[wink]

Here's a thread to post your stories about how your wallet got destroyed and Head-Fi resulted in you going on a long term ramen diet to support your Hi-Fi habit.

 

[deadlylover]

  Here's a thread to post your stories about how your wallet got destroyed and Head-Fi resulted in you going on a long term ramen diet to support your Hi-Fi habit.

 
"Get into DIY and you can save yourself some money"
 
They said...
 
"Good tools and equipment make everything easier"

They said...
 
Well, my soldering iron goes from room temperature to 300C faster than the LaFerrari accelerates from 0-100mph, my audio analyser's distortion floor is lower than any high end headphone amplifier ever made, and my multimeter is accurate enough to calibrate multimeters.... that calibrate other multimeters.
(I'm sure you know a thing or two about uncertainties and NATA traceability, no?

)
 
At least I like ramen....thank god it's in my blood.

 

[wink]

You mean you have an agilent 3458A or 34401A..?
 
Good to see you here. How did you escape from the anime and manga thread?
 
You start off woth $50 worth of tools and build your first amp.
 
You then buy $Hundreds of tools and parts to build your next amp.
 
You then continue to buy $Hundreds to keep building amps.
 
In between you spend $Thousands butying headphones to listen to your amps with.
 
Wallet-breaker right there

 

[deadlylover]

  You mean you have an agilent 3458A or 34401A..?
 
Good to see you here. How did you escape from the anime and manga thread?

 
I can check out any time I like, but I can never leave. 

 
I have Japan's answer (like you'd be surprised) to the legendary 3458A, it's an Advantest R6581. It also has 2 source artefact calibration just like the 3458A, and it's 10VDC stability is 5ppm/yr, better than the default 3458A(8ppm) but a little worse than it's option 002 spec(4ppm).
 
It's actual stability remains to be seen, in theory it should be more accurate than the 3458A because it's voltage reference isn't as abused (runs at 65C instead of a toasty 95C of the Agilent), ah well, I'll find out in 9 months or so when it goes back for calibration.
 
I also have 3x 34401A....yeah I have a problem...if you ever need to borrow some of my instruments you know where I live. 

 
The 3458A is still my dream machine, I hear vehicle manufacturing is going to cease in Australia, I wonder if I'll be able to snag anything for cheap...

 

[wink]

We used to calibrate the DC voltages and resistance on the Fluke 5700A, 5720A 5500A and 5520A with the 3458A.
 
The AC ranges were calibrated with a Fluke 5790A or Datron 4920 due to the 3458A being a bit too soggy.
 
Fot the Fluke resistance standards, we used an Agilent 34420A low Ohms/ micro voltage meter in 4 wire mode.
 
The 34401A meters were cal'd with the Fluke 5700a and 5720a calibrators.
 
Thanks for the offer.
 
I have some old Wandell & Golterman PMG3 Sig gens if you want one. The output is into 600 ohm, so for the dB reading to be accurate you need a 600 Ohm terminating load.
50Hz to 20Khz. measures from 20hz to 20Khz.

 

[wink]

OK, so who would have been a millionaire if they hadn't been hooked onto Hi-Fi...?

 

[deadlylover]

  We used to calibrate the DC voltages and resistance on the Fluke 5700A, 5720A 5500A and 5520A with the 3458A.
 
The AC ranges were calibrated with a Fluke 5790A or Datron 4920 due to the 3458A being a bit too soggy.
 
Fot the Fluke resistance standards, we used an Agilent 34420A low Ohms/ micro voltage meter in 4 wire mode.
 
The 34401A meters were cal'd with the Fluke 5700a and 5720a calibrators.

 
Very interesting stuff, as a newbie volt nut I've always wondered how a cal lab operates, small world huh? 
 
I'm surprised to see the Fluke calibrators being calibrated by a 3458A, was the 3458A sent out to the NMI at Canberra for a calibration, or did you guys use in house standards along with the 3458A. (does the Statronics VS4 10VDC standard and ESI SR-104 10kOhm standard ring a bell?) 

 
Most likely the latter now that I think about it, even a 3458A 90-day cal isn't good enough for the beasts that are the Fluke 57xx series......or is it? I have no idea how well a "golden" 3458A performs.

 

[wink]

We had our own standards lab.
 
We sent the reference standards to NMI in Lane Cove, and did intercomparison testing between the reference standards and the working standards.
 
When you have half a dozen 3458A's and 5700A/5720A's, if you sent them to NMI you were without them for months sometimes.
 
The reference standards were powered up 24/7.
 
When you did an internal cal on the 3458A, you needed to wait an hour for the thing to settle if you wanted maximum accuracy.
 
Also, the 3458A didn't have very good shielding, so sticking a signal  generator on top of it was not such a good idea if you wanted maximum accuracy.