Craig Sawyers

I have no idea - on my side of the pond I just buy them from any of the usual suspects - mainly Farnell or Canford, but RS, Rapid etc all do them too. They may be called something different in the US. But here is a link to what they look like http://www.canford.co.uk/HELLERMANN-CABLE-BINDING-SLEEVES Craig

I used http://www.alphawire.com/en/Products/Wire/EcoGen/EcoWire/6715 (18AWG, 600V 105C) for the EL34 heaters. I twisted pairs and then pushed each pair into braided glass sleeving. Reason is that the EL34 heaters are referenced to -500V, so you need to be real sure of the insulation of those heater wires and sleeve the solder joints to the pins in the connector. In fact sleeve all the pins (with Hellerman sleeves) - there are some fearsome voltages kicking around you badly want to keep away from each other and the connector body. The 6DJ8 heaters are close to ground, take way less current and don't need the same level of insulation. And yes, wiring the power umbilicals is a PITA, but you need to take your time and do it real well. Figure on at least four hours work, take frequent breaks and figure the best part of a day. And then buzz through to make sure of the pin-pin correspondance, and that there are no shorts. I went through the same sort of nonsense more recently with active speakers I built (Linkwitz LX521). Since I didn't want an error to find its way into the wiring in the speaker itself and in the connection to the 4 power amps per channel I used 8-way speakons. Checked wiring of speakers with a battery and confirmed which cone kicked. Then wiring the cables, again multiply checked. The consequences of feeding the bass up the tweeter was such a horrid thing to contemplate I was determined to get it right, and have a connector system that was impossible to get wrong.

Whatcha been smoking, Aard?

Saw her on stage in London in The Children's Hour http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/feb/10/the-childrens-hour-review . Unfortunately some A-list film actors are not so good on stage, and Knightly was in that category (as was John Hurt in a Chekov play we saw him in). The real deal was Nicole Kidman in Photograph 51 a couple of weeks ago http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-34255135 . She was bewilderingly good as Rosalind Franklin, who took the X-ray images of DNA the Crick and Watson based their Nobel prize on. She was truly fantastic live on stage, to the extent that you just forgot what a global megastar you were watching live - she just inhabited the character. Awesome.

I guess this is worth a try. But I'm left with the suspicion that adding attenuation until the DAC is close to losing lock actually makes jitter worse - because it would be triggering towards the top of the rise time of the SPDIF wave, where it is flatter. Helps with reflections though due to bad design of SPDIF interfaces though, so there may be an optimum. Not being able to measure leaves you in a suck it and see situation.

Yes - that was exactly the thread that got me thinking, along with the choice of transformer. Fortunately I have a pretty extensive lab, so I have three generations of Tektronix TDR, right from the late 1950's 1S2, to the mid 1970's 7S12/S52/S6 to the self contained 1502. The last two operate to 25ps response time - less than 10mm at the speed of light to put it into context, So I'm kind of spoiled for choice. I even have a 75 ohm power splitter, so I can tap into an SPDIF data stream and look at what the overall waveform looks like on a link. The thread you link to shows TDR pics from an 1S2 (or possibly an HP sampler), which is fine for the job since it has an 80ps response time, but has no readout on the screen. I haven't tried attenuators - all mine are 50 ohm ones and you need 75 ohm ones. In any event, you run the risk of the SPDIF receiver failing to lock securely. And yes - you have to fix the receive end too!

I get a tap started by putting it in the pillar drill chuck to get it perpendicular. I turn the chuck by hand while applying a bit of pressure with the drill lever. Once started, I take the tap (and workpiece) out of the chuck to the workbench and finish tapping using a hand wrench. Only works if you can get the workpiece into the throat of the pillar drill of course. That I like, Kevin. Want one, want one rignt now.

^ This

Bit of a late reply, but you're right. The BNC SPDIF waveform was not good (slow notchy rise) and TDR looked nothing like 75 ohms on a 50ns timescale. Also there is no DC blocking on the pulse transformer, so is operates with a DC bias. Ugh. So I removed the existing transformer, and replaced with Newava S22083. Fed via 169 ohm resistor and 0.1uF DC block on the input end (from the 74HC74 driver already in there), 43.2 ohms in parallel with the secondary and 39 ohms in series. This gives the correct 0.5V p-p output, optimally loads the transformer, has a TDR that has a couple of 50 millirho 500ps long features from the connector itself, and the waveform has a clean 1.5ns rise and fall time. Again a bit of a late reply, but as you can see I've been getting under the skin of the Transporter. My set up is now hard wired CAT6 connection from router to Transporter, PC and Synology NAS, 2 x 2TB Raid 1. iPad wireless connected to Router running iPeng as overall controller. CD collection is now ripped using dBpoweramp uncompressed FLAC. I'm subscribed to Tidal HiFi for streaming. PC has to be on and running Logitech Media Server for the Transporter to do anything meaningful. Simple menu choices on iPeng give streaming, CD collection or Radio.

Hope you get well soon Tyll

Good grief. I hardly know where to start

Or even higher up the weird stakes http://www.wimp.com/unicyclingbagpipes/

Just to make your day, Torpedo - Clapton, but not as we know it, Jim.

Pink Floyd? Listen and weep. Or something.

Wow - just logged on and pow. Looks good - and thanks for what must have been a massive amount of work Todd

I went though a pens phase a year or so ago, and still love and use them at my desk. A boxed late 1940s Parker 51 Vacumatic plus matching pencil in blue My Dad's early 1950's Parker 51 Aerometric in black A 1988 Parker 95 Insignia A Sheaffer PFM in blue - actually to eventually replace my original which was stolen when a student in the mid 70's A Sheaffer 1001 Targa - actually to replace my original, bought for me by my wife in the late 70's and stolen last year. A green marbled Conway Stewart 75 circa 1950 But I've stopped now - it is a small collection that gets used and gives me great pleasure.

Yup. They are pitched to sound like a baby crying - so they are pretty much guaranteed attention. Cats are pretty straightforward - speaking cat indicates "feed me", "let me out", "cuddle me". It is a limited vocabulary.

Happy birthday!

Oh yes!

Alternatively buy some CAT6a cable http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/cat-6a-lszh-sftp-stranded-patch-cable-blue-a13qyfor next to nothing, then a pair of http://www.amazon.de/Teleg%C3%A4rtner-RJ45-Steckverbinder-MFP8-T568-Cat-6A/dp/B004406KMY (which is what the dissected cable above uses) and away you go. In fact have the cable fabric braid covered by an outfit I know that makes classic car harnesses and sell it for - oh say 500 somethings.

The bit that makes the mind boggle is the sentence "Lube Pump Included"

Hoogerland in hospital overnight after his barbed wire incident in 2011. Note the compression trousers to keep swelling down. And the iPad and phone.

Who can forget the French Television car swiping Hoogerland into a barbed wire fence on day 9 in 2011 - now that was a good reason for the car's occupants to be kicked off the tour. Throwing a water bottle - please! Of course being a tough pro cyclist, Hoogerland got on his bike and rode to the finish, then spent overnight in hospital. Went on to complete the Tour.

At least no one threw a cup of urine over Chris Froome in today's stage

A bit unhelpful in the context of the question, but......