MrJoshua’s Weblog

January 25, 2008

Earl Gray

The king of teas:

posted from iPhoneSlide.com

Filed by MrJoshua at January 25th, 2008 under Uncategorized
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November 3, 2007

I finally unlocked my iPhone!

After owning an iPhone for ages, but using it just as a glorified iPod Touch, I decided it was about time to unlock it and get a UK SIM Card installed. Yesterday lunchtime I signed up to a T-Mobile SIM-Only rolling monthly contract:300 Anytime X-Network Minutes500 X-Network SMS1GB Bandwidth£27.50 per month.So, today, I followed most of these instructions to upgrade my iPhone to  v1.1.1 and to SIM Unlock (and sort YouTube out): (Link to Hackint0sh).It works great!Now to call Three to cancel my contract and get my PAC Code! 

Filed by MrJoshua at November 3rd, 2007 under Technology
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More Head-Fi Spending :(

After attending the 2007 UK Head-Fi Meet in Manchester last weekend (link) I realised that my weakest link was my USB DAC.  I had an Edirol UA-1X, which I thought sounded great, until I compared it to a “proper” USB DAC.  By this, I mean one that has it’s own power supply and doesn’t rely on USB power. I ended up doing lots of digging around the internet and came up with the Keces PCM2702 USB DAC (link to eBay).  It was shipped on the 3oth October from Taiwan and it arrived in England on the 2nd November.  Not bad!! It’s currently burning in, but it already sounds like it’s going to be a great addition to my system. 

Filed by MrJoshua at November 3rd, 2007 under Technology
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October 20, 2007

Graham Slee Amplifiers

I’m currently testing three headphone amplifiers from Graham Slee (GSPAudio):

The Graham Slee “Green” Solo

and two Graham Slee Voyagers (High and Lower Gain)

All three are very very accomplished headphone amplifiers; the Solo being the “Daddy”… An exceptional piece of design and engineering, it produces absolutely sublime audio into a wide range of headphones.

The high gain version Voyager was a pre-production model which I was kindly sent by Graham to “Beta-Test”. I found the gain a little too high, even for my full size cans, but the amp was almost unusable with my Ultimate Ears IEMs… It only just got out of the tiny imbalanced first portion of the Pot’s range before it became too loud. Graham took on this feedback (along with feedback on packaging and the power supply) and promptly sent over a lower gain model for me to try.

The lower gain version is still burning in, but it has already proved more suitable for a wider range of headphones and earphones than the first (high gain) version.

One thing that each Voyager has shown is that the “Contour” circuit is absolutely awesome!!! The Voyager includes a contour switch which activates a bass / treble boost circuit which is like nothing I’ve ever heard before! Forget everything you’ve heard or thought about tone control and check this out yourself… The majority of music I’ve tested the circuit out with sounds better with it activated, and not by a little bit either, this is a massive difference. It’s designed to make cheap headphones sound like big cans, much like BOSE (yuk!) does with their equalisation, but on a much more sensitive and well thought out scale, however I’ve been driving my Grado SR-325is with it engaged and it just sounds fantastic! It brings the music to life and only gets tripped up by a few pieces of music in my collection that sport “hot” brass sections and the like.

The Voyager can be powered by the supplied 9v PP3 battery, or the supplied 24v wall wart, or via USB, allowing it to be used portable, as part of a home system or at your desk.

Other people, more tuned in to the nuances of amplification than me, have commented that the Voyager sounds more like a high-end “home” headphone amplifier than it has any right to! Personally, I have been using the Voyagers more than the Solo, but I think that’s probably because the contour circuit of the Voyager flatters my sources (mainly 320kbps MP3 from either my Macbook and Edirol USB soundcard, or my iPod Nano or iPhone) making them sound ace.

I suggest the Solo would be ideal for someone who does not need a portable amplifier and that has other suitably high-end sources and media to feed it.

The Voyager is brand new and is so diverse in it’s application that it makes an amazing amplifier for all situations.

Graham Slee, I salute you!

Filed by MrJoshua at October 20th, 2007 under Technology
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September 22, 2007

I caved and bought and iPhone!

While my friend Eric in the US was waiting for delivery of my Grado SR-325i Headphones, I caved and got him to buy me an 8GB iPhone too, figuring that seeing as he was posting the headphones to me, he might as well stick the iPhone in the box too!

So, sometime next week I should receive a parcel full of bling!

Filed by MrJoshua at September 22nd, 2007 under Technology
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September 15, 2007

Head-Fi has a lot to answer for!

Why is it, whenever I get back into the Head-Fi forum, I end up spending a tonne of cash?

Last week it was the Qables line out cable (which by the way is absolutely fantastic! Great build quality and lush sound)… This week, some Grado SR-325i Headphones:

They should hopefully arrive towards the end of next week… I’m going to give them a dose of Pink Noise for a couple of days to burn them in, but I really can’t wait to hear what these sound like!

Filed by MrJoshua at September 15th, 2007 under Technology
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September 6, 2007

iPod Touch!

What a lovely looking device this is:

I’m sure you’ll have seen the spec all over the Intertubes, so I won’t go into detail, but it does just about everything I could ask for from a portable player… However because it is so similar to the iPhone, I think I’m going to wait to see what happens when that is released in the UK.

If they offer an unlimited data tariff with attractive talk and text allowances for under £35 a month, and if the device itself is under £250, I’ll probably get one. Well, that is of course so long as they don’t try to tie us in to a 2 year contract (no chance mate).

The other announcements Apple made last night didn’t bother me too much… The new Nano, while very cool in terms of functionality, didn’t get me going… My 2g 8Gb Nano looks and feels perfect and to me, the new Fatso Nano just looks a bit odd.

The “Classic” iPods are pretty cool if you need huge storage and battery life, but just look so dated next to the Touch. I wonder how long it’ll take before we start to see higher capacity in the Touch range.

Filed by MrJoshua at September 6th, 2007 under Technology
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Rock the Funky Beats…

My Brother is borrowing some turntables from one of his friends this week, so last night I decided to hook my Macbook and Edirol UA-1X up to the mixer and record a set.

Unfortunately, I didn’t realise that Garageband can only record 1999 Bars of music, and at 120bpm (which it was set to) means a recording time of just over 66 minutes. So, it ends rather abruptly, but apart from that and a couple of suspect mixes, I don’t think it’s bad - bearing in mind I haven’t owned any decks for about 10 years.

These are all my own records by the way, and are only a small sample of my collection (albeit the cream).

So, if you fancy a trip back to the mid 90s for some classic Jungle (Drum & Bass), have a listen to this:

Right-Click, Download Linked File (or Save-As!)

Let me know what you think!

Filed by MrJoshua at September 6th, 2007 under Music
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September 3, 2007

iPod Line Out

Yesterday, I decided to augment my new 8GB iPod Nano (Thank you to the Mediocre Show for this… I won it in their Raffle!). I have been running it straight into my Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5 Pro earphones since I received it, and while it sounds really good, I haven’t used my T&D Dreamworks Xtra X-1 earphone amplifer for ages.

I used to use this amp with my 4G 20GB iPod (using a PocketDock Line Out) , but as I moulded the line-out onto the iPod using metal putty stuff, I won’t be using it on anything else!

So, instead of buying another (I’d need the USB version for the Nano anyway), I decided to get something a bit bespoke!

I make a small number of “Boutique” hi-fi cables myself, but the iPod docking connector is a real bitch to work with, so I thought I’d leave this to someone else. Step forward Mr Hans Oosterwaal, from Qables.

I chose the least expensive, and most rugged of his iPod-dock-to-mini cables, the hand-built 6″ (15cm) iPod to straight mini Heavy Duty OFC braided copper.

I’m currently waiting for it to be built and delivered, so I’ll post my thoughts when it arrives.

Filed by MrJoshua at September 3rd, 2007 under Technology
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Asian Food FTW!

Oh lord, I’ve had a fantastic foody weekend!

On Friday night, Jules and I had a lovely Indian takeaway… I had a Balti that kicked ass and Jules had a classic Chicken Tikka Massala.

I checked out the Waitrose Recipes site on Saturday and decided that Japanese food sounded like a good idea.

So, I made a Chicken Miso Soup. Dynamite!

On Sunday for lunch I made Yakitori Kebabs, and for tea Jules made a Thai Green Curry!

All healthy stuff, but amazingly tasty!

Thank you Waitrose!

Filed by MrJoshua at September 3rd, 2007 under Food
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