Category: Tech

From Denmark With Sound

My Thorens TD-166 MkII turntable (Germany) with Ortofon Super OM20 phono cartridge (Denmark) and Dynaco A-25 loudspeakers (Denmark)

Dynaco A-25 with “Aperiodic” vent behind the non-removal grill cloth.
Somebody, who I think is named Ronnie, runs a Hi-Fi Hall of Fame website. Which means he’s the one who gets to decide on what’s worthy of entry. One of the easiest picks for a classic loudspeaker is the Dynaco A-25.

https://hifihalloffame.com/equipment/dynaco-a25-loudspeaker/

The A-25 was just the right size — smaller than the Large Advent speaker, and larger than the Small Advent. It was a rarity for its time in being praised by both Consumer Reports and Stereophile.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/dynaco-25-loudspeaker

For anyone who thinks $1600 would be a lot of money to spend on a pair of speakers today, adjusted for inflation that’s what a pair of Dynaco A-25’s cost when they were introduced in 1969.

Dear Verizon

Verizon Fios has been my ISP for exactly twenty years. I dropped Fios TV a year ago, after the forced switch from QAM to IP. The soft picture quality, that compared unfavorably to even DVD, was unacceptable to me.

Verizon is now about to disable Bismo’s DVR. He has a 4K TV, and perhaps Fios IP TV will look better on that than it did on my 2K setup.

Regarding my Internet service, I am once again trying to get the attention of an actual person to address this serious security issue within the Verizon Fios router.

At home, when I disable Wi-Fi on my Pixel 8a phone, leaving 5G/LTE network access, I am able to use Verizon Home remote administration. This is with Normal Security set on the G3100 router and without Remote Administration enabled. Which means that I, or potentially anyone else, can access my Fios home network from anywhere on the Internet. Clearly, the Verizon Home utility has backdoor access into the G3100 router. This is a serious security hole.

https://community.verizon.com/discussion/1834065/verizon-home-access-works-over-the-internet?utm_source=community-share

A Year With Lyrion

A bit over a year ago, I reconfigured my music network over from the last vestiges of Logitech Media Server and onto Lyrion. It’s been great, and their adding support for SiriusXM has been wicked good. Will channel 20 finally turn me into a Springsteen fan?

For all of my experimentation with various headphones and in-ear monitors, if I were forced to limit myself to one pair of each type, for laptop and phone use, these would be them.

They are both from Sony and they happen to be the least expensive products they have. The headphones are the MDR-ZX110, the earbuds are the MDR-EX15LP. They sound nothing at all alike, but they’re equally excellent. Being hairless, I stuck some foam on the headphone band for cushioning.