Birthday Week In COS & Mtns ~ Nosh & Wine, Indian Food, ORB & Ski Events With Friends 20Nov25-24Nov25

Nov 20th ~ Scott & Peg and we went to Cowboy Star for a keen happy hour outing. We wrapped the evening with some killer bottles from Edgar: a Grand Reserve Tempranillo and Gracias, a super tasty blend of Graciano & Carignon. Graciano is a rare grape from Rioja, Spain.

Nov 21st ~ Kala and I just hung out and tasted some excellent Indian food from Zaika. Plenty of leftovers as I always order big.

Nov 22nd ~ I headed to Summit to gather some friends for a F1 watch party and a tasty dinner at Sauce on the Blue. We had a great table and entrees and then headed to the Nest Theater for the Las Vegas Gran Prix. Max won but Lando came back for 2nd ~ except he was disqualified for running his pan .1 mm shy... sheesh.

Nov 23rd ~ Bro Brown got us out early to queue in the Peru lift line for 30 min before opening. Good move actually 'cause the day became crowded at the Key given that the kids are off school; it was a weekend; and, there's limited terrain open thus far. It was Jim's first experience skiing in November and it was my first weekend in a while! We headed home pretty early but got plenty of runs on all the mtn offers right now. We hit the spa and I offered the tasty leftover Indian food. We then gathered again for a fun afternoon/evening at a private event held at ORB for Can Club members (that's us!) ~ 5 x 10oz pours of popular stuff and discussions with staff. The event included service and a tour from head brewer Luke ~ he was good and answered our many Qs. We had a blast and solved many world issues and tap-handle queries. Thanks for DD Bro Brown.

Nov 24th ~ Jim & I met up with Dave for runs again down Keystone's white ribbons. Always a good rip with my mtn climbing buddy. Great days with great friends.

November 2025 Music Appreciation ~ Emo Prog Rock & Timeless Americana 20Nov25

Well I need to deliver this before I get old. This month's installment of MA is not very focussed in time or genre; it's more a list of notable performances from bands or collaborations I follow. I've seen everybody on the list live and can attest to their human-ness. First up are some recent drops from Sweet Pill. They're a Philly band of very skilled musicians delivering a keen set of emo prog rock material. They dropped their most recent EP 'Unraveled' on Sep 1st and the first link is like that. Offered below are two excellent sets though... one acoustic (atypical) and one a long form classic rock set with banter to explore the band.

• Sweet Pill @ Underground Arts in Philadelphia 'Unraveled' - 01Aug25 
• Sweet Pill @ Union Transfer in Philadelphia Various 10May24 - 19Sep25

Next up are a bunch of old and new Americana songs or sets from some favorite artists: I'm With Her, Humbird, Big Richard, Pixie & The Partygrass Boys, Mipso, and Nickel Creek...

• I'm With Her Ft Jason Isbel @ Ryman Auditorium in Nashville 'King of Oklahoma' - 17Nov25... Cool collab from a some fav artists on the road.

• Humbird @ Salon Sonics in Minneapolis 'Pink Moon For John Prine' - 17May22... There's just something stellar about this Minneapolis's singer's/songwriter's sound and vibe that get's me almost every time.

• Big Richard @ Kennedy Center Millennium Stage in Washington DC - 24Jul25... The Colorado supergroup has been featured prior yet they continue to amaze me. Virtuosos all around with mad technical and vocal skills play a keen venue in garb of the founding fathers

• Disco Chickens (Pixie & The Partygrass Boys alt lineup) @ The Commonwealth Room for KRCL in Salt Lake City Various (mostly covers) - 15Nov25... Typically right on key when they ski & party; always very good. Rock me again.

• Mipso @ The Current in Minneapolis 'Singing Song' - 16Oct25... All the songs here are excellent but I'm highlighting 'Singing Song' as it's likely their last written together. Mipso is a favorite for sure yet unfortunately they are disbanding after this final tour. Catch them while you can... farewell friends.

• Nickel Creek @ The Current in Minneapolis Various (from Celebrants) - 09Sep23... The spectacular Thile & Watkins band in somewhat more recent times played the Radio Heartland for their Celebrants album. So good.

Building The DCBR Center Channel For The Nest Great Room Audio ~ Another Acoustical Physics Demo That Sounds Great Too 03Nov25-14Nov25

The TABAD (Tang Band Dual) ~ A DCBR For Tang Band W4-1337SDF Driver... With the success of the Peregrine TABAQs as mains in the Nest GR8 room, and enough 12mm Baltic birch left over from their build, I decided to design a somewhat unique cabinet for the center channel in that room. I alluded to a dual chamber bass reflex (DCBR) during the choice to build QWTLs using the Tang Band W4-1337SDF drivers. I have now done one, using another 1337SDF driver, for the center channel, alongside the QWTLs. Yeah, that's Molly Tuttle and her band covering Thriller in costume for Halloween. The TABAQs are raised 10" onto the fireplace hearth, getting the drivers nicely to ear level at listening position.

The TABAD design... is not like those I've seen before for a DCBR, I am using 2 major chambers inside the box; they are about 2/3 and 1/3 the volume of the entire cabinet and coupled by a port; that's all largely known. I am also using rectangular slot ports to the front, tuned for bass from the back throw of the driver; slot ports are somewhat unique in a DCBR. Tuning performance is not a lot different than a normal single port - single chamber bass reflex, but it is less stressful on the driver and should deliver a smoother bass response. My driver does not have a lot of xMax throw. I won't get the low end from my 1337s as with my transmission line designs, but I don't need that from the center channel. Too, I know the slot ports are less efficient than more normal round ports but again I'm sacrificing that (knowing I have an efficient driver and usually don't play loudly in this room), for hopefully tighter bass above 60Hz. Modeling came out fine: the combined (red) response from the driver (blue) and the cabinet/ports (gold) delivers solid bass at 65Hz and is pretty smooth to 1KHz. I was a bit concerned for air speed in the ports given they are less efficient and will have more friction (23cm rectangular circumference vs 8cm round circumference), but it's fine.

Building The TABAD... Cutting the parts from the leftover sheet of birch plywood was easy; given all the straight cuts it was all done on the table saw in <1hr. That is except for the 101mm hole in the 110mm wide baffle and the drill saw holes in the chamber section pieces. I epoxied in the internal port and then dry fit the pieces to assure dimensions. I put the back, sides and chamber reinforcements together on the bottom during the 1st clamping. Then I added the front/baffle and the port boards; I used a .5cm "measuring jig" to assure the positioning of the port boards was correct and they were straight. I then used spray adhesive to put 1/2" carpet underlayment throughout the cabinet to limit resonances, leaving the last pieces till I was ready to put the top on the cabinet. I received the W4-1337SDF driver and the binding posts and finished off the speaker.

I finished the speaker with inexpensive binding posts and installed the driver with gasket tape as usual. I soldered the speaker and posts ~ I won't be changing drivers on this one.

Measuring & Listening... I installed the TABAD center channel in its location directly below the TV monitor in the Nest GR8 room. I placed a measurement mic at the prime listening position and measured it's performance using REW (mono signal to just the new TABAD; all other speakers were off). It measures and sounds smooth & awesome... pretty flat but as expected, not much bass below 75Hz...NP. I cranked it up and it remains coherent and smooth.

I could smooth the curve somewhat with DSP but I don't really need to do that externally IMO ~ I'll allow Denon's own Audessy measurement and correction do that. I next listened and measured a 3.0, and then a 3.1 configuration. Sounds excellent and the TABAQ bolster the lows to 45Hz and even smooth the highs, being at ear level. Adding the Velo servo sub gets the whole thing down to 20Hz. Finally I did the whole 5.1 thing and listened again... back surrounds are fine here for movie effects but don't add a ton to music listening.

Sanding & Finishing... I decided not to wait for spring to finish the TABAQs & TABAD. Getting the Nest GR8 room looking better heading in to winter is warranted... and the garage is heated so not too bad. Sanding in 120 then 240 grit papers via finishing sander is the start... I "plug" the ports and the driver hole in the baffle to stop ingress of dust or liquids.

I finished all 3 speakers as usual with true black stain and several coats of clear polyurethane. I yet need to tack down the new wire runs but the look and sound are right on.

I do need to figure out what to do in the 'holes' that'd be left when I remove the decommissioned NHT 1 L&R mains on the mantle. Too, I'd consider continuing to build TABAs ~ maybe some TABAOs, Tang Band Onkens, for the surround spots.

A Day With Yoho ~ Fishing The PT @ NC And An Avs Game 13Nov25

I celebrated Kala's birthday in style with my friend Yoho. It was another great day in the 70s so we headed south to fish the PT. We hit the Nature Center, but so did other fishermen. We hit the water at ~10am with modest wind and long line nymphing rigs. I caught a number of smaller bows ~15" only on our 2/3 pass of the NC section... it was crowded ahead and we jumped out before the hook weir. With lower viz turbid conditions at 150cfs flows, effective flies for me were flashier stuff: oil can Perdigon, the #22 rainbow warrior, and the #24 mojo midge. Their was a great fall mayfly hatch on @ noon as we left but there was just "nowhere" to go among the other players. We chose to dine on sloppers at Brues before returning to COS.

Traffic was complete shit all the way from COS to downtown Denver. It was rush hour sure, but also accidents laid in our way to Ball arena for the Avs game, a 2 hour commute. Ultimately we convened in a good parking spot, for which we'd prepaid ~ given Jim's knowledge and leadership, and made it with 15min to spare to opening faceoff. The 1st period was a whirlwind with Avs scoring just 1 min into the game and then adding 2 more... but the Sabres did fine too with 2 goals. Ultimately we won 6-3 with a Landeskog open net goal finishing, fed by Nece who could've rolled a hattrick but fed the captain who'd had 4 goals called back recently ~ this'll break the spell. It was a blast; from Jim's seats we could see everything.

Great day with Yoho. 

Skied The Key For My 1st Runs ~ No Snow, No Legs, Just Fun 03Nov25

Keystone has done a solid job again with snow-making early season, on the open white ribbons. There is precious little snow elsewhere out here. Despite it being 62° at the base today (I helped a chunky 5" lizard back to the sun after he'd wandered into shade & cold), I had a good time on all 3 open lifts (I didn't take Ranger) and associated runs. Snow wasn't scraped off after WE but for one smallish section, and the bottom was warm and malleable. I was surprised that even on an early Monday the River Run lot was filling up... to park on my favored N side of the lot I did take the back row. On the hill and lifts the skiers were not as noticeable and all white ribbons were navigable without incident. Woohoo; it begins. I tried to hit Last Chance on the way home but alas construction has them closed for the time being.