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TheMightyEthan
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@Atomsk88 Good pick. I got my Extended LotR blu-ray a few years back for...£30 iirc, was a good purchase.

 

@TheMightyEthan It's a sous vide. Fancy form of cooking, though the side effect being your steak is "perfectly" cooked, but you need to manually singe it with a cooking torch or it's all grey on the outside.

sous-vide-ugly.jpg

 

I bought a NAS.

41sqebxNy6L._SY355_.jpg

 

Though it's not arrived yet and I got it through eBuyer which means it'll likely be Yodel so I'll never see it (bonus is it's coming to my work, which usually means they don't pull the "no one was in" shit. Guy on front desk was complaining he was waiting on something through Hermes. He's never getting that).

 

Oh and:

91OgJmwlJQL._SX342_.jpg

 

£3.95. Can't say fairer than that (I did RT the deal so hoping some of you got on it).

 

Also ordered some USB-C cables, a 3.5mm jack extender for my PC speakers, a phone holder for a bike handle, and a computer case fan.

 

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Steaks need to be charred outside and very pink inside. Uniform gray sous vide steak looks gross.

 

Sous vide works wonders for poultry and fish, though. It's also nice for slow-cooking pork, but kinda of redundant if you already have a slow cooker, I guess.

 

I also got this for my wife for Xmas and it really pained me:

 

MM1Y2_AV1_ROSEGOLD

Ipad 9.7 inch with 128 GB because she watches tons of movies on it. This is replacing her increasingly-misbehaving Mini 2.

 

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You haven't lived until you've eaten steak cooked by sous vide. The most tender and juiciest of steaks I've ever ate in my life have been by sous vide. All you've got to do is the finishing touch of grilling/caramelizing the outside for a few minutes and it looks like a conventional steak.

 

Except it's better in every conceivable way. I've had too many steaks where the cook doesn't seem to know what medium is and I get a sloppy "medium rare" where all the juices have collected in the all-red center of the steak, but the outside is dry well-done. It's why I favor going medium on steaks because it lets me test if the restaurant even gauges internal temp and proper cut.

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I've had sous vide steaks. It's like having a pot roast or other slow-cooked beef thing that is also a steak. Yes, medium is the way to order at restos, but any decent grillperson knows that direct heat and subsequent resting creates a wonderful crust as well as a juicy, well-cooked (rare) interior. 

 

 

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tangent_ampster_x4_01.jpg?itok=V5mLM_mJ

An extra week and a half to choose the amp wasn't too bad in my mind. One thing I noticed with amps is the designers are not afraid of sticking multiple mismatched and ugly fonts on the front of a single product (mine has 4?). It seems unrelated to the cost of the unit too so you can't buy your way out of it.

 

Overall this endeavour has cost me more than I initially planned (more than double actually) but I only paid around a third of the full RRP so I still think I got a good value system.

 

I have my first record too.

VvJsIiY.jpg

 

Although I think I still have some records in the loft from my childhood when that was the standard way to buy music.

 

I can't remember if I actually said why I bought all this? I've gotten into the habit of playing my "thumbs up" playlist and missing out vast swathes of my music collection. My Cds are taking up too much space so I am getting rid of those, and just keeping digital copies. My plan is to keep to my magpie  approach when listening out and about with my earphones. but to play full albums digitally through my new system when I can, and to buy special/all time favourite albums on vinyl to listen to as a treat.

 

Just waiting for my speaker cable to arrive and I will be good to go.

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On 12/23/2017 at 3:08 PM, TheFlyingGerbil said:

YnNnrO5.png

 

I had to return my record player. Back to the drawing board

 

 

Gerbil, just catching up to this now. Did you end up getting another record player? I have nearly 600 records and I've been collecting since 2003 or so. I'd be happy to give you advice if you need it! 

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Thanks for the offer of advice, but I ordered a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Esprit SB so I only want confirmation of my awesome purchasing decisions at this point.

It's still not dispatched yet though and  my refund hasn't materialised either as the delivery failed over the holidays*.

 

The reason I returned the previous one was the noise it made, you have to turn the volume up on your PC as it was only recorded on my phone, the main noise kicks in at 8 seconds and it was audible even across the room unless the music was particularly loud. So I guess I do have a question, "How much noise should the record player itself make?" I assume it will make some noise but this really ruined the listening experience. If that's normal I've made a very expensive mistake.

 

The change of record player did mean I needed a pre-amp, but I only bought a cheap one (Behringer PP400) because I couldn't face thinking any more about it so if you have opinions on what to look out for with those I will certainly appreciate it.

 

*While I'm writing this I just got two emails to say my refund has gone through and my turntable has dispatched. wahoo.

Edited by TheFlyingGerbil
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@TheFlyingGerbil You did well! That's almost the same turntable as mine, except yours has the acrylic platter, which I will upgrade mine to have at some point this year. You might want to invest in a clamp, I've heard those are beneficial for acrylic platters, but obviously can not confirm now. I've just upgraded from an Audio Technica LP-120 and I could definitely hear the difference immediately. 

I haven't tried that preamp before but it's easy enough to swap one out later. The thing to think of is, you're running your $600ish turntable through a $25 preamp, which probably isn't doing your sound any favours. I picked up this one, also made by Pro-Ject and I really like it. Be wary of anything with USB, it's usually an expensive add on that you won't use (for instance there's a USB version of my preamp for $100 more... no thanks!!).

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