Inside a Technics SL-1200 turntable with DJ Fix founder Jon Hildenstein
ZAK Agency did some qualitative interviews amongst young people for their opinion on diary products.
Opinions on dairy products
And if you’re tired of dairy farming, what about cows as a method of carbon capture? Courtesy of Rabobank. The theory is that by carefully managing grassland grazing, farmers can feed their livestock and maximise carbon capture. Part of this process is helped by the use of virtual fencing on the open range. I am sure that it makes sense from a mathematical point of view, but what about growing natural forests?
Opinion | When Can I Get a Coronavirus Vaccine in America? – The New York Times – I know, I know. You’d much prefer to hear about the minutae of my fingernails than another coronavirus post. I am not trying o do anything but point out to you the great interactive infographic in the article. You put in some basic detail and gives you an idea of where you would be likely to sit in the queue.
It bases your placement on the following information:
Age
American county where you live
High priority profession status (medical worker, teacher, first responder etc)
COVID related health risks
Its all rather clever.
Taiwan’s flag carrier EVA Air have released a waterproof packable jacket that caught my eye. As airline merchandise goes its subtly branded on the hood. The print design, cut and fabric give it a look that would be at home on screen in either Blade Runner or Cyberpunk 2077.
The Sennheiser HD 25 Light is a modern marvel of design that can trace its history back as far as 1968. German headphone company Sennheiser started making a range of headphones that would become iconic.
How we got the Sennheiser HD 25 light
Founded in the immediate aftermath of the second world war, Sennheiser quickly built up a reputation in professional broadcast and recording circles with its microphones. In 1968 Sennheiser launched the HD 414, which was made sturdy plastic mouldings and a highly adjustable headband , attached to light on-ear headphones. The HD 414 set a design philosophy that the Sennheiser HD 25 Light continues on.
This was back when most headphones were bulky ‘cans’ a la vintage Koss models. They would weigh on the listener during a long listening session. The Sennheiser HD 414 by comparison was light and easy to wear while providing an open accurate sound.
My first foray into hi-fi as a teenager was buying a pair of HD 414s from Richer Sounds. By that time Sennheiser had a full range of headphones, many of which were lighter and more modern looking than anything else on the market, especially when compared to AKG, Beyerdynamic or Sony.
Sennheiser had started making pilot headsets for Lufthansa in 1980 and had developed a good understanding of sound isolation.
Sony MDR-V6 and MDR-7500 series.
When I started DJing, I aspired to own a pair of Sony MDR-V6 launched in 1985 and only discontinued in 2020. These live on through the Sony MDR-7500 series.
These had a reputation for sound quality, good sound isolation, were robust and less bulky than their European rivals. They still weighed in at 230+ grams which could be a bit wearing after several hours. This was the rival that Sennheiser had to beat, and when they were launched Japan and Sony were at their peak.
However, the things hi-fi and sound recording magazines don’t tell you about them
Over the longer term, the vinyl trim on the Sony headphones would start to flake and they weren’t designed to be user-serviceable. Finally, even if you were inclined to repair and maintain them, Sony wouldn’t sell you the parts (in the UK at least.) 12 months of regularly DJing with them and they were needed new ear pads and a headband.
Later on I would go to video shoots and see sound recordists with Sonys which had gaffer-taped headbands and ear pads that looked rat bitten.
1988
1988 was a pivotal year, Mr and Mrs Danny Rampling were running Shoom out of a gym in Southwark, Paul Oakenfold was running similar nights in the backroom of Richard Branson‘s Heaven nightclub underneath Charing Cross station. Up North, the Hacienda was hosting the Zumbar and Hot.
All of which were pivotal in the rise of house music and nightlife culture for the following four decades. This in turn drove sales of professional DJ equipment including the Made 2 Fade family of mixers and Technics SL-1200 series turntables. Record shops sprang up on the high street catering to this audience, the kind of frequency only seen with Turkish barber shops now.
What was lost in all that cultural change was the launch of the Sennheiser HD 25. The Sennheiser HD 25 (1) when it was released was aimed at broadcast users in outdoor settings and sound recorders on a film, TV or advertising shoot.
It had the robust build quality and lightness of the HD 414, and sat on the ear in a similar manner which allowed for hours of very comfortable listening. There was a split head rest which helped keep the head ventilated while listening and spread the load. It had clutter free cabling which borrowed from Sennheiser’s experience making headsets for pilots, along with good sound isolation.
The frame had a special bracket that allowed an ear cup to be pivoted off your ear, making them ideal for DJs.
Finally it was easy to power as a headset thanks to aluminium voice coils that drew on Sennheiser’s heritage making professional microphones for broadcast and studio usage.
The Sennheiser HD 25 (1) when it was released was aimed at broadcast users in outdoor settings and sound recorders on a film, TV or advertising shoot and it took a while for DJs to discover it.
Being aimed at professional users Sennheiser designed them to be user serviceable. You can still buy all the parts AND there is a good third party community making parts for them as well.
Concorde
By the early 1990s, the Sennheiser HD 25 family of headphones comprised of the Sennheiser HD-25 (1) and the Sennheiser HD 25 SP – which is the direct forerunner of the Sennheiser HD 25 Light.
The headphones caught the attention of British Airways who were looking for passenger headphones that matched the noisy but premium experience of flying on Concorde. Sennheiser built a simplified version with adaptions to match the onboard audio system drawing from the HD 25 and the vintage HD 414 headband design known as the HD 25 BA.
This then set the foundation for Sennheiser to design the HD 25 SP as a simplified version of the HD 25. The HD 25 SP didn’t need to have a high level of impedance match the aircraft audio system, so it could be a lot easier to power.
What’s impressive about the Sennheiser HD 25 range is how little they’ve changed over the four decades they’ve been in production. There has been a slight improvement with the HD 25 (2) and the HD 25 Pro – which gave users a coiled cable and optional velour ear pads (recommended). Most of the other variants have been either limited editions more about marketing than sound, and some brand collaborations notably an adidas edition with three stripes and blue ear pads.
The Sennheiser HD 25 Light was a revamp of the HD 25 SP. The differences were:
A different headband design that modernised the vintage HD 414 inspired headband design. It connects to the back of the earphone the same as the HD 25, allowing it to use the same drivers as its big brother.
Sennheiser HD 25 Light
So what are they like and why am I talking about them? I got a pair of the Sennheiser HD 25 Light because I was doing more video calls in crowded spaces and wanted an on ear headphone that would work. It wasn’t hard to know what I wanted. If am listening to music or an audiobook in bed I use a pair of HD 25 headphones. They are very detailed even on low volume and ideal because falling off the bed does no damage to them at all.
I could have gone with a pair of gamer headphones, but they are overly bulky and their sound is tuned for Call of Duty rather than than video calls, podcasts and electronica. I found that they tend to get warm when you’re wearing them on two back-to-back calls and a three-hour virtual workshop. Lastly they come with LED lighting and controls that I don’t need.
So my solution was simple a pair of HD 25 Lights and a third party cable that had a built-in microphone. They sound similar to the the HD 25 like you would expect, the slight differences I think are down to the slightly different fit of the headband affecting they way they sit against my ear and the third party audio cable.
Calls are clear and detailed as is most type of music with more detail than the Shure IEMs that I previously wore all the time. I have a few hacks planned for the headset:
A hard case cover to keep all my audio bits together lint and dust-free in my bag as much as protect the headphones
A smidge of Sugru as reinforcement at the joint between the headphone jack and the cable to reinforce it. I do the same on the power cable for my laptop where the cable meets the MagSafe adapter. It’s less hassle to deal with than the blocks of epoxy putty that plumbers use and comes in more manageable amounts.
The Shure IEMs are still fine for talking calls on the move and listening to podcasts on the tube, while the Sennheiser HD 25 Light headphones take over my office work.
The North America semiconductor corridor looks at Mexico, the US and Canada as a potential production capacity eco-system for the semiconductor industry. The North America semiconductor corridor is framed in terms of increasing resilience in security. At the moment the semiconductor industry for reasons of cost and supply chain ecosystem is focused on the US Pacific coast and Asian countries from Singapore to Korea that face on to the Pacific.
In the North America semiconductor corridor also has a political advantage bringing back more high value jobs across Canada, the US and Mexico. There are considerable challenges to the North American semiconductor corridor from talent to energy and water requirements. The US CHIPS and Science Act has looked to catalyse some of the change required.
Ancient monuments to the dead
The summer solstice on Wednesday reminded me of Ireland’s stone monuments. Some like Newgrange have a calendar type element, but most of them are solely monuments to the dead. The megaliths continue to guard their secrets well despite the educated deductive reasoning of archaeologists.
Wilkie Collins radio dramas
Wilkie Collins along with Arthur Conan Doyle invented what we now know as the detective genre. This stream of Wilkie Collins dramas is better than modern productions on BBC Radio 4.
Technics SL-DZ1200
Techmoan did a review of the Technics SL-DZ1200. I am a big fan of the DZ1200 over Pioneer’s CDJ devices and they did a good rundown of the device. Hopefully, the DZ1200 will come back in a new and improved form if Technics relaunch of the SL-1200 is sufficiently successful?
Microsoft Auto PC
Auto PC
Back when I worked agency side on Microsoft I never heard about the Microsoft Auto PC experiment which seems to be Microsoft’s abortive move into in-car entertainment and information systems. This seems to be alongside the more successful personal digital assistant and nascent smartphones. It’s fascinating to see technologies like voice recognition, iRDA, compact flash (but not as a music media) and USB being incorporated because these capabilities were being put into future PDA and smartphone products.
CES launch
It was launched at CES in 1998 according to the Microsoft corporate website. It’s interesting, I still have similar problems with voice recognition.
Directions
The rudimentary directions software was similar to the turn-by-turn direction print outs that I ordered from The AA Route Planner service. during the mid-to-late 1990s for long journeys – but on your stereo screen. A similar approach was also taken by Palm app Vindigo for pedestrians about the same time. Disclosure: I worked agency side on the launch of the Vindigo London guide alongside the work I was doing on Palm PDAs at the time.
(The AA Route Planner service still exists, but it is now online rather than something you ordered over the phone and received via the mail. However you can still print out turn-by-turn directions. It’s also likely to not send you on some of the interesting routes that modern navigation apps seem to manage.)
Clarion
I feel sorry for Clarion who were Microsoft’s only hardware partner. Clarion is now owned by Faurecia SE, a French headquartered auto parts manufacturer with Chinese car manufacturer DongFeng Motor Corporation who were the local partner to Peugeot, Nissan and Honda’s efforts in the Chinese market as a key minority shareholder.
Over the weekend, Darya Dugina was blown up in a car bomb under the Toyota Landcruiser, her newsworthiness was down to her being the daughter of Aleksandr Dugin. News stories covering the bomb blast described Aleksandr Dugin as a political commentator close to the Putin regime. But that descriptor doesn’t really tell you that much.
Aleksandr Dugin is a political philosopher, published author and commentator. But most importantly he is the founder of the Eurasian Movement. This movement supports neo-Eurasianism. This means opposing and rolling back the Atlanticism of western nations and having Russia to rebuild its influence through annexations and alliances, underpinned by an ultranationalist and neo-fascist ideological logical world view that considers America and liberal values the scapegoat for every ill.
https://flic.kr/p/2nFvPwm
Dugin’s written work
Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russiapublished in 1997, outlined in how Aleksandr Dugin saw the future of Russia. it would form an alliance with Iran in the middle east. Reassert control over former Soviet republics, dismantling some completely like Ukraine and Georgia.
Dugin on re-engineering the world’s borders
It would look to address what it perceived as a threat from China, encouraging China to look south to its neighbours on the South China Sea rather than north to the former Qing empire lands now full of natural resources. This would allow China to solve the Straits of Malacca problem in its favour. The constraint to its move west would be India inside the Eurasian empire.
Aleksandr Dugin wanted the UK was to be isolated, as he viewed it as an aircraft carrier of the US, (echoes of Orwell’s 1984 in that viewpoint). Europe is to remade an anti-Atlanticist Franco-German bloc, that would affect a ‘Finlandisation of Europe’. Countries like Poland, would become a vassal like state of Russia. Orthodox countries would look towards Russia as the home of their mother church and cultural lodestone. Finland would be absorbed into Russia. Eventually, due to an over-reliance on Russian commodities, Aleksandr Dugin hoped to engineer an economic shock. Germany’s dependancy on Russian gas and oil would ultimately allow Russia to pick up the pieces in Europe and create an empire stretching from Dublin to Vladivostok
Aleksandr Dugin maybe at a distance from the Putin administration, but his political ideas have influenced Vladimir Putin, Russian foreign policy and military thinking.
Uneasy Euroasian detente
One can only see Russia’s relationship with China as reminiscent of the von Ribbentrop – Stalin detente of the interwar years, based purely on timing and mutual convenience.
Demographics
Aleksandr Dugin’s ideas are challenged by demographics. In the Middle East, Iran and Shai Muslim community are outnumbered by their Sunni counterparts. Russia’s own population growth is in terminal decline and not a match for China should it decide to go north. Which probably explains why Dugin tries to shoehorn India into part of the Eurasian empire.
The current war in Ukraine is as much a product of Aleksandr Dugin as it is of Vladimir Putin. President Putin is merely implementing Dugin’s vision slavishly. It is also interesting that the attempt on the life of Aleksandr Dugin seems to have given new ideological impetus to the invasion of Ukraine in Russia.
Is Dugin’s Eurasian ideological purity a threat to the Putin administration?
Marx and Lenin were dead by the time that Mao came along, so the Chinese communist party was never threatened by the legitimacy of their thought leaders with a higher authority ideologically pure voice. If they were alive today, it would be impossible for Xi Jingping to accuse Marx or Lenin of being guilty of hstorical nihilism. But Aleksandr Dugin exists outside of the Putin administration, he could be a natural rallying point of Putin’s support basis as the philosophical centre. He could be even considered a rival leader to Putin, drawing support from believers across the military intelligence and political classes. Making Aleksandr Dugin into a martyr just at the point when Russia has been suffering setbacks has some obvious benefits for the Putin administration and arguably less benefits for the Ukrainian government.
From Drugs to Corruption: The Growing Presence of Chinese Organized Crime in Latin America – In 2021, China’s policy banks — the China Development Bank (CDB) and Export-Import Bank (Exim) — made no loans to Latin America for the second consecutive year. Beijing is now essentially focused on financing Chinese companies to operate in the region. This shift in strategy and the resulting proliferation of Chinese companies in Latin America will increase the circulation of people and money that are no longer under the direct control of local governments. Based on current trends, Chinese criminal organizations will likely thrive in this new economic environment. Extortion, money laundering through front firms, and smuggling are already increasing, posing a severe threat to the population’s safety in the region. Worthwhile reading in conjunction with: Will Kenya’s next president follow through on China contract promises? | South China Morning Post – William Ruto campaigned on threats to deport illegal workers and make big contracts with Chinese companies public. But politics and the reality of government are two different things, observers say
Interesting dive into what’s causing the ‘great resignation’ and what it will mean for productivity
Culture
Guy Ritchie talks about Snatch – as a film, its interesting, but I won’t bother buying my own copy of Blu-Ray. A few things of note:
The direct influence of Sam Peckinpah’s western films on Snatch was not a connection that I saw coming at all
Ritchie talks about directing a Jason Statham film remotely via iPad, rather than being on set. I presume that this was done during COVID but still very interesting
His use of amateurs as actors because they were the right kind of characters
The folkloric nature of pub stories. The bit that chimed with me is how I knew of similar characters growing up at a similar time to Ritchie and some of them I knew personally. As I moved in more middle class circles my exposure to that world declined
Design
Big Car have a great documentary on the development of the Renault Scénic including an interview with Renault’s head of design at the time Patrick le Quément.
Economics
Why Mexico is missing its chance to profit from US-China decoupling | Financial Times – While foreign companies have borne the brunt of López Obrador’s attacks, the handful of big Mexican businesses that control large parts of the economy have been less affected. When the president wanted to tackle inflation, his government invited Mexican business leaders for private conversations to agree an informal pact limiting price rises on basic groceries. “It wasn’t a big sacrifice,” noted the owner of one large Mexican group. Mexico’s oligarchs have reinforced the impression of a cosy relationship with the president by making supportive statements in public and confining any criticism to conversations behind closed doors. “All the Mexican business leaders complain about Amlo,” says the chief executive of one big foreign company. “But when they meet him, they all appear afterwards in public saying how wonderful he is . . It’s a circle of collusion.”
I hadn’t realised that 8-track cartridges were used as a karaoke medium in Japan. I thought that they had gone from vinyl to cassette and then on to laser disc. Vinyl based karaoke is what gave use the Technics SL-1200 series of turntables, which is why the speed control on the right hand side of the deck was called a ‘pitch fader’.
The reason why these karaoke featured have a common design with the US 8-track cartridge players is likely down to the relatively high tooling costs to create the plastic mouldings. You can see the ’round polished marks in the recessed section where the inputs and outputs are that show a tools has been amended and quickly cleaned up.
Samuel Bickett had some really good insight into why Joshua Wong and several other people pled guilty to charges under the national security law : The Hong Kong 47 Committed No Crime…So Why Are So Many of Them Pleading Guilty? – Bickett points out that their actions were legal under the Basic Law article 52, but the National Security Law seems to supersede and reinterpret the basic law to anything the authorities want it to be.
The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region must resign under any of the following circumstances: When he or she loses the ability to discharge his or her duties as a result of serious illness or other reasons; When, after the Legislative Council is dissolved because he or she twice refuses to sign a bill passed by it, the new Legislative Council again passes by a two-thirds majority of all the members the original bill in dispute, but he or she still refuses to sign it; and When, after the Legislative Council is dissolved because it refuses to pass a budget or any other important bill, the new Legislative Council still refuses to pass the original bill in dispute.
At the moment, this will be of most interest to more political types. Now if you apply that interpretation to short sellers like Muddy Waters Research, punchy buy-side equity analysts or a brief that an advertising planner like me might write where a client is competing against a connected Hong Kong or Chinese company – then legal, reputable and ethical commercial activities can result in national security charges at the whim of the Hong Kong government. This is something that many multinational companies seem to be sleep walking into. Work for a multinational like a VPN provider? That looks like colluding with a foreign power, subversion or even terrorism under the National Security Law.
The use of the term “national security” is particularly objectionable because the concept has frequently been used in China to criminalise the peaceful exercise of the rights of expression and to persecute those with legitimate demands like democracy and human rights. Its inclusion raises fears of extension of such Mainland Chinese practices to Hong Kong especially in the light of Article 23 of the Basic Law.
Hong Kong already had substantive security laws in place since British rule. Notably the 1971 Criminal Ordinance which remains on the books.
Then there is the way that the judiciary in Hong Kong has been shaped by the National Security Law. No defendant has won any points with regards the law and judicial decisions have allowed the law to be used in a retrospective manner in concert with older colonial era laws.
A film produced by a German film crew in 1966 to try and bring to life Japanese life for a European audience. I am sure that some of the manufacturing scenes are b-roll footage, but it is fascinating nonetheless. There is a style to the car and light truck designs which is a lovely aesthetic.
Vintage Studio 1 tracks mixed by Japanese sound system veterans Mighty Crown
1/ Chinese consumers overstretched themselves on luxury goods
2/ China is going through straitened financial times, 6 percent GDP growth feels like zero growth in developed markets. I have heard growth being described as being closer to 3 percent. Government control and intervention means that you won’t see the kind of collapse you saw in the west during 2008 and 2009 and internal security would stomp all over any ‘Occupy Wall Street’ analogue. Security forces are already suppressing depositors who have lost their savings in regional banks. There are also a lot of investors in property businesses: China Evergrande Shares Are Worthless, Top Fund Manager Says
Russia Holding Its Arms Expo With Weapons That May Be A ‘Hard Sell’ Now. | SOFREP – it is interesting that the Russians took steps to make sure the captured American gear on display was spotlessly clean, right down to the tyre paint. Who is to say that some of the gear came in by being bought or traded with the Taliban rather than from the Ukraine battlefield? I wouldn’t be surprised if Russia did a ‘homage’ to the M777. Russia has a wealth of experience in titanium fabrication from submarine hulls to aircraft, so the M777 carriage shouldn’t be that hard. The challenge would be the digital tools used to facilitate a higher degree of accuracy.
ViewSonic lays out plans for education metaverse – ViewSonic, which marks its 35th year of establishment in 2022, has been actively promoting digital transformation in recent years, shifting from a hardware company to a solutions company. Looking towards the future, company chairman James Chu has laid out the key development strategy of “ecosystem as a service,” announcing the Universe education metaverse software. Chu pointed out that ViewSonic has transformed in response to the rapidly changing environment. The company will focus on assisting the digital transformation of the education market. In the third quarter of 2021, ViewSonic’s electronic whiteboard was already no.1 in global market share, Chu said. Its Universe education metaverse software aims to level up the traditional 2D digital education into a 3D interactive virtual education platform. The goal is to solve the lack of interactivity and participation and make online education feel as if it is in-person. The proposed “ecosystem as a service” is about the integration of hardware, software and service, it said. Regarding software and hardware, ViewSonic will integrate its ViewBoard, a smart interactive electronic whiteboard, with myViewBoard, a digital teaching platform, to provide a complete education technology solution.
For me string art is something that was a hangover from the 1960s and 70s. I remember visiting a number of schools as a child as I was going to move infant schools. One of the ones that my parents and I visited had a giant felt covered board with tacks nailed into it and coloured threads forming a geometric patten of string art.
Artist Petros Vrellis took string art to a new level. Using a giant circular frame with 200 pegs and a computer programme built in Openframework to work out where to arrange the 2 kilometre long strings.
More on Petros’ string art work here. More design related content here.
I’ve been listening to a lot of Dimitri from Paris this week. Here’s a sample of this work
Kerri Chandler does a rare set using reel-to-reel tape recorders. The models he is using are mid-range consumer models by Pioneer (I think they’re the Pioneer RT-707) with direct drive motors that the Japanese manufacturers pioneered in hi-fi. I suspect Chandler is using these more for their compact size than them being the best machines. The RT-707 couldn’t take 10 1/2 inch reels
He is putting it all into a vintage Bozak mixer. Back in the 1970s and 80s, DJs used reel-to-reel tapes much more in the DJ booth. It allowed new recordings to be tried. Or edits and mixes that had been made at home played to a live crowd.
The reel-to-reel machine didn’t allow you the same control of tempo that a Technics SL-1200 or CDJ machines would allow. Reel to reel tape allowed for a richer saturated sound than digital recording does.
Ogilvy did a presentation on what previously have been called youth marketing trends. Despite them using the generation Z label there is some good consumer trend content in it.
If you were around ten years ago, much of this is is familiar and would have been said about millennials. Authenticity was also said about generation X. Though it was often tied to the idea of not ‘selling out’.
