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So, after a few hours in my favorite combination of methylene chloride, acetone, toluene, benzene, and 2 other magic ingredients (basically miller-stephenson ms111 only way cheaper) Warning kids: don't try this at home. highly flammable, highly toxic, low flash point... Let the professional morons do this the eha5 discrete module in the process of giving up its secrets. every single part of the eha5 is a massive pile of crap. it takes a whole room full of highly competent engineers to produce something this fucked up. i did take the other module, hooked it up to a bench supply and hd800 headphones and got a good listen. wow is this bad. proof that obviously the lowest distortion possible in amir's s/n test is the one and only measurement that they think matters. the rest of the specs, not even close. for those that don't know, the external power brick is a single 15v switching supply at 3 amps. internally it makes -15 from the +15. except for the fact that the -15 supply seems limited to about 750ma, and it runs 4 amps from this. So maybe if you are lucky you get about 175ma max current per amplifier. No way this is enough to drive those crap transformers. transistors are 2L, G1 and the dual is k4r

I'm heading to Dorothy's (see, we really are friends of Dorothy) for breakfast. Her boyfriend Gavin will be there, (without the rest of the cast of The Loveboat). My turn to cook, so I made a frittata. "Everything but the kitchen sink" frittata. Sausage, ham, baby potatoes, red bell pepper, red onion, mushrooms, some beautiful multi colored grape tomatoes and cheese.

parts stuffing completed on two new mostly modern T2 amp boards. Now waiting for the ultrasonic cleaner to warm up. Then drying, mounting on L bracket and heatsinks... and then *gulp* the stressful part. power on and testing... *fingers crossed* I have no more spare NOS parts, only one 10V voltage reference left, no spare valve sockets etc... so this had better work.

Great! When the RIP MY T2 was announced, I said to myself - James will have a new T2 ready in 10 to 14 days… Now only three days has elapsed. No rush, James.

Upper Pool Asian Mango Salad

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

Talk Talk - It's My Life (40th anniversary)

i clean before applying paste. I also don't want to contaminate the cleaning solution. The aim is to get rid of the flux residue, which can be acidic and potentially can breakdown and conduct at the sort of voltages we have.

I moved flat 3 weeks ago (downsized - long story) and the T2 is literally the only stax amp I have on hand here and is my only source of sound! (The mini T2s and blue hawaiis are in storage. Megatron still has no case for the psu). So its a priority project. This is exactly why I have a policy of either building two or each amp or keeping enough spares in stock to build a second one. (The reason I originally did not build a second mostly modern T2 was I wanted to build a fully modern T2 using alternatives for the 2SJ79 and 2SK216 but I had not got around to checking the pcb layout and getting pcbs spun). PCBs are currently drying...

8mm should fit in there just fine

Viva Egoista STX, are you brave enough to listen to it? good news it probably will not sound like crap for long. 💣 💥 bad news you probably will need a new house 🚒 and unless you took the regeneration perk, a new body 🚑

And some blues. Johnny Winter Johnny Winter 1969 https://album.link/i/193769775 Example: Enjoyable album. Nice and rough around the edges, with some solid licks here and there. And the line - "There's so much shit in Texas, I'm bound to step in some"

The Kicker Bobby Hutcherson 1999 (um, must be the remix - recorded 1963) https://album.link/i/724539296 Example: Speaking of RVG recordings. So I think that I might be slow on the uptake that it was Rudy that was the secret sauce in the Blue Note history that made magic happen so much. Now I am not saying the performance, that is the magic on it's own. But capturing the notes and giving them to us is sublime.

The Darkness – The Last of Our Kind (2015) Back story on the album cover art: https://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2015/10/17/golden-valley-baby-stars-on-the-cover-of-new-album-by-the-darkness

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

Because idiots think this sounds good? What gets me are the cheap parts and just pure stupidity of using power supply caps which are known to fail as a dead short for audio coupling.

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.

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!

^^^ Liked for the view, system doesn't do it for me....

My neighbor Dave's wife is out of town, so I'm making and taking up batchelor burritos. Seasoned beef, refried beans, peppers, onion, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream and avocado. Batchelor chimichangas actually.

I finished the first roll of film I put through the Leica C3. The C3 displayed remarkable film economy. I got 26 or 27 frames out of it. I still need to transcribe the last 10 or so shots from my voice recorder. Also, today I learned of the Polish made Janpol enlarging lenses. They come in a few different focal lengths, most commonly an 85mm and a 55mm, both F/5.6 (which is not odd for an enlarging lens.) They have an internal color wheel meant for use with B&w prints. They also have M42 mounts and can be fitted on most modern cameras with swappable glass. This one is saying Slava Ukraini. These things are amazing. I won't rest until I get one.

Sounds like you have G.A.S. for the sake of G.A.S. Grace is a good company, feel free to stick with that...unless you feel like you're actually missing something. And in that case, you may want to make sure there's impedance matching between components. Other than the Schiit line of gear, I don't know what DACses are popular any more. (I don't have one, myself, though, so it might just be that they have a memorable name.)

Being a Very Stable Genius I went ahead and spilled mead on my 007t. It was off at the time and hasn't been powered on for a few months. I removed the top and bottom panels and cleaned off the PCB with some isopropyl alcohol. Most of the stuff didn't get through but there were a few stains. Now I'm letting it dry... is it safe to power up once it dries out or is there anything else I need to watch out for?