Barry
Rank: Trio
Posts: 195
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Post by Barry on Sept 9, 2015 23:50:59 GMT
The technology is called "direct write": drawing circuits with conducting ink or offset lithography. We were looking into it ten years ago, and I designed some simple RF filters using them as an example of 'proof of principle', the ultimate intention being to cut down the weight of the electronics used in the aerospace and related industries. I left the company whilst the programme was still running, but I think it has since 'fizzled out'. It always was a crude technique and I saw little future in it.
However like 3D printing, it will develop and may become a useful technique in time.
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Barry
Rank: Trio
Posts: 195
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Post by Barry on Jul 19, 2015 10:22:28 GMT
What an insightful article. Strange to say, I have reached phase 7, without really passing through phases 5 and 6.
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Barry
Rank: Trio
Posts: 195
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Post by Barry on Jul 18, 2015 23:27:32 GMT
My tip is to use a mower to burn it in first. Or a strimmer or hedgetrimmer!
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Barry
Rank: Trio
Posts: 195
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Post by Barry on Jul 18, 2015 23:15:07 GMT
Peter Walker was know for his bluff no-nonsense approach to such things. When asked what makes a 'good' speaker cable, he is famously said to have replied: "There are only two things a good speaker cable need have - first, and most importantly, it should be sufficiently long enough to connect between the speaker and the amplifier, and secondly the colour of the insulation should ideally match that of the carpet." It is also rumoured that once when Quad were setting up their gear at an audio show, they realised they had forgotten to bring any speaker cable with them. Undeterred, someone went out to the local B&Q store and bought some 10A cable as used with lawnmowers (with an orange coloured outer cladding). Visitors to the show though that this was some special cable Quad had made and asked about it. When told it was conventional and commercial 'lawnmower' cable they followed suit and it caught on! (The properties of said cable were discussed later in an article in Wireless World, where it was indeed (or coincidentally) shown to have the desirable properties expected of a speaker cable. When it comes to both interconnects and speaker wire a great deal of snobbery and outlandish claims are made. 6 amp mains cable is perfectly suited for speakers. In choosing 10 amp Quad were being a bit over the top. Years ago bell wire was happily used by millions. The cable in discussion was this: Two core 10A rated cable, having a core cross sectional area of 0.75mm², has a typical loop resistance of 52mΩ/metre. As a rule of thumb, speaker cables ought to have a loop resistance of no more than 5% of the nominal impedance of the speaker. Assuming this is 8Ω then that is 400mΩ. A typical speaker lead might be 5m long, making the loop resistance 260mΩ; this is comfortably within the 400mΩ requirement. Of course the orange colour of the cladding improves the sound quality enormously!
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Barry
Rank: Trio
Posts: 195
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Post by Barry on Jul 18, 2015 23:09:32 GMT
I've just designed a fully balanced hybrid phono stage with zero feedback actually.... not that there would be any demand for that! Sounds interesting to me.. And to me. My objective is to have a fully balanced system, source to speaker. Have achieved this so far with the CD player, preamp and poweramps. Next up is vinyl playback: cartridges are essentially balanced devices. Balanced phonostages cost between £600 and £2,500. How much would yours be Jez?
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Barry
Rank: Trio
Posts: 195
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Post by Barry on Jul 18, 2015 22:37:59 GMT
Here's a proper TAS welcome from me too. Having more than one system is a treat that some of us are lucky enough to enjoy. That Quad 520f is a good amp. I owned one for a while but barely ever used it. When I agreed to sell it to a friend, I checked it was working in my system and was rather shocked at how good it was suddenly sounding!Cheers Haha - I am that friend, and yes the 520f is continuing to provide stirling service in my second system, driven by a Levinson ML-10A preamp and driving Bowers & Wilkins DM2a speakers.
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Barry
Rank: Trio
Posts: 195
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Post by Barry on Jul 17, 2015 1:05:27 GMT
I assumed downforce, or in this case backforce(!!!) would be applied either with a spring or a magnet somewhere in the bearing housing. Spring more likely; the same with bias. Hitachi came up with a vertical LP spinner years ago, but at least that had a tangential tracking arm.
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Barry
Rank: Trio
Posts: 195
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Post by Barry on Jul 17, 2015 1:00:36 GMT
Mains cable makes a good budget speaker cable in my experience. I think Peter Walker thought so too. Mind for that bloody cooker sovereign is building it probably needs to be 15amp Peter Walker was know for his bluff no-nonsense approach to such things. When asked what makes a 'good' speaker cable, he is famously said to have replied: "There are only two things a good speaker cable need have - first, and most importantly, it should be sufficiently long enough to connect between the speaker and the amplifier, and secondly the colour of the insulation should ideally match that of the carpet." It is also rumoured that once when Quad were setting up their gear at an audio show, they realised they had forgotten to bring any speaker cable with them. Undeterred, someone went out to the local B&Q store and bought some 10A cable as used with lawnmowers (with an orange coloured outer cladding). Visitors to the show though that this was some special cable Quad had made and asked about it. When told it was conventional and commercial 'lawnmower' cable they followed suit and it caught on! (The properties of said cable were discussed later in an article in Wireless World, where it was indeed (or coincidentally) shown to have the desirable properties expected of a speaker cable.
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Barry
Rank: Trio
Posts: 195
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Post by Barry on Jul 1, 2015 1:03:48 GMT
Did they sell "atonal apples and amplified heat, and Pressed Rat's collection of dog's legs and feet"?
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Barry
Rank: Trio
Posts: 195
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Post by Barry on Jul 1, 2015 1:01:15 GMT
I saw troglodite 'dwellings' like that in Mali in the Bandiagra escarpment.
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Barry
Rank: Trio
Posts: 195
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Post by Barry on Jul 1, 2015 0:59:17 GMT
15 Jun 2015 at 6:19am Mesa Verde was great. We have all seen photos of the houses built into caves and ledges in the cliffs but, as ever the photos only tell part of the story. It's only really when you take a panoramic shot that a flavour of the scale and setting can begin to be expressed. Moving on from the park in the early evening, we got the distinct feeling that we were getting very close to the Rocky Mountains now. Tonight's stay is to be in Durango and we'll be going north tomorrow on Route 550, which is supposed to be one of the most spectacular drives in the US. Built in the late 1930's. The 'Million Dollar Highway' is part of the 'San Juan Skyway' and is fairly high on the list of roads that can kill you! It ascends three very high mountain passes: Coal Bank Pass (10,640 ft /3,240 m); Molas Pass (10,970 ft /3,340 m) and Red Mountain Pass (11,018 ft /3,358 m). The region was thick with gold mines and has also been used as the location for quite a few classic western films such as True Grit. But all that is for tomorrow.
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Barry
Rank: Trio
Posts: 195
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Post by Barry on Jun 23, 2015 18:41:28 GMT
Thank you for a friendly welcome. I have lived here as expat for 14 years. Living in the medieval Old Town is good. These are 3 financial reasons to move to Estonia: 1. Company tax 0% 2. Salary tax flat 20% for any income 3. No car tax, road tax Hello Juha, I too recognise you from another forum. Those are three very good reasons to move to Estonia - the fourth is that Old Tallin is very beautiful! I visited Tallin a few years ago and was really taken with the place.
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Barry
Rank: Trio
Posts: 195
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Post by Barry on Jun 4, 2015 2:21:18 GMT
The Sony CDP-XB930 QS is the player I use. In what way is your UK Special Edition different André?
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Barry
Rank: Trio
Posts: 195
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Post by Barry on Jun 4, 2015 1:59:04 GMT
For me it was 30-ish years ago at the hifi show in the Heathrow Penta. At the time I was running Quad pre and power into Kef speakers of some sort. Most rooms I went into made me feel like I actually was not doing too bad with my set up. Then I went into the Meridian room. At that stage they just had a CD player with their own badge, but they were importers for Mark Levinson. So the CD fed dual mono preamps with outboard power supplies, and a pair of monster class A ML's feeding (swear to god) a pair of Quad ESL63's on stands. They were playing the last track of Brothers in Arms, something I knew very well. I actually thought it was a different piece of music! It was so utterly better than my system I actually started to laugh. And that alas was the start of the quest to spend more money than I thought possible. If those "monster class A ML's" were in fact the ML-2s, they were 25W/channel. The preamps were probably the ML-6s. I use ML-2s to power my Quad '57s (well I do in winter, as they dissipate 400W! In summer I replace them with a pair of Quad 510 monoblocks set to ~ 30W output). Anyway regarding the original post - everytime I attend a live classical concert it always reminds me that the 'state of the art' still has a very long way to go to even approach the experience of a live concert. Have you ever been out say shopping and heard a barrel organ in the distance out of sight? You just know if it is the real thing, rather than a reproduction through speakers, even though you can't see it. The accurate reproduction of dynamics is one of the most difficult thing an audio system has to do.
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Barry
Rank: Trio
Posts: 195
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Post by Barry on May 26, 2015 19:18:37 GMT
I bought an early Philips CD-104B (this must have been 1985) at a hi-fi show with some freebie CDs thrown in. It was really well built and lasted me a good while, I wish I had kept it for posterity in a way although I doubt it would still be working today. My first player was a Philips 104B, bought about the same time as you bought yours Martin. I think I bought mine from Chew & Osbourne in Essex, but I can't really remember as it was about 30 years ago! The Philips 104B was over-engineered and built. It is rumoured that Philips made a loss on every 104B sold. The only failing with the design was the use of stacked PCBs and the limited heatsinking for such a compact unit. With time the solder joints would often fail - they did on my machine, twice! Still it wasn't a bad machine, but was bettered by several others.
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Barry
Rank: Trio
Posts: 195
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Post by Barry on May 15, 2015 10:34:39 GMT
Indeed - BB was the last of the 3 Kings to pass away.
I'm more stunned by this sad news than I was after the last general election! BB left a great legacy of music and was an enormous influence on fellow bluesmen and listeners alike. He and 'Lucile' will be greatly missed.
RIP BB 'The thrill realy has gone now'.
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Barry
Rank: Trio
Posts: 195
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Post by Barry on May 1, 2015 16:41:21 GMT
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Barry
Rank: Trio
Posts: 195
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Post by Barry on Apr 4, 2015 12:27:12 GMT
For goodness sake just use the tapered tip of an old fashioned potato peeler to enlarge the undersized hole. You won't have any problems with vinyl swarf "clogging up" the grooves.
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Barry
Rank: Trio
Posts: 195
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Post by Barry on Apr 3, 2015 22:35:02 GMT
Not compared CD to tape I liked the sound of a valve G Revox compared to a solid state B I had the chance to buy a Revox G36 for £25. I turned it down, as I preferred my Ferrograph 632; better built and easier to thread, even if it didn't have such a wide FR as the Revox, or take 10.5" spools. These days those tapes I recorded on the Ferrograph on 7" tapes at 7.5 ips, I replay on a Nagra IV-S.
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Barry
Rank: Trio
Posts: 195
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Post by Barry on Mar 16, 2015 22:23:55 GMT
Anyone got any thoughts on Dynavector cartridges? They generally get good reviews. The only Dynavector I have heard was the Ultimo 20A, but that was back in the early '80s. Since I don't remember too much about it, it neither had any obvious flaws, nor was it outstandingly good. A Dynavector cartridge that I would like to hear is this, the XV-1: www.analogueseduction.net/user/products/large/1245317279_xvs_finalo_w450_h400.gif I'm intrigued by the design, as it seem to mimic the coil arrangement of the cutter head used to cut the lacquer in the first place.
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