Selling Mobility Nobility 30Oct17

I have long used an iPod source and a special Predator USB DAC/AMP along with some Shure earbuds as my mobile HiFi system. With last year's gift of the Onyx DP-X1 I no longer use the Predator based system much. I will be selling it. The Predator is ready for use with any line out source OR as an excellent DAC & AMP for "any" USB audio bitstream. Here I show the complete kit and then the DAC/AMP connected to a 16GB iPod Touch for extremely mobile high fidelity and attached to a Macbook for external decoding and amplification.

The Ray Samuels Emmeline Predator DAC/AMP $475 (http://www.raysamuelsaudio.com/products/predator.html) is a dead quiet, great sounding, rechargeable battery driven, DAC/AMP combo in an extremely small package. The battery lasts "forever" and the amp can drive tough IEMs and even full size headphones very effectively. I connect the iPod Touch to the line in on the AMP using a custom designed pure silver ultra-short cable $100. I typically use IEMs like the Shure SE846s shown or full size AKG cans.

The entire system with earbuds fits in a small Eagle Creek case (7in x 3in x 2.5in) that I carry in my backpack/briefcase. The system is being sold with the iPod Touch and the interconnect. The stock charger for the Predator is included but is rarely used.

I can't say enough about this system and especially "The Predator;" it served me very well for many years on many planes and in many hotel rooms. It sounds great.

Ride & Rod 29Oct17

While I was a little pekid from food poisoning I think, Jim & I had hatched a plan to ride before the storm. We hit Red Rocks on a glorious but crowded Sun morning. I directed a wrong turn and halved the ride but I wasn't up to heading back up again. Still very cool. I then headed to Pueblo in the PM, again with the bike thinking I'd ride the rez trails if the fishing sucked. Well the fishing remains broken down there due to visibility. I caught a couple small rainbows and left early but wasn't up to the ride. At least I caught a fabulous 5th world series game.

Nipper Gear Review & AC Guide Sale 28Oct17

Sometimes the simplest things are real pleasers. Such is the case with fishing nippers - a tool used a hundred times a day or so. I have always used the $3 Pakistani steel nippers and I know I just need to buy three or more per season because they get dull or nicked and basically stop working. It's a very simple thing but can be pretty frustrating. I went on a search for better but found the branded versions of the simple steel nippers were just the same - almost independent of price. Earlier this year I found a $12 pair of ceramic nippers and have been using them for a month or so. They are sharp enough and may stay that way a bit longer if I don't chip them but the jaws are weird - one side is flat and the other is sharp and this just makes the cutting a bit off center and odd. I went online and compared the comments on high end nippers from Simms, Abel and more. Abel far and away beat the others in reviews but cost an exhorbitant $80-$160 depending on paint job. I never thought this was worth it. Enter birthday requests and I received some from my in-laws. Awesome! They are super sharp and cut stuff like it's butter. They feel cool and have a hidden pinpoint for freeing fly eyes but not pricking me. Long term is yet to be tested but they have replaceable jaws (by the factory) for a lifetime. Kind of like my rods - I can always get them repaired to new. It is surprising to me that this simple thing is so satisfying, but it is.

The annual Angler's Covey guide sale was today and I went down just after opening. It was interesting and heart wrenching to see that Jamie's (recently deceased young guide) wife auctioning all his fly typing stuff. Wow. It was a screaming deal, though I did not bid; proceeds are going to a suicide charity.

I did find stuff for me as I bought a half dozen fly boxes each 25% full of flies from a guide for just $25. Less work for me and the boxes themselves are worth that. I also found a replacement coat for mid-weight needs as my current one is an XL and doesn't fit - and is ripped up a bit. Sage is not a great coat maker but for a light softshell at 50% off, in green of course, I was too tempted.

MQA Experiments Continue 27Oct17

While I dropped Tidal after my 3 months HiFi User trial expired (rather than pay the $20 monthly service fee), and therefore lost easy access to MQA encoded streams, I have continued to experiment some. Today I did a comparison of Grouplove Big Mess tracks played in FLAC and played in MQA. I chose Grouplove not only 'cause they are very good but I could also buy the album MQA Studio encoded (there are not many available really).

I used two setups for the comparison experiment. The first "environment" employed the MacBook Pro with a Meridian Explorer 2 USB DAC attached and running VOX to play the tracks. Here are the screen shots and status LEDs on the E2. When playing "just" FLAC encoding, VOX indicates FLAC 984kbps stream with 16bit depth and the E2 shines a white LED; when playing MQA Studio encoding, VOX indicates FLAC 1660kbps stream with 24 bit depth and the E2 shines a blue LED (indicating MQA Studio decoding/unfolding at work in the DAC).

To configure VOX to correctly send the MQA stream to the DAC I ensured the Mac was outputting 44.1kHz/24bit in the Midi Utility and that VOX was set to sync sample rate to player as shown in these screen shots - before these settings I couldn't get the MQA blue LED to shine.

On my awesome DP-X1 DAP all I needed to do was copy the MQA encoded tracks onto the player and when they played the MQA-capable DAC in the player did the work automatically - no configuring needed. Note the decoding indicators on the tracks being played.

You're saying, "All well and good with the technical mumbo-jumbo but how did it sound?" I listened to both environments with my Sony MDR-EX1000 (single dynamic driver) earbuds. This experiment is subjective of course as it's only "measurement system" is my own non-calibrated hearing. Caveats stated, the MQA tracks seemed a bit more dynamic and full, especially through the mid-range, and less harsh in the high end than the pure FLAC versions. Though, the differences are very subtile IMO, at least on the material I used to do the comparison. Both encodings are very good - HiFi quality depends much more on the original recording production techniques than the interim handling.

BHSC & OWF - Rod & Ride 25Oct17

I decided to try the Ark in lower BHSC despite high flows. I fished Pinnacle Rock and precariously crossed the river @ 666cfs when I really shouldn't have (obviously). The weather started nice but wind whipped up hard about 1:30pm so I stopped for lunch and then bailed for Oil Well Flats. Fishing was just OK for the 10-14"ers around there. I caught 1/2 dozen on olive variegated Pat's rubberlegs, #20 rainbow warrior, #20 magnymphico and even my electric green tie of Barr's graphic caddis. I was caught on a submerged branch and as I recovered I saw a lot of green fall caddis so tied one on. I caught nothing on the red copper John. I suggest the flows in lower canyon are still too high for good fishing and wading comfort IMO, but dammit the weather will soon change and it'll be very tough fishing out there.

The OWF ride was great and it wasn't as windy over there as in the canyon. The last "road" (after the gate) up was shit full of rocks, pretty steep for me and took my breath away, but the descents there are very cool. There were big blood spots in two areas - sheesh - no blood from me today though - but I did just catch a bar end on a squeezer rock - whew. I used the Broadaxe hardtail 29er again and it was bumpy. I took Unconformity, Fire Valley, Anticline and Fracture "down" to the parking lot - woohoo. Fire Valley was pretty rocky; Anticline & Fracture were awesome despite some steps (up) I could not do. I should've stayed on Anticline the whole way to Fracture but goofed up. I kind of blew off biking this summer after working out for the France trip so mtn biking again was really fun.

Still Dirty But At Least I Landed 'Em 24Oct17

I hit the PT again on a gorgeous, windless day in SoCO. Flows are fine ~250 cfs but the construction and rez turnover makes the water opaque with viz probably 8" and lots of "stuff" floating by. At least today I caught 5 and landed a couple nicer fish like these 15" & 17" cutbows, but no really big ones. Yesterday I tied more #22 Black Candy Cane midges and #22 Cobalt Bead FODs and these brought in the fish today. I just fished the Nature Center in the AM as I have a PM appointment; clear fall BWO signs but no rises - I doubt they can see.

New iPhone Management Scheme 23Oct17

iTunes is super frustrating. I had both my Win & Mac versions scan my entire music drive and the resulting library makes it unmanageably slow. iTunes is relegated to backing iOS up now only. I needed a new management scheme for files like audio, ringtones, movies, playlists, images, etc. I do it all "manually" now but fast as heck and very simply. For <$20 I acquired Waltr... its a file converter and transfer app on Mac which allows me to simply jack my phone into USB and just do stuff. Below is the home screen. Awesome... they reverse engineered iTunes to put stuff in the right places on iOS and thus far every transfer has immediately been available and worked instantly. Waltr is highly recommended to de-iTunes yourself.

Still Mirky & Slow On The PT 16Oct17

I've been waiting pretty patiently for the flows to decline and water to clear up and while the Ark Pueblo Tailwater is now flowing below 300cfs, it is still stained as heck. I can't see the bottom or fish which makes wading tougher and fishing less productive. It was a nice day today down there with low wind and ~80° temps but fishing is far from "on" yet. I observed good bug signs with fall BWOs and caddis prevalent. I did read that for the next 5 weeks there will be construction near the damm which will mess things up a bit - bummer - excellent fall condition on the PT may be a no-show in 2017. I caught a half dozen rainbows of various sizes but lost the two nicer 17"ers, ugh; I had nothing "big." The rest were about like this (nice pic huh) both at Nature Center and Valco. Best flies were an electric blue wire caddis, rainbow warrior, FOD, and candy cane wire nymph - kind of spread it around. I can't yet use the best true mimics for the PT (though the FOD is good - the one I used today had a cobalt glass bead to sparkle through the mire however) due to minimal visibility.

A Cold Wind This Way Comes 14Oct17

Opening day @ ABasin yesterday - 1st in NAmerica again this year - woohoo, elevation. Yet, parking was whack, lines were tragically long for just the white ribbon of death so I didn't stop... too the 1st chairlift fall of the season was recorded on opening day!  Sheesh. A great sunny AM today prompted me to try the low 20cfs flows at Muddy Ck tailwater since Jurassic Pk was still >600cfs and I expected Williams Fk to be crowded. I caught a 14" unrecorded rainbow at the upper section but soon enough the weather changed from 45° and sunny to 35° and 30mph winds. Casting was impossible and it was cold. I moved back to Summit Co and caught the 1st spa in snow of the season. I noted a night raccoon visitor - tis the season.

Strange Day On The Middle Fork 12Oct17

I am pleased to have all my rods repaired and back in my hand. I was less pleased to be having to deal with an Internet outage in Summit Co which required me to head back out and help the CenturyLink tech to remediate. I went out the back way and fished the Middle Fk of the So Platte near Hartsel. It was very windy so I took a 4 weight to a normally 3 wt stream for me - flows are ~100cfs. I went dry-dropper with the electric red Amy's Ant up top - it did all the damage and hooked five good fish - a rainbow warrior sub-surface hooked another. The strangeness is that I lost 5 of the 6 fish that morning while landing, filming or bringing them in... whaaat? They were a smidge bigger than what I normally catch but that's no excuse. Anyway... here's a pic of the smaller brown. I also enjoyed a new brew for lunch near there - Rupture from Odell, they grind the hops for this one; tasty. I followed up with a stop at Outer Range and enjoyed In The Steep, saw their new cool sign, and bought some canned Blocks of Light. I used the latter and some fine music to deal with the outage. Which is now fixed BTW.

Browns On The Run 08Oct17

Yeah - sing it like McCartney. All the devices @ the Nest fell off the net so I needed to head to Summit into the teeth of a storm. Solace: going the back way to the Ark headwaters. Despite the ~600cfs flows still from new Twin Lks releases and recent rains, I set out for fall Arkansas River action. I intended to just try Pinnacle Rock and then head through Hartsel but flows and color had me heading upstream. I wet lines at Rincon and caught all browns like these, including a nice (for here, IMO) 16" Scottish variant who ran like a rainbow downstream and jumped a couple times. Effective flies included stones: BH prince & Pat's Rubberleg, rainbow warrior and a red head mojo (like zebra) midge. I hit the Chaffe Co line area for lunch and then a pass at the CG area - flies that worked on the 'bows were the Pat's Rubberleg, the rainbow warriro and the mercury RS2. Though, I didn't see much fall baetis action yet. Here I caught some smallish browns and some modest rainbows like these. Decent day but I am pining for the low flow, warm day, 50 fish days on the Ark.