Merry Christmas to you too, Clay, and I appreciate your interest as always .

The Smallfire is a useful little guy in its own way. I think it would well repay your effort in building it, a stereo version especially. It's as handy on my bench as any gear I've got, for it's just the right thing for testing out the tape decks and miscellaneous audio gear I usually have on the bench.

Truth is, I'm thinking about a stereo version of it for myself. That's one of the things awaiting attention around here for some time, and this may be a good time for it.

PS: You should have been here just a minute ago when the cannons in the "1812" went off. BB's loudness was at comfortable listening level, but those cannons still made me jump. I'd forgotten how that particular album emphasizes them.

Best regards as always,

Larry

Larry, I'm sorry I might have led you astray. what I meant to convey was that i had managed to accumulate all the parts. Life has gotten in the way of actual construction-the holidays and all. the grand kids are here for awhile, so it will probably be next year before I get started

Merry Christmas

Ron

A merry big-family Christmas is the best kind. Enjoy it, and looking forward to hearing how the project works out when the time comes .

Larry

I'm trying to make arrangements to drag this brute out on stage for a keyboard solo show ballroom dance performance. I'll have to have help to move it, and the speaker cabinet, but I have a couple of buddies who owe me some favors.

I think I can see my way clear on it for early January. I'm not about to try such a project on New Year's Eve. Hectic enough already !

Provided I can swing it, be assured there'll be a camera there!

Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all !

Larry

Test post only:

Storing this here for future reference. I've needed it twice already for discussions on other forums, and doubtless I will need it several times more, since it deals with a topic that keeps coming up as noobs wander in and out of here.

Meanwhile, it may not be a bad thing to have it here anyway.



Q.E.D.

L

Larry, thanks for a very cool thread. Took me two glasses of red to get through the last four pages 'cuz I kept looking up music...

Happy Holidays, everyone.

Glad to oblige, Noogrub. Guys like you make the effort worthwhile.

I'm especially glad that the vinyl reviews were helpful. If you've spotted discs you want, I hope you find them, and I hope to keep up such reviews, in this thread or elsewhere.

Happy New Year and best regards ,

Larry

Very impressive and not a single silicon junction in there.

I enjoyed this topic very much along with the cool pictures, your description of the circuits and schematics.

My pleasure, Mark, and it's still an ongoing thread. There'll be more to come.

Maybe I should be ashamed to confess it , but there are in fact a few silicon junctions there. There are three or four bridge rectifiers for DC heater and fan voltages, and there are a couple of 1N34A's working as a voltage doubler rectifier for the VU meter and eye tube on the mixer chassis (an old Webcor tape recorder circuit, modified for the occasion).

Best regards and happy New Year ,

Larry

For a musician, NYE means work, and celebration must take a strictly second tier to getting the job done.

Thus, I do most of my celebrating on the eve of the eve, and on New Year's Day itself.

Some time ago, I was lucky enough to find three albums of the traditional New Year's Day concerts by the Vienna Philharmonic.

The concert had its beginnings with the Strauss centennial celebrations of 1925, but did not become a tradition until a few years later. At the time of these recordings, the concerts were staged in Vienna's famed Musikverein for two thousand lucky ticket-holders, and were broadcast by radio and TV to millions.

All three of these albums are digital LP's.

London LDR-10001-2, two-disc set, 1979, Willi Boskovsky conducting.

Deutsche Grammophon 2532-002, 1980, Lorin Maazel conducting.

Deutsche Grammophon 2532-018-10, 1981, Lorin Maazel conducting.

The music is precisely what it should be, festive and carefree light classical fare, waltzes, marches, polkas, galops and overtures, featuring the Strauss dynasty (of course!) and other composers such as Offenbach, Ziehrer and von Suppe. I expected to find Lehar, Ivanovici and Waldteufel here, but unfortunately they are not represented. Who can forget Waves of the Danube and the Skaters' Waltz, for example? Both of those should be here.

However, this is just the sort of fare to drive away cares and concerns and grant its listeners a sense of release and elation, which is exactly what it was meant to do, and exactly what a New Year celebration is all about anyhow .

Since these recordings were all made live, you hear everything you normally hear at a concert, including the orchestra tuning between numbers and enthusiastic applause.

Nobody dropped any champagne glasses, however.

BB puts me right in the front row:



Since the topic of glowing output tubes has been ventured on ARF several times lately, I included this pic of BB's 7027A output quad. All four come from the same lot, and they went into the BB Mark III in the mid-1990's.

Of the pair in the foreground, one has the "dancing envelope" glow so common to output tubes, and the other does not. The glow is asymptomatic, hence harmless.

Happy New Year to one and all, and a glass of the finest!

Larry

PS: I should have thought to include pix of the vinyl I reviewed while putting BB through its test regimen. I'll take the shots and update the relevant posts as soon as possible.

Happy NY once again ,

Larry

Happy New Year Larry. I know you will be busy as will many of us here. Be safe, and hopefully, we will journey on to more exciting things this coming year!

Happy New Year, Larry, Thanks for an awesome thread...
I'm on my first glass of champagne, listening to Chet Atkins on the Citation II - ain't this a great hobby?!

Jimmie

Nice pic of the tubes glowing.

It's ok that there is some silicon and germanium in there.

That is one nice thing about making a project--you don't have to worry about whether you're modifying some piece of equipment too much or lowering it's value or whatever. Also you can use the best technology for the job no matter what time period its from.

I think Tektronix is the best example of a company that used the best of everything available. Whether it be tube or solid state.

Many thanks, guys . May the new year be happy and productive for you all .

Larry

Hi guys, it's been a good two years, but priorities around here have suddenly shifted and I have to be absent for awhile. If anyone wants to contact me, either PM or send an Email.

Everyone take care and best regards to one and all ,

Larry

Take care Larry, thanks for your help...

Larry, talk to you on the flip side.

Take care.

Sal

Take care and good luck, hope it's all good things happening.

-David

I'm back safe and sound. The work is DONE. Not at liberty to talk about it, but it's enough to say that done is done, with a brace of cold 807's to seal the deal.

Hope all you fellows have been doing well ,

Larry