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Shake rattle and roll

Strange and good day in Kungsbacka, a parcel arrived here on the Swedish westcoast from the eastern shores of SA.

Putting the delivered gadget in its place was just a simple operation of switching some cables around (don´t worry, they are long enough) and then the first test spin.

IMG_E2839.JPG

Starting at 12 ohm load as a start but strangely enough only left channel, perhaps been in hibernation a long time so some good contact cleaner applied,
still only left channel, switching to new cables then of equal quality and length, still only left channel, swapping the left/right wires still only left channel,
Panic! The ARC SP-6 has blown the right channel output tube! Do I have any good spare ECC83/12AX7?

A frenzy search trough the cupboards in the guestroom (that never became a guestroom) no good tubes found, then, just then I realized that there was one more cable to check, I always start the test using the Grado phones and they are connected to the MF X-Can headphone amp.

Naturally the right channel cable from the SP-6 to the headphone amp was dislodged by a moron when he, without proper lights, switched the cables from the Ortofon MCA-76 to the T-30, cable put into connector both left and right channel again, as they say in Sweden, stupidity grew the ponytail.

Listening now and happy, a gift from a friend far away gave me both exercise and now magic music.

It´s fall here now, raining and I most certainly have blue eyes so perhaps there will be a few tears of joy.


Tomorrow I will get a haircut.

Ingvar
 
Glad it got to you. One always worries nowadays. Covid, the war in the Ukraine, the hole in the Ozone layer and now the rumour of WW 3. The only certainty in life is man's endless ability to think up excuses for his laziness.

As you can see, it can do with a good clean. The pieces of wire sticking up from all screws shows that previous owners battled to get it quiet. I also owned an FR T3, and even on FR cartridges, this is much better, Never really liked the FR step-up despite being a fanboy of the brand.
 
Our world has become strange Johan, Sweden, once upon a time regarded as the safest country in the world now leads the gang shooting league, no problem if the filth shoot each other but as they are notorioulsy bad shooters the shoot anybody/everything in the general direction of fire.

On the other hand I found the T-30 in very nice condition and not in dire need of a clean up, also working perfectly once the moron had got all cables conected again.

For the moment I think the 6 ohm setting is perfect for the MC-L1000 and far, very far, superior to the MCA-76 that I thought was the magic wannd to work with more or less any MC source, wrong.

Will test the T-30 with the other cartridges too but for the moment enjoying the present combinaton and it is better than any previous setup.

Listening to this now:


Gil Bernal´s saxophone and Emmylou Harris backing vocals, Jorge Calderon bass, truer than ever.

and then


and no one, ever, had more right to do this:


Listening with tears in my eyes, but good tears, listening through a device sent as a gift from a friend, listening to something sounding, or perhaps reproduced, better than ever, using strange old gadgets found/recieved from around this, at the moment not very sound planet, how we can make it last through this year I don`t know so just thankfull now for the state of beeing, this transformer Johan made all the difference here in Kungsbacka, won´t fix the world, perhaps nothing will.

Thank You Johan, for the T30 and I don´t see any pressing clean up actions required on that, my feet are far worse so will start there.

Ingvar
 
The world is in turmoil, at the same time, we can still enjoy ourselves outside of the war zones (of which there are many), there are two ways we can look at this.

Option A - we are all getting dragged slowly but surely into a war where we won't even know who the heck is the antagonist and the protagonist.

Option B - all th shite goes down

I'd rather an Option C - let us just enjoy our differences and make a better culture. Yep, hippie and full of shite, but who doesn't like this (pit it through some reverb if you don't and slow it down and you will):

 
Are You a hippie Jonny? Your cap doesn´t look realy hippie actually, more like someone shooting squirels if they crap on the sidewalk, but then they should stay in the forrest.

But we do know who the villains are in those times, no doubt, all the power hungry, weapon rustling politicians around the globe, the little Russian Putaín right now, more will be following, probaly no end to the idiots at power.

Ingvar
 
More liberal than people think Sweden is (which is a bit of a global misunderstanding). I respect people who rather respect others regardless of their colour, race, religion,gender,, sexual preference and any other thing they want to do as long as it doesn't harm anyone (and before anyone gets antsy any animals).

Yep, the Putain has screwed us as the world up with his narcissistic power fetish, at the same time there are many others who do the same who are making things worse on all sides. Then there are their puppies (Lukashenko comes to mind). On the other side, Trumpet was in Putains pocket and will continue to be there, Biden is a standard Dem who realistically would not really get votes unless he is up against an arse. As a UK person, I could say similar about Sunak and Starmer, at least BloJo has been banished, just hope Frog Faced Farago gets kicked into touch again
 
My (lack of) prowess as a musician is well documented. A change of instrument can go as below. I know from bitter experience that the triangle is as low as one can go . Indeed my next step was the back door. I am (much)better at replaying music than playing it. Even in the replay, changing an instrument may be more complex than it appears.

 
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With correct load a lot more happens.

IMG_E2841.JPG

Also You need to turn the SUT the right way so the signal doesn´t have to climb up the wires to the switch but 6 ohm does the final thing in this combination.

IMG_E2818.JPG

Jason Isbel, MC-L1000, Ortofon T-30 and a glass of Rust en Vrede works very well.

Ingvar
 
Oh, oh Johan! Playing this for the first time with this cartridge transformer combination is ridiculous, the music as good as usual but the
magic sound of the horn, the upright bass and the chorus girls , the drums, never heard it like this before, stupid to attach a Youtube link but just so You go buy the record.


Ingvar
 
You knew more about the world's people and how things work in your first year of formal schooling than you do as an adult. And as you get older you know even less, because your thinking gets polluted with sophisticated messaging that is specifically designed to bring you to a certain viewpoint. It is only when you reject those messages and return to your childlike state of awareness that you will find peace.
 
I'll try later to listen to the Earle again as it is sticking and the YouTube's needle is jumping here. Isn't advanced technology wonderful?

On another forum that I visit, which seems to be almost as dead as this one, the founder recently marvelled at how Analog technology has advanced in the past 40 years and how anyone who differs has to have a very bad system not to realise this. To this, I smile politely and play the 50-year-old JVC on the 50-year-old arm and a 50-year-old turntable. Isn't it marvellous to have such a low-resolution system? What is more marvellous is that I do not care what he thinks and have not listened to the 50-year-old Dafos and uber-boring Sheffield Labs that he seems to need to listen to his new marvels.
 
Ingvar

In our pursuit of older and older, hence (according to "experts"), worse and worse, sound I think we need to pursue this arm:

 
Yes Johan, search is on, strange thou that an arm of that age has a label with QR code?

I think that is the model where You balance/set the stylus force by adding a suitable amount of lead shots in the little bag at the rear arm end.

Ingvar
 
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