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Thanks again for all your support and generosity. NFLO! I really liked the shirt design that we had this year. It was a 'chance of rain' type of day, like normal around here. But we had a nice gathering, lovely sharing and connection with the community, and then a nice 2.8 mile walk around Green Lake. We hope to continue to make it grow and involve more partners. And continue to share the idea that 'We believe in a world where everyone belongs.” Cheers and thanks, Mikey 🙏 https://givebutter.com/Walk4Belonging

Got the last set of maple vice jaws from In-Kleind and the mounting points and through holes are almost a full 1/4” off center so that required dramatic work to salvage and keep the length. Now that I have the maple vice jaws on, I think i am going to build more Jatoba jaws as the Maple bores me.

G-Man approved sustenance, from Phyllis' Giant Burgers.

Maybe the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7 is too new? Coincidently yesterday I got stuck at a "drop off" party at California's Great America, or as I call it "hell hole", and I've only been there once before, with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5, also 10 megapixels, but CCD. Really loved the colors, which sent me down the CCD rabbit hole. This time the only camera I had with me was the hipster Hasselblad with a Voigtlander lens that required using electronic shutter and these 44 x 33mm medium format Sony sensors are known for the horrible rolling shutter. Anyway, in case there is any doubts, the 13 year old tiny 1/1.63" sensor Panny LX5 destroys the Hasselblad 907x 50C II with ES on moving objects.

Well, I did it. I finally got a digital camera with some Leica glass. No, not like that. I went to the second hand store on MV and saw a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7. Some of you may remember when Panasonic licensed the Leica name for their point and shoots in the late 00s, to the sound of much snickering from the photography world. This thing is very silly. It has a tiny 10MP sensor, a "25-300mm equivalent" zoom with an F/3.3-F/4.9 max aperture. In a word, yick. A super range zoom is more or less the opposite of what I like (fast, short primes) Also, the exposure controls are lousy. Even my mid 00s PowerShot S60 had manual (push button) controls for shutter and aperture. I actually kind of like 00s digital cameras. I've shot with a bunch. My OG IR 5D is still in service (once I give the sensor a proper cleaning). As I have said before, I now have an active disdain for the pseudo HDR look that current SMRT phone cameras shit out. The somewhat goofy behavior of older digital cameras is vastly preferable to me. With that said, this Lumix isn't the kind of vintage I like. I cannot complain too much because I got the camera for $8. Strictly speaking, the charger and battery were $8. The young fella at the second hand shop who sold it to me (who appeared to be more stoned than I was at his age and, well... 1996 was the best year of my life that I don't remember) couldn't figure out the price of the camera. His solution was to consider the camera, charger, battery and case to be one item use the price tag he had at hand. Oh, the punchline: The TZ7 can address has a maximum SD card size of 32GB. The only SD card I had on hand was a 64GB. I went on a rummage and found a 256 megabyte card that is doubtlessly older than the sentient cloud of pot smoke that sold me the camera. Fortunately, it formatted just fine and the Lumix was happy with it.

But artistic AF Oh wait, that works in a photography thread.

Human The Double Album Cody Johnson 2021 https://album.link/i/1582024378 Example: I didn't have any expectations going into this one. Just listening to a pile of country albums off my list (most not worthy). And this stuck out for me. Nice dynamics and storytelling. With combinations of blues and other influences. And throw in a Willie Nelson duet, and I was good to go. Very satisfying for what I wanted.

I have a Lumix/Leica point and shoot stashed away somewhere. I haven't used it in at least 10 years. I should probably see what's it's worth and sell it.

Looks amazing Jeff.

Soft start would be nice... …if it works. Not sure it will, but I know a way to find out. Above is based and inspired by this:

Better Diana than Richard Gere(?) 🐹

and yet the audio precision actually reports .0008 % thd at 1khz. so much for that being worth anything. sure looks like about 10 volts per microsecond slew rate. pretty grim at higher voltage levels. winding transformers correctly really is not that hard. too bad the lundhal transformers won't fit inside the box. hmm, there is that size thing again. (usa_love) what really gets me is the really poor soldering job, probably there is a significant failure rate of topping products in the field. And yet led lit sails that makes you think there are tubes inside. my guess is that the koss box sounds better than this, for roughly the same price. quoting from someone who knows how to actually make transformers like this.. quote In a transformer winding, inter-turn capacitance is generally negligible compared to inter-layer capacitance. We can approximate the winding self-capacitance within a small factor by considering only the capacitance between winding layers, approximating the layer to a conductor sheet. The highest capacitance arrangement is when each layer is wound in opposite directions, so left to right on the first, right to left on the next. That's because the first turn of the first layer is opposite the last turn of the next layer, so there's twice the voltage per layer between those turns. As the energy stored in the self-capacitance goes as the square of the voltage, this more than offsets the lower voltage difference at the other side of the windings. A lower capacitance can be obtained by winding each layer in the same direction, returning between layers, so left to right, then left to right again. The voltage between layers is now uniform at the per layer voltage. end quote transformers made this way have to be partially done by hand. no winding machine currently available does this. its why esl63 replacement transformers are $500 each.

Yup - I guess in this case the difference was black and white.

My little box works by counting the number of times it sees something pass as the platter spins. You need to check fast enough so you don’t miss the thing as it passes by. The faster you can check you can increase the accuracy of your measurement. Originally I used a magnet and this worked well but seemed a bit less than ideal near a sensitive phono pickup. So I changed to using light. In order to make the sensor work with other types of light present (such as the light that comes out of a light bulb) I used certain frequency of infrared light. This light is emitted by my box and then when that light is reflected back from the object it notes that the object has passed and it computes the speed. With an acrylic platter with a record on top when the box asks if it has seen the reflected light, it says no until the white dot comes by, which reflects all frequencies of light and registers a “yes” with the system. But when an aluminum platter is used it always reflects the light. So I needed something that didn’t reflect the light I was using, which ends up being a black dot which absorbs light. One made the “physical” change in how the device operated I made a simple change in the code that basically looked for when the reflected light wasn’t present - which was the exact opposite to how it used to work with the white dot.

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.

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

Let alone the Fifth Element

I don't get the fuss. It takes exceptional skill to put a circuit components in a box, throw it off a cliff and then solder everything to make a working amp. They're succeeding where Mikhail failed, if you ask me.

This is very sad and a lot of Single Power influence here, cheaper parts used in series and parallel. I see the A, B and C markings so is there a PSU schematic as well? Edit: Never mind, I found the thread and wow... google translate may not be doing some of those people any favors but there was some class A stupidity going on. Point to point always sounds better than PCB's!!! The Viva may be crap but it sounds so good with the X9000!! Yeah... might be because the X9000 is also crap? Just an idea... Anyway some more pics from that thread: Just look at this mess, hot glue everywhere (where they should have used lacquer paint) and cheap parts everywhere. Not sure why that woolen stuff and zip tie is on the selector switch but that is the ultra cheap switches I can buy at the local store for 2$. Then we have this gem... why is a part of the shrink wrap on the cap missing and just what on earth is that supposed to be? A bridge rectifier? This might actually worse than Single Power but remember kids, a nice PCB with length matched traces sounds far worse than this!! Now look at this picture of loveliness, a Rifa X2 (as in power supply suppression cap) ,known all over the world for their tendency to fail short (look up Rifa madness) being used in a "high end" amp. Not even Single Power stooped this low, he might have "tuned" the circuit by placing an Audio Note silver cap in series with an Orange Drop but they are at least good caps. This is just pure and utter garbage. I just love this picture, look at that mess of wires into a bundle of solder. Extra price for the burn marks on the cap as zero fucks are given here. They should seriously have this as a promo picture. Last picture and would you look at those XLR inputs... yeah that's one way of dealing with a XLR to RCA conversion... just not hook anything up to pin 3 of the XLR sockets. I'm sure there is some owner of this piece of trash that claims massive improvements when it is run balanced... Also, look at the soldering on that, I'm sure those RCA's came with nice ground tabs but nope, fuck it, let's just solder directly to the thread and have it leaking down and almost touching the center pin. Lastly, I just love we are getting this from my good friend at JR Audio, one of the few builders of electrostatic equipment who is actually worse than this. I wonder if he's looking for pointers to becoming even worse?

Looks like Brent now sings with the Scary Pockets

273 series 1/2 watt Xicon resistors seem to be end of life (not recommended for new designs) and disappearing at Mouser. More and more of the 100 packs are gone and replaced by 1000 or 5000 packs.