Craig Sawyers

Two boxes of Scapa in the tower. Bloody awkward bottle height - it is quite a bit taller than a regular bottle and so doesn't fit on a regular shelf. Not half bad whisky though...

We're now using bacon from these guys https://www.finnebrogue.com/naked/our-range/naked-bacon/ that has no artificial curing agents. It is on supermarket shelves and is delicious. And hardly more expensive than regular bacon.

nrop? ? I had a pair of maggies of the same vintage, but the larger size. The weakness is that the tweeter burns out - it is not a ribbon in the lower cost models - it is electromagnetic, the same as the woofer panel but with much thinner aluminium wire. Determined to limp them along, I stripped the tweeter wire off the diaphragm, bought a reel of the same gauge, and adhesively bonded it to the diaphragm. Main problem was actually soldering aluminium wire - not straightforward. Worked fine until eventually the film diaphragm split and that was the end of the road for them. The only bits I have left are the connector panel and oak strips. Anyway, beware of buying older generation maggies.

Ooh - a Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference complete with sweep arm and stylus brush. The only thing that is not original is the SME arm - it should be the iconic Fluid Arm. I lusted after these in the early 70's in a way that was almost painful. https://www.transcriptorsengineering.com/

Grief - what a mess. Why a massive, electronics shredding surge when they reconnect the supply after clearing the fault is anybody's guess. Sounds like bungling incompetence by the electricity company to me.

Happy birthday - have a great one!

I'm still laughing. That made my day!

That comes from Zoidberg in Futurama

It is like zounds, that used to be used as an exclamation in Marvel and other comics. Actually is a contraction of God's Wounds, a reference to the Crucifixion.

Short for God's Truth. Sounds like a promotion to me, Dusty

Awww - you used "valves" just for little old me? Oh and Grahame I suppose.

There used to be the opposite thing in Japan (certainly back in the 80s), where businessmen would go to the pub in the city after work. Except that sounded like a lame excuse to their spouse. So there was a service that would play the sound of a train station in the background, so you could phone your spouse from the pub, while telling her there were train cancellations and you were having difficulty in getting home.

FFS. First SME stopped supplying tonearms - now Jelco. Pretty soon it is going to be tricky to buy a reasonably priced tonearm.

Pretty good room heater too At points in the past I have had fan cooled Krell and Audio Research power amps. In the UK where no one has or really needs air conditioning. So in the Summer, running either of those hernia-inducing monsters needed real dedication to the audio cause.

I've seen those monster speakers before. Monster room, that I think he had specially made for the purpose. But why the clocks? He obviously hasn't done the swept sine at decent power in the room to find out what is resonating. At least the room is symmetrical. Swept sine is a damned good way of finding out what is rattling and resonating in a room. From Nelson Pass (he of Pass Labs) in http://www.firstwatt.com/pdf/art_elpipeo.pdf "Funny things happen when your speakers are flat to 13Hz. You have to be careful about your tone arm, your windows, your neighbors, and your bowels."

That is so weird. Snow in May? WTF! We haven't had a single flake of snow (at least where we live) in this winter just gone. Lots and lots of rain, named storms, and flooding - but zero snow. That means insect heaven with no cold weather to kill them off. So flies, wasps and ticks will be abundant as the year goes on. Can hardly wait. Watch insect repellent being the next hoarding bulk buy. 75 degrees here just now.

Woah - how'd I miss this one? Very happy belated Shelly!

The sad demise of Florian Schneider prompted me to listen to the astonishing 22 minute version of Autobahn - for the first time in decades. They were so superb - there was nothing to compare to their electronic minimalist, almost Philip Glass musical style - in the early 70's. RIP Schneider.

My maternal side grandfather would have been about 13 years old, living in fairly squalid Bayeswater London at the time that movie was shot in Paris.

Thank you! Using hide glue is actually a darn sight easier if you make a mistake - plenty of water and a clothes iron (I have 2 really cheap ones in the workshop) re-liquifies the glue and the veneer can be peeled off. If you use regular white wood glue, the only way to recover is to sand the veneer off with a belt sander. If you look closely you'll see the veneer is book matched too. That involves making an invisible seam right down the middle of the baffle. That is standard everyday practice for a professional cabinetmaker. It is more of a difficulty for me as a trained amateur who veneers infrequently.

Not only own - built from first priniciples. The bridge and baffle are traditional hammer veneered using hide glue, and then French Polished. The dark wood around the forward tweeter and the baffle support is Cocobolo, and the bridge feet are Goncalo Alves. The bass unit is spray painted satin back, and then coated in buffed in wax polish. I was going to just paint the whole thing black, but Mrs S said she'd like wood finish - so I used that as an excuse to learn traditional veneering and French polishing.

Wasn't sure where to post this, but this amused me in a toilet humour way:

One of mine

How clean and non-RFI free the mains power regenerator in the Powerwall is will be the kicker for the unit in high end audio. As far as I know, a user cannot access the 48V battery as a DC source. It is one hell of a chunky battery though - 125kg (about 275lbs)!

Apart from the fact they take the battery supply and put it through AC regenerators (the things screwed to the wall). They go to the sockets supplying power to the wall sockets, and go to the power transformers in your audio gear. The only benefit is a pure 50/60Hz sine wave rather than the grotty looking thing that comes off the grid, with flattened tops and spikes.. The real way to do it of course is to use the batteries as the DC supply to the amp and dispense with all the AC stuff. As some serious DIY'ers have done for decades, powering their gear directly from a rack of car batteries.