ironbut

Ahh,.. my brothers! If those were the only "white coats" I had to worry about,.. life would be sooo easy! (not that it isn't already)

Your link reminded me to take a look and see if any of the other audio journalists I spoke with had gotten their reports in. I found this one; http://www.theaudiobeat.com/visits/cas_2013.htm Full disclosure,.. I'd met the writer before at an audio get together in Orinda about a year and a half ago.

Hey,.. Pretty cool pictures. I sure liked the way those Woo Fireflies looked. Never did get a chance to listen to them though. I could easily see stealing the cosmetic design of those amps! Thanks for the link!

I have an American Harvest (now owned by Nesco) that I use to restore old tape recordings. It's lasted for years. The heat is very consistent. It's very easy to clean and it's very cheap. It's so cheap in fact that I've thought about buying a second one for actually using on food! Another nice feature is that you can add shelves to increase capacity. You can pick them up for at Bed Bath And Beyond for under $70, but if you keep an eye on their fliers, they show up for under $50. http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/nesco-reg-american-harvest-reg-snackmaster-reg-encore-trade-dehydrator-and-jerky-maker-and-trays/113612?Keyword=food+dehydrator

I always seem to forget how much I enjoy this race every year. And even though the win by Vettel was uneventful, there was plenty of action behind that to keep me amused. It was great to see that McLaren seems to be getting their act together. At the same time, it struck me how easily the lesser teams can be left in the dust as the better funded teams, eek out a handful of milliseconds race after race. At first, I kinda felt a little sorry for the teams that can't afford to do any more development on their current car and are forced to save every penny for the 2014 rules and regs machine,.. Then I thought about the big picture and how wildly extravagant sport has become. In that light, even the lowest team member of the smallest team is lucky to be involved in what is something of a living art form (IMHO). Constantly evolving, complex and in the end, still a man vs. nature pursuit. I've been following F1 since the early 70's when I had to be satisfied with reading about the European races and looking at still pictures. I couldn't wait to read Rob Walker's report on my favorite circuits as well as the "new" drivers and car developments. Unfortunately, driver deaths at that time were not uncommon (seems like there were pic's of cars avoiding deer about once a year!). Watching the Belgian GP really brings back a lot of memories for me. Maybe it's the farmhouses or Eau Rouge? But it wraps itself around me like an old familiar coat that I take out once a year. 40 years latter and I still love it!

Hate to get back on topic but my guess is that they had to carry a bunch of stuff to the site (maybe even the whole airplane?) and bikes were out of the question.

BTW, have you guys watched the "live" feeds to YouTube. Pretty cools stuff! http://www.youtube.com/americascup

At the end of the California Audio Show, I sat down and chatted with some of the best ears in the Bay Area (mastering engineers, mixers etc) and what did we talk about, our pets and the "Cup". It really is amazing what technology has done in that sport. And what a long haul it is to put together a competivie team. The battle between man and nature continues!

If they were $$$ tubes I'd say no on the sandpaper but try the alcohol first and if that doesn't work, try using an eraser. If none of those work, lightly sand the pins with 220 grit or finer.

If these are tubes that haven't been used in a long time, they may have oxide build up on some of the pins (this includes tubes that have sat on distributor's shelves too). Try cleaning the pins. A little tarnish remover, metal cleaning paste to shine them up a bit (you don't have to go crazy). If you have some Pro Gold, a little after polishing will hold off more oxidation from forming. I use Mother's Aluminum and Mag Cleaner on Q tips I've cut down and put in my Dremel. I've "saved" a lot of tubes that were headed for the circle bin with this. In sensitve positions, you can knock off a few dB's of the kind of noise you described.

Although it's nice to have a pair of "matched" input tubes for channel balance, for the most part, as tubes get "burned in" that matching will get better or worse back and forth thoughout the life of the tubes. I think in the case of providing tubes for an amp to sell, just let the buyer know that these are not matched and leave it at that. If he/she is going to be particular, they'll probably want to tube roll anyway.

I'm a fan of the slight honey coating and punch that a good input transformer adds. In the case of SinglePower gear, it may be too much of a good thing. Probably more than usual, this is a really, really personal taste thing.

Nice score!

Just shipped all of Justin's stuff back to Va.. Sorry ta see it go. Listening to the 009's was a real joy for me.

Sometime when the problem is at it's most audible, try twisting the headphone plug and see if that makes any difference. If so, it could be made worse by oxidation in the chassis jack. It's also possible that your problem is more of an FCC issue. Small private station's contracts with sponsors are partially based on the number of homes the they say they can reach. It isn't unusual that a station will roll the dice and transmit above what they're licensed and or, allowed to just to reach an additional community. It could be that many of your neighbors have the same problem but no one's complained because they just don't listen as closely as you do. You might want to contact the FCC and file a complaint. On the other hand, if you know anybody that's a ham radio operator, AM interference is a common problem. They are usually the best guys to track down and solve these kinds of problems.

There are tons of videos on YouTube about recording drums. Watch a bunch to see what other folks do. You may not agree with what they consider to be a great drum sound but the mechanics are what you should take out of them. Also, you should be aware that many "huge" drum tracks aren't produced during the recording end of things. That's the mixing engineer's job in many cases. How "big" the drums sound has to be in context of the song and the rest of the tracks. Techniques like parallel compression, mixing in samples or sidechaining low frequency oscillator pulses are common practice to make drums sound larger than life and while many can be added during live performances, getting them to sound subtle and fitting perfectly in the mix is an art. So, if you wish to emulate the sound you hear on a record, it may not be possible no matter what room, drums or microphone you use. But of course, that doesn't mean you shouldn't try!

I like the "ant's" prespective though. If the guy actually layed on the floor, it's even more retarded but at least the other folks in the room woulda gotten a good laugh. Regarding the Abyss,.. it did sound pretty good in a Ed 8 kinda way. I hope the aliens that the ergonimics were designed for enjoy the hell out them! (in other words, easily the most uncomfortable headphones that have ever sat on my head. I almost expected that pop that used to happen when Uncle Fester put his head in the press.)

Day 2,.. Had another great day. Very cool to see Graham, Al, ASR/Steve and Ric. Hold on to your hats regulars of the Bay Area meets,.. Shane55 was there! For real!

Pretty fun actually. Things were hopping pretty good until about 4pm when the whole show started to thin out. A gazillion pictures were taken of the booth and my ugly mug. A few from some journalists too (could HeadAmp get a cameo in "Gentry" magazine?). Had a few buddies stop by to give me grief and I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of stupid questions. I'm looking forward to seeing some HC presence Saturday.

Truly sorry to hear of your loss Mike. Sounds like you did the right thing even though I'm sure the decision was a difficult one to have to make.

Exactly! Time was, when I was the guy that gave the head's up for cool stuff coming up. Now I'm lucky if I know what day it is.

Shit, didn't even know about that one! (goes ta show how out of touch I am,.. and dorky) If I wasn't working the show, I was planning to go to the San Jose Jazz Fest. http://jazzfest.sanjosejazz.org/2013-lineup Looking forward to forcing all of you guys to listen to a tape or two!

Happy B day Tom. One of the few guys I remember from my early daze in this hobby still posting (I think I joined that other site in 2004).

Forgot to mention,. From the thread on that other site, it looks like Steve/ASR is gonna try and make it. Haven't seen that guy in a long time so I hope he makes it.

Very cool my brother Californian! Hope to see you and meet Shaun!