Merrick

Marvel has become the manilla envelope of studios... just as bland, boring and inoffensive as possible. They were always kind of like this, but got worse after Endgame.

Agreed. A disapointment but I'm not especially surprised. I'm not stoked about the direction the MCU is heading and may skip Thor.

In the still of the niiiiiiight!

So it does get better after the first two episodes? I shouldn't cancel Disney yet?

@purr1n Just to calibrate my tastes here, I love The Last Jedi and Kenobi is very The Last Jedi. I’d say try the third episode and if you’re not enjoying it after that, abandon ship.

Love TLJ also but Kenobi is meh for me. It is getting better as it goes and it was a great seeing Hayden again. Story for me is not that great and I prefer when SW is expensive and they can go all out on production design.

In general, I've noticed a lot of more modern remasters are well done. More instrument space, more 3D, peaks tamed, etc. It's like the recording engineers actually learned how to do it properly.

Vinyl requires more care because there are physical limits to how far the sound can be compressed. I do think the vinyl resurgence has led to more care in mastering though.

Ah, I did not realize you were talking about a vinyl release. I was thinking the opposite: Better DAC's in cell phones, combined with streaming services that can output in hi-res, expose poor mastering and compressed/bad recordings to the masses. Queen's old CD's and their 40th anniversary editions are like night and day.

Is this being live-streamed somewhere? Don’t see it on YouTube…

Oh I guess maybe it’s coming up shortly…Cool.

When you get into the MoFi shit it gets good, but expensive. Dude's fills are other people's solos. He's nuts.

Track or album? The rest of the album doesn't really flow with the title track IMO.

@gixxerwimp Track. The rest of the album is good by that track is perfection.

This is one of the albums I've spent a lot of hours listening to

Also I way prefer the original over the Johnny Cash cover of Hurt

Time to move it over to the oldies radio station. The one that really blows my mind is Appetite for Destruction, which is 35 years old. Wild.

@Cspirou I will always have special memories of the Cash cover of Hurt. I was in film school and on a shoot the day it was released and we all took a break to watch the video of it together and were just blown away by how good it was. I was one of the few NIN fans there, although I think everyone knew NIN did the original. It was kind of surreal and amazing to share it with so many people at once.

@Thad E Ginathom you mean as a serving tray for powdered jelly donuts right?

bring your own jelly doughnuts, but the powder is already there...

Was thinking more of the arts and crafts of cigarette paper :)

@Thad E Ginathom The remaster I was thinking of getting was the vinyl of Europe ‘72 which the GD website wanted $75 for. The vintage copy I found was $30, in near perfect shape, and is AAA by definition.

Super! I was listening to Aoxa Moxoa;

Mention of the Europe *triple* album always causes me acute guilt. Back in the day, TVs were big enough to put stuff on. And they were hot. And you can guess what I did with my housemate's copy of that album. It was way beyond my means to even compensate him at the time.

@Thad E Ginathom Oh noooooo

Here’s a nice Dead-adjacent palette cleanser when you need one: Bob Weir on NPR Tiny Desk https://youtu.be/4l_gUwdPrNY

I've dipped into NPR Tin Desk stuff occasionally, and always found amazing experiences. Didn't know Bob Weir did one. I really like the edge, the sense of urgency, in his voice.

Something made me want to watch an early live performance of St Stephen. I found this. Bonus: Mountains Of The Moon, which was my last song before bed, most days, for a year or two :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx6OAfvlxTs

Thanks for reminding me of The Dead Magic!

@Merrick yes! Great school. Amazing photography program.

@rhythmdevils I applied there, and visited the school around 2001-2002. I did not get in. :)

My best film experiences were seeing restorations of 2001 and Lawrence of Arabia in 70mm at BAM theater in Brooklyn. Just incredible picture quality. But, not sure if these were entirely analog or scanned to digital and printed back to film.

Gryphon plus Timeless or Porta Pro might be the next step up for some.

No mini?

Ah...300ohm mini. Nevermind

"All the years combine
They melt into a dream"
https://youtu.be/x65DQgGbqIc

The best all-around show I’ve come across is 5/2/70 Harpur College. It’s Dick’s Picks Vol. 8. Awesome acoustic first set followed by killer electric set. It’s on all the streaming services.

@gaspasser I’m sure I’ll get to that soon, I’m exploring the 1969 shows right now.

I've only heard the spatials at shows, but they are very, very convincing. So much so that my long-ish term goal is to DIY a version of my own. That tweeter makes that speaker possible.

Yeah, the New Record Day review of the Spatial M3s goes into depth about the tweeter in particular.

I mean, it is the same concept as open back headphones. Just now you have the room to deal with. It is a reason he did that video with the speakers sitting in the middle of the room. Just drawbacks to consider.

I played the Cures”Pornography” today for the first time in a few years. It’s right up there on the list with an extra dose of DARK.

@crazychile Love that album!

@crazychile Disintegration will remain one of my top albums of all time. Our wedding first dance song was Halo.

@roshambo123 I haven't heard Rag 2 but I'm willing to bet it sounds more like Jot 2 than it sounds like Rag 1. I think Jot 1 is closer to Rag 1 tonally and in terms of resolving detail, but its non-existent soundstage is the exact opposite of Rag 1's wide open sonic vistas.

I've changed DAC's twice since I owned Rag 2 but I don't think Jot 2 sounds the same. Jot 2 is quite tubey and I don't think Rag 2 is tubey at all, being kind of dead solid state sounding.

After having the Jot2 for about 4 months now, I've grown really cold on it. I don't think I would have noticed how subpar it was though if the SW51+ wasn't right next to it.

I'm looking forward to the loaner of this. I'm reading through the Tavish thread right now and I recall liking the OG Mani a bit more that the well received Tavish. I could never get the Tavish to sound great.

This is turning into one of those "don't need it, but still really want it" things. I wish I had a good way to compare it to my existing integrated.

@Vansen I'm on the Tavish loaner tour and I am very curious to compare the two!

@Merrick You're right, 29 sounds more neutral compared to 24. I've always thought Jriver sounded a little thick in the bass and rolled in the treble. 29 sounds cleaner, airier, and more true to source in comparison. Subtle improvements, but noticeable.

@MLegend Thank you for confirming! I’m always glad to know I’m not just making it up in my head. :)

I just upped to 29 myself. Started on 26 and then went to 27. I was actually thinking this listening Sunday night.