Got this old girl all warmed up and just had a good listen to it. First impressions is this is not a modern amp. I listened to some Tasha Sultana and boy does this amp pair well with her type of music. Absolutely beautiful, smooth warm and holographic sound. Very good match. Going to listen to some more electronic music and see how it does. I get the feeling it might not do as well. Will report back but I need to power it down now. It’s hot as balls in here now!
Dynaco ST-70 project
Just got a crusty old Dynaco ST-70 tube amp off e-bay to rebuild. It’s a project I’ve wanted to do for a long time. It’s amazing that you can still get replacement parts for something so old. The unit I got is in good shape electrically, but needs a new chassis. The chrome is old and pitted with rust here ans there. The output transformers also need a nice coat of paint too. Going to listen to it for awhile then do a transplant into a new chassis. It will. Give me the opertunity to replace older components while I’m in there.
I have been looking over the schematics and it’s a really simple design. Elegant simplicity that has stood the test of time. Will take some pictures when I get the chance. Plan on using it on my main workstation. Currently using an Emotiva integrated amp but I think it’s more interesting to use a preamp and amp here. Going to use a cheap Schitt amp for now and maybe get a vintage Dynaco pre-amp to rebuild later on down the road. I have also been eying a Dynaco Stereo 400’s on e-bay but that’s way down the road.
Want to get more into repairing old vintage equipment. Might hit some estate sales and garage sales this year and see what I can find… Not much in terms of deals in e-bay… Most people know what they have. Someday maybe a Sanusi AU X11! That’s a grail for me. Anyway that’s enough for now.
Latest project completed
Finally finished a project I have been dragging my feet on for awhile. The surround on my Vandersteen’s midrange detached. I have tried my hand at re-foaming speakers before and didn’t have very good luck with it. I decided to remove the drivers are send them back to Vandersteen.
Above is me testing them once I got the drivers back and re-installed. Richard Vandersteen really is brilliant with this design. Everything is well build but he saves so much money on the finishing just covering it with a sock and some fancy top and bottom plates!
Above you see them under test after I installed the new socks and top and bottom plates. They sound as good as ever even without proper placement. Still working on getting this system back up and running. I have some really nice vintage amplification going on them soon and my highly modified Rega P3 as the main source.
It’s been a minute!
Been super busy for awhile! Finally got a chance to check in here and make sure things are still running smoothly. Will do a better update when I can but for now just letting people know that I am still alive and well
Doing some site cleanup
Been awhile since I have posted here. The server needed a bit of TCL. It was running Ubuntu 16.04 so needed a urgent refresh. If you have any issues with anything loading please let me know. Not sure if I migrated everything over.
Will give an update to what I have been doing soon.
Crazy days in the courts
Yesterday was a surprise, hopefully people don’t go balistic and start riots again. Have to see how this progresses. 😅
Took a week off after I got some big projects off my back. Had people breathing down my neck to get things done early… Had to play let’s make a deal between different projects because hardware is in such short supply. Lead time for Arista hardware is something like 18 months if you order today! Crazy!
My car is leaking coolant because the body shop that did the work after my deer strike didn’t fix the clips on the lower radiator. Been rolling the dice nothing will happen because nobody can get me in… Have an appointment for next Monday so hopefully they can get the parts!
Not much else new around here. Been cutting services and cooking at home now. With the wonderful job Biden has been doing and my crazy commute I wanted to cut back before we have $10 gas. I would go electric but I don’t think that will work really well for my commute. Plus why should I have to go electric to support Brandon’s tree hugging adgenda. He’s going to cause rolling black outs and make this country feel like the 3rd world. People… Wind and solar do not make good baseload power… 😅
Anyway, keep cool… It’s a hot one today!
This is so cute!
Last weekend
Took the Ferry to Dumbo last weekend. Didn’t get a ton of sun but the weather was nice. Did some walking around, got some chocolate and a few Janet Jackson records. The record store was more hip-hop so not really my thing. I try to always get something to support local records stores hence Janet.
The ferry ride from Queens was a nice little day trip. With Covid spinning down and the weather getting nicer we need to expand our horizons and explore more. I can definitely say I like LIC more then Dumbo… Dumbo has a cool vibe but it’s noisy and might be a bit sketchy after dark. With that said I think we will be back during warmer weather… Seems like it’s the place to go for ice-cream…. Saw at least 4 shops and 3 trucks selling ice-cream… People really like it I guess.
Pellet Cleaner!
This year’s 2 tons of pellets have been extremely dusty and have caused feeding issues with my stove. I found some plans for a device used to clean corn for burning.
If you have a pellet stove and get feed issues this is a simple way to clean the dust off before it get into the feed auger.
If your thinking about a stove I highly recommend something that burns pellets. The fuel is cleaner then regular wood and takes up alot less space. The stoves feeds like a coal unit but can start and stop itself unlike coal. With a little bit of electronics experience you can interface them to something like a Nest and control it from anywhere. They don’t need a chimney, you can direct vent them like a dryer so basically you can put them anywhere. I pulled a permit for my install but you can probably get away without doing that if you install yourself. Since it uses fire I didn’t trust myself to install. 😅 Having seen it now I would do it myself next time…. It’s simple just need a thimble for going thru the wall. You save quite a bit on heating and I keep the place pretty warm most of the time now.
Namaste
Been listening to the Orbital remix of “Namaste” by Morcheeba. The bass in the intro is insane, overall an great remix.
Also listening to “Nextra” by deadmau5. It’s got a really cool bass line as well. It’s well done like most stuff by deadmau5.
And lastly “Solar Power” by Lorde… The album cover is a bit naughty but it’s kinda funky sounding and recorded well.