Halloween On The PT 31Oct16

Warm winds blew stiffly most of the day in Pueblo as I hit the PT again. Squirmy Wire ObiJaun was a great fly today but a number of my offers worked including the RS2, Metallic Blue All-Flash midge, Reimagined Black Ice and FBPT. I caught a dozen or more fish in the AM out of the Nature Center with 1 big ~19" guy, half a doz mediums and half a doz small. I left after lunch given the wind. Decent outing with 115cfs flows and still poor viz.

New MTB Trail Thru Waldo Burn 28Oct16

OMG it's still 72°! Kala and I explored the Waldo burn area above Blodgett Open Space yesterday. We found trails I did not know existed. There's a nice wide ridgeline above "the barn" (actually its an RF transparent antennae housing) off W Woodman which we accessed hiking from nearer our house. Steep but excellent. It runs right through a stark Waldo Fire burn area and then up a still running creek (rare in the fall) to a waterfall. My realization was that it might be bikeable. So, today I took the now trusty Broadaxe (the trail was serpentine and steep but not technical) and did ride it a couple miles up. I think this is mostly undiscovered but a guy did follow me when he saw me near the start of the trail - he'd never been there either. Definitely cool... it's narrow and steep (for me anyway @ 900ft over 1.5 miles) with tight switchbacks and side hills but it's smooth and rideable and made of crushed decaying granite. I didn't get as far as Kala and I had hiked (which would've been another ~.5mile) due to timing. While not long, the climb and view from up there are amazing... I can see north past Monument and south past Cheyenne. Who knew? Oh yeah - I also want to shout out to Point6 - a smartwool-like merino sock company from Steamboat - I wore them today. Kala and I discovered them at a Keystone festival and bought some socks - I bought more online as they are excellent - every bit as good as SmartWool but from CO baby!

FLAC v DSD v MQA v Lossy and Cloud Streaming For Desktop & Mobile Audio Reproduction 26Oct16

Mud season, the recent RMAF and approaching Halloween leads me to dive into some "audiophile" questions which have "haunted" me. Over the last 10 years I've bought plenty of music on CD/SACD/DVD and from Apple & Amazon. More recently I've just downloaded digital, but that was a bad choice (more later). Sure I stream from Google & Pandora but I most often want to choose exactly my playlist and while Spotify and others allow this, I don't want to pay the monthly and I am dubious of the lossy compressed stream I listen to in some of these situations.

My History Of Audio Sources

I bought 350 sheets of vinyl and organized alphabetically by artist between labeled cinder blocks on pine planks... I sold the lot we'd collected when CDs were released - so much more convenient. My system evolved to a huge CD changer with computer control and CDDB metadata - so much more convenient.

I ripped 1000s of CDs we owned to VBR mp3 with metadata and stored them on a home network attached Win server - so much more convenient. A media server cataloged the music and allowed computers, iDevices and other clients like my Slim Devices Squeezeboxes to stream wherever I needed - so much more convenient.

The industry accommodated and allowed me to directly buy mp3s from online stores and download directly into my music store; media servers and players added extensive metadata from "the Internet" - so much more convenient.

I returned to more critical listening via planar magnetic headphones, tube amps and better DACs and enlisted JRiver Media Center (streams any format bit perfect) and Plex (good for remote) to be my jukebox - so much more convenient.

While convenient, I became suspicious of my mp3 encodings and vendors' mp3 downloads and did a deep dive on lossy vs lossless audio formats, including experimentation.

HD Audio & Lossless vs Lossy Formats

HD Audio generally refers to playing DSD files (or high resolution and sample rate PCM or WAV files) or listening to SACDs, as opposed to playing MP3s/M4As or listening to CDs or FLAC files even, though the latter two are debatable. Super-Audio CDs didn't make the mainstream though I have a player and a dozen discs. They have both a CD layer and an SACD layer - the latter actually uses Direct Stream Digital. DSD is a simple encoding of 1 bit depth and very high sample rates (2.8224MHz) which Sony employed to digitize its masters "for all time;" it's commonly called DSD64 though now there are even higher sample rates (>11MHz) used. It was conceived in a time when the best DACs were not multi-bit.

CDs were also spawned from Sony/Phillips and employ 16 bit 44.1KHz PCM encoding. To compare, SACDs/DSD64 have roughly the resolution of 24 bit 96KHz PCM recordings. Even 24 bit 192KHz PCM recordings are available (including FLAC). FLAC is Free Lossless Audio Compression and is an excellent and popular compressed but lossless audio format. It is easy to rip a CD into 16 bit 44.1KHz FLAC songs and DSD64 songs. It's also obviously possible to rip a CD into a variety of quality levels of MP3/M4A, commonly ~92Kbps-384Kbps.

If one has master tapes that's one problem realm (which studios are struggling with separately) but I have a lot of low bit rate MP3s which are great for storage space but which I now can hear are much lower fidelity. What's lost is lost... lossy formats like all those offered from the main online vendors (save TIDAL), and as represented in the bulk of my music storage library can not be made back into original quality sources... they can be converted into larger files but not better sounding ones.

FLAC/DSD/MP3 Bakeoff Experiment
One cannot get access to the SACD layer easily to directly save DSD64 unfortunately and I did not buy better material than what a CD can muster for this experiment. I did make multiple versions of several songs from Wheatus, Dire Straits and The Killers including 128Kbps & 384Kbps MP3, FLAC and DSD64. I know I really won't be able to get "better than CD fidelity" from the DSD64 as it was ripped from a CD but I wanted to test anyway as DACs handle multi-bit PCM differently than one-bit DSD and I might perceive some differences.

So it was very close among the better formats - I could readily sense however the greater dynamic range versus the lower end MP3 in the others. Between the 384Kbps and the FLAC it was very close to my ear but I preferred the FLAC. The DSD64 felt a little rounder and nicer sounding to me than the more clinical FLAC - focusing on the cymbal crashes for that. Yet my tube amp made the audiophile "harshness" of a CD pretty darn sweet. Audiophiles will mention too the more analog-like nature of DSD vs FLAC but that could be marketing as I can't imagine there's not much difference to a human ear (but maybe a brain?) between these formats. Still, intellectually I know there is a difference as they are handled differently in the DAC.

I concluded I don't need DSD since there's little improvement (when ripping from a CD) and it takes 4X the storage space of FLAC. I concluded that I need to re-rip my CD library to FLAC. Fortunately JRiver is bit-perfect and can spin out any format to my DAC/AMP setups. I concluded that I need to stop buying from Amazon & Apple unless I get at least the CD too. I concluded that I need to do another comparison experiment with digital material of even higher fidelity and resolution. I'd include the 24 bit 192MHz PCMs in there along with real DSD128 and MQA (see below) and compare these against the CD-quality FLAC files. I concluded I should look at multi-bit DACs and compare to delta signal DACs, as all my stuff right now is delta signal based.

Master Quality Authenticated ~ MQA Format
A new encoding/decoding scheme called MQA may hold promise. I've seen the videos and read the reports but I personally haven't listened to the "natural sounding difference." I understand some of the technical aspects - primary among the claims are that current 16bit / 44.1KHz systems suffer "time smearing" and recent neuroscience suggests humans are more sensitive to time in sounds than even frequency of sound. Imagine a twig snapping in the woods - if recorded using most current techniques when digitization and filtering is applied it makes the snap "smear out over time" ~ have more pre- and post- sound than in reality/naturally. Higher sampling rates MUST be used to reduce these artifacts. Other inventions of the new MQA format include a file size just a bit larger than CDs (from unique folded encoding below the noise floor) rather than 6x their size in 24 bit / 192KHz PCM files - this makes streaming high resolution viable. Finally there is an "authentication" aspect that indicates to a consumer that the file is unadulterated MQA (a normal CD quality sound will play in its place). Meridian owns the tech and is licensing - there's quite a bit of industry support, but only 350 recordings thus far, and I hope it is as touted and sounds as good as claimed. I will add it to future high rez testing it possible. I doubt the format will take off if it remains completely closed - Meridian should release software which allows encoding to MQA from high rez source material. Here are some good background videos on MQA.

Hans Beekhuyzen on MQA
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_wxRGiBoJg
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5o6XHVK2HA

Master Quality Authenticated - Bob Stuart - Meridian
   MQA – First Time Reactions https://youtu.be/qsQ4KYELek0
   MQA Ringing & Filters https://youtu.be/drv9ESli5yI
   MQA Music Origami https://youtu.be/BrgjycGhoSM
   MQA – An Introduction https://youtu.be/3i69U69pqu0
   MQA – A Sound Engineering Perspective https://youtu.be/qLlpekBg1Fw

   MQA – Bob's Vision https://youtu.be/gzgyIcsN-a8

To The Cloud, Or Not
Amazon is offering unlimited storage for $60/year. I thought this perfect to attempt to stream my own high rez audio to anywhere I wanted and not be responsible for keeping hardware up and content backed up, etc. I did not get to the experiment because I read an excellent article on the state of implementing such a scheme and it's practicality. Despite it being two years old, the environment in which he tested mimics mine today and the similarity of our objectives/desires was solid. http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/574-cloud-storage-high-resolution-streaming-possible-practical-pricey/ His conclusion and I followed it is that it's not practical to operate a personal HD audio server in the cloud, so I'll have to use my own drives and I'll have to settle for lower resolution when listening remote from my own drives.

Indian Summer On The PT 24Oct16

Awesome weather for a day on the PT. Cooler nights and lower flows (110cfs) made fishing on the PT decent. Though, while I caught 25-30 rainbows today I only caught three bigger fish. I did catch a dozen or so 12-15' guys represented below by the latter pics as well as as many 6" fry, unrepresented by a photo. I did not see but a few red quill, super small BWOs and some midges during the day, and then a few caddis at the end of the day. I did some stomach pumps and found earth brown aquatic worms a couple times as well as some normal black midges and/or mayflies. So, I used a brown & red squirmy which was very productive (too productive on the smallest fish really) as were both black and grey RS2s and the silver surfer. I am almost out of flies so I couldn't imitate the red quill (FBPT required) or black stuff in poor viz (purple haze desired but I'm out). The clarity was still off but better out of Nature Center than Valco, where the lake turnover is obvious.

Opening Day! 21Oct16

I was able to hit opening day at ABasin with Steve Brown (friend & neighbor in Silverthorne). We rode the WROD, the white ribbon of death, a couple times and it was pretty sane the first time since we were among the first 100 to ascend. Second time it was more crowded - I can't imagine what the WE will be like. The party in the parking lot and in line was a hoot. I tested my Work Stinx boards remounted from tele to AT. Cool being only 4 short months from my closing season run at the Legend on 21Jun16.

I also decommissioned Mon Ami for the year after a final sail of the season. She's ready for shrink wrap and winter storage. The marina will get my motor and battery for me to store but they'll take down the standing rigging and wrap the mast and boom for winter.

Power Punk For Season's Change 20Oct16

"I just want the summer to end, what's the point of tryin' to pretend... She was too fast for me; I count my steps 'cause I'm OCD." (The White Album) from Weezer and "I want to hold you like a gun... We'll shoot the moon into the sun." Revolution Radio from Green Day. Both are tight returns to punk pop and very worthy. Almost enough said, but Cuomo is from the NE so I relate more even if it's about SoCal stuff... Billy Joe is from NorCal and dead-ass serious in a fine reprise of rage.

Cord Cuttin' Status 18Oct16

This has basically been read via personal emails already by those most interested, yet I wanted to blogify my cord cutting system and savings. I've "cut the cord" in multiple domiciles and now just buy bandwidth from CenturyLink, Comcast and AT&T Wireless (for mobile). I've also dumped all wired home phone services.

Don’t miss home phones and really don't miss the junk calls. We do cover 3 mobile users @ $180/mo for 20G/mo total plus 3 iPhone leases… damn it I now have to monitor LTE use.

Total Internet/broadband costs are $100 covering two sites... both exceed 40Mbps down and 5Mbps up ~ so, good big pipes. Current monthly content costs are <$66/mo total (all incurred over the top for streaming) covering both Summit and COS…

• $25 SlingTV for ~25 "live" channels including all ESPN/CNN & sports
• $8 NetFlix for movies & shows
• $10 Showtime for movies, Homeland, etc.
• $15 HBO for movies, Game of Thrones, etc.
• $8 Hulu Plus for missed episodes of broadcast TV (we rarely use this and it could be dropped for future savings)
• $0 Amazon for their content; it is zero as we’d use Prime for other reasons

Summit is much more expensive with Comcast at $75/mo and "traffic shaping" is more evident through them. I am working on measurements that could tell a lot about offer vs actual from vendors. I talked to CenturyLink about xDSL in Summit ~ only $35/mo for me so plenty of additional savings are possible.

Regarding video product/system evaluations thus far... my hardware is fully depreciated and/or very cheap (except for final stage display and sound transducers).

• Plex is awesome. I moved recently to Plex DVR as a beta tester and await a chance to try Plex in the Cloud. I have a multi-terabyte Win7-based server at home to stream Plex videos and music to anyhwere and anything. Plex DVR picks up HD terrestrial broadcasts from my net-connected HDHomeRun dual tuner (attached to a high gain bow-tie array) for video recording, and to my music store (I was using GooglePlay but hope to get the same "cloudification" from Amazon for unlimited storage for $60/yr).

• A MediaSonic digital OTA receiver is used for live broadcast viewing in COS and Sling with SlingPlayer casts those signals to any remote client as needed.

• Roku, Chromecast and iDevices all receive streams of any of the music, DVR recordings, packetized channel content or "slung" signals effectively
• Boxee/Kodi and PlayOn have been decommissioned - they were not reliable enough.

We've saved >$1,500/yr in cutting cords and dropping wired phone service ~ and we actually have more content now with HBO & Showtime funded with the savings.

The downside of purely packetized content via Rokus or iDevices is that flipping between "channels" not in the same content provider requires exiting one app, launching another, finding what you want and launch watching it... probably more time consuming to navigate than an integrated view of all channels and recordings. When casting to/thru a Chromecast, an iDevice with appropriate castable apps (all the ones I use) is required and used in the stream initiation process.

Back "Into" The PT 18Oct16

It was 38° as I pulled up to the Nature Center parking - I had to set out in a ThermoBall! There were no fires nearby, skies were clear and the lot was empty. Flows had increased to 187cfs from a week ago and the water was way off color with <12in viz to my eye. Undaunted I rigged Wire Squirmy, Silver Surfer and Jimi's Axe ~ and I pretty much stuck with this all day. The water color called for silver and I caught most fish today on the SS but squirmy nailed a couple as did my purple haze variant. It was far from an epic fall day with most landings of the smallish variety. One notable unphotoed fish was a "pure strain" Snake River cutthroat of ~14" like I've caught @ 11 Mile. He jumped out of hand before the pic but that's the first "pure" cut I've caught on the PT. Else in "disappointments" were 3 pretty decent fish I didn't land ~ one was even on the rim of my net. Oh well - they all looked about like this 18" rainbow I sense. The day was eventful to a fault anyway as I dipped my 6S after forgetting to put it back in the Crusher after lunch. Grrr... the black 7/128GB is on it's way ~ I decided against Google Pixel just on familiarity and infrastructure, despite my really preferring Google for the rest of my services.

Carniceria In Blue River Valley 15Oct16

Kala and I ate at the Carniceria La Perla on Blue River Pkwy today. Very good and very authentic Mex spot - speaking Spanish often needed. Great salsa bar. Who knew?!

Sauce on the Blue & Another Ghetto Fix 14Oct16

As theDay of the Dead looms near, and attendance at audiophile nirvana wanes, I chose to repair my venerable AKG K702 headphones. Sure Kala said she can hear them in the next room and would turn them down even as background speakers, much less as objective head-mounted cans. She said "don't buy the (~$1,700) closed ones." But I needed a better fit for these ~$250 pure flat headphones driven by my $200 Schitt stack. The elastic had limped on the K702s so I devised this very sophisticated fix... some rubber bands; sweet. We also hiked Rock Ck then dined during 50% off pizza and happy hour at Sauce on the Blue... this is a fine spot with excellent vibe, good food and great outdoor seating (though we hung near the bar)... worth enjoying; we will be back.

Remembering Zevon 11Oct16

October, and a dive on artist Amanda Shires (soon to appear at BellyUp) led me to reprise listening to one of my favorite songwriters, Warren Zevon. Thirteen years ago near Halloween Warren Zevon died of lung cancer... 14 years ago was his last spot on the Tonight Show (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3KK6CJfZ8c). This is a great watch with a man facing his eminent demise after waving a finger in life's face for his entire life. His stuff was complex and evocative ~ I still love it. I caught Amanda sing Mutineer, a special, and nautical, song from WZ ~ then, the musical history session & dive ensued... starting with Mutineer from that same final show. A Simple Quiet Life will lead you into some of Zevon's best including Werewolves of London, Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner, Mohammed's Radio, Excitable Boy, The Envoy and much more. I think my love of WZ stuff may show some esoteric tastes not always comprehended by my friends ~ nonetheless spectacular... I know every song, every album, not just the "hits."

PT Rainbows On Columbus Day 10Oct16

It's time to head back to the PT for fall fishing ~ it's my first time back for several months. Flows were 120cfs today but only 2' visibility with turnover in the reservoir. Fishing was very good and I caught a passel of rainbows, no browns. I caught a variety of sizes on the day with a number of 6" fry and 12-14" second years among the bigger guys. Morning started at the Nature Center and yielded a number of nice fish behind the weirs. I started early but could've gone even earlier ~ the trico mating balls were huge as I arrived. I did not fish the spinner fall as there didn't seem to be big fish rising ~ I nymphed all day. The best morning fly was Jimi's Axe (dark purple electric midge) though squirmy worm and rainbow warrior took some too. The morning story was really that I lost likely the biggest fish when, after a time on the line, he went under a rock in his weir and ultimately broke me off... and I had a second similar break off, though on a stump, in the afternoon. After lunch in the state park I headed upstream from Valco. Again fishing was good but fish were a bit smaller in the PM. It was not too crowded, even for a holiday. It was good to be back on the PT and catching big fish, despite the colored water, but the day got warmish and fishing slowed mid-day ~ 8:30-11:30 and 3:00-5:30 were best. Here are some of the nicer fish.