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progress. the base plinth is veneered and currently drying with the first layer of oil. will start on the top plate tomorrow.

Naganahahpen. Tell us how you like them.

This is a classic example of why you never go offroading alone. Was with three other folks and they gave me a ride home.

Made the mistake of not giving the Jeep a real proper look-over before taking it out for its first bit of dirt today. Missed two things: a. the tires are rotting a bit more than I had previously thought and b. there are some very subtle locking lug nuts on the wheels for which I don't have the key. Made it over all sorts of rocks no problem but took a root at one wrong angle and ripped a 2" gash in the sidewall. Couldn't patch it and couldn't swap the spare. Had to leave it out there for the night since the sun was already setting. Should be an interesting tomorrow. It's at 33.111887,-105.967308 if you want to look.

Replaced the cable in my SR-009 yesterday. They are playing great now. When soldering the wires to the stator and diaphragm tabs, I came across some details that I thought should be passed on. Desoldering all the wires and removing the old cable was not a problem. See the "Ants in My Stax" thread for 009 disassembly. Remove all the plastic parts mounting the cable to the ear pod, don't try to desolder the wires/cable with these in place -no room. On reassembly, first note orientation of the cable for each ear pod, The arrow on one side of the molded strain relief is to be assembled on the inside only (ear side) and will help ensure signal polarity between L&R channels. Soldering the +/- signal wires to the stator tabs was straightforward. Where it got interesting was when I went to solder the pro bias wires to the diaphragm tabs. The diaphragm solder tabs on my SR-009 are a small additional part that had been riveted to the actual diaphagm. The right side rivet was well attached and the wire/tab easily soldered. But the left side rivet was loose and the tab rotated wildly when I touched it with my solder tip. Took some doing, but got it soldered. Then to double check when done, I measured the continuity of each wire from solder tab to cable pin. All measured 0.01 ohm, except the left bias wire. That measured ~25 ohms and varied wildly as the tab was minimally rotated. I then attempted to solder the bias wire to the diaphragm directly, but did not want to heat too much and possible melt it. Also, the material did not take to solder (probably aluminum?) and so the reason for the riveted solder tab. I finally resorted to adding a blob of solder (with the bias wire) on the tab, and rotating until the tab wedged tight under the diaphragm. That ended up also measuring 0.01 ohm and was stable with the cable assembled. Powering up the headphones, I noticed that both L and R channels started playing at nearly the same time. Previously, the L channel took several seconds longer to start playing, and usually had a sllght and wandering imbalance with the R channel for the first 1/2 hour or so. I took that as amp warm up (KGST), as things settled in nicely after that time. Now, the central image is rock stable from the start up, and the soundstage is balanced and huge. Got me thinking that loose rivets may be a cause of imbalance in some SR-009s, and takes longer to fully charge? My 009s are around 3 years old. I did not take photos while I was working on them, but attached detailed photos from the "Ants in My Stax" thread from 2012. In those earlier headphones, Stax is seen to have used a screw and nut to assemble the solder tab to the central diaphragm. Later versions like mine were "cost reduced" to rivet that connection. When that changed over in production, I do not know. I could image the intermittent coming and going of stereo balance problems written about, may be due to a loose rivet and random cable handling. That might be something others with SR-009 channel imbalance issues may want to check out. Earside view (note arrow), circa 2012: Opposite view, circa 2012:

Stupid rims don't have enough space around the lug for a traditional lug extractor. Had to go with a sacrificial socket. Rescue successful

Yeah I bought it in undergrad and when we moved into this house there was a weird switch controlled plug in the master. It ended up there because it fit. I think we've used it 4 times in 2 years and 2 of those times were to explain what it was to the kids. Your mentioning it reminded me of the uselessness of having it out. Just retired it and bought a Tiffany style lamp to go there:

Several speakers ago I owned a pair of Maggie MG1C, which sounded splendid. However, they had a nasty habit of the tweeter wire on the main panel going open circuit (the tweeter on this model was not a ribbon). Awkwardly this was aluminium wire, and I guess failed by work hardening and cracking. Being a guy who does not admit defeat, I procured some aluminium wire of the right gauge, and made a jig to zig-zag it the same way as the original. I then pulled the old wire off, cleaned the film, and glue bonded the new wire on. The main difficulty was soldering aluminium wire, which needs a special flux and solder, the details of which I entirely forget! Eventually they failed entirely when the diaphragm film split. But they had a great innings!

Agreed. I've never owned Maggies*, but I've heard a few models a few times, and they have sounded best when moved well into the space. *yet. Not apartment friendly.

Any way to get the Maggies away from the wall? They should really open up if you could manage that somehow. I know... rooms... it's never easy, but worth experimenting with if even for just a day.

I can't wait to hear the Focal stuff. I'm pretty damn happy between the HD-800 and RS-1, though. Wish I could really use my speakers.

Not quite as cool as Chris' stuff (I can't wait to see the double-watch/double-wrist shot!), but I did finally get the NATO for my Speedy. The polished steel version was out of stock, and will be for a while, so I asked for the PVD hardware version. Clockwork Synergy shipped me the wrong strap, at first, but the right one arrived a couple days later (before I even mailed out the incorrect one, BTW: Clockwork cares about customer service). I think this is the way I'll wear the Speedmaster, from now on. The watch is too thick to go under a dress cuff, anyway, and the 1171 tends to grab hairs.. Super comfy, and I really like how it looks. The GMT is back on the Oyster, but the Speedy looks really nice on the dark blue, too.

Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo. Have the text, but with 166 narrators on the audiobook this one is for the car or at home with the lights out. https://www.wired.com/2017/02/george-saunders-bardo-white-house-audiobook/

think i need to do some sound treatments on the walls behind the 20.7's

Just a few more holes here and there - need a fuse holder on the rear panel, then four PCB mounting screws and the transformer - hoping to get the mechanical stuff done during the three-day weekend!

here is a dxf file that is modified, https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwUlR99qUHFqQnVZcGkzMjBva3c I enlarged it .250" to allow for 1/4" square stock to use as a frame and made other minor changes, its not perfect yet but getting close. RCA hole size increased to fit the lip around them. the IEC corners have been rounded more but haven't tested that also want a round button instead of the square one test pieces out of PCB and yes I cheated on the trimpots and I find these very hard to solder:

The few times I've worn and listened to the Focall (I'm going to spell it that way if they insist on pronouncing it like that) Utopia, it didn't really stand out that much. Seemed like a decent higher end headphone. But when I heard the price, I couldn't stop openly laughing.

Sold off my ol' Paradigm MilleniaOneCT systems and Maggie .7's for some nice fat 20.7's and the mini maggies on my desktop. Driving the kit with ... MacBook Pro -> McIntosh D100 -> MC252 -> 20.7 +-> PrimaLuna ProLogue Integrated -> mini maggies Sounds amazing! Thinking of upgrading my WA7/tp for their DiaLogue as a dedicated HP amp.

Nice job, and major kudos for matching the grain in the corners!

Fucj you.

nice lava lamp

Although he died on 8th Feb aged 83, RIP Peter Mansfield, Nobel prizewinner for invention of MRI

HOLY SHIT! Kings traded DeMarcus Cousins to the Pels! http://sports.yahoo.com/news/demarcus-cousins-trade-signals-reboot-for-kings-072616450.html

I finally got around to downloading the digital copies of the definitive versions of the NIN's Broken, The Fragile, and TDS. I don't know when I'll have the vinyl (along with The Fragile Deviation I), but the digital versions are the shit.

Just thinking of a snack

Bummer about the abandonment. Hopefully the rescue tomorrow goes ok.

Here are the original ones from Kerry, don't think he will mind.. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwUlR99qUHFqY1YxRjFfcnA1X1k Well that was after several hours of trial and error, next time I should just order the prebuilt ones. Kerry thanks for the beautiful layout, files, schematics and advice. This was quite different from the norm, a nice adventure.

Another two GRLV live! These are set up for 20VDC rails to power my dual-mono SS Dynalo. Thanks to Pars for his creation and generosity of sharing the Schottky bridges with a built-in AC snubber. Although I have to settle for the LM4040 VREF for now until I get the LT1021.

There had better be a fucking second season.

Very nice John! I have dxf files for the front and back plates. I'll see if I can get them published.

My Iron felt like the life was getting sucked out of it towards the end battling with the ground plane... I need to sort out how best to attach the heatsinks for the output transistors, a nice non conductive thermal tape of sorts, double sided... for the hopeful. Otherwise my first mini dynalo is working... although I have no dynamic phones to verify. For the chassis I’m going for modushop 40mm side flanges, other panels will be 2mm thick from FPE, black anodised I’m thinking. Amazing job Kerry thank you so much for the mini design.

Can i own anything for more then a week without pulling it apart? No. No filthy veneer from the Hevea brasiliensis tree allowed in my livingroom! Hope you enjoy the company of your fellow plastic friend! you will soon be replaced by this, sweet, sweet walnut.

man it is nice to have a real music player again.

No lip syncing here.

Well my watch turned out great but now Harvey Store is looking like a mess. TLDR version: they cancelled the order. I placed the order using PayPal (linked to my CC) and then I contacted them because it appeared that PayPal was adding a currency exchange fee to try and change to direct credit card. I spoke with PayPal and they assured me that it was not the case so I contacted Harvey to say go ahead as originally ordered before they had a chance to respond. I then get a message from them today saying that the watch was sold and it would be 2 weeks and they would give a 5% discount for the trouble. I said I would prefer 7% and they just cancelled the order without responding. I guess I should just have said thanks for the discount and now I'm fucked. Edit: They are coming through.... Overreaction on my part

Just arrived and is gorgeous. The continually sweeping second hand on the spring drive is awesome. Working up the courage to do the band resizing....

o_O (twitch)

Finally received my replacement SR-009 cable from STAX Japan and their shipper A&M Enterprises. All looks good and will be soldering it in a few days. Talking via email with Douglas Ip of STAX, he mentioned that as of Jan 1, 2017 Yama Enterprises is no longer their STAX distributor/dealer here. Douglas is working now to establish a company and warehouse out of Dallas/Fort Worth Texas. Great news.