Craig Sawyers

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.

How about a battery supply from Living Voice (the same outfit that make the Vox Olympian speaker)? https://www.livingvoice.co.uk/lv-battery-power-supply.html I get the impression that is not a cheap supply...

Machine cut dovetails. I'd be more impressed if they were hand cut. Nice though, and very high standard cabinetmaking,

I don't fortunately suffer from coulrophobia, the morbid fear of clowns - I just find the shower really really creepy. I only once saw someone with a real phobia - gephyrophobia - a surprisingly common morbid fear of bridges, We were doing an organised 20 mile walk for charity a few years ago, and caught up with two ladies, friends, at the start of a long footbridge crossing a four lane road. One of them was in an awful state. Pale, dilated pupils, sweating, breathing rapidly and pacing around. Quite prepared to turn around and walk 10 miles back to the start. We eventually got her across, with us and her friend in front and behind, shouting "la, la, la ..." and leading her by the hand. When we got her to the other end, she turned into a regular person almost instantly - and with a real sense of triumph at actually getting over the bridge. So we might be uncomfortable with creepy clowns, spiders or snakes - but a true phobia is something else entirely.

Trust me - that is no consolation at all.

Having seen that clown shower for children I will have nightmares

Happy birthday!

That was awesome. And apart from dirt roads back in 1903, you had to fix your bike if you had a mechanical. If you had assistance you were given a time penalty. There was a famous incident while descending the col de Tourmalet, recounted here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugène_Christophe when he walked 10km down the descent when his forks broke, found a forge, and set about brazing his bike back together. But he had the blacksmith's son pump the bellows. In spite of losing a massive amount of time, he was given a 10 minute penalty because he had assistance from having the forge pumped. He still finished in 7th place.