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The pic of Concorde reminded me of a guy called Norman Harry. Norman is the (now very elderly) father of an old workmate of mine, Alan Harry. Alan had mentioned that his dad was a great mechanical engineer, and 20 years ago or so I had a problem that it seemed Norman might be able to help with. This dapper little guy showed up, quietly spoken. After a coffee we exchanged business cards, and his said "Norman Harry OBE" - OBE is Order of the British Empire, and is a top honour awarded by the government in the Queen's New Year honors list. And it is bestowed in person by the Queen. It is a big deal. "Good heavens, Norman - I didn't realise you had an OBE. What did you get that for?" "Um, I designed the droop nose on Concorde" Back about that time, Norman was one of a very few people qualified to pilot WW2 airplanes. In particular the Lancaster bomber. He was called on to restore the rear gun system for a French owned one, and to make sure he got it right he crawled into the gun blister of a complete one to take photographs and take measurements. "When I got in there I recognised the gun gimbals and mechanical system, and realised that I had designed it in the first place. The next thought was to see the imperfect design - that of a young guy - and immediately started to think how it ought to be done with the benefit of experience. Then I had to stop - the French wanted the historically correct one, along with all my design mistakes!" Quite a character.

I'm having two biscuits tomorrow. **BRENT**

Get a haircut you hippie.

First one of the year at 9:45am. Don't anger me again. **BRENT**

This is after the haircut. If the competition was going to be close, I was prepared to shave head and beard to lose an extra 3-5 pounds. Gracias. I'm down 25-30 since I saw you last. I'm not sure if you were following the weight loss thread, but I did -26.2 pounds between Jan 2 and Jan 30. I still have a long way to go, but I'm feeling a bit better, so that's kosher. **BRENT**

Considering the camera puts on an extra 10 lbs., you have lost a lot of weight since I last saw you, Brent -- well done, sir.

stab him

The ambience was not top quality in the hotel, but the whiskey made up for it. Brent and his offspring met us there as we were unpacking the car, and they brought really good pizza from a local place. Thanks Brent!

That would be Sir Terry to you. His Eurovision commentary was part of the fun. Just rewatched the episode of N M T B he hosted on hearing the news. That's another national treasure gone. RIP Sir Terry

Inner Ear Monitors? Do they insert them into the cochlea as in a cochlear implant?

heav·y ˈhevē/ adjective 1. of great weight; difficult to lift or move. "the pan was too heavy for me to carry" synonyms: weighty, hefty, substantial, ponderous; More

Kidding aside...we do have an AC here in Hotlanta.

You can't match tubes, that is pretty much the gist of it. As for the KGSSHV, the mini uses a completely different power supply and standing current so no doubt there are some differences. There we are talking about major circuit changes. Also only volume matched (with a voltmeter that is) blind tests really apply for something like this. Assumption is the mother of all fuckups. Also a warmer climate with higher than 23°C ambient might require the amps to be readjusted. I can't mimic hot conditions here so they are adjusted at normal room temp.

I got my hands on the old Tektronix all tube curve tracer, the high voltage version goes to 1700 volts. I tested about 50 6ca7 tubes, no 2 indentical. not even close. did the same thing with c2m1000, and to the resolution of the screen, fairly easy to get bunches of matched quads but there is still some variation.

The whole KGSSHV's sound so different is blown way out of proportion. The only real difference is with warmup and thus the offset of the amp and the tolerance of the components. Once they are all running at optimum temp zero them out and see how much difference there is in a volume matched blind test. I've done that, I wonder how many others have done so... All of this reminds me of the tube rolling stupidity. How many have actually compared tubes with identical specs? I mean the same trans-conductance , not just throwing one fresh set in there and one burned out "NOS" set and claiming the NOS sounds so much more mellow. Something to ponder...

this band is all over the place. every album is different.

I warned my wife recently that when we get our kitchen redone (hopefully this summer) an Anova will be included in the upgrades.

Finished product. Sous vide tilapia with adobo and cider vinegar slaw. Very happy tummies. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I guess the same reason you are?

TTVJ loaner arrived today. I busted her out to try with the office rig. I'm looking forward to bringing her home for more critical listening.

Pink Floyd -- Meddle

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik One of those albums you don't listen to for years, then on revisit you're re-addicted.

Just got back from the Muse concert - awesome!