Craig Sawyers

Damned right. All the high voltage, low capacitance stuff went west when "conventional" CRT based TV's bit the dust and flat screen took over. All of which needed a radical rethink of how to do solid state electrostatic headphone amps.

The other one I forgot to mention if you have deep pockets is Interfet. They do have possibly the lowest noise n-JFET ever, the IF3601/3602. These have wild and unpredictable Idss, but a noise voltage of typically 0.3nV/rootHz and a noise corner of a few Hz. If you can bear that $100 price tag for the dual version and $30 for the single.

It isn't confined to On-Semi. Rohm did the same thing with all their low noise offerings ages ago, So did Renesas with the J79/K216 - in fact lateral MOSFETs are a thing of the past. Most p-channel jFETs have gone, and many low-noise jFETs of any flavour. The latest to go is the very low noise J107 (another On-Semi casualty). NXP killed off the n-jFET BF862 (lower noise than the K170) and indeed all jFETs, period. Analog Devices has just EOL'd the monolithic dual MAT01, unusual because it BVceo is 45V; every other low-noise dual is 40V. So in one of my applications where the maximum Vce is 41V it is the only part that will do. Hell On-Semi even obsoleted that ubiquitous BC560! OK they still make the SM version, the BC860, but it is tough nuts if you needed the power dissipation of a discrete part. If a part does not go in an automotive, mobile device, TV or other ultra-high volume application, semiconductor manufacturers lose interest real fast. The glimmers of hope are Toshiba, Diodes Inc, Linear Systems and THAT. And LS is the only one with a credible line up of single and dual jFETs and dual bipolars in multiple package choice.

That is just part of OnSemi's quest to obsolete anything remotely of use to audio. They took over Fairchild and Sanyo and have systematically removed many much loved discrete transistors from both their lines. I hate OnSemi with a passion. A big fucking hatred. A big fucking passionate hatred.

FWIW I measured the TTA004b/TTC004b a little while ago. Proviso is that they are only in the range <12V and <10mA. But I have measured Cob and Early Voltage. Toshiba TTA004 TTC004.pdf

Have a great birthday Naaman!

You know - it is a long time since I enjoyed a cigar. But you guys have sure got me thinking....

Have a massive and spectacular day - happy birthday!

Have a great day! Happy birthday!!

Another one I nearly missed! A very happy birthday!!

We've been re-watching The West Wing. I'd forgotten how really, really good that series was. Tightly scripted, excellent cast of superb actors, and fine storyline. Currently half way though series 2

How did I miss this? Apart from the Vertigo scare I hope you had a very happy birthday Steve!

Darn. Pretty good innings though. Back when I was working for PA Technology in the early/mid 80's, Neve's design and manufacturing unit was directly in the dead end road across from where I worked. The name lives on in a road in a new housing development called Rupert Neve Close almost exactly where the factory was. neve close.pdf

The 1970 festival resulted to serious problems with the inhabitants. There are only 120,000 (at the time) living on the Isle of Wight, so 700,000 stoned, drunk and rowdy festival goes were really a bit of a problem. The festival has been revived in recent years, but is much smaller - 50,000 or so, and it is much more tightly organised and managed. Also, locals have now entered into the entrepreneur spirit and put their fridge and freezer outdoor and sell bottled water, beer and ice cream to festival goers.

Found the pic. This is looking down the bank towards the site of the festival And this is from the same viewpoint fifty-one years ago

Jimi Hendrix set at the 1970 Isle of Wight. Guinness Book record for the largest festival ever with 700,000. Only a few weeks before he died at the age of 27. In full, completely amazing flight here. Funnily enough I've walked across the area that that iconic festival was held, now totally rural with a few cows and sheep. Absolutely no sign at all that it was ever anything other.

It made the main news on the BBC here in the UK - so yes. I came to serious grief myself on black ice thirty years or so ago. I was on a busy freeway early in the morning, and braked into slower traffic. Car broke away, and went into the rear wheel cluster of a truck. So hard I blew his tyre and buckled his wheel rim. Then my car hit the barrier, and that pulled me out of the truck and I hit the barrier hard. Fortunately nothing else hit me. The French truck driver was very helpful and poured me coffee to help me calm down. Of course we'd blocked the road totally. Next the police turn up, and put their vehicle a good distance back with the flashing lights going. While I was talking to them, a small truck went out of control and hit the police car "oh bugger" said the policeman "you just can't believe how many forms I'm going to have to fill out now!" The road was pretty much a skating rink. Anyway, recovery vehicles arrived and pulled my car and the truck off the road; they took me and my car to a local scrap yard, where they showed me the wreckage of several cars and trucks that had hit black ice that morning. I ordered a hire car and went, a bit shakily and with a touch of whiplash, on my way. But the kicker was - the French truck did not have girders between the front and rear wheel clusters. So if I had been 10 feet further forward, I'd have gone underneath him and decapitated myself. And it was a petrol truck - so (a) there would not have been much of me left and (b) it would have hit the news for sure. When I got to the hotel I was staying at that night I awarded myself a steak dinner and good bottle of wine, as a cheating death award.

RIP the dead in the horrendous pile up on a freeway in Fort Worth. Black Ice was apparently the cause. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-56035298 Very much hope that no HC folks were involved in that.

Have a truly superb day!

I have certified four LSK389A from Micross, and are definitely Linear Systems products. Because I'm in the UK I had to sign all sorts of export waiver forms to get them out of the USA. They all measure bang on and are very well matched and very close to Idss of 5mA. I've just looked at the package markings, and there is nothing to say that they are A grade. They are just marked with LSK389 1509C, and "Philippines". So LS either send their bare die to the Philippines for packaging, or use a foundry out there. I also have similarly certified LSK489 and LSK689 and both of those are marked Philippines too. These were purchased after quite a long discussion with Linear Systems by email. Anyway, if you have bought a few of different grades, don't mix them up - you have no way of telling from the device markings what grade each one is. A bit like Z-foil resistors; no markings at all. So you have no idea what the value is, or the tolerance. Deliberate error - LSJ689

One of my all-time heroes is Krenov. Now he had a surface planer, and a really big bandsaw to do rough preparation of stock. But after that he went across to hand tools, many of which he made himself. He's now long dead of course, but he lives on through his excellent books.

I have machine tools to take the hassle out. But there is a quiet joy in using sharp and finely adjusted hand tools, instead of the screaming of machines.

Maybe Bannon saw this (note the date: 37 years ago), and added his own conspiracy version

The sublime Joni Mitchell, now age 77. Currently releasing her unheard back catalog on CD and records. Before lockdown we went to see Graham Nash in concert; In his words "a night of recollections and music", and it was clear he has never really got over breaking up with her after two years of living together way back. And the regret has defined his music ever since.

Sony founder Akio Morita would have entirely appreciated something as weird, quirky and innovative as that. He called the company Sony because, when he founded the company just after WWII, anything with a Japanese name had a very negative connotation elsewhere. Back in the early 70's I worked on a Saturday in a hifi store in Newcastle (the UK one) when I was a school kid.. A man and his wife came in to buy a TV; I immediately tried to sell them a Sony Trinitron. He looked at me and said "Is this Japanese?" "Yes". Turned out he was a POW in Japan, which was not fun at all. Turned out selling him a Dynatron, which was a Philips chassis inside something that looked like a piece of furniture. With picture performance that was really poor as compared with the Sony.