spritzer

I would certainly make it quite clear that using an after market umbilical would void the warranty. I'm not saying that the stock unit can't be improved upon (twisted filament wires could lower the already inaudible hum a bit) but I simply wouldn't trust these idiots to do it.

I know Marc's teflon sockets are a lot nicer then all the others...

That's what I thought as well but... \ I've been comparing it side by side against the SR-202 I just brought back to life (I just have to adopt broken headphones and fix them... ) and the LE is like a more sensitive version of that with moar detail and deeper bass. While not as super smooth as the 007 there are less apparent colorations then in the 404. Ohh and if the price is right on the 717 I'd pick one up. It's a great amp and you will have no problem selling it on. It's discontinued but I prefer it to the newer 727.

That's one messed up amp.

There was one more custom factor, genuine Stax sockets but the buyer had to supply them.

One interesting thing about the LE are the earpads. They look a lot like the ones used on the prototype set featured in many brochures back in '79. Same slim, square shape and the seams are in the same places. The earpads are quite a bit thinner then the normal 404 pads and that makes them a bit less comfortable for me with my rather large ears. It also appears to solve the midrange etch issue but they are still very bright. This might actually be a Lambda that I'll keep... \ Sure looks that way. It's an SR-202 and it's gone through hell, the arc was broken in a few places and held together by tape and the hinges to attach the housings were broken so the owner just used some screws... ...and we are still waiting. I know that you ordered the LE!!!!!

So we can make you build umbilicals for us now...?

Doug has tried in the past but shipping stuff here isn't exactly easy. I think it is much more appropriate to send Doug a BH to try out...

I finally received my SR-404LE today and first impressions are quite good from the T2. They are certainly 404's but there does appear to be less of a midrange etch then on the standard model (the earpads are quite a bit thinner so that could be a part of it) and on the whole it is quite nice. Very nice smell of leather. Nothing to complain about after a couple of hours while I try to salvage the most fucked up set of Lambdas I've ever come across. Somebody must have stomped on them and then tried to fix the mess... quite badly. Well the drivers appear to work...

SR-Omega FTW!!!

I did something similar for the ES-1 umbilical. I used some PVC wire for the filaments, twisted it with an electric drill and then separated the two pairs from the DC by wrapping it in teflon tape inside the umbilical. This seems to work ok with next to no hum in the "good" channel.

A bunch of Belden hookup wire. Thanks Marc.

They are rather common and we even have tiny ones which nobody knows how to use. They are indeed much safer so they are the go-to solution for the urban planners here. One recent neighborhood has nothing but roundabouts on the main street and it's annoying to say the least. Something like that. It was just a backup if all went to shit which luckily didn't happen. I will be making a huge chocolate cake tomorrow for one of the collages in the neighborhood so a lot of material will be used there.

It's no use, 90% of people don't know what they are doing out on the streets. Roundabouts are the worst even if they have only two lanes max.

Thanks for that. My German is much better then my French... I even had a plan C ready if the second one would fail, a massive chocolate cake, covered with more chocolate and lots of berries. Yup, but only after the second cake was safe and sound in the cooler where the reception was held. Later on I stood up on the stage in front of 150 people and told them the whole story.

Happy birthday buddy!!

Just woke up after a long day yesterday. One of my oldest friends was getting married and I was naturally in charge of the cake. To cut a long story short this was a 5 tier monster covered with marzipan, ganash and decorated with fresh berries to feed 150 people. At roughly 3 PM I was going to drive it to the other end of Reykjavik where the reception would be so that I could be ready for the ceremony (on the other end of town) at half past 4. Now you should know that Icelanders don't know how to drive under usual circumstances but most just go apeshit on the cramped streets of downtown Reykjavik. Needless to say I came across one of these idiots who ran a stop sign right in front of me and I had to break hard while being greeted by the lovely sound of cake being splashed on the inside of the van. The cake was all over the car with just a bit of cream and the bottom parts still left on the stand so completely totaled, nothing could be saved. Now this shouldn't happen under normal circumstances but we had been fighting to make the cake stable the entire morning so instead of the cream being a nice solid mass, it was fluid. After a good 5 minutes of screaming and cursing I got back to the bakery, cleaned the stand and started on cake number two. I always anticipate the worst so I had enough materials to make a second one and we managed to pull it off in less then 4 hours. I had to go to the ceremony but I popped back after it to decorate the cake which my brother had worked on in the meantime. That one did make it to the reception and everybody was very happy with the end result. Phew to say the least... All is well that ends well I guess and if the old Icelandic sagas are to be believed, this will reflect well on the marriage.

22AWG should be the way to go then but it is strange that they don't have it on the datasheet. It really is one of those things that a designer would like to know... Perhaps there is some general spec sheet for this line of connectors where this could be found?

It's certainly the size of the pins, not what wire they would accept. "Contact Size #20". If you are using the solder cups version then I'd guess 16AWG would work but it's only guesswork. What current are you looking at here? Ohh and the Speakon thing was just a jab at SP.

I hear that the Neutrik SpeakCon's are excellent for umbilical cables...

The Lambda Sig is a solid choice but so is the 4070, HE60 and SR-SC1 for a livelier treble response. In theory it should work just fine given how similar the tubes are but I would monitor the temperature of the amp carefully to see if the transformer gets too hot from any extra current draw.

A welcome change and I'm even a bit tempted to buy one of these...

Happy birthday!!

Depends on what you do wrong...