Tonight I’m listening to some vinyl with my partner. Since it’s late, we’re using headphones. It’s intimate and so much fun. Enjoying watching my partner lip sync to most of the songs.

Her Bowers & Wilkins headphones are connected to the record player via Bluetooth. The record player will simultaneously output data through the USB connection, so my headphones are plugged into my computer. Kind of a cool workaround.

Up first tonight is Melodrama by Lorde.

#WeirdAudioMastodon #WeirdAudios

I love having multiple decent headphones with different sound signatures to swap between. It keeps each one fresh and sounding amazing without me losing increasing amounts of money from gear acquisition syndrome.

Just went from my Sundaras to my Dekoni Blues and they have just a fantastic warm tone in comparison. It's like a blanket of bass with mids and treble poking through.

#WeirdAudioMastodon

I’m a fan of the audio reviewer turned you tuber, Steve Gutenberg. I like his approach to hifi, putting music and emotion first.
This video has some of his favorite speakers of all time and it’s a lot of esoteric shit that #WeirdAudioMastodon would love. He includes stuff you can buy at Best Buy or find used on FBM for $150 to five figure flagship speakers.
https://youtu.be/Ac9LQfamYo4

#WeirdAudioMastodon

I think my Airpod Pros are on the way out. Every time I put them in, the left one blasts static until I tap it hard enough in the way it likes that particular day. My speculation is that something is goofy with the ANC.

If I could only have one pair of headphones they're still what I'd go with, but I don't think I'll replace them as I have all their functionality covered better via wired IEMs and my overear Sony XM4s.

@Mark
#WeirdAudioMastodon

I visited a local record shop yesterday and spent about an hour flipping through their inventory. Came out of there with an early (original?) pressing of the self-titled album Chicago Transit Authority.

Can’t find a date anywhere on the packaging so I don’t know when it was produced. It looks & feels old. Hell, it even smells old.

One clue is the “Colombia Stereo” notation. It reads, “can also be played on mono equipment.” How long was that put on vinyl releases?

#WeirdAudioMastodon

#WeirdAudioMastodon

Pretty happy with my setup as of now. Between the new phono preamp and the new CD player, there perceptible audio quality difference at the speakers comes down more to the condition of vinyl and the production quality of the album more than CD vs vinyl.

Speaker placement isn't great, but there's not much I can do to change that without a higher cost of time & money than I care to invest right now.

Based on some posts from @Mark, I picked up a Denon DVD-910 to use as a CD player. There are supposed to have a pretty nice Burr Brown DAC. Snagged it for $15 from the thrift store.

Sounds good as of two tracks in, but I don't have anything to really compare it to. The previous thrifted Yamaha CD player wasn't really working right, so the only other stuff I've heard through this system recently is vinyl.

#WeirdAudioMastodon

My Mani2 just showed up!

Now to rewire my entire vinyl setup. I really need to replace the outlet everything is plugged into, and I should take this chance to hook up the CD player while I'm in there.

#WeirdAudioMastodon

#WeirdAudioMastodon

My daily driver headphone setup:

Schiit Asgard3 with onboard DAC. I grabbed this as I liked Schiit was a Californian company making what they could here and this would have more power than I'd ever need.

Hifiman Sundara. Near as I know this this the best neutral headphone under $500 where audio quality is concerned.

Dekoni Blues: my more fun/relaxed/all-day-listen set. A Fostex T50 mod, super comfortable, nice warm tonality. In the good color.

A guy in a headphone group i’m in made these 3d printed open back headphones with two drivers in each ear. He’s using a digital crossover for the drivers and applying parametric EQ to deal with tonal tuning. His next purchase is what’s known as an “ear simulator” which simulates an ear canal, which is better than just using a standard microphone. I absolutely love the look and he designed and made everything himself with parts from aliexpress. #WeirdAudioMastodon

#WeirdAudioMastodon

Apple announced the second generation HomePod, priced at $299.

Compared to the original model, this one has five tweeters vs. seven and also has fewer microphones. They both have a big woofer and otherwise seem to be relatively similar.

I find it interesting that Apple hasn’t mentioned anything about how it sounds or performs in relation to the original. Maybe it’s worse or about the same, but I don’t think it’ll be better. They would’ve taken the chance to say so.