Leaderboard

It's winter time again - the prime time to bring out this space heater. I have forgotten how glorious this amp sounds and am reminded again how much tube choices affect the sound of this all-tube circuit - especially the front end tubes.

Happy New Year from across the pond!

Hope everyone is having a great NYE and here’s to reality making a comeback in 2020!

Just a follow up on my SS Mini build where I used the MPSW thru-hole transistors instead of the PZTA SMD version. Listening tonight, after 1 hour or so, the chassis top measured a max of 46°C, and scanning inside with the IR gun showed a max of 66°C. I did not remove the top to scan individual devices, but placing my hand on the top ( after 1 hour and 2 hours), it seems like it runs considerably cooler than I remember the SMD versions that I built. Sounds great as well, though I think the same as the SMD version.

Still on the Catherine Wheel kick (and Curve...) My son got CDs for me of: Pretty damn good. Not a fan of the close miked technique vs. their previous whole band in the studio approach (Ferment and Chrome), but very clean. I'd heard some of these on a youtube video live at the Bowery in NYC. I like the live a bit better, but not bad. My son also got me this: I like (got this from this thread I think, maybe Stretch posting a track?). Very '80s-ish with analog synth (Prophet?). And then I had to scratch an itch I've had for awhile and listen to ELP live at Isle of Wight almost 50 years ago doing Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition... pretentious as hell? Check. Enjoyable? Check. Still love listening to Greg Lake. What a voice! Still wish I had the CD of whichever album they had out which had the live Tarkus where Lake launched into the King Crimson "Epitaph". I know I have it on vinyl, but need to set my Thorens up again It's been years.

It's a bit...schizophrenic. Dusty in love.

Lets close out the last decade and ring in what should be an amazing new one! Onward to the 2020s!

I haven’t heard/read the actual reason so can’t speak to Justin’s stated policy of not using KT77s in his amps. Whether a design flaw in those particular tubes substituting for EL34s or his customers’ experience with a bad batch or two are possibilities, but only unfounded speculation. Just don’t put any KT77s in his amps.

Dusty has that one exactly right. Thanks both of you for that, going to listen to some ELP.

Proof that there are plenty of ways to earn a living as a musician left (particularly if you play a large 10th century instrument). https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/dec/31/carlos-ghosn-escaped-japan-hiding-in-a-musical-instrument-case Carlos Ghosn reportedly fled house arrest in Japan in a musical instrument case, in an audacious Hollywood movie-style escape masterminded by his wife with the assistance of a Gregorian music band and a team of ex-special forces officers. The escape began when the band arrived at his home in Tokyo, where Ghosn has been held under house arrest and strict police surveillance, according to Lebanese TV news channel MTV. At the end of the performance, as the musicians packed up their instruments, Ghosn – whose height is stated at 1.7m, or just under 5ft 6in, in his Wikipedia entry – apparently slipped into one of the larger cases and was taken to a small local airport.

If the words sound queer and funny to your ear, a little bit jumbled and jivey Sing "Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy!" Santa sure took care of me this year! One of the craziest things about re-watching the old seasons on the cusp of 2020 is that back in 1990 no one had cell phones and almost no one in the show uses a computer. How quickly things change. We are getting old!

A night out in the rain with the X-Pro2 & XF 23 f/2