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Remember when I posted in Jacob's Mindless Mindlessing a few months back about picking up a Marantz PM7001 integrated amp for $40 (about a buck a pound) at the local second hand shop? It's been sitting on top of my dresser ever since, largely ignored. Yesterday I dug up one of the pair of Technics SL-1200 M3Ds I bought in late 2000 when I had notions of being a DJ. I've been going through the several thousand records I've accrued in the last 35 years this week. It turns out that it's handy to be able to listen to a few of them to figure out WTF they actually are. The M3D is almost too big to sit on the Marantz. Barely visible on either side are a pair of Rat Shack Minimus 7Ws I got from the same second hand shop. It's not exactly a high fidelity setup, but works. Sitting on the platter is the picture disc re-issue of AFX's Analord 10.

Pseudo Fillet'o'Fish

Carl wrote and first recorded Blue Suede Shoes, not Elvis.

I've gone (back) down the rabbit hole of Soviet era M42 lenses. I did this once before, in the mid 00s. Back then everything was much cheaper and the world was less on fire. Now we have Putin making a mess for everyone including himself. Also DSLRs shoot video and a legion of would be cinematographers have driven up the price of old manual focus glass to a prices that butt up against modern AF lenses. In the late 90s, I worked for an elite and famous ivy league school in the media center. I was the only person on staff who had a clue about sound. I had to work with a professional sound company to do the commencement every year. The main guy at that company told me that "vidiots" were the worst part of being a sound engineer. He had a laundry list of sins that video production people committed in the field and was able to point out half a dozen of them from our perch in sound booth. I'm not saying it's entirely justified, but I've had a 25 year prejudice against video production people ever since. What they've done to the price of old manual lenses has not improved my disposition toward them at all. First, I'm glad I got the lenses that I have when I did. The Meyer/Pentacon Orestors and Orestegors have gone up hugely in price. The Tair and Sonnars even moreso. I never bought the gargantuan Jupiter 85mm F/1.5 and ...I'm totally okay with that. It was an overpriced and underperforming boat anchor of a lens at $250. At $600 it's a joke. (As an aside, other than the legendary Canon 85L, I don't think too much of most superfast lenses. Giant apertures aren't that interesting to me.) I the post above I talked about the nutball Janpol enlargement lens. There are a bunch for sale on the 'Bay. I will be picking one up ...eventually. Currently I've been reading up on the Soviet made Helios 44 series of 58mm lenses. At least I think they're all 58mms. It's a large series of lenses made over decades, at 3 different manufacturing plants. Most are M42 mount. A few early versions are M39. In spite of the clickbaity title, this short video is a good primer: I'm sure I don't want a 44M-4. The 44-2 (depending on which version) is a fine lens with a lot of character. Supposedly the 44M-2 has superior bokeh. Finding a reputable seller offering a clean copy of either at this point and time is a nontrivial task. This page covers the relative strengths and weaknesses of the 44-2. The bokeh it produces really is nuts: Supposedly, the 44M's bokeh is superior. To paraphrase the late, great Bill Hicks, being a resident of the "complete realm of sanity and reason" that I am, I want both the 44M-2 and the 44-2. Don't be surprised if I have another half dozen manual lenses by fall.

Agreed. The view is nice, but I'd rather view a Giya G1 Spirit and Luxman B1000F monoblocks. Now that's a view!

Four Roses bourbon tasting dinner. Very nice having the master distiller in town to walk us through all the pours. HS

Alden has the Z Flip 3 and recommends it as being practical and convenient.

https://www.techradar.com/best/best-foldable-phones

Yes, I'm talking about that kind of phones, Samsung Z-Flip 5, Motorola Razr+, Oppo N2, etc. I think they don't have jacks either, but all have the extra, compared to the 14, of being much smaller and fitting in a pocket. I also like the smallish outer screen that offers quick message replying and other gadgets. The day you see me buying anything Woo Audio call a neurologist

It should be ok. The volume control could be an issue but power stuff like the transformer is packed with resin so nothing should get in there.

I went to see a Branson show called the million dollar quartet last night. Great show! Most people have forgotten who Carl Perkins was. His music influenced many artists of the 60 's.

(insert serenity GIF here -- the one where Mal tries to come up with a retort, and fails, a look of mild exasperation crossing his face)

decidedly not subtle

^ You posted that just to F with all the OCD'ers

This might be too subtle for some.

Spirit of Eden Talk Talk 1988 https://album.link/i/701395363 Example: Why was I not listening to this in the 80s? I was into jazz and classical, along with Nobody in my high school. This would have been something that I would have listened to. I guess it just comes down to exposure. It was not getting radio play, And I didn't have friends to expose me to it. But like I have said many times in this thread, I am happy to discover these albums now. I really liked this, it is more brooding and a journey than The Colour of Spring.

& his last words be chiseled into his tombstone: I KNOW YOU ARE, BUT WHAT AM I? cancer be fucked...

well all the el34s survived, right hand channel input 6922 is bad. Time to go to bed and cry.

RIP MY T2 ever had a day when everything goes wrong and you wished you had not got out of bed.... well I just wrecked my T2. Don't have the energy or will power to even troubleshoot it... what happened. I was slowly over time getting a DC offset on both channels, I would correct with the trim pot until I ran out of travel. My first thought was the valves were getting old. Yesterday I decided to open up on the amp case and check the virtual batteries and voltages.... Well the -560V rail was -600V... I spent most of yesterday looking for shorts, diode checking the transistors and doing the usual troube shooting. Since the psu was basically working but not regulating the -560V I also looked a live voltages... To cut a long story short I discovered partly by logic and partly by accident that even maxing out the trim pot only gave me -9.6V on the 20K resistor on the voltage set string. The voltage reference was correctly outputting 10V. I checked the trimmer and it would change in resistance over its travel. So my conclusion was with the two 540K resistors had drifted up in value and therefore reducing the voltage across the 20K resistor or else something was stealing voltage from the 20K resistor... today I did more testing and desoldered one end of each of the 540K resistors and measured them... 580K and 700K... I remembered that I had replaced all the voltage set resistors with TE 0.1% 1/4W a while ago... I checked the spec sheet and they are rated at 250V.. too little for the job and I think this is what caused them to drift high. My guess is the 700K resistor started to drift high, got more voltage drop across it which naturally increased the drift. I replaced them with Xicon 1/2W 1% 350V and for the -560V rail immediately started regulating again. job done back to listening right.... RIGHT....???? After some testing I connected the psu back to the T2 and the led on both channels close to the -260V terminal did no light. But with no load the -260V rail was rock solid. Connected to a T2 the rail only provided +75V on top of the -560V rail rather than the +300V it was designed to give. I guessed the 2N3904 in the -260V rail had spontaneously decided to fail in the current limiter and so decided to replace it. The 2N3904 I desoldered measured on a peak dca75 as shorted so I was sure I had found the fixed the problem.... again testing without a load everything seemed fine. So back to listening now... right... well... Then I did something really stupid. I thought the psu was off and connected the high voltage cable from the psu to the amp (the low voltage cable with the heater supplies was not connected) there was immediately sparking noises and I quickly turned off the psu. I tested the psu without load - all rails seemed good. I connected the psu to the T2 and powered it up. All the voltage rails where at the correct levels on the T2 But I had massive ballance issues between the + and - halves effecting both channels. All 4 virtual batteries now only read about 550V, (all the leds light so that's something)... SH*T SH*T SH*T DAMN DAMN I guess next step is to test all the valves, take the amp apart and hope the 2SK216 and 2sj79 are ok. I have one complete set of spare 2SK216 and 2sj79 and do have a spare set of amp pcbs so I am debating if it might be simpler just to build a new set of amp boards rather than try to troubleshoot and salvage what I have. today I simply should not have got out of bed.