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And another one's singing. Friends, this is my first home experience with stax cans, now with a sr303 bought for a dime. And I guess it'll be a long, long journey... I'm in love with this cfa, its speed and clarity are a perfect match with speed and clarity of staxes, wow... It is refined, delicate and well behaved (apart the offset that needs a screwdriver sometimes... What's the tolerance for balance and offset? Trying to keep em spot on on zero, but slowly drifts away...) Thanks Kevin! 🙏

This Blue Prince game... haven't played anything like it since Outer Wilds. I am loving it. Another puzzle game masterpiece. If you enjoy puzzles this is not to be missed.

^^ this. I had it high in my queue and your post pushed it forward. Not an easy listen. Not that it is not really good. It is pretty great. But it is not for the faint of heart. There are a lot of notes, and they are not in the order that I would expect. But listening deeply there are themes and phrases that emerge that are very rewarding. And some tunes that are absolutely beautiful. Well recorded and minimizes the Jarrett mumble. Side note - last week when I had a friend visiting, I tried to explain - The Köln Concert - It was hard with someone that does not listen to jazz and had never heard of it before.

A friend of mine:

Maybe harder than you anticipate Recently I was sent a not working Blue Hawaii BJT. Turns out the PSU PCB is a clone of Kevins layout ... just flipped upside down, with components firmly mounted on top of the traces ...a year down the road, it went boom, with lifted traces and some literally burned totally. @kevin gilmore has been kind and provided a modified version of his layout to match the mounting studs in the chassis.

I'd use 300b or 2A3 tubes as load be aware that NOS tubes may have different results from new production tubes

Good news: It works! Measured output is 4.9V for the 5V setting, 6.1V for 6.3V, and spot-on 2.5V for the 2.5V setting. I haven’t tested the soft-start function yet — if anyone has good suggestions on how to choose a suitable load resistor for testing, I’m all ears. Bad news: I spent two days figuring out how to hand-solder with a heat pad and heat gun the QFN package. Even when using a stencil, too much paste tends to remain on the pads, which makes them very prone to shorting. As a result, I ended up ruining two boards and some components. At this point, I really don’t feel like assembling the remaining three boards myself. I think it’s best to leave the rest to a proper assembly house.

It’s not hard to do a 1:1 clone of the PCB. It’s also a great interview question for a junior electrical engineer to come up with a circuit that does this. However not a lot of them would probably know how a vacuum tube filament/heater behaves.

The 80's are now in full effect with Tainted Love.

Progress report

The Banjo powered jam band energy of New Monsoon. And a choc-ice.

How Y'All Doin' Novato? Wreckless Strangers @ https://www.novatochamber.com/2025-art-wine-music/

Chocolate Tifin and Nice Cup of Tea with the Brits.

Today ... https://bonair.com/brits/ Lucas electrics has no power here, so here are a few of those that made it.

Personal History by Mary Chapin Carpenter (2025) https://album.link/gtnmzvcxr3szp Example: Warm and sometimes brooding. A set of tunes from one that seems to know who they are and where they are in their life.

The Blue Nile - A Walk Across the Rooftops Shpongle - Codex VI

Pan Seared Halibut, Lemon Rice, minted peas, lemon / dill / yoghurt dressing.

Yeah Yeah another Rick Video - but I had never heard the isolated tracks before - pretty darn cool.

It's impressive. Art is subjective. This piece, especially. https://sfstandard.com/2025/04/20/naked-lady-sculpture-sf/ https://sfstandard.com/2025/04/20/naked-lady-sculpture-sf/

Does the new sculpture look better in person?

Hello Friends, a nice family shot with no load, no current limitation. Have to figure out why the bias doesn't kick in at 580V, otherwise quite happy. Edit, discovered it's the dmm impedance, bias is just right 👍

That was fast! Thanks a lot.