Craig Sawyers

That was stopped in the UK absolutely ages ago, because winos and alcoholics used to buy the stuff and die. So the only commonly available sort has a blue dye added to act as a kind of deterrent. Of course you can buy pure colourless methanol, usually from woodworking suppliers, but you can't just go into a high street store and get it. I've used the water based finish before, and it is pretty impressive how this milky stuff goes clear and hard as it dries. I tend to use oil or wax finish on furniture. I'm a wannabe french polisher, and can make a fairly decent stab at smaller areas - but I wouldn't like to tackle a large area like a dining table and expect to get a mirror finish. The great stuff with shellac is if you make a mess of it, you just wipe it off with meths and start again. If a polyurethane or catalysed coat goes wonky it is a much bigger deal to get back to the wood and try again.

Understood. Just wanted to make sure that there wasn't different terminology across the pond. In this case there isn't Oh -wait. Denatured alcohol - in UK-speak that is Methylated Spirits, or "Meths" (which has a light blue colour) or pure (colourless) methanol. Most cabinet makers just use Meths.

Check. I've been on a quest in recent years to see as many aging rock stars as I can before they drop off the perch (or I do). It is a major regret that I never got the chance to see Queen.

That is priceless! In an odd quirk of geography, Radiohead band members met at Abingdon (Boys) School, about three miles from where we live. Mind you Abingdon School is a so-called "Public" school, which actually means "Private" in that it is fee-paying. Only in the UK could that make sense. Currently about £10k per year. Founded 750 years ago. For a quick look, go to Google Earth and shove in OX14 4LB (us) and then OX14 1DE (Abingdon School)

By laquer, do you mean shellac (ie crushed beetle gum +alcohol) or synthetic?

^ I know exactly what you mean! I'm there too.

Well - that all goes to show that I know Jack shit about Russian! I did warn you guys - and thanks to our Latvian for putting me right.

I most definitely don't speak Russian, but the second word on the bottom sentence is Koralev, and the next word is to do with Cosmo(naut, or something). So it refers to Sergei Koralev, they guy who designed the USSR rockets that competed with the US in the space race in the 50's and 60's. On the top line is a word that is something to do with ModeI, so I suspect it is for a model or toy that is based on some early test rocket of Koralev's. That all seems pretty anal - for which I don't apologise

Hey man - have a great one!

"You looking at me?"

18k gold. Kevin - you sometimes leave me speechless

Looks like low voltage and low current. Which is fine for vanilla transistors, but no use at all for testing T2 transistors, which are all high voltage high current types. When I built my T2 with counterfeit 2SC3675's with low breakdown voltage (but still several hundred volts) I needed to throw a Tektronix 577 at them to diagnose why the T2 was in terminal destruct mode. And then to verify that the new ones were correct according to the specification. I just about had to replace every bit of silicon on the heatsinks (and as you know there is a lot of them!) and most of the LED's.

Heh. My wife has a Ford Fiesta. It has no point in common with that! Other than basic body shape. I reckon that I might have got into 5th gear by the time half that video was over.

Metrum DACs - I have a sneaking suspicion that this http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/dac714.pdf is what they are using. The only thing that it misses on is the supposed 15MHz operation - but that could apply to clock speed with a bit of hyperbole and misinformation thrown in.

I think that the first, crimped one might squeeze up to 4GHz, but the soldered ones I'm not so certain - if only because of a mistermination impedance of the coax when it is dressed to solder to the pins. I'm using that sort of course - but even with 192kHz sampling rate you only need 250MHz maximum to take up to the tenth harmonic of the serial SPDIF data.

I used TE CONNECTIVITY / GREENPAR 1-1478048-0. It is not the all time ultra-wideband BNC, but it handles (measured) 1ns rise times fine, so it is at least 300MHz bandwidth - amply enough. It has the benefit that (a) it fits the chassis hole in the metrum once you remove the BNC and insulating washers, And it is easy to solder up, and it is easy to return the Metrum to stock condition if you need to ever return it for repair, or sell it.

^ I started to watch this, cynically. Then OMG it was bloody brilliant - that guy has put together a great version, solo!

Good call, deep

Sealing wood is a dangerous thing. As a natural material it likes to breathe, and wax, shellac, danish or teak oil are fine - but polyeurethane is asking for trouble and does not look good either (IMNSHO). The only difficulty is that the wood needs to be well seasoned and without internal tension - if it has that you can actually hear the click or ping as it cracks as you work it. That is the precise instant before you swear like a marine and walk out of the shop to calm down.

In the UK we sit at the triple point of water - so a hell of a lot wetter than Texas. So you're right, maybe what happens to purpleheart is an environment thing.

That is a good thread - thanks for the link deep. Pity eric's TDR measurements are defunct, but the thread is 6 years old after all. To quote Borbely from AudioXpress 5/02, about his design for the all-fet line amp design: "My goal was to be able to drive loads down to about 100Ω in pure Class-A, also allowing it to be used as a headphone amp. To be able to drive 100Ω in Class-A with up to 10V RMS, you need to have a bias current of 70mA." So this would definitely be able to drive 50 ohm cable (so 100 ohm total load for 50 ohm cable) at up to a whopping 10V RMS. Note that to handle that the 50 ohm load resistors would have to be at least half watt - but since the typical maximum you would be putting into an amp is 1V, low power resistors are fine - or even surface mount. I've been intending to build this beast for a while, if only to test my belief (which I now realise that KG shares) that matching impedances should render the analogue link cable insensitive.

That is really interesting. Erno Borbely went down the same route with his designs and kits before he retired. Enough drive capability from FET output stage to drive from a 50 ohm source down a matched cable and load. I makes the connection almost totally impervious to cables - just high quality 50-ohm cable is needed.

That is the problem in a nutshell. RCA's are ubiquitous. And when BNC's are fitted, or cables are BNC fitted more often as not they are 50 ohms, not 75. The difference is easily seen - 50's have insulation around the pin and earth, so when they engage the whole connection is encased in insulation. With 75's there is no insulation at all - the pin and socket mate in air. It is only because I am anal about interfaces that I've gone to the lengths I have in changing things to be impedance matched throughout, and done some supportive measurements.

I'm not into turning - cabinetmaking (just recreational) is my thing. The cocobolo will probably be used in things like lids of jewelry boxes, storage boxes etc, or small cabinets. I'm a follower of Krenov's philosophy of buy wood. Then buy more wood. Then look at it for a long time until a piece suggests itself. Ebony and blackwood I use for contrasting wedges in through tenons. Against a paler wood (and most wood is paler than those!) it is a superb effect. One of the more disappointing woods to work with is purpleheart. Looks absolutely stunning bright purple when first cut, but oxidises slowly to a kind of muddy brown.