[L0rdGwyn]

I finished graduate school in 2002 and I'm still waiting to be able to just do my job and then go home and relax. Work has this amazing ability to follow me wherever I go.

Yeah I hear ya, depends on the field I am sure. After undergrad I worked very briefly in management consulting, my free time was non-existent. Now I will be a critical care nurse practitioner, luckily it is frowned upon to bring the patients home from the hospital, and I do not have to be on call like a physician, so work stays at work thankfully!

 

[Xcalibur255]

Officially done with grad school, now I can get back to listening

Congrats! That's a major milestone reached right there.

 

[chrisdrop]

Officially done with grad school, now I can get back to listening

Been doing some back and forth with the Sylvania 6BL7GT flat plates and T-plates. I've had the flat plates in the GOTL for about two weeks. Really have enjoyed them during that time. I rolled in the T-plates this morning to see how they compare. To my ears they are brighter, slightly less separation and air than the flat plates, very detailed. Bass on the flat plates goes a little deeper and hits harder. But the T-plates are very enjoyable in their own way, great texture and perhaps better treble extension than the flat plates. Overall, I prefer the flats, their rich bass is going very well with my morning techno, but both are excellent tubes. Going to see how these flat plates compare to my top 6BX7 next, the Toshiba.

Congrats on the life milestone.

 

[whirlwind]

Officially done with grad school, now I can get back to listening

Been doing some back and forth with the Sylvania 6BL7GT flat plates and T-plates. I've had the flat plates in the GOTL for about two weeks. Really have enjoyed them during that time. I rolled in the T-plates this morning to see how they compare. To my ears they are brighter, slightly less separation and air than the flat plates, very detailed. Bass on the flat plates goes a little deeper and hits harder. But the T-plates are very enjoyable in their own way, great texture and perhaps better treble extension than the flat plates. Overall, I prefer the flats, their rich bass is going very well with my morning techno, but both are excellent tubes. Going to see how these flat plates compare to my top 6BX7 next, the Toshiba.

Congrats Keenan.

 

[Monsterzero]

LCDs are just a headache inducing smear of colors to my eyes by comparison, no matter what sort of processing they throw at them to alleviate it. Sample and hold is sample and hold whether it's 60hz or 480hz.

Dude,you aint lyin' the blurring on even minimal movement is out of control. Funny thing is I lived with LEDs/LCDs since they came out and never noticed it,but once you live with an OLED,and then go back to LED its almost unbearable.

On the bright side,its good for gaming,with a near 12 millisecond lag time.

 

[leftside]

Yep. I can think of no piece of technology on sale today that is more "min-maxed" than OLED tvs. In some ways they are an amazing experience and in others a regressive frustrating disaster. I bought an LG C9 this summer and I really wish I hadn't. My Pioneer Kuro plasma hit 10 years old this year and it's getting pretty dim. OLED is kind of the natural way to go for plasma owners, not just for the black levels but because we're used to displays that use impulse response based pixel refresh.

Dude,you aint lyin' the blurring on even minimal movement is out of control. Funny thing is I lived with LEDs/LCDs since they came out and never noticed it,but once you live with an OLED,and then go back to LED its almost unbearable.

On the bright side,its good for gaming,with a near 12 millisecond lag time.

My first plasma was the Pioneer Kuro. Great TV. Left it on the wall of my first place that I sold for the next owner to enjoy.

Guys, please let me know when a TV technology comes out that betters plasma. I'm betting I'm good for another 4 years with the current Panasonic plasma.

 

[Xcalibur255]

IMO LCD has two massive problems that have existed since their first day on the market: lack of proper light control at the pixel level (thus the poor contrast and black levels), and the natural negative side effects of sample and hold display refresh thanks to the way the human visual system processes moving images. The dual panel LCDs coming next year will solve the former and finally give them per pixel light control without all the compromises of the "zoned" backlights we have right now. The latter nobody seems to seriously want to take a shot at solving which amazes me considering how many people are sensitive to it. I feel like the dual panel setups actually present the possibility of mimicking impulse refresh in software by timing the open and shutting of the secondary light control pixel. I think maybe the reason nobody has tried is because it is detrimental to energy efficiency and that has always been the major focus in recent years, especially in the EU due to regulatory pressure.

By the time LCDs don't suck they'll be starting to test beaming the images directly into your brain.

 

[Monsterzero]

Guys, please let me know when a TV technology comes out that betters plasma. I'm betting I'm good for another 4 years with the current Panasonic plasma.

IMO OLEDs are better than any TV thats ever been released,even better than the vaunted and rightfully legendary Kuro. Unfortunately for me,I game a lot with a static HUD that has imprinted into the screen permanently.
If you game frequently or watch Home Shopping Network 16 hours per day,I'd suggest steering clear of OLEDs.

EDIT: Or buy an OLED and the extended warranty and get a new one every two years when the screen burns in. I wouldve done that,but were moving to Arizona in 24 months and the place we buy from is regional only.

 

[L0rdGwyn]

I've taken some time off in between jobs, had one day off so far and already going crazy so....

I've decided I am going to get serious about building my own amplifiers. Found some nice video series on a high-level process of building a SET amp, so going to start there and also read a few books. Surprised but much of the information I am already familiar with, but going to dive deeper into design theory, troubleshooting, test equipment, etc. I have some physics and math education from my first degree so that will help. There will definitely be some overhead cost to get started, I already have many of the building supplies from doing Bottlehead kits and GOTL mods, but will have to look into what test equipment is needed (oscilliscope, distortion analyzer, etc.).

Can't say when I will be comfortable enough to do a full build from start to finish, we will see! I tend to obsess over projects, so maybe very soon. SET is a good place to start though, pretty straightforward design, I was thinking building a new SET stereo amp would be my first project, with a headphone output of course will have to switch to some high-efficiency speakers, but I am always happy to upgrade, maybe grab something from Zu Audio.

Getting way, way ahead of myself, but since I am on an MH4 tube kick, I thought these would be some cool tubes to use as drivers. Equivalent to MH4, but uses an obsolete 7-pin socket, Radiotechnique PTT100. Have a line on some of these and they come highly recommended.

 

[Deyan]

I've taken some time off in between jobs, had one day off so far and already going crazy so....

I've decided I am going to get serious about building my own amplifiers. Found some nice video series on a high-level process of building a SET amp, so going to start there and also read a few books. Surprised but much of the information I am already familiar with, but going to dive deeper into design theory, troubleshooting, test equipment, etc. I have some physics and math education from my first degree so that will help. There will definitely be some overhead cost to get started, I already have many of the building supplies from doing Bottlehead kits and GOTL mods, but will have to look into what test equipment is needed (oscilliscope, distortion analyzer, etc.).

Can't say when I will be comfortable enough to do a full build from start to finish, we will see! I tend to obsess over projects, so maybe very soon. SET is a good place to start though, pretty straightforward design, I was thinking building a new SET stereo amp would be my first project, with a headphone output of course will have to switch to some high-efficiency speakers, but I am always happy to upgrade, maybe grab something from Zu Audio.

Getting way, way ahead of myself, but since I am on an MH4 tube kick, I thought these would be some cool tubes to use as drivers. Equivalent to MH4, but uses an obsolete 7-pin socket, Radiotechnique PTT100. Have a line on some of these and they come highly recommended.

That's not an obsolete socket. It's the German post tubes socket.

 

[L0rdGwyn]

That's not an obsolete socket. It's the German post tubes socket.

Right, what I meant was this socket is not being used in off-the-shelf amplifiers, I guess uncommon would have been a better way to put it. No socket is obsolete for you, Deyan

 

[Deyan]

I guess there aren't any

 

[GDuss]

I've taken some time off in between jobs, had one day off so far and already going crazy so....

I've decided I am going to get serious about building my own amplifiers. Found some nice video series on a high-level process of building a SET amp, so going to start there and also read a few books. Surprised but much of the information I am already familiar with, but going to dive deeper into design theory, troubleshooting, test equipment, etc. I have some physics and math education from my first degree so that will help. There will definitely be some overhead cost to get started, I already have many of the building supplies from doing Bottlehead kits and GOTL mods, but will have to look into what test equipment is needed (oscilliscope, distortion analyzer, etc.).

Can't say when I will be comfortable enough to do a full build from start to finish, we will see! I tend to obsess over projects, so maybe very soon. SET is a good place to start though, pretty straightforward design, I was thinking building a new SET stereo amp would be my first project, with a headphone output of course will have to switch to some high-efficiency speakers, but I am always happy to upgrade, maybe grab something from Zu Audio.

Getting way, way ahead of myself, but since I am on an MH4 tube kick, I thought these would be some cool tubes to use as drivers. Equivalent to MH4, but uses an obsolete 7-pin socket, Radiotechnique PTT100. Have a line on some of these and they come highly recommended.

Is it too early to get in the queue for a L0rdGwyn amp ?

 

[Xcalibur255]

I've taken some time off in between jobs, had one day off so far and already going crazy so....

I've decided I am going to get serious about building my own amplifiers. Found some nice video series on a high-level process of building a SET amp, so going to start there and also read a few books. Surprised but much of the information I am already familiar with, but going to dive deeper into design theory, troubleshooting, test equipment, etc. I have some physics and math education from my first degree so that will help. There will definitely be some overhead cost to get started, I already have many of the building supplies from doing Bottlehead kits and GOTL mods, but will have to look into what test equipment is needed (oscilliscope, distortion analyzer, etc.).

Can't say when I will be comfortable enough to do a full build from start to finish, we will see! I tend to obsess over projects, so maybe very soon. SET is a good place to start though, pretty straightforward design, I was thinking building a new SET stereo amp would be my first project, with a headphone output of course will have to switch to some high-efficiency speakers, but I am always happy to upgrade, maybe grab something from Zu Audio.

Getting way, way ahead of myself, but since I am on an MH4 tube kick, I thought these would be some cool tubes to use as drivers. Equivalent to MH4, but uses an obsolete 7-pin socket, Radiotechnique PTT100. Have a line on some of these and they come highly recommended.

I find this post inspirational. The motivation and enthusiasm you display here is, to be honest, quite rare IMO even for serious hobbyists. People like yourselves are the ones that keep all this alive too and carry it forward another generation. I wish you both joy and success in your amp building endeavors.

 

[L0rdGwyn]

Is it too early to get in the queue for a L0rdGwyn amp ?

Haha I would say so! Lots of learning to be done. I am comfortable with the building aspect, testing and troubleshooting is where I need to focus my time. I'll also be investing in some much-needed safety equipment (isolation transformer, dim bulb tester). I'll certainly update here as I go along!

I find this post inspirational. The motivation and enthusiasm you display here is, to be honest, quite rare IMO even for serious hobbyists. People like yourselves are the ones that keep all this alive too and carry it forward another generation. I wish you both joy and success in your amp building endeavors.

Thank you for your kind words. Hopefully some success will come of it, there certainly will be growing pains, but the most satisfying experiences are not without their challenges. Looking forward to having some fun with this