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And then you're in the man from Mars You go out at night eatin' cars You eat Cadillacs, Lincolns too Mercurys and Subaru And you don't stop, you keep on eatin' cars Then, when there's no more cars you go out at night And eat up bars where the people meet ex.

So the art craters were at the Rancho today bright and early and I have to say that, other than Milo and Otis, I have never seen sawdust fly like that. These lads knew what they were about!

I bought this 7" at Kmart when I was 7 years old. (I believe I bought the Theme from the Greatest American Hero the same day)

A Pile of these: I'm not starting another listening project, I am not starting another listening project, I am Not ... Okay - just one more click and then I am done.

Since I was thinking about it. Candy-O (Expanded Edition) The Cars 1979 https://album.link/i/1088527319 Example: Maybe it was the album cover and my young teen years that made me think about this album more. 🤓 But it was more unfamiliar than I thought. The first 4 tracks for sure were solid in my memory, so my brother must have played the first side a lot. Being '79 this had a much more 80s feel than I thought it would. Enjoyable with some gems in there, but not has cohesive as their first effort. The expanded edition just gives some other goodies and a few mixes that are fun enough. I do like the story that they brought Vargas out of retirement at 83 years of age to create the iconic cover.

It turned into a bit of a saga, but my brother enlisted Steve to help identify a new tool for the shop that he wanted to surprise me with. My siblings were around the house while my terminally ill brother made many phone calls and repeatedly ordered and reordered the specified machine. That info leaked to me and made me self conscious about him buying me a gift and worried about how it would work out, but nobody (including Steve) would tell me what it was or how it was being delivered. It finally arrived a couple of weeks ago and there was another whole saga to get the 500lb box up to the shop. Turns out it is a dual drum 25" Supermax sander. It is very cool and with some shifting it fits into the shop in a good spot. I wired the 220V/30A connection myself with the same type of plug as the Hammer jointer/planer it sits next to. I am ordering some stuff to make a wye connector on top so that the two tools can also share the same dust collection hose with a quick connect setup. I can tell that this is going to be a great tool to have in the shop at twice the width of the planer and currently set up with 80 and 120 grit papers to cut the sanding time way down on lots of projects. Thanks Tom, and Steve, and even Doug who consulted as well. IMG_0462.mov

Bully - Lucky For You What can I say? I'm a sucker for alt-pop. I dig her sound and I'm excited to dig through her back catalog. I guess I missed my chance to see her on tour as she was opening for the Pixies who I think have already come through town.

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals Don Was is a brilliant bass player.

@Voltron Sadly, no. Both would have been played to death anyway. There was this one day that must have been in 1981 where my brother and I took something like $20 we'd saved up, went to Kmart, and spent it all on 7 inches. I don't remember most of the rest, but those two stand out.

reasons I don't know Astrud's work that well other than the obvious. So, just a few hours of Top tracks. Such an enjoyable vibe and the vocal tone and work is subtle and lovely. rip

We are getting close. Now there are two problems. First is that R(D) doesn’t follow R(O-) at a 1:10 ratio. It’s a simple resistor divider by R90/R91. You may have a short or wrong resistor value in that area. Measure the resistance when powered off and you should find something. Second problem is that with matched (-) voltages at R ch active batteries, Q24 and Q25 are off by about 4V. It’s getting close to explaining the 50V imbalance we see at the output. Either Q26/Q27 has large mismatch, or they work under mismatched currents from Q28/Q29. By measuring voltage drops across R50/R51 and R54/R55 you should be able to get some clues. Note that sometimes high voltage transistors can “walk wounded”, having a minor leakage but not bad enough to burst into flames. L ch is working mostly okay. Don’t worry about the 10~15V offset or if it drifts over long period of time, as long as it is still balanced. We can come back to it later. Your Q24 and Q25 shows large differences in their G-S voltages. You might want to pay attention to that.

like this? - "Stax original"

@demonkuro Sorry to be blunt, but people here who help you have their way of troubleshooting issues. To get the most out of their expertise, please do the measurement they asked so they can better help you. Extra measurement may help, as long as they are well documented. For instance, are the voltages marked on you schematic from the R channel? Also, doing shotgun-style component replacement without narrowing down to a suspect is rarely effective. Apparently the problem on the right channel is a balance issue. The final stage offset servo is most likely working fine. That's why replacing Q30 thru Q33 didn't help. Measuring Hfe of the transistors in circuit would not give you accurate results, especially when the base and collector are shorted together in the circuit. Assuming the voltages marked on you schematic are from the R channel. They look reasonable. There is one volt difference between the cathode of the EL34s (457V-456V). The triode-connected EL34 has a mu of about 10. For a matched pair under the same current, 1V of difference should create about 10V of difference between their anodes. But now there are 50V. That could be caused by different currents from the CCS. Measure the voltage drop on R18 thru R20, R17 and R14, and you'll get an idea how much current is flowing through the CCS. Do the same on the other arm and compare. To check the operation of the balance servo opamp that seems stuck, I suggested that you 'Follow the trace from O+/O- all the way to IN+/IN- of the opamp and see where the problem is.' I didn't see any feedback from you. Now that O+/O- differ by 50V, points C and D should be 5V apart, IN+/IN- of the opamp should be clamped by the diodes to approx 0.6V in the correct polarity, and both opamps should output close to rail after a few seconds. If you don't get the correct IN+/IN- voltage, you may have a short or a diode installed in a wrong orientation. If you do get the correct IN+/IN- voltage but the opamp still outputs zero, you may have a bad chip or a leaky cap (0.47u). BTW, film caps (polypropylene) are recommended over ceramics in those locations for lower leakage. It's a pain in the butt to remove the C3381s, but quite easy to check if they work correctly in circuit. They are used as current mirrors. Current that flows thru R86 should be roughly the same as the current that flows thru R84. Measure the voltage drops and you'll have an idea. Remember that I asked you to measure the top and bottom voltages of both active batteries of both channels? That would tell us if the imbalance is from the front-end or back-end. In other word whether the imbalance is before or after the active batteries. Before the balance issue is resolved, it's probably not necessary to repeat the hour-long tests. A better way is to take as many points of measurement as you need in one shot, shut off the power, analyze the data and go from there.

Nearly complete.

I’m not sure if you used the “original” DIY T2 enclosure. The transistor mounting hardware are difficult to access in the recessed space and easy to get lost. I would do sufficient measurements to narrow down to a suspect before removing anything. Like you’ve found out, it’s not always the transistors that go bad. If I were you, I would measure the voltage drops on the resistors I mentioned in my post to see the current before removing any transistors from the heat sink. One lesser issue is the Vgs measurement you marked on the schematic, why some J79s have 0.5 to 0.6V and others have 1.5 to 1.7V? It’s still within spec but could be rearranged for better matching between the +/- arms. The T2 is not that complex, when troubleshooting you just need to trust the data and analysis more than your instinct and luck.

Look at the Uberamp output stage.

Thanks Birgir! I'll look into those 207's. Thanks for the tip. Seems like the old Stax are still the way to go. I'd love to try those out Al. Also an excuse to meet up and maybe grab some coffee or something? I can come out your way...

The audience laughed when they mentioned the Mac Pro's $6,999 starting price.

The big difference between the first album and Candy-O is that they got a little more new-wavier. But it's still an insanely solid effort for That Difficult Sophomore Album.

That’s pretty cool, except unusually I just toss my art in the trash or place for free ads on Craigslist.

#NotEnoughAIHype

When they embraced the dark side? Apple vision pro use case #1

For some reason, your post made me wonder if Randy Newman ever sang Cars and I found this

On that note… ex.

The Cars (2016 Remaster) The Cars 1978 https://album.link/i/1088527349 Example: It has all the hits and all the goodness in-between. I grew up listening to Candy-O so much more than their freshman effort. Just a well crafted album with great tracks and riffs one after the other. It will not be lost in my history.

Because you’re predicktable?

How did you know my best pickup line?

Good to have you back. The L500Mk2 is the most neutral of the new Stax but imaging is still wrong for me so I'd recommend a used SR-207. They are used quite a bit in studios.

Rodrigo and Gabriella last night @ the Fox Theater in Oakland. Love that these two are still doing their thing and fun to get to see them at my favorite Bay Area venue. That woman can really play some rhythm guitar! Rod ain’t bad on lead either.

Was straightening up our upstairs garage and I came across this trespasser trying to be inconspicuous

Just finished a v1.21 board SuSy version. Volume controll is in the DAC, left that out, just a power HPamp. Running on 200mA, only balanced in- and output. THAT340 (could not find anything else in Europe), Nichicon Muse caps, SPC cables, dual v0.44 GRLV with 100VA/24V. Modushop 2U Dissipante 300 and 2U SlimLine 280. Thanks go to Mirko for the remote support and to Dr. Gilmore for the incredible design!!

My pair just came in, I'll try to keep an open mind comparing it to the 007

RIP Astrud Gilberto BBC News - Astrud Gilberto: The Girl from Ipanema singer dies at 83 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-65818566 https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jun/06/astrud-gilberto-bossa-nova-singer-of-the-girl-from-ipanema-dies-aged-83