[Paladin79]

Yep, I ditched my u-turn orbit with a Grado Black for a Technic's 1200 GR with Grado Opus3. Such wonderful, lush, warm mids with plenty of detail and bass. Very well balanced. I got a bunch of 6SL7's in England a few months ago for way cheaper than 6sn7's were going for so I decided to take a shot. I put them in the right side to really listen carefully to what I had purchased. What I discovered is that they were all very microphonic. My RCAs. Kenrads, and Tung-sols (all USA made NOS) would start to ring when any conversation took place in the room. Great sound, but super sensitive. They would also all emit a loud pop when crossing over 12 o clock on volume. Moving them to the left side solved all those issues.

I should loan you a set of Melz if you have not heard them.

Grado Opus 3 may be my choice for a Pro-Ject turntable I am modifying.

 

[Roy G. Biv]

Are you guys in the Bay Area OK? This was quite the jolt even 100 miles east where I am.

From this map it doesn't look too bad. Only about a 5.1. From - https://scedc.caltech.edu/recent/Maps/122-37.html

 

[tincanear]

Are you guys in the Bay Area OK? This was quite the jolt even 100 miles east where I am.

as @Roy G. Biv said, 5.1 per USGS, south of San Jose.

@ArmchairPhilosopher you are now officially a Californian.

Loma Prieta 1989 (mag 6.9) was much bigger. had never seen a lawn move like slow rolling waves on the ocean before (and hopefully not again)

 

[JamminVMI]

You've met me. Compared to myself, he's tiny.

Point done tooken. Wait 'til you meet Snap... Longest house cat I've ever met.

 

[bevanc]

Something very much off-topic—even for this thread—but I thought you guys might appreciate this since some of you occasionally use PayPal for international transactions as well:

I'm sending someone in Europe 375.00 EUR via PayPal.
Select "convert via PayPal": 403.00 USD
Select "convert via your bank": 387.20 USD

They—of course—default to "convert via PayPal," and they—of course—will not show you the amount for "convert via your bank." The amount stated above is thus taken from my bank statement and reflects what I actually payed.
Granted, PayPal can't show you the bank conversion amount upfront because they don't know the bank's rate at any given moment.
But even if they could, I very much doubt that they would — for obvious reasons.

And that's in addition to the relatively generous fee they already slap on your transaction to begin with.

Long story short:
While I don't know if this applies to all foreign currencies and/or to the country you may reside in, at least in the USofA, when sending Euros, I would advise to make sure you let your bank do the conversion. Can't really blame them for trying, but there's no need to "gift" PayPal any more cash than necessary.

However, don't do the transaction via your bank, I got hit with massive fee when I sent money to my sister in the UK.

 

[golfbravobravo]

However, don't do the transaction via your bank, I got hit with massive fee when I sent money to my sister in the UK.

I've done the bank - bank transfer using wire transfer. Modest fees (which are waived by my bank).

 

[turtlerod]

Are you guys in the Bay Area OK? This was quite the jolt even 100 miles east where I am.

Yes in the South Bay Area it was only a small earthquake

 

[cschock]

Sure, but Google doesn't require you to have a server running on your network in order to search your local content. There has to be a fallback path to have search be just plain bad / crippleware if your internet connection is not working. And I say this as someone who is not terribly bothered that Roon now requires an internet connection - it doesn't bother me personally, but I'm equal amounts local & streaming these days. Others with huge local libraries are understandably quite upset.

I am sure they would if they thought they could Then they could track you even on your intranet. But, yes, you are right. Roon made, I think, a weird decision to gut their local search entirely, there is no reason not to allow local search (even if it isn't all that great and is now "depricated") on local tracks when not online.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

However, don't do the transaction via your bank, I got hit with massive fee when I sent money to my sister in the UK.

Must be your particular bank.

I've been doing this every month for years, and I've never seen any extra fees on the bank's side.
(I've known about this conversion BS that PayPal is pulling for ages. Due to a mix of unrelated circumstances, I just felt annoyed enough about it this morning to actually go ahead and write about it.)

And I wouldn't know why they should slap you with an extra fee, either. From their perspective, it's either a simple debit card transaction like any other random purchase you would do in a store, for example, or as if you wrote a check, depending on how you connected your checking account to your PayPal account.

In my case it's via a debit card and the checking account is with WellsFargo. No extra fees outside of PayPal.

Obviously, this would be an entirely different story if I sent the money to Germany via an international wire transfer. Those are of course subject to a somewhat considerable fee. Fees will probably also apply if you used something like Zelle, although I'm not sure that even works internationally, since Zelle is a system set up and operated by American banks. At least with German recipients it does not. But I was talking about an international PayPal transaction, not an international wire transfer.

(And yes, folks, save yourself the criticism. Wells isn't any better nor worse than any other major US bank. I've had accounts with literally all of them in some capacity or another, either personally or through businesses I am or was involved with. And they all, without exception, absolutely suck. They just suck in different ways, and Wells happens to suck slightly less than others for my personal banking needs. Sure, they've publicly proven themselves to be morally bankrupt a few times over the past years, but which bank isn't. At least Wells is dumb enough to get caught cheating, which puts more pressure on them to improve their behavior than most other institutions have had in recent years. And while I would agree that credit unions tend to be ethically less … uhm … challenged than banks tend to be, they just don't really work for what I need.)

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

Yes in the South Bay Area it was only a small earthquake

That's really good to hear.

Really weird, though.

I live 75 miles (as the crow flies) east of the epicenter, and it was among the strongest quakes I've felt in 12 years. The tail end of it felt rather harmless with long, slow waves, but the first two or three seconds were dominated by two pretty strong, quite abrupt jolts.
A quake that felt the most similar to the one today in intensity and length was rated as a 3.8 and I was almost exactly sitting on top of that one.
I have friends who live in Sunnyvale close to where Homestead terminates into Foothill, and they, too, told me that they barely felt it.
Years ago, friends of mine who lived around my area back when Loma Prieta hit, told me that they barely felt anything back then. So based on what it felt like today, and before I found out that it was "only" a 5.1, I was kinda worried for a minute that the SF peninsula may have just slid into the Pacific.

A 5.1 that feels roughly like a 3.8 from 75 miles away, yet can barely be felt at a 10 miles distance from the center? Fluid dynamics is just weird.

 

[Zachik]

I live 75 miles (as the crow flies) east of the epicenter, and it was among the strongest quakes I've felt in 12 years. The tail end of it felt rather harmless with long, slow waves, but the first two or three seconds were dominated by two pretty strong, quite abrupt jolts.

I disagree with others here. It was NOT very small. I am 10-15 miles from the epicenter, and stuff shook and rattled here for a good 5-10 seconds!
(followed by MANY small aftershocks).

 

[Roy G. Biv]

That's really good to hear.

Really weird, though.

I live 75 miles (as the crow flies) east of the epicenter, and it was among the strongest quakes I've felt in 12 years. The tail end of it felt rather harmless with long, slow waves, but the first two or three seconds were dominated by two pretty strong, quite abrupt jolts.
A quake that felt the most similar to the one today in intensity and length was rated as a 3.8 and I was almost exactly sitting on top of that one.
I have friends who live in Sunnyvale close to where Homestead terminates into Foothill, and they, too, told me that they barely felt it.
Years ago, friends of mine who lived around my area back when Loma Prieta hit, told me that they barely felt anything back then. So based on what it felt like today, and before I found out that it was "only" a 5.1, I was kinda worried for a minute that the SF peninsula may have just slid into the Pacific.

A 5.1 that feels roughly like a 3.8 from 75 miles away, yet can barely be felt at a 10 miles distance from the center? Fluid dynamics is just weird.

I disagree with others here. It was NOT very small. I am 10-15 miles from the epicenter, and stuff shook and rattled here for a good 5-10 seconds!
(followed by MANY small aftershocks).

I'm glad you're both OK. It wasn't my intention to minimize or otherwise negate what anyone felt regardless of the "relatively" light 5.1 quake.
Last month, I was stopped through Mexico City 2 days after they had a 7.6 quake and the locals I spoke to were still a bit skittish.
Here in TX we only get the occasional shake. The last one of any note was 4 years ago and it only hit 3.5 on the Richter Scale. I imagine that those in CA (or Mexico) probably sleep through a 3.5

 

[turtlerod]

I'm glad you're both OK. It wasn't my intention to minimize or otherwise negate what anyone felt regardless of the "relatively" light 5.1 quake.
Last month, I was stopped through Mexico City 2 days after they had a 7.6 quake and the locals I spoke to were still a bit skittish.
Here in TX we only get the occasional shake. The last one of any note was 4 years ago and it only hit 3.5 on the Richter Scale. I imagine that those in CA (or Mexico) probably sleep through a 3.5

My dog slept through this one.

 

[tincanear]

7.6 is an enormous earthquake for sure, the richter scale is logarithmic (7.6 is 100x of a 5.6)

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

@ArmchairPhilosopher you are now officially a Californian.

Thanks, but this really wasn't my first rodeo. Had a 4.something just a few days right after my move over from Germany. Now THAT'S what I call a welcome to California! ;p

I'm glad you're both OK. It wasn't my intention to minimize or otherwise negate what anyone felt regardless of the "relatively" light 5.1 quake.
Last month, I was stopped through Mexico City 2 days after they had a 7.6 quake and the locals I spoke to were still a bit skittish.
Here in TX we only get the occasional shake. The last one of any note was 4 years ago and it only hit 3.5 on the Richter Scale. I imagine that those in CA (or Mexico) probably sleep through a 3.5

No worries, I didn't take it as such. Every earthquake is different, and it really depends on where you are and what the geological variables are around you.

And let's all remember that one integer up in magnitude means a tenfold increase in "size," meaning a 4.0 is a 10x "bigger" quake than a 3.0. A 4.0 also releases more than 30x the energy of a 3.0.
So what felt to me like a 3.8 here today was just under 20x as big at the epicenter, with almost 90x the energy released.
Which makes the 7.6 in Mexico City over 300x as big, with more than 5,500x the energy released, when compared to the 5.1 today. So, skittish they are very much allowed to be! Personally, I wouldn't just be skittish, I would also still be scrubbing my pants.

(figured via this handy little calculator)