n_maher

I had a ripping good MTB ride yesterday at Ft. Rock. I hadn't been on the MTB for almost 4 months and it felt great to be back out again. I'm looking forward to many more fall rides. I did take a little video so I'll try to post some of that up when I find some time.

Happy belated birthday!

A belated happy birthday, Wayne.

Good luck, Larry.

Given the cell-phone level of pictures being provided so far I think it's a little early to make sweeping generalizations about how it'll look in the flesh. I'll grant you that it's never going to be flashy but it maintains the same general aesthetic approach of the other Apex offerings (Peak, Pinnacle, etc.) so there's good reason for it to look the way that it does. And Kevin, I think that one of the top mounted bits is a large, first stage choke. The power supply on this thing is going to be running pretty at pretty high currents (compared to normal tube gear) ~200mA so the first stage choke would need to be a lot larger than the little guys inside the chassis. I'm basing this assumption partially off of the reference to a "multi-staged LC filter" that is in the product description and partially off of the # of wires coming through the bottom panel. I also think they're running DC heaters for the 6NS7, which is a nice upgrade over previous iterations of this amp. I'll be bugging Pete about it more, that much is for sure.

Please, elaborate on your vast experience designing, building and distributing high-end electronics.

I think it's 2 trafos and 3 chokes, but I could have that backwards.

I'm curious what you meant by this comment? Based on what I see I'm not sure I'd change a thing about how that is built other than a different style of heatsink.

I believe that I have a prototype PCB tucked away in a drawer somewhere for the amp section. Hopefully this will drive tube prices in a direction that allows you to think about selling some of your 421A collection. And I still think that the way to bring this type of amp to market is to do it like the TTVJ 307A and trafo couple the inputs and outputs and call it balanced. Yes, it adds cost but the additional market created is worthwhile. I also loved the Menace TC and if time/money permited it'd be the version that I'd build again with premium parts. That was kind of where the thought process for Frankstein started...

The heatsink is for the cathode resistors that set the current through the output tube, IIRC. If you look at the PCB you'll see two gold-colored, 50W (I think) resistors mounted to the bottom of that sink. I did a similar thing on the Menace. .

I'd argue that the amp in question is attractive.

My vote is Dan.

Yes, of course.

Personally I prefer a layout that favors function over form, which this does. I think Innerfidelity needs to review this amp.

Done. Also, based on recent discussions surrounding the HD800 I'd wager that this stands a good chance of being an excellent amp for those cans.

Congrat to both Colin and Shelly!

These things sound like a complete failure. Given the installation issues what hope do you have that they'll last for even a season of hard riding? Me: had a great commute back and forth to work yesterday although the morning trip was rather cold (35 when I left the house) and I had a bee fly into my helmet on the way home and sting me on the top of my head (at 30mph). But I'm trying to take the good with the bad.

Happy Birthday, Jim!

I think lots of folks had rugged weeks. Me: who'd have thought that the combo of Aaron Rogers and Brandon Marshall (my starters) would be outscored by Sidney Rice and Russel Wilson (bench) by 30 points. I'll be lucky to crack triple digits this week and baring a minimum of two miracles I'll lose in a big way.

Sadly, the calfee sold this weekend and not to me. Now looking at maybe grabbing a used tarmac to see how riding something more aggressive feels. Jeff, most right hand dominant people are left leg dominant. Are you a right or a lefty?

I suppose, but there's a pretty clear wear line on the seat post from where is used to be so it was at that height for a good long time.

Interesting Jeff, I'm not sure I would have put up with that much hassle but thanks for blazing the trail. For me - I was still feeling like I wasn't getting proper extension even after raising my seat ~1/2"+ a month or so ago so I raised it another 1/4"+ yesterday before I took a 18 mile loop around East Kingston. From the minute I got on the bike it just felt more right. This leaves me utterly puzzled as to what the shop was thinking two years ago when they "fit" me on this. Late this fall or maybe early next spring I think I'm going to schedule a proper/real fitting and see what the results are.

No pictures but last night I had what will probably be on of the top 10 meals in my lifetime. Maura and I (along with her brother and his wife) took her parents and their two best friends out to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. We picked Grill 23 in Boston which is historically rated as the top steakhouse in Boston and has made other lists like Maxim's top 10 and so on. We started with drinks and fried calamari, moved onto salads where I had the Baby Iceberg (stuffed with bacon and gorgonzola w/ ranch dressing) and for the main course I selected the Kobe cap steak (10oz) which was the best cow I've ever eaten. The table finished things off with caramel profiteroles and chocolate layer cake, both of which were extraordinary. It's the better part of 12hrs since I finished that meal and I still am not hungry. My wallet may never recover either but it was worth it.

In better bike-gear related news I stopped by my LBS earlier in the week to show them the issue that I was having with my new-to-me shoes. They agreed to talk with Specialized about it and see if they could get me a warranty replacement strap to see if that helped. i was psyched they agreed to even try given that I didn't buy the shoes from them, didn't have a receipt, etc. So they got S to agree to send a strap but before that could happen their head mechanic (Billy) asked if I'd bring the shoes back in to see if the fault was with the shoe. It's on my way home so I did that yesterday. He took one look at the right shoe and said, "A strap will never fix that and offered to talk with S again about getting me a replacement set of shoes. Sweet! He went one better today and called to let me know that if I could wait a month he'd get me a replacement from the 2014 model which does away with the ratchet mechanism entirely in favor of the much better BOA closure. SUPER SWEET! I of course agreed to wait two or three weeks for the new shoes so hopefully by mid October I'll be rocking the Titanium/Black version.

Here's to hoping you get twice as much time with your friend than you expect.