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This thread has been entirely too dormant. Got invited over to a friends for BBQ, couldn't go for various reasons. Decided to solve the problem myself. Unpictured, rack of ribs, pictured, 4lb pork butt. Cooked it to 180 internal before wrapping to try to get more bark/flavor and decided to try beer instead of apple juice this time in the wrap because, well, I was drinking.

I used to be (regularly got the flu during flu season, &c.), but in my case, I knew exactly what it was -- I took too many antibiotics as a child and adolescent (and post adolescent...), so now the flora is all but gone in my digestive tract. I now take probiotics every day first thing when I wake up on an empty stomach with ~1L of water*, so that they go as far down my digestive tract to the lower intestines as possible. I also take zinc every day (the most important ingredient in Cold-eeze). Neither one of these fight viruses and germs by themselves, but both help boost the body's natural immune system. I hardly get sick any more. I had those two scares a couple weeks back, but honestly those were the first in years. Also: sleep, water, exercise, sunlight, eating right. I don't do any of these things perfectly, but I have been getting better at most of them. Much better in the case of sleep -- I have conquered my self-caused sleep issues, and now wake up pretty much every day between 6:30 and 7 without an alarm clock. It's great: I can concentrate, remember stuff... I highly recommend taking better care of yourself as you get older. *Wegmans flavoured sparkling waters -- I did double check with my doctor, they are equivalent to water, including 0mg Sodium

Karen dragged my ass (part way) up and down a local mountain

Put Florida in the rearview mirror

20 years ago an obscure and legendary Detroit electro producer died, weeks before his 33 birthday: James Stinson was one half of the electro duo Drexciya. At the time of his passing, he was a mysterious figure. For the dozen or so years that he made music, he recorded under innumerable aliases. For the last few decades I've observed endless slap fights on sites like Discogs over how he should be credited on specific releases. Techno fans can be, ahem, a bit narrow minded. Detroit techno fans are the most singular focused of the lot. Detroit electro fans make ...every other electronic music snob look easy going by comparison. The artists themselves often (usually) gave incomplete or flat out misleading information about themselves. The trope of the "faceless techno producer" was a fairly common occurrence in the 90s. I've been fascinated by the genre since I first heard it on college radio in the mid 1980s (and had no idea what it was.) I first heard about Drexciya in a UK music magazine upon the release of their anthology The Quest. I was lucky enough to find a copy locally. It was some of the strangest music I'd ever heard. By 2002 I had a number of their 12"s, none of which were easy to come by. I joined SoulSeek early that year after the demise of AudioGalaxy. The day Stinson died, there was much talk about his passing in the slsk Electro room. I actually didn't have a Discogs account at that point. Unintentionally, I ended up making one on Stinson's birthday. In the two decades since James Stinson died, most of the mystery surrounding him has been lifted. A large amount of his previous unreleased catalog is available on limited vinyl runs and FLAC downloads. I've listened to a lot of it and it's quite a mixed bag. James was a very uncontrained artist and that meant he went deep into experimental territory. Often that resulted in noodling wank. Sometimes he struck absolute gold. There really as not been another artist at all like him.

Ran a bit around this weekend, started up in our condo in Maine then ended up visiting both my mom and dad (long divorced) today for their birthdays. Mom's was last week but there was a nasty thunderstorm so she actually told us to reschedule. Loved seeing both of them and other family, and ate like a pig at a brunch for my dad; but this time the best moment came at a Flea Market near our Maine condo, where I saw an awesome Killer Klown bong....too bad it was so pricey (close to $250). The seller and I had a blast talking about the "good ol' days" of smoking.

I would not want to speak for Joamat, but the impression I got was that the mini T2 was an attempt to simplify the complex design and make it as small as possible by going surface mount whenever possible. Ther is not a lot of space around Q17n but I think a 13mm by 4mm 1KV 2200pF (10mm lead spacing) film cap like a wima MKP1O112203C00JSSD will fit and there are film caps of the same size and rating ranging from 1000pF to 6800pF. The area around Q17p is more problematic due to an extra track which results in one tracking having to be rerouted. Channel 1: channel 2:

Running through Rolling Stone’s surprisingly modern-leaning 100 Greatest Country Albums list, so this morning Sturgill Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds In Country Music. ‘The irascible Simpson joked to Rolling Stone in 2014 that Metamodern Sounds in Country Music was his “hippie love record.” Maybe so, but it was undeniably a Nashville game changer. After the sonically adventurous album’s release, numerous artists either cited it or tried to duplicate it. They needn’t have tried: Only Simpson, well-read on cosmic theories and tired of outlaw-country comparisons, could have pulled off an album this one-of-a-kind. “Turtles All the Way Down” is a psilocybin-fueled trip through the religions of the world; “It Ain’t All Flowers” is a cacophony of shrieks, howls, and dub; and “Living the Dream” is the ultimate slacker’s lament. “I don’t have to do a goddamn thing ’cept sit around and wait to die,” he sings. Not even Townes Van Zandt sounded as dejected.’ —J.H.

The second version of AB was taken from this post. We changed R43-R44: 140k -> 150k, MPSA06 -> HN4C51J and FJPF2145 -> 2SC3675 selected with the best hfe. Why ? 1. We decided to slightly lower supply of LT1021 - it is still enough for normal work of this voltage source. 2. HN4C51J has better hfe and also I prefer to use double transistor in one case in current mirrors. 3. 2SC3675 has lower input capacitance and better hfe. STN9360 has much higher current gain and lower capacitance in comparison with 2SA1486/2SA1413 and we thought that performance of this battery should be much better. And so it turned out: 1. 120 Hz, power off https://ixbt.photo/photo/406668/17916TMfujOMyVu/Hgj7GE8yHX/1514659.jpg Amplitude is about 200 mV 2. 120 Hz, power on https://ixbt.photo/photo/406668/17916TMfujOMyVu/Hgj7GE8yHX/1514660.jpg Amplitude is about 45 mV __________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. 1000 Hz, power off https://ixbt.photo/photo/406668/17916TMfujOMyVu/Hgj7GE8yHX/1514661.jpg Amplitude is about 200mV 4. 1000 Hz, power on https://ixbt.photo/photo/406668/17916TMfujOMyVu/Hgj7GE8yHX/1514662.jpg Amplitude is about 80 mV __________________________________________________________________________________________ 5. 10kHz, power off https://ixbt.photo/photo/406668/17916TMfujOMyVu/Hgj7GE8yHX/1514663.jpg Amplitude is about 75 mV 6. 10kHz, power on https://ixbt.photo/photo/406668/17916TMfujOMyVu/Hgj7GE8yHX/1514664.jpg Amplitude is about 50 mV __________________________________________________________________________________________ The new battery performs much better! But it is still is far from ideal. Why ? At the next day Dmitry noted that capacitance of STN9360/2SA1486(Q17p/Q17) and really high resistance of the voltage divider (R33-R34) make a low-pass filter. Could it be the cause of problem ? He added one 2200 pf teflon capacitor between the low end on R34p and the base of Q17p transistor. Results of the measurements are in the post below

Still waiting for last parts.... 🥱 And waiting for them to be delivered, I and my friend Dmitry decided to tests a performance of the active battery at hight frequencies. The scheme of the stand has been given by @Kerry. Thanks! We just slightly modified it. Safety note: we supplied the battery by a source completely decoupled from the mains. That is why our generator is alive. Be careful. All the batteries are set to 740V. The first battery is the original one with 2SA1486 -> 2SA1413 and 2SK246 -> 2SK208 and 2SC3381 -> HN4C51J. The first two pairs are the same transistors in different cases. Results of the measurements: 1. 130 Hz. Power off. https://ixbt.photo/photo/406668/17916TMfujOMyVu/Hgj7GE8yHX/1514651.jpg Amplitude is about 200 mV 2. 130 Hz. Power on. https://ixbt.photo/photo/406668/17916TMfujOMyVu/Hgj7GE8yHX/1514652.jpg Amplitude is about 100 mV 3. 1000 hz. Power off. https://ixbt.photo/photo/406668/17916TMfujOMyVu/Hgj7GE8yHX/1514653.jpg Amplitude is about 200 mV 4. 1000 hz. Power on. https://ixbt.photo/photo/406668/17916TMfujOMyVu/Hgj7GE8yHX/1514654.jpg Amplitude is about 140 mV 5. 10 kHz. Power off. https://ixbt.photo/photo/406668/17916TMfujOMyVu/Hgj7GE8yHX/1514655.jpg Amplitude is about 90 mV 6. 10 kHz. Power on. https://ixbt.photo/photo/406668/17916TMfujOMyVu/Hgj7GE8yHX/1514656.jpg Amplitude is about 100 mV 😨 The questions: Shouldn't there always be zero volts AC ? Shouldn't the battery always stay at 740V after powering on? It looks like the active battery in the T2 scheme suppresses low-frequency signal. It is a problem ? We decided to test another version of the active battery.

Drive in nibbles

Rain delays at Lakeside Woodworking, but the assorted pieces are starting to look more like chairs.

Thank you! The idea is also not mine, but my friend's. Oh, I didn't know this. Anyway this is great work, that made my labor much easier. Thanks! Now I am building 2 amps: 1. The original T2 with as less changes as possible. 2. The possibly better version of T2. In this version all the upgrades would be made not to use modern parts where it is possible but only to improve the amp. For example STN9360 is better in many places than old and rare 2SA1486 and vice-versa for the FJPF2145 and 2SC3675 pair. And this amp is based on the scheme that you posted here. Thank you very much for that. And of course thanks to all the authors of ideas! Dmitry used the PTFE cap only because we have only 0.001 uF(too small) and 0.047 uF(too much IMHO) PP caps, and to make a funny photo where the cap's size is comparable with the whole board 🙂 . I am sure that 3000-4000 pF x 1000V mica or polypropylene caps would be also good here. They are cheap and small enough even to upgrade the original T2 amps using daughter boards. For the old-style battery I would increase its value even more due to higher input capacitance of 2SA1486. But of course, before suggesting it to anyone I need to check this update in my amp or ask someone to check it in his T2. Just in case, I've attached the updated scheme of AB with the cap 🙂. This sounds nice and I would like to contribute to this project 🙂 . But I thought that Joamat collected all his thought and updates in mini-T2. Am I wrong ?

Nice work, its always good to see progress and new ideas for the T2. Just to clarify. I did not design the mostly modern T2 or its battery. I simply created a series of posts on my build and posted my modified gerbers and updated and clarified schematics. I have been trying to collate the information scattered over years and years of posts into one or two long posts to provide a detailed starting point for new builders. I would not want to take credit away from the people who actually did the hard work of designing and testing. Your battery looks promising. If I could suggest, PTFE caps of sufficient voltage are quite large and not easily available new. I think it would be possible to find a place on the amp pcb for 1KV film caps e.g. wima. I would also be interested in the effect on the existing mostly modern T2 battery if just the cap is fitted - since such a modification would be very cost effective for existing mostly modern T2s. If the cap mod is shown to be stable and reliable I would be happy to update my existing post to include it in the schematic as a option and update the gerbers to make a place for adding the cap. regards James P.S independently of your effort MLA and I think Joamat have been working on a variant of the mostly modern T2 amp board that replaces the unavailable new 79 and 216 transistors with tta004 and ttc004, which if they prove stable, could result in a T2 only using current production components. (the pinout of the tta/ttc is different to the originals but they have not so far had to make any other changes).

A short table with results: It seems that active battery without the capacitor increases amplitude of signal at the base of Q26 with frequency, especially the original battery. Has it been done intentionally? I just can't see a reason. This imperfection of AB probably decreases stability at HF and slightly lowers bass. Measurements have been made with Tektronix THS720 and P5102 voltage probe. I can't wait to measure these batteries in the amp itself

The new battery with added capacitor: 1. 120 Hz, power off http://ixbt.photo/photo/406668/17916TMfujOMyVu/Hgj7GE8yHX/1514671.jpg Amplitude is about 200 mV 2. 120 Hz, power on http://ixbt.photo/photo/406668/17916TMfujOMyVu/Hgj7GE8yHX/1514672.jpg Amplitude is about 20 mV (!) __________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. 1000 Hz, power off http://ixbt.photo/photo/406668/17916TMfujOMyVu/Hgj7GE8yHX/1514667.jpg Amplitude is about 200 mV 4. 1000 Hz, power on http://ixbt.photo/photo/406668/17916TMfujOMyVu/Hgj7GE8yHX/1514668.jpg Amplitude is about 10 mV or less (!!) __________________________________________________________________________________________ 5. 10 kHz, power off http://ixbt.photo/photo/406668/17916TMfujOMyVu/Hgj7GE8yHX/1514673.jpg Amplitude is about 100 mV 6. 10kHz, power on http://ixbt.photo/photo/406668/17916TMfujOMyVu/Hgj7GE8yHX/1514674.jpg Amplitude is about zero (!!) __________________________________________________________________________________________ Adding the bypass capacitor makes the active battery much closer to an ideal "voltage drop" element. I think that increasing the capacitance to 4000 or 5000 pf will decrease the measured voltage even in the case of low frequencies like 100hz.

Good sound, and these kids play tight for not looking at each other at all. I wanted a longer set.

Last night's show is up:

Nice! Did Jeff make that sign?

Last major training ride in the books this morning with one of my teammates. Set out to do 25-30, weather was so nice I ended up doing 46.

At the best of times, pop punk is not my thing. So modern pop punk is probably a pass for me. But as a person with odd taste, I certainly don't begrudge anyone to listen to anything they enjoy. That said, with the horror of the trump years, the appeal of angry nihilism has definitely waned and with it the appeal of any punk rock at all. I'm frankly not sure why anyone listens to anything other than thelonius monk.

Goodness me, a nice little surprise: Clare Grogan (Altered Images) came out with a new album! Saw in her interview, "....37 years since the last one...I know I'm rushing things a bit..." Typical pop, more like their later years before they originally broke up.... Her voice still has that cuteness to it, and it's fun & different to hear because she has quite the thick Scottish accent when she normally speaks....

Let us know what it tastes like.

Passed the first round of interviewing on my dream job!

You don't look a day over 19,000!

Qobuz finally has this one.

Trance Frendz by Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm It soungs amazing on vinyl!!!!!!

BBC Music have finally put almost all the "Later with Jools Holland" archive on YouTube and oh boy I am like a kid in a candy store.

Warning: possible boring content 😉 Revolver is without a doubt my favorite Beatles album for as long as I can remember. My mom bought me this vinyl when I was barely 12 years old and for many years I have been buying reissues, remasters, rare copies... Forget all songs and go to "Tomorrow never Knows", turn up the volume on your Blue Hawaii and accommodate your 007... Ringo's drums sound brutal!!!!! Phil Collins also has a very good version on his Face Value album from 1981.