Recent content by Johnny2Bad

I like the REY Takman metal (not the carbon) resistors, have used them in a few projects. Also PRP. I tend to order them in batches of 4 (or 10 if I need multiples of the same value in a circuit) and measure-match them. As long as they are from the same batch, I think you will find them quite...

Manually tripping a breaker isn't the same as the breaker tripping from heat. You can exercise your breakers as much as you feel comfortable with, but when one trips from sensing an electrical overload over multiple occurrences then you get into a failure mode of the heat sensing capacity. The...

That Phono stage looks decent for your cost of about $150. Dual mono construction, those are Analog Devices JFET op-amps ($15 each in the US at qty: less than 50; $10 each at qty: 500). Decent specs (see the datasheet) but notable are CMRR of 110dB (very good), slew rate of 100v/uS (very good)...

Technics made (and still does, but very expensive) some excellent loudspeakers back in the day. Shipping costs tend to make Japanese speakers un-competitive with domestic counterparts but they are not all bad. You have to remember that shipping is not just weight, there is a cost for size as...

You do know that every time you trip a breaker it degrades, right? Hope your 5A garage breakers are still in spec, but chances are they are not. There are literally millions of homes that don't experience fires from electrical malfunctions. And then there are one or two that do. Are you going...

You will need either a phono preamp with enough gain (typically around 60 dB required) to amplify a moving coil cartridge, or a Step Up Transformer (SUT) to plug the MC cartridge into, which then goes to the MM phono preamp (typically around 30 dB gain), and from there to a line level on your...

This is a very simple question to answer. 1 KwH is 1000 watts of electricity used for 60 full continuous minutes. Your power bill is measured in KwH. So if your electricity costs 10 pence per KwH, that's what you pay under the following examples. Every appliance and component has listed...

Apple has always made a lot of mistakes (and speaking as someone who has used their products since 1990 and System 6.0.8). Where they do better than most is correcting the mistakes, and in many cases just giving up when consumers didn't accept the product (Apple digital cameras, Apple TVs ...

Almost certainly it will be better than the phono stage "in the Marantz". Built-in phono sections in consumer stereo or AV gear is not a high bar to reach for.

I would expect them to have pretty decent sonics ... I can instantly tell, without looking, whether a phone ad on TV is about an Apple device or, for example, a Samsung phone, just by listening. The Apple ad reveals itself in the sonics almost instantly (as does the competitive ad's sonics, just...

The question is how long is your commute or how long do you normally spend in the car. Audio Psychological tests tell us we tend to prefer "zippy" (high order Harmonic Distortion) sonics in the short term and listening fatigue sets in after an average of 1 hour, whereupon we prefer true HiFi...

I like to experiment when I get a new vehicle* so I will try different things based on the specific vehicle and it's intended use, plus it's interior size and shape. For example my truck, I don't use CDs in it (too easily damaged) but do use CD-Rs and cassettes. I rigged up an old iPod with a...

Strangely enough, as I'm across the pond, I've had good experience with a UK-based insurer, AVIVA. Dealing with used kit is fairly straightforward, you insure for replacement value or equivalent. Even if the item is no longer being made new, you can substitute either one of the same value or...

I think there are far too many factors that affect cartridge performance than focusing on stylus profile. Not to mention that different profiles ride on different areas of the groove (depth) and can be quieter or noisier than alternate profiles, or read more or less damaged areas of an LP...

The Denon 103 works fine in a low or medium mass tonearm. Those who say otherwise are mis-interpreting Denon's compliance specification. The cartridge is a bit heavy (cartridge mass) compared to most modern cartridges; if any "extra" weight is needed, it's most likely at the counterweight, not...