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Post by pinkie on Jan 25, 2018 9:34:52 GMT
Andrew
Thanks for that. I know the Longbenton address. But I had to change my details separately for each of my main authorisations (although not each client) When HMRC launched their new agent services (for which I have not yet signed up) they planned to require reauthorisation of each client to the new agent service code for each tax. They have now created a mechanism to migrate existing authorisations, but its evidence of the half-cock approach to systems development (as agent I can't access all client data - although it is improving)
So I don't think I have a separate authorisation for class 2 NI matters. The old 64-8 was a multiple tax registration document. The new online authorisations are individual to a tax (so I have to get authorised for CT, VAT and PAYE for a new client - each with a separate code)
Class 2 NI is an anachronism that is due to die in 2019 when it is merged (if it finally is merged) with class 4 NI. There are details still to be resolved, like voluntary contributions for low profits (to maintain pension entitlement) . I have never needed an agent authorisation for class 2 NI before (and can manage without now, and can clear security by giving them my old address. Some security!) It appears a lot of taxpayers, including a handful of my clients, registered for self assessment but not as self employed. And HMRC lack common sense. So every year a tax return is submitted declaring schedule D I or II income (or at least income on the trade or profession, or partnership profits page of an SA100), they are taxed and pay class 4 NI on that income, and the woman I was speaking to could see that, but then states they are not self employed for class 2 NI because they didn't register. How hard is it to design a system to check something as basic as that?
When I recently registered a client company for VAT and PAYE using the agent portal (which is the old HMRC interface - half the HMRC pages have migrated to the new GOV.UK style) my client gets an email confirming their registration has been successful and asking them to access their correspondence via the log-in details they used to create the application. Only they didn't use and don't have their own login details. They don't understand this stuff and pay a professional to deal with it for them. When I got through to HMRC the registrations department could only offer to send a paper document to the registered address, and confirmed there was no way for me as agent to access the application I had created on behalf of a client. Obviously once we have the registration certificate I can register as agent and deal with matters after that, but...
Enough - I have tax returns still to file - fortunately none of them with income which HMRC's calculation engine can't process, and which therefore rejects and requires paper returns, for which they would issue a penalty for late filing even though the fault is theirs.
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Post by pinkie on Jan 24, 2018 17:09:25 GMT
If only I could
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Post by pinkie on Jan 24, 2018 13:48:43 GMT
My regular January rant. Rather than start a new thread
The background
There are 2 types of NI paid by self-employed people. Class 4 NI is 9% of profits between about 8000 and 32000 and is a disguised tax - you get no benefits for it Class 2 NI "stamp" is about £2.50 a week, and earns entitlement to state benefits - primarily basic state pension. It used to be collected (most recently) by direct debit once a quarter or once a month
Class 2 NI is due to be abolished and merged into Class 4NI in 2019. In preparation for this, HMRC stopped collecting it separately, and collect it now with the income tax and class 4 NI on a self assessment tax return.
When I submit a tax computation for a self employed person, it includes class 2 NI. Like most accountants, I am getting some rejected (HMRC said "hundreds of thousands" because when the individual originally registered for self assessment they didnt register as self employed. So although they pay income tax on income they declare to be from self employment, and class 4 NI on the same income, HMRC's self employed Class 2 NI department doesnt recognise them as self employed
So - I eventually get passed the "I speak your weight" machine to the right department, and start clearing security questions for the 3rd time. "What is your agent office address"? I gave it, and it didn't agree. So we worked out they had my old office (moved 7 years ago) and I googled that, because I had forgotten it, and passed security and was asked how they could help
"First - please update your records for my correct office address" "We can only do that if you send in a new 64-8" 64-8 is the old fashioned paper client authorisation form that all of the rest of HMRC are discouraging use of in favour of their new online authorisation method. HMRC have my correct address on their records for PAYE, Self Assessment, VAT, Corporation Tax etc - but not class 2 NI "Are you saying I have to send a new 64-8 for EVERY client for you to update my address records?" (said in a Basil Fawlty voice of incredulity) "What - even if I have 20000 clients, if I move office, the only way for you to update your records is by sending 20000 64-8's?"
Yes - I'm afraid that's right.
Hopeless shower
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Post by pinkie on Jan 21, 2018 13:04:21 GMT
Luckily there are spots for fuses in the back panel and sometimes even inside. Intriguing little widgets, another thing to put on the list of things to play with one day. Just how does ADDING a fuse where there isn't an existing one (as with our supply in France) improve sound quality?
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Post by pinkie on Jan 21, 2018 7:01:25 GMT
How does the fuse make a difference Martin? What can the fuse affect.? Would no fuse be as good as an audiophile fuse?
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Post by pinkie on Jan 17, 2018 19:31:30 GMT
A couple of volts?
Who has measured properly a couple of volts dc offset on their domestic mains ?
A couple of hundred millivolts maybe
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Post by pinkie on Jan 17, 2018 16:20:04 GMT
I only realised recently that the Elac speaker designer is the same guy that used to design at TAD, no wonder they sound so good. My mate Andrew - Owens twin brother!
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Post by pinkie on Jan 16, 2018 8:17:05 GMT
Yup. Crap start to 2018
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Post by pinkie on Jan 15, 2018 10:23:37 GMT
Ah - the old HFS cause. I should have guessed. It's usually at the root of disjointed threads, because posts are responses to invisible HFS posts.
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Post by pinkie on Jan 15, 2018 8:49:51 GMT
What I don't understand is where the long post quoting the operation of the device came from. It comes from a reviewer who did his research and matches what PS Audio used to publish. For some reason, all their explanatory material has disappeared, so I quoted the review instead. Thanks, but that wasn't what I meant. I saw the thread had listed in recent, read that post, assumed it was a response to another post, checked back "in the archive" as DQ always nagged me to do, and the post before that (on my system) is 2014 It appeared to come out of a clear blue sky
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Post by pinkie on Jan 15, 2018 7:02:07 GMT
Why block DC if you don't have any? I'm really not sure what your agenda is, Dave, but I'll ask you a straight question as it speaks volumes about your comments. Have you ever actually listened to a P10 driven system? My comments come from actual experience of using three generations of PS Audio products. Where do your comments come from? DC on mains is not a permanent state or even a reliable constant state. Often it will exist for just a few cycles. You are not able to reliably measure it. If you have reason to believe equipment performance is affected by it then it makes sense to block DC at all times. What I don't understand is where the long post quoting the operation of the device came from. Am I missing something between the 2014 thread and that one? The obvious thing to do would be to advise PS audio of this issue and invite their comment. It is clearly in their interest to have an opportunity to comment given Martin is publicly stating the products limitations and impaired performance in the presence of DC on the incoming supply on an open forum
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Post by pinkie on Jan 11, 2018 9:55:30 GMT
What are the similarities between this bearing and the one for, say, a Technics SL D202 ? Technics made a lot of different tables. If you could somehow standardize production, I think there would be a significantly large enough market for you to continue your operation. The potential market for SL1200 is enormous. The market for replacement bearings at many times the OEM manufacturer cost is significantly smaller (although significant in the world of modifications) With the original bearing readily available for spares at 60 bucks, the market for Mikes (and others) bearings is strictly for those looking to build a "triggers broom" - like that famous machine on another forum. Best I can judge it - it is a hobbyists trickle. I have this discussion with AK quite regularly who has a new "wonder mod" in design, which would have an SL1200 variant. He is of the view that because 3 million SL1200's were sold and probably remain in existence, even at a "mere" one in a thousand take up, that represents guaranteed sales of 300,000 units, and his retirement funding assured Personally, I hae me doots, but nod supportively when it's his round.
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Post by pinkie on Jan 11, 2018 9:41:09 GMT
A vintage one
The NIL was a 3-way (with doubled mid-range) from the late '90's I think by a french manufacturer - BC Acoustique
I doubt he'll find one on here
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Post by pinkie on Jan 11, 2018 6:31:05 GMT
Enceinte is loudspeaker
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Post by pinkie on Jan 9, 2018 13:11:59 GMT
I'm fairly sure I stated at the time that my DC on mains was over 2V, measured by the sparky who installed the radial. My mistake I thought this was your last comment on the subject, May 5, 2017 10:48:33 GMT 1 MartinT said: I'll get my 'scope on it sometime, I may just have the resolution to see the offset and scale it between AC and DC views. But maybe I missed something - for God's sake don't go inviting DQ back to chastise me that I should "search the archive". I'm just trying to understand properly, cos I'm a bit muddled. I am still puzzled by your (mildly) humming transformers on the Pass audio devices plugged into the P10. Am I right they hummed for reasons which were nothing to do with DC on their supply, since the P10 provides DC-free power, but whatever was wrong with the power supplied by the P10 which made these transformers hum, was fixed by filtering the DC from the supply to the P10 itself? Perhaps Mr Brock could tell us - are PS Audio aware of this defect in their product?
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Post by pinkie on Jan 9, 2018 9:24:53 GMT
The P10's transformer never hummed. However, the power amp and preamp's did (a little). As I remember saying at the time, DC appears to affect the P10's performance through to the components it's powering. This is confirmed by their preferring clean regenerated power over raw mains now. Have I got this right? In your experience, without first filtering the DC supplied to the PS Audio P10 mains regenerator, that device supplies power to audio devices connected to it which has a DC element which causes the transformers in those connected devices to hum. I don't believe the manufacturer subscribes to that view. Did you ever manage to measure the DC on your mains at the time? Have you managed to measure it now? Are you just assuming it was there and isn't now? If not, what reliably measured DC component was there before (As Mr MCRU pointed out, cabling , including changing the transformers, would not change DC on the mains. Whatever sort of transformer you had before would output AC with no DC element. The DC component comes from other devices connected to the same power line. Mr MCRU is incorrect in stating those are in your own home, for the fairly blindingly obvious reason that it is possible to measure DC on your mains (my mains) with absolutely nothing connected and running in the house)
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Post by pinkie on Jan 8, 2018 20:49:10 GMT
Martin I am confused. Earlier in this thread you stated that the DC blocker "did reduce transformer hum. More recently on this thread you state the P10 experienced no hum. You only used the blocker with the P10. The P10 transformer didn't hum
You've lost me
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Post by pinkie on Jan 8, 2018 11:08:10 GMT
My old house used to have very high voltage, up to 252V on occasion. This place has a fairly steady 235V and I set the P10 to 235V output, making it work as least hard as possible in generating a clean output. THD in is about 2.7%, THD out is 0.1%. Hi-Fi forums are likely to be the place for advice on DC blockers as they will care the most about hum, mechanical or otherwise. I realise people on HiFi forums care. And they give advice they honestly believe. But they perpetuate "legend", based on their personal understanding (or lack of it) of the engineering issues, and repeating advice given by others. Sometimes it helps to get an engineer who understands the subject, which is what I was looking for when I googled. There was plenty of authoritative, well meaning advice on HiFi forums, which even I could spot wasn't right. I note your mains has changed, and I am pleased for you that it allows your HiFi to function without a DC blocker. However, cabling has little (no) impact on DC on mains. If your village all agreed to stop using old hairdryers with half-wave rectifiers that might help, but "recabling" isn't obvious. Nor will cabling itself have changed the supply voltage - but if the voltage has indeed dropped, for whatever reason, that is likely to fix the transformer hum. DC's comments were interesting, and consistent with my engineer friends. The problem is that UK mains is within spec at 253v, and, in my opinion, all properly designed equipment for that market, should be able to cope with a supply voltage between 216v and 253v. That is (broadly) an EU standard, although I think the european standard allows the voltage to drop to 207v. French products we buy quite frequently refer to "brown outs" in their literature (with the minor caveat that my french might not be perfect), and appear to be designed to tolerate voltages as low as 200v before causing problems. Of course, it would be nice if the power companies supplied reliable close tolerance 230v - but they don't, and aren't required to, so equipment should be designed accordingly. And I thought you used your DC blocker on the input to the P10, not the output, so the over-voltage (apparently exacerbated by a small DC offset) just made the P10 transformer noisy - since apparently PS audio also fail to supply product suitably designed for UK mains. And I thought that was at your new house, but before they rewired the village.
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Post by pinkie on Jan 7, 2018 12:55:55 GMT
I'm intrigued that you use DC blockers to cancel mains hum in transformers. (Nothing surprises me any more about what people claim to hear regarding mains supply phenomena) Your equipment would appear to be powered by a Sovereign BPS. Like any BPS, that is essentially a transformer (albeit centre-tapped). The AC power output from that device, as from any transformer, will have zero DC element (unless you introduce it from somewhere) A DC blocker could stop the toroidal in James' BPS humming if it does - but I thought he built them chunky. Certainly his own when I was last there was silent as the night.
DC on mains is hard to measure properly. I doubt most sparkies would have ever been asked to do it, although they stand a chance of owning a suitable meter.
DC , if present, does not necessarily cause toroidal hum, core saturation or otherwise. Poorly specified toroidals are more likely the problem. My "hummer" is in the sub-woofer - which hums when none of the others do (Both my Pips, 1 & 2 are powered by a toroidal which NEVER hums). The hum in the sub was due to over-voltage back in the UK. It is quiet here in France where the voltage appears to be a rock steady 235v any time I look.
An engineer friend proved this to me by bringing an isolation transformer and variac to the house. Eliminate DC and take voltage to a level (I think it was 244v, but it was a while ago) and it hummed. Drop the voltage below the threshold and the hum went. The reason DC offset CAN cause transformer hum due to core saturation due to excess voltage is that one leg will be pushed over voltage. (ie assume a transformer which saturates at 244v, if you have a supply with 242v AC and a +5v DC offset, then each cycle will be between -237 and +247 volts)
You will find lots of advice regarding DC blockers curing transformer hum by googling - all from HiFi forums.
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Post by pinkie on Jan 3, 2018 11:17:26 GMT
I gather you've been having a spot of weather. Sue just announced that in the OOk and the north of France the winds are 150 kilometers miles an hour
Even the slower of those possibilities is blowy!
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