Craig Sawyers

Wrong forum for this - but this is the measured response of each of my '57's measured in my listening room at 1m on axis.

Have a great one John!!

Have a great one!

You heard the latest food scare? There has been a cohort study by a group in Scandanavia which shows that if you eat two rashers of bacon or a sausage each day, your risk of pancreas cancer increases (wait for it) by 19%. Sheesh - it had been a factor of three or something, it might have been worth thinking about - but 19% Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jan/13/bacon-linked-pancreatic-cancer-report

Woah - I've been off this thread for too long. I'd no idea you'd been under the knife - so the very best with your recovery. PT's are a real PITA though aren't they? They show absolutely no mercy - but boy do they get results. I had my right knee worked on six years ago - and yesterday I ran 15 off-road trail miles. Hang on in there.

Check. His real saving grace was his outstanding two Brahms piano/cello sonatas with du Pre - but that was as much to do with their personal physical passion translating into the musical performance. But Barenboim's other recordings just don't cut the mustard. Like Julian Loyd Weber's soulless cello. But different pianists excel with particular composers - Brendel's Beethoven interpretations for example, or Periah's hatered of Liszt (he has never recorded a single Liszt piece) and superb Schubert and Chopin. Reks - I'll definitely try the Gardiner set - cheers

Agreed. Beehoven was about the first to put metronome marks in his music to indicate the pace. That is why Klemperer sounds too slow, and Karajan sounds like he is nitro fuelled. But I'll hazard a bet that Beethoven did not rigorously follow the MM's himself in concert. And the piano sonatas and string quartets would sound deathly dull if they were taken at a regular pace.

Well, I wouldn't say Kempe in preference to other Beethoven interpretations. Karl Bohm, Otto Klemperer, Rudolf Kempe and Herbert von Karajan are all equally valid interpretations. Even Karajan's different recordings of the Beethoven symponies are distinctly different. It is a bit like chosing the "best" interpreter of Wagner's Ring Cycle. The fun is in listening to all the masters and comparing and contrasting. Like Schwartzkopf's two recording of Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs, which are also quite different. About the only exception for me is the superb cello of Jacqueline du Pre. In particular the Brahms concertos for piano and cello with Bareboim on piano. The two had the hottest love affair, even when married, to the extent they had to be taken to task on long haul flights for getting too dirty. All that passion comes across in the Brahms. After listening to that even old masters like Rostropovich sound just too clinical. The next best du Pre is the Elgar cello concerto with Barbirolli. Barbirolli was a cellist himself, and performed the Elgar at its premier under Elgar's baton. So the du Pre/Barbirolli is the closest you can get to the intention of Elgar. And finally the stunnng Trout, with Du pre, Barenboim, Itzak Perlmann, and Zubin Mehta (on double bass) - actually a video recording in 1970. Looking at the price of Kempe's Beethoven symphonies it isn't so very bad, considering the actual number of discs and hours of music. Incidentally, I hit paydirt last week. I cruise the local charity shops, who specialise in house clearances and estate sales. I picked up Pavarotti, Freni and Guiraov in Boheme, Pavarotti and Sutherand in La traviata, Two Gounod operas (I don't know Gounod's stuff at all), and a four disc set of 1940's recitals by Jussi Bjorling. All absolutely pristine - for £10 (say $16).

Stately. There are opinions both ways about Kempe's interpretation. Those who are used to Karajan's rocket-fuelled pace will find it slow. But his interpretation of the 9th is masterly, in my view. Not as slow as Klemperer, and not a constant pace - Kempe varies the pace quite significantly depending on context, which is why it works for me. IMHO Craig

Happy birthday!

Massively off-topic, so apologies to all. But oddly enough my cousin Douglas Newton spent his life in the SAS (actually in special forces Royal Marine Commando - the UK equivalent of a Navy SEAL). Now in his early 60's with support boots (knackered ankles through sprinting everywhere in full combat gear) and two hearing aids ("from spending too long next to things that went bang"). Quite a character.

You wanna check my LinkedIn profile, before you go any further?

Y'know - you're a real piece of work. And when one of the moderators kicks your sad ass off this list, I for one will not shed one single tear.

I'm not too sure when it comes to blended, but these all look interesting. I've drunk a number of different Ballantines single malts, and very fine they are too. The others I haven't heard of, and may be distilleries that are now defunct (many, many distilleries have died off over the years, some are mothballed and then start up again) But all that looks really old (not that whisky ages while in the bottle), some of it maybe 60-odd years old, and very interesting indeed. Tell us what they taste like! Craig

I just can't stop laughing at that. Thanks for taking a load off, Justin

Heh. Been there, tried that. Got my ass kicked Learned real quick.

Happy birthday knucks and hope you get better real soon

<grin>. Off topic: If anyone remembers the Yamaha NS100M speakers (domestic, but often used as studio monitors) the tweeter dome was made of Beryllium, behind a mesh screen. And my old Coral moving coil cartridge from black vinyl days had a Beryllium cantilever.

Yeah - I just persuaded them through with a small vice and a ceramic insulator to capture the bush as it came through. But it is certainly surprising when they just slip into some devices and not into others. Wear in the press tools that are used to form the tab I guess, since they must start out at nominal dimension with a new press tool. Craig

Well there is some tolerance in the holes in TO220's. They just slipped into some of my devices nice as ninepence, and others I had to press into place - nothing worse than an engineering interference fit, a thou or so. But they fit the ceramic insulators just fine. It wasn't my idea to use the Aavid bushes by the way - Inu found those during his build. If you use the regular short bushes, you definitely need insulating screws. As far as I know the 7721-3PPS is the only bush with a really long tube, and that allowed me to use steel screws and the correct high torque. I think I got mine from Future - yes, they have stock at around 15 cents each and 11,500 in stock. Check the part number from searching this list just to make sure I've got the right number. Craig

Wow - what exciting times on the list! Lots of new T2's out there, looking real great. Bloody well done all. And new and exciting problems overcome. Who would have thought that non-Xicon resistors would give rise to a noise problem when used in the batteries? That takes some serious detective work. I just used Xicon's throughout, as per KG's suggestion. I was considering upgrading to Dale RN60's, but I don't think I'll take the risk now. And lots of exciting knobs - mallee burl (I used brown mallee burl forknobs of the chest of drawers I built), and now gaboon ebony! Mine just keeps rolling, and sounding astonishing. The only upgrade was removing the filtered mains socket, adding an adaptor plate, and using a Furutech rhodium plated unswitched, unfused and unfiltered IEC. Now this is probably a contentious statement, but the T2 sounds a whole lot better without the mains filter (even Mrs S heard the improvement, and she has zero interest in high end audio). Next is to add a switch to the front panel of the power supply. Spritzer - where did you get the sexy switch for the front of yours? And what is its rating given the level of inrush current that this animal takes? Craig

The problem with thin film materials is this. Although the material itself has excellent high voltage properties, it you draw a sketch you will see that the weak point is where the insultating bush goes through the hole. At that point, the distance betwen the device tab and the heatsink is only the thickness of the pad - a few thou. Actually, I think Kevin zapped something in his first build of the power supply as a result of this, somewhere in the bowels of this thread, and it was that event that led to the use of ceramic insulators. The very best solution is to use not only the ceramic insulators (the weak spot is still the hole - but the thickness of the insulator is amply good enough for the voltages present. Then use the Aavid long PPS bushes - I think it is the 7721-3PPS with 1/8" long shaft. In my (not so humble!) opinion, PEEK and ceramic screws are not capable of handling enough torque for optimum heat transfer. The datasheet optimum for a TO220 package is 1.1Nm (8.9 in lb). So I used stainless screws - there is ample insulation length in the Aavid bushes. Craig

Sorry I've been away folks - looks like around 7 months - and I've been scanning the back mails (boy does that take some time). Anone interested in the pot adjustment spreadsheet, drop me a PM. This was created using a Spice simulation of the battery (using simple DC spice models I derived from the semiconductor data sheets), But I used these graphs as the method for setting the pots to give the needed 740V. Basically RV2 is a coarse setting at 34V increase per clockwise turn (550V to 790V with RV1 mid range). RV1 is fine setting at 3.4V increase per ANTIclockwise turn (500V to 790V with RV1 set to 740V nominal). I set them at mid travel, tweaked RV2 until it was close, and then used RV1 to fine set and tweak as the beast warmed up. Variation with FET Idss is weak - only two turns of RV2 covers the yellow, green and blue varieties, Green is a good compromise, with less than one turn of RV1 covering the Idss band. Probably more as I catch up..... Craig

Great looking job Kerry! Good luck with the main board, and looking forward to hearing a report on what it sounds like in due course.

Maxwell rules OK