dsavitsk

Just to double check ... This is looking into the front of the jack, and using the Amphenol part from Allied (78-S6S) pin 1 is the bias pin 5 is rt- pin 4 is rt+ pin 3 is lt+ and is the one isolated from the rest pin 2 is lt-

Sorry for your loss. Losing a pet is a terrible thing, but at least you know she had a great life.

Don't know if they are the same Pioneer speakers, but I had some of their $100 specials for a while -- I got them from woot. They were OK, not great overall, thought they were great for the price point, and probably good for TV. I must have eBay'd them as I don't see the box around here anywhere. I listened to piles of bookshelf speakers, and nothing under $1K (new price) really sounded that great which was disappointing. Some of the paradigms were OKish. I ended up with some small Dynaudios that I got used for a good price. I think they were much better than anything else in their price range.

What is your budget like? Dynaudio makes such a thing http://dynaudioprofessional.com/air-series/

Seinfeld on Pop Tarts http://youtu.be/itWxXyCfW5s

There was a recent Nature on odd animal pairings.

I don't mean to badmouth balanced -- I prefer differential topologies. I just mean to badmouth the building two amps and calling it balanced approach. But a 6J6 based hybrid balanced amp could be a good thing. It probably just won't look all that much like the SSMH.

Gain is a little less than mu of the tube. Might be 15 at the current level used. Tying two SSMHs back to back as a "balanced" amp is a bad idea in terms of, well, everything. If you want to build a balanced amp, build a balanced amp. But don't build two non balanced amps and think that putting them together makes something better. Also, conveniently, the 6J6 tube is built to be used as a differential pair. Edit -- and a shunting pot (Config B below) will allow you to use an off the shelf 2 gang pot, sound better, be better balanced, and will cut the signal by ~6dB.

Best pepper mill I've ever used. http://www.unicornmills.com/Peppergun-0/

Links to lots of "Best Photos of the Year" lists at http://kottke.org/12/12/the-best-photos-of-2012

I use Tried and True oil for the wood on my amps - usually 6 to 8 coats applied over 2 weeks or so - and then buff it for 10-15 minutes with an old cashmere sweater.

The Fuji has arrived. It is pretty nice, but in comparison to the Contax it is replacing, the fit and finish is a full step down. To be fair, this is a $1K camera, and the Contax was well more than that in 1997, but the feel is a tad disappointing. More Canon/Nikon than Leica. One other thought is that in 1963 Olympus managed to cram a pentaprism into a smaller body with a similarly sized frame. Why are digital SLRs so big? And why could they not do something similar here? These three pics were, oddly enough, taken with a Canon S100 (and hugely compressed in PS -- they originals look much better) that I bought during the Back Friday sales because every indication was that the Fuji was not going to ship until after the holiday and I needed something sooner. Oh well -- I actually quite like the Canon and will keep it around for keeping in my pocket.

Happy Birthday!

Does anyone have a suggestion for high voltage relays for use on the output of an electro-static amp?

Just about any reputable watch dealer will either have a guy, or a guy they can send it to. Be aware that prices can range hugely -- I looked around to take my wife's 60's Omega in for service (it also loses time badly), and one place quoted $100 while another said $1000 minimum, but probably more.

That's really really cool, but just a little too dear. I am holding out for the Fuji with the 41mm equiv pancake as a main camera as I have no use for the zoom they are currently bundling, and it really makes it too big for a travel camera. The ability to take the lens off and use my Contax glass for the occasional table top shot probably makes it the right choice over the Sony, too. As does the included EVF (which I am not so opposed to instead of the OVF.) Adding that to the Sony drives it up another $500. But it is really really cool ... ... if the Sony had a shutter speed knob on top ...

Ow wow. I think someone made the perfect digital camera.

Looks like the camera I have been waiting for is finally arriving. http://www.dpreview.com/previews/fujifilm-x-e1 Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a 23mm fixed lens

If someone is interested in taking the DSHA-1 for a spin for the purposes of writing a short review somewhere, I am happy to oblige. There are lots of places to do a writeup. Also, there is a new blog post for the first half of the Black Diamond headphone amp -- a project I am working on at http://diy.ecpaudio.com

Looks great, Marc.

Happy Birthday!