Leaderboard

Did some fine tuning on my Megatron. Bring the regulated HV down to 430VDC rails and changed one resistor from 21K to 15K to supply 300VDC to the front end tubes. In my case the front end tubes draw about 8.5mA total. Also changes the EL34 tubes around in an attempt to bring down the output offset. It's now down to 12VDC yet not as low as I would like. Have a few more sets of EL34 to swap and match to see how low I can bring the offset down to. The output balance is around 3VDC for both channels. The toggle switch on the back of the PSU controls the power to the CPC1117N relay on the GRHV and function as the HV delay switch.

Got out of the office.

Um, yeah. I was so drunk last night that I spent half an hour trying to find the “Who’s Drunk” thread. Never did.

" Digital downloads had a short run as the top-selling format in the music industry. It took until 2011, a decade after the original iPod came out, for their sales surpass those of CDs and vinyl records, and they were overtaken by music streaming services just a few years later. Now, digital downloads are once again being outsold by CDs and vinyl, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA released its 2017 year-end revenue report on Thursday, showing that revenue from digital downloads plummeted 25 percent to $1.3 billion over the previous year. Revenue from physical products, by contrast, fell 4 percent to $1.5 billion. Overall, the music industry grew for the second straight year. And with $8.7 billion in total revenue, it’s the healthiest it has been since 2008, according to the report. Nearly all the growth was the result of the continued surge in paid music subscription services such as Spotify and Apple Music. Those services grew by more than 50 percent to $5.7 billion last year and accounted for nearly two-thirds of the industry’s revenue. Physical media accounted for 17 percent, while digital downloads made up 15 percent. RIAA Chairman Cary Sherman called the industry’s recovery “fragile” in a Medium post Thursday. “We‘re delighted by the progress so far, but to put the numbers in context, these two years of growth only return the business to 60 [percent] of its peak size — about where it stood 10 years ago — and that’s ignoring inflation,” Sherman wrote. “And make no mistake, there’s still much work to be done to make this growth sustainable in the long term.” The outlook for digital downloads is bleak. This is the third year in a row they’ve posted double-digit declines, according to the RIAA. And this is the first time since 2011 they’ve fallen behind physical music media. If the trend continues, they could wind up going the way of the eight-track tape, which was overtaken in the early 1980s by the cheaper and more compact cassette. The situation isn’t very rosy for physical media, either. CD shipments continued their years-long decline, falling 6 percent to $1.1 billion in 2017, according to the report. But vinyl sales were up 10 percent to $395 million — a “bright spot among physical formats,” the RIAA noted. It’s a tiny fraction of the industry’s overall sales, but it was enough to persuade Sony last year to start pressing LPs again after a 28-year hiatus." https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/03/23/cds-vinyl-are-outselling-digital-downloads-for-the-first-time-since-2011

I excited to get new electrostatic headphones from Soviet Union. Than you for your newsletter.

Went to a small vinyl show/sale today, hosted by a store in the top floor of an old mill in Lowell MA. Place wasn't laid out super well, but they had maybe 8-10 vendors/people selling viny (as well as the ability to walk in the store as well; the vendors lined the hallways and an open area near the store). A bit of the usual populace was there, older men like me who love to talk music. A pleasantly surprising number of women, several of whom seemed to know their stuff. But I'd say 60-70% were pure hipster.....sorry, but your clothes, haircuts including several man-buns and thick beards are just annoying, as is your habit to take your time in front of many bins and talk to your friends while others are waiting. But overall a decent show, prices weren't too outrageous but likely bumped up some for them hipsters. Came back with about 1/2 a dozen pieces of vinyl. My favorite catch was a Germs 10" called Cat's Clause, and the down-memory-lane discussion I had with the seller about alt & punk bands from "the day"

Test Tone @ Home live right now: http://mixlr.com/illuminator/chat

Hell yeah.

I can't take credit for finding this, youtube actually suggested it, and lo, it was good. For some reason, I got a whiff of both Erik Satie and Aphex Twin:

Matched quad of EH 6CA7 for the output CCS and matched quad of SED EL34 for the output gain tubes. I don’t believe the CCS tubes need to be matched to the gain tubes. Maybe Kevin, Birgir or someone can correct me if I am wrong. Siemens 5814A for the 12AU7 position, Telefunken for the 12AX7. I was using Valvo ECC82 and Sovtek 12AX7 while I was doing early testing. Edit: the output tubes and the CCS tubes do need to be matched to obtain the lowest possible DC offset and balance. Mixing the 6CA7 and El34 was a bad idea.

You probably should have something on there. Most people seem to mount them to the case bottom. On mine, which is uncased so far, I use a clip on heatsink like this:

Is it the original, single ended Dynalo or the SS Dynalo? And how much voltage drop between the pre-reg and regulated output?

It depends on the max current draw, doesn't it? For 20V with a SS Dynalo, for example, you need some heatsinking, but not a huge amount. For those builds, I just attach the devices to the aluminum chassis (through a pad, naturally) and it works well. For 30V with a SS Dynahi, I attached them to large external heatsinks.

Unexpected set of live recordings by Miles Davis post Kind of Blue Quintet on European tour in 1960.

Correct, they're red and rated at 1.7V. Replaced them with 360Ω and now can go to 750mV

Is that clear type LED 1.7Vf? It must be 1.7Vf (usually red color). Fill with solder all vias. Helps to reduce overall impedance of PCB.

I googled "808 thwumm" and it redirected me to 808 Thump.

Watched season 1 last week, and binged season 2 today. Love this show! Olyphant & Barrymore are perfect, as are all the supporting cast. Using the "zombie-ism" as a metaphor for the main couple dealing with mid-life changes & acceptance is brilliant.

(Not shown, Fish N Chips, that *went*. Just like that)

11x9x2"

Tonight's spinnings

the "GS-1 mk2" that has been requested, coming soon..it will look like a mini GS-X mk2. Evidence of how cheap PCBs are now..

In (post) Soviet Russia, headphone fucks you.

2 plowedsters visit Mikey. So....