Old geezer?
<i>Old</i> geezer?
Harrumph!
In the vein of Twain--reports of my demise are exaggerated...much to Grataku's disappointment, I suppose, given the tone of his post. Ah well, such is life.
A progress report:
Tube X preamp--half done, which is to say, I have a version using 6SN7s, but I intend also to provide an alternate version using 6922s. As a teaser: I'm throwing in a 'trick,' something that would never occur to solid state folks.
Aleph-X--(note that I'm specifically <i>not</i> calling it an XA, as I don't want anyone to confuse it with Nelson's circuit) is in progress. Yes, there's a DC offset tendency. For all that I sent Nelson a schematic in December, I only began working on the circuit last Thursday (3/28) and so far have managed to steal only about eight or ten hours for R&D purposes. I'm sure Nelson solved the problem in ten minutes, but I haven't got his resources or experience. I'm hampered by a lack of parts and, being a wee bit impecunious, am having to be very, very resourceful indeed in order to scrape together enough parts to build the silly thing. At the moment, the erstwhile Mini-A has been pressed into service as a Mini-XA (so to speak), but I'm still having to sniff in corners and dust things off in order to unearth sufficient quantities of little brightly colored pieces to try various ideas I've had. To paraphrase Valentine Michael Smith,"I've learned several ways to build an Aleph-X, but most of them are only good for use as comparators..." I still have a few ideas left in my grab-bag, but have to do more parts-scrounging in order to try them. (I confess, this is getting <i>tres</i> wearisome.)
Not to mention the other sundry nuisances that life throws at you, such as doing taxes, and some of the lingering effects of the virus that infected my PC a few months ago, etc. I've got three stories in the pipeline, one story up in NY, and three more in various stages of completion. The onions, garlic, carrots, lettuce, radishes, and (most of) the tomatoes are in the ground. A risky move, that last one, as it was in the 30's here last night and 'maters don't like cold weather. Given that I don't even eat most of that stuff (but the wifeling and sprouts do) it's not directly worthwhile to me. Indirectly...yeah, it's worth it. Besides, it's good exercise. (Man, is it good exercise--I hurt in places I didn't even know I had places to hurt.)
Incidentally, the folks at work don't care what I do, as long as I get my work done. I'm sure this will come as a great relief to Grataku. However, I've been getting other stuff attended to, and haven't had as much time to spend with DIY guys (and gals).
Which reminds me...I owe Vince an answer in the Mini-A thread...
Grey