Long drive today, down I-75 to rural TN east of Chattanooga, to see my brother. He has triple organ failure (heart, liver, kidney), yielding a very tough prognosis. Time is short, and I’m gonna be away from this part of the country for a while, so off I go. At least the weather should be good for the drive. 650 miles over two days.

Starship v3 should launch this week, and I’m real excited for it. Musk has turned out to be a fascist/racist asshole, but his creation of SpaceX is still worth admiring. SpaceX single-handedly brought back America’s push into space exploration, and I’m grateful for that.

Had a little surprise yesterday. I’ve had the KY stereos wired up to compare the Pioneer SX-828 with the similar-sized and similar-powered Yamaha CR-840. I decided to have the smaller, older, less powerful Sansui 210 replace the Yamaha for a while. The 210 is rated at 10 watts per channel, and the Pioneer at 55+ wpm. Shockingly, with the volumes set at the same spot (about 1030am on the dial), the Sansui sounded almost exactly the same as the much more powerful Pioneer. Just a little less bass and low mid, but in general you had to listen hard to tell the difference. It was always obvious when I switched between the Pioneer and the Yamaha – the Yamaha was much less warm, very precise and a little sterile sounding. But the Sansui sounded glorious. I guess it’s true – the late 60s/1970s Sansui’s were the best engineered receivers of them all. The 210 uses a Class A amplifier topology, so that has a lot to do with the oomph factor it delivers. I may have to find another in the 210 receiver line….

Title photo was taken at Churchill Downs last Friday, where my friend Gary and I had a fun day at the races with almost no crowd.