[earnmyturns]

Just out of curiosity, since it’s been confirmed Valhalla 3 will be OTL/OCL like the Folkvangr, is there a reason Schiit has never made an output transformer coupled amp?

Jason explained on Wednesday: no point in doing that with off-the-shelf transformers, it would sound generic. But designing and building custom transformers is not in scope for Schiit.

 

[LobalWarming]

The glass is empty.

Not empty. Filled with cryo-treated Texas ice when hell froze over that time @bcowen accidently ate Texas BBQ when negotiating with the triple-wall cardboard cartel while contracting Fotonic cryogenic storage in Antarctica from his satellite home office (Pacer).

 

[Godaisan]

Part of the Texas Naturalization Test:

1. Have you smoked a brisket?
2. Overnight?
3. Did you get up in the middle of the night to apply the Texas crutch?
4. Which crutch? Foil or butcher paper?
5. Knife required, or fork only?
6. Did your friends leave any, or did they take all home?
7. If yes, are all of your friends Texans?

Plus bonus questions about the Alamo, HEB, Goliad, Buc-ees, puffy tacos, etc, etc....

I smoked a brisket for my first time on a Weber a few years back on my birthday . I set my alarm at some ridiculous hour to get the fire going so it would be done by a reasonable hour. I think it tastes better when you are sleep deprived.

 

[Ohno Schiitizen]

The glass is empty.

Wait for the ice melts ..... will be half full again....

 

[Ohno Schiitizen]

Pretty obvious. You didn't share any with me. Jerk.

He use the straw to suck and kept the salt and ice for you, he is nice......

 

[Ohno Schiitizen]

Doesn't everybody?


JC

Try vinegar with oyster and honey in coffee, very nice.

 

[MisterMudd]

I'm running a 5670 in my Vali2++ and absolutely loving it. Big jump in sound from stock, at least for me. Thinking of dropping the $ for a WE 396a. Will I discern a significant audible jump in sound again that makes it worth the expenditure? Will it take the sound to the top? Chime in and help me decide. I trust you guys.

 

[Bowmoreman]

Part of the Texas Naturalization Test:

1. Have you smoked a brisket?
2. Overnight?
3. Did you get up in the middle of the night to apply the Texas crutch?
4. Which crutch? Foil or butcher paper?
5. Knife required, or fork only?
6. Did your friends leave any, or did they take all home?
7. If yes, are all of your friends Texans?

Plus bonus questions about the Alamo, HEB, Goliad, Buc-ees, puffy tacos, etc, etc....

You just described our very first year after we moved to Wimberley in 2018… the hardest was #7 TBH. But, we could answer yes, by definition, since the only friends preceeding our move there were my best man and his wife/son. So, technically “yes”. And we made some more of course. But, in reality? Not quite.

LOVE it.

Picture is my first brisket (done the RIGHT way, as per above) I attempted on my wood pellet grill here in NH. Alas, my son has my 8 foot long Pitts & Spits Texas offset smoker. It was just slightly on dry side of perfect, but passed the fork-only test. The ring testifies for itself. It was the sole brisket from the 1/2 cow of grass fed beef I get every year from the beef farmer literally across the street (the cows sometimes drive Bismarck nuts; but he shouldn’t mind, he eats them regularly). So as local, grass-fed it isn’t USDA Prime Brisket. I’ve found a local breeder of true Wagyu beef, so hopefully sometime this summer will get a Wagyu Brisket and go crazy.

Bonus Questions:
1. What is Central Market?
2. Rank-order the following BBQ from personal experience: Kreuz Market, Franklins, Salt Lick, Coopers. Discuss and justify your ordering

PS: Foil is for conspiracy nuts

 

[Les Strat]

HEB+ is legit deranged, and a reason never to go to Sprouts or Whole Paycheck (which originated in Texas, for the doubters), but then again there's Natural Grocers, which again, for the doubters, will blow up your head, and then there's the plethora of exceptional local butchers doing amazing stuff with local meat and bandsaws (think Boarri in Corpus and Bergheim in Boerne), I mean seriously insane insane meat, and then there's Black Drum and gulf shrimp...food is probably one of the biggest surprises here.

The red wine in Texas was a pleasant surprise for me.
It was excellent.

 

[mystaiced]

I'm running a 5670 in my Vali2++ and absolutely loving it. Big jump in sound from stock, at least for me. Thinking of dropping the $ for a WE 396a. Will I discern a significant audible jump in sound again that makes it worth the expenditure? Will it take the sound to the top? Chime in and help me decide. I trust you guys.

There a lot of other NOS tubes out there that can be found for reasonable prices. WE396a is nice, but only if it doesn't cost a fortune. RCA Command 5670 is real close, IMO. And they could be found at a much more reasonable price. Haven't looked in awhile though. Or GE 5 star. I also liked Raytheon. The only reason I grabbed a WE396a, was that it was a good deal and didn't break the bank.

 

[Bowmoreman]

HEB+ is legit deranged, and a reason never to go to Sprouts or Whole Paycheck (which originated in Texas, for the doubters), but then again there's Natural Grocers, which again, for the doubters, will blow up your head, and then there's the plethora of exceptional local butchers doing amazing stuff with local meat and bandsaws (think Boarri in Corpus and Bergheim in Boerne), I mean seriously insane insane meat, and then there's Black Drum and gulf shrimp...food is probably one of the biggest surprises here.

And then, as if HEB+ wasn’t good enough for mortals…

There is their TOTL experience: Central Market. Meat? OM freaking G! Berkshire Pork (Heritage) in any desired form. Different breeds of USDA Prime beef in all forms… huge fish/seafood selection. Produce? Yikes! CM>HEB+>HEB> any/all others… as you mention, Sprouts, Natural Grocers, et. al. Compete at the HEB+ level. Whole Paycheck hit/miss similarly (but more $$ to cater to the “colorful” crowds).

Yeah, we MISS that a LOT. HEB and CM spoiled us badly. Across much of Texas HEB is THE local center-of-community gravity. Everyone sees everyone they know etc. Why not? In addition to great food, you can do your car registrations, renewals, licenses, etc. all there in-store!


And, as @Jason Stoddard rightly points out, venture out to the more “local” type places for bespoke butchers, out of this world Mexican/spanish markets and foods… Not like certain other areas of the US I’ve spent lots of time in that would rightly qualify as “food deserts”.

 

[AstronomerXI]

Sorry for derailing the BBQ discussion with Schiit talk

At @Paladin79's recommendation back when this forum had a bit over 8,600 pages, he recommended to me some Soviet Reflektor ECC88 tubes for the cathode follower sockets for my Freya N. They are inexpensive, readily available, and made a positive difference over the stock tubes that came with my Freya. For the past couple of weeks I've had my new set of Telefunken's in the differential gain sockets. A couple of weeks ago I started hearing some random hissing noise while listening to music. I traced it to one of the follower tubes, thankfully, so I pulled them and replaced with the stock tubes or similar spares that I have on hand. In the meantime, I soaked the Rockets in Deoxit for over 24 hours, gave them a thorough cleaning, and brushed them with Deoxit Gold.

Anyhoo, with the non-Reflektors the music was lacking something or rather, I was missing something that was there before, some ingredient that gave the sauce that extra thing that kicks it over the line from good to very good. Last evening I put the Reflektors back in and settled in for more of Apple Music's Jam Band playlist while I read some more of Tolkien's "The Silmarillion" (great book, BTW, not at all the slog I was warned that it would be). The good news is that there was no hissing or other unwanted noise. The music sounded amazing. Detailed, warm, and oh-so-tubey! The chain was M1 Mac Mini->Gumby->Freya N->Lokius->Sys->Magni Piety>HarmonicDyne Zeus Elite headphones.

For those of you with Freya N's, what tubes are you using in the follower sockets? Any other recommendations?

(Cross-posted to the Freya Impressions and Tube Rolling Thread)

<Edited to correct socket type>

 

[bevanc]

What's up guys - what would be a good headphone to go along with a Magni Unity (with dac)? This is for a gift so keeping the price low is a consideration.

The Focal Elex is on sale at headphones.com till the end of the month for $399. Or The Drop HD6XX is a slightly cheaper alternative. The new FiiO had a good review for under $100 from Zeos. If you want a planar, it's worth paying the extra over a HE400 and getting the Sundara.

 

[Moondog55]

HEB+ is legit deranged, and a reason never to go to Sprouts or Whole Paycheck (which originated in Texas, for the doubters), but then again there's Natural Grocers, which again, for the doubters, will blow up your head, and then there's the plethora of exceptional local butchers doing amazing stuff with local meat and bandsaws (think Boarri in Corpus and Bergheim in Boerne), I mean seriously insane insane meat, and then there's Black Drum and gulf shrimp...food is probably one of the biggest surprises here.

Watch for a rattlesnake roundup. Check out the BBQ.

 

[Moondog55]

The Focal Elex is on sale at headphones.com till the end of the month for $399. Or The Drop HD6XX is a slightly cheaper alternative. The new FiiO had a good review for under $100 from Zeos. If you want a planar, it's worth paying the extra over a HE400 and getting the Sundara.

A little more will get a Dan Clark Audio Aeon RT. I prefer the open version, ymmv.