Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[ch_scr]

Jeebus... $400 MSRP on that little brick. fukkin' thing better give you a hummer in the morning when it wakes you up...

mnem
*toddles off to do something constructive*

Seems like that is the price to pay nowadays to get an consumer audio product without corrosive glue, built with quality electrolytics, a nice pcb (as in not single sided and made of compressed panda dung) and somewhat reasonable mechanical design. Not a trace on the pcb that half the dc-in jack was sheered off! The companys knows you are made of money OTOH and acts like it. Read the amazon reviews for a chuckle. Seems like they published an software update that broke devices, and did'nt even care enough to take it down (for a while), let alone warrant peoples devices without a fight or at all in some cases  .

[tautech]

found a Sony TA-E 88B preamp. Will inspect tomorrow and pick it up if it is in working condition.

1 KPesos, quite a lot for a preamp built in 1979. But that was when Sony built absolutely top notch stuff, and this is one of their absolute creme de la creme.

Nice.
I lusted for a Sony TA-88 amp as a teen but couldn't ever bring myself to shell out for one. 

[Saskia]

Have 2 TA-E 86B but always wanted to get a tae88 back. Had to sell it due to pesos constraints, but nostalgia struck me. It will replace one 86er, so I have 2 86er plus a Burmester 846 plus. Nakamichi PA 5 Up for grabs.
All very reasonable down-to-earth stuff

[Smoky]

Electronic gadgets are everywhere!

I install one or two HVAC systems a year, and this year, I went digital and partially wireless.

Today I pulled a new 3.5 ton system down to ~150 microns using my new digital Bluevac+ LTE guage.

The gauge has Bluetooth if you want to monitor things through an app on your phone too.

I also tried a new vacuum hose made by TruBlu and it cuts the pump-time down to around 3 minutes!



The wireless psychrometers are placed on the return and supply ductwork.



The wired temperature probes attach to the suction and liquid lines.



Now everything you need to know is right in front of you!



...but I back-up the temperature readings with a calibrated Fluke thermometer (I didn't take this picture at the time of the one above so temps are different).



Good stuff

[Specmaster]

found a Sony TA-E 88B preamp. Will inspect tomorrow and pick it up if it is in working condition.

1 KPesos, quite a lot for a preamp built in 1979. But that was when Sony built absolutely top notch stuff, and this is one of their absolute creme de la creme.

Nice.
I lusted for a Sony TA-88 amp as a teen but couldn't ever bring myself to shell out for one. 

No No, they were dreadful things, terrible sound quality and those sliders were dust magnets, better options could be had with the TA70, albeit less power output but a far better design and built quality.

[tautech]

found a Sony TA-E 88B preamp. Will inspect tomorrow and pick it up if it is in working condition.

1 KPesos, quite a lot for a preamp built in 1979. But that was when Sony built absolutely top notch stuff, and this is one of their absolute creme de la creme.

Nice.
I lusted for a Sony TA-88 amp as a teen but couldn't ever bring myself to shell out for one. 

No No, they were dreadful things, terrible sound quality and those sliders were dust magnets, better options could be had with the TA70, albeit less power output but a far better design and built quality.

Yes we all well know that today but back in the '70's sliders were the the in thing.
Wouldn't dream of buying one now as those days of being young, dumb and full of cum are long gone.

[mnementh]

Think I'm gonna get me a motorcycle. 

mnem
Whaaaaaaat....?

[mnementh]

Hey Brumby!!! Get over to the 40W LASER cutter thread !

You are not gonna believe this; I enabled bean, and I weren't even trying!!! 

mnem

[Saskia]

found a Sony TA-E 88B preamp. Will inspect tomorrow and pick it up if it is in working condition.

1 KPesos, quite a lot for a preamp built in 1979. But that was when Sony built absolutely top notch stuff, and this is one of their absolute creme de la creme.

Nice.
I lusted for a Sony TA-88 amp as a teen but couldn't ever bring myself to shell out for one. 

No No, they were dreadful things, terrible sound quality and those sliders were dust magnets, better options could be had with the TA70, albeit less power output but a far better design and built quality.

Yes we all well know that today but back in the '70's sliders were the the in thing.
Wouldn't dream of buying one now as those days of being young, dumb and full of cum are long gone.

There are no sliders on the TA E 88B ? Power Output ? This is a pre-Amp

[tautech]

found a Sony TA-E 88B preamp. Will inspect tomorrow and pick it up if it is in working condition.

1 KPesos, quite a lot for a preamp built in 1979. But that was when Sony built absolutely top notch stuff, and this is one of their absolute creme de la creme.

Nice.
I lusted for a Sony TA-88 amp as a teen but couldn't ever bring myself to shell out for one. 

No No, they were dreadful things, terrible sound quality and those sliders were dust magnets, better options could be had with the TA70, albeit less power output but a far better design and built quality.

Yes we all well know that today but back in the '70's sliders were the the in thing.
Wouldn't dream of buying one now as those days of being young, dumb and full of cum are long gone.

There are no sliders on the TA E 88B ? Power Output ? This is a pre-Amp

Yeah I know as I looked TA E 88B up and TA 88 is a different thing:


Still, it had me horny for one in my early teens and that's something you don't forget like the first love. 

[mindcrime]

Think I'm gonna get me a motorcycle. 

Wait... are you saying you don't have a motorcycle??? Somehow, all this time, in my head, I pictured you as all tatted-up, in black leather, with long hair and a wizard staff (kind of like Harry Dresden), riding a big-ass Harley and simultaneously inspiring hope and optimism in the hearts of the pure and virtuous, while instilling an eldritch terror, nigh upon to death itself, in the souls of your enemies...

[Saskia]

Need to get back on the road with my Milwaukee iron lump...

[med6753]

Think I'm gonna get me a motorcycle. 

Wait... are you saying you don't have a motorcycle??? Somehow, all this time, in my head, I pictured you as all tatted-up, in black leather, with long hair and a wizard staff (kind of like Harry Dresden), riding a big-ass Harley and simultaneously inspiring hope and optimism in the hearts of the pure and virtuous, while instilling an eldritch terror, nigh upon to death itself, in the souls of your enemies...

No, this is the reality. 



Sorry, couldn't resist. 

[Cubdriver]

    So much for getting any sleep tonight... 

-Pat

[med6753]

This talk of first audio systems brings me back to my first system. A modest Heath AA-14 bought/built with money saved from my first part time job. Also had a cheapie BSR turntable with ceramic cartridge and Heath 2 way speakers.



Later with money saved again bought/built the companion AJ-14 Stereo FM Tuner. With that tuner I was able to pick up out of NYC the famous 102.7 WNEW-FM which played progressive rock. It had no set playlist and basically the DJ's had free reign to play whatever they wanted. And did. That station introduced me to Pink Floyd, King Crimson, ELP, among others.




And I still remember hearing this for the first time and being mesmerized. 

[AVGresponding]

My first system was a JVC AS-3, Memorex LAB 407, and Realistic Minimus 7 speakers. The amp was £20 from a work colleague in the late 80s, the others were bought new from the local Tandy store. The bass was unbelievable for such tiny drivers, and the (I think 10 year) guarantee was honoured when one of the tweeters failed a few years in.

I still have all of it, though the JVC amp is currently technically in the repair queue with crackly pots and switches, and the turntable would need a new cartridge (I did get one, but then used it in the JVC linear deck I bought recently). The Minimus 7s are still in daily, almost continuous use as the L/R speakers in my current 5.1 setup. That's more than 30 years, pretty good value for money.

[AVGresponding]

I never did get to the eBay resolution centre about this, perhaps just as well since look what arrived with the flyers in today’s mail:



Talk about the literal slow boat from China.  I ordered these on February 18 and they entered shipment on the 22nd, finally arriving this morning.  The packing was minimal too so I opened up the most beat up box of the four to do a quick test on the worst case scenario right away in the kitchen after grabbing the nearest DMM which happened to be my U1272A.



Unlike the HP mugs, it survived the trip and it works and agrees with my Agilent U1272A.  I watched it for a bit and the plug-in meter seems to round down to the lowest whole volt consistently instead of rounding up when there's > 0.5 of a partial volt on the Agilent.  The plug-in meter and the Agilent typically agreed the whole time I watched them side by side with an occasional brief one volt difference when one meter would update before the other in response to line voltage fluctuations which is bouncing around a little bit right now.  I still have my windows open and I can hear air conditioners cycling at the other houses so I'm not surprised.  Hopefully this bodes well for the other three meters in the package that I haven't opened them up yet.

The 300VAC wobbly pointy panel meter I ordered on the 15th of May arrived the week before last, though I only picked it up from the sorting office on Friday. The box looked similar...

It does work fine though, with a minor gripe being the paint on the needle is... not. Mostly. Not going to whine about it though as I have some fluorescent orange rattle-cans so it's an easy fix. Now I have fewer excuses for not building the variac into its casing, the only remaining one being it's a ridiculously oversized case, but since it was free it's what is going to be used.

[Brumby]

Hey Brumby!!! Get over to the 40W LASER cutter thread !

You are not gonna believe this; I enabled bean, and I weren't even trying!!! 

You are a truly evil dwagon   





 

[Ice-Tea]

Sold an expensive item to a bloke in the UK. With Brexit it took us some time to get aligned what he expected and what I expected to happen with eBay/Customs and other shit. A lot of mails going back and forth. Off course, I/we still got it wrong a bit and so I contacted him if he wanted me to ship or bail out. No reply. A couple of times. So, I called him up on the numbers (both) he provided. Nothing. About 10 days had gone by since the purchase, so I shipped anyway as I'd get into trouble with ebay otherwise. By this time, eBay had already removed the 'fake' email address so i couldn't provide that to DPD. Provided my own. So, sure enough, I received a mail aksing if I wanted to pay UK VAT or return the pakage. Did not reply, called the guy a gain a few times. Still nothing. Fully expected the package to be returned after a few days.

It was deliverd without delay. I assume he got in touch with DPD and payed his dues, otherwise they would not have delivered. So, I don't get it. I don't see why he'd follow up so closely yet not reply to anything.

I don't like it..

[beanflying]

Hey Brumby!!! Get over to the 40W LASER cutter thread !

You are not gonna believe this; I enabled bean, and I weren't even trying!!! 

You are a truly evil dwagon   

 

And yet it was a calm reasoned conversation I had in my head about it. I am missing the big industrial Pfaff I used to own and the two heavy mechanical domestic ones are not up to the heavy work. So as an Adult Male of the species of course I NEEDED a third Sewing machine 

[Peter_O]

And yet it was a calm reasoned conversation I had in my head about it. I am missing the big industrial Pfaff I used to own and the two heavy mechanical domestic ones are not up to the heavy work. So as an Adult Male of the species of course I NEEDED a third Sewing machine 

sure. It's a standard obligation to give a decent mechanical sewer with history a 2nd life.

A Naumann of the 50s, build in GDR after the war. Improved version of a pre war singer. Maybe the most advanced zigzag household sewing machine ever build. Double rotation hook, professional needles.


And a Meister, a post war rebuild of a Vesta zig zag machine, using modern standard hook system and needles.

Both had badly damaged furniture but were equipped with motors already, so I rescued them and did these robust cases in series and gave the Meister to a friend for e.g. making small sail repairs.

OK. Might be kind of a little off topic. 

[Saskia]

found a Sony TA-E 88B preamp. Will inspect tomorrow and pick it up if it is in working condition.

1 KPesos, quite a lot for a preamp built in 1979. But that was when Sony built absolutely top notch stuff, and this is one of their absolute creme de la creme.

Nice.
I lusted for a Sony TA-88 amp as a teen but couldn't ever bring myself to shell out for one. 

No No, they were dreadful things, terrible sound quality and those sliders were dust magnets, better options could be had with the TA70, albeit less power output but a far better design and built quality.

Yes we all well know that today but back in the '70's sliders were the the in thing.
Wouldn't dream of buying one now as those days of being young, dumb and full of cum are long gone.

There are no sliders on the TA E 88B ? Power Output ? This is a pre-Amp

Yeah I know as I looked TA E 88B up and TA 88 is a different thing:


Still, it had me horny for one in my early teens and that's something you don't forget like the first love. 

@Tautech  ah ok, never considered that one.
But if you should stumble across a TA-E 86/88 and a TA-N 86 (!) combo you might want to grab it. That is in a completely different league ...

[BU508A]

https://www.hifishark.com/search?q=wega+lab+zero

https://www.hifishark.com/model/sony-ta-e-88

https://www.hifishark.com/model/sony-ta-n-86

  

[BU508A]

If I spot Zucca (where is he anyway) I need to tease him a bit.

I'd assume, he is busy with moving to the USA.

[BU508A]

This one is for bean: a home made CO2 Laser 



Be prepared for lots of