Wil be out of circulation for a little while- Hip Joint replacement surgery June 16

[JonMarsh]

Someone else dropped out of my surgeon's queue, and I jumped on the opportunity, but it's been a very busy couple of weeks getting all the clearances and ducks in a row to get this taken care of. Otherwise, it would be August or so... assuming elective surgeries are still available- my surgeon was only able to start back up the beginning of June, and it all depends on COVID numbers the rest of the summer and loading on ICU's on how long they can continue doing electives.

I should be off from my day job until around June 13, so there should be some opportunities to make progress on speaker work and related topics! Just got in my large format printer/plotter to support stuff Steve and I are doing, as well as things at the day job. I expect to finish setting it up in it's temporary location today... the roll around stand and roll paper won't be here until later next week. I like this location so much, I just may leave it here...





Seems like it was just made to sit on top of two file cabinets side by side! And my cabinets are just the right size!

BTW, when you see a picture of it by itself, it gives you no clue about the size... bigger and heavier than I expected, probably the best pounds per dollar deal I've ever gotten in an inkjet printer!

You can guess my first reaction on unpacking it...




Great Scott!


But then, I should have been tipped off by the shipping box...

[theSven]

Have a great recovery and remember to do your PT and keep moving.

[Seattle]

Wishing you a speedy recovery

[JonMarsh]

All I figure I have to do is to live up to what I did last time for my right hip... I do have a plan.

Example: for this kind of surgery, you get a home care visit from a nurse and a physical therapist every week for up to six weeks.

On the first visit, last time, they introduced themselves and went over the materials and processes they recommended.

On the second visit, they said, "Great Scott! You don't need us anymore- you're already doing as well as most people at 5-6 weeks!" And they didn't come anymore.


So, barring any surprises, I plan to do a repeat of last time. Even my surgeon was surprised at the speed of my recovery and mobility for the first surgery- but he's good, and I selected him for the version of the procedure he uses. I told him the secret was my hot rodded walker, with wheels both at the front and rear- I goofed on him at our first meeting, walking half way across the waiting room using the walker, then picking it up, twirling it upside down while continuing to walk towards him, and pointing out the modifications I'd made to it...

SO, I have a rep to live up to. Let's see if it works out that way this time, too. Who knows?

:huh:

[Browncoat]

Sounds like you've got this, but good luck and quick recovery!

[JonMarsh]

Sounds like you've got this, but good luck and quick recovery!

Thanks! I appreciate the well wishes...

Of course, you know what they say sometimes- life is what happens while you're busy making other plans!

But if you have a good plan, and work the plan, then you have a good chance.

[Norm]

Best of luck with the procedure and recovery Jon.

[dwk]

Here's hoping you can stick to the plan and everything goes well and you can look forward to a quick recovery.

[ergo]

Jon, just seeing this and I guess today is the day they make a hole and add some upgraded parts ...not so different to speaker DIY and crossover upgrades Or maybe it is still....

For tomorrows recovery in bed there is this option if you feel upto it. Tomorrows session is "9. Intermodulation Distortion – Music is More than a Single Tone " which has been a topic in the forum in near history too, so I'll sure check where Klippel is at on this topic with their test solution.

http://www.klippel.de/know-how/education/webinars.html

PS. This is one big printer for home use - and with paper coming off the roll it should allow to print most speaker drawing even 1:1 if you feel like it... even the ones taller than you that you've envisioned. That must be satisfying for sure.

[Bear]

Best of luck. A crazy thought: just take a day or two off. :-)

[Carl V]

Fingers crossed for another speedy recovery...

I am reminded of one of your Literary quotes
There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip

But lets stay positive...work that plan

[Exocer]

Wishing you a speedy recovery Jon!

[JonMarsh]

progress...

Thanks guys! Came home on Thursday, Friday I had a pretty good day, turned the corner on getting opioids out of the system, digestion back to normal, and improving mobility.

I might have gotten a little carried away...

I got out my modified "outdoor" walker (wheels front and back; not a flying Delorean, but much better for outdoor walking than a standard walker with rubber feet in the back- Geez, I know I'm a geezer when I'm boasting about modifying assistive living devices...)

And did my condo complex, which is like an L- this is the long part of the L- I'm at one end.




I did the full L and back in the late morning, then went out in the evening and did it again.


Feeling a little more tender, today, but range of movement is improving. Rehab guy couldn't make it today- maybe next week sometime. By then I may not need him, as I have all the exercises on paper and started doing some of them the first night home. Having the opioids wear off and digestion returning to normal was a bid deal for me yesterday. Me and opioids don't get along- I have little risk of becoming an addict.

Gosh, you'd almost think I have the determination of a Sith Lord, the way I'm going about this stuff...

But that is what worked last time.

[JonMarsh]

Fully Operational

And progress in other areas, too- the new plotter-printer is fully operational now, with 24" roll paper installed for printing C and D size documents



There's a sheet feeder too, for more conventional paper sizes.

This puppy handles everything from 90's HPGL plotter language to Apple AirPrint. That's probably the widest time span of technology I know of in a printer device.

[dwk]

Out walkkng on day 2? I'd call that sticking to the plan. Very encouraging.

I looked up your beast of a printer - I'm actually shocked at how (relatively) inexpensive it is. Are ink costs where they make up the difference, as with photo printers?

[JonMarsh]

I was surprised there, too. I bought an extra set of cartridges, (they're made in Indonesia if that's of any interest, including the the large size black).

The Black high capacity are $54 each.

The Magenta was $26,

The Yellow was $40,

And the cyan was $44.80. Different vendors.

But, they are BIG honking cartridges...

And the 24" wide double weight matte roll paper was $44.50 a roll, for an 82ft roll, so that also feels reasonable to me compared with smaller paper sizes and regular printers.

Maybe I've been reading too many articles about new Magico speakers and Halcro Eclipse amps- I'm getting a bit numb to pricing issues in smaller items. But to me, it all feels very reasonable in comparison to what I've gotten.

Maybe those cartridge prices seem pricey, but

A) they are big

B) think about what laser toner cartridge prices look like.

It's a lot of printer capability for the money. So far I'm happy, expect to be trying it out soon this week- have a gimundo GANT chart from work to print out, covering my last months of employment.


BTW, had my first meeting with physical therapist today... went quite well, and confirmed I'm on the right track and doing the right things, and could do more difficult exercises (like dead leg lifts) already on the affected leg. Now, if I just get enough sunshine, and stay away from the Kryptonite, I should be in good shape in a few weeks.

You have no idea how relieved I am that I was able to get my surgery in early, taking a cancelled slot from someone else- I was originally later in the queue. By that time, who knows if electives will still be going. That is my fear. Possibly unreasonable, I know Gavin Newsom is doing his best, but a lot of Californian's think they are from Texas or AZ, I think...





Hopefully we'll all look back in a few weeks and see how all the states I'm worried about have turned it around...

And look more like this, where the marketing colleague I work with closely lives:

[1Michael]

Glad to hear your moving about after the surgery. Being an ex Navy Diver, powerful hips are a necessity. I would recommend scissor kicks and hello darlings to build the hips back up.

[oneplustwo]

Excellent to hear your progress. Are you going to be able to ride the motorcycle and work the NSX clutch anytime soon? I'm happy to keep them both "exercised" if you need help in that department!

[JonMarsh]

Driving my FJ Cruiser should be no problem- and while I intend to do some maintenance on the bikes, and car, I probably won't get any driving in during the next 3 weeks!

[sliceofhogan]

Great to hear you are up and "running" again! Best wishes.

[5th element]

Yeah indeed, you seem to be making excellent progress. I am very impressed! Then again, the longer you're down, the harder it is to get back up, so hats off to you!

[JonMarsh]

Jon, just seeing this and I guess today is the day they make a hole and add some upgraded parts ...not so different to speaker DIY and crossover upgrades Or maybe it is still....

For tomorrows recovery in bed there is this option if you feel upto it. Tomorrows session is "9. Intermodulation Distortion – Music is More than a Single Tone " which has been a topic in the forum in near history too, so I'll sure check where Klippel is at on this topic with their test solution.

http://www.klippel.de/know-how/education/webinars.html

PS. This is one big printer for home use - and with paper coming off the roll it should allow to print most speaker drawing even 1:1 if you feel like it... even the ones taller than you that you've envisioned. That must be satisfying for sure.

You know, I packed all kinds of stuff for my brief two day hospital stay- including an iPad Pro and a brand new FIIO M7 that I just bought along with a 256GB micro SD card and loaded up with music- never felt clear headed and good enough to turn it on while I was there! It's shame, because with the Saber DAC, it does sound rather decent driving a modest set of Phiaton M500 headphones- my personal preference in the $250 range. Which, naturally, are no longer available.





Accelerating business dynamics and reduced product life cycles have their downsides...


But I will check your link to see if they have the webinar posted for later viewing, like some of my CAD vendors like SIMPLIS do.

In fact, I've got a live SIMPLIS Webinar coming up tomorrow, for which I made some contributions to it's preparation for the new Magnetics Design Module functionality for SIMPLIS. Helped them find some bugs, too...


I'm planning out audio work to do the rest of my time off, and consulting with an old friend in Singapore about some system updates - stuff out of my price range, but he likes my inputs and comments about reviews and blurbs plus my own measurement experience with the older models.

Halcro seems to have come roaring back, especially as they now have the primary engineer, Lance Hewitt, on board, from the old Halcro days.





That's him on the right. For some reason, I rather like the look!





Pricey for sure, but he'll be able to trade in his DM88's and DM10. Still, for the balance, you can buy a pretty decent new car...

The review at What HiFi is a very earnest attempt, including sending to an outside vendor for measurements, but their gear isn't up to the task...

https://www.whathifi.com/us/reviews/halcro-eclipse-mono

But it's an interesting read, and I revisited the original Stereophile DM88 review and my own DM68 measurements. I wish they could have done the CCIM HF IMD test, but even if it's just as good as the DM68, why, that is quite stellar!

[1Michael]

I just watched the documentary on the new Queen group last night...very interesting.
I picked up an FIIO M7 awhile back but I can't figure out how to put music on it ops: I think it's a compatibility thing with my computer.

[JonMarsh]

Re the M7, I loaded it from a Mac, which is about the worst way to go for compatibility, but it went pretty smoothly.

A key finding I made from checking with Google is to ignore their instruction to use ExFAT for formatting a plug in SD micro card. Use plain old FAT32. The M7 bogs down trying to handle ExFAT with large amounts of music, for some reason.

Second problem for me to solve, is that their Android file transfer utility is 32 bit, and guess what folks, I run Catalina which is 64 bits only. HOWEVER, I have a couple of systems I keep on Mojave, which will still run 32 bits, so I did the music transfer from one of them.

(BTW, why 32 bit only on Catalina becomes clearer when you understand Apple's migration plan to ARM on the Mac, as announced at WWDC- they went 64 bit only a few years ago on iOS- improves system behavior, because you don't have to run dual 32 bit and 64 bit VM's at the same time)

I bought an Anker SD card reader from Amazon, which plugs into a standard USB port, and that worked just fine. Basically, setup a folder called Music, then copy all your ripped or purchased albums over to it, in the same format you'd use for a typical music server (top level is artist, underneath individual album folders..)

Then after plugging in, have your M7 scan all folders to find music. There is 2GB of on board storage you can use initially if you want... I just left it alone., got a sandisk 256GB card.

Note, I installed all the music BEFORE inserting the card into the M7. Then I had the M7 scan for music. I've heard there's a way to install music on the M7 directly, but that it's a bit "quirky".

Hope this helps.

Listening to Jackson Browne ("I'm Alive") right now- that song choice may date me a bit!

[1Michael]

Awesome, I will give that a try this weekend. Thanks and get healed

[wkhanna]

greetings, Maestro.
so glad to hear that your recovery is going well!
since i am in the business (my day-time job) of robotic ortho implant devices, i am quite curious as to whether or not you chose a Dr who utilizes the Mako robotic hip replacement device?
also, what brand of hip did you choose?
is it rotating or fixed?

[JonMarsh]

greetings, Maestro.
so glad to hear that your recovery is going well!
since i am in the business (my day-time job) of robotic ortho implant devices, i am quite curious as to whether or not you chose a Dr who utilizes the Mako robotic hip replacement device?
also, what brand of hip did you choose?
is it rotating or fixed?

We should have talked about 6 weeks ago! Those would have been real fun questions to ask my surgeon!

He's the same guy I used previously, based on posterior approach and some other details I researched back then.


I'm not quite such the star performer, at my first follow up appointment, I couldn't walk without the walker. BUT, the sliver lining is that now I will be off until Aug 5...

I do have a rehab meeting scheduled for next Monday, let's see how that goes. I'm pretty active around the condo, working on this and that, and I do a 1 mile outside walk in the AM and the PM.

But the left hip doesn't like bearing full weight yet, though it's improving. My sense is another week might get me there...

[JonMarsh]

Yesterday was a good day- I was able to move up to walking with short steps without the walker for 20-30 ft. It’s really just a function of the weight load my left hip will take- without significant pain. I’m not doing any opioids.

Now, if you could load me up with info about the joint prosthesis technologies, or point me in the direction of a PDF link, that would be hilarious for my Aug 5 follow up meeting...

[wkhanna]

glad to hear your recovery is proceeding so well and kudos on your pain management protocol!

i must add, strictly from my experience as mechanical design, test and assurance engr:

"Early failure can happen if you do not guard your hip joint from overloading due to activity level, or accidents such as falls."

i know you are anxious to get back to your normal routine, and actually you should find your quality of life and activity improved with surgery, but please don't over-stress the new hardware right away as your body needs time to mend and the bone literally grow into the surface of the implant.
the newer materials like our OXINIUM (oxidized zirconium) should be good for over 30 years.

and i hope you manage to need a 2nd one, lol!!!!

https://www.smith-nephew.com/patient/treatments/hip-treatments/hip-replacement-procedure/

https://www.smith-nephew.com/professional/products/all-products/verilast-hips/

https://www.smith-nephew.com/professional/products/all-products/oxinium-femoral-heads/

https://www.smith-nephew.com/professional/microsites/navio/navio-technology/product-overview/

https://www.smith-nephew.com/global/assets/pdf/products/surgical/verilast_technology_mb_00394v2.pdf

https://www.smith-nephew.com/professional/microsites/navio/total-knee-arthroplasty/navio-total-knee/

https://www.smith-nephew.com/professional/microsites/navio/resource/resources/

https://www.smith-nephew.com/key-products/orthopaedic-reconstruction/ri-hip/

[JonMarsh]

Trust me, I've done at least some of my homework, and rushing the healing or stressing the ligaments and tendons and muscles early is NOT part of my plan- the last time I was very measured about range of motion and stress, and plan to be the same this time. Knock on wood, it will go similarly.

And thanks for the links. Will give me something to do other than reading about the propagation of COVID 19 in so many areas!

[5th element]

The review at What HiFi is a very earnest attempt, including sending to an outside vendor for measurements, but their gear isn't up to the task...

You can say that again. The measurements are dominated entirely by the capabilities of the testing gear! I didn't read the entire article but I hope they make mention of this otherwise those measurements are doing a massive disservice to Halcro.

[JonMarsh]

Totally agree with you- and Stereophile doesn't do much better, using the old audio precision analyzer they have on loan.


Just a couple of weeks ago I was sharing info about this with a former colleague who's now back in Singapore, because his wife can do both clinical practice and research (she's a doctor) there. He has an opportunity to trade in his DM88 and DM10 for one of the new amps, plus some money, of course. The "stupid" thing is that my older DM68's measure better than what Stereophile could achieve with the newer DM88...


From the "On the Bench" post,

THD+N versus level at 1kHz - 8 ohm load- performance basically a function of the low noise floor:

(see how most amps do at 1W or 5W out!)







THD versus frequency at 50W (an arbitrary selection, not so high that the voltage obscures the noise floor, but enough to make it work a bit)






And the real acid test for most amplifiers, 18+20kHz CCIM distortion- peak here is 40V.





Note that I'm using the measurement level setup that refers to absolute dBM, not to scaled to the peak of the signal- so what you're seeing is a peak signal level of 20dB, with the noise floor at -130dB, for a total dynamic range not even close to clipping that is 150 dB.

Worst case side band product at 1kHz is 100dB below 0dBm, and 120dB below the signal level.

Don't you wish we could get drivers that perform like that?