A Geek Goes Flying

Just because I wanted an easy place to grab these, when needed... Ø ø     diameter Ω          ohm ⎓         DC power ∑     Sigma ®  reserved (trademark) † ¡ ™ £ ¢ ¥ ∞ § ¶ • ≠ « ` œ π “ ‘ ” ’ å ß ∂ ƒ © ˙ ∆ ˚ ¬ … æ ≈ ç √ ∫ ˜ µ ≤ ≥ ÷ ⁄ € ‹ › fi ‡ ° · ‚ — ± » ` Œ „ ´ ‰ ˇ Á ¨ ˆ Ø ∏ Å Í Î Ï ˝ Ó Ô  Ò Ú Æ ¸ ˛ Ç ◊ ı ˜  ¯ ˘ ¿ ← → ↔ ↑ ↓ ↕ ↖ ↗ ↘ ↙ ⤡ ⤢ ⌘ command ⌥ option ⇧ shift ⌃ control ⎋ escape ⇪ caps lock ⏎ return ⌫ delete/backspace ⇥ tab ⎋ Escape U+238B ⇥ Tab forward U+21E5 ⇤ Tab back U+21E4 ⇪ Capslock U+21EA ⇧ Shift U+21E7 ⌃ Control U+2303 ⌥ Option (Alt, Alternative) U+2325

Shanling M1s being used as a DAC So I found a good deal on a used Schiit Jotunheim 2 , but it doesn’t come with a DAC. I expect I’ll pop in a $100 ES9028 card and probably splurge and pay the $50 to have Schiit install it. I’m positive I could do it, but Schiit will bump the warranty on the whole package to 2 years if I do that: “For out-of-warranty products, having Schiit install the DAC module re-activates the warranty on the complete product for 2 years.” But I haven’t done that yet. And I should be responsible and sell off some of the gear I’m not using to cover the cost of the upgrade. (I already sent a Schiit Hel off to a new home...) But I know me and I know I’m going to want to play with my new “toy” at least a little bit, which means it’s going to need a signal.  At first I was going to drop $25 or so on an Apple USB-C to 3.5 mm dongle , a USB A/C adapter , and a decent 3.5mm to RCA Cable , but then I screeched the needle off the record and realized how silly it was to spend

Coffee. I want my coffee! How much coffee is OK for me to drink in a day? “Two to three cups a day generally seems to be the sweet spot...” Retired my old Keurig K40. Replaced it with an inexpensive Keurig K-Express : The size is perfect (takes up about 1/2 the counter space as the K40, and let me reorganize things to free up even more than that in usable space). The single needle/nozzle (vs. the newer “Multistream”) works with my reusable pods and Oakland Coffee Works Soundcheck single serve cups. (Note: I thought Keurig’s newer models (the “2.0” machines) were running checks and only brewing with Keurig-blessed pods , in an ( easily thwarted , but still) evil adopted from the inkjet printer industry (an ongoing battle ). But apparently the backlash caused them to abandon that...) Apparently heats water on the fly , vs. the K40 which needed to groan and rumble for a few minutes every morning before it was ready to do its job. This is ready to go essentially instantly . Has 8, 10

I upgraded from the Loxjie A30 (a gorgeous small desktop DAC/amp that uses an older DAC ( ES9023 ) and puts out a claimed 80Wx2 (4Ω), 40Wx2 (8Ω) into speakers, and only has a  ⌀ 6.35 mm headphone jack) to the Loxjie A40 . The A40 isn’t quite as nice (it’s more of a standard chassis with a faceplate), and is significantly bigger, but pumps a claimed 85W into my bookshelf speakers and ditches the wall wart for a standard NEMA 5-15P (left) to IEC-320-C13 power cable. And, most importantly, it has a  ⌀ 4.4 mm headphone jack for the balanced cables on my cans. Silly me, I thought it would have a decent headphone output. But. It is impossible to find specs for the A40’s headphone stage. It’s not on the Loxjie site or in the manual . An Amazon question “[w]hat’s the headphone power output?” got the non-helpful response: “Output Power:stereo 165Wx2(4Ω) / 85Wx2(8Ω).” The reviews that are out there so far don’t address this spec, and a question on one YouTube review has sat unanswered. Sigh

Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter for DAC / Amp Connection Picked up a “used – like new” Apple Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter , which is specifically recommended by, e.g., DragonFly (“[i]n our tests, Apple's Lightning-to-USB 3 Camera Adapter (with charging port) sounds better and is more reliable than Apple’s less expensive Lightning-to-USB Camera Adapter, while also providing the ability to charge during playback”) and Schiit . Photos show, e.g., the DragonFly being used without external power, but mine won’t. In fact, basically nothing worked: Cannot Use Accessory AudioQuest DragonFly: This accessory requires too much power. Cannot Use Accessory SanDisk 3.2Gen1: This accessory requires too much power. The Schiit Fulla E, even when connected to a beefy USB-C power supply, just clicked in the headphones repeatedly, or every second would play a tone for a fraction of a second, click softly, go silent, and then repeat. Hooking up an external USB A to Lightning cable to provide po

Trying to figure out how much battery capacity I need in my flight bag (the crappy 2.1A-shared Insignia just ain’t cutting it anymore). These aren’t ideal tests and I’ll redo them at some point with a work load going on while sipping USB power (which will hopefully recharge while providing operating wattage), but, here goes (readings taken with a Klein ET-920 ). iPad Mini 4, recharged from dead to full: 13:31  Dead   9-10W 14:10  17%     7.8W  1142 mAh 15:08  44%     7.4W  2720 mAh 16:50  84%       5W  4729 mAh 17:52  98%       5W  5387 mAh 18:14  Full    1.3W  5500 mAh ("Not Charging") So about 5500 mAh (realistically, with charging loss, ~8,000 mAh capacity on the charging pack), and requires about 10W at maximum to recharge. I’ll do a test with the screen on, connected to the Stratus GPS unit over WiFi, ASAP.  

Looking at FLAC players for an old iPhone I want to repurpose into a listening station (that I think I’m going to build around the JDS Atom 2 stack ?). Quick synopsis of the few I’ve looked at so far: VOX . Premium features, including basics like a parametric EQ and EQ presents, an ad-free experience, gapless playback, etc., are locked behind a subscription. $49.99 yearly or $4.99 monthly. Once I saw that pricing I stopped looking at it. Flacbox . Natively connects to WebDAV, SMB, etc. servers, along with the usual litany of cloud services. Premium is a lifetime purchase of $14.99 (with a free trial), and includes ad delete, an unlimited number of cloud services, downloading albums and playlists, an unlimited number of playlists and songs in a playlist, etc. Has a 10-band EQ with precise ± decibel settings per octave. A contender. Doppler . A 7 day free trial and then a one time $9 charge. Doesn’t connect directly to servers but helpfully links to instructions for how to mount servers