I love reading Nelson... a man truly after my own heart. I have not met him, but he seems to have a good sense of humor and is good at describing things.
"If you think of this project positioned on a range of DIY complexity, at one extreme you take a pail of sand and start fabricating your own transistors from scratch. At the other end of the scale you go to the store and buy a Bose system. This project leans toward the former.
Besides, who says that discrete designs have to be complicated? It is possible to build a nice amplifier with only a few more connections than a chip amp, and for a little more effort you can learn even more and get more enjoyment out of the finished product."
I'm still waiting for the Sun to go SuperNova... in the meantime, the caps have not melted, amps keep chugging happily along,... impervious to all but the United Parcel Service.
I think I'm retiring.... now I'm gonna have some quality time for myself... so make some room for me in the pool:
Remember, the whole idea is for you first-timers to get your feet wet in the shallow end of the pool. Put on some sun screen, and come on in.
I'm not a "first-timer" but after all these years, I sure feel like one again! This time around, I promise I'll put a power switch on the power supplies.
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Yeah... it seemed that way to me as well (I work for industrial automation/critical infrastructure where safety is... well... higher than No1 on the list of things) - hence my question. I initially thought that it is some kind of barrier to prevent fat fingers from touchy touchy... and then I thought that it was Argon, in case there's fire...
Nevertheless, due to a cryptic response I received, I learnt something... which is all that matters... really:
Nevertheless, due to a cryptic response I received, I learnt something... which is all that matters... really:
- plasma tweeters are a thing... and apparently, they are really good. They definitely look cool.
- Helium comes in a green bottle (I thought that was Argon colour)
Well, he is running what looks like a Conrad Johnson MF2100 solid state amp.
I realize that CJ is supposed to be all about tubes... but I wouldn't think the MF2100 is an OSHA violation. I got one, in the closet.
Heck, I was at one party once where the guy put an NO2 tank in front of the stereo and..... hmm.... and....
I picked up a taste for cigars after an internship working with lasers, making "air" lenses with a VERY BIG CO2 canister.
We used the cigar smoke to see the beam... it was a 55 watt laser. Serious stuff and you had to keep your hands and bodily parts out of harm's way.
OSHA? ROTFLOL.... the whole thing was so dangerous... Our "lab" was hidden under the stairs and lined with bricks just in case and it was sealed so no one could detect "the smoke". While the CO2 was running. Naturally we didn't' wear goggles because we had to see the light... and didn't wear protective gloves because we had to control the instruments and tweak the lenses and all the paraphernalia along the laser beam.
Yikes... then there was another job, with my boss using the cooling bottles of helium to chill his lunch soda. That's how we cooled the particle accelerator... He made sure not to drop and lose the can in there... just in case.
The 1970s were a different era.
We used the cigar smoke to see the beam... it was a 55 watt laser. Serious stuff and you had to keep your hands and bodily parts out of harm's way.
OSHA? ROTFLOL.... the whole thing was so dangerous... Our "lab" was hidden under the stairs and lined with bricks just in case and it was sealed so no one could detect "the smoke". While the CO2 was running. Naturally we didn't' wear goggles because we had to see the light... and didn't wear protective gloves because we had to control the instruments and tweak the lenses and all the paraphernalia along the laser beam.
Yikes... then there was another job, with my boss using the cooling bottles of helium to chill his lunch soda. That's how we cooled the particle accelerator... He made sure not to drop and lose the can in there... just in case.
The 1970s were a different era.
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Oh yeah... these days I can't even think about something without identifying the hazards and doing a full-blown risk assessment. It is so bad that at my age... I just want to be left alone... all that BS takes 95% of my time... 5% is actual work. I've been trying really hard to get the redundancy... I tried everything - verbal abuse as well - but they just keep giving me pay rise and pretending as if nothing happened. Amazing! Not sure how long I can go like this...
... and sorry for the off-topic vent...
... and sorry for the off-topic vent...
Glad to hear Mr. Pass mention Dr. Hill. Excuse my repetition but it was a highlight of my young audio life to get to hear the PLASMATRONICS tweeter and meet Dr. Hill when he brought it to a rather impromptu audio show in Atlanta.
What a great fellow - a gentleman even to a young idiot audio kook such as myself. He was kind to everyone in the room and willing to answer questions even after hearing them for the thousandth time.
A truly unforgettable character. Audio was so much more fun back them. Think of the folks who made their way without all of the gimmickly marketing nonsense we have to wade through these days. William Z. Johnson, Robert Fulton, Saul Marantz, Mark Levinson - just the one's that come to mind. Of course there was marketing but back them it was a neccessary evil. Now I believe it is the genesis of the product.
And guess who embodies this ethic in the modern world? This should be an easy one.
What a great fellow - a gentleman even to a young idiot audio kook such as myself. He was kind to everyone in the room and willing to answer questions even after hearing them for the thousandth time.
A truly unforgettable character. Audio was so much more fun back them. Think of the folks who made their way without all of the gimmickly marketing nonsense we have to wade through these days. William Z. Johnson, Robert Fulton, Saul Marantz, Mark Levinson - just the one's that come to mind. Of course there was marketing but back them it was a neccessary evil. Now I believe it is the genesis of the product.
And guess who embodies this ethic in the modern world? This should be an easy one.
Just watched the AZPONA video and was amused by the last comment that "you cannot hear what these can do over YOUTUBE". (Was pleased to hear Bruce Thigpen's loudspeakers were to be used with the HILLs. No way to incorporate them into an MEH)
No question of that. Like with a photograph - good stuff looks mediocre and all too often the mediocre looks better than it should.
The one thing I remember is how much what we hear with loudspeakers, and it was much worse back then, was distortion. Greg Monfort is always quick to say humans love the sound of distortion and that may be the case but what we all remembered with the HILL was what was not there and it was a shock that it was missed! It was like they had no high frequency response at all. We had grown so used to distortion in the high frequencies, especially.the high frequencies.
No question - these are the ideal - the exemplar - the guiding light to sonic truth. But I know I would not want to lvie with them. As if I could ever afford them! The old story is first you have to design and make THE GOOD ONE and then try to incorporate that goodness into real world products. this is the GOOD ONE.
No question of that. Like with a photograph - good stuff looks mediocre and all too often the mediocre looks better than it should.
The one thing I remember is how much what we hear with loudspeakers, and it was much worse back then, was distortion. Greg Monfort is always quick to say humans love the sound of distortion and that may be the case but what we all remembered with the HILL was what was not there and it was a shock that it was missed! It was like they had no high frequency response at all. We had grown so used to distortion in the high frequencies, especially.the high frequencies.
No question - these are the ideal - the exemplar - the guiding light to sonic truth. But I know I would not want to lvie with them. As if I could ever afford them! The old story is first you have to design and make THE GOOD ONE and then try to incorporate that goodness into real world products. this is the GOOD ONE.
For future reference, if you see a similar setup in my living room and hear me say it is used to get better sound, say nothing and call mental health professional immediately.
@grataku
Why? I just noticed that he's also running a CJ preamp as well.... ( Note the MF2100 at the bottom... 200wpc into 4 ohms, SS, class AB).
What are the planar speakers you can see at the far left? I have seen them before but I can't place them.
EDIT: Oh, I got the Thigpen comment... Eminent Technology LFT8?
Oh, if you are going to be wimpy... just wear a gas mask. Make sure it's not a full head gear... it might affect the soundstaging a bit..
Why? I just noticed that he's also running a CJ preamp as well.... ( Note the MF2100 at the bottom... 200wpc into 4 ohms, SS, class AB).
What are the planar speakers you can see at the far left? I have seen them before but I can't place them.
EDIT: Oh, I got the Thigpen comment... Eminent Technology LFT8?
Oh, if you are going to be wimpy... just wear a gas mask. Make sure it's not a full head gear... it might affect the soundstaging a bit..
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I assumed everyone had seen this - link at the end of the article. Not long you will see it quickly.
https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/showing-the-hill-plasma-tweeter-at-axpona/
This is a thread HERE by the fellow in the video https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...-plasma-tweeters-at-axpona-2023.386936/page-2
https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/showing-the-hill-plasma-tweeter-at-axpona/
This is a thread HERE by the fellow in the video https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...-plasma-tweeters-at-axpona-2023.386936/page-2
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