John Curl's Blowtorch preamplifier part II

[Pano]

How many cervelles do you have?

[Steve Eddy]

Originally Posted by fglabach

I built a power supply box out of this wood. Beautiful very expensive ****. Love it. I was told it is partialy decomposing on the forest floor. It is being attacked by microorganizms that changes it grain structure. For audio you don't want it to get too soft, it will crumble in your hand if it is left on the forest floor.

Yes, spalting softens the wood. But you can have it stabilized. This is a process by which the wood is impregnated with acrylic resins. Stabilized wood is often used for pen making, knife handles, etc. You don't have to apply a finish to it. You can just polish it as if it were made of plastic.

se

[SY]

Originally Posted by Pano

How many cervelles do you have?

Two, just like a Stegosaurus.

[Charles Hansen]

My elder son just received his lesson books back from 9th grade. He is attending a Waldorf school, where they teach things that are truly useful and important. For example, except for math they make their own lesson books, which are the texts they use.

I started looking through his "Organic Chemistry" lesson book. The first lesson was to write down and illustrate a poem:

Mystic -- by D.H. Lawrence

They call all experience of the senses mystic, when the experience is considered.
So an apple becomes mystic when I taste in it
the summer and the snows, the wild welter of earth
and the insistence of sun.

All of which things I can surely taste in a good apple.
Though some apples taste preponderantly of water, wet and sour
and some of too much sun, brackish sweet
like lagoon-water, that has been too much sunned.

If I say I taste these things in an apple, I am called mystic, which means a liar.
The only way to eat an apple is to hog it down like a pig
and taste nothing
that is real.

But if I eat an apple, I like to eat it with all my senses awake.
Hogging it down like a pig I call the feeding of corpses.

[Charles Hansen]

Originally Posted by simon7000

Just cut it up into small blocks and see!

We've had more than a few spalted wood blocks pass through our hands. I've never notice any obvious differences in the sound, but I like to hang on to the "curly" or "flamed" ones when I see them, simply because I like the way they look.

This is the result of the tree growing in a windy location. The tree naturally forms a zig-zag pattern in its grain, that when sliced into planks yields a "tiger stripe" look. One area will change from light to dark depending on the angle of view. Most trees grow in groves or woods and only the trees on the edges are exposed to the wind. That is why this grain pattern is less common.

[Charles Hansen]

Originally Posted by Nelson Pass

It is my considered opinion that several days with Bob simply wore Larry
and John out.

LOL!

That was my take on the whole thing at the time as well...

[Pano]

Originally Posted by SY

Two, just like a Stegosaurus.

You need not tell us where the other one is. My wife is always accusing me of thinking with that one. (dans la queue)

[simon7000]

Originally Posted by SY

Two, just like a Stegosaurus.

All males seem to have an upper and a lower. A lot that goes on here can be explained by the lower.

[kevinh]

Originally Posted by john curl

Of course it can, KevinH, but Charles and I have found that trusting our ears (for the most part) works better for us to make better audio products, than dismissing everything that has not been 'proven' to the satisfaction of everyone here.

I don't disagree, but I am at a loss since I haven't heard you CTC preamp or Charles's equipment. I know that we all have different thresholds for noticing differences in sound. I have relied on my wife when evaluating equipment, she doesn't know or care about different technologies and has no opinion about what should sound good and why it should sound good, she just listens and decides if she likes a system or not. She does hear differences quickly that would take me longer to pick up on. Her HF hearing has always extended further than mine and she is very sensitive to screechy sounding distortion.

I think we all have our own set of filters that we use to determine what is important and what isn't as important to us. IMO three factors dominate, speakers, room acoustics, and tonal balance of recording, then would come the electronics and accessories. I have heard vast differences between electronics playing the same hi res speaker in the same room (with good acoustics) as well as cable differences, now the cable differences weren't nearly as large as the electronics, but were there none the less.

The differences you are speaking about are very subtle and may or may not show up on the systems of others.

I do think it is good you , CH and others make people aware of the possibilities so they car see for themselves whether it is worth it for their systems.

[brianco]

Originally Posted by simon7000

All males seem to have an upper and a lower. A lot that goes on here can be explained by the lower.

I would have chosen the word "defined"