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Unless the ruble is doing really well these days, I feel like $8 for a matched quad is about right.

After endless tweaking, the dipoles were sounding truly great - super natural and lifelike, with midrange and highs to die for... But still, i wanted more dynamics, more punch, MORE POWER!!!11!! So this happened: still just trying out different crossover points and targets in AL, but so far it's quite fun! lots of energy and punch, and a surprisingly good phantom centre. gonna try out the waveguided RAAL tweeters as well, and see if it matches the dispersion of the tractrix 200, as i really loved them on the dipoles. (sorry for the lack of headphone posts, but my headphone life is quite dull at the moment)

Lazy Brunch

I am not good at putting words to what I hear, but let me give it a try. This is on my SR-007 with blu-tak mod. The Carbon is more crisp, but more 'in my head' in terms of sound stage. The Blue Hawaii has more body and a noticeably wider sound stage. While the Carbon appears to highlight higher frequencies, I find that cymbals and the metallic 'sizzle' sound of a snare sound better on the BH than the Carbon. Backward from what I expected. The reason I tend to really like the BH is that it excels at warm and full, but does not sacrifice high frequencies and fast transients in any way. Its ability to do both so well is what struck me the most as I started to get used to it. I can make the BH sounds more like the Carbon and vice-versa by using frequency equalization in foobar player. So it appears much of the difference I hear is related to which frequencies each amp peaks on. It is also interesting that I was expecting the Blue Hawaii to sound more like the SRX-Plus since they are both tube amps. But I find the SRX is just as different from the BH as the BH is from the Carbon. 3 very different amps. With flat equalization, I tend to like the BH best right now. I listened to the BH for 1 hour, then the Carbon for 1 hr. Not scientific, but I just enjoyed the BH better. As JimL has said, it is always the new girl who gets the most attention, and perhaps that is what is going on here. After building the Carbon, I felt it was better than the SRX, but after a few weeks I found myself using both pretty much equally. I am very happy with these 3 amps and am indebted to this community for all the help in choosing and building them. I am also glad I have all 3 because they are all different and great in their own way. EDIT: FYI, my source is a Gungnir Multibit ('Gumby') using balanced out into both the Carbon and the BH. Now on to more listening.....

I started to and then I just pulled the trigger. Interested to see what you came up with. There seem to me some options to crimp both parts of the connector at the same time (bare wire / insulation).

Have an absolutely incredible Birthday Mike! Your friends here are many and true. You and Deb are very special to us!

I finally got the Blu-ray set for this show (just watched the first 4 episodes). The sound design is by David Lynch... I'm not sure if people with TV speakers are getting everything out of the show. Has anyone else watched it yet? I'm surprised by how many actors Lynch was able to get back. There are some big-name stars, too, but I don't want to put too many spoilers in here.

holy poop - winner

American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace As Season 1 of ACS (the OJ season) was so damn good, my hype level for this is extremely high. Watched the first episode last night and I can't wait for the rest.

LOVED IT. Ballsiest thing I've seen on TV in a long time. Lynch is a genius.

It is just a printout of California Government Code §8855(k) (which concerns Annual Debt Reports for California public agencies that have issued bonds in 2017) with some of my handwritten comments on it. Nothing confidential!

um. should you redact the GC 8855 document?

Am I a cynic, or is the Perun shilling starting to get slightly oppressive? I'm pretty sure that anyone with more than half a brain wouldn't send off a wad of money to Russia, especially having not heard them. It's enough to make you appreciate actual dealer networks. The hyperbole in the shilling reduces trust, rather than increasing it, incidentally.

Thanks friends. So far the big six oh is treating me well. It helps having such awesome friends. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The case is available in several configurations from several sellers on eBay. Search on "BZ4309" or just "4309 aluminum chassis". Mine was a great price: $110 including shipping and arrived from China in 4 days! Seems like the price jumped to $150 or more now, so I was lucky. The holes are for rack mount front handles. I did not like the look and plan to tap holes and put aluminum screws in the front to cover the holes.

i found an old WE ad from 1916 and it calls electrical outlets "lamp sockets". i realized that i've even heard people use that term in my lifetime, but maybe not since early 90s

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday Mike!

Happy Birthday! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Very Happy Birthday, Mike!

Happy Birthday, Mike! You and Deb, along with the rest of the Chicago crew, are some of the few things I miss from Illinois. Have a superior day my friend.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Mike!

This. I can't say it better nor more heartfelt. Happy Birthday, Mike!!!

Happy birthday brother! May all the oysters continue to be yours!

Happy Birthday, Mike. Hope you and Debbie have a great day!

Happy Birthday Mike

Happy Birthday Mike! I'm sure Deb will treat you like the king your are!

Happy birthday, Mike!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday! (party favour noise)

Happy Birthday Mike! Hope it is a great one!

Happy birthday Mike! Hope you are doing well and it was great to see you recently!

Happy birthday our brother!

You haven’t priced NOS tubes lately, have you? That said, that’s only reasonable if they compete with NOS.

ECP headphone power amp - now that's the sex

Running like a dream now! Thanks mwl168 and sorenb for the fixes. I reduced the amp to +375v and -378v by overlaying 4M7 resistor in parallel to the 390K ones, and it is holding rock solid. Loaded or unloaded, same numbers. And with the 2R6 on the B- current limiter, it is handling the 135ma on that rail without issue. I did not have to change the B+ side current limiter. Frankly, I would never have solved the current limiter issue without your guidance, mwl168. Just spent about 10 minutes on the BH using some older Lambda Pro's that I use to test amps (if they get fried, I will not cry). Now to plug my 007's in and lose a couple hours of time....

The 727 is only pretty bad in comparison to other amps so if you don't do that...you are ok. For me the biggest issue is the lack of engagement and excitement from the amp. It's just so dull and lifeless stock. See here is the usual crap with every new electrostat, they are always world beaters. The first impressions are always "best evah" but it never holds any water. The HE Audio stuff was great...nope it was horrible. The King Sound showed up Stax...nope...far from it really unless they were showing Stax how things should not be done? Now the Mr. Speakers Voce, read the meet impressions and they are stunning!! Talk to people who know something about electrostatics and they pretty much horrible. I just wish somebody would just take a set of the best 'stats out there and actually try to improve them without all the BS. Here's the rub though, for something so simple they are fucking hard to get right. As for the driver size, who on earth thinks that a larger driver is better? Sure the Stax SR-1 drivers were way too small but anything larger than the 009's has very dubious qualities. How is the driver supported, how do you deal with the internal vibrations of the driver, how much does it flex etc. A smaller driver will always outperform a larger flimsy driver...

So, I got my dad's UG back. I had asked that the case be cleaned up, but that the polish be conservative. In hindsight, maybe I should have asked for a bit more polishing, but the watch looks honest. I have it on a late 60's NOS Spiedel Teju-skin strap, with a correct UG gold filled buckle. The watch wears extremely comfortably, and has a totally different flavor from anything else I own: I'm very glad to have it, both for those reasons and that it connects me to a period of my dad's life that I know very little about, even if just tangentially. Sorry for the slightly out-of-focus wrist shot.

While sorting lps...