[Paladin79]

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=148150.0

This source opines that the GE JAN 5670W can easily last 100,000 hours if conservatively run. That's about 17 years if you have the amp on 16 hours a day. Anybody have any idea how accurate that is?

That definitely sounds excessive. One hopes for 10k with some tubes and that is a rarity.

 

[sixergixer]

I've been listening to my friend's Sennheiser HD 6XX a lot recently on my [ Topping D50S > Loki Mini+ > Magni+ ] stack and I really enjoy the openness and spacious soundstage and clarity of these 'phones. But, I reverted back to my trusty Final Audio E5000 IEMs this evening and have been immediately struck by the presence and quality of very low bass notes that the Senns don't even pretend to reproduce. I cannot live with 'phones that can't drive the entire recording no matter what other qualities they may have.

Related to what I'm listening to, I'm appreciative of Kristin Hayter's announcement today that she has regained ownership of her albums released as Lingua Ignota and that she is now able to do new reissues of these out of print albums. I also appreciate how, despite having surmounted the abuse she lived under while recording under that guise, and having healed beyond it and recording under her own name, that she is still able to hold onto that justifiably angry and vengeful part of her life as part of her art and journey. That takes real bravery and great fortitude, methinks. The music released as Lingua Ignota is difficult, anguished music and that manifests itself in every lyric and every heavy note. But g-d, it is some of the most powerful, humanistic music I have ever experienced. "If the poison won't take you my dogs will". If that's not one of the angriest lyrics I've ever heard, I don't know what is. Ouch.

Again, not easy to listen to but oh so worthy. Proceed with care but definitely proceed with a curiosity of the human condition.

And long may the Final Audio E5000 reign. And groovy little Schiit stacks, too.

 

[earnmyturns]

FYI @earnmyturns ... Chick plays some Scarlatti and Scriabin here.

Thanks, I didn't know of that album. I heard him live playing Scarlatti in the middle of other tunes, he was amazing in stitching together many tunes from different composers, including him, of course, with improvised transitions. He was such a joyous and enlightening stage presence, hard to believe he's no longer with us.

 

[earnmyturns]

Yep. I was a senior software engineer on the TOPS-20 development team before I said “screw programming, I can talk to humans, I have a career in marketing instead”… I was focused (mostly) on improving the performance of the operating system, so was in the scheduler, pager subsystems quite frequently. I started at DEC in 1980, left engineering in 1987 for marketing/product management… (after you’ve built and optimized operating systems in assembler, what is left that would be both interesting and challenging? - my thoughts at the time when they announced the end of life of the 36 bit systems. A very SAD day)

I did a lot of work with TOPS-10 and TOPS-20 from 1975 to 1984 at all levels accessible to user processes, from messing around with system calls for page management to systems programming in MACRO-10 and Bliss to very high level AI languages. Some of my code can still be found on the internet if you know where to look. A few years ago, for Christmas, my wonderful, geeky daughter gave me as a mystery gift a Raspberry Pi preloaded with a PDP-10 emulator, TOPS-10, and the software I had worked on. Just plug in a keyboard, mouse, and HDMI monitor when you get home... She had spent months on really niche bboards getting it all together, including tape images somehow still around on the net for the work I had done in the late 70s and early 80s. It ran, and I was transported to the magic world if 36 bits.

 

[artur9]

My wife played some years ago and she is not interested in playing so I will not be building a board. I will stick to chess, poker, Go, rummy, and euchre for now. Oh and Scrabble lol, my wife is quite good so we have some amazing competitions there. I read years ago that games of skill are chess, Go, and poker but poker only when the stakes are high enough so you have to risk a decent amount to call.

If you can find 4 willing participants, Mahjongg is a lot of fun. Especially if you follow all the rituals laid out during the 1920's craze.
https://americanmahjonggforeveryone.com/the-history-of-mahjong/

 

[sixergixer]

Everyone, widespread Aurora Borealis are being reported across the country tonight, even at lower latitudes in the U.S.

Go outside, get away from city lights, and look north with a clear view of the horizon. You may only see a faint fuzzy haze on the horizon, in which case try out longer exposures on a camera. You may also see actual shimmering waves and pulses of light like you've never seen before.

It is still daylight in Oregon but I'll be keeping an eye on that kp chart in the left pane with the auroral oval shown in orange. It's at kp9 but if it hits a solid 10, it's game on for wavy pulses of naked eye auroras for me!

Spaceweather dot com

 

[artur9]

Another break for me. My wife and I are fairly well matched in Scrabble. I started out to be a writer and she was in the top percentile in the nation in English and studied creative writing in college. I studied classical languages and many such words carry over in English such as words ending in “ine”. Apine, avine, bovine, equine, lupine, etc. Use of the word xi is a favorite.

Fun stuff to pass the time when I am not building with tiger maple for some nomad I know.

My best scrabble word was zloty, 30points? I don't even remember how I knew it -- probably reading The Economist too much.

 

[artur9]

Everyone, widespread Aurora Borealis are being reported across the country tonight, even at lower latitudes in the U.S.

Go outside, get away from city lights, and look north with a clear view of the horizon. You may only see a faint fuzzy haze on the horizon, in which case try out longer exposures on a camera. You may also see actual shimmering waves and pulses of light like you've never seen before.

It is still daylight in Oregon but I'll be keeping an eye on that kp chart in the left pane with the auroral oval shown in orange. It's at kp9 but if it hits a solid 10, it's game on for wavy pulses of naked eye auroras for me!

Spaceweather dot com

Of course. Because it's been raining all day here in Eastern PA....

 

[Paladin79]

If you can find 4 willing participants, Mahjongg is a lot of fun. Especially if you follow all the rituals laid out during the 1920's craze.
https://americanmahjonggforeveryone.com/the-history-of-mahjong/

I have played before, as well as dominoes etc. I used to be highly competitive and even accepted challenges in other games.

My best scrabble word was zloty, 30points? I don't even remember how I knew it -- probably reading The Economist too much.

I scored 142 points on one word. Scores between my wife and I get fairly high. “Equality” using an existing letter on a triple word score plus 50 for seven letters. Now as far as cards, I had a gentleman bet me I could not cut four aces in four attempts from a standard deck of playing cards. I shared a video with a few on here of me replicating that. I figured that one out myself. I continually shuffled the cards between each cut. I also used a one hand cut to eliminate thoughts of manipulation. I did not use a mechanics grip.

 

[bcowen]

This might make me a heretic for even asking, but does anyone have any thoughts on new production tubes that work well with the Vali 3?

Any particular reason you're wanting new production? I only ask because GE 5670's are still quite plentiful and (comparatively) quite inexpensive. I have been known to occasionally frown on GE tubes in general, but my dislike spawned primarily from their 6SN7's and 12AU7's, both of which I find to be boring, bland, uninvolving and forgettable McTubes. But I haven't even listened to their 5670 and it garners a lot of praise from a whole lot of people. I'm not even sure if anyone is currently making a 5670. Probably the most recent production has been Russian in the 6N3P flavor.

 

[Paladin79]

Any particular reason you're wanting new production? I only ask because GE 5670's are still quite plentiful and (comparatively) quite inexpensive. I have been known to occasionally laughing frown on GE tubes in general, but my dislike spawned primarily from their 6SN7's and 12AU7's, both of which I find to be boring, bland, uninvolving and forgettable McTubes. But I haven't even listened to their 5670 and it garners a lot of praise from a whole lot of people. I'm not even sure if anyone is currently making a 5670. Probably the most recent production has been Russian in the 6N3P flavor.

There may well be some decent 6N3P’s out there. I do not recall Melz making any but the Foton’s may well be decent. I heard some Chinese versions some time ago but they were crap.

 

[bcowen]

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=148150.0

This source opines that the GE JAN 5670W can easily last 100,000 hours if conservatively run. That's about 17 years if you have the amp on 16 hours a day. Anybody have any idea how accurate that is?

I'm with @Paladin79 that 100k hours seems excessive in a noval signal tube. That said, there were several online articles a while back that reported Western Electric 300B's going 24/7/365 for 30+ years in telephone equipment, so I suppose it is possible. But 17 years without tube rolling? Even if possible, who'd want to?

 

[Paladin79]

I'm with @Paladin79 that 100k hours seems excessive in a noval signal tube. That said, there were several online articles a while back that reported Western Electric 300B's going 24/7/365 for 30+ years in telephone equipment, so I suppose it is possible. But 17 years without tube rolling? Even if possible, who'd want to?

Be right back, I need to mark this date on my calendar. You and I may have agreed on something.

 

[bcowen]

Be right back, I need to mark this date on my calendar. You and I may have agreed on something.

Oh no! I didn't realize that. Apologies. I'll go back and edit the post.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

Drive safely!

Of course! I’ve got an incredibly valuable load in the car!

You doing a 2-day trip?

5 days. Taking it slow.

Turlock -> Bakersfield
Bakersfield -> Flagstaff
Flagstaff -> Roswell
Roswell -> Kerrville
Kerrville -> Boerne