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Nice contrast between the Jatoba from Andy Klein and my own, so I do not have to make Maple bench dogs.

Taking away a balcony door on the top floor rental of a home in the Sunset District. Replacing old door with a window. My boss is a stickler for matching the height to the existing window, down to the 1/16". That's the hardest part, especially since the existing window is nothing like the new one. Turned out great. Once the painter is done it'll look like it's always been that way.

So, I listened to it (as next step it to fully rip it apart) and in my regular test rig which is a Teac UD-503 dac driven over USB. Output set to 0dB on the DAC (no attenuation and no gain either), balanced inputs and I had to use the high gain function and volume control at 2-3pm on the dial. I could listen at full volume level, not something I'd recommend but yeah, this thing is just fucked. This is with SR-207's (my go to test headphones) so anything more power hungry will suffer even more. Now how does this sound... well mushy and very peaky. The midrange has this haze to it and the treble is very... alive. Bass is exaggerated but not always so, it kinda comes and goes as this thing struggles to get any output. Sound-staging is also pretty terrible so I find it hard to recommend this over the Stax SRM-252S. I also put it on a Kill-a-watt and at full output it draws 7.5W from the wall. That's not a whole lot of power there...

I 3D printed a cover to my filament power supply today. Just four Traco TPP 15-105-D and some tblocks. I don’t think my tubes need slow start – and if they do – they are not my tubes.

Well this just arrived and as is our fashion, it has not been plugged in at all before I rip it apart. I'm having some camera issues (bloody Lightroom) so not as many as I'd like. Now first off why this belongs on a trashpile... here is the output: It's a pain to get a camera to focus between the transformers so I ended up grabbing the phone. Those are the ballast resistors, two 1M units in series and one 3M3 unit, all in 1206 package so likely 150V rated. Yeah no... just no, this is not good enough!! It gets worse though... It's a shit angle but here is how the transformers connect to the output socket: Now do you notice any parts on this PCB except connectors? Nope, neither do I... there is no protection on the output at all. No 5K1 output resistors nor the clamp circuit found on all later Stax adapter boxes. This thing will kill your headphones when pushed hard enough and there is nothing to protect the user if something goes wrong. Yup, pure class here... zero fucks given. Some other random pics, main amp runs off a +/-15V supply and the PSU brick is 15V/2A. Preamp presumably and the whole thing looks to be AC coupled through those electrolytic caps so that will not sound good at all. I see no other reason for those caps to be there so yeah, who does something like this. At least the volume pot is 4 gangs so the thing is fully balanced. Conclusion, without even plugging it in, this is a pile of crap and should not be used by anybody. The small changes to make this secure and sound good cost next to nothing but nobody cares. Best avoided unless you want to have a special talk to the manufacturer of your headphones as to why there are holes in the diaphragms... Now if I have time, I'm going to fully strip this thing down and design a PCB for the Stax socket which adds full protection and a clamp circuit. Fix the input caps and other issues that I find and this might a semi good 400$ amp. Personally I'd take a Stax SRM-313 over this pile of crap.

No, but I did look at it recently. Seems like a nice tool. It's accurate to 30 seconds in 5 years.

Okay, things one could not make up for $500, Alex. The beat from that AI MC Trump track I posted yesterday is lifted from this song: "The Great TK" is a female rapper from New York ...who is a double amputee. She has a YouTube channel. I take it back. AI will never be able to replicate the human experience.

That vise mechanism is a thing of extreme beauty.

So, a bit of a stretch for this thread and I am doubting anyone will see the humor in this. But as y’all know o have been working in a tachometer feedback loop for my platter. With the lid off it looks like this: Previously I had an acrylic platter with a white dot that triggered the IR sensor each time it went around and used that to calculate the platter speed. Now I have an aluminum platter. To make it all work I had to add a black dot and update the code as follows. .. anyways I found this humorous.

Something for those suffering banana withdrawal, and how else do you think the naan was bisected?

New Metallica is honestly pretty good! Metallica - 72 Seasons

In the wake of Sir Ahmad Roon Radio continued with...

On that note... https://www.npr.org/2022/12/13/1142467098/emerald-city-nights-revisits-jazz-pianist-ahmad-jamal-in-a-series-from-the-1960s

Because reasons. Happy Moods Ahmad Jamal 1960 https://album.link/i/1443907095 Example: Sad, but this helps. RIP and thanks Ahmad.

I did search but I couldn't find a dedicated thread about DIY electrostatics so in the spirit of getting the discussion started, here is something I've been working on. Well over a decade ago I bought up all the spare Sennheiser HE60 parts to assemble new headphones. The first thing to go out of stock was the main housing so to assemble the last pair, I had to adept a HD650 housing to take the HE60 drivers. Ever since then it has stuck in my head to make my own drivers for those housings and well... here is version 2.0: I bought a ratty old HD650 and completely stripped it apart. Headpad, earpads and cable went into the trash while the rest went for a long bath. First step is to make the baffle flat so a lot of cutting with nice, sharp, flush cutters. I naturally forgot to take a picture of that step... Next step was to fully measure what area I had to work with and design PCB's to match that, while maximizing the open area. The end result is three different PCB's, as they are all setup to be dual sided. One for the stators, one which holds the diaphragm and finally the simple outline which holds the dust covers and can act as a spacer. Some pics of them assembled in the housing: Four nylon screws hold the sandwich together, fixed with PEEK nuts to get extra gripping power as the assembly had to be as flat as is possible. Dust covers placed away from the stators so they don't cause any issues. Earpad side: Due to the screws, some earpad mountings have to be cut up to get the pads to fit but yeah, they are just cheap crap from China so who cares. I could cut a slot in them to try and make it fit but maintaining as much pressure on the drivers as I can is far more important. Final assembly with a King Sound cable as I have a couple of those sitting around. For the diaphragm I used my usual stock of 1.4um film and the earpads are just the cheapest leather pads I found on ebay. I have a couple of nicer ones but these are the thickest and that helps make them more balanced sounding. The diaphragms were stretched by hand on a mirror (which is my preferred way) and glued with wood glue (thanks for the tip Aumkar!) which is just perfect for this. Coating is anti-static spray which means they energize in five seconds or so which I can live with. Now for the sound... pretty damn good for something so simple and literally being the second set I assemble. Well that and zero effort has been put into sealing the baffle or just any sealing at all. I just stuck the PCB's onto the baffle and built up the stack. Overall sound signature is similar to the HE60 but not as diffused and with far more bass output. Maybe a tad too much at times as there are some oscillations that I can pickup at very high volume levels and under high excursion. I tend to go with slightly less tension on the diaphragm so that might be it. Treble is very pronounced with the thinner pads but with the ones pictured, it is just perfect. These are not forward at all and the soundstage is excellent for this size of a driver and non-angled earpads. Sensitivity is slightly lower than the regular Stax sets but still only marginally so. All in I'm very happy with the roughly 150$ outlay for these. Now this is version 2.0 but the first version used a HD58X from Drop, brand new in the box that I cut up. Same driver profile but thicker stators so the efficiency was really bad plus the stators had full solder mask on them. Now I'm out of the spacer PCB's for the dust covers so next time I order PCB's, I'll make another set. I also have some diaphragm spacers which would work well for normal bias as I've always wanted to mess more with that.

This is how the night went... I picked him up at his jobsite after work. He does not drive, and usually rides with his Uncle. We just made small talk as I drove him to his home to shower and change clothes. I chatted with his Uncle while that took place. I think his Uncle was more excited than anyone. When he was ready we went to a local (Daly City) Greek spot for Gyros. He had never experienced a Gyro, and he absolutely loved it. While having our Gyros, I directed the conversation straight (no pun intended) to his sexuality. I wanted to get that out of the way. He was a bit embarrassed as we talked openly, but was very forthcoming. He is a virgin, and has never really been attracted to girls. He does seem to be a bit confused about exactly what his sexuality is, as he's also never done anything with another guy. He just said that he feels good whenever he's around me. He definitely has Father figure feelings toward me, but is confused regarding the other. He did say that he thought I was very handsome, to which I joked "well of course, you do have good eyesight", and that managed to get a chuckle from him. He's such an innocent young man. Warm and friendly with a curiosity about everything. I do enjoy being around him. But I'm certain that in no way do I want to be his first sexual encounter. We've agreed that we will be friends for now, and I've offered to slowly introduce him into the gay community. Then he can better determine where he fits in. I'm about 95% sure that he's gay. But want him to take all the time he needs to figure that out for himself. I'm also determined to steer him toward guys his age. Your first sexual experience is extremely important in setting the tone for future relationships. And those would be easier if they involved similar ages and stages in life. I realized that I do feel very protective toward him. And maybe a Father figure/mentor will not only be beneficial for him, but myself as well. We ended our outing watching Mario at the theater, where he did snuggle into me a bit, and I didn't discourage that. Very innocent, but kind of cute.

DIY T2 amplifier with 300B tubes. Amplifier is built on Kevin’s board. Only modification is decreased high voltages, +/-400V instead of +/-500V. Homemade 300B to EL34 adapters connected to four Traco 5V switched PS for filament power. I only replaced the EL34 with 300B along with the filament power supply. No other adjustments. It works – I’m in no harry to change back to EL34.

A tube diode CRC power supply driving GRHV would have slightly lower noise.