Leaderboard

It started with repairing a badly damaged shangri la jr driver 2 years ago, I almost rebuilt the set from the diaphragm to the stators，and of course the dust cover😦 The first thing I discovered is that the 'nano-technology' used by hifiman actually comes from the covering used by indoors aircraft model enthusiasts，the name is OS film and it is still available on ebay or https://www.indoorffsupply.com/shop/os-film-25ft-roll-1 the driver of the hifiman estats is completely glued which is similar to the early stax lambdas, but hifiman glue is significantly worse...after opening the driver i found that they only use OS film for their dust cover, the diaphragm is another PET film ~ a little bit thicker but with much better strength. In order to repair the diaphragm, I found a seller on Alibaba who can provide samples of Toray PET film with thickness below 2 microns at an acceptable price，and use the inner tire stretcher to stretch the film like any other diy estats ，Then test it with a 10" subwoofer and minidsp umik-1 to find proper F0. conductive coating is another serious problem，I've tried quite a few methods including antistatic agents like licron crystal, ANTISTATIK100，floor cleaner，carbon-based coatings such as graphene, and alcohol-soluble nylon, even tried nano-silver wire solution and metal evaporation...Some of them are sensitive to humidity, some arcs，some are ridiculously expensive, some have uneven surface resistance distribution, and some are sensitive to temperature changes. Yah~ finding the proper conductive coating is the most difficult part especially for a layman. unexpectedly, I tried to search for hifiman patents, hoping to find something useful... here's a patent showing that they used some kind of metal oxide nano particles as conductive coating for their estats. emmm，very interesting...🙄 By consulting with chemistry professionals, I decided to try a solution called ATO (antimony doped tin oxide), there are many antistatic agents I have used before have ATO ingredients though. I got some ATO alcohol solution at concentration around 10~15%, it works really well, and coating appearance is somewhat identical to hifiman diaphragm! The last thing is to repair stators. hifimans probably use #150~300 brass mesh and solder their edges to a 2mm thick aluminum base plate PCB board, then glue the rest of middle part. I've tried tensioning those brass mesh with embroidery frame and manual screen stretcher，but it is not tight enough to stretche brass mesh in this way, the mesh itself is too strong to tighten it up... then I found some brass sieves with different meshes on taobao and these machined copper screens are perfect for making DIY mesh stators... after everything's ready，i desoldered OG brass mesh, cleaned the copper foil, applied low temperature solder paste, and carefully soldered the new brass mesh with a heat gun. During the process of repairing shangri la jr, I started planning to make some bigger mesh stator estats... of course，the target is its big brother shangri la SR😈I received a set of the first batch of shangri la sr made in 2016，here is the headphone inside，yap~inherited the tradition of hifiman with such horrible workmanship...😱 however，SR sounds not as technical as the X9000 though，but with more pleasant and passion. SR uses 3mm thick aluminum base plate PCB instead of 2mm on JR version，2 black things in the middle are to prevent the diaphragm from attaching stators，The D-S gap is around 0.7~0.8mm(thickness of glue included) which is identical to JR version，active area is close to 6400mm² ，that is pretty large diaphragm size for a commercial product though，but less 5300mm² of area on stator allows air to pass through. I tried to use the 3mm FR4 board as mesh holder at first time，however，mesh stator disassembly is not an easy job...therefore，I changed to use 1.5mm brass plates as the mesh holder and glued the copper mesh to it , brass mesh is also replaced with higher # red copper mesh for more convenient adhension. I spent most of time adjusting the tension of the diaphragm and finally found the tension needed for F0 similar to OG SR ,the clone driver has a slightly enlarged diaphragm(6839mm²) ，0.73mm fr-4 pcb spacer， and everything is screwed to the housing cover. The frequency response of clone and SR are generally similar，but the sensitivity difference between the two is about 1.5dB actually，SR is more diffused...clone one sounds a bit more clearer. SR has obvious recession between 1-2kHz，it may be caused by a sealing problem in the space between the driver and the earcup.... It's unlikely to be solved without EQ, but it doesn't sound as bad as it looks from the graphics. one more thing... Every shangri la must have a throne , so I made one for my mutation🤣

I decided that I wanted an omelet. I had an onion that I needed to use up, so I set my pan on low and caramelized the onion over about 50 minutes. I wanted some bacon in it, but didn't have any on hand. I did however have a can of Spam on my shelf. I've had fried spam, and it's OK, but for some reason I thought I might try grating the Spam and crisping it. That worked really well, and actually tastes more like bacon than Spam. The texture is great. The addition of Swiss cheese tops it off. The onion shot was at the beginning of carmelizing.

I have been commuting to work on this since March of last year. I don’t have to worry about gas.

Wrapping up the yard sign with Total Boat Halcyon varnish all day today. The only thing that will not be completely sealed is the sides where they will domino/glue into the 4x4s. Should I varnish the outside edges of the side to keep this waterproof or will a tight glue up with Tb3 be sufficient?

w00t. After my first order getting utterly messed up, the OWC Thunderbolt 4 cable I bought off BozosPenisRocketsAndBridgeDemolition.com arrived today. Careful readers will note I bought a TB3 dock and not a TB4 one, but I still elected to get a TB4 cable. I did this for a couple reasons: First as Grawk mentioned in Jacob's Jacobless Jacobing, The TS3+ and TB docks in general are picky AF about wires. Secondly, I might end up with some TB4 devices in the future. The utter lack of drama in connecting the TS3+ dock was lowkey impressive. *boop* Power connected. External monitor comes to life. Turning off WiFi and the gigabit ethernet does what it says on the tin. I have not tested the optical digital output yet, largely because I cannot be arsed to dig up a cable of sufficient length and run it behind my desk. TL;DR: If you're going to make use of a Thunderbold dock, do not skimp on the cable. The OWC branded one I bought was about $60 shipped, and was much better reviewed than the sea of Chinesium ones that ranged from $15 to $40.

I would seal it all the same except for the domino holes (if you already made them) and let the TB3 seal those. Make sure you don’t use the beech dominos, they make ones specifically for outdoor/wet use.

General rule of thumb (that I've been taught anyway) is that to the maximum extent possible finish all sides of the piece the same. The hope is that it helps to avoid warping/twisting/cracking from uneven moisture absorption or loss. Regardless, it looks great.

We're up in Maine for our anniversary and had to stop to see one of the local celebrities....

Another belated happy birthday, Rob!

Have a phenomenal day!

Belated happy birthday, Rob!!!

Time for a mini-split. I installed a Mr. Cool in mine and so far it’s been great.

I'm hoping that this type of smart speaker becomes much more standard and adopted by many speaker companies soon.

I agree with both the smart men above.

Belated Happy Birthday! Hope it was great.

I think you might be correct, mouser has it as end of life, but on semi does not and none of the other usual suppliers do. Hopefully mouser is wrong. So hopefully it is not EOL..

I'm not seeing this as obsolete on the OnSemi site (only on Mouser). Am I missing something?

Happy Birthday, Rob!

If you are using a Samsung drive they have their own utility which is excellent for this stuff.

Macrium Reflect Free

norton ghost or whatever its called these days.

Happy Birthday!

Cheers Rob... Happy Birthdays..

Happy Birthday!

hApPy BiRtHdAy!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Rob!

Happy birthday! (party favour noise)

Corporate catering from Rustic Bakery. I'll take it!

Happy Birthday Rob!

Happy Birthday 🎈 🎉🎈

Happy Birthday!!

Happy birthday, Rob!

i am really glad i didn't buy ls50 wireless in the past... very good chance i will try these at some point https://us.kef.com/wireless/ls60/ls60-wireless.html

This kid comes up with ideas I've not seen or heard of before.

No. Nope. Nuh uh. Not gonna do it.

If you are a reviewer maybe its a problem. If your aim is to get enjoyment from listening to music and your enjoyment is improved by hi-end hifi equipment that you can afford to buy then no it's not a problem. There is far more to enjoying music via hifi than just frequency response... dynamics, detail, stereo imaging, pure emotional enjoyment, good bass.... Im almost 50 years old and I don't have any meaningful response above 15K and above about 13k im getting rolloff. Do I care... only as much as that like everything else reminds me I am mortal and slowly falling apart. I can still appreciate a T2 over a blue hawaii, a panasonic fr cap over a simlic, a philips nos ecc88 over a electro harmonix 6922.... (or I think I can which for me boils down to the same thing for me). I think that if I was 20 and applied a 13khz high slope cut off I would be appalled at the results. Now I am more than twice that age I live with it. For me what does not make sense is to get into debt for my enjoyment of music. Could I buy a blue hawaii se new... from savings yes... would I no. Would I get a bank loan for one... no way ever. Would I spend time and money over many months buying the tools and skills to build one.. yes and I did. Audio is a journey, I learnt a lot and thanks to that journey I ended up with a T2.... Perhaps Tyll is going through some life changes... it takes a lot of guts to sell almost everything and go "walk about", mid-late life crisis? who knows his real motivations, but sure as heck I would not be satisfied with a bose mini system. what drives me nuts is my hifi never sounds exactly the same day to day week to week... is it me or the hifi, or some environment condition don't know... I just want every day to be one of the "special magic" sounding days, My 2p worth. It's certainly true you do need a bit of a thick skin here sometimes. a few days ago I tried to answer someone's question and got chewed up a bit, I think the chewer either misunderstood what I was trying to say or just wanted to flex their superior electronics knowledge. Made I was angry and hurt for a day or so but there are lots of different personalities here, in the future I will avoid them. I have got so much out of this forum it more than balances out.

Imagine this crawling across your foot at night while you sit in the dark on your computer. 20220421_185046.mp4