Craig Sawyers

Tube sockets arrived today. Really crappily packed - wrapped in bubble wrap, but stuffed in an ordinary large brown envelope with a string wrap seal. Envelope was disintegrating, so it could have arrived empty with the sockets somewhere between here and Hong Kong (from DIY HiFi Supply). The good news is that they thoughtfully put a customs declared value of $50 (and not $152) on, so it slipped though the radar and attracted to tax. So hats off to them for that. Nice to get one over on our tax police. The other good news is that shipping from HK to UK was only $7.

You know, I never thought of that - but they for sure would get all the toilet humour and out and out rudeness straight off. Sort of like a medieval Roald Dahl in a really rude mood.

Yeah - Gargantua is pretty tough going. It is a long time since I read it, and never tried Bakhtin's book on Rabelais - maybe I ought to re-read it and then follow it up with Bakhtin. When next I feel in the mood for a little light reading

Congratulations! Let us know what they sound like! And I so understand the sneaking past the wife syndrome; although she is used to it now. Maggies, Martin Logans, Podiums and Quad 57's have all been the subject of "What ON EARTH are those!" over 20-odd years.

There is bugger all on UK TV at the moment - it is saturation, wall to wall football/soccer, all channels. The whole schedule is stuffed for anyone who could care less about the sport.

It's a rich part of European language culture, which we shoud embrace, celebrate and frequently use. Try dipping into Chaucer, or Rabelais' "Gargantua" (where whole chapters are devoted to foul and offensive insults) for fine exceptionally rude literature from 14th - 16th centuries.

Awesome Kevin! Mention of the platinum reminds me of my Dad, who ended his working life in charge of Quality at Burgess Microswitches. For some years the spring loaded rubber swing doors to the factory were propped open with a hefty spool of metal ribbon - 30-40lbs or so. No-one gave it much thought - must be steel - and so just pushed it into place each morning. My Dad eventually took a chunk and sent it off for assay just to find out what it was. Yup - platinum. Today's price is around

That is just not fun at all - hope the antibiotics clear things up pronto.

Thanks Beefy and Pars - that supplier is a must-keep supplier - an interesting line card. I shudda checked the schematic on this one - as KG points out they are just power supply decouplers and don't need a significant AC capability. Which means that I can source EPCOS B32653A104J ex stock from Farnell. Should arrive tomorrow. Stuffing beckons! Incidentally, Mouser are pretty impressive in my book. Order was packed and shipped on Monday stateside and arrived on my doorstep in the UK today, Wednesday. Shipping from the US - free on orders over

I have have boxes full of parts to start board stuffing, using my fusion of Kevins parts list (with exceptionally helpful Mouser parts numbers) and my restructured version. So far so great - with two problems. The first is the ceramic insulators, mentioned above. The second is the Wima MKP10 0.1uF 1kV polypropylenes, of which 8 are used on the amplifier and 2 on the power supply. I alas had a brain fade and bought 27.5mm pin spacings, and the board is laid out for 22.5mm spacing. Wima actually made several versions of each cap with different spacing. That is not a disaster - apart from the fact that the 22.5mm version is as rare as chicken teeth - Mouser are on an October delivery. Problem is that very few that I have found seem to stock this, and the MKP10 seems to be unique in its ability to withstand AC - 600V rms. There are plenty pulse polypropylenes that will physically fit, that handle 250V or 350V ac (Vishay, Epcos/Philips etc), but not the 600V rms of the MKP10. So I guess there are two questions: 1. Anybody know of stock somewhere? Tried Mouser, Digikey, Future, Farnell, RS Components and Google. 2. How critical is the 600V ac rating? My guess is this is quite important, but KG's comment would be very welcome....

Kevin pointed me at Future Electronics as a source for the Aavid 4171G ceramic TO220 insulators - at the time they had 9000 of the suckers. Since then they have run out (as have Digikey), with delivery estimated at the end of July. Does anyone have any alternative sources? I've come up dry, apart from a company that wants 90c each (ten times Future's price - remember that 62 are needed!).

I know for certain that I'd lose that bet in the first few hours

Restored by the guy who is selling them, with a 2 year warranty, I'd say that is not too bad a price. He seems to get excellent feedback on AudiogoN. Cruising around his site (Quads Unlimited) he seems to charge $2300 to restore an ESL57 that you supply, or $3500 if he procures and restores. On that scale, $2600 for the restored ESL63 is a reasonable enough deal. For comparison, the cheapest source that I know is One Thing Audio, and they charge UKP1190 to restore a pair that you supply - so say $1800 plus the purchase cost of the original speakers (plus shipping both ways to the UK, tax etc). Usually for non-UK work the recommend that you take the light weight panels out and just send those, but you need to be confident of your mechanical and electrical skills to disassemble and reassemble. Of course, these AudiogoN pair might be dogs in some way - so your risk of course;) Check with him what work, if any, he has done on the power supply, and what the visual appearance is - has he recovered them for example, and what is the condition of the wood caps. What colour is the cover and wood, and is the pair well visually matched?. Are the serial numbers sequential, and how old was the pair. Also does he have a photo gallery of the restoration of this particular pair. What packaging and shipment carrier does he use, and what happens if they arrive busted thrugh some ape man in the carrier using a bill hook.

Check

Ah - all this talk of little ones! Makes me remember it all so well - and to say enjoy every last minute, because they grow up and become adults with a speed that will take your breath away. My "little one" Lizzie has just phoned from Uganda, where she is doing some voluntary work building schools and wells etc, to tell me she just got her degree results - a 2:1. Those in the UK will understand that terminology. For those not, it is only a few marks short of the highest classification possible. Needless to say, we're all wondering what to do with ourselves, like dogs with two tails, and Lizzie is absolutely delighted! So a pretty great day!

They are good - and I've used them before for odd things like bifilar transformer wire. I already looked at their site before going the eBay route, but they don't do colours. I could of course have used ident sleeves to keep track... The eBay guy says that these are Thermax wires, 19 strand, 22AWG with 1.24mm OD. The Thermax Mil-spec site has this construction and OD listed as "medium wall", and has a voltage rating of 600V, For comparison, the Thermax "heavy wall" has a voltage rating of 1000V. So it looks as if I will be OK with the stuff I've ordered.

Looking for sources of wire for connecting up the T2, making umbilicals etc. I checked the eBay seller that Kevin (I believe) used, and they explicity don't export - ex military they say, hence export restrictions. However, a bit of detective work comes up with eBay seller www.johnswireshop.com , which links directly to the eBay shop. Gets a good write-up with UK audio folks for silver plated copper, Teflon covered multistrand wires, and has enough colours and guages to do the wiring without problems. General price is about four bucks for 25 feet. I'll let you know when it arrives, and what it looks like.

Hurling is one of the most brutal games around, and makes Rugby look tame. Ah - just looked it up to remind myself about this mad game, and they have introduced a number of rules that prevent opponents from maiming the other team, and head guards have to be worn now.

Count me in for the 6-pin sockets. I'll run initially through low bias lambdas (with zeners chosen appropriately) until the moneybox has recovered enough to buy Omegas. Agree totally with Struts - without you, big guy, we wouldn't have the option of having all this good fun!

4 mile run to gym, hour session in gym, 4 mile run home. Wasted.

Trying hard to ignore the World Cup, which most in England is gripped by with media saturation. No interest in the game, which puts me in the 0.1% population bracket. Our entire close family is similarly minded, especially my son who dislikes the game with a passion bordering the paranoid. Far prefer rugby, which like american football needs real tough cookies and an ability to soak up continual brutal punishment. "Soccer" players would not survive five seconds under those conditions, soccer players generally falling over if someone insults their hair cut. <flame suit on>

Just looked back, and Kevin's estimate for parts on 09/05/09 was $1500 including mil spec connectors - which is very close to what it cost me at current exchange rate, except my figure of UKP1,150 *included* the boards, and the DACT attenuator. Kevins number did not include either the boards or the attenuator. So the parts cost actually looks pretty good. He also estimated $250 for the SumR transformers, plus casework. Kevin - Does your casework kit contain the Teflon Stax connectors, and the attenuator/board fixing bracket?

Bought a car. Even though we both drive since '74 this is only the third new car we've bought - everything else either a company car or second hand. This was actually my wife's - and we'd gone in to just look at second hand Ford Fiestas with no intention of buying just yet. But because Ford are trying hard to sell new cars at the moment the cost of a new one was only 10% more than a used one with 12,000 miles. Ten grand later - bosh, new car (lots of negotiability too). Even has bluetooth and USB, plus a really natty voice operated sound system, so totally hands free. Massively impressive, and bewilderingly good value for money.

Orders on all components to stuff boards, including most of the hardware, external connectors, DACT attenuator, boards from Kevin - UKP1,150. To that has to be added the transformers and the casework. I already have plenty 6DJ8's (Mullard etc), but I'll need some 6CA7's. The parts will almost certainly be cheaper in real terms in the US. We not only get hit for import duty (ie VAT at 17.5% on parts plus shipping cost) but a so-called "clearance fee" of between

OK - just done the tube sockets from DIY HiFi Supply. $7 discount for more than $100, then a very reasonable $7 shipping charge across the pond. Punished massively by PayPay who did a $1.416 exchange rate. The UKP is worth diddly squat; great for exporters and seriously bad news for importers