Flops' Friday mini blog

[Taffycat]

That was great! The pics made me recall that I too, had a hat/dress/hair-do like some of the girls... oooh the nostalgia. I totally enjoyed the Captain Beefheart track too. Great stuff, thanks Sir Flopps.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Added some pic captions to post.

Thanks for replies youse two

 

[crazylegs]

Cheers Mr Flopp's

I went through it all over again it was that good..

That last girl got away eh..3 days you say, would have taken me at least a week that one..lol

 

[Taffycat]

Like CL, I have just viewed (and listened) again, it was good to tie the captions to the pix.

I thought the lady in pic #5 looked familiar; but assumed she was someone who had appeared in one of your previous photos. Wow...! It was Anne Margaret....!

 

[Abarbarian]

Ah ha good ol' memory lane.

 

[Quadophile]

A trip down memory lane! Wonderful collection of photos, the music just enhances the appeal of the bygone era, you did well my friend, you sure did!

 

[bootneck02]

Thanks for that Mr Flops that took me memory lane back to the good old days

 

[floppybootstomp]

One of the Facebook pages I take part in is for a Rock Club I DJ-ed at from late seventies to late eighties and one of the guys there asked for this so here we are, new turntable in action:

Not a bad little band, nowt special, I saw them in either Dorking or Guildford once, probably around 1982 at a guess. They're still going today, there is footage of them performing this on Youtube from a few years ago.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Spring has sprung, the grass has rizz, I wonder how, my bank balance is?

Despite the lousy weather me plantz seem to be making a determined effort to be cheerful and are sprouting new stuff all over the place celebrating in a druid-stylee the rites of the start of a new season.

That was poetic weren't it?

I was really rather chuffed for one of my plants to suddenly bloom three purple flowers, it amazed me I could gain so much pleasure from such a relatively minor occurence, brought a smile to my boat race I fink they're bootiful:

Here it is in the general scheme of things:

New growth:

 

[crazylegs]

Wicked Mr Flopp's

Yes ain't it great when you get a little reward like that!

I remember me Tomatoes and peppers when I first grew them, I thought oh my god was that really me that fed and watered and grew them things, then I ate them and wow couldn't convey how good it was to eat something I actually managed to grow

 

[Taffycat]

Your turntable is sounding really good - the reproduction is so vibrant and "alive" isn't it.

The plants are looking very happy, pretty too, that is a lovely shade of blue against the purple-y leaves. You've definitely got a green thumb thing going on there Flopps.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I feeling good today, finally finished this thing, and I'm pleased with it

_______________________________________

After I finished my latest Lenco turntable project I figured I needed another phono stage cos I only had that stock cheapie stage that Tandy’s (That’s Radio Shack to our Transatlantic Cousins) used to stock in 1939 and CPC/Farnell still do – it’s horrid.

I looked long and hard, considered many things, favourite was almost a Pro-ject valve box with adjustable impedance settings but in the end I settled for an outfit I’d never heard of selling audio kits out of Hong Kong.

I’m not really sure what appealed to me about their stuff, save it seemed to be a helluva lot cheaper than equivalents on the market – if it were any good. And that was the question I decided to take a chance on – is it any good - and promptly despatched £306 including VAT, delivery, and a contribution to the Hong Kong poodle fancier’s society and awaited delivery.

About ten days later a parcel arrived very well wrapped in packaging that consisted a large deal of what looks like their local giveaway newspaper. I had also ordered two low voltage power supply boards for other projects of mine – a variable low current bench supply and a 2.5A PSU for my MOSFET Amp Camp build.

Those 2 PSU’s both worked straight off though both had parts missing on arrival, including a rather expensive voltage regulator. The supplier sent these missing parts without fuss free of charge though it took another ten days for them to arrive.

Back to the phono stage, for my loot I received: A dual supply PSU PCB and all parts, 2 DC rails, one for valve heater and the other 260V for the HT line. Both worked perfectly on completion, I let them warm up then adjusted voltage regulator pots to achieve desired voltages.

Plus a toroidal transformer; the valve phono stage kit (PCB & parts & valves – 12AX7 x 4), a large choke for the PSU and a metal case to put it all in. This is not a small phono stage, it takes up as much room as a regular hi-fi component such as an amplifier or tuner.

So, it took me 4 months on and off (I don’t like to rush things) but today, June 14th, I finished it. And it worked straight off - knock me down with a feather.

I hooked it up to my turntable with the Denon DL110 high output moving coil cartridge in it, set the phono stage for Moving Magnet (high output MC) and listened. I didn’t know what to expect.

Well, it’s good.

In fact I’m pretty much big smiley face happy. For that money I had expected something but maybe not this good. I know this is a cliché but I’m hearing stuff from records I haven’t heard before. Particularly high sounding percussion.

Taste’s ‘On The Boards’ sounded particularly good. And I’ve been playing stuff all day through it, Pink Floyd’s ‘Animals’ was another high point.

I note from the circuit diagram that a pair of DIP switches fitted to the PCB adjust cartridge matching impedance through five resistors but there’s actually no guide to give common settings so it’s pretty much trial and error. I intend to construct a little box with 5 switches and 5 resistors, same value as circuit, and take measurements for different combos, this may help.

The 6th switch on the bank of DIP switches is to select between MM & MC cartridges but looking at the cct diag all this switch does is take the first valve in each channel out of circuit, presumably losing some gain.

Since taking the pics I’ve now put the lid on and it only gets a little warm.

Tomorrow I’m going to fit my Denon DL103 MC cartridge to the turntable used with this phono stage, fit extra weight as well to account for arm mass loading, set the phono stage to MC setting and try it, should be interesting.

The supplier, Analog Metric, as they call themselves, ommited a few parts from every kit (3 psu’s and a phono stage) (2 capacitors, 22nF 400V, from phono stage) but they did always post them to me when I pointed out their shortcomings via e-mail. Which is partly the reason why it’s taken me 4 months to put this together, hee-hee.

In their defence, they do give a phone number and they replied to all my questions by email. They definitely seem honourable, if not a little forgetful.

All in all, I know it’s not strictly a self-build, just a kit, but I’m very happy with it.

This experience does, however, still makes me very inquisitive about listening to as much audio equipment as possible – I am curious, as they say (yep, even after all these years).

…and to end – right now listening to side two of John Martyn’s ‘Solid Air’. Oh yes.


Some hastily snapped pix:

 

[crazylegs]

Well you lost me somewhere amongst all those transistors and valves Mr Flopp's but very nice it is too..
I bet if it sounds as good as it looks then your not going to have any problems, I can see Quad being interested in that build..

 

[Quadophile]

Which 12AX7's are those? My buddy is always rolling tubes and everytime he changes them he invites me for a long session and I give my opinion to him as what change the replacement tubes have brought, not that he is not a good listener but he loves to hear my opinion.

I have also experienced great improvements when tube dampers are employed. Them dampers are not expensive and very easy to attach.

By the way I almost forgot that unit looks good! I think the quality components are worth putting an effort into.

 

[muckshifter]

I take my hat off to you Sir, a job well done.

 

[Taffycat]

Wow Flopps! It must sound soooo good!

Like CL, I'm not au-fait with the techy-gizmos side of things, but still find it a fascinating read. It must sound amazing, so jolly well done you.

It's nice to hear that you received such good service from the Chinese company. Yes, it would have been even better, had they sent the order without missing bits - but, it's a mark in their favour for not quibbling and, for replying to e-mails.

Hope you'll get loads of listening pleasure and enjoyment from the system.

 

[bootneck02]

A great job there Mr Flops, I wish I was as clever at that sort of thing my hats of to you

 

[darcy]

blimey, ~ you have been a busy boy, flopps! ~ cheers! : )

 

[floppybootstomp]

I see the racing commentator Murray Walker has been diagnosed with cancer, luckily in early stages, here’s hoping the chemo doesn’t leave him too soggy and finally cured. Looking at his news story took me to a link to a BBC News feature ‘Remembering James Hunt – a Maverick’ about the dual racing commentaries James Hunt used to do with Murray prior to his death in ’93 and his own racing career.

This reminded me of the several years I spent working as a reporter/photographer with a local newspaper. During that time I had to cover motor race meetings at Crystal Palace racing circuit, as well as writing the race report I had to take pictures as well. I was equipped with a Nikon F SLR and a Rolleiflex TLR (Twin Lens Reflex) camera to record pix of these racing events.

I have posted pix of one of these here before, few of the many pix I took were any good, which is because I never received any training to take pictures, I was just handed 2 cameras and a megablitz flash pack, shown which buttons done what, and told to get on with it.

Cos the simple truth was our paper was running on a budget and couldn’t afford to employ two people when one would do, so I was an instant photographer. Oh yes I looked impressive, two very expensive cameras round my neck, bright flashy Press passes to access the pits and race track side but it was all a sham. As most things are, I’ve since learnt in this life.

I was given oodles of black and white Ilford film, 35mm 100ASA and 400ASA and 120mm film for the Rolleiflex. We had a darkroom at the newspaper offices and I had to develop and print the stuff as well, sometimes I’d do a 12 hour day for no extra money. But it was quite fun and all me mates thought I was doing really well. Little did they know.

Still, the free admission to see the Who, T Rex, Emerson Lake & Palmer and scores of other bands, plus free admission to all local cinemas was good craic.

By the time I had left the newspaper profession and sold my cameras to pay the rent, I think , after three or four years of trial and error, I was finally getting a feel how to use these cameras and literally be able to translate what all the dial settings put on to film. But too late eh? It was to be many years before I returned to taking pix semi-seriously, only to discover I’m still a bit rubbish, lol

Anyhow, back to James Hunt. I’m fairly certain it was August Bank Holiday 1970 at Crystal Palace Race circuit, a meeting, mixed classes, saloons and Formula Ford or similar were two of them as I recall. It would seem little had been learnt from the 1955 Le Mans tragedy as I was given free reign to roam trackside and point my camera at the cars as they zoomed past mere yards from me. Would I have that opportunity now eh? I didn’t realise the chances I missed for classic pix.

Last race of the day and a young hopeful named James Hunt was beginning to attract attention. Twenty lap race, by about the 3rd lap James Hunt was in the lead and he kept the lead until the 20th lap.

Ahead of the pack James Hunt came out of the final curve and started down the straight towards the finish line, and swerved slightly out to lap a driver lagging behind. At this point I was back in the spectator’s enclosure near the finish line and saw it all.

The driver James Hunt went to overtake suddenly veered sideways and crashed into the side of him, knocking James Hunts’ car 180 degrees and knocking him firmly out of the race less than 50 yards from the finish line and formerly in the lead.

I had a trackside clear view of what happened next, it all seemed to happen in slow motion. James Hunt scrambled out of his car wreckage, hurriedly undoing his seat harness, undone his helmet and threw it across the track and marched over to the car of the driver who’d sideswiped him.

He somehow pulled this unfortunate driver from his car, was shouting at him, and gave him a full right hander in the mouth knocking this fella flat on his back. Our James then stormed off.

There was a noticeable sound of intake of breath and it all went quiet. I was so gobsmacked I didn’t even have the presence of mind to take a picture (this is one of those many moments when I realised the profession of a hard news reporter/photographer was not for me) and that was that.

I believe Mr Hunt was fined, temporarily banned from racing or summat but at that stage in his career he wasn’t really famous. I note several years later he repeated this performance when he chinned a Marshall trackside. Bit of a hothead, Mr Hunt eh?

I may have some pix of that race, dunno, but I do definitely have the memories. I’m glad I done all that stuff but I do know it really wasn’t the career for me, despite me thinking it was. I was adequate but I was never exceptional. I always wanted to be doing something more practical, with my hands, or a combination of using the old grey matter and being hands on.

Which is what I’ve ended up doing.

Funny old life innit?

 

[crazylegs]

Its times like this I love coming to read your blog Mr Flopp's..

You never know what you are going to read here and thats the pull!

so regardless of whether you are or were a good photographer or not, you certainly have an eye for writing a good story, so that local rag must have seen something in you eh..