Leaderboard

Dominos or pocket screws? I decided to test the drum sander I finally got set up in the garage and all the new sanders by building an edge grain cutting board for the kitchen today. Only 30 more hours of sanding and some finishing left

I find a variac really useful. with one you can slowly bring up the psu not connected to the amp and see if there is strange behaviour and note what minimum input voltage is required to maintain no load regulation. You can then compare this value when under load. You can look for rails that come up more slowly than the others etc. I also find that if there is a short the variac will make a loud hummmm/buzz even at low voltages e.g. 1/4 or less full mains AC and this can act as a warning. testing update. So far so good. been at full power for about 1 hour and no issues yet. All psu and virtual battery voltages, DC offsets and DC balance look good. So this looks like I had the same experience as Kerry.... I am currently measuring the DC operating points of all values and comparing. So far looking within 1-2% between channels and + and - halves of a channel. update All DC operating points of all values look sane and similar. *massive sigh of relief* update listening to music through the amp all seems good. I am almost certain it was a isolated valve failure and not caused by the amp. Its so nice to have the T2 working again. there is just something magic about the way it sounds. Here are the measured operating points all measured against ground. input 6922 (furthest from the el34s) Heater ~0V to ground Anode 71V Cathode approximately 1.6 to 1.7V Screen 0V Grid 0V same measurements for second triode in the envelope 6922 closest to the el34s heater 0V to ground anode 197V cathode 71V screen 0V grid 67V same measurements for second triode in the envelope EL34s all 4 should measure approximately the same Heater -500V to ground anode/plate nominally 0v but varies under measurement and matches with any dc offset in the amp G2, G3 same voltage as anode/plate cathode -452V G1 -499.5V

It will always be one of my favorite drum solos, but as Antonio stated, it's nearly a perfect song. I turn it up every time I hear it.

Man or mouse? I always start with the Driver. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2RoYgRhXjw

I definitely don't. IMHO In the Air Tonight is one of those almost perfect songs that won't take much "improvement" other than changing the instrument position and relevance in the mix.

Yep I posted my version last week on here. No need for a straw of a chopstick unless you are into that kind of kinky thing with your morning coffee.

Not on a T2, but about 10 years ago I had a similar situation with an EL34 on a Blue Hawaii. Spectacular lightshow from one of the tubes. No harm done to the amp, so after replacing the offending tube, everything was fine. I'd don't recall what brand tube it was, but either JJ or Mullard new issue. I haven't had any issues since then. Hoping all is fine, though it sounds like it is.

Not sure that I like the addition of the aviary background singers.

Put together a vanity.

File this under, If you want maximum stupid I am the guy. Feels like -9F was accurate, toes were very cold, otherwise I was appropriately dressed.

It seems that current is limited to 0.20 ma. Look at the voltage across the 50k R12 resistor. It is 10v - Vbe(0v min). 10/50000 = 0.00020. So, it looks like 2sc3675 will work perfectly here.

I’ll have to check them out, hopefully there is a local supplier. Picked up these Amazon Basics Euro handles for the cabinets. The quality is surprisingly good. Solid stainless with quality look and feel. Best part was they were $1.15. Which is probably bad since I’m just supporting the Bezos and China.

Me too! The long lead-in and sudden crescendo is iconic.

I agree a variac is not a substitute for a dim blub tester. I use a variac because if something is going to go wrong I would rather it go wrong at lower voltages than full to limit the damage.

Steve's favorite slides are Knape & Vogt or just KV. I bought some extremely stout KV slides for my Festool drawers and they are excellent.

A very Head Case smrtphne.

Going in one of the two smaller houses we bought recently. I have another vanity all cut, just need to put it together. I think getting the faces on take up about half of the construction time. Getting it all lined up is definitely a chore, I have a fully kitchen to do next, think I’m going to go with a larger reveal so being perfect isn’t so critical.

In the Air Tonight (Donkey Kong Country 2 Remix)

Fish and Chips On the deck at Sam's Anchor Cafe

A good summation of the state of headphones over the last five plus years. A gluttony of riches. And endgame for everyone.

Went on a bit of shopping spree the last couple of weeks. Taking advantage of Holiday discounts on the FLM ball head. Nice design and very high quality product. The Canon 1D MK4 body is a prompt purchase - one in great shape came up at a good price. Only less than 34K shutter actuation. Shoot me a PM if you are interested in the mint condition 300MM F4 L lens. I bought a 300mm F2.8 last year so this one becomes somewhat redundant. I'll cut a good deal for longterm headcasers. Also has a Canon 1.4X ii available.

Reduced “300V section” a bit more, to 150V. Now the high voltages are +/-400V, +220V, -310V and -460V. Graph below shows voltage cross 2sj79 (Q24/25) in blue and cross 2sk216 (Q26/27) in red during power on, wait 30 seconds and power off. I can’t hear sonically differences between original voltages and reduced voltages.

A few years ago I replaced 2sj79 and 2sk216 with ksa1220 respective ksc2690 on both Blue Hawaii and T2 and that without changing any voltages. Below chart show voltage cross source and drain on T2´s Q26,Q27 during power on, 30 second wait and power off. So far I haven’t had any ksa1220 or ksc2690 blowing up. Today I reduced voltage further on my T2 PSU, 300V section now 200V. Seems to work as good as with 300V. High voltages are now +/-400V, +220V, -260V and -460V. The reduce voltage also lowered the maximum voltage on graph above to 200V

Since photography is a hobby of mine as well, I decided to take some internal and external pictures of my recently completed KGSSHV. Hope you enjoy them. Please click or copy/paste the Dropbox link below to view those pictures: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4ox0xh7s1aiw5cb/AACdu5DpeRyeFuINloC8HkRFa?dl=0

Does anybody want to see what serial testing of KGSSHV boards looks like? That's the pile of fail from Hennyo all tested and working plus the new HVk (k for kompakt) boards verified working. I still have to test the servo but I forgot to order the caps... The new input fet didn't work for me but it was probably my soldering. It's tiny... to say the least.

Well, today I swinged my driver really hard and hit and killed +250v and -500V sections. Here are the casualties… …RIP. While repairing I also replaced ksc5026 in 250v section with 2sc3675 and that seems to work all right. Can you find them? By the way – the first version of KGSShv power supply used 2sc3380 along with 2sa1486, later replaced by ksc5026 and ksa1156 plus a Zener diode.

OK, abbreviated version of the Clive debacle. I purchased the Eureka Oro Mignon XL on 12/20 from Clive based on Angus' recommendation that it would be the best at doing both fine espresso grinds and switching to pour over grinds. When the Mignon arrived I plugged it in and loaded 28 grams of beans into the hopper and turned it on...nothing came out. I removed the bean hopper emptied out the remaining beans and partially ground coffee. Turned on the grinder to make sure the burrs were spinning freely, and they were. Reloaded another 28 grams of beans and turned on the grinder and again nothing came out the chute. I called Clive and after a lot of back and forth returned the Mignon for another one. Suffice to say, same outcome with the second Mignon. Nothing, not even a gram of coffee came out. This week things got really frustrating. The Clive customer rep first recommended that I take the Mignon apart to assess why it was not working and see if I could unjam it myself. I told her I would not dismantle the machine to trouble shoot it for them because if that did not resolve the problem they might claim I broke the machine and void my warrantee. So I sent the second unit back to Clive. The rep also emailed me this week to tell me the following- 1) Yes the first unit was clogged and not functioning but that can happen and the Mignon needs to be cleaned periodically, This was my first use with only 28 grams of beans and the machine couldn't handle that? What am I supposed to do clean it while running it each time? 2) She claimed that I had the grind set too fine which could clog the grinders and that I should back the grind setting off a few notches, The reason I bought this model was that I was told by a sales rep that the Mignon was exceptional at handling all espresso and pour over grind levels. So when the dial provides settings of 1-10, I should not use 1 because then my unit will not work? 3) If the second unit was found to be in working condition they would take the unit and refund my purchase price less a 10% restocking fee. Really? A defective return for a machine that does not work is a "restock" subject to a 10% fee? Based on my experience I feel that if you ever have a problem with anything you buy from Clive they have no intention of making things right.

A tung-sol el34 in my mostly modern DIY T2 goes SPARK SPARK white lightshow! 😬 hi everyone, until Thrsday my diy T2 has been working fine... I put in a matched quad of tung-sol el34 in September 2021 and on Thursday as soon as i switched on I got a loud sparking noise from the right headphone. I immediately cut the power. I installed a blue hawaii and checked my sr007s where not damaged and they seem fine... I powered up just the T2 psu - all voltages good, stable etc. I powered up the amp with heaters and low voltages only - all looked good. I powered up the entire amp on a variac and at 50% of normal mains voltage and one of the el34s had bright white sparking coming from deep inside, visible through the rectangular cutouts in the plate.. I cut the power immediately and tested all the valves on my avo mk4 valve tester. All measured good and fine expect for the valve with the sparking which showed no leakage when cold but when heated the insulation test meter started varying all over the place i.e. not constant leakage and swing to very low insulation resistances <1Mohm and back to about a few Mohm. I replaced just the failed el34 with another known good el34 and powered the amp up again on the variac. I got to full mains voltage without any sparking but only tested for a minute or so. I checked the + and - outputs and Dc balance and offset was fine given the short warm up period. So I think the valve failed rather than the T2 has an issue and damaged the value. Obviously I need to do more testing but my questions are: 1. is anyone else using sung-sol el34s on a t2 at full voltages? 2. anyone had a el34 fail hot heater insulation tests with the insulation meter jumping all over the place, rather than a constant leakage? 3. does anyone know if there is an issue using tung-sol el34s in the T2 4. any idea if there are any mostly modern T2 components I should pay special attention to that could have been damaged by the sparking? regards and happy T2ing

Au revoir M. Beineix. If I hadn't watched Diva twice in the last two years, I would watch it this weekend. I guess Betty Blue will have to do. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/film/2022/jan/14/jean-jacques-beineix-dies-aged-75-betty-blue-director

RIP Ronnie Spector. Fuck you cancer, and Phil Spector too. .