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Years ago I was very close to buying a whole lathe setup with spare cutters and everything, it was an auction and the price was 1$... but you had to pay for getting the thing out of the warehouse that very day or they'd penalize you big time.

Sometimes I regret not being more proactive about the whole thing. I enjoy electromechanical contraptions like that and would have liked to make masters and one-offs for people.

But the thing was enormous and it would not have worked well in a 3rd floor apartment in any case. It would be happier in the basement of a warehouse.

http://gallery.audioasylum.com...

plus two 19 inch racks full of all kinds of junk...

He is talking about the people who clip special piezoelectric rocks in a vial to their cables to suppress, well, something they're sure they otherwise hear.

Piezoelectric rocks?

WTF? I thought you were just making it up, but sadly, no. You can't make up this sort of thing.

Fact: Diamonds have good bass but rolled off highs

Fact: Citrine follows in the similar sound quality.

Fact: Amethyst has very good top end and upper midrange energy.

Fact: Diamonds and most other crystals, are thermoluminescent, whereby the crystals pick up stray electrons, trapping them in their latticework, and can release them later along with a photon (QED). This fact is utilized by archeologists to date buried artifacts ( flint and other material normally not datable by carbon), by heating the crystals up to 900 degrees and having a photomultiplier present as they do so to count photons released. Apparently, exposure to even light purges the stray electrons within the crystal thus "resetting" the crystal back to zero, giving a rough time line as to when the crystal or rock was reburied., as the natural radiation i the earth "recharges" the crystal.

Fact: Amethyst transforms itself into clear quartz when heated to 450 degrees C and into citrine when hated to 550 C.

Fact: Clear quartz does not quite have the openness of amethyst.

Fact: In addition to the trace amount of iron, amethysts are supposedly to obtain the darker shades of purple by exposure to natural radiation contained in the soil in which they are buried. The darkest shades seem to come from deeper within the earth.

Speculation: Being that the piezo effect means that an EMI field hitting a piezo electric crystal can generate movement and thus help dissipate energy, could it be possible that the citrine and diamonds have their unique sound signature because they are absorbing some of the electrons?

Perhaps amethysts have a lattice work which is "full" and thus more energy is transformed into mechanical motion. While some mineralogists warn that prolonged exposure to sunlight will bleach out the coloring of stones, most amethyst is fairly stable color wise.

I have tried heating some matched amethyst beads with an alcohol lamp and have succeeded in creating clear and a slight citrine coloration. The experiment was interesting because I could listen to the purple application and then heat the crystals up and reevaluate. One caveat: the crystal can "pop" like popcorn and they are very hot! Theoretically, the crystals remain unchanged except for the application of heat. The molecular structure is supposedly unchanged, but there are distinct differences in color and in sound when applied, with the top end distinctly being rolled off.

Incidentally, if you missed it over on Tweaks, sugar is also piezo electric and using a sugar cube certainly makes an effect. The cool thing about sugar cubes is that you can shape the cube and it most certainly has an effect upon the sound ( see the post on Tweaks for more information, a reply to FidPup's query about crystal alternatives).

[URL http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/digital/messages/14/149759.html%5D

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/pcaudio/messages/2/28626.html

They're treated with "quantum tunneling".

"Is the Synergistic one meter USB cable worth $550? No, it is worth twice this amount."

Sigh.

With that, I reply with this. http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/t.mpl?f=vinyl&m=707096

Technics, and I think a few others, made linear record players with a crude track selection ability. Some were even programmable.

Tubes are even; transistor are odd harmonic distortion, per article below. http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/faq/tubeprimer.html

Ah, allow me to illuminate :-)

Its amazing how we've come to accept that vinyl is truly dead and that one can't find the hardware or software anywhere. Ever.

When in fact it's better than ever. New releases are pressed all the time, often with better sound quality than in the past. Heavy vinyl (180-200 grams), pure, quiet vinyl and all. You can get everything from Diana Krall to Britney Spears to modern punk to all analog rereleases of past greats. Also, don't forget that there's literally megatonnes of used vinyl. See the link below for the ultimate resource of which pressings are the best, how to take care of your vinyl, etc.

As for hardware, there's some amazing choices out there. Used classic turntables such as the Thorens TD124 are not at all expensive, and many new hifi firms such as Project and Rega and VPI are producing some extremely good units. Marantz, Yamaha, Denon and many other mid-fi producers are coming out with quality turntables again due to demand and many new surround sound receivers from those manufacturers are featuring phono preamps. Not to mention Technics still sells their SL-1200 for both the DJ and home markets.

Here's some resources:

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/vinyl/bbs.html - discussion of all things vinyl.
http://www.classicrecs.com/ - new vinyl releases, many rereleases on high quality vinyl
http://www.needledoctor.com/ - Vinyl hardware

And there's loads more. Check out the Vinyl Asylum first. If you have any questions, drop me an email and I'll be happy to answer.

Oh, just to ramble some more, but also consider how much fun I've had since collecting vinyl again. I've met a guy who was a DJ in London in the 60s who sold me his copy of Sgt. Peppers LHCB, which turns out to be a copy given him hot off the press with a sticker saying Promotional Copy, do not sell, in mint condition. His stories are incredible. I've found music and other recorded oddities which will never see the light of day in digital formats. I've also heard music sound so real that I get goosebumps; you won't get that with digital.

Sorry for the rambling, but I'm always astounded by the common refrain: They don't press vinyl and you can't get record players anymore. And yet all of that is right in front of our eyes...

Cheers

I'm in my late forties. Most of the young whippersnappers in my office have never even seen a record player outside of movies. So, to listen to those "indie" vinyl records they're going to have to do some shopping.

First they need a turn table. But that low, low price does not of course include the required phono cartridge. The output of a phono cartridge is measured in micro volts and must be amplified before to "line levels" before it can be fed into an ordinary preamp. So last the aspiring vinylphile will have to collect that change that fell behind his couch cushions and get a phono preamp.

Sure beats overpaying for DRMed music.

what next ,the top 10 power cords?

Yep. Almost like you said, BUT you remebered them the wrong way. Tubes produce even harmonics and solid state amps (where are not really talking about digital amps here..) produce odd order harmonics.

Here are some nice looking articles:
Herron Audio: TAS tube article
Vacuum Tube Primer
The Sound of the Machine - The Hidden Harmonics behind THD

"A portable device could either use 4 channel headphones (expensive, requires 4 amplifiers to drive them, would increase battery consumption) or could use a DSP integrated circuit to decode the surround sound channels, perform the phase analysis done by the human brain, and send this synthetic binaural signal to regular headphones."

Sennheiser makes these. I have a DSP Pro. It's pretty cool, you pick from some presets that help model the accoustics of your head to simulate stereo imaging, you can add things like echo, accoustic modeling for various room types and it does Dolby ProLogic decoding. It works well and sounds good and you can get them for pretty cheap. I got mine free when I bought HD580s. They've got a pocket-sized one called the DSP 360, but I don't have any experience with that.

I totally agree. Speaker technology has seen little innovation in recent decades (finer points have been improved, but no 'breakthrough'), the 5.1 and 6.1 extensions are jokes, OK for games they are good but any 5/6.1 system is crap at music/DVD for your $, better spend hard earned dollars on good quality stereo speakers that _really_ do sound like gold.

OK, was making a break for OT but restrained myself. Foam sucks. If you are passinate about your speakers/sound, I recommend you check out these groups:

audio asylum
audiocircle or
TNT

[about the inventor of rockets being the American, Robert Goddard]

>> Well, I don't know much about that so I won't confirm nor deny,
>> but it sounds fishy to me. As far as I know, America hadn't even
>> tested a rocket motor during the time that Van Brown (spelling?)
>> was rolling V2's out onto the pad to launch at England.

and then Steve replied:

>> Goddard succesfully flew the first liquid fueled rocket in 1926.

Steve is correct. History records Goddard as inventing the rocket, and that Wernher Von Braun copied these designs, infringing upon Goddard patents. In fact, if we hadn't been at war, and if Goddard hadn't died during the war, Goddard may have prosecuted these patents. But one thing is for sure - Von Braun admits to basing his work after Goddard's.

versus

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/stores/deta il/reviews/-/books/1560983868/202-9638315-4933460

Excerpted from Aiming for the Stars by Tom D. Crouch. Copyright \

(Robert) Goddard left Roswell in 1941 to work with U.S. Navy and Curtiss-Wright engineers on the development of jet-assisted-takeoff and variable-thrust, liquid-propellant rockets. By the spring of 1944 he was receiving detailed reports on a new German long-range rocket, the V-2. "The weapon is reported to be almost identical with the rocket we were working on in New Mexico at the time we changed over to war work," he wrote to Harry Guggenheim, "except that it is larger."

Goddard provided the editor of the National Geographic News Bulletin with a list of his own patents for almost every aspect of V-2 design. "So closely do the mechanical features of the V-2 parallel the American projectile [Goddard's rocket]," the News Bulletin announced in January 1945, "that some physicists think the Germans may have actually copied most of the design."

That, certainly, was the opinion of Robert Hutchings Goddard. On August 14, 1945, he died of throat cancer, convinced that his work had played a key role in the Germans' success. It simply was not true. The Germans had followed the same path as Goddard, quite unaware that he had been there before them. Under the inspired leadership of Wernher von Braun, they had surged past him without a backward glance, achieving Goddard's goal of sending a rocket to the edge of space.

versus

http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/goddard/history.html

versus

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/6303 26140X?v=glance

And so on...

I'm just saying the history's a little muddied as to whether von Braun actually copied the patents or if their designs were similar based on reading the same literature, doing similar experiments, etc. (c.f., Newton and Leibniz).

-l

The numbers vs. perception issue has been driving the 'audiophile' press and engineers batty since the first triode was born. It has always been recognized that differences in how something sounds can't always be reconciled on the bench with numbers and test gear. Slew (intermod) distortion wasn't recognized till the 50's. I wonder how many more items we haven't discovered yet.

Audio is *NOT* limited to 22.5 khz like some wags right here on /. say. A trumpet *will* go clear past 50 khz on the harmonics, a cymbal crash will clear 100k.

Our measly, pathetic hearing organs cannot 'hear' this, but your body acts as a huge sound collector -- you *feel* it. If it isn't there, or worse, if it is there but distorted, funny things happen.

A well setup system will drop you in the recording room, or whatever the recording engineer created as one. Live recordings, when well done, can suck you right into a smoky bar.

A great stereo goes beyond 'clear', etc. It will give the illusion of not only soundstage width, but depth as well. With two speakers it does what it takes the muggles 5.1 surround to accomplish.

Those that pooh-pooh the audio geeks don't realize numbers don't tell the whole story. They don't even tell part of the story.

Go hear a pipe organ in a top-drawer, 100,000 dollar system. Pretty nice, I bet..

Now go hear the same organ in its natural environ. The bass will grab your chestbone and shake vigorously. Your head will tingle from all the energy past 20khz. Quite wonderful, sound is. Too bad our ears are so crappy. Moral of this one? Even the 100,000 dollar stereo falls way short of the Real Thing.

If you're happy with the Sornys, Magnetboxes and Farnasonics, fine. If not, may I suggest a trip down the AudioAsylum and get educamated. Those with basic soldering skilz and a healthy respect for triple-digit DC voltages will find that with a grand or three you can cobble together a system which will put a dent on a 10,000 audiophool-approved store-bought solution ;o)

And yes, 44 khz PCM *is* the devil incarnate. DSD and good ole analog tape are better. Really.

Some other fun thermionic links:

Ominous Valve (Funny!)

Why Hot Glass Rulez (Geeky!)

I've been down the road before. I did the hi-power solid-state (Squalid-state) with cone n' domes, I've done mass-market (Technics), I've done hot glass with horns. Hot glass (tubes, silly) and horn speakers is where its at for me. Makes brass, voices and cymbals just yummy. You can *hear* the rosin on a cello's bow. You can hear Tony Iommi's fingers scrape the strings. You can *hear* that little "click" some singers make when they part their lips.

There *is* a difference.. and as pointed out here, there's also a lot of snake oil.

Experiment. Learn. Build some shit. That way the snake-oil salesmen won't snag you.

It's fun.

I wonder if we can change out the stock tube (if it is a 12AX7) to maybe.. an old coke bottle sylvania or a squeeky clean russion SovTek tube :)

The pix at HardOCP include some closeups of the firebottle...turns out it's a Sovtek 6922, an industrial-grade equivalent of the 6DJ8 twin triode (the European equivalent is ECC88). Here's a page about the 6922 and friends from what sounds like an audiophoole perspective. (The historical info is interesting, though.)

And that's where SACD comes into play, eh? (For those not aware, SACD uses a 4.7 GB disc -- but for standard-length albums -- yielding much higher audio quality than ordinary CDs)