[Paladin79]

No, you misunderstand, or I communicate poorly.I was speaking of consumer audio equipment, whether it be radios or televisions or console hifi. This was the age before switching power supplies. Everything was linear. Lights were incandescent. The only source of noise on the line was from AC motors with commutators. You needed to filter that out. Hence the death cap. And many deaths. And the UL. And me doubting Jason floats his chassis. You didn't say that. Someone else did.

Yeah I generally stay out of things I am not totally familiar with, those meters are easily run off of 12 volts and maybe 500 ma so I do not give them a lot of thought.

 

[sublime9]

I enjoy some of their music too but I was born old and so prefer traditional Pop music and Jazz more than other genres. I do listen to a lot of 60s through (maybe) the 80 pop/rock but for what ever reason I am more hooked on Jazz and the like. The group Heart is very good and I have some of their stuff and one of my favorite stations on SiriusXM is "The Bridge". They play Heart quite a bit. Same with Fleetwood Mac. Good stuff.

Heck, I really enjoy traditional Country too and Hank Williams III gets me laughing too. Same with The Red Elvises (Elvi?), LOL! I hate cRap and Hippity Hop and the country version of the latter, "Hick Hop". But poop sells to flies and I am certain there are more than a few people that cannot abide traditional Gaelic music. I like it.

I was born old. And especially cranky!

ORT

I loved "Crazy on You" and "Magic Man" and Nancy Wilson ( I always mix her up with her sister)could play guitar with the best of them. Dreamboat Annie album from 1976 hit me at 16. Just have to look at the cover. And the music was good to boot. Nancy ended up marrying Cameron Crowe, good movie producer. ver "Almost Famous".

 

[Paladin79]

Talk of aging has come up in here a few times, some of my favorite lines are from Leonard Cohen:

Well, my friends are gone and my hair is grey
I ache in the places where I used to play
And I'm crazy for love but I'm not coming on
I'm just paying my rent every day in the Tower of Song


Not long before he passed away, I recall reading an interview and an X girlfriend had died. He said something like, "reach back your hand, I am not long behind you". That is class.

 

[sublime9]

Yeah I generally stay out of things I am not totally familiar with, those meters are easily run off of 12 volts and maybe 500 ma so I do not give them a lot of thought.

That is fine for your own projects. But when they are going to other people, even gifted, you have to think of them as a product. Lesley Harvey. A microphone uses far less current than a VU meter. I'll leave it at that.

 

[Paladin79]

I merely meant I cannot comment on the ground system in the Freya since I do not have the schematic.You originally asked how the meters looked, and then the RCA female connectors. I only tried to help. If they are going to other people and you build it, yes you should be careful. You chose the power supply board and I do not have a whole lot of info about that. Good luck.

 

[sublime9]

Look. The only thing I took exception to was your comment that I was overthinking this. I was ok with everything once I saw the little lip in the RCA jack washers.

Combined in this was some other dude saying that he was sure that Jason did not connect his earth ground to anything. I, mistakenly tried to reply to both comments in the same post. Sorry if I gave offense. I combined your overthink remark with the dude that was sure the ground was taped off. I should have addressed each issue separately, but those posts hit me one after the other.

Besides, if I wanted you to really like the way it looked, I would have glued three brass gears to it that did nothing, added copper pipe and a couple of cold water shut off valves and placed a WW2 salvage divers helmet on top of the whole mess with two steam pressure gauges coming out of each ear.

 

[Paladin79]

I did nothing but try to help.

 

[sublime9]

Was the diver's helmet over the top?

 

[MWSVette]

Or we can go back to cats...

 

[sublime9]

Or we can go back to cats...

Cats. We need more cats. My apologies to the thread.

 

[TomSix]

Yeah, I was consulting that last night. I have read it before. I can't imagine what fear that would strike into a beginner. That is something that needs at least two days to digest with an engineering notebook. I find it a cachaphony of do's and don't's so confusing that the logical conclusion is to throw one's arms in the air and admit defeat before you start.

Anyway, once I found the lips of the RCA connector washers, all is good. On any continent. And I am grounding my chassis to earth. Nothing else inside will be electrically connected to chassis. Why have a 3 prong plug if you are not going to ground the metal? Pretty sure that is a UL violation.

I would suggest exercising much caution with grounding and wiring. Remember, you will be running an electrical connection from the amplifier to a pair if transducers (headphones) clamped onto your head!!!

DISCLAIMER: This post is NOT submitted as a wiring guide and/or advice, professional or otherwise! What follows is simply a casual expression of a few thoughts about grounding from my own personal perspective. The contents of this post is submitted only in the interest of entertaining the reader's intellectual curiosity. I am NOT advising you or anyone else reading this posting to pursue any particular wiring and/or grounding scheme or approach based on my personal ideas an/or opinions expressed herein.

I do, however, suggest great caution and further study be undertaken, regardless of whatever you (or anyone else who is not a qualified electronics expert) may personally decide to do with one's own equipment wiring/grounding.

Here's a "thumbnail sketch" of the kind of grounding approach I tend to take:

I always connect the green ground wire from the AC mains solidly/directly to the chassis at a point closely adjacent to the AC mains inlet/connector. I use proper and secure connecting hardware, and as short of a length of wire length as reasonably practical. I never attach this ground connection to a screw or bolt which can be loosened and/or removed from the outside (user accessible) area of the chassis.

I almost always utilize only a single signal and HV-supply ground connection point to the chassis in the immediate vicinity of the first (input) stage device.

I most often use (in point-to-point wired tube amplifiers) a "signal-follows-ground" main ground-bus consisting of a large (12 or 10 AWG ) solid wire which connects first (on one end) to the HV-supply B-minus connection, and then (sequentially) back along to the output device/s, then on to the driver stage/s, then on to the lower level voltage stage/s, and finally on to the very first tube/device in the amplifier, where I then connect this one end of the main ground-bus solidly to the chassis: this is my signal and HV-supply chassis grounding point.

If the amplifier uses an audio output transformer, I always connect/ground one side of the secondary winding (audio output) directly and solidly to the amplifier chassis in the vicinity of the headphone jacks. IMO, this is a prudent precaution so that if the output transformer short-circuits internally, then the high voltage from the primary winding will tend to shunt into ground and thereby (hopefully) immediately blow the mains fuse, and (hopefully) NOT electrify the headphones --yikes!

I tend to locally insulate all input RCA jacks from the chassis by utilizing insulated washers/bushings. I generally gang the grounds of all of the RCA input jacks together with a short local ground-bus or ground-plane. I then run a single (fairly heavy gauge) input-ground wire (this one wire carries a unified ground connection for all L & R inputs ) from the input jack ground-bus/plane directly to a connection on the main ground-bus at a point in the vicinity of the volume control and/or first amplification stage's ground connection. This point is, as previously mentioned, being directly adjacent to where the main ground-bus connects directly to the amplifier chassis.

IMO, it's far better to err on the side of caution, and not to violate established electrical codes an/or known best/proper practices when wiring/grounding equipment.

If a piece of gear is wired properly, it will be safe to use and not have any ground-loop hum problems.

Trying to be clever and "reinvent the wheel" in an effort to avoid ground loops, IMO, is risky and irresponsible, and should be considered "a fools picnic" --big time!

Anyone not very familiar/experienced with electronics wiring, I would strongly suggest they seek a qualified electronics expert to look over the planned wiring/grounding scheme carefully BEFORE the wiring/assembly process begins.

What one can get away with when building small battery-powered units having low supply voltages, you usually cannot do when building gear which is connected to the AC mains and/or has dangerously high operating/supply voltages.: A WIRING FAULT OR ERROR CAN KILL YOU (OR SOMEONE ELSE) DEAD --INSTANTLY!!!

Okay, I'm starting to sound like a lawyer (I'm not), or someone's dad (also not)....

Seriously though, BE CAREFUL!

 

[sublime9]

TomSix,

I thank you for your excellent and cogent reply. Nice to read that stuff. Audio output transformers and B minus brought back some memories. It is well stated. I actually know what I am doing even if I am over thinking it according to some. That primer was concise and well stated. Ground the chassis. I have to look back to see who had issue with that.

 

[wink]

 

[cricket]

Listening to a bunch of CDs via the VN². Lots of Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaugh with more than a touch of Beverly Kenney. Oh...And some Nancy Wilson. Not the kid from "Heart" but the Jazz songstress.

ORT

ORT,

Let me suggest Cécile McLorin Salvant. According to this link, Wynton Marsalis has said, "You get a singer like this once in a generation or two."

 

[Timster]

Hi All, I lurk around here a lot (on Jason and Mikes threads specifically) and have read pretty much their entire threads, only scanning a few long posts if it wasn't so interesting to me. That does not of course mean it wasn't interesting to someone else hanging around.

Then occasionally I post something if I feel I can add a little to the conversation, or a have a question that I think maybe someone can help me with.

I am happy to scan through cats, wine, beers, opera, VU meters, other random memes and ramblings, and all the other so called "off-topic" conversations - it's a fun place to read stuff, learn stuff, and a great way to sit an enjoy my morning coffee. Far better than the news.

It irks me when any thread diverts into personality contests (I couldn't think of a nicer way to say it )

Are we not all adults here? Can't we appreciate other's opinions and their turns of phrase, without it resorting to sniping or worse.

It's hard trying to interpret emotions and intent when reading another's writings. Most times it's better to assume the best, not the worse.
My glass is (at least!!) half full. Is yours?

<Lurk_Mode=1>