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I love this pic of Christo from the NYT obit.

Thomas Beecham, the orchestra conductor whose quotes could fill a book, was asked by a lady acquaintance what instrument her son ought to take up: "I have no hesitation madam in recommending the bagpipes. Because they sound exactly the same when you have finished learning them as when you start learning them"

That's a wrap ...

Looks great!! I got my case today. The power switch is rubbish and I'll try to get an illuminated pushbutton with European approval that fits the hole. Does anyone know of nice looking 1/4 Jacks other than neutrik?

It lives! One of the better solid state amps I've heard. Now to drill some panels!

Cutaway view of a Bang & Olufsen Beolab 5.

Ghosts of West Virginia. Maybe the best Steve Earle album since The Mountain.

RIP Christo! I always looked on him as a force of nature.

I have run the amp without the balance servo, just by carefully adjusting the trimmer, but the opto coupler is connected to the dc offset (i.e. make the average of the + and - audio signals 0v with respect to ground) not the balance servo (which makes the average of the + and - audio signals 0v with respect to each other only. also check the valves/tubes if you have a tester... I have found the 6922s to be a bit fragile and the el34s have -400V on their heaters so if the negative 560V rail has gone crazy there could be heater to cathode leakage... do you have a variac? I always bring my new builds up to full voltage slowly... My amp has two transformers one for the heaters and +-15v and one for the high voltages. I connected the low voltage transformer directly to the mains and only connected the hv transformer to the variac. What resistors did you use? I used vishay crcw1206 which are rated at 200v and crcw0805 for the 1/8w which are rated at 150v., they were the highest rated voltages I could find on mouser for 100ppm 1%... I have a dca75 from peak electronics, https://www.peakelec.co.uk/acatalog/dca75-dca-pro-semiconductor-analyser.html#SID=24 its been very useful for post mortem checking (if I de-solder a transistor I can compare the dca75 measurement with a spare transistor of the same type. I often find failed transistors simply show up as dual back to back diodes or dead shorts. Note the DCA does have trouble identifying 10m90s and similar). I have even found some fake transistors using it. Its not designed for in circuit testing, but it can be use in circuit for comparisons between transistors in the left and right amp boards. If you have not got a dca75 I highly recommend it. You can also get an adaptor for sot23 https://www.peakelec.co.uk/acatalog/pca23-peak-component-adapter-sot23.html and I found an adapter on ebay for sot23-6, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SOT23-SOT23-6-SOT23-6L-IC-Testsockel-Programmieradapter-Einbrennsockel-F3I4/383314954496?hash=item593f5a0900:g:dWoAAOSwTYZd8frU so I can test dual smd transistors too. I also created a little op amp test circuit on a bread board, unity gain just so that I could power it and feed in a test signal and scope the output, I got a adaptor for 8 pin smd from ebay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SMD-SO8-SOP8-SOIC8-DIP8-2-54mm-DIP8-Programmier-Adapter-SMD-Sockel-150mil/252912033731?hash=item3ae2bb5fc3:g:yKcAAOSwmE9b-JqP so I could also test smd opamps.... I love having lots of test jigs. Good luck with your troubleshooting and repairs.

That really applies more to the older ESP950's as Koss have removed most of the damping by now.

This is probably my favorite picture I've posted in here all year. Protest outside the White House, a few nights ago. Zuckertrump. Heat map of damaged or looted buildings from the Minneapolis riots. If you don't understand this one, ask your kids.

Lumin for life!

Moar Thundercat

Went with ProAudioStar, they had free shipping too, and appease the Bezos haters (Knucks and my sister, for starters).

Mikhail Pletnev - Edvard Grieg: Lyric Pieces Not exactly the same edition, but same tracks from the original Melodiya recording of 1986, available on several streaming services.

Legacy Audio Whisper XDs.

Yea that is the thing about classics it is hard to devote the time needed to complete them unless that is your main passion. One of the people I work with has a red beetle from the 70s but cant recall the year. He really enjoys it. He bought it fully restored though. With all the shit he has to deal with now way he could do it himself. A friend in chicago used to have a 2cv, fuck he probably still has it but he moved to Scottsdale AZ. I love the cars from those times but I know I just am not the right person to have them.

on the dac note, I've had the opportunity to try Mike's Lumin T2 and it is pretty pretty good. So good that I ordered one. For those that like the Brooklyn this is a step up and has a fully realized streamer in the box as well. It also just works, no wonky set up issues and great sound. I would give it a week of play before serious listening though. I really like the Brooklyn and had one at the house for a bit.

Let us know when you get to the prequel.

Yeah, this is good. Thanks Dan

Yes, I used Vishay crcw0805 and crcw1206 too. Luckily the tubes are correct. Due to the somewhat peculiar configuration of this amplifier I have skipped my procedure for turning on.

Christo dies at 84

No a good day… OP27 next to VOL618A on fire of both channels and GRHV negative rail dead too. I thought that in this board version that I have this problem was corrected ... I was wrong. I hope I just screwed up the OP27 and not the rest of the sand. Positive, I was able to see that all the LEDs were on. It will take a long time to desolder everything.

A different kind of cooking show – nordic gold: