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Got the Cervelo back out on the road on one of our few sunny spring days so far. It was windy, but still a nice rip around town.

If you liked Mammal Hands, I think you'll also like Vega Trails' latest album. Composed by saxophonist Jordan Smart (Mammal Hands) and Milo Fitzpatrick (Portico Quartet) I love the Rhodes/Piano played by Taz Modi: I still listen to their first album very often. PD. I'm glad to be back

^ Great pick up. Regretting not hitting RSD, but from a thrift store visit a month ago - Frantic Percussion (in stereo-stereo). This works for Saturday afternoon house cleaning. Full album:

You guys are on fire - Three things I have not heard before - and three bangers. Mammal Hands - was a really nice set - tight percussion throughout and very theatrical. (will explore more) Dada - was not what I expected, but I really liked the vibes and the stories were good. Will check out American Highway Flower. Frantic Percussion - was too short - not on QOBUZ so had to settle for the YT needledrop. Everything I wanted from the Stereo Stereo. This is why I like this thread so much - Maybe not the Mozart Ass licking.. but still.

Record store day!

Also, I have been thinking about doing a revised layout for this amp, but adding some things such as Kevin's protector board, and possibly adapting the circuit used by nwavguy in the o2 for battery management to delay startup until the 2 Meanwell bricks had both come up, since this is what is causing the large DC offsets at startup (and possibly at shutdown as well). I know the protect board would take care of the startup issue so might be overkill for the additional circuit. The board would have to be larger in size to accommodate these changes, which should also have some benefits thermally. Large heatsinks for both the Amb regs and the onboard regs would also be a good idea. This is just at concept phase right now, and I'm not really interested in on for myself, but might do it anyway. If so, I will ask Kevin for permission to use his protect board circuitry for this.

I know there isn't much interest in these amps anymore, but wanted to post my findings regarding thermals. I spent around 3 hours yesterday testing the one I have in for repair to evaluate whether these run cooler with no heatsink, heatsink only, or heatsink with a spreader bar to tie it to the top cover. @johnwmclean had at one point suggested that he thought these might run cooler without. I forget which user suggested and implemented a spreader bar, which for them resulted in lower temps. I used a thermocouple with the covers on to do this test. For the 1st case (no HS), I put the thermocouple on top of the upper right transistor in the L- channel. For the other two tests, the thermocouple was touching the collector tab. I tried to wait long enough for things to stabilize completely, which never really happened. Even after an hour or more, the temp would go up 0.1 ºC every minute or so. Here are the results: bare 91.8 (shortest test, around 45 minutes) HS only 92.6 (approx 1 hour +) HS w/spreader 87.1 (1 hr 20 min) all temps in ºC. Ambient temp 22.1 ºC. It appears that w/spreader is the winner. That temp was going up slower than the other two, so I would guess that the margin is a bit larger. i made the spreader with a couple of pieces of 1/8" and 1/16" thick aluminum x 1" stock.

Finished the right channel today. Feedback as suggested by Justin. Bias servo as suggested by Kevin. Red smoke – Super Symmetrical mode. Green smoke – Zero Feedback mode.

Probably should be at RSD, but getting nostalgic another direction with America's Greatest Hits. Full album:

Patio Brunch

Mozart was a dirty composer

I was just able to donate via Firefox. I first tried to pay using ACH, but my credentials timed out. Then I switched to PayPal and that worked just fine.

Up at the Maine condo this weekend, a cloudy & cold day turned into a stunner of a beautiful one! Went into Kennebunkport and next to no one was there. Had a great walk around, bought some arty shit, and stayed for dinner. Have always enjoyed Alisson's Restaurant for better-than-pub dining, tonight sat at the bar and had a Lagavulin 16 and my favorite of theirs, the Lobster Bisque Lobster Roll. Worth the $, along with a brief chat with a couple folks at the bar.

New headphone protector. Four layers board. Two LM4040 2.5V references. Limits set to ~ +/-20 mA.

bœuf

That's My Story: John Lee Hooker Sings The Blues by John Lee Hooker (1960) https://open.qobuz.com/album/tkvkntyv6760o Example: A worthy remaster - little hot on the mic now and then, but a really good recording.

A very exciting Sunday in Hell. No spoilers this time! Apropos of Roubaix, I put some 40mm slicks on to try out. I am very interested to see how they feel.

Few more from the interwebz via my drive. The one about chocolate I especially love because it is SO much Karen - sent it to her sisters and one said she cried she laughed so hard.

Iris Long, who helped steer early AIDS advocates into effective treatment activism that led to the development of lifesaving HIV meds, died April 4. She was 92. Long was a retired pharmaceutical chemist living in Queens, New York, when AIDS emerged as a global threat in the 1980s. Compelled to take action at a time when people couldn’t do research online and when most young AIDS activists knew little about pharmaceutical companies and drug development, Long shared her knowledge with activists in ACT UP New York, working directly with them on effective ways to pressure researchers to test and market lifesaving drugs. The title of a CBS news segment in 2013 illustrates her legacy: “Iris Long: How One Woman Saved Eight Million People.” https://www.poz.com/article/rip-iris-long-lifesaving-hiv-treatment-activist-ally

Not a person, but RIP Hampshire College. "Hamster" or "Hempshire" as it was known was always the junior sibling to the other four colleges in the happy valley. Hampshire has been plagued by rumors of financial troubles for years at this point. I grew up going to shows at a couple different Hampshire venues. Phish played there regularly in the late 80s and early 90s. There is a longstanding urban legend that the characters in Scooby Doo are modeled after the five colleges: Fred is Amherst, Daphne is Smith, Velma is Mount Holyoke (these roles have reversed in my observance), Shaggy is Hampshire and Scooby is UMASS. The legend is not true of course, but the parallels between Shaggy and Hampshire are particularly strong. For 60 years, Hampshire was an important part of the landscape of the Pioneer Valley and the Five (now Four) College area. It's sad to see it go.

Oh, man.....RIP Mr. Kroft....also hits home here.... One of my most notable memories was being extremely drunk from a Friday night party, it went deep into Saturday and I remember watching HR Puffnstuf the next morning while still occasionally spitting up....good times.....🙄 Another one hitting home too: RIP Máire Brennan (phonetically pronounced and often written as Moya). Have enjoyed Clannad's music for many years.... https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crm112y4jyzo

RIP Sid Krofft thank you for my acid trip childhood shows.

This one is complex. Hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa dead at 67. The guy coined the term "hip hop." Calling him a pioneer is an understatement. The problem is that he was a child molester and got away with it for decades. There is at least one alleged murder involved in the coverup of his crimes. I can't say RIP in this case.

Tony Rivers -- did a lot of session work (backing vocals, arranging) with names I'm fond of -- Alan Parsons Project, Al Stewart, Roger Daltrey, Cliff Richard, et al.

Goddamn. Just learned that DJ Dan died at 57. I did a 4 hour set downstairs at the legendary afterhours club Rise in Boston while he headlined in the main room upstairs in late 2012. A few months later, I helped run a show where he played in early 2013. This was the upstairs before DJ Dan started playing. The number of people in it tripled by the end of the night. I don't have many photos of the downstairs ...because I DJ'd for 4 hours, but this is one long exposure taken with me braced against a couch. The 2013 show was amazing. I saw a bunch of jaded drum n bass and dubstep fans realizing that house music was a lot of fun. I only spoke to him briefly, because I had a job (or more to the point, like 20 jobs) to do. He seemed like a very chill, down to earth guy, especially for someone as famous as he was. 57 is crazy young to pass.