Some business took me to London last week. Mr. Jones made (in retrospect) the mistake of inviting me down to his place for the weekend, accompanied no doubt by much eye-rolling from his long-suffering girlfriend; he had just gotten his laboratory up and running after a hiatus and she knew well that we would not see the light of day throughout my visit.
I had quite a good time; I'm not so sure about Mr. Jones. Rather than go into any particulars, I will merely inventory the items that he no longer has, with a brief explanation:
1. Tek 571 curve tracer- while we were investigating some FETs, a truly impressive roiling of smoke occurred, billowing out the side vent holes. Though the tracer is well and truly dead and the quantity of smoke was noted to be unusually large even by the standards of two tubeophiles with nearly 80 years of experience between them, there was nothing visibly wrong on the interior. No doubt his future tedious disassembly will turn up the source of the fire. Since this is a PG-rated site, I will not quote The Author's comment upon witnessing the death.
2. Two bottles of Glenmorangie 15 Year Scotch. This somewhat ameliorated the pain of frying a curve tracer.
3. Two DN2540 FETs, above and beyond anything lost in the Tek Disaster. We have learned that the order in which power is applied can be critical. We are also mutual witness to the miracle of transmutation, where silicon can be transformed into carbon faster than the speed of an f-bomb.
4. An oscilloscope probe- it wasn't attaching correctly. I suggested that the spring tip be filed slightly. "Nonsense, it's merely a bit bent! We can straighten it out with some long nosed pliers." Famous last words.
5. Innumerable bottles of Landlord and Leffe ales. See #2.
6. A NOS CV1988. We were setting up a measurement and I made a prediction about how it would come out. Mr. Jones disagreed. I asked, "Would you like to make that interesting? One of your few remaining precious CV1988 against an RCA red base 5692?" I'll enjoy plugging that one into my line amp.
7. A second edition of Terman. Well, OK, that was a gift. I think he was trying to hint to me that I needed to study a bit more...
8. A significant chunk of the lifetime of the 13E1s in the Crystal Palace. This had to do with the Glenmorangie. Red plates. Don't ask.
9. And of course, the last shreds of his dignity and self-respect.
I had quite a good time; I'm not so sure about Mr. Jones. Rather than go into any particulars, I will merely inventory the items that he no longer has, with a brief explanation:
1. Tek 571 curve tracer- while we were investigating some FETs, a truly impressive roiling of smoke occurred, billowing out the side vent holes. Though the tracer is well and truly dead and the quantity of smoke was noted to be unusually large even by the standards of two tubeophiles with nearly 80 years of experience between them, there was nothing visibly wrong on the interior. No doubt his future tedious disassembly will turn up the source of the fire. Since this is a PG-rated site, I will not quote The Author's comment upon witnessing the death.
2. Two bottles of Glenmorangie 15 Year Scotch. This somewhat ameliorated the pain of frying a curve tracer.
3. Two DN2540 FETs, above and beyond anything lost in the Tek Disaster. We have learned that the order in which power is applied can be critical. We are also mutual witness to the miracle of transmutation, where silicon can be transformed into carbon faster than the speed of an f-bomb.
4. An oscilloscope probe- it wasn't attaching correctly. I suggested that the spring tip be filed slightly. "Nonsense, it's merely a bit bent! We can straighten it out with some long nosed pliers." Famous last words.
5. Innumerable bottles of Landlord and Leffe ales. See #2.
6. A NOS CV1988. We were setting up a measurement and I made a prediction about how it would come out. Mr. Jones disagreed. I asked, "Would you like to make that interesting? One of your few remaining precious CV1988 against an RCA red base 5692?" I'll enjoy plugging that one into my line amp.
7. A second edition of Terman. Well, OK, that was a gift. I think he was trying to hint to me that I needed to study a bit more...
8. A significant chunk of the lifetime of the 13E1s in the Crystal Palace. This had to do with the Glenmorangie. Red plates. Don't ask.
9. And of course, the last shreds of his dignity and self-respect.
Writing great books takes its toll. Often in the shape of 2. and 5.
But talk is cheap. Where are the pictures?
Glad you've had a great time.
But talk is cheap. Where are the pictures?
Glad you've had a great time.
Terman and the McGraw-Hill series which he headed are worth their weight in gold. I have RDH 2, 3, and 4 and they won't hold a candle.
John
Re: Remains of the Night
My favorite NOS, love that old glass! Sound improves the longer you listen!
SY said:
My favorite NOS, love that old glass! Sound improves the longer you listen!
I wonder if this is going in a "bloopers" section in a future book. I have never heard of two "professor's" meeting and turning into two "Gilligan's" before
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Sy,
Sounds like you two had some fun. I was blessed by Mr. Jone`s presence about a year ago at my humble residence and laboratory about a year ago while he was visiting in Ontario. I did not miss the opportunity to get him to sign a copy of his book. 😀 We did not manage to release any smoke during his visit. Not enough time during the short show, play and tell.
I do recall that Morgan was clearly dissapointed in my attitude that I had no desire to take my tube audiophile system to the further level of refinement known as bi-amping. I have been trying to do full range with low power SET and AFAIC have achieved a level of performance which is good enough. I did at least get a thumbs up for my unique high efficiency, full range speaker design. I wish the amplifier in my avatar had been built at the time of his visit.
Triodes often sound better when biased hotter. Did the Crystal Palace amplifier performance track this trend during your experiment?
Sounds like you two had some fun. I was blessed by Mr. Jone`s presence about a year ago at my humble residence and laboratory about a year ago while he was visiting in Ontario. I did not miss the opportunity to get him to sign a copy of his book. 😀 We did not manage to release any smoke during his visit. Not enough time during the short show, play and tell.
I do recall that Morgan was clearly dissapointed in my attitude that I had no desire to take my tube audiophile system to the further level of refinement known as bi-amping. I have been trying to do full range with low power SET and AFAIC have achieved a level of performance which is good enough. I did at least get a thumbs up for my unique high efficiency, full range speaker design. I wish the amplifier in my avatar had been built at the time of his visit.
Triodes often sound better when biased hotter. Did the Crystal Palace amplifier performance track this trend during your experiment?
No, quite the opposite; the sound was not quite as sweet as the last time I'd heard the amp (a bit of roughness on leading edges), but it did seem to improve over the course of the evening, possibly due to the ethanol application. He thinks that the plate redness had to do with an itinerant oscillation, but the thought of lugging 120 lbs of amplifier upstairs to the lab was daunting. It certainly left the room rather toasty. The eye redness was purely due to the Glenmorangie.
We had a long debate about multiamplification.😉 We both do it, but I feel that it's unnecessary for midrange-to-tweeter transitions, at least for modern, well-damped tweeters.
We had a long debate about multiamplification.😉 We both do it, but I feel that it's unnecessary for midrange-to-tweeter transitions, at least for modern, well-damped tweeters.
Sounds like big fun. I'd like to ask what Terman book(s) you guys are referring to. there is more than one plausible title that I saw on Amazon. I'm always looking for new references to go with RDH and Jones.
TIA, EZ
TIA, EZ
I have a copy of Terman`s `Fundamentals of Radio` McGraw Hill, 1938. An inheritance from my father`s university days. I followed the advice given in regards to spacing of a resonant coil structure contained within a metallic shield can in a 200 gallon, oil filled high voltage resonator going through an enormous amount of work and expense for a commercial client a decade or so ago and the design flopped miserably due to interaction with the can. Still, Terman was one of Stanford`s better ideas within a corrupt EE Department that owes me a lot of $$$$$ from an attitude of entitlement during a deal, large for me, gone sour.
Beware!
Beware!
EZ_Angus said:
It was big fun indeed. As a rule, I find it difficult to work with others in a lab setting, but we managed to do it efficiently and well, despite the, ahem, mishaps and general alcoholic haze.
"Radio Engineering" is a classic, highly recommended.
I have several extra copies of textbooks from that series that I can post for sale this weekend if anyone is interested.
John
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