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Work went great. I think I'm going to fit in just fine. After work, I drove the scooter back to Fairfax, where it promptly died in the 7-11 parking lot. Glad it got me back to Fairfax at any rate. So Al's tenant Frank (the motorcycle whiz) helped me get it into a friend's yard and off the street. Then when going over the charging system, we found a loose battery cable. Cleaned and tightened up the terminals. It was down to 5 volts, so we put it on the trickle charger overnight. Hopefully, the battery will be fine, hold a charge and work well as transportation again. It really is kind of ideal for working in the city. Fingers crossed and major kudos to Frank! I did have to listen to a 40-minute speech on the history of motorcycles but it was well worth it for all his help. Then he insisted on buying Suzy and me dinner at Good Earth foods, though I tried hard to treat him. No go, Frank is a hard guy to repay a favor. But he sure knows his bikes.

This! Disclaimer - I must admit that at least for me I'm hoping the first time was the charm.

The Alan Wyatt Quartet. Jazz saxophone instructor at Lee University, where my classical saxophone teacher just retired from. Been wanting to see this dude blow for years. He doesn't disappoint. Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

Thought you might be interested in a picture of the Glengoyne distillery, taken when we were walking the West Highland Way.

Congratulations Jacob and good luck Steve Me: got a HDMI 2.2 to HDMI 1.6 converter and finally got 4K streaming on my TV (specifically my soundbar does not support HDCP 2.2 though the TV does)

Good luck Jacob. I'm heading off to my first day at my new job.

to shield the trafo enough in your build you need some metal that can shield magnetic fields quit good (mu-metal or grain oriented metal). i used also this transformator can (when the trafo is not so near sensitive transistors) but i would rate the magnetic shielding the badest. would rate: mu-metal 100% grain orientad metal 80-90% normal metal (this can) 30-40% due mu-metal is horrible expensive the best way is to go for the grain oriented metal option. i used this transformator can and grain oriented metal bands in one of my ksa5 builds (bad placed trafo in my first ksa5 (the red one)), looks nice and shield effect in combination is as good as mu-metal. so you can first test the noise with this can and later ad some grain oriented metal bands if needed. the noiseest part of the trafo is the side where the cables go in and out, place this part away from the transistors (in your build to the front side). also very effectiv is to turn the trafo up 90 degree (stand up), the magnetic field expands more like a frisbee (then a sphere) around the trafo. the first time putting a grain oriented metal band over the trafo and the hum goes away is magic :-).

When I was looking for a place/town/state to move to, Humboldt County was on my short list. One of the reasons was the music scene in Eureka and the towns around Humboldt State University. I haven't thought about it in a while but one thing I had planned to do was look up Chuck Johnson over in Ferndale. He was making some outstanding music videos called the "Humboldt Live Sessions". Check it out (there are quite a few with interesting acts in interesting settings). BTW, if you stick around to the end, Humboldt State is heavy on the study of everything ocean.

I like to imagine in my head that their company name is pronounced like dodgy.

Ceviche Roll Yellow Ferrari Roll And Tarantula Roll Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks guys. Well, I met somebody a while back, she asked me to marry her, and I said yes. She's too young and too good for me by half. And I do hope that this one sticks. Thanks, and awesome: good luck, Steve!

I told my mother that I'm getting married on November 15th. It's a strange situation, due to custody, but if I felt right telling my mother, it certainly felt right telling any HC'ers who still give a shit about me, as long as they don't talk about it on FaceBook, or whatever (why would you talk about some guy, right?) about it.

Another CFP lives. Started with a single-ended, two-board pilot, proceeded to testing a four-board, balanced setup. Have been listening to it for the past hour or so. Have to settle with 22VDC rails from a Sigma 22 owing to the limit of the transformer I have. Bias set to 150mA. Heatsinks barely get warm. Next is to build yet another GRLV for it with possibly 30VDC rails and higher bias current. Even in its somewhat compromised state, the speed, transparency and resolution of this thing is just incredible!

I suppose there are two possibilities - 1) your JJ tubes are out of wack and you set the batteries taking into account their faults (and the sylvanias are fine), or 2) you need to look for a new tube reseller because this one is no good. I find a lot of resellers only test one side of the dual-triode, and I have seen some dual triodes measure new on one side and poor on the other side - this would cause problems in the t2. Not saying that is what happened here, but what you described shouldn't happen if the tubes are good. If your tubes are good, you should be able to switch them without having to make any adjustments to the batteries. The only time I have had an issue was when the two halves of the dual triode were not reasonably close. And in answer to your email, I have had bad tubes in my t2, but nothing where the bad tube took out any transistors.

I doubt those are the same tubes that I got, which look like this: http://www.thetubestore.com/Tubes/6922-E88CC-Tube-Types/JAN-Philips-6922-Low-Noise Stick with what works for you, though.

On the contrary, my expectations are high and having said that, top tier headphones are very overpriced. What I wanted to say is that subjectively the product looks nice on the pictures, I enjoy this design. But only once on hand I could comment it in any additional way. For now I'll simply rely on feedback here and in other similar places

Pretty low expectations for $4K, eh? And no, the product doesn't look very good. "Flimsy piece of shit" isn't an impression that I would associate with a good product. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oliver Lieb released a new L.S.G. album this year. It's the best thing I've heard in 2017. A friend of his made this video.

Cranked the bias current to 180mA. Broke out my LCD2 as I had a feeling that this amp will be a good match for it. People with LCD2 really ought to listen to it driven by this amp at least once just for the experience. I am still in awe of the speed, clarity, resolution and control of this amp. I can understand now why Kevin said in his post that this should be the end-all of dynamic amps. This is my favorite of all my dynamic amps and I don't think it's entirely a new toy syndrome at play.

I'm rooting for you Jacob! Steve, I'm sure you'll impress them with your skills and experience. As long as you don't shit in the bosses pickup, I'm sure you'll be okay.

Congrat Jacob. The second time is the charm. Good luck in the new job Steve.

those JJ tubes have only 1 hole in the plate per side, the originals have 3 holes and a different configuration of the plate, more square than rectangular. my T2 is still using the same tubes as when I demo'd it at CJ010. I recently did a 100 to 120V conversion on a real T2 for someone on HF. It has the original tubes, 22 years old. (pictures can be supplied if anyone has a real T2 and wants to convert voltages, better than $250 in shipping both ways) The gold aero's are labeled 6dj8

Yes, it's a confusing topic for me when I was obsessed with finding "The Tube" for the Blue Hawaii and the Grounded Grid. I did a lot of reading including the history of EL34 and how the beam tetrode 6CA7 came about. From what I read, GE and Sylvania wanted to produce US-equivalent of EL34 without paying for the licensing, so they developed 6CA7 as a result which is a beam tetrode and not a pentode. However, many EL34 tubes back then were also labelled 6CA7 (many actually have both designations labelled on the tube) but I have not seen a true beam tetrode 6CA7 that is also labelled EL34 so far. Many of the EL34 and 6CA7 information I read are in the guitar amp forums and many described the beam tetrode 6CA7 as a more tonally balanced tube while the EL34 is supposedly having an emphasized midrange. I decide to try the EH 6CA7 out of curiosity and that was that. I liked them so much I started to search for NOS Sylvania and GE 6CA7 quad but ended up blowing my funds in new headphone. This hobby is going to bankrupt me someday!

Not sure what the Gold Aeros are, but regular 6DJ8s shouldn't be used with the T2. They have a max plate voltage of 130V and the top tube sees about 130V.

Which is quite an achievement, in a perverse sort of way.

Every single sentence of that is nonsense. And there is not a single citation to back up any of it.

Wishing you much happiness Jacob. Congratulations! Wishing Steve a great start to his new beginning.

Congrats Jacob and also more background? Best wishes to both of you! And yay Steve! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So, I now learned my lesson to be very careful with T2 and tubes. I couldn’t deal with Groove tubes EL-34 sounds, and while I liked the JJ on the Grounded Grid, it was too fragile to stand with T2. Never again to stuck any JJ in the T2 anymore. Then nervously sticking in my next favorite in-line from GG tube rolls, the Quad RFT Vintage EL-34. Didn’t dare to swap tubes without checking the balances and offset. So balances was sitting at below 0.5V on both channel, and Offset was 5-6V on both channel. The one thing I always noticed about GG and the T2 is that these output tubes affect the “turned on” to the 009. The Groove tubes did an echo sound when Hv kicked on, and quick crack when turned off. The RFT has a quick snap which is lower in volume than Groove tubes, and echoes when turned off. In the GG quad Apex matched from JJ was dead quiet on turning on/off. Sadly, it is not a brand to stick into the T2. Now, why would they behave that way ? I have no clues. anyways, I am enjoying the T2 with Quad matched ECC88 goldpin from JJ...again, love those JJ signatures. Cross my fingers, and pray that they don’t give problems, and now RFT Vintage EL-34. I just had to get away from bad tubes Signature, but also so much respect to how powerful T2 is, and that she can cook tubes easily. So far, T2 is awesome!!! Wooooo By the way, if any long time T2 owners can please share the experiences of reliables tubes, and bad tubes. I think it would be excellent !

David & David -- Boomtown Takes me back a bit ...

Yay ! I got music, and no background noises even at max volume. No Hums, no hiss !! Oh my gawd! I am blessed by Dr. Kevin Gilmore!. I appreciate it so much sir Dr. Gilmore! Finally, I have reached my “ultimate dream goals!” With very limited knowledges. Thank you to George for making this Build a possibility!! Thank you so much to the community as a whole. The best Stax community out there ! Finally, some pictures, herself and in all her glory. Pure solid silver for wires . I am big fan of it I am smiling like a maniac! Yayyyyy! stacking up, and Amp is 130F, the PsU is 141F after 2 hours. Pretty warmth ! Can’t imagine the original The most beautiful amp I have ever had! Period. Time to “burn-in”

I am getting very close! Thanks god that @Kevin Gilmore , @Georgep , @Soren, Birgir, Mike, and the whole community here. Especially thanks to Kevin for taking up your time and advises, and thanks George for the chassis, some obsolete sands and sharing hard to find Xicon. I finally realized that adjusting the batteries with 10k pots is wrong, and it will in the end make 1 battery stuck. Have to measure 22k resistor to 6.5V and then dialing with 2k pot to 740V . Thanks George for the method and it worked to unstuck my battery Now, I can have all 4 batteries at 740V, O+/O- is -100mV to +50mV on right channel. -200mV to +12mV on Left channel. This is cold start O+ to Ground References is R (2.2V and dropping steadily) and L (4.5V and dropping steadily) I think my next step is to plug in the 009 and try to observe noises **my Tube arcing problem turned out to be that JJ 6ca7 was pretty fragile, and couldn’t handle the T2. I was sweating and checking everywhere to realize it was a ghost, until KG confirmed that JJ are junk. I stuck in Groove tubes EL34, and it got to this result.

Met the man, the myth, the legend, Sir Stretch! Had a great lunch with him and Al. He lives up to the hype! We only have the two, but we switch with each other every week. Also made a trip to Ikea with Al. I needed an armoire for my clothes because I'm gay! Al not only helped me pick them out but stayed and helped put everything together. He's either an extremely good friend or extremely bored. I think maybe both!

Do you two ever change your t-shirts? You wore those when I visited a week ago Congrats to Steve on the move and Al on a new "neighbor".

Yesterday: finally moved all the way out. I’m back in Tennessee now. Everything (hopefully) will be finalized this week, but everything that we are keeping from the house is in transit and everything else has been arranged to deal with. There’s now about 3x what is reasonable in my tiny apartment and 10 uhaul uboxes on their way to Tennessee. Now to find a house on this end.

I helped this guy move into his new place in Mayberry.

Went to a race on the Chicago Cross Cup series today, Lots of fun.

That was not their retail price, that some morons are willing to pay a premium for those pieces of arguable shit doesn't justify a half cooked headphone should cost 4K new.

Here's Adam Savage at Third Man Records!

Audition At RCA Here's a great article about the filming of this real audition and what became of the demo and the artists involved. It's great to see the workings of what happened in the studio recording these tunes. http://www.jazzwax.com/2017/07/complete-audition-at-rca.html