More Metronome Musings

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Cressy Snr
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#61 Re: More Metronome Musings

Post by Cressy Snr »

Aye...In the absence of an Owston this Summer, it'll be nice to have a couple of Doncaster area mini meets, even if it's only two people at each of them.
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Paul Barker
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#62 Re: More Metronome Musings

Post by Paul Barker »

Funnily enough I drove right past where we have our meets today on my way home after the first week away.

Hoping not to offend anyone, but it's great to be back in Scarborough.

Observations of a week in Doncaster differences compared to my usual work areas of Hull Beverly and Hornsea Driffield Bridlington and Scarborough.

Speed and flow of traffic much better in Doncaster they have many areas where you can do 40 or 50 right through the town legally. Safer Roads Humberside will never allow that in greater Hull ever again. If they are not disbanded (totally unlikely) Hull and district is doomed to 30 and 20 limits, and diabolical traffic flow.

The women in Doncaster have thicker makeup brushes and there is a plethora of stand up tanning booths. IF I dare say, they seem to need a thicker makeup brush. But that may be because of the overuse. Its a bit like watching an episode of my big fat gypsy wedding, the skin condition.

Pod wouldn't be welcome.
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Cressy Snr
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#63 Re: More Metronome Musings

Post by Cressy Snr »

You haven't seen the shit tip town where I live yet.
Donny is positively palatial in comparison.
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#64 Re: More Metronome Musings

Post by cressy »

I work in doncaster and see this every day. i presume that the female population of donny are taught to apply their warpaint using a plastering trowel and a 6 inch brush.
Subtlety is not really understood. You ought to see them after 7pm!
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Paul Barker
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#65 Re: More Metronome Musings

Post by Paul Barker »

Whereas looking at the fingers of women in Beverly is like watching an episode of Posh Pawn.
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#66 Re: More Metronome Musings

Post by Paul Barker »

SteveTheShadow wrote:You haven't seen the shit tip town where I live yet.
Donny is positively palatial in comparison.
No worries mate I was born in Wallsend. The arse of Newcastle.

My mother was from a very poor Durham mining neighbourhood called Pelton. But those mines were shut in the sixties so their urban decay happened right back then. My Dad OTOH originated from Rotherham. His dad was one of 7 brothers so there are trillions of distant relatives of my quite near you. But I have no idea who and where they are. I was brought up in Hampshire where my parents headed to avoid the zero work situation in the '60's closed mining community.

I used to say to Dad "how come nobody else is called Barker? (In hampshire they change your name to Baker because they think you have miss spelled it. They never heard of the name Barker.) He replied, "go to Rotherham there are loads of us!"
Last edited by Paul Barker on Fri Jun 19, 2015 9:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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#67 Re: More Metronome Musings

Post by Paul Barker »

cressy wrote:I work in doncaster and see this every day. i presume that the female population of donny are taught to apply their warpaint using a plastering trowel and a 6 inch brush.
Subtlety is not really understood. You ought to see them after 7pm!
You know it mate.

I genuinely was shocked. Its hard not to stare.
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#68 Re: More Metronome Musings

Post by simon »

I'm offended :-). You get used to it after a while, but it's not unique to Donny.

This is a pretty poor part of the country - it's not called the People's Republic of South Yorkshire for no reason.

I'm tied up for the next week or so but I'll drop you a pm in a week when im back in town Paul. You're more than welcome too Steve, as are other locals though we're a bit limited for time on a school night.
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#69 Re: More Metronome Musings

Post by Thermionic Idler »

The Big Mets in their new home...

Image

These things really are stunning - the Danish speakers they've displaced cost me £4k and that was before the 2008 financial crash when the pound sunk - I think they run about £6k - £7k now.

One standout feature for me is the complete lack of room modes - you walk around the room and the bass quality is the same wherever you stand. No faffing about moving them an inch at a time trying to find the perfect placement - such a RELIEF.

I also think they may actually be a bit more sensitive than the circa 92-93dB that we thought. My system has a small ground loop hum at the moment and this is more noticeable from the listening position than I remember it being with my last speakers which were 96dB. Certainly they're a lot more sensitive than the Celestions. This might change things with regard to my power amp plans, first thing I want to do is place a Met on one channel and one of my old speakers on the other, to compare which sounds louder. Second thing is to put an oscilloscope on the output to see how much power we're actually using with these.

@Steve, that 300B OTL you're building, I presume it's this one? http://www.transcendentsound.com/300B_OTL.html If so I'd be very grateful for the opportunity to hear it in our system when it's done, if that's possible. I didn't think 6 watts would be enough but now I'm wondering...
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Phono: Pete Millett LR, Lundahl SUT, AMB σ22 PSU
Linestage: Bruno Putzeys Balanced Pre + Hans Polak relay mod, LCDuino control
Power amps: 300B PP 'Symmetric Reichert'
Speakers: FF225WK Big Mets
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#70 Re: More Metronome Musings

Post by Cressy Snr »

They look quite at home in their new surroundings. WAF factor off the scale by the looks of that pic :)

Re the 300B OTL.
I've started on building it this morning and looking at the cct diagram, it unfortunately looks like the 1.5W single-ended one Rozenblit developed a few years ago. The big give away is that there is no negative rail off the PSU as well as the lack of a totem pole output stage. Bah!
The guy I'm building it for says he has had the kit for quite a while, now I've asked him. I just assumed it would be the PP model, but now I've opened the build instructions, it looks as if I assumed wrong :(
He's only given me 5 off 300B, so I can only build one monoblock, test it then build the other. I can't try it in stereo.
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Thermionic Idler
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#71 Re: More Metronome Musings

Post by Thermionic Idler »

Ahhh yes, I think that was published in Tubes and Circuits. Oh well, worth a try.

Just need to determine how hard I'm running the 15W amp to see which direction I should be going in...
Deck: Garrard 301 - Audio Origami PU7 - NW Analogue DH3S
Phono: Pete Millett LR, Lundahl SUT, AMB σ22 PSU
Linestage: Bruno Putzeys Balanced Pre + Hans Polak relay mod, LCDuino control
Power amps: 300B PP 'Symmetric Reichert'
Speakers: FF225WK Big Mets
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Thermionic Idler
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#72 Re: More Metronome Musings

Post by Thermionic Idler »

The cat approves too...

Image

This was taken during the final movement of Beethoven's 5th (HvK, 1962 DG, vinyl).
Deck: Garrard 301 - Audio Origami PU7 - NW Analogue DH3S
Phono: Pete Millett LR, Lundahl SUT, AMB σ22 PSU
Linestage: Bruno Putzeys Balanced Pre + Hans Polak relay mod, LCDuino control
Power amps: 300B PP 'Symmetric Reichert'
Speakers: FF225WK Big Mets
Cressy Snr
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#73 Re: More Metronome Musings

Post by Cressy Snr »

Clearly a cat with taste ...for well recorded Beethoven I mean. :mrgreen:
Great pic.
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Ray P
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#74 Re: More Metronome Musings

Post by Ray P »

Thermionic Idler wrote: Mon Feb 13, 2017 2:26 pmAhhh yes, I think that was published in Tubes and Circuits. Oh well, worth a try.
Unless the number of watts is an issue don't dismiss the 300B SE-OTL lightly as it is an outstanding amplifier. The original design published in Tubes and Circuits has been iteratively improved ; that one had 50Hz AC filament supplies which hummed a bit. The first Transcendent kit used a 25Hz filament supply to try and address this but the real breakthrough was the switch to DC filament supplies, which eliminated the hum but also improved the sound quality noticeably.

An American friend and I actually scratch built a DC version before the Transcendent kit was released and I continue to use it today - best amp I've ever owned and works a dream with my Lowther BLHs (Sorry Steve, but they don't scream, they sing!). They seem to have more power than their rated output too. Our scratch builds used a different output stage (originally proposed by Broskie) with filaments powered by a set of Andrew's DHT supplies. Below there's a picture of one of my amps and a link to my photobucket album where there are more pictures and some diagrams.

Steve, when you build your mates kit, do him a favour and replace the LM317 devices in the current sinks with TL783s - everyone I know who has done this considered it good improvement to the sound quality.

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http://s1298.photobucket.com/user/2a3us ... %20Version

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#75 Re: More Metronome Musings

Post by Cressy Snr »

Thanks for the TL783 tip Ray. :wink: I'll get him some.
His kit is the one with the 25Hz filament supplies.
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