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Lift off!

All boards are here and I am ready to start shipping the boards to the GB participants. I'll be using USPS Priority Mail for all US participants. All US GB participants please PayPal me $8.40 for the shipping charge. For international participants I will PM you the shipping charge after I have the package weighted at the post office. I have used first class mail without insurance and tracking in the past. Please let me know ASAP if you want to add tracking and/or insurance but be warned they are quite expensive options. I'll ship the package when I received your shipping payment. When you PayPal me, PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR SHIPPING ADDRESS and HEAD CASE ID if you have not done so when you PayPal'ed me the cost for the boards.

You have not missed anything. I am just not working very fast 🙂

In the olden days when I was in shape and training for races we would ride for 4+ hours, consume six liters of water and never need to pee. The temperatures would average 85+ but as long as you were moving you were OK. I used to fly into Phoenix airport periodically and it was a truely fun ride coming in during July and August. It felt like Mr Toad's wild ride.

^ You'd want to ask the original poster on reddit's /r/audiophile: Meow.

Socially Distant Double-Double

Test Tone @ Home live right now: http://mixlr.com/illuminator/chat

Ah - the good old battleship grey Cambridge Audio livery. It was panned by the reviewers, as were the buttons on the CD player (they described them as reminiscent of poking dead flesh). Very unfair, because the product performance and sonics were good. However the reviews killed that iteration of Cambridge Audio (~1990). We acquired the wreckage when I worked at Wharfedale, including a massive inventory of product, for almost pocket change (at least in a corporate sense). We sold the inventory at knock down prices, and then did nothing more than change the appearance to a dark gold colour, and the dimple in the knobs became a light gold colour pin instead. After that they sold very well. I turned the Cambridge Audio technical team to the re-launch of the Leak brand, that Wharfedale owned. Among those was a very young Steve Sells, fresh from University, who I let off the leash and told him to design the best power amp he could - a Krell-beater. I got a design consultancy to do the appearance design, and Steve designed FET output monoblocks of truly heroic performance. When we set up to show that at Heathrow, I wired up the speakers and only got a very quiet sound like a tinny transistor radio. I'd left the shorting links across the back of the speakers, and Steve's design was playing the speaker cables into a short circuit without breaking sweat. Fast forward several decades, and Steve is now director of engineering at Naim. They likewise let him off the leash, and the astonishing and ridiculously expensive Statement was the result (google it). Cambridge Audio, from its foundations in 1966, has been bust umpteen times over the decades. But astonishingly it is still very much alive and still British, and owned by Richer Sounds. It was orignally founded by my good friend and mentor Gordon Edge (RIP). To celebrate 50 years from the foundation of the company, Cambridge Audio introduced the high end Edge series of products in 2016. They even incorporated Gordon's always barely legible signature on the circuit board silk screen.

Pandemic Project #54: re-case the Ventus. So, some quick history: I won the raffle Nate had back in the day for the TwistedPear Ventus. It has worked fine and I have enjoyed it for years but I wanted it in a different chassis. Over the years I bought parts here and there. The case came from VT4C. I had top and bottom panels made with venting and finally got it all reinstalled recently, only to set up a vicious game of chase the ground loop noise for myself. The setup is, otherwise, the same as the original setup with all the same parts, just transplanted into a different case. The only difference in parts was changing the power button setup (which had a nice relay) to a bog standard clicky switch. The boards next to the amp boards just have a cap (with a bypass cap). Nate added these to tame some of the output voltage drift, if I remember correctly. So the noise through the headphones sounds like 120Hz ground noise, but more like a sawtooth wave than a sine wave. The amount of noise varies as the volume is turned up - it starts off loud at 0%, then goes away until about 25% volume, where it gets loud again, then fades until you hit full volume, where it is again loud. Touching the chassis changes the noise slightly, and touching the output ground also changes the noise. If I turn the volume up to the "silent mode" at about 50-60% I can touch the ground and bring the noise right back. I posted a similar question on the TwistedPear forums, but received pretty much nothing but questions. When I answered those, the discussion went dark. Thanks, TP audio. I have attempted various fixes that did not work: Disconnect the signal ground connection from the chassis ground (see pics below) Disconnect the ground bridge between the L and R channels on the Alps volume pot Change the ground connection from the left channel board to the right channel board Connect the grounds together on the amp boards Connect the ground from the Alps volume pot to the chassis Remove the Alps from the chassis Cursing and shouting at the noise I don't have a 'scope to check the incoming voltage from the power supply, but do wonder if something is amiss there. Any guesses for chasing the ground loop dragon? I really hate to see this amp gathering dust. Damn. Thanks for any suggestions. BH

So far the Onyx Coffee Lab selections have been great. My favorite thus far of three I've sampled is the Columbian Rio Paez. Very forward apple note which is a treat. High quality stuff...thumbs up for the caffeine inclined.... HS

The road biking is very popular in Reno. We have elevation and a lot of nice places for riding. It is not for me though, I will stick to things with motors. We actually cooled of here today and will still only be in the 70s tomorrow so back out onto the dirt bike. I don't know why I ride this trail. I wouldn't call it fun, but you do feel accomplished when you complete it.

I have been convinced to keep it. I'll try again later. It really does look great!

It would look great on your FOIS. Send me your address, Sam.

Oh my... HS

Yup, I watched the NPR's show yesterday. My favourite is her first album "Tomorrow is my Turn". Not sure I can make the live stream the 12th, thanks.

Tessa Lark She got an excellent review from The Absolute Sound, so I thought I'd check out her music before ordering the album: http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/fantasy-lark-yang/

Esperanza Spalding and Fred Hersch - Live at the Village Vanguard It's available only at Bandcamp through June, if purchased the profits go to the Jazz Foundation of America. I never heard Esperanza singing this good.

I'm a big Rhiannon Giddens fan. I listened to this a few days ago, now again Looking at the health care personnel pics in that video I can't help thinking that it's been the same shit all the world around. Tough times, but as usual, only for some.

I'd say that this Is not a lie. He's doing to the best of his ability

Finally finished the installation of my AliExpress KGSSHV Carbon into a proper enclosure. I wanted to use a somewhat slim chassis so I skipped those taller ones (100mm+) and ended up with the Breeze Audio SD4309B. It's inexpensive (about $57) and has a pretty solid build. The internal space is just enough for the AliExpress/eBay Carbon PCBs, but a bit shallower than the transformers I have. I had to mill 1mm-deep 'pockets' on the bottom cover for the transformers to fit right below the top cover. I'm not a big fan of the heat spreaders so those sections of the PCB were cut off. Aluminum angles were used to build a 'cradle' for the transformers that also work as mounting brackets for the extra boards (input switching and LV power supply). I soon realized that the boards are not so DIY-friendly to work with. The Golden Reference HV PSU board is not designed for center-tapped HV winding which is more popular in surplus. The connectors are somehow placed at the convenience of the PCB routing but not so much for harness routing. Shared terminal pins means that you'll often have to stick two or more wires into the same hole, etc, etc. Not having a mirrored pair of boards seems to make things worse at some places but otherwise not a show-stopper. I was planning to make this a phase 1 project. The phase 2 will have the input switching and volume pot changed to rotary encoders driving digital pots, which will then make space for phase 3, a tube final stage piggy-backed on top of the carbon PCBs, could be BHSE or Grounded-Grid. There is enough space left, but I'm afraid I won't have the time. Just some ideas for more ambitious builders, I guess.

From some Meowzaki film, I presume:

Go over them again for me please. I know they've reworked the cable relief and have had channel balance problems to an unknown extent. I'm going to be buying one so long as it doesn't get overpriced like the new 700 amplifiers.

I hope they change the freaking headband. The 007 Mk2 is one of the few headphones I straight up cannot wear. The self-adjusting headband strap is too tight and keeps pulling them out of place, and there is absolutely no articulation on the earcups at all, so they're never exactly right. Since the 007 is so fit dependent, I have to pretty much hold the earcups in place. Yeah, the 007 still sounds very good (modded, tweaked, etc) but if you can't use it, what use is it? Stax have a LOT of work ahead of them, and so far all we've seen is lackluster amps at twice the price they should be.

Matches their ride....

The JB Champion reissue looks great, but something I didn't expect is that my hands have gotten bad enough (I have been diagnosed with neuro-sarcoidosis, and I have tremor and loss of sensation in my fingertips) that I can't get the thing to adjust when I'm wearing it. I'll happily send it to any Head-Case Speedy owner who would like it, just pay shipping. I used most of the adhesive lug protectors, so you would want to buy some of these.