sandt38

A couple Sunrise pics from Miami 2 years ago.

This dude was in my front yard. It was about 1.5-2 inches long. It is a red velvet ant. It is supposedly some kind of flightless wasp, and it has a nasty, nasty sting.

Thanks guys. I just figured I would add a little something different.

A couple more sunrises over my pond... same day I think, different perspectives:

This guy parked on our back deck 2 years ago. I had just bought the camera, and I thought he was awesome, so I took a few shots. I love the closeup detail of the camera.

Now that is a fish. I am the long haired white dude with the monster dolphin on the right. Also in the shot are my friends with a Wahoo (on the left), and another dolphin and a Spanish Mackeral we caught that day. We landed on about 30 dolphin that day. We had Mahi-Mahi for months.

A few shots of my old baby Jay. She died about 3 years ago at 15 years old.

Here are a couple shots of our trip to Israel. The sexy lady is my wife... and believe it or not, we are likely old enough to be your parents. This is where Jesus' body was placed after it was removed from the cross. The rock where Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fishes The Garden Tomb.

I used to work with a guy named noR

Thanks! I love The Wall and I love how ObjectDock keeps my desktop clean and simple. Another one I like to use is:

I have been using FF for ages. I have IE, Chrome, and FF on my rigs, and Opera on my phone... I like FF best. It is fast and safe. Chrome is faster, but I don't like Google constantly collecting my information, and it doesn't offer me the goodies that FF does. I use it as a secondary browser, with IE in dead last, but FireFox is far and away the best in my eyes when you figure speed, safety, options, GUI, and functionality into the mix.

Thankfully on that end of the landing it is low, so it is actually "stair" Not so bad. But the cool thing is, due to my yard's slope, the other end of the landing is the perfect height for a loading dock. Actually I made it as wide as I did to help (it is a 13X5 deck). I can pull my PU to it, drop the gate, and have a 2 inch drop. off the front I am building a ramp to get large projects out, or if I need to work on the riding mower I can pull it in there, etc. So really the ramp is just a secondary, or I should say tertiary entry method

Damnit J-, I was looking at that article you linked in the midbass thread and now I can't seem to get building a similar enclosure out of my head. Here I have been happy with my IB up front, but wanting to play with the Anarchys... Now by looking at that guy's enclosure i know I can get the depth, and nearly the airspace I need building it similarly. I won't be able to stop thinking about it until I do it, and I have to finish on my approach for my workshop first. Maybe I will just finish the landing and the stairs, and put the ramp off until later... As long as i have the stairs i can get up there

That was the funny thing about my Z7000HC. It was rated at 50WRMS@4 ohms, 100WRMS@2 and 1500@1.

What was your favorite amplifier you have ever owned, and why was it your favorite? Just a fun topic that involves some retrospect. I was listening to my system, just taking it in today on the way home from work. I had to do too much thinking about my favorite comp set ever and still haven't really nailed down my fave, my favorite sub was simple, but the amp took a little thought. I had to weigh out a few, but the top few were definitely easy to recall. So give it up... The favorite you ever owned and why.

I would rather watch Oprah then soccer.

I took 2 days off for brain pain. Migraine's suck. Bummer. I get migraines and cluster headaches, so I know and feel your pain. There isn't much worse then that much pain in your head... and as someone who had 1/2 of his insides removed last year, I understand pain.

Reminded me of a joke I heard... You know what the last thing is to go through the mind of a bug when it hits a windshield? It's asshole. Was that too soon?

For me its hard to choose a top sport. i guess my list falls this way. 1. NFL 2. NBA 3. NCAA Football 4. NCAA Basketball 5. Soccer/hockey 6. Nascar/any car racing Baseball just bores the hell out of me! Much easier for me. NFL NHL That is all.

Who is your guy? I assume you mean in NY... All my buddies used to go to a guy, I wish I could remember his name... but he would flake out like that. But he was the best around. He would book every 3 months and fill up in just a few days.

27 World Series championships. . . . 16 post season appearances out of the last 17 years, and 15 of those were consecutive. . . EVERY game, sold out. . 'Nuff said. Exactly. Even if you don't like them, you just can't deny how incredible a feat that is. As far as I know, no other team in any professional sport can even come close to claiming that kind of accomplishment.

The USPS priority mail package arrived, and I knew what was in it. I had been excited about their arrival, as they were the final piece to my upgrade from a more entry level set of CDTs to one of their very best 2 way component set offerings. The journey took about a month. The heavy box revealed the monster CDT ES-06 midbass drivers. They are pretty beefy drivers, with a big rubber boot over the motor. Jerking the boot off, I discovered a super shiny chrome motor. The basket is a nice cast 4 spoke basket. The quick release spring terminals offer a secure and quick connection. I quickly yanked out the old mids and modified the door to fit the motor, and they were in place about 1 hour later. I fired them up and let them have a little break in time while I e-mailed Mike at Vertex Audio, who was a great help in getting me set up with the units best suited to achieve my goals, and let him know I got the set and I had just carved up my doors to make those puppies fit. Essentially my upgrades left me owning the CDT Audio ES-062i GOLD 6.5" Component Set which I will review as a complete set .The tweeters are the DRT26A aluminum dome modular tweeter units, which would be an upgrade to the normal set. The tweeters are very attractive, and obviously very well built. You can change the driver itself from the silk dome, to the aluminum dome, to the titanium dome by using the supplied tool, grabbing the base, and turning the tweeter module until it clicks. Then the tweeter slides out of the base and you can insert the new module just as easily. It takes about 20 seconds to swap both tweeter domes. The tweeters have just an awesome amount of options for mounting them. The crossover is the EX550i, which was designed specifically for the ES-06 mids and the DRT26 tweeters, as it brings the crossover point down to rolloff (2.5kHz) of the powerful mid. The crossover is a decent size, not tiny by any means, but not obnoxiously large. It appears to use very good components and has several setting options. There are no jumpers in here, all settings are done with switches, and admittedly the switches could be marked better. Crossover on the right, with the switches circled) Mid and tweet installed. Now, on to the install in question. I wanted to let everyone know the important factors surrounding the set, as they can play a role in their performance. I used 2 different amplifiers while running this set. The first was a solid state Cadence FXA-5100 bridged, running 300 WRMS/ch. The second was a tube amplifier, Butler TDB475 bridged to provide 200 WRMS/ch. The source is a Pioneer Premier FH-P800BT. Everything is set flat unless otherwise indicated in the review, all bass boost and enrichment modes off. I set the HU to highpass at 63Hz. The substage consists of a Cadence ZRS6000D which is ~650@2ohms, and 2 Adire Koda 10” subs in a midsized (1.2 per sub) sealed arrangement, crossed at 80Hz and run in reverse polarity. The mids are in the stock location in the lower front of the doors, decoupled from the sheet metal, spaced out with MDF, in a well damped door in an IB alignment. The tweets are well angled in the kicks, with a desired soundstage in the center of the windshield. Here is a little speaker porn. This is the ES-06 (the large black driver) compared to the EF-62FG (the red driver) Now for the review This set is a very solid offering from CDT for those of us who like a really warm, powerful midbass that can really get down deep. The only shortcoming is that the midrange may be a little soft for some listeners when listened through a mid level solid state amp. The tubes really opened the midrange up tremendously, and I have to say that this set with the tubes is a winner all the way around. I really like the aluminum dome tweeter, as it is crisp and detailed, without evidence of sibilance or ringing at all. It really allows for a broad soundstage and a great image. The soundstage is just huge in the car without much work. My only complaint is, there may be a little too much shimmer with the SS amp, although the tubes really pulled it back and tamed it where it might get a little domineering. Overall, it is a fantastic tweeter, one deserving of it’s reputation. Tonal accuracy is very good, but the midbass of the set is a bit silky to be called perfect, although I like the buttery smooth midbass. I have always liked Tantric’s self titled album for midbass detail and depth. The mids definitely handled the usual tracks with precision; the drumbeats accompanied by Hugo Ferreira growling voice showed the mids could really handle transients exceptionally well. I love the way they blend acoustic guitar and electric guitar too. It allows us the ability to determine how realistic the differences are between the 2, with particular attention to the decay. The EX550i has them crossed perfectly (I had to make a small tweeter aiming adjustment to compensate for a tiny dip in frequency response), and the DRT26As handle the low crossover point with ease. Tantric does nothing exceptionally fast, but the separation of their instruments in their first release really helps show off how well a set can provide detail and accuracy during reproduction. Dream Theater’s Train of Thought was next on the list. Mike Portnoy attacks a drum set like it is his enemy… and the ES-o6 handled the attack with ease. Kickdrum separation was precise; the ES-06 almost belittles his speed. I love Pink Floyd. They got a lot of play on these speakers. I stuck to Dark Side of the Moon (30th Anniversary Remastered SACD Hybrid, original copy), and Wish You Were Here. Dark Side of the Moon really was amazing. My old lady commented “Wow, this sounds amazing, did you buy new speakers or something?” to which I replied, “No way honey!!!” Even she noticed the difference at very modest listening levels. Floyd’s psychedelic trips through both of these albums really presented imaging that is so deep and the stage is so vast it seems to extend beyond the doors and windshield of the car. The usual suspects played on the system as well. Dave Matthews Band’s 34 showed amazing depth with the set, and the Tenor Sax played so beautifully it was frightening. I love to use Warehouse, and Ants Marching as well, because they provide a ton of detail from the bottom of the audible spectrum to the top, with explosive woodwinds and brass, pounding bass, harmonicas, cymbals (from delicate high hats to huge crashes) guitars, and of course, Dave’s voice. Everything is so accurate, and the image is amazing with so many instruments exploding around you, with amazing depth and clarity. Sarah McLachlan and Norah Jones both maintained composure, and beauty. Their voices didn’t seem to feel strained at all, no ringing on the high notes, and the mids don’t even seem like they are trying. Pianos rolled behind them with amazing precision and detail. The decay is as perfect as we can expect in an imperfect environment like a car. In conclusion, this set is very accurate, very fast, and finely detailed. The mids’ attack is aggressive, and their decay is natural. They provided more impact than the FG mids, but they are not fatiguing like many aggressive midbasses can be. Their depth is impressive, and they handle their midrange duties in a very mellow, laid back manner. Transient response from the mids is impressive. The tweeters are very precise, and controlled, and delicate. I heard no audible ringing, no sibilance, and harsh isn’t a word that comes to mind. They are critical, without being bright, laid back without being flat. The crossovers handle the mid to tweeter transition smoothly. This truly is one fine component set. They are a well rounded set that really encompasses the whole package audio enthusiasts are searching for.

Looks like you are disappointed about that. Congrats!

Same here. As the lead tech I make 50%, the other guys make 45%. The shop labor rate is $89/hour (just got a raise last week, up from $83/hour). We work flat rate, so on a job that the book calls for a specific labor time, we get paid that no matter what it takes. For example, yesterday I had a Pontiac that needed a lower ball joint. The book called for 2.5 hours. I got paid for 2.5 hours... but it took me about 30 minutes to do. But, let's say I get a job that pays 5 hours, and it takes me 10 hours... I still only get paid for 5 hours. That is where experience pays off. I can have a week where I spend 40 hours here on the clock, and get paid for 80 hours. I turned 96 hours one week, that is my best, in a 45 hour work week. But when I first started I might turn 20 or 30 hours in a 45 hour work week.

Sounds like a win/win situation to me.