John Curl's Blowtorch preamplifier part II

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I have a very boring car and I hope it stays that way. OTOH Toole and wife bought an CL550, and so far it's a mixed blessing. The moon roof spontaneously shattered on a road trip and would have showered them with glass shards were it not for a mesh that had been deployed underneath. Then, in a tight traffic maneuver an interlock system between accelerator and brakes was inadvertently activated, and the car was practically paralyzed. Fortunately nearby drivers were able to stay out of the way and avoid crashing into them. This was in Chicago, so perhaps they were already giving them a wide berth based on the California license plates 🙂
 
I have a very boring car and I hope it stays that way. OTOH Toole and wife bought an CL550, and so far it's a mixed blessing. The moon roof spontaneously shattered on a road trip and would have showered them with glass shards were it not for a mesh that had been deployed underneath. Then, in a tight traffic maneuver an interlock system between accelerator and brakes was inadvertently activated, and the car was practically paralyzed. Fortunately nearby drivers were able to stay out of the way and avoid crashing into them. This was in Chicago, so perhaps they were already giving them a wide berth based on the California license plates 🙂

It does have a very nice sound system though, my only experience with it to date.
 
In the world I live in, part of the design cycle is avoiding 'cross contamination' between electrical areas, me thinks thou dose fret to much🙂
And as it they seem to use engineering instead of audioeering we can presume they will think about such things.
Within the world of their own beast they should do OK. However, if it gets hooked up to gear which is very sensitive to 'nasties', and the box that the DAC's in unfortunately sends the 'wrong' signals back through the mains cord, or over the airwaves, then the end result can come undone.

It's what reaches the ears that will make or break the unit in the retail world - I've often had the experience that when something is technically better, then the system sounds 'worse' - because it's forcing weaker areas elsewhere to work 'harder' and the deficiencies there will be more strongly highlighted ...

Like John's Porsche, 😉, once you up the ante everything has to remain in balance - otherwise, you'll never be comfortable with the total package ...
 
tomtt,
That is to say you have some political influence. I doubt highly that the company I was working for had that kind of pull. More likely was that the paperwork was so old nobody would ever notice the loss by the government. Inventory on some obscure tooling that was thirty years since it was used would be something just lost in the ether. I saw many things like this happen, the inspectors weren't that smart, just paper pushers really.

Jacco,
All of the newer cars I have will tell you to change the oil based on a sensor and also if the oil level is to low. I would never ignore the low oil light, that means you are about to really mess things up, sort of a last rights kind of warning.
 
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BTW - I did a test on oil.... I measured (there's that word again!) the conductivity of the oil when new and when used. This is before the cars figured some way to do it... was for drag racing engines.... anyway. The oil is more conductive when it is 'used'. (fine metal particles for one).

Thx-RNMarsh
 
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Try changing the oil every 5k , as i did , my 02 went 130K with no issues ...

I changed it every 3k as specified in the warranty. This was a problem that was endemic to the '03 Passat 1.8T (don't know about other years) because of a design flaw which caused the oil to run too hot and form sludge, leading to engine seizure. Consumer Reports's expose a few years later was cold comfort, and you can still find lots of stories online about this problem.

Never again will I own a German car.
 
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