Craig Sawyers

Definitely not a mash up. Now I've seen Paul Simon perform this live (with Sting singing backing vocals). But this is better. In fact the best IMO

The whole capacitor thing is interesting. Back in the day I developed a supermarket security gate to detect product tags and hence shoplifting, which for a few years was in use globally. This used two audio frequencies superimposed on a 20Hz triangle wave. The amp was class D (quite something for thirty-odd years ago) and hence needed an output filter. Designed one, and bought the bits - chunky inductor, and polypropylene capacitors. First thing was that the inductor melted, and that was when I found out about proximity effect. The second thing was that the capacitors howled like a banshee being tortured with a hot poker. Anyway the capacitor thing was really interesting. I tried a variety of manufacturers, and found that acoustic output was determined by tight winding of the foils. Second that axial tubular ones were quieter than radials. That was down to the manufacturing process for the radials. First the foil is wound on a cylindrical former. The former is pulled out and what remains is squashed flat. The voids that are inevitably left cause the noise through electrostatic forces. The quietest were cylindrical audio capacitors - a design now made by Kimber. Far too expensive for the product of course. But I found Roderstein axial ones that were also silent and cost much less. Roderstein is now owned by Vishay. Anyway, it was an interesting exercise. As far as I know no-one tests audio grade caps by passing an audio band signal through them (of an amp or so) and listening to them. Any acoustic output is (a) frequency dependent and associated with mechanical resonance in the capacitor structure and (b) is clearly associated with a loss mechanism. Aha - found a few left over - they were MKP1845, and Vishay still make them https://www.vishay.com/docs/26023/mkp1845.pdf . Just E6 values, which is a pain.

RIP a legend whose face we never saw.

Apparently only 100 made in around 1979 https://www.theanalogdept.com/reference.htm

Thorens Reference. Rare as hen's teeth. So rare I've never seen one for sale - and probably could not afford it even if I did.

I put Pearl tube coolers on mine. The idea is that the glass envelope runs at a lower temperature, which is reckoned to be a good thing. The jury is out whether it does what it says on the tin, but none of my output tubes have failed. So far. That was a bit of a fatal statement thinking about it ? For clarity that is on my Gilmore T2, not the Stax hot plate.

I think the word is "thermally challenged", and just a very basic unregulated power supply.

Alas they did not do Echoes. At 20-odd minutes it would have used up a lot of the concert. That original 1972 pompeii gig was superb. Two of the best of Mason's comments last night were "We're not the Australian Roger Waters!" and "I toured with Roger Waters, and he was jealous about using the gong. But tonight I get to use the gong myself!" (For Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun) The very best recent version of Echoes was also at Pompeii in 2006 with Gilmore and Wright. The bass guitarist is the same guy that played last night.

Back to the earlier topic. Life expectancy skewed because the average included child mortality, which was exceptionally high. However, although Mozart and Schubert died young, JS Bach was 65, JC Bach 53, Thomas Tallis 80, Beethoven 56, Hildegard of Bingen 81, Wagner 70 etc etc And back even further to the topic of the thread - last night went to see Nick Mason in concert doing early Floyd - nothing post Meddle. So Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Saucerful of Secrets, Meddle, Atom Heart Mother and a few that I did not know at all. Despite being 74 now he had lost absolutely none of his drumming ability and played for two hours solid.

What a great looking cat, Jacob. He might well have a very long life still ahead of him. Our (remaining) cat Cleo is 16, nearly 17 and is still going strong. Eats like a horse. Because she is so old she is not so spry and cannot get out of the garden now. Which is a good thing given current circumstances with poor Cheese. My daughter says that cats leave paw prints on your soul. So true.

If it is white grease it is basically thermally conductive oxides in silicone grease. Providing it is still paste-like and not really thick and goopy you should be OK.

Great quote Jose. Could equally applied to Mozart, who produced this lot of 600-odd pieces and died age 34 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart Many of them are somewhat formulaic, but the majority are sheer genius. He basically wrote to live - so he did weird things like write for the glass harmonium. He apparently worked out a complete piece of music in his head, and then just wrote it down on manuscript in perfect neat notation, no crossing out, no corrections. His widow Constanze lived by selling his manuscripts and performance rights, before she married the Danish Ambassador, and lived to the ripe old age of 80. I believe Schubert died from syphillis - the same thing that drove Beethoven deaf.

They can't airbrush Pears out of history - he was too much part of Britten's life, and a fine (if slightly quirky voiced) tenor. I picked up the vinyl of War Requiem that was recorded a couple of months after the premier at the new Coventry Cathedral. Same orchestra and soloists (including Pears) and conducted by Britten. From an estate sale - I swear it was never played, it is perfect. Cost the equivalent of $3 - a real find! Schubert left such a splendid canon of work. And died at age 31. He crammed a whole lot of superb music into such a short life.

Schubert's Winterreise in Dorchester Abbey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorchester_Abbey last night. Awesome setting. Tenor was this guy http://www.markpadmore.com/ and very good he was too.

You guys are so awesome. Tears me up all afresh. Let's hope I sleep a little better tonight - I only got four hours last night. He was actually my daughter's cat, and when she went to Australia three years ago, we adopted him. I phoned her as soon as a I got the call from the Vet, and we bawled half a world away into our hankies.

Thanks all. Everyone's kind thoughts mean so much. So very much. It is always difficult and emotional when you have to have an old cat put down out of kindness, and we've done that a few times. But it is really really hard to have a cat in the prime of life ripped from you. I have no idea why he was where he was at the time. But the driver must have been a cat person, because they drove him to our local Vet, so it must have been hard on them too. Only had about four hours sleep. Knackered.

RIP my king of cats Cheese, who was struck by a car this morning. I'm in a completely awful state - I'll miss him so much.

You have to take your hat off to JK Rowling. She was a mother from a short lived marriage, on benefits (IOW dirt poor), and clinically depressed while she was writing the first book, Philosopher's Stone. Now, 22 years after the first print run of 1000 copies of that first book, and aged only 53, she has a net worth of $1Bn.

Good grief - that is real nasty. Our two don't use the litter tray. It is just there for feline emergencies when we are out for the day, and they are in. They far prefer various neighbours' flower and vegetable beds.

^So true!

They are all as bad as each other. Our main delivery outfit (part of Royal Mail) is called Parcel Force - AKA Parcel Farce. They crushed an industrial grade wet grinding machine in transit. They returned a parcel to the West Coast of the US because "They failed to deliver it on 3 occasions" without leaving a note each time. I'd have to check my rant letter file to find the other shenanigans they have got up to. And since they are the only outfit that does imports into the UK, they stiff you with the tax and duty - and then shove an extra £8 to £13 on top as a "clearance fee". So I have paid one or two pounds in tax, and an extra £8 clearance. If you add it all up they make an extra revenue of £100m each year from clearance fees. Most of which is pure profit. Bastards one and all.

I have that on CD. Totally agree - a real classic. And superbly recorded.

I couldn't find a thread to post this to, so here's a new thread. So UPS failed to deliver a package yesterday, just before the long Easter weekend - so now I won't get it until Tuesday next week. Bastards. I thought I'd sign up for real time tracking. I'm taken to a page to set up to get this, and find a tick box that says "I confirm that I've been given enough time to read and understand the UPS Technology Agreement" So I thought I'd click the download button to have a look at it. 96 pages. Doing a word count, it is 58,887 words long Which is almost exactly twice the length of the longest Shakespeare play (Hamlet)! That has to be the outer edge of ridiculous, right? How many lawyers does it take to craft a 58,887 word document? Goes without saying that I did not sign up to their "service".....