luvdunhill

man, gear at your place is somewhat like a one-night-stand... where's your sense of commitment? equipment has feelings, didn't you know?

that's just crazy talk

Interested in some Bakelite UX4 sockets? I have four I'd be interested in selling!

i love metal base tubes <3

yeah, well that bit me in the ass as you got first dibs somehow.... hrumph! yes, I got the pics

yes, and the 40W or so from the heaters alone will keep you nice and toasty

I think I just missed something here... I'm confused

just curious what they are, if anyone knows never heard of custom electrolytics, and all the caps I've been looking at haven't tripled in price anytime soon.

2 electrostatic amps?

what's the story behind this? I'm assuming you're referring to the 500V Black Gates?

lemme guess, an electrostat amp?

well, other than height Actually, I'll be using a 2" dome mid and have been using that as listening height for the crossover calculations. I guess I meant things like, how large should the top plate be in proportion to the speaker, construction, "features", etc. Since you mentioned it though, what's a good "average ear height"? I think there was some number in a Vandersteen setup guide I used to have, but I no longer have it. I was assuming 38"-42".. 2" dome mid is 8.5" up the baffle, so 25" Dynaudio Stand1 probably is too low ...

I'm working on a pair of speakers that will be 13.5" high, 7" wide, and 14.75" deep at the base. What sort of rule of thumb do you use when choosing appropriate stands? These Dynaudio1 stands just showed up, but I'm not sure they'd be the best match: http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?accsrack&1208786474 Any recommendations?

I really like Green Mountain Audio speakers, what about the Callisto: http://www.greenmountainaudio.com/Speakers/Callisto/Welcome.htm

yes, the "Silver Basement" would eliminate my cartridge weight problem That's probably my sole reason to upgrade at this point back to the R100 line, I'm that happy with the Bloom.

Well, as you may or may not know I really love these cartridges. In fact, I will never own any other brand, save a Denon DL-102, or some other mono cartridge, and even then I'd have a custom mono cartridge made when I could afford it. Here's a product listing: http://www.sibatech.co.jp/ZYX/ZYXcatalog.htm as well as a picture of the R-50 Bloom: My cartridge is a special ordered low-output version, which comes in around 0.24mV. One nice thing about these cartridges is that the vertical and horizontal compliance is the same across the line, as is recommended tracking force, stock weight, recommended load, etc. etc. This makes moving up (and down) the line pretty easy. I used to own a R-1000 Airy as well as a R-100 Yatra and 2 years ago, I decided to "downgrade" to the ~$550 R-50 Bloom. So, recently I decided to have my cartridge returned to Japan to have it inspected and cleaned. Well, I came to find out that this might not be cost effective for the Bloom, due to its relatively modest price and was forwarded to Doug Deacon, a name you may recognize from Audio Asylum or Audiogon. I was a bit worried, as I had only cleaned this cartridge with Zerodust between sides, no dry brush, no nothing... I also included my VPI headshell weight that I have been using to help mate this cartridge to my Nottingham arm (note in the excerpt below, Doug thinks the weight was made my Elusive Disc, not so it's made by VPI and resold by Elusive Disc). Anyways, here's Doug's reply after spending an afternoon with the cartridge: CLEANING I visually inspected your Bloom under magnification. There was some buildup of foreign matter on the stylus and near the end of the cantilever. Not a lot but enough to justify a good cleaning. After 30 minutes of work it looked much better. There's one stubborn spot which may or may not be foreign material, but it's 99% clean. Most important, the stylus contact surfaces are now pristine. I took photos and I'll email you "before" and "after" shots, once I figure out how to upload from my new camera. ;-) LISTENING I mounted the cartridge last night and we played 2-3 familiar sides. This is the first Bloom we've heard and I thank you for that opportunity. Paul and I entirely agree on what we heard... What a great little cartridge! It offers a large proportion of every good thing our UNIverse does - for 1/10 the price - and it does absolutely nothing wrong. Unlike most entry level MC's there are no colorations, no sluggishness, no coarseness, no artificial anything. The trademark ZYX honesty and clarity are all there. The Bloom's few sins are minor sins of omission, a little less of this, a drop less of that - the kind of audiophile extremes you never notice unless you're used to hearing them. What you do notice is that the Bloom plays real music and makes you want to sing along (which I didn't, fortunately!). We were frankly expecting a lower level of performance. Nakatsuka-san has produced a superb entry level model. We've heard $4K competitors that we'd toss in the dumpster in favor of a Bloom. ) FUTURE CARE Some of that foreign matter looked like a clear gel, perhaps from your Zerodust? I would caution against too frequent use of that. Any gunk that pulls away from it and sticks to the stylus/cantilever is difficult to remove safely. Magic Eraser-ing followed by a dry brush is all you need for regular maintenance, as described in the document I sent. RANT_ON Your Elusive Disc headshell weight is, as you know, slightly magnetic. Pardon me, but what idiot specified a magnetic material for use in close proximity to a sensitive motion detector/signal generator containing powerful magnets? Do not use this weight. It will distort the magnetic fields inside the cartridge and affect the linearity of the signal. You do need the weight, but try to find a something suitable. VPI makes one. You can get it from them, from a VPI dealer or from online sellers like Acoustic Sounds or Music Direct. I have no experience with it so I'm only hoping it's non-magnetic. Of course we hoped that about the first one... ( You could DIY something with a piece of brass, or just drill two holes in a nickel (whose weight is perfect.) If you use a nickel, I'd mount it above the headshell with washers both below and above. The washers will help isolate it from resonances. If you mount a nickel flat on the headshell, stray energies will bounce off it back into the cartridge, muddying the sound. (I've tried it, trust me.) RANT_OFF

nah, I'm still trying to rig up a remote controlled VTA adjustment

well, not to discourage you but these things don't just stay put. I've noticed that VTF for example needs to be adjusted every 1-2 months, I'm supposing due to weather changes... also as cartridges age things change as well. Learn to do it properly, that's my advice

I wish it was that easy some times. Of late, I'm particularly sensitive to anti-skate and azimuth adjustments. oh, don't forget that each of those adjustments effects the next, so you sorta have to repeat them all a few times.

finally! ... I didn't know the (MOT)+ protocol, but Steve definitely deserved this one

[img width=150 height=113 alt=P1010236]http://www.head-case.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=1494&g2_serialNumber=2&g2_GALLERYSID=bb4f68f8f9ee575f1b358536d1e7f287

s/afford/justify

what do you have the DL-103 loaded at? I think I settled on 120R with the Bugle... and, good thread: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=1429999#post1429999 Link to the video is good. I say de-nude the DL-103 and kindle that DIYer inside you waiting to get out!

I'm sure this is out of his price range... Used, they run ~$1k, assuming you mean the entire phono preamp, just just the step-up. Excellent though!

is that upgraded power cable included?