Craig Sawyers

Happy New Year from across the pond!

Well that was a real shock. Neil Innes - suddenly, and only 11 years older than me. Bloody hell. RIP Neil. In honour of the brilliant idiot musical genius

That looks like my kind of wine shop

Oh yes yes yes! Salivating

Toroidal transformers are not completely symmetrical, because of the wire exits. The usual way of reducing hum induced by the asymmetry is to leave the leads long (or solder on temporary extension wires), loosen the chassis fixing and rotate the transformer to minimise or reduce below audibility the hum. Then tighten up the fixing bolt and tidy up the wiring. Also make sure that the primary, and secondary wires are twisted. Open wire loops can induce hum and buzz in signal circuits through simple transformer action.

Do you have a hum problem you are trying to cure?

What a mega-turd! Whoever deposited that must have broken into a sweat.

That is a superb rack. Looks like he (I'm assuming he) is either a real craftsman, or he knows one. Awesome deck too!

OW. Both big toes. Why did we both do this sort of thing just coming up to Christmas?

All I see is the woman

Ha Ha!

Well that was fun (not). I'd booked to have a minor op to the middle finger of my right hand today, originally when Carole was going to drive me there and back. In the meantime of course she broke both wrists. So I had it done anyway. So now between the two of us we have only one functioning arm . Still numb with local anesthetic, I expect it will throb a bit when that wears off.

My interpretation. My wife says it is derivative art.

Sorry, I still don't focus on the speakers....

I have that one saved already - I think it was originally posted on an early Knuckledragger thread. I'm almost entirely distracted from the speakers by the woman

On the plus side, with that rig you don't need a deck lamp

Pie's rants are just perfect! Although they seem off the cuff, every one is very carefully scripted and acted by Tom Walker (who is "Jonathan Pie"). He came up with the idea four years ago, when he realised that the best he could hope for as a trained actor was "Third spear carrier" in a Shakespeare play, with one line if he was lucky.

Happy birthday! Have an awesome day.

Nice second link Grahame. Although I think they have got it wrong in a big way with their business strategy over the last three or four years, they still make absolutely everything in that little company in Steyning. And that is every screw, nut and connector. The only thing that is bought in is the tapered arm tube, which they buy in raw and unfinished state from Chicago White Metal, and then do umpteen finishing steps to at SME. So I doff my cap to their attention to detail at a minute level. But they have positioned themselves increasingly to the financially exceptionally well heeled.

No - they are just a reseller and not anything to do with SME the company. But their supply of arms has dried up. The only ones they can now sell are the ones they have in stock and those in transit. To give an idea how much the price of SME arms has increased, I have a 1984 price list. The classic 3009 S2 with detachable shell was UKP97.33 . The price index change since 1984 is 3.26 so the price today should be UKP 317.10. The modern equivalent (if you could buy it) is the M2-9-R which was UKP2500. So the effective price increase is 7.9 times. In 2011 the SME IV was UKP 1373, in late 2019 that should be UKP 1694. When SME exited selling arms a few days ago it was UKP 3500 - So a factor of two increase in real terms in 8 years. The arms went from something that could be bought by the average Joe, to a high end purchase, and now is priced off the end of the scale as deck/arm packages. Anyway it is their company and they can do what the hell they want. But from where I sit, it looks like business suicide. For instance I know for a fact that the total number of the model 30 decks at UKP30k they have ever sold is 300 - so less than 1 million of turnover in 20 years since it was introduced. SME are not a big company.

Title says it all. As of 3rd December SME announced that they were no longer supplying pickup arms, and now would only provide them integrated with an SME turntable. https://sme.co.uk/2019/12/03/sme-product-announcement/ They instantly removed the entire pickup arm category from their website. Thus ends pretty much to the month 60 years and >1 million arm sales since Alastair Robertson-Aikman sold the first SME pickup arm. Of course, the new owner (Ajay Shirke) and the new MD Stuart McNeilis can do what the hell they want - but it seems to be a major strategic error to withdraw from arm sales. The entry price for the lowest cost SME package will now be the Synergy at UKP15k (including cartridge and phono stage) to the 30/12 at UKP35k (for which you need to add a cartridge and phono stage). So for anyone wishing to partner an SME arm with a Garrard 301 or 401, or any other deck for that matter - well tough shit. Ebay sellers of SME arms will be having a field day - watch the prices soar.

I have the LX521, which was the pinnacle of Siegrfried Linkwitz's (RIP) loudspeaker design prowess. However, someone I know has the LX-mini (shown above, with the optional subwoofer, designated the LX-mini +2), and we did a shootout between the my LX521 and his LX-mini (without sub). The result was remarkably close in terms of ability to give a wholly believable phantom image. The only difference was bass extension, and the various LX-mini versions (with either closed box or open baffle subs) sort that problem out. I have felt no need to upgrade the speakers for the five years I have been listening to them.