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Sorry. I didn’t read your post carefully enough the first time. Glad you’ve got a working solution. My current thinking is: instead of keeping Q12 at the very end of the PSU, I’m considering moving it right after the rectifier and bulk filtering, and ahead of the C2M device. For the SMD version, I’m also thinking about adding a STR1550 locally next to the C2M to provide a second layer of current limiting. That said, as mentioned before, similar to something like a 2N3094, but who knows if it works or not. The main goal of the SMD redesign right now is to merge the two circlotron PSU boards into a single board and reduce the overall size by roughly half. If space allows, I’d also like to see whether the 15 V golden reference and the CPC1117 delay / soft-start can be integrated onto the same board. I have some ideas sketched out, but I haven’t started any actual layout work yet.🤐

I realise I was a bit unclear above. The Q12 IXTH6N100 is indeed a current limiter and as I read the schematic, it's there to protect the whole psu should the amp board develop a short of some type. So what I did above was "steal" my Q12 by re-wiring it for start-up duties instead (placing it between pre-reg caps and Q8). However, that also means that my boards no longer have the Q12-based psu protection in place. So in the future, I will probably put a second IXTH6N100 on the board (in the Q12 position) to restore that protection. Also, you don't specifically need the out of production C2M parts for the psu. The next generation of those SicFets, specifically the current production C3M0900170D that also replaces the old C2Ms on the amp boards, work just fine.

Ha ha. Baron Trump-konnen. Similar fatness, similar colonial intents with force, taking possession of areas for natural resources, similar survival of assassination attempt(s).

Shot at Lexington Pride on a Rollei 35 using Kodak 200.

Hank Mobley - No Room For Squares 192kHz on Qobuz Ex.

With leftover pulled pork in the fridge it was time for nachos.

Trump told The Atlantic on Sunday that Rodriguez could face a fate similar to Maduro, who is being detained in federal prison in New York on narcoterrorism and drug trafficking charges, if she doesn’t align with U.S. interests. “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” Trump said. The comment marks a stark reversal from Trump’s praise of Rodriguez in a press conference Saturday following the attack. The president said U.S. officials had spoken with Rodriguez, and reported that “she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.” https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/04/trump-warns-acting-venezuelan-leader-00710314

I believe Q12 (IXTH6N100) here is also acting as a current limiter, and it’s a depletion-mode MOSFET. I’ve been thinking about slightly changing its placement: moving it ahead of Q2 (C2M), after the filtering stage. Since the C2M devices are now discontinued, they’re likely to become increasingly difficult to source going forward.

Some homemade pizza.

Trump renews push to annex Greenland after Venezuela strike https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/01/04/greenland-trump-venezuela/88018306007/

Lets not forget the Henry Kissinger got the Nobel Peace Prize after destabilising Chile under the socialist government of Allende, and putting in August Pinochet - a torturing, disappearances human abusing right wing dictator. And Chile was a whole lot further from the USA than Venezuela. Slight personal recollection. My Dad was in the Merchant Navy the early/mid 50's to mid 60's in (by today's standard) tiny oil tankers. The ship used to dock at Punta Cardon in North Venezuela to the oil refinery there. So Venezuelan oil was a thing way back

A belated one - hope it was a spifflingly good day!

The GFX100RF files are stunning off the Pixma at 13x19.

Dead Like Me

my vote is for the Audeze Maxwell. Very good sound for a closed back. I far preferred it to the DCA and Hifiman closed offerings. I haven't heard the latest Sennheiser 630 yet though.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Yesterday was certainly an eventful one ...and not for me, if you take my meaning. Someone posted this meme edit in a discord and I yoinked it on the spot.

*adjusts tinfoil hat* It's not just about stealing Venezuelan oil (and whatever other natural resources that are a bonus). What we're seeing here is an attempt to "stabilize" the world's oil market using Venezuela as a buffer when we destabilize things by attacking Iran.

The amp looks lovely but 250 gain is quite low, should be say 1000...60DB,cant help but wonder if this amp is set up to fail and its cost is crazy.

I'm rather fond of the panorama modes on the GFX100RF. This is a raw conversion in Lightroom with basic edits. The M4 Pro Mini I picked up chews through the raw files out of this camera a lot more effectively than the base M4 did. I need to try the Ricoh wide angle adapter that I picked up for the 100RF. Somebody did the math and with the adapter you can get the same FOV as an X-Pan, which is exciting (I always wanted an X-Pan).

Higher gain and in my opinion better frequency response. I haven’t tried other than the 100uF electrolytics. With the capacitors the amplifier is an absolute favorite.

'Weeks earlier, U.S. officials had already settled on an acceptable candidate to replace Mr. Maduro, at least for the time being: Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who had impressed Trump officials with her management of Venezuela’s crucial oil industry. The people involved in the discussions said intermediaries persuaded the administration that she would protect and champion future American energy investments in the country. “I’ve been watching her career for a long time, so I have some sense of who she is and what she’s about,” said one senior U.S. official, referring to Ms. Rodríguez. “I’m not claiming that she’s the permanent solution to the country’s problems, but she’s certainly someone we think we can work at a much more professional level than we were able to do with him,” the official added, referring to Mr. Maduro. It was an easy choice, the people said. Mr. Trump had never warmed up to the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who had organized a winning presidential campaign in 2024, earning her the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Since Mr. Trump’s re-election, Ms. Machado has gone out of her way to please him, calling him a “champion of freedom,” mimicking his talking points on election fraud in the United States and even dedicating her Peace Prize to him. It was in vain. On Saturday, Mr. Trump said he would accept Ms. Rodríguez, saying that Ms. Machado lacked the “respect” needed to govern Venezuela. U.S. officials say that their relationship with Ms. Rodríguez’s interim government will be based on her ability to play by their rules, adding that they reserve the right to take additional military action if she fails to respect America’s interests. Despite Ms. Rodríguez’s public condemnation of the attack, a senior U.S. official said that it was too soon to draw conclusions about what her approach would be and that the administration remained optimistic that they could work with her. ... For all her technocratic leanings, Ms. Rodríguez has never denounced the brutal repression and corruption sustaining Mr. Maduro’s rule, once calling her decision to join the government an act of “personal revenge” for her father’s death in prison in 1976, after being interrogated by intelligence agents from pro-U.S. governments.' https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/04/world/americas/trump-venezuela-leader-rodriguez-machado.html?smid=url-share

Picture from work in progress (if there ever was anything else). I can now start the Super-Carbon without using the Variac. Initially, the PSU SicFets blew up during startup when doing a full power on, very similar to what SimmConn reported here: Presumably my SicFets ventured outside their SoA during startup. I'm not using the Cree C2Ms here (though it's a similar spec'd SicFet) and I have the current sources set for 25mA which might be pushing things a bit, so this particular problem may very well be unique to my build. However, since this forum has a lot of clever participants , the solution was at hand in the same thread. As per @Kerry's advice, I wired in the depletion mode MosFet current limiter directly after the pre-reg caps instead of having it after the post-reg caps. Also, I added a Vds clamping Zener as per @simmconn's mod. Not skilled enough to tell which mod did the trick or if both are necessary (and one can of course never exclude the possibility that it now works for some other reason that I have no idea about), but anyway it now starts up without anything blowing up and I can move on to the "oh, I'm supposed to listen to it?" bit. Special thanks to Kerry and SimmConn (in addition to Kevin designing these things in the first place); I would not have figured this out without you! Apologies to all UK members; haven't gotten around to finding a new picture host yet.

I don't think we'll stop at the oil.