XC & BC Skiing With Kala 30Mar18-31Mar18

Wow, Kala decided we should head out for some Nordic skiing - so we did a couple days at the Nordic ski centers in Summit before they close up. We tried Gold Run first to rent skinny XC gear and get a day pass. We arrived mid-morning in great weather and the sun had already softened the snow for a decent outing. Kala did well though side-stepped a couple of downhills till more comfortable. For day 2 we rented her some Fischer 98 SBounds and Fisher OTX boots from Wilderness Sports. We went to Gold Run first again so she could do direct comparison on the terrain - and she skied all the downhills this time. The gear worked fine but the morning was super icy. I didn't realize but Kala found that the passes (only cost us seniors $5/day) were good at Breck, Gold Run and Frisco. So, we went to Frisco for another outing. It was warmer and lower and there was a lot of slush and some parts of the trails were dirt and required negotiating off track - no matter. Kala had not skied in many years and she did great. Of course we chased the day at Outer Range before heading back to catch the hoops games.

Deep & Fun 29Mar18

I stole out to Summit to catch the storm. Breck won the overnight snow lottery with 8" vs KS with 5" - went to Breck early. What a hoot; while the alpine wasn't open early I rode T-Bar when it did open at 9:30am, with great snow in Horseshoe Bowl. That line got long quickly so I headed to Kendo for its opening and came down all sides of it many times as the line was much shorter, and Imperial wasn't open today. They opened the back bowls of Pk 6 later in the AM and I was able to get untracked turns there. It's been rare this season so hitting steeper, deeper fresh snow was awesome. I should've taken the helmet-cam but totally skipped it and the face-guard. I did remember my mid-fat Origins. It was windy and I found sneaking into the areas of spindrift deposits I could keep it deep all day. I got tired. Woohoo.

Music Streamer/Processor Upgrade 27Mar18

We had a quad-core Core i7 Dell XPS13 with 4K and touch screen unused from our conversion to mainly Macs. And while my Win10 Surface Pro was decent for music playback through JRiver MC23, there were some drawbacks (WiFi only, old USB controller, etc.). So, I repurposed the Win10 XPS13 as my primary music streamer outputting USB to the Schiit stack, and retired the Surface Pro. Truth is that the market value of the XPS is painfully low - else I'd have sold it. The migration was pretty easy but I did need to get a license conversion from the Fidelizer guy (which he gave me free) as he ties his code to the machine ID. Fidelizer is key for me on Win10 as it turns off unneeded non-audio processes or runs them on a separate core and Win10 is notorious for turning stuff on again despite prior actions. I haven't had dropouts or other audio aberrations created by the PC since using Fidelizer; it runs on each startup to keep the PC "clean."  Sounds like blither, I know, but when you are optimizing audio processing, these things count.

Big Fish Day [On Otherwise Slow Day] 26Mar18

Continued cooler nights and higher flows (today was ~500 cfs but >2' of viz) made the PT section of the Arkansas River slow fishing today. I saw some, but not much, bug sign, mostly tiny midges; I still haven't seen any BWOs down here yet. I did see fish on the redds. Nonetheless, it was a big fish day for me as I landed a older 22" rainbow lady who took my Obi Juan Squirmy Worm. Video is done but I have to wait a week to upload it to Vimeo as I'm at my weekly limit. Here are the images though. Nice fish.

Big Fish Day Movie

More On MQA... Debunked 22Mar18

I've continued to study, through others' works, MQA as alternative "high quality" format and scheme for music production. Recent work here demonstrates MQA can actually be detrimental to fine audio reproduction in that it introduces significant filtering artifacts. The article also takes on what is likely the core reason for Meridian even birthing MQA - as a scheme to control, with potentially deleterious effects, music content and quality thereof. I'm out! I've got great quality from my current Schiit stack and FLAC files and nobody is controlling me. It's time to sell the Meridian Explorer 2 DAC and end the experiment... I don't use it anyway.

Great news - I sold my ME2 DAC on eBay for full asking price - woohoo.

Just Some Patience And Someone Who Ties An Awesome Midge 21Mar18

Back on the PT today despite a 22° departure. I did jack out of Nature Center in the AM. I almost left Pueblo but decided to relocate to Valco Ponds St Pk area for lunch and try again. I saw nothing in the AM; I saw no bug sign and the river was cold; my feet were cold; the flows were up to ~600cfs. Sheesh. I am glad I stayed however as I did well in the PM around 2pm. The river had warmed even upstream and I was quickly into a number of fish after lunch - I might've frustrated my "hole-mate" as I landed two and he moved on. It's still not "on" but I did land some 18"-19" bows and missed others. Weird I caught no males - the ladies are fat and full of eggs. The Awesome Midge did all the damage today. I saw no BWO signs yet here and very few, very tiny midges. Excited to be out. I have to figure out how to upload bigger movies but for now, here are some screen shots...

I uploaded a decent resolution version of the vest-cam movie of the outing to Vimeo; click the image below to open the link and use the password GR8F1sh to access it.

PT Fishing Movie

Sennheiser HD 650 & Vandamme Balanced Cable Set Massdrop Unveiling 20Mar18

Clean and flat with great range; they are super light and much easier to drive than my planar magnetics... my Massdrop Sennheiser HD 650 dynamic headphones, and the associated Vandamme (more typically a musical instrument cabling supplier) balanced cable set were delivered (early) today! I am auditing them now and will provide a full "unboxing experience." If anyone is concerned about Massdrop vs Sennheiser branded HD 650s - I can say don't be; there is no difference but color and markings. They are taking their rightful spot in COS as my reference dynamic headphones. I'm even able to properly correct equalization with the "standard" HD 650 correction curve - awesome. I call these a spectacular value at "only" $250 for the cans and balanced cable.

Ok, full truth time, and heartening truth at that. The HD 650s are keen (they are the best I've heard <$1K) but can't compete with my Ether C Flows. The speed and definition of my closed PMs can't be beat - I hear each instrument more clearly and cleanly, all the transients seem in tact whereas on the Sennheisers, relatively, I get a bit lost in the upper mids and highs - especially if I don't listen pretty loud. Still, no regrets on Massdrop or owning these - I call them even to the AKG 702s to my ear, when corrected and cranked to 11.

The one criticism I'd have is not about sound or build quality of either the cans or the cable set - but it is about the junction of the two. It appears that the connectors to the headphones on the cables do not seat completely flush to the earpieces. The stock cabling showed a cleaner mating. I can probably correct it with a scalpel or a Dremel tool but I also could goof it up and it does not affect stellar sonic performance... meh.

Worth It 19Mar18

I stayed in Summit for a 2nd storm to hit on Sun night. While Breck & KS only declared 4", and on occasions I dropped straight through the new stuff to ice, it was worth it. I did find plenty of 8" deep runs off Outback - I don't know whether it was spindrift or just greater microclimate snowfall but I hung out back there and lapped a ton of runs for another quick 20K of vert. Yeah, lot's of those are my turns - no lines to speak of and Keystone was not at all crowded. The snow was much lighter due to the cold - brrr 9° when I left for an early chair. And, while I left mid-day pretty pooped, there's all new snow coming again now! I still haven't hit 20 days of measured runs yet though in this thin snowfall year.

Coon Sign & A Pennsylvania Thing 18Mar18

Awaiting the next storm I was able to catch some of the NCAA National Wrestling Championship televised from Ohio. It was awesome. It must be a Pennsylvania kind of thing... I went to many college wrestling matches in "the pit" at Lehigh and we were good; a friend from COS & Lehigh was at the championships this year; and 8 of the 20 finalists are from PA. Penn State won the team title again when Bo Nikal here won by a pin in the 184# class to close out Ohio State. The Nittany Lions had 5 guys in the finals, 4 of whom became national champs.

Also while hanging out for a storm, I was in the hot tub. Leaning over the edge I caught sight of a raccoon attack. Feb-Mar is the mating time for raccoons and mama coons have attempted to get into the Nest in previous seasons. Here one lady effectively attacked the spa side panels and did get one open after in part destroying it. I was able to re-secure it without her in there. Sheesh.

Thin To Win Among Texas Onslaught 16Mar18

We only scored about 4" of heavy-ish snow Thu evening for the Fri AM pow' hunt. It was worth heading over to Keystone for the morning and early afternoon but I left after it was all skied off and sunshine was softening the base... just 'cause. There must've been 40% Texas plates in the RR parking lot - must be a spring break down there as there were more crowds on the hill than for a normal Friday - even with the 4" of new. I'm stayin' to hopefully grab some more on Sun-Mon but who knows.

True Wireless Field Trial @ Ute 14Mar18

I took a lap around Ute to test tire and suss mods to the SuperBike as well as the field trial the Sony true wireless earbuds. Bike worked great - I hadn't done any riding to speak of in 2018 and dang mtn biking is fun. I was really pleased too that the earbuds played very well and stayed in without fail through the entire ride - again a boon. I'm looking forward to more mtn bike rides this year but I think I need to adjust my new Smith MIPS helmet - I've got a gap.

So, I fixed the helmet gap and took another ride to continue the test. Up past the AFA on railroad grade on the cross bike. I am thinking of selling the Fuji Altimera as I don't do roads and can use the hardtail 29er in most similar instances. So, I took it out - jeez those things are light and react to every down-thrust. Kala had a party so I was scare and stopped for pizza & beer at OC and tasted this nice floral Stone IPA there called Scorpion Bowl. I am really impressed with the Sony WX1000 true wireless buds - they lasted for both rides and sounded gr8 - all good, including the battery case - shown here recharging the buds.

Blue-Eyed Soul & Fiber Fun 13Mar18

The new DAC/AMP stack has allowed me to venture into some delicate musical areas. Today's comment is about Lake Street Dive... four cool musicians from a Boston conservatory with a bluesy lead singer Rachel Price backed by great harmonizers and multi-instrumentalists. Multi-genres inhabit this band but mainly blue-eyed soul (like Dave Mason, but better). Click through some of their sweet stuff but if time is short at least hit the hot funky beats of Call Off Your Dogs... nothing sounds like this!

Good Kisser

What Am I Doin' Here

Call Off Your Dog

Stop Your Cryin'

Bohemian Rhapsody (Cover)

Others & Godawful Things

I exploited the Mac's dual purpose audio port to send some some high-rez bitstreams to the DAC via fiber cabling. It all worked great - the new multi-bit DAC is really fine. The pic doesn't show the red LED driving the fiber as my phone auto-eliminates that as red-eye and I couldn't turn it off - oh well. I regularly need new t-shirts to replace old & ratty ones. My latest batch is themed not on fishing or biking but on headphones, to celebrate the arrival and install of the big Schiit.