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Had a Vodavi phone system at work that one of the station ports didn't work. Normally I wouldn't even bother trying a repair on one of these and just replace the unit, but lacking any working ones on the shelf, I decided to have a go at it... and somehow actually managed to fix it. 😲 Random picture of one off the internet for reference: I had to replace one of those little blue transformers, the thermistor beside it, and some smd components on the back of the board, with ones I salvaged off a different broken unit. It took a few passes to track down everything that was damaged, but now it works as it should. Yay.

Finally made me to Northern Michigan five hours later than planned. Too much time in a mask but hopefully I was not infected because I was very careful and sat in my own row for both flights. 🤞🏼

Hello everyone, hope everything doing very well today. Few days ago I found two transformers in my dungeon, which named by my wife. I mentioned it has 16V out and double 110V in, so I guess perhaps could make something like stax srd-7. Then I made a pcb and give most places to voltage doubling rectifier, as same as srd-7, and... it works. Well somehow the bias unable to reach 580V, only around 490V, the sound quality, of course, bass section bit weak, so I have to turn the EQ on, then everything fantastic. BOM: 2 30W transformers 110-0-110 in 16V out, 1 50W transformer 220V in 110V out. 1 fuse @200ma 6 0.1uf 630V caps 1 0.01uf 630v cap 6 1n4007 diodes 4 speaker connectors 2 2M2 resistors @ 2W (for safety consideration no less than 1/2W) 1 15k resistors ( to light up led) 2 5R resistors @5W for dummy load 1 1M resistor 1 stax standard electrostatic can connector Infact if I could spend enough time on it, hand wired construction must be better and cheaper. So I call this project "Ghetto SRD-7".

From someone that knows a bit about history. Common Sense 320 – Steering Into the Iceberg https://www.dancarlin.com/product/common-sense-320-steering-into-the-iceberg/

The times that we've flown together have gone off without a hitch. I must be your lucky charm. In the future take me wherever you want to fly. Problem solved. You're welcome!

No particular brand recommendations. It is safe to install a larger capacitance as long as the voltage and size specifications are maintained. Larger capacitance is similar to slightly stabilizing the power supply voltages and allows the circuit to work a bit better. The amp should be off long enough to discharge the power supply caps, which you can check by measuring the residual voltages on the power supply caps - as long as there are only a few volts left you are fine. Note that because of variations in the AC line voltage and heat drift, there is going to be some change in the output voltage on the order of a few volts over a few minutes time. The circuit is pretty stable and designed for long tube life, so checking the bias a couple times a year is probably adequate. The CCS mod is fine as published, the only changes are additions of 5.1 megohm safety resistors to the bias outputs after the last bias capacitor, which was left out of the original article.

Probably more like you’d use it:

Once you have the iLoc app installed and you learn to use it, it's a snap to transfer your licenses from the cloud to the dongle and back again. iLoks are a pain no matter how you use them but there you are. I don't know of a USB-C iLok. I suggest getting a C to USB 2 adapter cable if you don't like the docks (the docks do come in handy with the limited ports on the newer macbooks). They make 6 inch cables. Most field recording folks use a cable or dock just to keep from having the dongle sticking out of their laptops waiting to get broken or breaking the port.

As electrolytic caps age they have a gradual decrease in capacitance and an increase in series resistance, but it is unlikely that you can tell that by listening. At some point as it approaches its end of life, the risk of the capacitor shorting out will increase, but again until it happens I don't know of any way to determine exactly when it will happen. That's why I recommend just replacing them all as routine maintenance. Kind of like replacing the oil in your car at specified maintenance intervals. If you don't do this, you are risking a catastrophic failure if the capacitor shorts out. Better to just put in new caps - it's cheap insurance. The parts cost for replacing all the electrolytic caps is less than $50 and you don't have to worry about it again for 10-20 years. So, stop f**king around and just do it. If you don't know how to solder get an electronics technician to do it. You shouldn't have to rebias the tubes unless the caps were already going bad and the power supply voltages were already going south. As far as the tubes go, yes, when they start to wear out, you will need to turn up the volume. Another way to tell is that you will need to adjust the bias to keep the output voltage near zero. The tubes you showed are examples of the short plate. The photo does show the CCS mod. The metal spacers in the photo are available from Mouser, as are all the electronic parts including the electrolytic caps and MOSFETs. The heatsink was bought on eBay for less than $10 and was cut down to a size that would fit the space available. Note that if you do the CCS mod you likely will have to rebias the tubes - there are instructions on how to do this on the internet.

Billy Cobham, Spectrum — really in the mood for this, fusion in the Zappa style

Happy Birthday Steve and Wayne! "the birthday fairy" I really take offense to this moniker. The b in Birthday should always be capitalized. I'm the Birthday fairy, not the birthday fairy!

Also, you've seen this, right? He did a concert with a small orchestra! Several of the other tracks from this concert are also up on YouTube, but unfortunately, not all of them. Love is my favourite album of his, so would've loved to have seen "(not adam)".

I've been digging my teeth into Wasteland 3 and having an amazing time. A modern take on an old school-style RPG in the vein of the old Fallouts and Baldur's Gate games set in post-apocalyptic Colorado. I'm about 10-15 hours in. Highly recommended, and it is on Games Pass so free to check it out if you are already a subscriber.

This guy is incredible. Let's all be like him.

There is no way to say that and have it sound right.

That time is now. The Soncoz LA-QXD1 I purchased is pure garbage, and I can't believe I ever thought it would be a good idea. It gibbers and pops constantly, loses sync whenever my AC condenser cycles on, and defaults to minimum volume every time it does so. The interface is inscrutable, and I had to find direct links to the driver downloads through the Wayback Machine (!!) because the manufacturer's site is currently down. I ended up just buying the thing I wanted in the first place, the RME dac.

T2 first listening impressions. wow..... erm.... wow..... erm..... wow The first thing that strikes me is marco dynamics are amazing, on recordings that are not that dynamic the amp does not exaggerate the dynamics, but on dynamic recordings like full orchestra the dynamics are so powerful but not overdone. This is backed up with bass is far more defined, less mushy, more full than my other stax amps but the bass is not not dry or hard or overblown Stereo images are more solid and tangible and more precise than any other stax amp I have, its so close to the experience my Quad 2805 speakers..... Detail is amazing, but the detail is not thrown at you and its therefore not tiring to listen to. But I do notice tape edits, dropped violin bows, musical score page turns more... but it just adds to the experience that tens of musicians in a room can't be totally silent all the time. when music gets complicated there is far less tendency for sounds to just clump together into a messy mushy ball. However you still get the feeling of musicians playing together and the detail is not analytic. The amp just says here is all the detail let it wash over you and you decide how much you want to listen into the detail and how much you want the whole music. This is the first time I have been satisfied with the bass and dynamics from my sr007a mk2. I think it shows that my stax sr007a just need as much drive as they cant get. My journey: stax srm006 (piece of mushy yet bass light and less bass the higher the volume, undynamic, undetailed, poorly constructed, stereo thick soup, gloop with the sweetness of a lemon), hi-amp alpha centauri (improvement in every way over the srm06, its an upgrade but you still feel there is music missing. Overall you get the impression is nothing special and has but poor bass, slightly deeper than the srm006, but mid and upper bass is almost non existent. Bass loss with volume is far less), blue hawaii (murders the alpha in every way but maybe slightly hard sounding for me and a bit of a tiring long term listen. It was a very enjoyable build and a considerable step up from the alpha but I rarely could relax into the music), Mini T2 (better micro dynamics, smoother and more refined more listenable than the hawaii but lacking in some drive and macro dynamics, detail and bass. I still got the feeling with it that it was struggling with the sr007s a bit) and finally the T2 (im sure I will eventually find something wrong with it... that's just the way my brain works but for now im content [which is rare])... So whats next after the T2? (other than building a second one).... Many many thanks to Kevin for the T2 and joamat for the modified T2 and mini T2, spritzer for providing the nos transistors and everyone for their encouragement and help.

Don't mean to change the topic but I have moved my setup to the living room for the next three months and I'm excited. As you were. Better photo.

This whole discussion has made me realize that my slightly modified EAD DSP 1000 has been in storage for 5 years. Geez. I have a plan for it but at what point is a plan no longer valid? I'll update that research in 5 years or so I guess.

My next recording is setup. An all ribbon mic duet sharing the R84a for vocal with a R-10 for the acoustic guitars. Using the figure 8, hopefully, to record a nice duet with minimal tracks. Also Dusty, not too far from you. https://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/1327219-studio-robbery-alert-_-dc-metro-area.html Also again, this is about as good as I could get the recessed vocals and overly loud guitars from the island recording.

Yikes, Al! The fires have been ridiculous. My mother was evacuated for nearly two weeks due to the Creek Fire in Central CA, she got to go home recently, but much of the area I grew up in burnt to the ground, including most of the town I had my first job in. It's pretty surreal seeing the Governor and Senator of California giving a press conference in front of the smoking remains of your elementary school playground, but such is 2020. Hope your sort-of-MIL comes through this OK. For as much burned in the Creek Fire, I was also amazed at how many homes they saved despite fire raging all around them.

My sort of mother in law (Claire's ex step mother and ongoing mother of Claire's half brother) had to evacuate from St Helena yesterday after much debate and delay. I looked at the CalFires map and the Glass Fire is extremely close to their home. There is a small hill between them but it has raged over much taller ones.

Santa Rosa is getting hit hard again.

Same here 😪 all of Calistoga is now under evacuation order and it's still 0% contained.

I'm really sad the see the devastation these latest Napa and Sonoma County fires are causing. A lot of places I know are getting hit and I hope all the people made it out ok.