Kawainui Vista Ridge Line Hike

Kawainui Vista Ridge line Hike Distance: 1.92 Miles Elevation: 60’-905’ Geocaches: 3  

This past weekend, I headed for a trail I had not yet explored. The real goal was to grab three Geocaches that have been bugging me for a while. Frankly, I don’t think many non Cachers use this one at all. I don’t see why, it’s a fantastic and invigorating workout with some spectacular views. When I say workout, I mean it. Although the hike is short, it is steep in a few locations and can get the heart pumping. When you reach the top, as with many of the ridge hikes in Hawaii, the view really is worth it.

The journey will not be easy; as it is with all great adventures worth undertaking. I took on the ridge one way, but this is a loop trail so either way will work. I will warn you though, going up my way and down the other, will be a much better option, for there is more to hold on to going back down the other way.

  The hike starts inauspiciously in an area occupied by paint-ballers, motocross enthusiasts and vehicular exoskeletons. (This isn't called "Dump Road" for nothing). The parking and initial trail head coordinates will be familiar to many, but you will be going up a different trail. Once you have parked, head to the initial trail head coordinates, and then keep to the right making your way to the next reference point. From here, it is a steep uphill climb.

The last 300 feet will tax you as you climb using your hands to grab at roots and stabilize yourself. Once you reach the ridge, you can go either way. To the right, you will be heading in the Kaneohe direction. In a few short moments you will find a pine tree grove with a bench down below. This is a great place for taking in the view and a few much needed gallons of water!

When you find yourself rested enough, turn back the way you came and head for the higher parts of this hike. After you pass where you initially came up, you will see some signs. “Private Property” and “Explosives” mainly. Technically, these are not entirely true. They are to keep hoodlums out of the quarry you are looking down into. Just stroll on by and smile. Soon, the trail will lead you on to dirt and gravel road. Stay on the left side and as a rule; take anything up to the left in order to head back on to the ridge. If you see an explosives bunker on your left, you have gone too far. The correct one is an old road that peeters out into a fairly overgrown trail. After a few twists and turns you will hit the ridge and a junction. One trail leads down, the other up. The way down is where you will come back too. For now, take a few minutes to head up to the view you expelled so much sweat for! You will come to a rock outcropping where you can sit and enjoy a sandwich.

Now for the fun part! When you’re ready to head down, back track for the junction you came to on the way up. Take the trail down on the right. Stay on this for a while. It will be a steep downhill hike with plenty of bushes for grabing onto. This is not a race, so pay attention to your moves. The idea is to get out with a smile, not a twisted ankle. Eventually, you will end up at a junction with a road. Well, it was one before all the rain ruts and moguls took over. The rule here is, stay going down. There will be one road on the right, ignore it and head down and in the general direction of the road and trail head you came in on. You may take a wrong turn or two. That’s, ok. Just head for the trail head direction and eventually you will get there.

I hope you get a chance for a bit more exploring out in this section of the hills. It seems there are tons of unmarked trails to be discovered out here. I most certainly will be doing just that. I will be sure to post more trails after I map them.

Happy hiking ya’ll!!!

JWM

PS. I got all three Caches!!! Yea!!!

Equipment Review 1: Rolls VP29 Phono Preamp

"Cheap, fast and dirty phono stage? You bet!" After a recent flood in my home and studio, I was left without my beloved phono stages. (And everything else for that matter) Nothing will tug at the heart of an audiophile more than seeing his lovingly cared for and extensively tweaked gear soaked. I literally cried when I saw water pouring from every hole and button on each and every prized heirlooms. I guess you could say I cried a river and then some. So that brings us to what to do about getting some music back into the air around these parts! Time to break out the soldering iron, a new test rig and get to work I guess!

So, I managed to bring a few components back to life. At least enough to start reviewing gear and music! You see, we often forget how special one component was when it is replaced by some newfangled gadget with more lights and dinging bells than its predecessor. When you are hit with a disaster, it often forces you to take another look at the gear that brought you so much pleasure in the past. (At least until the insurance company and lawyers pull it together and replace your stuff!!!) I have certainly gained a new appreciation for the old greats again. I’ll most definitely post reviews on some of the other equipment I pulled out of moth balls recently. All relevant to where HI-END audio has been and where it is now.

For now though, let’s get started with this seemingly silly unit called the Rolls VP29 Phono Preamp. Lacking a phono stage and the patience to build a new one at the moment, I decided to make a run down to a local pro audio shop about a block from here. I always see this little red box hanging on a peg and was looking for the excuse to try it out some day. That someday came! The shop that sold me the unit mostly supplies them to DJs in order to add a third or fourth turntable to their setups. Naturally, I figured it was of little quality and geared toward that “LO-FI” DJ sound. We shall see then. Upon first opening the box I noticed it was a terrible packing job. The kind you would relate more to a tool in a hardware store, then to a piece of audio equipment. You know that plastic crap that is impossible to open without a fat set of sheers? The kind of packaging that sends you to the hospital with lacerations if you accidentally slip while extracting the product. Not cool. Furthermore, the unit was snuggled in a bed of open cell foam that does little to protect it from the rigors of shipping and being dropped by stockers. I think they should take a closer look at this in the future. I have seen cheap dime store CD players packed better than this.

What IS nice is how coolio/retro the designer made this unit appear. You could sense how the designer’s utilitarian leaning ideas were implemented into making this a very unique unit. I especially liked the straight forward and no frills circuit layout of the output device. The vp29 is a solid state phono preamp for use with moving-magnet and high output moving-coil cartridges. The vp29 is designed to amplify an RIAA equalized phono signal to a hi-level signal. It’s cheap cheerful and manufactured in the US. Inside and out, that about sums it up. What makes it unique is just that. There’s nothing to it!

After careful setup it was time to see how this unit sings. One of my favorite recordings is the tried and true Miles Davis Kind Of Blue. I have several pressings of this album and know exactly what each one should sound like. The first one I used was the recent re-release by Sony Records on 180 gram vinyl.  There's something special about the way this music's air was picked up so well all the way back in 1959. On a great system, you can hear into the room so well you could swear you are SEEING the flickering light on the ceiling. Although the microphones were primitive, they just worked. The placement of the instruments in the room is superb, even for modern standards. A properly set up and tuned system can image this recording to a spooky degree. This aspect of the recording and how it was recorded is what makes some systems sound great, or go home crying for mommy. Especially the way the John Coltrane’s tenor sax reaches. Only one example of what really sets this recording apart.

 Upon careful audition it was easy to tell how the VP29 really imaged and could keep a good pace. Even a close friend, was astonished how well a $75.00 unit could do this! It was only when my friend and I turned the volume up did we notice that the soundstages became too overly emphasized. It was as though some kind of cheap bra made the stage bits too; well let’s just say “lumpy” for our taste. If my friend and I agree on anything, it’s that we both prefer the more “natural” and “structurally sound” variety. It was time to see if this unit could really jam. Reaching into my vinyl stash I grabbed the most awesome recording of Tool-Lateralus. Now this is music to grind to! In the middle of the recording I began to feel a bit dirty, which made me want to shower with a steel file. This may be due to the poor quality capacitors used in the power supply. It’s a small wall wart with an attached power cord the size of dental floss. For what it is though, man, can this thing rock! MAN-O-MAN, even my cat “Bob” started to cough up fur balls as the music was playing. It was at this time I realized the music was way too heavy to get a real read on this little phono “Tool”. Man I love this album!!!

After a good bit of music it was time to really get things cookin'. So I took out my favorite live recordings of everything I could pull from the racks and sunk into my listening chair with a hot tea. Gotta tell ya, live recordings surely can't be beat. Over the next few days, everything from Rush to Tony Bennet was in constant rotation. From Roy Orbison to Dead Can Dance, each vinyl sounded better than the last!  Listening to all of them, it was as if the live recordings of these great sessions began to come alive. Some even real and not recorded at all. In fact they were so real that I listened to it again and again. Perhaps that crappy power supply was getting burned in, or the circuit itself was settling somehow.Getting a good handle on how this unit reproduced music was really easy. At the same time it was frustrating the hell out of me. Since I have regularly attended live concerts and shows like Prince, BB King, Boogie, JP Smoke Train, Rush, Etc. and soon the Honolulu Orchestra, (finally back from the dead) my ears have been tuned to the real thing. Sometimes it gets depressing after hearing a great concert by Dave Mathews, then going home and listening to my music reproduction system. Actually, I’m kidding, I have a ridiculously tuned system and often prefer it to the drunken sound guy behind the boards at the show. Though with this little red yummy in my system the music really is believable!

So, after spending a long time with this piece I can confidently say it's among one of those few units that makes me feel happy and content. Don’t get me wrong though. Let me be clear. This is NOT what I would call the HI-END. This unit will never compete with the other units my ears have become accustomed to. It was simply not designed to plumb the depths like a Parasound Halo JC3. Nor will it resolve the delicacy of the upper limits of the Fosgate Signature Phono Preamp I loved so dearly. What it will do is something we so easily forget. Play music with no sonic artifacts of its own to speak of. It simply passes signal from turntable to preamp. It is only as good as what it is fed from your cartridge. Put a crap deck in front of it and crap is what you will get out the back. In this case, I noticed that although you will never be able to make out what the voices in the background on Jazz at the Pawn Shop, what I did get was a lively and robust “LIVE” sound from the unit. A happy sound if you will. Like the sound of your first HI-FI. The one you mowed 40 lawns all summer back in high school for. That’s a good thing in my book.  Highly recommend as a back-up piece, or just for some nostalgic sounds. I rate it in my Recommended Components list in class “C”. I'm keeping the review sample! For the price of dinner at Roy’s, who wouldn’t?

“Keep your records clean Ya’ll”! JWM

Specifications: Rolls VP29 Phono preamp I/O Connectors: RCA, ¼” TRS Stereo Input Sensitivity: 35 dB gain Input Capacitance: 5pf + cable capacitance Input Impedance: 50k Ohms Output Impedance: 1 Ohms Max Output Level: >10dB @ 1kHz at .1% dist. Equalization: RIAA +/- 1.5 dB, 20Hz to 20kHz THD .02% @ 1KHz S/N Ratio: >80 dB unweighted PWR: 12 - 18 VDC Size: W3.25 x H1.5 x D2 in. Weight: 1 lb. Indicator: 1 Power LED

Associated equipment: Analog: JWM Designs LLC MAG-lv/VPI/Rega/SL-1200/Funkfirm/SME Turntable (Custom built) Shelter 201, Ortofon 2M Red and 2M Blue, Shure 97XE phono cartages Hitachi FT-2 Tuner (Custom modified JWM Designs LLC) Digital: Oppo HD 980H, HP dv7-4183cl Notebook (extensively modified JWM Designs LLC) Amplification: Musical Fidelity XA-1 (Custom modified JWM Designs LLC) Mcintosh MC2105 and MC2125 amplifiers (Custom modified JWM Designs LLC) Sound Craftsman DC2215 Differential/Comparator Equalizer Speakers: Klipsch Cornwall II (Custom built)Front Klipsch Tangent T50 (Custom built) Rear JWM Designs LLC JMSW12 Servo driven subwoofers (X-2) Each with 1,340 watt custom built HYPEX digital amplifiers Cables: Audio Quest Columbia and Colorado interconnects Kimber Kable 12HT speaker cables Audio Quest NRG-4 IEC power cables Dedicated 200A power source from mains panel feeding PS Audio Power Port Classics 20A 1 box of TAZO Earl Grey Tea!

Summer art!!!!

Well, it’s that time again. Summer is upon us. Time to put away the hammer and saw, dust off the paints and stretch some canvas! Those who know me well, see that summer is my time to create. When I thrive! The best works I’ve ever done were created in this time. For me, summers is the time for sloughing off the energy robbing vampires of the rainy season and seek out those truly intellectually and creatively stimulating individuals. A time to greet the sun with early morning walks at the tide pools. Taking the colors we saw in the rain forests of winter and mix them with the morning sun of the season. When the flowers and mountain apples are a plenty and the warm feeling of a perfect wave spawn the next painting. Sunday morning brunch with egg’s benny and a mimosa. White shirts and a north shore polo match. The smell of fresh Sex Wax on a hot long board.  Summer is for love of the world around us and the ones open enough in there heart to feel it. BRING IT ON!!!!

Where to begin? Rite here! I just finished a huge project that took many months of time and energy. The results are fabulous. Also plenty of fresh studio space ready to be filled with colorful memories. After all, that’s what our creations really are! Memories captured in time. We take all those colors, shapes and faces and words and everything and solidify them into the work, as a marker in eternity. Some are happy, some are angry. Some are sunny, some are dark. All legitimate though. All are relevant! All will speak volumes…

So, what is on the palette this summer? MIXED MEDIA!!! A revival of something old and a touch of something new. First will be a series I began years ago that I never was able to bring to fruition. A combination of photography, printmaking, oil, ceramic glazes, acrylic, melted rubber and dyed textile art. Yes boys and girls, textile exotic fabric. I messed around with this on the side all threw school, as well as at the South West School of Arts and Crafts. While teaching in the sculpture department I used to sneak over to the fabrics girl for some inspiration. After the prep was done, that same fabric was taken over to the photo department to be silver dyed. This enabled me to expose images directly into the fabric itself. That was only the beginning though. Some were stretched and the real fun began. Well, without revealing too much of the proses to you, let’s just say, I’m excited as hell!!! Time to put on the lab coat and get back to creating something amazing!!! (I’m glowing!) YES!!!

 The second series of the summer of 0-12, will have to be a surprise. I don’t want to get closure on the work before I even begin. I find too much talk before the process gets rolling, tends to lower the inspiration level a bit too low for me. So keep your shorts on! Patience grasshoppers. Patience…

OK then, that’s all I wanted to say for now. I’m just excited and had to tell someone. I hope all of you have the same glow about summer as I do. I also hope you all get out there and experience the world. Suck up some inspiration! It’s all around you. It’s rite in front of you. Can you see it? It sees you. Now reach out to it and let it play inside your heart.

You won’t regret it...

Happy creating!

Do you remember that song?!?!?

  It never ceases to amaze me how drawn to music we humans are. What is it about this structured combination of sounds that can have such a powerful influence over not only individuals, but entire cultures? The human brain, as well as most living creatures, evolved to detect sounds as a survival tool. Now, that same tool is used for detecting and comprehending scale and structure of all types of music! From a simple ring tone to a large scale symphony, then find the meaning and beauty that lies within the piece. Why?

6 months ago, I came across an LP I had not even thought about in 20 years. No, make that 25. After taking a quick look at the liner notes and cover, I sat back for a listen. Before the first note hit my ears, I could remember the style and instrumentation, yet not the melodies and solos. After listening to the entire LP, something extraordinary happened. Later that day, and every day since listening to the album, I could “hear” the entire record in my mind, virtually note for note! When I say note for note, I really mean it. Complete and total recall of every aspect of the music, including drum fills, bass licks, phrasing in the solos, as though the last 25 years were suddenly erased. Simply hearing this record again unlocked a memory that had been filed away in my brain nearly an adult lifetime ago. Why?

If you know anything about data and music you can understand just how much “data” 45 minutes of music represents. How much other important information about your life can you recall from 25 years ago? Why in God’s name would the human mind allocate the significant resources necessary to store this music for so long and in such intricate detail? Even more astonishing than the fact that the human mind could hold on to such detail in these combinations of sounds for 25 years is that it would. Why?

Let’s get scientific for a moment. From this perspective, every physical or intellectual function exacts a price in “overhead” for maintaining that function in terms of calorie intake and a myriad of other biological needs. So, any capability that does not directly contribute to the organism’s survival quickly disappears from the gene pool. Moreover, that saved brain capacity could be used for other functions that could more directly aid in survival. A simple example is we’re highly attuned to discriminating faces, understanding expressions on those faces, and remembering faces. The survival benefit in this is obvious. Being that said, what is it about music that is so important that our brain has developed a capacity to understand and remember it? Why?

  At its heart, I believe music is communication, and communication is vital to any species that relies on social organization. We have examples of instruments that date back 43,000 years. Despite the rigors of Neanderthal life, our ancestors found time to create music. There are artifacts that show, not only did our ancestors create and play instruments, but they had then worked out the diatonic scales to a precise hole-spacing in a hollowed out bone. This hole-spacing corresponds perfectly to a contemporary diatonic flute. Moreover, that diatonic scale has been with us since the dawn of music suggests the basis for responding to certain musical intervals has been common to humans for eons. Ahhhh…

There are many authors and studies into the neurological effects of music. It is uncanny how the evolutionary biologists also come to many of the same conclusions why music matters so much. We are still a long way from completely understanding why we are such a musical species though. You should try a little experiment of your own. Grab a random LP out of the rack and take a close look. Try to hear what is on the piece before playing it. Next, play it in its entirety and just see if you get the same recall as I did. I found that the more I practice this, the better my mind taps into those dusty files and plays the memories more clearly. Much like a built in tape machine. Who needs a stinking IPod anyway? Save your money and buy a new needle for your deck. I guess until the smart guys in lab coats figure it all out, we will just have to look at our musical minds in wonder. Better yet, REMEMBER THAT MUSIC!!!!

PS. It was Styx-The Grand Illusion on the turntable. Love that record!

The best speaker you ever heard…

About a year ago, I was asked by a fledgling Audiophile: “Josh! What is the best speaker out there today!?!” What? That’s like asking what your favorite cheese cake is! What is the “BEST” Ben and Jerries’? What is the “BEST” Ferrari? Better yet, who is the “BEST” Jazz band? I asked him, “If you had to choose between listening to Miles Davis Kind of Blue on a bed side Sony Dream Machine (circa 1982) on an AM station, who’s transmitter was 300 miles away, or A Flock of Seagulls on a dCS Debussy front end, followed by all Ayre’ gear, powering through a set of burned in YG Acoustics Anat III Pro towers, What would you choose?” You could cut through the silence on the other end of the line. “The answer Grass Hopper is the ones you are enjoying right now.”

  The point is this: There are so many machines out there. They come in all shapes and sizes. These days, they also come in every color of the rainbow and more. Do you want the cutting edge of a tweeter that has such a high frequency reach that you could open your garage door with it? Perhaps you are looking for the subtle glow of the silk dome. Mid bass punch? Perhaps a more delicate kiss with the tweeter is more you style. Sub terrainian reach from a set of fat subs? For me, I prefer the “NON-SUB” approach from my subs. If I can hear them, they be too loud and simply are not natural.  Horns? Planers? Domes? Paper or carbon fiber? MDF or aluminum? Let’s not forget Beryllium! (Anyone out there had a chance to hear those diamond inverted domes in the Avalon Isis?) You get the idea. All are the “BEST”, for what they were designed to do. All were designed by someone. All have what that someone thought was closer to the actual performance in a given listening environment.  

Yes, we crazy audiophiles are always looking for Nirvana. We spend hours upon hours searching out the gear that gets us closer to, well, “THERE”! We want to experience that performance in our own home. Yes! That’s it! “THE PERFORMANCE”! This is all about the performance. If you don’t love music, what is the point? We love music with such a passion; we try to hear more of it. We strive for that “LIVE” sound we heard at the concert last night. We want to hear the woman in the 13^th row with the sniffles. It brings the performance texture and a sense of realism. We want to hear the soft pop and tickle of dust on the record. It makes it sound like there is a woman in the 13^th row with the sniffles! Sounds strange to most, but this is what it is about. Live music. MUSIC!!!

  So, back to my friend. We had a long discussion of this approach to audio. MUSIC! Being that this kid is half my age, he always thought good sound came from little silver discs, or more recently, bits streamed to an IPhone. Well, it was only recently that he discovered those bits BYTE! I can’t tell you the joy in my heart when he said all his recordings sounded compressed and dull after getting a taste of the 180 gram pressing of Tool-Lateralus. (Which should be in every audiophile’s, err, tool kit) ”Hallelujah!” Not only that, he heard it on a $350.00 second hand Techniques SL-1200 fitted with a Shelter MM cartridge, (roughly $175.00) Bellari tube phono pre-amp, ($250.00) Musical Fidelity X-A1 ($400.00) and a pair of Silverline Minuet Supreme speakers ($600.00) I think the cables were Audio Quest. His excitement was through the roof, so I couldn’t make out what he was saying to well. This was a guy who actually thought you needed to spend 100K on a system to run an IPod packed full of compressed crap to move the soul. (For-mentioned system would set you back a cool 380K) Nope!

  I made these suggestions to him, for I knew he was on a budget. Also, I have heard, and own some of the same gear. I just knew through experience, they would sound good together. When you submit to this thing called “Audiophilia”, you will understand, all gear has a sonic signature. The trick of approaching “Nirvana” is to create a synergy between all the components own characteristics and build that “LIVE” experience. As for my friend’s system, sure nuff! I also know what he likes to listen to in his tiny little room he rents in Makiki. When you are sleeping, eating, studying, dating, and whatever else in the same 12x12 space, there is no need for a huge set of Wilson Alexandria XLF, or even a sub for that matter. The system fits the space and the “MUSIC” the owner loves most. Simple…

 A few months later, I asked my friend, “What is the best set of speakers you have ever heard”?  After a long pause,,,,,,,, “mine!” he said.

 Enjoy them my friend…

Associated Equipment:

Good Morning Ya'll!

OK! Here we go!   Lets start this blog by saying WELCOME! The idea here is to share ideas. Ideas that have to do with all things ART!!! This can include paintings, music, the equipment you play it on and whatever else you can think of that gets you moving! Feel free to add photos of the systems that you have and why they are perfect for your lifestyle. It can be the boom box in the bathroom, or a full-blown HI-END sound reproduction system. It really doesn't matter. As long as it does what it is really supposed to do. That is play the music we love.

  OH! that's another thing. Please post that music you are listening to and why! What is the painting you just saw in Waikiki that blew your mind? Where was that concert? Could you shoot us a picture? What about a link to that song? HEY!?! Do you have a favorite place to hear live music, or view beautiful creations in general?

If yes to any of these, well then! Lets get going!

PS. Anyone have a good ceviche recipe?

JWM