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Stars orbiting around our supermassive black hole, Sagittarius-A. http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~ghezgroup/gc/animations.html

Finally completed my Dynahi, an on/off project (like some of them) for five years. Bought the set of boards from Samsie in December 2015, so I thought I'd just let him know that they eventually came of use! Turned out to be a relatively uncomplicated build, except for a couple of resistors around the THAT340 with too many zeros, discovered by MLA. Also a problem with the -30V side on one of the PSUs. Turned out to be a malfunctioning rectifier. A BC556 popped, but the supply worked once replaced. For a week or so, then the 556 popped again. After the third time I scratched my head, but some sparks from one of the surrounding caps told me it had taken some beating from the faulty rectifier. Replaced that and the DN2540 and now it has played without incidents for a couple of weeks. Sounds very nice and has become my go-to-amp, with some competition from a KSA5 I took over from MLA recently. Spoiled for choice.

I think this is interesting, inspiring and beautiful

High Maintenance (HBO). Playing catch up. Man, its pilot is maybe the best I've seen since Breaking Bad. I need to give the Vimeo episodes a shot too.

Virtuoso Joe Pass 1973 Example:

Hiromi Uehara, Spectrum solo jazz piano, I forgot how great this one in particular is. E.G., This is just so insanely great! I should also mention that it appears her entire back catalog (including personal favourites, Time Control, Brain, &c.) has been uploaded to streaming platforms Tidal and Spotify, so...yay!

I've always admired this group. The hobby and community got me through some rough times, even when I didn't say I was going through them, but just coming here and laughing my ass off at the shenanigans was enough to brighten up my day. It's been a while since I've been around, and life definitely throws some unexpected curve balls. I got married a month ago. I'm moving out of my apartment to a new home, where my wife is going to help me NOT turn the place into a man cave, but make it cozy and welcoming. I'm in love. When you know, you know, as the saying goes. Things change, people, change... I think I evolved leaps and bounds the past year in so many aspects. I've been packing for my upcoming move, two weeks away. Been having fun going through a lot of my audiophile gear that at some point I stored away and forgot about because another flavor of the month came about. I was remembering the meets, the trips to Cigar City in Tampa, Hunahpuh days, etc. Good times. I guess I just wanted to drop by and give thanks to everyone. Nostalgia hit hard. Fun times! Good stuff.

Thanks, everyone!

Well, I did have the original.

The Pearl has impressed me so much that I ordered a Pyxis for espresso.

I thought I scrubbed that picture from the internet.

Oh, you ment that clamp on his desk. Nevermind.

Uhhh, I have to downsize. I don't need 20 headphones. That said, I have six or seven HP1Ks and intend to only keep one of them. I'm also going to sell the BHSE, but keeping the balancing Act. Going to sell all my stat gear, actually. Way too much stuff. I rather it gets put to use by someone who will enjoy them. I'll be posting stuff at the other place but if any of you all want dibs, just say the word. Thanks for all the good wishes! Forgot to mention that, of all things, what I surely believed beyond a shadow of a doubt would receive a big "HELL NO" from her were the massive obelisks that are the Cain & Cain Abby & Bailey speakers... with matching subwoofer. Turns out she absolutely loves the way they look and says they go well with what she had in mind for the living room. So they get to stay.

From one ladies man to another, congrat Alex!

Not that anybody was wondering, but I discovered this morning that Chemex papers old enough to smell like good library books work (and taste) just fine once rinsed with boiling water. If I’ve done nothing else positive for anybody else this month, I’m glad that a bit of a faff which produced pleasure in the making and consuming, from a shared YouTube video of all things, came out of mentioning, and sharing, somebody else’s hard work. A good cup. As you weirdos across the pond would probably say, I’m chuffed. Try Japanese-iced coffee next, Craig.

Tried the Hoffman method. Bit of a faff, and not something to do if rushing to get to work - but the resulting coffee is to die for. Has real depth, but without the bitter edge from the regular French press method. Win!

I always use a thermistor for inrush current protection with my PSUs. If you use a thermistor I would try a 1A or even smaller fuse. You may have to experiment a bit based on the thermistor, filter caps of choice.

Almost done casing the Dynahi. The input XLR sockets are temporary, waiting for the Neutrik ones to arrive. Also, cased the dual GRLV PSU which I will be using for both the SUSY Dynahi and balanced CFA. Two Antek 100VA transformers and the GRLVs are set for 30VDC rails.

that340lsk.zip

to shield the trafo enough in your build you need some metal that can shield magnetic fields quit good (mu-metal or grain oriented metal). i used also this transformator can (when the trafo is not so near sensitive transistors) but i would rate the magnetic shielding the badest. would rate: mu-metal 100% grain orientad metal 80-90% normal metal (this can) 30-40% due mu-metal is horrible expensive the best way is to go for the grain oriented metal option. i used this transformator can and grain oriented metal bands in one of my ksa5 builds (bad placed trafo in my first ksa5 (the red one)), looks nice and shield effect in combination is as good as mu-metal. so you can first test the noise with this can and later ad some grain oriented metal bands if needed. the noiseest part of the trafo is the side where the cables go in and out, place this part away from the transistors (in your build to the front side). also very effectiv is to turn the trafo up 90 degree (stand up), the magnetic field expands more like a frisbee (then a sphere) around the trafo. the first time putting a grain oriented metal band over the trafo and the hum goes away is magic :-).

measure the voltages on the opamp socket before you stick the opamp in. or possibly the opamp is dead.

Finished my Dynahi this week, a big thanks to Kevin Gilmore making this project possible. Was a more or less ;-) troublefree build, thanks to this forum i get the needed information, thanks to all. I tried to build the Dynahi in a relative small case so the challenge was to shield the trafos, i used grain-oriented-steel bands around the trafos and top covers also made from grain-oriented-steel, added 70.- usd to the BOM but was well invested, no inducted noise at all :-). The amp is bias to 0.625 v so that the case can handle the heat. Sounds superb as the dynalo. I have a second headphone out on the back, i will use it together with the ifi iesl pro to drive my stax headphones (as my sony vfet via the iesl to drive the electrostats). https://www.head-fi.org/gallery/album/kevin-gilmore-dynahi.1154508/

One day last year, while planning my Carbon build, I thought it would be neat to have a dynamic headphone amplifier in a matching case. The Dynahi suggested itself, though I wanted something a little less overkill. Then it occured to me that I might be able to stuff a Dynahi and a Dynalo into one case, and so make an amplifier capable of driving any headphone. So I made this, which I called the DDCA (Dynalo-Dynahi Combination Amplifier): one set of inputs feeding two amps, with separate output protection circuits, separate volume pots, three GRLV power supplies, and one transformer. It was a 3D puzzle to fit everything in (if I were to make another one, I'd position the Dynahi boards right-side up, turned out there is enough clearance that way and it would have simplified assembly) and the wiring took forever (plus keeping it perfectly tidy is beyond my skill). I lowered the gain on both the Dynalo and the Dynahi, since on most amps, I have the volume at 10 o'clock or less, and I wanted to use more of the volume control. Have to admit: the RK50 on the Carbon spoiled me, and the TKD 601 pots here don't live up to it. Not bad, though. Like I posted a couple of days ago, I couldn't bias the Dynahi section as high as I wanted, but even at 0.40V across the 20ohm output device resistors it runs fairly warm, so I decided to leave it alone for now. I also need to get the top anodized black. Maybe add some speaker binding posts... wonder how much of a speaker load I can drive from the Dynahi? Both sections sound great to me, though I don't have an HE-6 or K1000 to really put the Dynahi through its paces. As usual — many thanks to @kevin gilmore and @spritzer for all the designs and boards. This wouldn't exist without you guys. Thanks to @vilts for making matching titanium knobs, thanks to @Zashoomin for getting extra sand with me so we could make matched sets, and thanks to everyone here for group buys and all the help and support.

Today in "no good deed goes unpunished" I divested myself of a bunch of things including a pair of JBL 630s from the mid 1980s. In the process, my wallet disappeared. I noticed it was missing when at the checkout of the local grocery store. Two calls later and neither place I'd visited had seen it. I've torn apart my house and my car, but it's just flat out missing. Great way to start the weekend.

Man, my friend Brent (of Bluvessel fame, not fat head) is nuts: He's digitizing a a 1998 record with 500 locked grooves on it.