Recent content by earlofsodbury

Why even use SMD in a potentially high-dissipation application like this? Sure Avondale have (presumably) done the calcs for its intended application - but by not making the module more flexible in its potential applications you limit your market to exclude all the rest of the non-Avondale DIY...

Convenient, but there's no data of any kind - no dimensions, no maximum ratings, nothing...

IIRC back in 2003, FM shutdown was mooted for 2009, then 2011, then 2013, and then the talk went quiet and FM went on, and on...

Over the years I've had minor issues with all of the big names - most recently Mouser who were well-intentioned but useless. My time is more precious than £60 of wrongly-described diodes that I'll eventually have a use for, and I do have to remind myself sometimes that "customer service" is...

I know someone who had a dedicated 3-phase supply installed to his purpose built, detached, listening-building. It truly is an unspoofable hobby...

DC chiefly manifests as a mechanical buzz emanating from toroidal transformers - usually large ones in amps, so it's not that. RFI is trickier, and aside from interference with radio broadcasts when I'm using a tuner, I've never encountered an obvious acoustic signature - it's much more a case...

It'll be imaginary, so there's that...

The claimed sensitivity of these is 94dB/W/m, but I doubt there's more than a tiny frequency window where that is anywhere near reality, though I don't have the equipment to give real-world numbers. I'd guess the reality is high-80s overall as an average. There's no question that higher output...

Any reason to suppose failing components are at fault here? Intermittent noise that changes with warm-up suggests dry solder-joints, followed by dried-out electrolytics (which shouldn't be the case here), and then crumbly carbon-comp resistors. Solid state tends to work, or not work, (rare...

Somewhat surprised to find my much-loved (and much upgraded) First Watt J2 power amp taking what may become a lasting sabbatical, and a pair of Electrocompaniet AW180 monoblocs taking its place instead. A brief experiment with my 'spare' hybrid monos (400WPC) showed that - sensitive as they...

ANK / Audio Note kits are 99% of the performance at about 25% of the price.

The layout of the faceplate is shoddy - looks like it was 'designed' by a child who'd never used CAD before - but its sole redeeming feature is the colour scheme! IMHO ;)

Made the mistake of trying my old Pro-ject RS Monoblocs in the system again for the first time in a few years - the tighter, faster bass VS the more musical First Watt J2 became - in both cases - a set of compromises too far, and so following a recommendation from Ed Selley, I now own a pair of...

Way too long ago / way too many dead brain-cells... I was shuffling O/As in a Stello (April Music) CDP, and it responded well to such changes. The points that Martin mentions re. DIP cradles is also much-mentioned, but it's not something I encountered in practice. This topic has a lot in...

Never solder speaker plugs - unless you have a really powerful soldering iron and are willing to wait a long time for the heat to properly soak the plug body and the wire conductors, you will end up with a lousy solder joint, you will also make the metal of the plug brittle, as well as damaging...