aerius

Lundahl LL1620 amorphous core output transformers, LL1690 input transformers, and LL1660s amorphous core interstages.

Nope. There's a few things which determine how much current how much current you can put through a transformer; the wire size, the size of the core, and the number of turns of wire on the core. The first is obvious, the other two are related to the magnetic saturation of the transformer core, which if it happens will result in magic smoke and other bad things. On saturation, the transformer core material, in this case some kind of silicon steel alloy, has a magnetic flux density limit. Which means if you want to put more current throught the transformer you need a bigger core so it doesn't hit the limit. Bigger transformer, more power. Related to this is the number of turns of wire on the primary, there's a formula for calculating the magnetic field strength which involves ampere-turns, that is how many turns of wire around the core and how many amps of current in the wire. Pull too much current and the core saturates, and bad things happen. One thing to remember is that many power transformers run close to saturation at their rated max power, saves money on copper & iron that way. Going back to my previous example, let's say there's 100 turns of wire on the primary, so with 220V and 0.1A that's 10 ampere-turns, which then gets plugged into the formula for magnetic field strength, and from there they figure out the size of the core needed so it doesn't saturate, then add say, 20% just in case. So, let's plug it into a 110V outlet and try to pull 22VA out of it. You only have 11V on the secondary so you need to pull 2A there, and thus 0.2A at the primary. 100 turns on the primary, 0.2A, that's 20 ampere-turns, assuming the wire's good for it you've now blown the saturation limit of the core by a huge margin. The transformer gets real toasty, the output on the secondary is severely distorted, and eventually something will burn or blow up.

Let's say you have a transformer with a single 220V primary and 22V secondary, rated for 22VA when used in a 220V country, that is, 1A on the secondary and 0.1A on the primary to make nice easy numbers. Now if it were used in a 110V country, you still have the 0.1A and 1A limit on the primary & secondary, respectively, so the maximum power you can get out of it is 11VA. If having the rated output of the transformer cut in half isn't a problem, then go ahead and do it, but it's a bit of a waste since the transformer has to be oversized quite a bit. Ideally, you use something like this so you can change the connections around for different input & output voltages without affecting the power rating. Keeps things smaller & lighter.

Well, if one happens to be a fan of organ music or piano pieces played on the B

EQ doesn't correct for resonances unless we're talking about a crossover where the response is rolled off well before the driver's resonance point(s). Also, how do you know it's a resonance unless you've run a cumulative spectral decay plot on the headphone?

Nope, there's no way I'm investing long term in a rigged market where the rules change on a weekly basis. Scalp the short term gains, get the fuck out.

Yeah, it's a great buying opportunity for Put options, truly a once in a lifetime happening. Easiest money I've ever made in my life, give me another month of this market action and I could be retired and living it large by Christmas.

Below is the bailout bill which was narrowly rejected by Congress yesterday. Pay special note to Section 2, 6, and 8. Section 2 means Treasury can take over ANY bank at will, it gives them the power to nationalize the entire US banking system overnight if they choose to. Section 3 means they have a $700 billion revolving slush fund, they can cycle MBS and other crap papers through it as many times as they please, and run up a total bill in the trillions. Section 8 means once it's passed, no one can do jack and shit about it, not the government, not the courts, completely above the law. The bill is currently being revised and will be going in for a revote later this week. Sections 2, 6, and 8 remain essentially unchanged in the latest 110 page version of the bill I've seen. If it's passed, the US is well and truly fucked. The stock market will do a moonshot in the short term, then once the MBS papers start getting billed to Treasury the bonds market will lock up and dislocate. When that happens, all loans & credit lines are effectively gone and everything goes down the shitter. Oh, and the US government loses its AAA credit rating. Speaking of which, did you know that McDonald's has a lower risk of credit default than the US government as expressed in credit default spreads?

Because they refused to stand up and say "cut this shit out now!" until it was far too late. Where are the protests? Where are the mass angry phone calls to government reps? Americans as a whole were too damn busy watching NFL Football and American Idol to educate themselves on the shit that's going on, and more importantly, get off the lazy asses and do something about it. If you don't stand up for yourself, the bullies will punch you in the face and take your lunch money every single time. Make your voice heard. Take action. Act now while there's still some hope.

Yup, ECB overnight rate has blown out to 11%. You could probably get better rates from the mafia, except they break your kneecaps when you don't pay them back.

They have. Lots of people have had their cards frozen already, same thing with HELOCs. It gets even more fun. In the last week the yield curve on Treasuries has inverted. This means the banks' business model of borrowing short to lend long is now toast. If you thought the lending cutbacks to date were bad, what's coming up next will make it look like a picnic. We are entering the acceleration phase of the credit crunch.

Washington Mutual just got shut down by the FDIC and sold off to JP Morgan-Chase. JPM-C and Bank of America will be the last ones standing. All is proceeding as I have foreseen. As for EnAbl, it works. Damned if I know why but it does. The best way to describe it is like this; an untreated speaker is like listening to your rig during the day when it's kinda noisy and the power's rather crappy. With EnAbl it's like listening late at night when it's nice & quiet and the power grid is nice & clean.

Pro-ject Speed Box. Now you can just push a button.

Interesting, are you related to Dr. Gizmo by any chance?

Look up the housing price to yearly income ratio of the UK some day, it's even worse than that of the US. The only good thing is they actually have some savings over there as opposed to the negative savings rate in the US. On the downside their manufacturing base has been offshored to an even greater extent than the US. The Pound isn't tanking against the USD for no reason.

You're going to get creamed over there, their economy is headed straight down the shitter, they're actually in for the worst hardship of all the first world countries. Their government policies are literally going to leave the country broke, and they'll likely see a rerun of the post WWII recession and asset liquidation. They're no longer an oil exporter, and with that revenue stream gone they're in deep trouble. The Pound is falling fast against the USD, the fall will continue and may even accelerate.

If it's not fun and you're not motivated, just don't do it. It's a hobby, it's supposed to be fun, if it isn't fun anymore then move on and find something else to enjoy. One day in the future you might get an itch to do DIY again, or maybe you won't, but in either case don't worry about it, it's not your job, it's just a hobby. Interests change, people change, and that's life. To use a personal example, I used to play tennis a lot and it was a hell of a lot of fun, then I got tired of it and it wasn't fun anymore. I have close to $1000 in tennis equipment sitting around gathering dust, haven't played in years but that's fine, I don't lose any sleep over it or regret anything. Maybe I'll play again someday, maybe not, in the meantime I'm having way too much fun mountain biking.

Too early to say, but based on the available info to date it's "bad" and "blank check". A lot depends on what the Bonds and Foreign Exchange markets do in the next while. I'm also waiting for full details on the deal to come out since there's still some things which aren't clear yet, such as how much more MBS crap they're allowed to buy next year, how much crap is in their books, and what their acceptance standards for mortgages will be. As a rough ballpark figure, costs to the Treasury, that means you, the taxpayer, will be anywhere from $300 billion to several trillion. See here for the summary on Freddie & Fannie.

I don't know if there's any that are commercially available which don't use a step-up transformer, there's definitely designs available in the DIY world.

Problem is you have to be more careful with wiring, wire routing, and phono amp choice since the signal has to be amplified more, and any noise that gets picked up will also get amplified to a corresponding degree. For ease of setup and equipment matching, HOMC usually works better, but if you're chasing detail & resolution, go LOMC and be prepared for a few roadblocks along the way. Somethings things work out great but there's more potential for problems. My dealer favours HOMC for anything up to the mid to mid-high range, it's easier to get the system sounding good and keep it sounding good when the customer inevitably starts buying new gear and cycling it through his system.

I'd spend around half the money on a source and the rest goes towards buying marijuana to enhance my listening experience.

A piece of swordfish that's the size of a prime rib roast.

Just remembered this one while browsing DIYaudio. GedLee Nathan 10 in kit form will come in at $1300, plus what it costs to bribe someone to build it up for you if you can't build it yourself. I've never seen nor heard them, but the designer, Dr. Earl Geddes, really knows his stuff so I'd expect them to be darn good.

That could've bought some quality hookers and cocaine.