A while back I saw Rick Beato in a YouTube video where he was part of a CBS Saturday Morning story on AI in music. The prompt he gave Suno was minimal, and the song it produced was actually quite good—good enough that listeners were asking who the artist was and how they could follow them. That stuck with me. Since then, I set up a Suno account and started playing around. I published a few songs that have had zero listens other than me, which is perfectly fine—it was more about experimenting than anything else. Fast forward to…
Category: blog
Reviving a Classic: HIFIMAN HE-400 Custom Cable Adapter Project
In July 2025, I picked up a pair of HIFIMAN HE-400 planar magnetic headphones at a flea market for $20. At that price, it was worth the gamble—but what I didn’t expect was just how good they sounded. The HE-400 delivers that classic early planar sound—solid bass, smooth presentation, and an overall musical signature that still holds up today. But like most older HiFiMAN gear, it came with a couple of issues that needed attention. The Challenges 1. Aging Ear Pads The ear pad mounting rings were dry-rotted and falling apart—pretty typical for headphones of this age. That was an easy…
Scratching the Audio Gear Itch at Cause for Paws
It seems like Friday afternoons might be the sweet spot for thrift store hunting. This past Friday I stopped into the Cause for Paws store and came across two items that, at their price, I simply couldn’t pass up. One of them I didn’t even fully understand at first glance — it looked like a black geodesic dome with a Bang & Olufsen (B&O) logo on top. Price: $7.99. Into the cart it went. The second find I recognized immediately: a Sony BDP-S570 Blu-ray player for $11.99. That one I knew was worth grabbing because it’s one of the Sony…
Thrift Store Find: Refurbishing a Pioneer PD-F507 25-Disc CD Changer
Every once in a while a thrift store run turns into a small audio adventure. That happened recently when I spotted a Pioneer PD-F507 sitting on the shelf for $16.99. For someone who enjoys vintage audio gear and still spins plenty of CDs, a working multi-disc player at that price was hard to pass up.What followed was a fun little project—part thrift store gamble, part light refurbishment—that turned out better than expected. The Thrift Store Test – When buying used CD players, especially changers, there’s always a bit of risk. Mechanical complexity is usually the downfall of older units. Before committing to…
Sony CDP-209ES – A $16 ES Gamble That Paid Off
The Pawn Shop Find Several months ago I bought this CD player at my local National Pawn shop. It was listed for $19 and I think I paid $16 out the door. I verified the tray opened and closed before I bought it, but I didn’t have a CD with me to test playback. For $16, I felt it was worth the risk. Once home, I loaded a disc and waited for the familiar whirring spin-up… and nothing. Nada. Zilch. 🙁 We were heading to my in-laws for dinner, so I didn’t have time to dig into it. I took…
KZ Axas IEM with M2 USB DSP Cable
I recently purchased the KZ Axas IEMs. I originally opted for the 3.5mm cable, but I ran into some mic issues during Microsoft Teams calls for work. I ended up ordering the USB-C DAC/DSP version, and the difference is noticeable. The USB-C cable features a built-in DAC with four EQ modes, indicated by an LED-backlit KZ logo on the plug. Switching modes is easy via a small gray button: Green: Slight bass roll-off, but fuller than the Red mode. Blue: The “Bass Head” setting—maximum bass boost with a slight treble reduction. Red: Leanest bass response with a slight boost to…
Pioneer SE-305 Driver Update
I picked up a pair of Pioneer SE-305 headphones at a flea market for $5 a while back. Other than replacing the cable, getting both channels working again, and installing new ear pads, they were in decent shape. I listened to them for a while and found that the music that suited them best came from the era they were manufactured—most of the 1970s—which, for me, meant classic rock. Always looking for a small project, I started watching some YouTube content on swapping drivers in vintage headphones. After poking around on Amazon, I decided to try an inexpensive option that…
Music Experimentation
Over the holidays, I created several songs using Suno to mark birthdays, meaningful people, and personal milestones. While some may argue that these are not “true” musical creations, the reality is that many drafts were discarded before the music finally captured what I was trying to express. The collection begins with chamber-leaning instrumentals rooted in classical textures and gradually moves toward more modern, neo-ambient interpretations to close the set. None of the pieces were titled during the process. It was only after listening back—following a couple of long, twelve-hour workdays—that I realized what I had thought were darker prompts had…
Growing Headphone Collection
It’s been a couple of good months for adding to my headphone collection. The most recent acquisition is a pair of Meze 99 Classics from Picasso Pawn. The markdown wasn’t quite in my normal range, but it was fair, with all sales final. These sound great and have a very balanced output, with boosts where I like them, and they are very clear with good separation. The only problem noted is that one ear cup has a short that I can ignore for the most part unless something bumps the connector on that cup and the sound momentarily drops from…
Sony MDR-Z7m2 Headphones Pawn Find
I am a discount audio shopper finding much of my budget audiophile gear at local pawn shops and on Marketplace. These Sony headphones are my latest find from a local “National Pawn” shop and purchased for $125 after a little haggling. I probably had seen these in the case and they didn’t pique my interest based on them being from Sony, but when they showed up in the clearance case, I gave them a second look. I got out my cheap Lightning to 3.5mm dongle and pulled up Subsonic and replayed my last song which turned out to be “Easy…
Google Fiber – Triangle – A Tale of Two Experiences
First, I have to say my personal experience with Google Fiber (GF) since getting it a few years ago has been great. The speed is consistent and, if there is a problem I may not have noticed, it will be reflected as a discount on my monthly bill. My install process was uneventful in part due to my prep work to run a pull string from the back of my home, through the crawl space, up the corner of the garage to my office where I needed the connection. The install team was super appreciative of the pull string and…
Updated Photography Favorites – Webinar and Motivation
Over the past couple of years and recent shooting for family has resulted in a few additions my favorites category on my PerformancePixel web gallery. This is a portrait made of my niece Raven a couple of weeks before her wedding. Today, I am in a photography webinar with some great talks from Joe McNally, Harold Davis, Chris Knight, David Ulrich, Lindsay Adler, and Chris Orwig to name a few. These are all authors for Rocky Nook publishing. Tomorrow, it will be great to hear from Scott Kelby as well. One thing I find with my photography hobby is self…
Subjectivity of Senses
This quote from Carl Jung conveys what I believe about the abilities of human senses, especially when applied to human hearing, which should be considered by reviewers before attempting to wax eloquently about audiophile equipment on an empty stomach or desiring of a soothing beverage. It is not easy to grasp this point. But the point must be grasped if we are to know more about the ways in which the human mind works. Man, as we realize if we reflect for a moment, never perceives anything fully or comprehends anything completely. He can see, hear, touch, and taste;…
Infragard – What’s missing is yoU! What’s missing is some modicum of membership support.
Many years ago I wrote a SANS paper on Community Policing the Internet (give me a break on the grammar – ChatGPT wasn’t a thing in 2003). In my paper, I tout the the mission of Infragard, a local chapter based community outreach organization fostered by the FBI (to the point the FBI provided background checks on persons wanting to join), for its ability to engage the frontline personnel employed by critical infrastructure sectors. It gave the FBI a means to get their agents in front of these members to start putting names with faces and hopefully trading contact information…
OpenAi ChatGPT an Interview, of sorts
Bard is out and I was able to ask and compare answers from ChatGPT. Check out this PDF for details. Recent links for the topic:https://news.google.com/search?q=Artificial%20Intelligence%20News&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aenhttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/20/technology/chatbots-turing-test.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/20/technology/google-chatgpt-artificial-intelligence.html Below you will find my initial post where I ask a series of questions using the OpenAI ChatGPT web interface. I won’t say the responses were alarming or revealing. They are more of a politicians well rehearsed answers. More recently, I tried the OpenAI Python code generator while completing some exercises in the “Learn to Code By Solving Problems – A Python Programming Primer” by Daniel Zingaro book I am reading. I had already completed…
Free GeoIP Lookups – Accuracy
My shell script I use to lookup geoip information recently started failing on the json.tool jq portions and instead of trying to fix it I rewrote it in python. The original shell script leveraged api.ipgeolocation.io, which turned out to be fairly inaccurate on the information returned. Original Shell Script Code (API Key is if you register with the site located in Lahore, PK) #!/bin/shif [ $# -ne 1 ] then echo “Usage: geoip.sh ip_address”exit 1fiAPI_KEY=redactedcurl -sS –request GET \ –url ‘api.ipgeolocation.io/ipgeo?apiKey=’$API_KEY’&ip=’$1 \| python3 -m json.tool | \jq ‘{ip: .ip, isp: .isp, city: .city, state_province: .state_prov, region_code: .region_code, country_name: .country_name, country_code:…
Western NC Vacation 2022
For a second time we leveraged VRBO to locate a vacation rental. Our first VRBO experience was with a rental in Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia a few years ago. This time, we were headed to the Boone area in North Carolina. Late in in trying to find a place, we booked only a few days before our trip at a home about 20 minutes outside of Boone toward Tennessee in the Cove Creek – Vilas area. This place was amazing with three bedrooms and a bath attached to each one. The kitchen, dinning and living room were open and…
Amazon Music Listening on Linux
From what I can tell, the options to get an Amazon Music player running under Linux is limited with the end of support announcement from Nuvola Player at the end of 2022. Plus, I have not been able to get Nuvola working with Ubuntu 20.04. One quick fix to try in Linux is a user agent switcher. If you are like me, you visit the music.amazon.com site with Firefox only to be told the version is not supported and you need to upgrade to the latest version. The only problem is the latest FF for Linux is installed. Working in…
Thinking Out Loud on a Global Stage
I have recently read two Op-Ed pieces concerning the lead up to the Putin war to re-assimilate Ukraine, one by Thomas L. Friedman and another piece by Robert Gates expounding his thoughts on future of threats from China and Russia and a return to military buildup by the U.S. and bringing back aid programs. The first piece I read talked about how the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) probably helped to push Putin into a corner from which he now fights to regain former Soviet states in a new Russian empire where America and NATO could share the blame. That…
Topping DX3 Pro+ DAC
I was trying to locate something more than a headphone amp for listening to my CD-Player (old Cambridge Audio DVD89), my laptop via USB for high-res streams and other devices I might connect digitally to the inputs. The Topping DX3 Pro+ has a good number of inputs. The least used for me is the Bluetooth, but it’s a nice convenience when I am not concerned about audio quality. I finally figured out how to get sound from the unit when I make a Bluetooth connection from my stereo receiver which is sending LDAC. The Sony receiver’s Bluetooth TX works with…
Audio Snake Oil – /ˈsnāk ˌoil/
Snake Oil/ˈsnāk ˌoil/noun informal•North American noun: snake oil; noun: snakeoil – a substance with no real medicinal value sold as a remedy for all diseases. – a product, policy, etc. of little real worth or value that is promoted as the solution to a problem. “the new tax plan was denounced as snake oil” Over the past few years I have looked at updating and upgrading my headphones, audio devices and getting back into to listening to music with a more critical ear. As I started on this journey, I found there were either cheap, inexpensive, budget conscious, expensive or…
Dell XPS 8930 Woes
As much as I would like to say my experience with the new Dell XPS 8930 tower computer has been uneventful, I can’t say that and regret this purchase after my experience with Dell support and their attempted repair. The issue started at the end of May when the built-in SD Card reader quit working. I had just used it the week before to inventory a bunch of cards I had lying around. And better to know I can reformat them in the camera without worry I that had not yet imported them into Lightroom. The only updates applied to…
Down for the count
Lost the VM that ran this server. This new server is slowly being reconstituted with old content based on the number of requests for the old post. Thanks to the Wayback Machine/Internet Archive captures for making it a little easier. If you have a specific post you want back, let me know.
OUYI Electronic Commerce Chinese Scammers – Paypal to the Rescue
I was recently presented an ad offering me an early access deal to a portable laser engraver for the super low price of $19.99. That in itself should have been the clue that this was one of those offers that was too good to be true. But already having a larger non-portable laser engraver, I thought $20 was cheap enough that if it wasn’t a great laser system, I would not be out that much money. So, I placed my order which totaled $29.98 after the $9.99 shipping fee was tacked on. Here is the ad for the item from…
My Path into Information Security
Let me be the first to say that I appreciate the path I took to get into the Information Security field. Today, the more common name for the field is Cybersecurity, which I will short hand as cyber for the rest of this post. I know there are purists that totally hate the short form, but they are not typing this, I am. A recent effort by my nephew to consider a career change to move from a sales rep into cyber got me thinking about my path into the field. First, I was on the leading edge of the…