What New Stuff Have You Bought? If You Care To Share Thead! :)

[j_garcia]

Picked up a pair of what appear to be the original wooden 30" Sanus black speaker stands for $5 at a garage sale. Didn't actually need any stands, but c'mon, $5

 

[Adam]

Didn't actually need any stands, but c'mon, $5

"But, Honey, think about all of the money that I SAVED."

 

[Swerd]

Just got this (CC @Swerd )

Now, I need some chocolady green beans to roast. Suggestions?

Nice . Welcome to the world of making smoke out of green coffee beans.

You will have to learn how to listen for the sound of First Crack. After that comes a gap of variable time length (depends on how much green beans, their type, and your roaster) followed by a different sounding Second Crack.

The only way to learn what roast level I liked was to time things after First Crack starts. By roasting longer & longer in 30 second intervals, I eventually arrived at a roast level darker than I liked. I now stop roasting not long after the end of First Crack, well before Second Crack begins. It will take some time to learn this.

I strongly recommend a small digital food scale to weigh out green beans. These electric roasters can only heat up a limited amount of beans. Darker roasts may require smaller starting weights. Keep track of those starting weights until you have a feel for what your roaster can handle at the roast level you like.

My favorite source of green coffee is Sweet Maria's https://www.sweetmarias.com/. They have consistently provided the best selection of different varieties of coffee, tested & re-tested for freshness, and their opinions about the various coffees have been useful for me.

The downside is they are in California, and shipping to the east coast costs a flat $9 for up to 20 lbs. As a result, I make larger orders. But it took me a few years to really know what I like before I could confidently order larger amounts.

I like beans from Guatemala, Ethiopia, Kenya, Panama, and Costa Rica. Because you like espresso, pay attention to what is said about espresso and roast levels for each type of bean, for example https://www.sweetmarias.com/product/ethiopia-kaffa-michiti-coop-4774.

Also SM's lists all green coffees in stock by whether they think they are good for espresso https://www.sweetmarias.com/category/good-for-espresso.

Right now is not quite a good time to buy green coffee. Most of what is now for sale is last year's crop. Anytime in the next month lots of new crop Central American beans should be available. Wait for them. East African coffee is on a similar schedule.

You might like coffee from Java and Sumatra. If you like those Indonesians, learn how dry processed and wet processed coffee beans taste. There is a big difference. I strongly prefer wet processed.

Sweet Maria's sells samplers that might be useful for you to try.

They also sell blends they say are good for espresso and dark roasts. You might try some to get a feel for what they think good espresso is and compare that to what you like.
https://www.sweetmarias.com/category/green-coffee/others/blends#

 

[j_garcia]

Nice . Welcome to the world of making smoke out of green coffee beans.

You will have to learn how to listen for the sound of First Crack, and then how much longer to roast after that. After that comes a gap of variable time length (depends on how much green beans, their type, and your roaster) followed by a different sounding Second Crack.

The only way to learn what roast level I liked was to time things after First Crack started, and by roasting longer & longer by 30 second intervals, eventually roast darker than I liked. (I stop well before Second Crack.) It will take some time to learn this.

I strongly recommend a small digital food scale to weigh out green beans. These electric roasters can only heat up a limited amount of beans. Darker roasts may require smaller starting weights. Keep track of those starting weights until you have a feel for what your roaster can handle at the roast level you like.

My favorite source of green coffee is Sweet Maria's https://www.sweetmarias.com/. They have consistently provided the best selection of different varieties of coffee, tested & re-tested for freshness, and their opinions about the various coffees have been useful for me.

The downside is they are in California, and shipping to the east coast costs a flat $9 for up to 20 lbs. As a result, I make larger orders. But it took me a few years to really know what I like before I could confidently order larger amounts.

I like beans from Guatemala, Ethiopia, Kenya, Panama, and Costa Rica. Because you like espresso, pay attention to what is said about espresso and roast levels for each type of bean, for example https://www.sweetmarias.com/product/ethiopia-kaffa-michiti-coop-4774.

Also SM's lists all green coffees in stock by whether they think they are good for espresso https://www.sweetmarias.com/category/good-for-espresso.

Right now is not quite a good time to buy green coffee. Most of what is now for sale is last year's crop. Anytime in the next month lots of new crop Central American beans should be available. Wait for them. East African coffee is on a similar schedule.

You might like coffee from Java and Sumatra. If you like those Indonesians, learn how dry processed and wet processed coffee beans taste. There is a big difference. I strongly prefer wet processed.

Sweet Maria's sells samplers that might be useful for you to try.

They also sell blends they say are good for espresso and dark roasts. You might try some to get a feel for what they think good espresso is and compare that to what you like.
https://www.sweetmarias.com/category/green-coffee/others/blends#

I know where Sweet Maria's is. Not exactly local, but about 40 min away. That's where I got my two pour over coffee brewers.

Guatemalan and Costa Rican are favorites of mine too.

 

[speakerman39]

Picked up a pair of what appear to be the original wooden 30" Sanus black speaker stands for $5 at a garage sale. Didn't actually need any stands, but c'mon, $5

But John, where are the pics? I mean a deal like that I would have to snap a few pics myself, no? Sometimes, we come across deals that are too good to be true! That is how I ended up with the JBL 530's! Best sounding bookshelfs that I have ever owned in the $330 price range inmho. No complaints from me.

Cheers,

Phil

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Nice . Welcome to the world of making smoke out of green coffee beans.

You will have to learn how to listen for the sound of First Crack, and then how much longer to roast after that. After that comes a gap of variable time length (depends on how much green beans, their type, and your roaster) followed by a different sounding Second Crack.

The only way to learn what roast level I liked was to time things after First Crack started, and by roasting longer & longer by 30 second intervals, eventually roast darker than I liked. (I stop well before Second Crack.) It will take some time to learn this.

I strongly recommend a small digital food scale to weigh out green beans. These electric roasters can only heat up a limited amount of beans. Darker roasts may require smaller starting weights. Keep track of those starting weights until you have a feel for what your roaster can handle at the roast level you like.

My favorite source of green coffee is Sweet Maria's https://www.sweetmarias.com/. They have consistently provided the best selection of different varieties of coffee, tested & re-tested for freshness, and their opinions about the various coffees have been useful for me.

The downside is they are in California, and shipping to the east coast costs a flat $9 for up to 20 lbs. As a result, I make larger orders. But it took me a few years to really know what I like before I could confidently order larger amounts.

I like beans from Guatemala, Ethiopia, Kenya, Panama, and Costa Rica. Because you like espresso, pay attention to what is said about espresso and roast levels for each type of bean, for example https://www.sweetmarias.com/product/ethiopia-kaffa-michiti-coop-4774.

Also SM's lists all green coffees in stock by whether they think they are good for espresso https://www.sweetmarias.com/category/good-for-espresso.

Right now is not quite a good time to buy green coffee. Most of what is now for sale is last year's crop. Anytime in the next month lots of new crop Central American beans should be available. Wait for them. East African coffee is on a similar schedule.

You might like coffee from Java and Sumatra. If you like those Indonesians, learn how dry processed and wet processed coffee beans taste. There is a big difference. I strongly prefer wet processed.

Sweet Maria's sells samplers that might be useful for you to try.

They also sell blends they say are good for espresso and dark roasts. You might try some to get a feel for what they think good espresso is and compare that to what you like.
https://www.sweetmarias.com/category/green-coffee/others/blends#

Rich,
Thanks for lengthy, informative and detailed post. I will certainly will start freaking out my CO2 alarms soon
Last batch of Guatemala roasted beans I got from Rook's were delicious - I will make sure to order more Guatemalen green coffee from SM.

It's already twice I am outbid on new espresso machine - previous time it hurt - since the final price was only $30 more and still very reasonably, but last time someone bid $611 for non-functional HX machine which cost new like $1200. So I recon service labor plus parts could easily be another $300-400 range so total purchase didn't made any sense to me.
Oh, well. I will keep my eyes peeled for good deal

 

[Swerd]

Last batch of Guatemala roasted beans I got from Rook's were delicious - I will make sure to order more Guatemalen green coffee from SM.

For what it's worth, the coffee I sent you last year was Guatemalan Huehuetenango Finca Rosma – not presently available. The new crop should appear soon.

It's been my favorite for years, although I like a lighter roast than what I sent you. When you made some as espresso you thought it had excellent body but had too much of a fruit-toned flavor (high in acidity) for your tastes. The balance between acid flavor and heavier body (not a flavor, more of a feeling, heavy body is the opposite of watery thinness) varies with how dark the roast is. The darker the roast, the less fruit-tone flavor there is. Body gets heavier with darker roast up to a point, and then with darker roasts at Second Crack or beyond, like Italian or French, the body gets lighter or thinner again.

If I ever get into espresso, you are the go-to guy.

 

[Matt34]

Going to be traveling by plane a lot more frequently in the next year so got some NC headphones by everyone's favorite company, Bose QC35.

 

[Adam]

Going to be traveling by plane a lot more frequently in the next year so got some NC headphones by everyone's favorite company, Bose QC35.

I might not love their little cubes, but they know their stuff when it comes to those headphones.

 

[KenM10759]

Yup. It's probably the only product from that company that I would own. They have strayed so far (ethically) from where Dr. Amar Bose had established the company that the only thing he'd recognize today is the name on the sign. Their employees have become a commodity product, subject to being price driven.

Those headphones work great for the intended purpose. For pure listening pleasure you can do much better for the money, it's the refined noise cancelling technology which is hard to beat.

 

[3db]

I bought the following CDs..

 

[j_garcia]

But John, where are the pics? I mean a deal like that I would have to snap a few pics myself, no? Sometimes, we come across deals that are too good to be true! That is how I ended up with the JBL 530's! Best sounding bookshelfs that I have ever owned in the $330 price range inmho. No complaints from me.

Cheers,

Phil

 

[speakerman39]

Wow! They look nice too! Best $5 you have spent in a long time.....LOL!!! Thanks for posting John.

Cheers,

Phil

 

[Cos]

Yup. It's probably the only product from that company that I would own. They have strayed so far (ethically) from where Dr. Amar Bose had established the company that the only thing he'd recognize today is the name on the sign. Their employees have become a commodity product, subject to being price driven.

Those headphones work great for the intended purpose. For pure listening pleasure you can do much better for the money, it's the refined noise cancelling technology which is hard to beat.

So Torn, was looking at these and the Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 Wireless. I want it before my three upcoming trips in 4 weeks to Canada, San Jose, Hollywood Florida and then San Fran two weeks after that....4 hours flights and need quality headset.

 

[KenM10759]

Nothing big, just that hitting a scratch-off ticket for $100 I spent half my winnings on new and used CD's to fill in some holes in the digital library of my Bluesound Vault. I have vinyl of the top two albums, and much of what's on the Talking Heads "Sand In The Vaseline" collection I have on various releases. Nice to have that issue though, makes for a couple hours of constant feed of classic TH.

 

[Cos]

I already ordered the Bose QC35, when I found a great price on the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless 2.0 Headset
Retail: 499.99
OfficeMax: 339.99

Went to a best buy that had a Magnolia and they matched the price, so I didn't have to wait 2 weeks and I have 45 days to return if I don't like

The Bose QC35 are more comfortable with slightly better Noise Cancellation, but these sounded much better to me overall

 

[3db]

I just bought these on CD

 

[fuzz092888]

 

[Peter marks]

Pl 701 table from Hollywood sound! Luvin it!

 

[fuzz092888]