Interests

* Playing guitar, bass, & clarinet.
* Analog audio electronics.
* Building custom headphones
* Computers.
* Competitive shooting sports.

Headphone Inventory

Headphones & IEM's:
* beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro
* beyerdynamic DT 250 (250ohm)
* Custom Grado type HP (Nhoord Red v2 drivers, Fleasbaby Angsana wood cups)
* Custom Grado type HP (Symphones Magnum V9 drivers, Fleasbaby Angsana wood cups)
* Custom Grado type HP (Symphones Magnum V8.1 drivers, custom Angsana wood cups)
* LZ-A4 -- two pair - one pair w/ 3.5mm TRS single ended cable, one pair w/ 2.5mm TRRS balanced cable (no such thing as too much of a good thing)

Headphone Amp Inventory

Headphone amps:
* Schiit Lyr 3
Preamp:
* Schiit Saga
Equalizer:
* Schiit LOKI Mini
A/B switch:
* Modified Schiit SYS passive preamp (level potentiometer removed & replaced with soldered wire jumpers to be used as a no-load 1-in, 2-out A/B switch)

Source Inventory

Windows 10 PC:
* Foobar2000 (bitperfect) -> Schiit EITR -> Schiit Modi Multibit DAC -> Schiit Saga input 1
* Foobar2000 (bitperfect) -> Schiit Modi 3 DAC -> Schiit Saga input 2
* Cakewalk Sonar Platinum -> Roland Octa-Capture -> Schiit Saga input 3
* Fractal Audio AxeFX III guitar/bass amp modeling platform -> Schiit Saga input 4
* (mobile sources) -> Schiit Saga input 5
Preamp output:
* Schiit Saga output 1 -> powered near field monitors
* Schiit Saga output 2 -> Schiit LOKI Mini -> Schiit Lyr 3
DAP's:
* HiBy R3 Pro
* Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphone
Miscelaneous:
* Fiio BTR3 portable bluetooth receiver/amp

Cable Inventory

* Custom Canare cables (3.5mm terminated 36", 6.3mm terminated 10'), HD800 male terminated cables for custom Grado type headphones.

Power-Related Components

Cyber Power 1500PFCLCD pure sine wave UPS / surge protector

Other Audio Equipment

Monitors / Speakers:
* Equator D5 powered 5" coaxial powered near field monitors (on IsoAcoustic stands)
* Atomic Amps CLR powered FRFR 500 watt, coaxial 12" monitor (FR/FR amplification for Fractal Audio AxeFX III modeler)
* Bose SoundLink Mini II stereo Bluetooth speaker.

Audio-Related Tweaks

* Meier Crossfeed 1.1.1 software component for Foobar2000 (bitperfect) occasionally used with hard left/right stereo tracks
* Wide selection of VST plugins for use in digital audio recording signal chain (Cakewalk Sonar Platinum -> Roland Octa-capture -> )

Music Preferences

Blues
Classic rock
Soft rock
Hard rock
Heavy metal
Thrash metal
Jazz
Classical
Folk
Country
Etc...

Gender

Male

Gear-Fi

Way, way too much to list. A few standouts:

* Custom electric guitar and electric bass that I built for myself some 15 years back. Both are attractive grained and well matched 2-piece medium lightweight alder bodies with flame maple / flame maple bolt-on necks. All wood was finished with tung oil and polished to a diffused gloss. Both have 3-ply parchment color pick guards and black hardware (mostly Hipshot).
The guitar is a Stratocaster type with a 25" scale conversion neck, bone nut, Hipshot floating tremolo bridge, Lindy Fralin pickups (PAF humbucker bridge pickup, Real 54's Strat type single Coil pickups neck and middle). This was built to capture the sound and feel of my very first guitar in a better physical form, and the result met that goal.
The bass is a 4-string 'dinky' Jazz bass style body with a Music Man Bongo 4 neck profile. Bridge pickup and electronics are Nordstrand (active 3-band preamp/EQ and passive mode with passive tone control, Big Single bridge pickup). Neck pickup is a 60's type P-Bass pickup from Domingo, a little-known pickup builder. The bass was built to be a P-Bass with extras. It was built to be a twin of sorts for the guitar - goal met.
Both are a joy to play and sound amazing.

* A source mentioned above - a Fractal Audio AxeFX III guitar/bass amp & speaker cabinet modeler and studio grade multi-effects processor. Fractal Audio is an unlikely 'boutique' digital modeling company whose owner has a 2 decade (and counting) obsession with modeling every aspect of a tube guitar amps sound and response, modeling to the component level. This platform is as close as it gets to the 200+ amps modeled (all modeled directly from real amp counterparts owned by Fractal Audio). Over the past 35+ years I've owned 40 or so of the amps modeled, and serviced examples of other modeled amps over the past 20 years. This is one of my favorite gadgets EVER! as it has completely replaced more than a few prized amps. I eventually sold all of my analog guitar & bass amps and now use the AxeFX II exclusively. It is, in many ways, better than the amps it replaces - models never need servicing, are not sensitive to wall voltage, I can go back to older recording projects and continue recording with the EXACT same sound without ever having to mic a speaker, save for controllable feedback, which requires loud volume (I use an Atomic Amps CLR powered monitor for feedback when desired), I can get any tone at any output level. You may have noticed that I get excited about this gadget.

* My custom Kidd Innovative Design 10/22 .22LR target & silhouette competition rifle. I built this Ruger 10/22 pattern rifle using all KIDD internal parts, KIDD receiver and match grade barrel, and KIDD 2-stage trigger assembly (set to 8oz/8oz) in a Victor Company Titan stock with a Karsten Adjustable Cheek rest. An Anti-Cant level equipped Vortex Diamondback Tactical 6-24x50 FFP scope is mounted in Burris XTR rings on a KIDD 20 MOA Picatinny Rail. The action is aluminum bedded in the stock with a rear tang anchor, the 20", 920" dia steel bull barrel is free floated. Up front I mounted a Harris 6-9" SBRM folding steel bipod. The scope has enough parallax and elevation adjustment to cover from 10 yards out to 200 yards. In ideal weather with SK Standard Plus 40gr round nose 1050fps ammo it's a same-hole rifle at 50 yards, and good for sub 1" groups at 100 yards all day long if I'm doing my part. It turned out to be a better competition rifle than I'd hoped for.

I'm a tech geek and I own precious few things that I've not modified in some way. Perhaps, then, my favorite gadgets may well be my tools and my soldering iron. ;-)

Occupation

Occupation: Retired (disabled).