audio-talk

Been playing with these, found them locally for not much at all. Falcon Acoustics Nightingale NM-1. They are surprisingly good, certainly worth getting some new bits for the crossovers.

ed wrote: ↑Sun May 02, 2021 9:00 am last night on bbc2
David Bowie - finding fame
...recommended for DB fans ...it'll be on Iplayer I'm sure

Have you got the double-CD album 'Bowie at the BBC' , Ed ? ( or it's equivalent in non-physical form ) . I enjoyed that a lot, goes together with that film very nicely.

Hi Mark

No I don't have the recordings but it's really no biggie for me.

I've taken the line that If I have original albums I'm not going to spend any money on more recent reissues or live versions of stuff I've already got..it's all ancient history to me. I don't mind watching tv progs of footage and interviews though. I have little spare dosh and it goes on new music as a rule.

I have a friend who keeps banging on about reissues from the zappa archive...he must have spent 10x the amount of original albums just to own copies of tracks he already has...vita brevis!

I guess I'm not a collector, others have very different views.

Ali Tait wrote: ↑Sun May 02, 2021 10:18 am Been playing with these, found them locally for not much at all. Falcon Acoustics Nightingale NM-1. They are surprisingly good, certainly worth getting some new bits for the crossovers.

Loved those things, although they were plug-ugly. We sold a few pairs back in the day. Inspired by the Dahlquist DQ10, which I think was imported by John Jeffries who set up Nightingale Acoustics. I think Falcon picked up the design after Nightingale folded.

There’s something rather wonderful about a B139!

Aye they're nae very bonny Shane. Sound good though!

The TL bass is rather good with films- response is quite authoritative given the size of the cabs.

Sound just fine, though sadly both bass drivers show some damage so I'd like to replace them (sound ok though). I see Falcon do replacements, supposed to be a modern equivalent, but 190 quid each..

Will keep an eye out for some vintage in good nick.

Went to Headcorn Aerodrome yesterday and to the Lashenden Air Warfare Museum which is on the site.

What a great museum!! Absolutely fascinating. Lived in the area over 30 years and never been before.

Beautiful day. Two Spitfires, a Hurricane and a Tiger Moth just roaring around the place (puttering rather than roaring in the case of the TM)

Looks like a good day out Nick. You can't beat the sound of a Merlin or two (or a Griffon in the case of the Spitfire in front of the Hurricane).

Ray P wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 9:43 am Looks like a good day out Nick. You can't beat the sound of a Merlin or two (or a Griffon in the case of the Spitfire in front of the Hurricane).

£2,500 quid for a short flight in the Spitfire. The other Spitfire was a single seater - you can just see the nose of it to the right (behind the Harvard)...

£150 quid for an outing in the TM.

jack wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 10:30 am £2,500 quid for a short flight in the Spitfire.

I'd be tempted if I had that amount of disposable cash...

At least it provides for maintaining them - I guess there's a balance between income and airframe hours.

I've been practising my smd soldering. It's getting to be more of a necessity to be able to hand solder smd parts so, after my success putting together some of Nick's (Jack) Nixie power supplies I bought a couple of chip amp kits from a DIY Audio member with some more challenging soldering required, including the TDA8932 chips, though I should confess that about half of the smd parts were actually factory installed. It went very well and I now have two perfectly functioning 25W amplifiers.





Power supply is a Mean Well RS-150-24 (150W 24V). I only have one test speaker so I've only listened to each one in turn so far.

I don't need the amps and really only bought them to see if I could build them (they were very cheap kits) but last week I was given a pair of Mission floorstanders by a chap at work who had a spare room declutter so perhaps I'll assemble a system that I can pass onto a needy nephew.

Good job, Ray...

Quick tip on SMD soldering larger devices that works for me:

You don't have to be that neat and tidy when soldering multi-pin devices...

1. wipe the pads with IPA and then a flux pen
2. Tack the two opposing corners to get the alignment right
3. Lie a length of solder along all the pins on one side....
4. ...and just tack each pin down - don't worry about shorts, excess or being too tidy - just be quick and don't overheat the device
5. Repeat for other side(s)
6. Lie a length of quality solder braid down one side...
7. ...and reflow each pin, starting at the end with the reel and lifting it off as each pin is finished...
   - enough will be left under the pads for an excellent joint and all bridges and excess will go
8. Repeat for other side(s)

This is a really neat way of ending up with perfect fine-pitch SMD soldering with almost no aggravation...

And/or... you can get one of these USB C ceramic hotplates: https://uk.banggood.com/MHP30-Mini-OLED ... 76522.html - excellent for reflow.

Mine arrived last week and I'm running it off a true PD 60W charger (Antek, so a decent one). It's a brilliant little thing for reflow - I use a syringe for the solder paste and then cleanup if needed with braid. Excess flux removed with a cotton bud and IPA.
EDIT: PS DtB - I know the sponges are dry, but if you look closely you'll see a bottle of water on the right for wetting them just before use...

Noted!

Actually, it's quite a test, that one, but eventually I spotted it. Very low contrast.

As we have some dry weather at last, I'm re-staining all the weatherboarding and sanding down and re-oiling all the oak windows, plus clearing and cleaning all the guttering (which is black powder coated) and refitting the leaf guards. Replacing the odd broken tile too.

The worst bit is the south facing gable end of the barn (we're high on a hill and completely exposed to the prevailing southwesterly wind and weather) - the ridge is about 28ft up, so I hired a cherry picker. It's a "Nifty ,120T" - awesome machine and when hired for a week, only 50 quid a day. The weatherboarding has not be stained for 15 years but is in pretty good shape, just rather faded. If you look at the photo of me on the lift you can see that all the knots in the weatherboarding have gone white. I'll do some "after" photos later. If you look at the bits round the top window you can see where wasps have stripped the old stain to get to the wood.

The Volvo in the reflection (not in the sitting room!) is for towing the lift around - the 120T weighs 1.5 tonnes and is tricky to move by hand. Foolishly, the landie is in for major surgery this week, so not available and the Volvo is not great on grass! When the lift is on one of the patios, you can, with some effort, move it by hand... On grass, no chance at all.

It'll take me at least a week to do all the weatherboarding and the windows that need doing.

Highly suspicious behaviour - I think the Kent constabulary should be made aware...