ThomasOK's System

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Re: ThomasOK's System

Post by ThomasOK »

Hermann wrote: 2022-03-26 08:08 Thanks Tom, just ordered the double vinyl, really very nice music. The other releases of the three are on the radar.
I quite enjoy the whole album. It reminds me a bit of some of the older ECM jazz albums and the group "Oregon" yet still has a freshness to it. I don't know why I didn't think of checking out their other releases as soon as I got "Shadow Work". But yesterday I went to their website, listened to the samples and ordered all three of their other albums. They are out of stock a lot of places, including some in their own store, but I managed to find all three at reasonable prices but in three different vendors. So they are all on the way to me. I am looking forward to having the whole LP catalog.
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Re: ThomasOK's System

Post by Hermann »

Hope to be able to put them on Monday. Interesting that this record reminds you of Oregon. I hadn't thought of it. I own a few Oregon records, so I'll keep an eye on it. Floa is also on my list.
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Re: ThomasOK's System

Post by V.A.MKD »

ThomasOK wrote: 2022-03-24 18:59 I haven't posted an update in a while so I thought it was time. Here is a clip of the LP12 driven system with the Ekstatik fully bedded in and the SINGularity 1.3 upgrade in place. It is the same track I used earlier to play the Kandid vs. brand new Ekstatik.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gzuohuutc7i8d ... M.mov?dl=0

I now have the SINGularity 1.5 updates installed and it is sounding even more musical. I don't have them fully burned in yet so I'll have to do another clip in a little while. First impression is that the two upgrades that make up the .4 and .5 parts are likely a bigger improvement than the two that made up the .2 and .3.

I also just last weekend I did a major overhaul of the entire home network but more information on that will have to wait until people have a chance to comment on the clips in the Källa Network components thread.

Still more stuff to play with but I have to say the Källa with the latest network improvements has become hard to ignore, even when I am running it as background music. It really is a special digital device. More later.
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Re: ThomasOK's System

Post by matthias »

V.A.MKD wrote: 2022-03-27 17:21 J. G.
Jan Garbarek?
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Re: ThomasOK's System

Post by V.A.MKD »

matthias wrote: 2022-03-27 19:52
V.A.MKD wrote: 2022-03-27 17:21 J. G.
Jan Garbarek?
Yes, that was my first impression ...
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Re: ThomasOK's System

Post by David Neel »

ThomasOK wrote: 2022-03-25 23:04
It is "Shadow Work" by the group Mammal Hands. I think it was somebody up here who turned me onto it. The whole album is quite good, Here is a youtube link where you can listen to the full album to see how you like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_qtOEw2gcg&t=287s
Tom, I think I can take the credit here? See the bottom of page 10 on the Latest Records thread. I'm absolutely delighted that music which I've found is also enjoyed by others on here - it makes posting the information really worthwhile! Happy listening!

And, after watching my son and his partner raising and training a dalmatian puppy, now almost a year old, I've now a much better insight into the commitment, frustrations, rewards and huge joys of this task. I really enjoy Lola the dalmatian, and I didn't think I'd be saying that a year ago! I'm sure Lily is just as rewarding.
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Re: ThomasOK's System

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David Neel wrote: 2022-03-29 19:24
ThomasOK wrote: 2022-03-25 23:04
It is "Shadow Work" by the group Mammal Hands. I think it was somebody up here who turned me onto it. The whole album is quite good, Here is a youtube link where you can listen to the full album to see how you like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_qtOEw2gcg&t=287s
Tom, I think I can take the credit here? See the bottom of page 10 on the Latest Records thread. I'm absolutely delighted that music which I've found is also enjoyed by others on here - it makes posting the information really worthwhile! Happy listening!

And, after watching my son and his partner raising and training a dalmatian puppy, now almost a year old, I've now a much better insight into the commitment, frustrations, rewards and huge joys of this task. I really enjoy Lola the dalmatian, and I didn't think I'd be saying that a year ago! I'm sure Lily is just as rewarding.
I believe you are quite correct about that, I was just too lazy to go searching back to find the mention. The term spiritual jazz would certainly peak my interest. Thanks much for the pointer, I find them quite enjoyable as indicated by my ordering the other three albums they put out.

Yes, Lily is quite rewarding and a sweet girl. Also trying at times but that is to be expected. Since there were three of us raising Bella and there is mainly just me raising Lilly (with some helpful visits from Simon) I don't think I was fully aware of what I was getting into. But I have also raised two human families so I'm probably battle toughened by now. Lily is extremely intelligent, learning quickly but also strong willed, and she has stopped chewing on everything she can get her teeth on so shoes and the kitchen curtains now seem to be safe. I haven't tested her on power cables yet as she used to go straight for them! She has a love of chewing on wood and a 2x4 or 2x6 is just as good as a branch as far as she is concerned. But I think I have just about gotten her to stop chewing on the trim on the shed and the garage!
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Re: ThomasOK's System

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A little status report on my system that I thought I should move here instead of being off topic in the Playground thread.

I would say that overall I have been pretty fortunate on the damages. The TM required a matched pair of output transistors as the power supplies tested fine but the transistors tested bad. Luckily I had upgraded these from the original boards to the A boards some time back and I remembered that I still had the original boards complete with output devices! I tested the devices on one and they measured properly and Fredrik concurred that they would work correctly swapped over. So I removed the dead ones and fitted the others, powered it up and hooked it into a system here at the store and it is working fine and sounding good. So I now have a working pair of TMs. One done.

As mentioned I had one SM with a charred cap on the main board but the power supplies tested fine. The other one had a blown power supply and one that appeared to work. Fredrik determined that it was sub optimal since the voltage was lower than it should have read so it should be replaced as well. But the board looked to be fine. So I moved the good power supplies into the unit with the board that looked good and all appears to be working well. I say appears as I didn't hook it into a system yet as I ran out of time yesterday but it powers up and goes through the sequence of 6 red flashes, 1 green and 1 blue so it should be OK. I will test it more properly later today or this weekend. So two done.

I had sent photos of the damage on the other SM to Fredrik and he determined that it would need the cap and one regulator should be replaced to be on the safe side as it is next in the circuit and close to the cap. I removed the charred cap, cleaned up the main board and tested the traces from the cap pads and the nearby resistors and regulators to wherever they were going (to the best of my ability - I am not an electronic engineer) and all the traces and the nearby resistors appear to be OK. Fredrik was sent a photo of the cleaned up board and my test results and was happy that the damage appears minimal (I could use a twisted finger emoji here). So he will be sending me two SM power supplies, the cap and the regulator along with the pair of SINGularity he is finishing up for me. This should allow me to get the other Sagatun Mono up and running once I get the parts.

In the meantime I can use either my Sagatun stereo 1.4 demo or my Giella ∏ to drive the TMs and be back up and running. Since I mostly use Källa during the week and the LP12 on the weekend, and since I've been playing around with the headphones a little bit more lately, I'm tempted to use the Giella ∏ as I wouldn't have to unplug and plug very often. So overall minimal disturbance to my music listening capability. I mentioned all this to the tech next door and he feels the damage happened when whatever near the transformer blew and the power went off, not when I plugged things back in. I hadn't thought of that but it makes sense. I have just been running the headphones since the damage and I plugged everything into 115 Volts just to be safe. Power actually went off twice last night and then came back on within two minutes each time. I immediately unplugged the system again. Power has been stable since then but I certainly wasn't happy with that. After it had been on again for a while I tested the voltages and it was ≈120 Volts throughout the house and ≈120 Volts on each pin of the 240 Volt socket. So the voltages are all OK and I should be fine moving back to 240 Volts when I get around to setting things back up.

As usual Fredrik has been very helpful in recommending tests to narrow things down and interpreting the measurements. Especially considering he is currently pretty slammed trying to get things done before he goes on vacation. So thanks, Fredrik, for the great support. As always! It appears everything should be back to normal in some weeks time and the expense should be relatively low. Of course, the free labor helps. ;-)
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Re: ThomasOK's System

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I'll start out by saying that I don't appear to have any more damaged equipment and the replacement parts shipped out Tuesday with the SINGularities. However, my house decided to show me who was boss. Over the weekend the power dropped off and came back on after a minute or two, just after I unplugged the system. I had just finished setting the clocks when it did it again. Then yesterday at about 3AM i heard a few beeps and weird sounds and my iPhone lit up. When I checked the phone I found it was no longer charging and that outlet was dead. But the ceiling fan and clocks in the room were still working. I decided I was too tired to deal with it further and went back to sleep. When the alarm went off I found the iPhone still wasn't charging. I used the phone to check some other things and found that I had WiFi and the computer was on in the next room as was the AV system. But the thermostat wasn't getting power, hence the A/C was down and the garage door opener was also offline. Once I was up and about I found that the whole kitchen was out except for the lights. I also found that my Tesla was charging around 111 Volts instead of the normal 220+. From this I figured out that one of the two 120 Volt phases coming into the house was dead.. Somehow having the refrigerator and A/C down on a day that was supposed to hit 94°F didn't seem like fun. (I ended up plugging the fridge into an extension cord from a working outlet in the living room.) So I called DTE to come fix it and they said they would be there between 11:00 and 3:00 so I stayed home from work most of the day.

It ended up being helpful since the computer and internet were still up I was able to finish up my June Dealer Newsletter with new price lists and get it sent out, I paid several bills and caught up my bookkeeping. So at least I was able to be productive. The DTE guy showed up right around 3:00 as I was finishing up my computer work. As soon as he touched one of the two electric meters the A/C briefly sprang to life and then stopped again. He pulled both my electric meters out and the problem was immediately apparent - the contacts on one phase of the main meter connector going into the house was badly corroded. If he pushed on the wire the power kicked the A/C on and it stopped when he let it go. The boxes are old enough that spare parts aren't available anymore and he didn't know if he had a spare for the connector. He didn't but had some parts that let him fix the connection to the wire itself and everything is now back together and operating fine (measuring fine as well).

The are two parts to the good news of this. 1) The brief loss on the weekend was almost assuredly caused by this problem but power is now working flawlessly. So I should not have any more problems (knock on wood). 2) Considering how corroded that contact was and the fact it finally wouldn't pass power altogether, and since my main stereo uses both phases of the incoming AC, I would expect that the system should now sound noticeably better with a much lower impedance connection to the power from the line. So I have something to look forward to.
Last edited by ThomasOK on 2022-06-24 16:04, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: ThomasOK's System

Post by lejonklou »

What a mess, Thomas!

But I’m happy to hear that he found that corroded connection and fixed it. Now we might have some really nice clips to look forward to! :)
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Re: ThomasOK's System

Post by nostinkingloops »

ThomasOK wrote: 2007-08-22 18:42
ATC SCM100ASL Active speakers on ATC stands with Katan top spikes
:
Even though I live in the US all equipment is run at 230 Volts off a dedicated line as it sounds much beter that way
you're the first person i know who has those ATC speakers. those are up near the top of my list to hear at some point. i have a bias in favor of pro-audio components. i love the clarity, detail, and neutrality of benchmark's 3b dac, and i used a very early pair of clayton shaw's tri-amplified open baffle speakers for years -- the ones with pro-audio drivers. for a pre-amp/dac i used the prism orpheus, another pro-audio instrument.

the dedicated 230 volt line sounds intriguing. i'd considered running one just to be able to take advantage of japanese and european equipment, but your "whole system" approach makes sense.

nice!
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Re: ThomasOK's System

Post by tokenbrit »

ThomasOK wrote: 2022-06-24 00:01 I'll start out by saying that I don't appear to have any more damaged equipment and the replacement parts shipped out Tuesday with the SINGularities. However, my house decided to show me who was boss... I figured out that one of the two 120 Volt phases coming into the house was dead... So I called DTE to come fix it... everything is now back together and operating fine (measuring fine as well).

... since my main stereo uses both phases of the incoming AC, I would expect that the system should now sound noticeably better with a much lower impedance connection to the power from the line. So I have something to look forward to.
Glad there's no more damage, and that you're looking forward to noticeably better sound once your system is rebuilt & benefiting from the fixed power issues - good that you're 'unphased' by the recent problems :) Power to you ;)
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Re: ThomasOK's System

Post by Defender »

great to hear the main cause was found, corroded connections and come and go errors can be hard to find. when I heard about the corroded connection I immediately thought the same it might have some positive value with respect to music that this has been found and solved.

In times like this I have chosen to have a battery power supply with 880Wh ready to keep the fridge running.
Those can be charged with solar power. EcoFlow, Bluetti and Jackery are brands you can look into.
Power dropouts in central Europe are really uncommon but times have changed.

Cool would be if you would have a chance to use the Tesla battery for those emergency situations because that one would keep your fridge and more running for days.
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Re: ThomasOK's System

Post by ThomasOK »

Thanks for the comments and well wishes. The Tesla battery is an idea some have used but you have to be careful. You can hook up an inverter to it and pretty much power the whole house. But one person who did that when there was an emergency blackout posted his story on Instagram. In the end his battery pack went bad and Tesla refused to replace it under warranty pointing to the Instagram posts and the improper use of the battery pack as the cause of the demise. Not an inexpensive repair.

But if money were unlimited either a solar system or one of the new, small windmills connected to a battery pack would definitely be installed.
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Re: ThomasOK's System

Post by Defender »

yeah Thomas dont get me wrong I am not advising to play with it outside non intended use. Only if that would be an legal option provided by Tesla
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Re: ThomasOK's System

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Defender wrote: 2022-06-26 10:15 yeah Thomas dont get me wrong I am not advising to play with it outside non intended use. Only if that would be an legal option provided by Tesla
It is an interesting thought and one that has been talked about a lot in Tesla circles. A lot of people aren't aware of all that Tesla has it's hands in. It is not so much an automobile manufacturer as an energy company that makes cars. One of their products are large battery packs. They have Powerwalls for houses and businesses to store solar power which many have heard of. But they also make Megapacks for large installations for helping to load balance utilities (who generate more power at night than needed and need more power in the middle of the day). These types of large battery packs have been installed in utilities in places like California, Canada and Australia to help with power demands. An installation was recently don in Texas to help not lose power in the case of a freeze as happened last year. And Tesla also has software that works with those packs to handle measuring and billing for the electricity.

The reason I mention all this is that there has been talk that Tesla will make the battery charging connection in their cars bidirectional. This would allow them to provide power to your Powerwall if it needed it, and might be able to directly power the house in the event of a power shortage. But that is a small use compared to what Tesla has in mind. Imagine millions of Teslas that charge at night, when power needs are generally low and prices are often reduced. Now what if, with permission of the owners, they could allow the utilities to draw a certain amount of power back at peak times when needed with a payment for that power going to the car owner. You would have a huge, nationwide Powerpack made up of millions of cars that pay their owners for power when there are peak demands and charge with power when it is cheap. And guess who will handle all the measurement, billing and disbursement, while taking their small percentage, of course?
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Re: ThomasOK's System

Post by Defender »

you put into words what I meant - even though it might be the other way around - loading over the day when the sun shines and providing power for the house in the night when sun does not shine - the big issue is nowadays that sun power is available only over daytime hours so its somehow shifting the old cycle high demand over the day (but also a lot of sun power available and lower demand over the night but no sun power).
Anyway its important that the power is somehow buffered to be available when needed.
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Re: ThomasOK's System

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Defender wrote: 2022-06-25 11:24 Cool would be if you would have a chance to use the Tesla battery for those emergency situations because that one would keep your fridge and more running for days.
In Germany a little bit expensive (10kEUR for one Tesla battery) for emergency situations but who knows maybe it sounds better from a Tesla battery?
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Re: ThomasOK's System

Post by Defender »

did I say someone should buy a Tesla battery for emergency situations? No I didnt. I spoke about a dual use for the battery which comes with the Tesla.
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Re: ThomasOK's System

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Defender wrote: 2022-06-29 11:11 did I say someone should buy a Tesla battery for emergency situations? No I didnt. I spoke about a dual use for the battery which comes with the Tesla.
Sorry, I misunderstood, you mean then the Tesla drives the refridgerator :-)
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Re: ThomasOK's System

Post by ThomasOK »

The second Sagatun Mono is now fully functional after the replacement of the two SMPS units, a cap and a regulator IC. It sounded like the other one on the store test bench but that used a cheap CD player and an NAD C326 integrated as a power amp. So I will have to compare the two at home to make sure all is OK since the damage was on the main board. But I think it is likely all is fine. If I have time I might get the system back up and running this weekend.
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Re: ThomasOK's System

Post by Defender »

we hope the best for you
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Re: ThomasOK's System

Post by ThomasOK »

I did get the comparison done over the weekend and another comparison I have wanted to do but am not ready to reveal yet. The repaired SM is definitely very good, indeed it may be a hair better than the one that didn't sustain any main board damage. Both sound just fine. So now I need to do some playing around with various power strips and get everything wired back together.
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Re: ThomasOK's System

Post by Defender »

good to hear its even better :)
did you meanwhile made your mind up with respect to the Linn Silver MK II´s?
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Re: ThomasOK's System

Post by matthias »

Defender wrote: 2022-07-06 09:36 Linn Silver MK II´s
What are the differences to the former ones?
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