Monthly Archives: August 2005

3 posts

Rio is dead. Long live Rio.

I absolutely love my Rio Karma. It’s the best portable audio unit I’ve ever owned. Rio chose to make a pure audio (as opposed to a half-baked PDA or video player or personal storage or whatever…) player and to do it right. I have music pretty much everywhere I go, and the Karma’s pretty much the perfect gadget for me.

About a year back, Rio announced that they were doing R&D on the Karma’s successor, tenatively called the Chroma. Details were sketchy, but the few things that had been left out of the Karma, like Audible support and MSC compliance, would be part of the Chroma, as well as a larger hard-drive and a color interface. Basically, it was to be the Holy Grail for audiophiles, and the community waited with bated breath for details.

Well, it turns out that’s not gonna happen, pilgrims. Rio has closed their doors and sold assets off to Sigmatel.

Continued...

Weapon or furniture?

Just thought I’d post a couple of shots of my new Nill Grips. If you don’t have any experience with their work, you’re missing out. They make their grips from quality walnut, then finish them in an oil they call Rhomlas. Finish is gorgeous, and the checkering is aggressive but not grating. Here they are on my P7 and P225:

They’re precision-fitted to the frame, and they match the dimensions of the factory grips almost exactly, except for the ones on the P7, which have just enough of a swell in the palm to make them far more ergonomic than the factory H&K grips.

There’s not much you can do towards “tricking out” old West German service pistols, but the Nills go a long way towards changing them from grim-looking but utilitarian devices to true showpieces.

Swelter

New mix up at AOTM. Let me know if you’re interested in a copy.

Swelter

  1. Tim Hecker: Song of the Highwire Shrimper
  2. Twerk: From Green to Brown
  3. Aphex Twin: Jynweythek
  4. Tortoise: Tjed (John McEntire Remix)
  5. Mouse on Mars: Flim
  6. Bola: Sirasancerre
  7. Epoq: For the Ears of the Stars
  8. Sybarite: Ashs
  9. Alog: The Youth of Mysterious Conversations
  10. Keith Whitman: Stereo Music for Disklavier, Electric Guitar and Computer
  11. Thomas Fehlmann: Luftikuss
  12. Lusine Icl: Drip
  13. Yasume: Slowly, Clearly and Calmly
  14. Shuttle358: Scrapbook