystone.

Of course I closed the stop in the Rockies with a ski day at Keystone. So barren, so warm, likely so long for this year as closing day is Apr 5th.

Comparing Yamaha/YPAO, Denon/Audesy, Onkyo/AccuEQ, and Dirac/miniDSP Auto-EQ Schemes ~ Mostly Subjective 25Mar26

I've used all the schemes mentioned in the title for automatic equalization of 2.0, 2.1, 5.1, 5.1.2, and 7.1.2 audio systems. I am an audio engineer and speaker designer/builder as well as music aficionado Acute Audio. Sure, I have pure balanced kits delivering stereo vinyl signals directly to my ear via no-feedback single ended triode amplification... I even enjoy attempting perfection within these constraints. But they are 'old school' constraints and I am completely fine with adding digital signal processing into systems to adjust sound pressure levels to 'flat' or 'house curves,' and to adjust time delays and  impulse responses to approximate perfection in widely varying systems and environments, to that which sounds best.

I've measured the before & after of many of the systems I've designed and built for a variety of rooms or arenas but I'm just gonna cut to the chase here and be subjective in presentation. I'll focus on consumer audio gear and rank the best to the worst in terms of automatic audio equalization schemes:

1. Manually-adjusted equalization of multiple channels discretely is the best scheme to dial in any audio system, by far. You must know what you're measuring and how to interpret the results and how to adjust if warranted. If one has a calibrated measurement mic and SPL sweep capture (as with REW), use it and understand your system. miniDSP often delivers DSP capability for the least expense.. I've used the keen miniDSP 2x4HD for adjusting 4 channels (say mains and 2 subs) to perfection. Of course conversion from analog to digital to analog is lossy, but often worth it.
   
2. AI-driven EQ systems, like Sonible pug-ins for DAWs or those with Cadence processors (cars), might be more capable and may well be better... I've not used them yet.
3. Dirac Live is the best auto-EQ system by far. I have not used it for adjusting channels beyond 2.1 but I know miniDSP is about to drop a 16 channel version. I've used the miniDSP DDRC 22D (digital to digital) to correct 2 channels (main L/R) and it's amazing.
   
4. Yamaha YPAO has a long standing as a better auto-EQ system built into receivers. It not only can handle normal PEQ, and phase correction but goes further in using FIR filters and handling reflected sounds, and it can do as Dirac does, support mulit-point measurements for a wider "sweet spot."
   
5. Denon Audessy is a capable auto-EQ system. It measures all channels and adjusts for not only time delays and gain but also frequency responses from all speakers in the setup.
   
6. Onkyo AccuEQ is the worst I've used. Don't get me wrong, in all other aspects (decodes, clean power, adjustments, etc.) Onkyo, Integra, and Integra Research gear is very good. Yet, their auto-EQ sucks and I need to over-ride it to flat/default and add my own adjustments when encountering it. It may do timing/distances and some gain OK but it's mostly detrimental.

A Couple Of Fishing Days ~ 11 Mile Canyon & Red Leg And PT With Jim & Greg 18Mar26-19Mar26

11Mile... Whacky weather brought melt to 11 Mile Canyon snows and cooled the 70cfs water there on this day. Good cutbow spawn activity but little bug sign. I arrived late at 1:30pm but caught some nice cutbows on a beautiful day. Tossed the RF Diamond Blaze... perfect.

Red Leg... I caught up with Jim & Mary for a beer and lobster at Red Leg on the way home. Nice evening while Kala was out meeting the French club. We met a cool local couple Sean & Sara. They were fun; Sean's a Mustang guy and will get an invite for some rips and Sara is a vascular tech; they somewhat recently moved to COS.

Ark Tailwater... we'd prior hatched a plan to meet Greg for a pass on the PT after he did Yoti maintenance on the Tundra. Yoho signed up too and we all arrived late @ 11:45am to respect appointments. We all picked up some nice fat and strong cutbows despite the mid-day arrival. Decent mayfly and good midge bug sign. It was a hot day only Jim was wise enough to bring hot Perrier (fancy for a fishing day). Flows were up to 150cfs, so nicer for the fish. Clarity was good and targeting bigger fish was possible. Here are Jim's (Coors) and my fish (just some 18"s-20"s both males & females) and a selfie with Greg. All the bugs worked for me including Perdigon, money midge, MH RS2, & especially cobalt bead Destiny's Child. Pics are a bit weird as I forgot my Hero cam. I threw the RF Diamond Blaze 4wt again ~ solid.

We think the mild winter and pending small runoff will make for some epic fishing this season. And, it's starting well. What a blast.

Rockin' 4K/HDR OTA via ATSC 3 ~ Nah, Not Really In COS 14Mar26

4K/HDR Primer... It's be a minute since I updated myself, and you folks, on over-the-air and streaming video feed quality. But, my Blodgett Theater monitor is a 16yr old Panasonic plasma 1080p panel, so I am interested; we are up to speed with 4K/HDR on the Blodgett family room system and in Summit Co though. If you want 4K (UHD, Ultra HD, Ultra High Definition) and HDR (High Dynamic Range, HDR-10 or better) you most often need stream from Amazon or NetFlix (or Comcast) and pay a premium over your 1K HD (1080p) standard subscription. I do that which is about a $5/mo premium. Depending on screen size, if you sit far away from the screen (say >10ft for an 80" panel), you don't need 4K but you always will see a difference with higher dynamic range ~ higher panel brightness and blacker blacks are key to immersion in video content. These highest video resolutions and brightness ranges are basically where you wanna be for the latest content released recently... but you gotta realize that very little content is available in 4K/HDR-10... and if you mainly watch live sports expect 1K/SDR for quite a while ~ the cameras and transmission gear have been around awhile but retrofitting this infrastructure comprehensively is expensive. Where I am now is pursuit of pro-level video and audio, like you experience at great sporting and concert venues, but how? More on that later possibly.

ATSC 3... This is the new NextGen TV standard for broadcast; it's a digital broadcast specification eclipsing ATSC 1. It specifies 4K and HDR-10 for broadcast television signals in the US. Though while back-compatible now, recent legislation allows stations to shut down v1 if v3 is in the air. This will 'force' users to buy new gear (an ATSC 3 compatible tuner or TV) ultimately. Right now in CO, we have a number of stations broadcasting ATSC 3 in Denver but only NBC is delivering HDR. And, in Colo Spgs, only NBC is broadcasting the new signal, but then without HDR. 

All that said, ATSC 3 signals may also be encrypted to thwart piracy and protect content. Check carefully what you get OTA and whether it's free for you to use.

ATSC  3 Hardware... Plenty of televisions, even new stuff sold today, including the best LG & Samsung OLED panels, don't have ATSC 3 receivers in them. So if you want to receive the ATSC 3 signal on your unequipped panel, or on nearly every old panel,  you'll need to buy an ATSC 3 receiver as an external box. There are plenty of these available and they are relatively inexpensive. I happen to use HD HomeRun receivers from Silicon Dust as they 'publish' the receptions onto your local Ethernet network for use by custom-made DVRs like Plex. Their latest ATSC 3 receiver includes 4 tuners and is $200. Most folks won't find this choice, which doesn't have an HDMI 'out.' as useful. There are plenty of less expensive ATSC 3 tuners available that support HDMI.

New PEQs For Blodgett Lower Level Gear ~ EleFrugalKit Mods And Blodgett Theater Experiments 09Mar26-11Mar26

Motivation... I wanted to trial the minDSP 2x4HD in the Blodgett Theater. So, I removed it from the EleFrugalKit on the east wall and returned to the excellent (but PEQ-less) Schiit multibit DAC. I played the EleFrugalKit straight for a bit but wanted less & more.

EleFrugalKit East Wall PEQ... I listened and measured the raw 20Hz-20KHz sweep and observed it could be improved toward my desired house sound (house curve). But how with no DSP in the DAC? I returned to a prior scheme I'd used; I auto-created filters in REW and exported them to a text file. Then, in JRiver MC I invoked the 'DSP Studio' and manually added all the filters needed (JRiver MC doesn't have a 'load filters from text file' capability ~ requested the feature before). So, while I can't live measure the results in REW for this signal path, I did simulate it (lower fat red) and listen and it is much improved. These filters will not be applied when the source is switched to the Bluetooth (aptX HD) receiver but I use that much less than the JRiver MC streamer source.

Blodgett Theater Experiment With Front & Sub PEQ... I was still not satisfied with the low end clarity in the Blodgett Theater as auto-adjusted by AccuEQ from Integra controller. And that controller doesn't allow external setting of PEQ or FIR filters. And the overall sound could be flatter. So, I lashed in the miniDSP 2x4HD between the Integra controller and my amp; I also connected the sub to one of the remaining channels of the miniDSP, bypassing the Integra's sub output. This scheme will better integrate the sub with the mains but will not take advantage of Dolby's separate discrete LFE output. I began with bass & mid-bass integration of the mains to the subwoofer. I adjusted the subwoofer cutoffs and gain till satisfied. The end sub sweep is shown in red with the gold showing the mains.

Blodgett Theater 2.1 PEQ... With the subs and mains gain integrated as I liked, I moved on to building filters for the mains first, and then the sub separately. Below is the automatic PEQ (parametric equalization) filter development tasks themselves ~ I then loaded those filters/biquads (limited to 10 per channel) into my miniDSP on the L/R main channels and the sub channel. The before and after SPL sweeps on all 2.1 channels show substantial flattening/improvement.

Finally I re-swept the full 2.1 system and compared it against the original 2.1 SPL. Good improvement, dominated by flattening the response of the mains... I should probably still bring the subwoofer down some it seems.

Music Now & Possibilities... Of course I played some tunes and YT vids and re-adding DSP is worth it. I could improve it more if I had HDMI inputs directly and more filters per channel. Contemplation for another day... miniDSP has recently announced the Tide 16 which could be a further DSP boon and eliminate the Integra DHC-80.6 altogether.

Update 22Mar26 ~ Phase Fail Repair... I neglected to check subwoofer phasing with mains and the weird drops & peaks made me think I should. Sure enough the subwoofer servo controller was set to 180° and I needed 0° to be in-phase. Nicer.

Here's the final full sweep with all 5.1.2 speakers.