=============================================================================== Hagerman Technology WebLog 2008. Comments? =============================================================================== May 08 ------ I've resumed my google adwords campaign. Turning if off and then on again to try and measure its effectiveness. Hey, at $5 a day, maybe it brings in some good sales. A lot of people who find me do it from searches. So I try and get as high as possible in the engines, then suppliment with the sponsored ads on the side. Meanwhile, just auctioned off some units on Audiogon. Hopefully that catches a few eyeballs. Trying to get the news out regarding the new HAL brand. One of my blog readers suggested something very interesting. Well, I'll post a link here and let you figure it out. Personally, I think it is very clever. And I am starting to figure out how to do such a thing myself. My first thought is to write a series of papers on how to design a tube usb dac. I would use the awesome DA-10 as my reference platform. Basically, I would give away my design secrets. Maybe I could get these published on 6moons or ETM or PFO? Long marketing video on white papers May 07 ------ Finally starting to make some noise out there. These press releases I think can be very useful. I'm wondering where else to put my advertising dollars. Renewed my audio asylum sponsorship last night. I like that place. Not been spending too much time on forums lately. ETM news What other websites are popular? Banners are expensive. Maybe a magazine ad? What rag would be most effective? I'm thinking of an add in the back pages of stereophile, where a little 1" by 1" add is kinda hidden. But they are cheap. Does anyone look there? Really, all I have to do is get the word out about HAGLABS, get potential customers to the website. Maybe I just need some more reviews. What product should I have reviewed next? I'm thinking maybe the HAL PICCOLO. I can spare one of them. So who would want to review an active MC headamp? 6moons, ETM, Dagogo? It is really quite superb with the new capacitors installed. I can't imagine the Elevator at twice the price can come close to touching it. Indeed, I am finally starting to think logical strategy again. *** Took some more photos. Did the HA-10 and DA-10. But I forgot to measure the noise floor of this DA-10, which seemed to be quiter than my personal unit. So something came out right. Sounded great with the new caps. My most analog-like converter yet. DA-10 photos May 06 ------ Got a note from HP. He's interested in borrowing a FLUGELHORN to do some LP EQ research. Ok by me. I'll get one built right away. *** I finally got to making the new manuals for HAGLABS. Started with the FRYBABY, as it was the easiest. I am discontinuing the HAGTECH version, replacing it with the red HAL one. Same machine, but without all of the adapter connectors. I ran into a problem buying the binding posts. Crap. So can no longer offer the full kit. So I'll let AA and MD run out of stock. It was a nice attempt to break into catalog sales, but too many variables in the marketing strategy that real life got in the way. There is no point selling a machine at cost! And that is what I did selling it OEM. Anyway, this move thus brings all of the burn-in devices under the HAGLABS banner. Assembled, anyway. I will continue to offer the FRYBABY kit/2 at HAGTECH. Here is the new manual style and format. FRYBABY manual May 05 ------ So it has been about 8 years now I've made my living solely from HAGTECH. Not quite the big 10. But was reflecting a bit on how many products I've come up with in this time. Certainly, it has been by far the most productive time of my life. Tried to make a list here: 01) iRIAA FILTER 02) VACUTRACE* -> HAL VACUTRACE 02) TRUMPET* -> GOLD TRUMPET* -> HAL TRUMPET 03) CORNET* -> CORNET MC* -> HAL CORNET 04) BUGLE -> BUGPRO* 05) POWER SUPPLY 06) FRYKLEANER* -> FRYPRO* 07) OBOE* 08) UFO 09) CLARINET 10) CORNET2 11) HAGCLOCK 12) CHIME 13) CYMBAL 14) HAGDAC 15) HAGUSB 16) RIPPER 17) FRYBABY 18) FRYGOLD* -> HAL FRYKLEANER 19) ARCHIVER* -> HAL FLUGELHORN 20) PICCOLO -> HAL PICCOLO 21) CASTANET -> HAL HA-10 22) HAL DA-10 23) HAL PA-10 24) HAL STEP UP 25) HAL LINE FILTER 26) HAL FRYDADDY** * discontinued ** new I also had a few projects that never saw the light of day. 01) HUSH, an ultrasonic sinewave balanced drive for DHT heaters. 02) DACPRO, a low cost opamp alternative to the CHIME. 03) JIMDAC, a TDA1543 version of the HAGDAC. 04) MOTORPOD, a variable speed motor controller for Galibier, with built-in recharger for batteries and a strobe. And then there were several attempts at getting DoD grant money (SBIR) for a novel approach I invented for real-time imaging SONAR. I think I must have written that up four times without success. Then two more proposals I can't even remember. Let's not forget the consulting projects on the side. In the early days of HAGTECH before things really got going, I supplemented my income by doing odd projects for local companies and the university. Mostly electronics, but some were software intensive, with C code, Z80 code, and even Windows GUI front ends. 01) RFMS, four generations of PC104 electronics to control, drive, and read the mass spectrometer. With CPU, power supplies, electrometer, frequency synthesizer, and RF output power amplifiers. With software. 02) BITCANNON, a lasercomm tx and rx board with adaptive optics beam steering and peltier thermal control of lasers. With software. 03) CONTROLLER, a cpu and tx and rx motherboard for a microwave radiocomm link running at 3Gbps. 04) NRZI, 3 versions of FPGA-based nrzi codecs for radiocomm data. 05) PRBS, an SFP paddle board with prbs generator for observing eye patterns. 06) FLYSPEC, a motherboard gluing together various pieces of an air sampling instrument. With software. 07) SEAMODEM, a compact and low power dual-band FSK modem for use on a thousand mile long underwater cable. With auxiliary AM voice channel. Last and not least, there are my three patent applications surrounding the novelties of the Hagerman 3HMS Spectrometer. One, so far has been approved. 01) Hyperbolic Horn Helical Mass Spectrometer. 02) Horn Mass Spectrometer having Fan Deflectors. 03) Horn Mass Spectrometer using Digital Deflection Drive. So to recap 2000 to 2008: 01) 26 original new products (13 still available to DIYer). 02) 11 redesigns. 03) 4 cancelled projects. 04) 6 SBIR proposals. 05) 10 major consulting projects. 06) 3 patents. *** Just spoke to Thom of Galibier. He wants me to design for him a new turntable motor control unit. I had done one previously, but it was for a dc motor. Now he is looking at ac motors. Three-phase to be exact. These are very well balanced and perhaps the least noisy of all the types. No brushes, not so much torque cogging. The controller / supply would create the three ac phases 120 degrees apart. And I was thinking, heck one of the phases alone could power a Rega or similar table. So this product could be an upgrade that applies across the board. Plus, folks have been asking me for this for year, albiet in kit form. And so I will start to mull it over, think of how to do such a thing, what the controls might be. My first thoughts are to make a HAL box just like the LINEFILTER. Have a 120V/240V input switch, ac power cord. Then a 50/60Hz select switch (although I might have this done automatically), and then an 11 position rotary switch for speed trim. Say have 60.0Hz nominal, and then increment by 0.1Hz steps, plus or minus 5 steps. Simple, easy. Any thoughts? Email me. *** Just noticed that 6moons finally got my press release out regarding the new TRUMPET. 6moons *** And then, for days I've been trying to figure out why sales started slumping a little after mid April. Duh! Taxes. Sheesh. I think a lot of folks are waiting for a refund. Things should pick up soon. May 04 ------ Got the PA-10 wired up. Took some photos. Ready to fire this thing up! The mate is also almost finished, so I'll have a working pair this week. PA-10 front view PA-10 back view PA-10 amplifier side PA-10 power suplpy side I must say, this amplifier came out beautifully. Super compact, everything tight with short signal paths. *** Ok, trying to do what I can to drop prices again. Putting the TRUMPET down to $2699. The PA-10 and DA-10 down to $2299. That's about the best I can do, considering the amount of labor involved. Just doing my part to try and increase overall sales during the slow summer months. *** Checked my type again. Still come out as INFJ. If any of you know what that means. We are rare. And more still those of us in engineering / design. May 03 ------ Had my birthday dinner party. Just the family. Had a fabulous filet mingon. And then a cheescake with a candle in it. My family Getting lazy here on weekends. I'll try to get the PA-10s wired up tomorrow. They are almost ready for their glamour shot. May 02 ------ I turned 48 today. Been doing some financial analysis, trying to get a better indicator of performance. Looking at various things. Hard to spot trends, as so much stuff is variable. My weekly income is up and down, very spikey. It just happens that way. But I did come up with something that might be useful. I plotted the average number of sale by day of the week. Seems that on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I get my most orders. I wonder why that is. Sales per day Actually, I didn't do any real work today. Just reconciled the checkbook, did the financial analysis. My kids had their big Lei Day things at school. Then I checked out a new location for the shop. No good. Too run down. Still looking. This weekend I plan on finishing up the PA-10s. Get some photos, some specs. And by golly, let's give them a listen in stereo! Oh wait. Not enough 2A3 tubes in the shop. Have some on order. Dang, I am always ordering stuff. May 01 ------ Finished the FRYDADDY layout. Finally. Got it done this morning. Came out pretty good. Luckily there was a lot of room on the board to get things to fit, easy to route the long traces. Hope I didn't make any mistakes, would like to start shipping this product soon. Now have a minimum of ordering 4 proto boards. Get one free. So I have 5. Would save me some bux if I didn't have to make any revisions. So boards are ordered, so are is the front panel. I already have most of the other parts (transformers, etc.). FRYDADDY layout FRYDADDY schematic *** Had a thought. In order to speed up manufacturing of HAGLABS machines, I think I'm going to try and always keep one set of each panels in stock. Not the entire machine, but at least the panels. Normally they have a 3 week lead time and that causes too much delay. I can get all the other parts in a few days. So the idea is to build up a stock of panels. Then, when I get a new order, I get a replacement set, not the original. This will reduce my backlog from 3-4 weeks down to 1-2. Even for the big expensive machines. Duh, why didn't I think of this before? Yeah, I end up with $1000 worth of panels sitting on the shelf, but I think overall the efficiency improvement will be worth it. *** Wondering what I should work on next. Should it be the RA-10 or the CA-10? the former would be much faster. The latter far more profitable. But waaay more development work. On the other hand, the circuit I came up with is absolutely fabulous. At least the analog tube section. Maybe I spend my summer doing that, since I doubt I will be going on vacation. Apr 30 ------ Hey, this month wasn't so bad after all. Sales ended up quite good overall. I guess my worries about the economy might be a little overblown? Anyway, let's keep it up! I am working again on advertising. The simplest and easiest way is to auction a unit on audiogon. Cheap. Except there is the cost associated with not selling something at full price. So I take the hit there. I always like to start the auctions out at $1. Gets lot more people interested. Trying to get as much eyeball attention as possible. Need to get word out about the new HAGLABS stuff. I put out some press releases the other day. We'll see what effect this all has. I now have 4 auctions going at audiogon. Auctions Box me some moving boxes today, will start to think about how to move this lab. And start sorting out my vintage audio magazines. Put them up for sale. Oh, I ran into Stu today (unclestu52). Sure was nice to visit for awhile. *** Almost finished a PA-10 today. Just need to wire up the power tranny. The upper (amplifier) side of the board looks like this. Very clean and orderly. The bottom looks way better. PA-10 amplifier guts Apr 29 ------ Ok, I'm having trouble buying some of the FRYBABY parts, the binding post adapters. They aren't selling much more, and they never did make me much money so I am going to just not build anymore. The DIY kit/2 is still available. The new FRYDADDY will be the king of burn-in machines. Somebody tried to order one today. I best get my butt in gear. Made a new HAGDAC for the CHIME GOLD, trying to shotgun that random "tic". Nope, still there. So I've replaced both HAGUSB and HAGDAC cards. Same issue. I'll have to rip the machine apart. Just to make sure, I then plugged the USB output into my DA-10. Whoah! Yeah, no tics, but more importantly, what a nicer sound! The ambience and clarity just punches through the mix. I wish I knew exactly what did it, but the DA-10 is a good step up from the CHIME. Seems to me the DA-10 and HA-10 combination is pure magic. Both best on planet category. Apr 28 ------ Thought I found a bad solder joint on the VCXO of that CHIME GOLD. Fixed it, gave it a try. Nope. Still gets a few tics in while the machine warms up. Seemed to stop after awhile, so maybe it is something thermal. I'll check wiring and other parts tomorrow. Other than that, the machine sounds great. Will put it back on audiogon soon. Dave Clark of PFO wants some HAGUSBs for review. Oh yeah! I still get a lot of business from the 6moons review. Turns out the HAGUSB is at the perfect price point, delivers way better performance tham all the other low cost solutions, and is a lot better than a $2k slimserver. Hey, you order them, I'll keep pumping them out. Dave also wants to try out a DA-10. Apr 27 ------ Finally got the PA-10 chassis painted up. I like to let them dry for 2 days, so that the paint isn't soft and picks up damage. I glob it on thick to get that nice glossy finish. Must wait! Do not touch yet. Can't wait to get the build complete. These are going to look superb. I already know they sound good. Looking forward to firing them up with a real system. That CHIME GOLD I auctioned off a few months ago? It came back. Something wrong with it whereas it glitches once every few songs. I thought it was a bad HAGUSB in it, but replacing didn't quite solve it. There is something intermittent in there. Anyway, I bought it back from the guy. If it don't work as advertised, I will stand behind my machines! So tomorrow I will see what else might be the trouble. I'm thinking HAGDAC. Will run a battery of tests and then try to confirm I solve the problem. Once it is fixed for sure, I will auction it off again. Yeah, same machine. This time used for two months. Also starting to box up and sort the magazine collections. Maybe I will auction them off later. Right now I just need to pack and organize. Get the lab mobile and ready for the new (and bigger) shop. Have to think about how best to do this without shutting down operations. I don't want to close the factory for more than a day. Then there are the menial tasks. Take up time. Like the front panel express folks modified my HAL logo such that it is cheaper to produce. So now I have to copy it onto all of my panel designs. That's like 20 or 30 panels! Apr 25 ------ Finally caught up with orders, putting the finishing touches on a VACUTRACE. Thinking about the lab re-organization. Going to sell off a bunch of books and magazine (glass audio) I never use anymore. Lighten up the load, make more room. Orders picking up again. After reading Forbes magazine last night, they actually seemed a bit upbeat that things will be picking up, economically speaking. Ok, food and gas prices will remain high, but I think folks will start buying some non-essentials again. Like DIY audio. *** Did some more layout work on the FRYDADDY. Very busy here with a lot of things. Hard to get the time to get this proto up and running. Ordered a ton more HAGUSB parts. Also re-stocking on FRYBABY connectors and adapters. *** Mostly, what I need to do this weekend is reconcile my bank account. About one year behind. Apr 23 ------ Hot and muggy here today. Today I cut out the chassis for my pair of PA-10s. Finally. Was going to do the HA-10 and DA-10 but discovered I am short on chassis. Always ordering more parts. Meanwhile, I see my page hits are averaging about 1700 per day. So activity is still pretty good. I need to think about advertising and promotion again. Been slacking a lot lately. Must do them darn product manuals too. But first, I'm going to upload schematics to the website. I wasn't going to do that, but what will it hurt? These are fabulous designs. You should know whatyou are buying. Huge bang for the buck. Sorry they take so long to build, though. Try to have that done tomorrow. Oh, did I mention I got a LINEFILTER wired up yesterday? Works just fine. I will be removing the power switch. No point for it. Must run a listening test, make sure all is well. Right now I have the secondaries totally floating. I think I will reference them in balanced common mode to ground with a pair of 100k resistors. Or maybe 10k. Apr 22 ------ Since I am custom building all of the HAGLABS stuff, I decided to add an option for faceplate color. Not everyone is enamored with the red/yellow scheme. So I will offer most products in silver/black, too. But in return, I'll make the return policy 10%, instead of 5%. Silver CORNET Apr 16 ------ A dealer on the phone today gave me some good tips on how to improve your web search engine ranking. Basically, put big long detailed descriptions in the page title. Put all keywords there, that somebody might be searching for. So I edited all my pages today. Meanwhile, it was a good production day, as I finally got two VACUTRACEs out the door. Will try to make more progress on the FRYDADDY tonight. Apr 15 ------ Ok, starting to get my act together here, my brain is kicking back into gear. I've gotten the FRYDADDY layout half done already. Just inching my way along when I get some free time. Should be done later this week, I expect? Will then get boards and panel, build proto. I think this is the burn-in generator audiophiles are looking for. Big, robust, powerful, and all in a nice box. It is what you guys wanted in the first place. And I am back on the PA-20. Only I am going to call it the RA-10 (Reference Amplifier). Keep it in the TEN series properly. I figure, the paper design is done, it is mostly a modification to the PA-10. Heck, it should not take long at all to implement. The CA-10 will have to wait. I'll just pump out as much stuff as I can right now, get the brand going. Must try and fabricate sales out of this slumping economy. Something to pay for the CA-10 development. Once it is done, I should be home-free. It will be the killer product I always needed. So tonight I will upload some more website info. CAD drawings and an RA-10 page. Apr 11 ------ Ok, it is now official. New price of FRYBABY is $299. I was on the hairy edge of breaking even (they're a lot of work to assemble), and used it mainly as an advertising tool. Small uptic in price to reflect my costs. I have notified both Audio Advisor and Music Direct, and expect they'll update their websites and catalogs asap. The other change is that HAGTECH will no longer sell them assembled. I moved it over to HAGLABS, which will now produce only RED ones. RED FRYBABY *** Ok, added FRYDADDY and CA-10 info to website. The photos are just panel design sketches, but give you a fair idea of what to expect. Apr 10 ------ Crud! Finishing up two VACUTRACEs, and discover I don't have any of the power trannys in stock. Ugh. Also missing the filament trannys for my DA-10. Ok, more parts on order. UPS should get the stuff here Monday. Apr 09 ------ Cranking on websites. I added short descriptions to the product pages, added some photos. Built a StepUp (see guts). Then I re-did the HAGTECH pages, added a big HAL banner to link up. Took out obsolete references, etc. Sort of cleaned everything up, try to make it looks sensible. *** I think I need to raise the price on FRYBABY to $299. Starting to lose money on it. At the same time, maybe I can add a RED version to the HAL site. It will then set the stage for the FRYDADDY, to come out later (already half designed). *** Ha! How about that? I just renamed the PL-10 as a CA-10. Why? Because the letters looked better on the web page. Something about kerning. It will be known as the CONTROL AMPLIFIER. Same machine, new name. Apr 08 ------ Building up new production HA-10, DA-10, and my pair of PA-10s. Got halfway, finding part shortages. Glad I had already bought all of the iron. Sheesh, just building machines for myself costs a lot of money. Mostly these are needed for a photo shoot. Get the pics posted to the website. Then I can start to think about product manuals. I have obsolete ones posted right now. Also thinking of writing a description for each product. Just having a photo and specs seems somehow insufficient. I'll get these parts on order. Then spend the rest of the week finishing a pair of VACUTRACEs. Apr 07 ------ Ok, finally getting some forward motion again here. Completed that TRUMPET over the weekend and shipped it out today. Fits perfectly in that Box-7 from the post office. And I am using shredder remains for packaging. It's a little messy, but cheap and it works fantastic. Fills every crevice and provides good protection. And I've been shredding a lot lately. Grinding up all those old records I don't really need any more. Like HAGTECH orders from 2002. I'll keep hardcopy backups for only a year now. Oh, and that TRUMPET? It really did sound better than my tweaked CORNET. More open, is the word I would use. Meanwhile, going to get back to the website, fix the photos and links. Adding a features section for each product. Must add the JUMPER card to VACUTRACE page. I'm also going to change the billing policy. Forever I did not charge credit cards until after product was built and ready to ship. I'll keep doing that for HAGTECH, but HAGLABS will be money up front. As if you paid paypal. Each product is custom built to order. Delivery can be anywhere up to 4 weeks, typically 3 weeks. Unless I happen to have certain critical parts in stock, which I sometimes do. So HAGLABS will charge your card up front now, then I can more easily buy parts and proceed with custom contruction. There will be a 5% cancellation fee. Same deal as the 5% restocking fee. Running out of LSK389 again. Must order more to keep those PICCOLOs shipping. Oh yeah, with the differenc chassis connectors in the RED PICCOLO, I can't include the internal battery pack, so it will be AC powered only. In return, I'll add the 0dB gain setting. *** Ok, got some photos of the LINEFILTER. Wondering why I put a switch on it. Not needed. LINE FILTER Apr 06 ------ Shoot, I really wanted to get those DeVore gibbon super 8 speakers. Was going to use them at RMAF, use them for myself. I had come to the conclusion they would be the best match for me and my amps. Now I'm not sure I can afford them. I guess I have to wait awhile, until I am settled into my new digs. See what the cash flow situation looks like. For now, I use the frankenvandys. Sure would like to have the gibbons, though, as my available time for listening will be going way up. *** Ok, so I had a bad day yesterday. Forgot to cut an etch, blew up and expensive 273DZ tranny. Replaced it, found a better way to wire it in (forget the inline connectors). New TRUMPET with lots of modifications is now up and running. And then I discover I put in the wrong MUTE switches. Shoot. What a pain they are to remove. Anyway, once I got the right ones in, everything was perfect. It all looks good, sounds fantastic. I'll have photos posted soon. Ok, so maybe I was a little harsh, thinking I could not handle this product. Today I feel better. But I'll have to raise the price, as the amount of labor involved cannot justify such a low price. I don't have much choice. The TRUMPET lives! But at $2999. TRUMPET Apr 04 ------ Wow, listening to the new PICCOLO was an experience. I can't believe how much better these caps are. Damn! The red HAGLABS version sounds absolutely stunning. This is a hit, worth every extra penny. I think I'll send one to Thom to use at RMAF. It is now clearly better than the tranny. Not quite as quiet, though. Started build up my PA-10s. Can't wait to get these things hooked up. I won't get much listening time in before I move shop. Have to set me up a whole new listening room. Got the parts in today to finish the TRUMPET. Maybe I can get it shipped out tomorrow. Meanwhile, the two VACUTRACE sit there unfinished due to lack of LED bezels. Man, I just can't keep up with inventory control. Apr 03 ------ Excellent, my Electrocubes came in. Just in time. I can now build up the DA-10, PICCOLOs, and other items that were on hold. Grinding away here, filling backorders. My apologies for all of the delays. Apr 02 ------ Shoot, I can't believe how long it takes me to build a new TRUMPET. The original was so well designed. Everything went together a snap. Hardly any hand wiring. Only trouble was all of the woodworking. The new design requires a lot of chassis work, machining and painting. And wiring the boards into the boxes is a pain! New inline connectors, wiring the up the RCAs and XLRs. The original had everything solder righted to the board. Great design. Oh well, the new one looks and sounds better. I wonder if I have to raise the price, though, as so much extra labor is involved. Pondering. For now it stays the same. Apr 01 ------ I should have the first production TRUMPET done any day now. All finished except for an inline connector I added between transformer and board, well, I bought the wrong part. Once I get the design tweaked, they will be easier and faster to build. I still expect a 3-4 week lead time. Bought that vmware workstation, absolutely fabulous software! Highly recommended. Yeah, it cost me $189, but it lets me run a fake Win NT operating system inside a window within XP. It is incredible. My schematic program runs great in this mode. It acts like it is a completely separate computer. This, plus the dosbox software, I now have everything running on one machine. And just in time. Mar 20 ------ Aw crap. I just got me some bad news in my personal life. Be back soon. Mar 19 ------ The PA-10 and DA-10 boards came in. Finally, I'll be able to have some amplifiers to listen to. And then I realized why I haven't finished the new TRUMPET. I scavenged the electrolytics for a CORNET and CHIME. Damn. That's ok, I place one or two part orders per week. Taxes are done. Shipped off to accountant. Computers up and running. Now I can focus on assembly and the new website. I still think I'll have most of it going by April Fool's. *** Ok, got a PICCOLO partially built. Waiting for the new expensive capacitors to show up. Good enough for a photo shoot, anyway. PICCOLO photo Mar 18 ------ And now I wonder about credit card debt. Although it may be counter-intuitive, paying off my credit cards may not make sense. At the moment. If the value of the dollar continues to plummet, and I'm hedging it will, then the value of my debt plummets with it. Let's look at this from scratch. If I buy $10k in gold tomorrow with a credit card at 10% interest, what happens in a year? Usually you lose. But my guess is that next year gold will be double. So a year from now I'll owe $11k in dollars, but own $20k worth of gold. Basically, the value of gold stayed constant, but my debt was roughly cut in half. Am I nuts? I'm thinking there is no need right now to pay down my cards too fast. Instead, I should concentrate on owning assets. In that respect, I bought sheetloads of expensive audiophile caps, a bunch of PCM1704K converters, lots of leaded solder, and as many circuit boards as I can store. My next move should be to buy a pile of tubes. Assets keep their value, the dollar won't. The idea is to not own anything in dollars. Unless they are negative! Or perhaps I am a fool, driving myself to ruin. On the other hand, by next year people will be desperate to sell off whatever assets they have left, just to eat. So maybe 2009 will be a good year to find vacuum tube bargains. Could be I am spending too much time reading stuff on the web. Like this guy Weiss, who must be a genius. Martin Weiss *** Spent the morning doing taxes. Every month I have to pay Hawaii excise tax on all items sold (they even tax me on shipping charges!). Fortunately, if item shipped out of state I can declare an exemption. And that is 99% of my business. It just takes a lot of paperwork. I'm still using my old QuickBooks 99 in double entry mode. I keep customer invoices in a separate file from checking account balance. Everything is entered twice, makes it real easy to go back and find glitches. Ok, so I am about a year behind on reconcilliation. Anyway, for federal taxes I made me a spreadsheet that adds up all my deduction in various categories. Part, postage, office expenses, advertising, travel, etc. Fortunately, it doesn't take me 8 hours anymore, as being organized can help. I just go through all checks written and credit card statements to find my expenses. I spent $4906 on shipping last year. Mar 17 ------ Seems a few of the photos didn't quite make it. I lost about 5% of the collection. Not too bad. Working on this LINE-FILTER project, and I realized I messed up with the choice of isolation transformer used in the LC-10. Had a hard time finding the right size to fit. Well, I thought I had one good for 120W per outlet. Turns out it was half of that. Crap. Not enough juice. I need to make sure each plug can power a PA-10. Or less. Ok, I find a tranny to do the job, but it is 5" diameter instead of 4". Should be able to squeeze in the box. Going to increase price a bit. That's four big trannys at $81 a pop. Meanwhile, I have four of the smaller ones sitting on a shelf. Well, it turns out that it is just about right for the new LINE-FILTER. I'll wire the secondaries in parallel for 1 amp output current. Both plugs are together and pump out 120W total. That's enough for a TRUMPET and something smaller. Or a DA-10 and HA-10. Or two CORNETs. It solves my problem for a low cost answer to 240V operation. And it is not just a voltage converter, it offers BALANCED ac line outputs plus line filtering. I should be able to offer it for $499 direct. Box is 7x5. I've already bought the parts to build a prototype. It is a perfect match for a STEP-UP and looks something like this: LINE-FILTER panel And while at the post office today I notice a sign that says fixed rate large box. Hmmm, that's new. They've added a 12x12x8 box any weight for $12.95. Unbelievable. That is the EXACT size I chose for the TEN series components. Somebody is looking out for me. The timing of this is perfect. Not only does it cut my shipping costs in half, I no longer have to buy boxes! What a stroke of luck. *** Finished that other ARCHIVER, getting it ready for audiogon auction. Burned it in. Did cap testing. I realized that I was working with three different types. Blue, red, and pink. The warm, earthy sounding ones were pink. Not my taste, as I thought they were too much, tending toward muddy. The red and blue have a different tone, more clear, more sparkle. I think less smear. The blue ones are still my fave (but not by much), as they retain the microambience and microdynamics the best. So the ARCHIVER will retain the red, the FLUGEL will use blue, and I'll stop using the pink. The pink, by the way, are the panasonic PPS dielectric. ARCHIVER in rack chassis *** So what happens if the dollar's value is cut in half again? Let's say oil is $200, gold $2000. It could happen in 2008, given the pace of where things are headed at the moment. It appears the Fed it entirely willing to sacrifice the dollar in order to save banks. Or something. Did I bet on the wrong horse? Let's take a look. Three years ago I came up with the concept of HAGERMAN AUDIO LABS. The idea was to take my hard-earned reputation and move upscale to a new line of products that would be sold dealer direct. Why would I do this? Because history was showing me that the best way to move product was to have somebody else act as saleman. Companies selling boxes through dealers were making far more money than the one-website type of company. Ok, I figured that was the way to expand. So I came up with the FRYBABY. The whole idea behind that product was to get it into the mail order catalogs and boost the HAGERMAN name, get it recognized as a dealer product. Well, my first choice was Acoustic Sounds. Chad wasn't interested. Ok, Wayne at Audio Advisor saw differently and took the chance. That was followed by Music Direct. Ok great! Two giant audio catalogs. The FRYBABY was off and running. And I'm thinking I have a foot in the door. The problem was money. My idea for a giant preamp, fully tubed, balanced in to out, was going to be a costly proposition. How to fund development? That's where I got stuck. Meanwhile, the economy was chugging along, ripe for such a product. It was a cool machine, a TRUMPET phonostage with multiple inputs, step-up trannys, integrated with a balanced tube linestage. All under remote control using my new one-button concept. Inside it had a built-in tape loop. Except it was digital! Yes, I had an ADC to USB and USB to DAC as a tape loop. It would record any of the inputs (level controls built in), play them back, or just be a line/phonostage. It was a RIPPER deluxe. XLRs everywhere. It also had a FRYKLEANER built-in, capable not only of self-break-in, but it would also burn-in any cables attached to it! Yeah, it was a dream machine. Then I added it up. Retail price would have been about $20,000. Holy crap! That is ten times what a TRUMPET was going for. How was I going to pull this off? I had the entire design down on paper, but couldn't afford to move forward. The cost of R&D was more debt than I could handle. I had the endpoint, but no way to get there. Then last year, after cleaning up my product line (ARCHIVER replaced BUGLE PRO, etc.), somebody suggested again to make a tube headphone amp. Ok, been on the back burner for 5 years. So I thought about it for awhile. It had to be a kit. And things started falling into place. For me, design is full of kharma, metaphysical inspiration, feng shui, whatever. Things happen. Ideas come and go for no reason. I started moving in the right direction with choke input power supplies, tons of iron throughout the design, all tubes, etc. And then it hit me. The chassis I ended up with would provide a perfect platform for a HAGLABS series, but only if I changed to single-ended circuits. And so I thought some more. Sure enough, I could morph this new chassis into the "TEN" series, leaving me the opening for a future "TWENTY" series (the XLR balanced of original concept). It was a solution that met me halfway. All of a sudden I could afford the development costs and build me a series of products still destined for dealers. And so I aimed for that. Expensive front and rear panels along with a classy paint job made the chassis beautiful enough to sit on a dealer shelf next to just about anything. My wife chose a unique and identifiable color scheme. Yes, yellow LEDs. And realizing my production would be limited, I could aim this line solely for US dealers, expanding into Europe later. Hence, I was able to compromise and use 120Vac only power transformers. Doing such allowed me to keep the trannys inside the super compact chassis. The designs were falling into place. Solutions were happening. And now the bottom is falling out. Will there be any dealers left in the US? Sure, but what are the chances of any of them taking the risk of a new line? That's my present conundrum. Do I have a workable business plan? Or is it the right plan at the wrong time? As a small company it is super easy for me to adapt. And fast. I can change policy the next day. Like recently, when I changed to free shipping worldwide. Bam! Next day it was implemented. So what does this mean for me now? The question is, what should my new strategy be? With a falling dollar, methinks I need to focus on exports for the near future. That's why I invented the new LINE-FILTER today. It allows a TRUMPET or CORNET to run on 240V. I also recently switched the HERITAGE line of products to factory-direct sales only. That cut the price to super competitive levels. Moreso overseas. So what am I worried about? I'm worried about the TEN series. Am I about to waste a lot of time and money courting dealers when they're on the verge of bankruptcy? The dealers in good shape are the ones selling $100k speakers and $20k amps. They never had any interest in my stuff anyway. So whom am I chasing? Did I totally mess up? I could use some advice here. Do I completely change course here and switch the TEN series back to factory-direct? If so, I shoot myself in the foot. I screw up years of planning. I set myself back a long way. My chances of getting the big magazine reviews are shot. My exposure in the marketplace is shot. I have no sales channel (other than a website). Cutting out the dealers is like cutting off your hand. Or am I saving myself with a brilliant move? I have no idea. I'm nothing more than a circuit designer. The bonus here is to the customer, who can then buy the world-class DA-10 for a mere $2299 instead of $3760. That's the difference. For me, the profit margin is the same. I consider this, as I find lately I've been really struggling to get boxes built. I'm realizing I don't have the production capacity I thought I might. A hundred boxes a year is about it (a box equals a CORNET or DA-10). If dealer demand takes off, I am unable to produce without expanding and hiring a bunch of assembly techs. That will turn me into a CEO. I will spend all my time managing and no time designing. Is that where I want to be? No, in fact, I'd like to someday do nothing more than design. Outsource production. Sort of like what I think Tim de Paravicini or John Curl do. No, I don't want to be CEO or sales manager. Right now, I can handle a hefty load of production and assembly work. That's fine. But if I am limited to 50 or 100 boxes a year, then maybe I messed up thinking I should chase dealers? Maybe I change HAGLABS into a halfway measure. Maybe it is nothing more than a vehicle to get me to where I really want to be. Build my reputation. Build a customer base. Pay the bills. Get me to a point where I can partner with the right people and finally go big time. Anyway, that's sort of what I am thinking today, as the price of bread climbs skyward. Mar 16 ------ Good, the file recovery program did it's job. It's got a wierd interface, and is a bit of a pain to use, but so what. It worked! I haven't checked yet, but it appears to have recovered all of my lost photos. I had to click on each one to recover only them, and not the ten thousand temporary internet pics saved by explorer. Anyway, after many hours (and the entire Saturday, all the way up to 11pm), I have 1108 precious photos recovered taking up 749MB. And I quickly copied the folder to my new machine for backup. This time, I think I will make a few CDs. Hey, I also have a completely rebuilt XP machine in pristine state, upgraded with all of the latest updates (I swear, they must issue one per day!). The kids may now play games. And I can return to audio. Speaking of which, I came up with a brilliant idea for a product. All of my fretting lately over the dollar, well it made me realize that this is a time to focus on exports. While my assets are loosing value (as is my debt!) I can take advantage of the exchange rate, as now my products appear to Europeans and others not only as bargains, but outright cheap. The $119 HAGUSB is selling all over the world right now. It is the right product at the right time at the right price. Anyone can cheaply turn their computer into a high quality CD or music transport for less money than any other option. A very simple upgrade to your existing hardware. Anyway, I realize I have to do the same for the HAGLABS products. Last year I made a (fatal?) compromise in that I chose to go with 120Vac power transformers. It was my only solution to fit inside the chassis and keep costs down. So I exchanged the ability to run at 240V for tranny inside. Was that the right move? In hindsight, maybe not. However, all is not lost! I realized last night all I have to do is make a smaller and cheaper version of the LC-10. I can do the same thing in a STEPUP-like box. Duh. Way cheaper. A single outlet, one big isolation tranny inside (instead of four). Basically, 1/4 LC-10. Do I call is LC-2.5? Nah. Maybe something like LF-10? It will offer a solution for dropping from 240V to 120V, while adding the benefits of filtering and isolation. I'll put it into the HERITAGE line to keep cost under $500 (we'll see). That way, a bloke in England can buy a full-blown TRUMPET package less than L2000! That's a TRUMPET, a STEPUP, and a LINEBOX, shipped to your door. Ok? A stereophile class A tube phonostage with MC step up tranny and the ability to run at 240V. L2000. Yeah, this is a backup plan to cover for and expected sales downturn on the domestic side. Mar 15 ------ I got another ARCHIVER built. This is the one without ADC, put into a spare rack chassis. Looks beautiful. This is nicer than most machines you see at the store. I'll do some listening tests to compare with my FLUGELHORN to determine the best coupling capacitor for the application. So far, the blue ones are winning out over the red. ARCHIVER in rack chassis Meanwhile, I think I'll hold off on my ebay purchases. No point paying $300 for a 25 year old calculator. Heck, in a few months there will be a lot more sellers and a lot fewer buyers, driving prices down. I think this summer will be a good time for ebay pickings. *** Trying to rebuild my old XP machine. Ugh. I've got old install CDs all over the place. Have probably 5 Dell machines, 1 IBM laptop, and I'm on my 3rd Toshiba laptop. The oldest Dell I rebuilt years ago into the NT machine. Its been by far the most robust. Odd, when there is a power line glitch, all of the other machines reboot, the old NT beast keeps right on ticking. Inside, it is a dustbowl. Anyway, I had two hard drives in the XP machine. One had all my data files, the other the operating systems (multi-boot). Decided to sacrifice the data drive (had copied everything to my new machine already) and ran the Maxtor reformatter and made a new partition. Well shoot, my XP disc that came with the machine would not boot. The XP disc that came with my wife's machine would not boot. I tried a DOS diskette and it would not see C: drive. Nor D:. Ok, plan C. So I found my old NT install floppys. After a couple of hours, I got an NT install working. Sadly, it could not use the ethernet card nor the video. Still, limped along. When I tried to run the XP install discs, they said I must have service pack 5 to continue. Crap! So many dead ends. No net. So I tried installing drivers for the card. Nope. Only works with XP. Sheet, how do I upgrade to SP5 so I can load XP so I can use the network? Ok, tried pulling the net card from the NT machine, as I have the drivers. But for some reason it remains undetected. All is lost. I'm thinking I may have to go to Costco and buy a new XP. One more try, I stick the XP install disc I have (SP1) and now it boots! So running it. Wiped out the NT partition I just spent four hours building. Well, it seems to be working. I was thinking, just before I lost all my photos and crashed the system, I stupidly ran that Registry Mechanic software again. Thinking it might clear up the machine a little before I handed it over to the kids. Well, that was the last thing I did. On reboot is when it failed for good. So whatever you do, NEVER run that software! I might have to quit the audio business and travel the world warning people of the danger. I still have the hard drive. Will stick it into the rebuilt XP machine as a slave. Hopefully tonight I can run that pareto recovery software I bought. Mar 14 ------ I am so impressed with this DOSBOX software, must repeat, it is phenomenal. *** Been trying to catch up on internet news. Everything is pointing to economic depression, not recession. I have to wonder what it bodes for our industry. Will brick and mortar stores be able to ride it out? What is the best way to position oneself to profit or survive such a thing? And why is it the Fed will bail out bear stearns but not audio research? The US dollar Hey, I'm just a circuit designer. But one thing I have learned, is that the price of gold is constant. It is the dollar that is changing. I wonder if I need to turn off my google adsense campaign. Am I just throwing money away? *** My production DA-10 and PA-10 boards just shipped. I need to buy me a whole new couple of matching sets of magnetics for the amps. I have the panels and chassis already. Meanwhile built up a STEPUP. No guts, but I needed this photo for the website. STEPUP photo Also got the OEM phonostage complete. This is a pre-production model. I still have to adjust panel dimensions, but this is what I expect it to look like (without the AA badge). On first listen, I the caps I used are not as good as the blue ones I put into the FLUGELHORN proto. These PPS dielectric are a bit muddy and too warm. I like the more open clarity and lower smear of the blue EPCOS caps. OEM phono Mar 13 ------ Ok, some suggestions to try out vmware. A virtual os machine within a machine. I also found virtual pc 2007 (yeah, but it is from microsoft) and one called dosbox, which looks very promising. Honestly, I would love to be able to run all of my software on this one computer. At the moment, the old PC is unable to boot XP, but it will boot to DOS and run my layout code. This is ok, but I have to get files in/out using a floppy disk. Not so happy. The NT machine is continuing flawlessly. Maybe because it never had to deal with a kid's game. I'm pretty sure that is what finally broke down the XP machine. So I am up and running, albeit not with perfect convenience. And my palm keeps hitting the ctrl key! I have made new backups, just in case. The USB backup drive is now running again, but had to be reformatted. That leaves my old photos missing. My last shot at them is plugging the disk into my wife's old XP machine. Will have to attempt when she is not looking. Meanwhile, I will take a break from this computer nonsense and focus on soldering. A few more machines need to be built. Oh, you might also notice that the www.haglabs.com website is slowly growing. I added a couple of placeholders for the other pages. I need to work out how I want the individual product pages should look. I might borrow a bit from the HAGTECH stuff. Seems to me having the price and specifications conveniently shown is a good thing. I can also start taking orders. *** This new keyboard is really starting to piss me off. My left hand naturally lays in a particular spot for comfortable typing. Sadly, they put a goddamn ctrl key there! So stupid! I keep screwing up everything I type with ctrl characters, jumping off to unkown menus, etc. I just was typing a long asylum post and on my last sentence, bam! It all disappeared. Dell, you owe me a new keyboard. This one sucks. *** Nevermind. I ripped the key off. Everything ok now. Ok, after looking around, I think I'll use the DOSBOX for my layout software. That will be my first test. Actually, that's all I really need to do at this point. Eventually, I can then use vmware (looks to be the best supported) to load up a virtual NT machine in a window. I like the entire virtual concept. Very clever, very useful. I will keep you posted. *** Oh my, this was unbelievably easy. I downloaded the free dosbox program. Hey, only 1.5MB. This is good old fashioned efficient code. The way it used to be done. Loaded nicely. I didn't even have to load dos. Just my program. Easy to follow a few simple instructions. And it all worked! This mischevious and nasty dos program fired up and ran without a hitch. The only issue is that it runs in 640x480 mode. So it is small in a window. When I run fullscreen (what I had been doing for years) it gets lopsided, as I have one of those newfangled widescreen LCD displays. Not sure yet how to get it to maintain aspect ratio. But hey, I am duly impressed. This is awesome code. Highly recommended. Mar 12 ------ I was doing pretty good with the data file transfers, but did one thing out of order. I erased a faulty account. Last year when I ran that registry mechanic it wiped out a whole bunch of working stuff. My emails, etc. I found the data bases and copied them, sort of had things running. But I forgot all of my photos downloaded over the past 3 or 4 years was in a Kodak directory buried in there. Crap, I didn't get the photos out in time. About a thousand pics gone forever! All of my yellowstone, england, alaska trip shots all erased. Nothing went to the recycle bin. Ok, I had a backup on a 160GB USB drive. Except it ain't workin now. It loads, but doesn't mount up with a drive number like it used to. Won't load on any machine. I think it lost it's partition. I hadn't used it in awhile, maybe this was why? So my backup is dead too. Jeepers. This is like the house burnt down. Shoot, and it is just because I did this out of order. Had my chance to copy the photos. Missed it. *** Ok, don't panic. The data is sill probably there. Just need a way to find it. Remembered he recent issue of PC Mag has a list of the best 150 free programs. I seem to remember something about JPG recovery. So did some searching. Well, there must be a hundred different companies making software to do this. Most involve flash cards that fit into cameras. I just need to scan my hard drive for data that looks like JPG file. So I went with one of the paid for google ads, got me that pareto logic data recovery pro. Well, sure enough, it was able to locate 22,800 residual images on the drive. Took me two hours to go through the list, one by one, finding the original file names. Also to see if there was recoverable data. The good news is that almost all of them are still there. I bought the $49 key to enable recovery. We shall see. It appears to be hung right now. I have 529MB of photos supposedly being recovered. I have a feeling it ain't gonna work. *** Yup, totally hung. Now it won't reboot. After much futzing, it's the registry that has been corrupted. Will not start XP. Can't put drive into new machine because cables are different. Shux. So now I have a completely dead computer. A hard drive full of erased photos. Hmmm. Maybe I try sticking it into my wife's XP machine? I better get a new HD for this computer, as it is still a good box. My kids can use it for gaming. And now I realize I have another issue. I've been running two boxes with a KVM swich (shares keyboard and mouse). One box was NT to run the schematic software. I bounced back and forh. The XP machine was dual boot, with a DOS partition to run the layout code. What a mess. I need XP, NT, and DOS. I'm a little reluctant to try and make this new machine triple boot. I need to find a place for the DOS code. And mainly, my new keyboard and mouse are USB and won't work on the KVM I had. Hmmm. Do I now run two sets of keyboards? This computer stuff is losing it's fun quotient. Shoot. I could run this new machine as triple boot. I already have he system commander software, just seemed to have lost the serial number. Gads. *** Ok, does anybody know how to run an NT-only program under XP? How about DOS? Mar 11 ------ Well, I am typing this on the new computer. Slowly transfering files and all data and crap over. Tons of programs to install. Have you ever tried to find the address book data? Or your old emails? Sheesh. Anyway, I did. Now I need to move printer. Theoretically, I got the hard stuff done already. The new computer is a Dell optiplex. Big. Looks really rugged. I like the case. The problem so far is the keyboard. Where I normally rest my left palm is now on top of the control key, so it's booching left and right. I can't type normally. I may have to upgrade. Or maybe I can just disable the key. *** Ok, got image processing running again. Here's some shots of the new CORNET. I think it came out beautifully. This thing is a stunner. And quiter than the original. Check out the guts. Expensive resistors and caps everywhere. Very compact little unit. CORNET CORNET guts Mar 10 ------ Interesting destinations for HAGUSB orders. Today I sent one to a radio or TV station in NYC. Another to team CSC (the bike guys) in Austria. You'd be suprised at some of the folks who own one. Almost ready with some photos. Got the FLUGELHORN done, almost there with the CORNET and TRUMPET. As soon as I can find some free time I'll get the SU and PI done too. That should give me enough photos to launch the website. Meanwhile, I keep playing with link colors and other such miniscule things. *** Computer finally got here. Missed the first two attempts at delivery. And speaking of which, during lab testing last week my laptop went wierd. Maybe it was a low battery warning, but it glitched and locked up. Started up again ok, but now the usb-audio driver doesn't talk to foobar. This is a classic issue I've been having with that machine. A few times I did something to get it working again, and recently it was flawless. Now it is totally messed up again. Just as bad, now the wireless software doesn't go looking for wifi. Jeez. When it rains it pours. And this is the laptop I was depending upon for RMAF. *** Ok, got new CORNET done. Took good photos of it and FLUGELHORN. Just can't get them uploaded without bluescreening this machine. The new computer is sitting here, ready to get fired up. Probably take me a week to get everything transferred over. You know, emails, favorites, quickbooks, all my data files, songs. I agonize over having to reload foobar and the dozen other programs I have (many not free). Damn, where did I put all those registration keys? Mar 08 ------ Finally got around to doing some chassis work. Been putting it off. But it wasn't so bad. Sure, it takes a lot of work to prep a chassis. Mark holes (precisely), drill them, countersink, debur, punch holes, clean and paint. My arm gets sore filing the big transformer hole (rectangle) for the TRUMPET, or punching them damn tube holes in the top. The punch gets amazingly hot after grinding out eight holes. The results, however, were awesome. I really got this painting thing down. The coatings are perfect, and the glossy finish gives it a mirror-like quality, even though there is the textured powdercoat underneath. It looks really good and I hope it shows in the photos. Unfortunately though, like other shiny hi-end machines, they tend to pick up fingerprints quite easily. Mar 07 ------ All this economic news. It's a recession folks, pay no attention to those pundits behind the tv screen saying otherwise. I'm not in a panic yet, merely to the point of apprehension. So many things in conjunction, it's like an intereference pattern at a horn mouth where everything coincides, a perfect storm. A recession I can ride. A full blown depression is what I'm worried about. What does it do to hi-end audio? Is there history we can examine? Was there a hi-fi cult back in '29? Who bought hi-end equipment in the '30's? Is my product line properly placed and marketed for such an economy? I look at the price of food, energy, metals. That tells the story. When a donut costs more than $1, we're in trouble (the classic bellweather). What has happened over the past 5 years? In 2003 gas (for me) was maybe $2.00, now it is $3.50. Gold was (I have no idea) $500? Now $1000. Copper thefts were a big story last year. Ok, so if we assume the price of gold, fuel, and bread are constant, and that the value of the dollar is what is changing, then we can see a rough devaluation of maybe 40% in the last 5 years. Not quite half. Or looking at it the other way, prices are 75% higher. So let's look at HAGTECH. A VACUTRACE used to be $1.25k, now it is $1.55k. Or a 25% increase. It will soon be $1.7k, a 36% jump. Only 1/2 inflated compared to other items. In reality, the price has gone down! Think about it. Do not measure in dollars, that is the mistake. Measure in gold, gas, or groceries. A TRUMPET used to be $1.9K, now $2.5k. That's a mere 32%. And a HAGUSB is still $119. That's cheaper (in dollars) than it was in 2005. Ok, so I'm not ripping anyone off. My improvements in efficiency and volumes have helped. The question is, has it been enough? *** I completely changed around the coloring scheme of the website. This was done to match the colors of the new chassis. No, I didn't pick them. My wife did. She liked the gold/yellow text on red anodize. And then black covers. The silver is to represent the color of exposed aluminum extrusions and stainless steel hardware. Got rid of the green, which was an inversion of my red (#801010). The good times font will be used for banners and headers. I also changed to a fixed width format, something a lot of newspaper sites do. This is to make it more readable. My old site stretches with your browser, so you can force it into any shape. I picked 768 pixels for a width. It will always look the same. Simplified menus even more. Left out "dealers" for the moment. About is now the same as home. I'm not really going to put up much in the way of content, the HAGTECH site is for that. This is nothing more than product photos, specs, and the ability to order them. No fluff. Pure, simple, clean, efficient. Nothing more. I'd edit the photos to look better, but with my computer crashing around me, I can no longer save JPGs. *** Ok, I am now officially in room 1104 at RMAF08. Just sent in a downpayment. RMAF08 floor plan Mar 06 ------ Working again on the HAGLABS website. Trying out various design formats and layouts. This time menu across the top. A lot of people suggest I make a fancy website. But hey, I am inherently rebellious in nature, and I just have to be me. I am making this as simple as possible. It will be easy to look at, use, and maintain. No flash, no animations, no shopping cart, no "enter site" gimmicks. Just straightforward purity and simplicity. Same as my amplifiers. Why would I do anything else? The site must reflect my philosophy and design style. This ain't amazon.com or facebook. Anyway, I hope to have a new index page uploaded later today. I realize I have only 3 of 14 products photographed for this. HAGLABS website Speaking of style, I have to say the Veena is right up my alley. I really like what they did technically and visually. It might be what I would do if I were a speaker designer. I worry, however, that my high impedance low watt amplifiers aren't going to be up to the task. Afterall, I do NOT use feedback, like most other tube amps (Lamm, BAT, Quicksilver, etc.). Will I have any dynamics at all with my 6 clean watts? What about the DeVore Super 8? From what I read online it might be more "musical". Maybe I prefer the DeVore sonic presentation better? I'll keep looking, but pretty soon I have to try and make a deal. *** Reading the horn article in AXP. Wow! This has to be one of the best articles they've published in the last ten years. Very well done. Good description of horn designs and some of their compromises. One line in there really did it for me, that the speed of sound is taken to be constant, and that's how you solve for wavefronts. Bingo! I get it. So simple. You set the boundary conditions and solve using certain assumptions, in this case speed. It's like solving electric field isopotential lines, just set the laplacian (del-squared V) equal to zero. Iterate about that condition and the answer pops out. Well, it is the same with doing wavefronts in horns. Just use a piece of string, mark off inches or whatever increments. Pull it tight straight out. That's the front of the sound wave. Now force it along the edge of the horn, that's the same wavefront (in time) position at the horn surface. Ok, it doesn't solve in between (except for a conical), but it's a good start. Intuitive. And now I understand where the various shapes came from. Designers solved for different parameters. A cylinder gives a plane wave. A conical a spherical wavefront. The tractrix came from solving for perpendicularity at the horn surface. Very clever. I get it. You do this such that there are no reflections along it! The wave flows smoothly across the horn. Of course, if you build a horn without a smooth surface you just destroyed this very unique property. Anyway, I can't wait for part 2. My guess is that the hyperbolic is the optimal design. I just have a feeling. Probably because the front surface reaches a limit, whereas all other shapes continue on forever. I find horn design interesting, and maybe someday I will get me a full system. My patent #4 did the same thing (which is why I find the analysis fascinating). The mass spectrometer field solution had a 1/r term in it, and I realized the way to cancel this was to put a z term to the field strength. Thus, if z=r, then the solution has a term z/r that cancels! Problem solved. The horn is a hyperbola of the form z = 1/x, not the generalized formula for a hyperbola, but the simplest. It has a special name, I forget. Rectangular, or something like that. Anyway, I'm still guessing the hyperbolic cross section delivers the smoothest impedance transfer for a loudspeaker. We shall see. *** Hey, I just thought of something while doing dishes. I bet you anything that the "honkiness" of a horn comes from these surface reflections. Hence, the tractrix has least honk, if done correctly. The non-perpendicular fronts develop interference patterns of cancellation and reinforcement. Probably very much frequency dependent. Any of you horn builders attempting rough or irregular surfaces to combat this are heading down the wrong trail. It's a nice bandaid, but not a solution. Try, try, try, you'll never get there. A good horn has to be smooth. Mar 05 ------ I think I'm running on overload. Mar 04 ------ Uh oh, prices finally moving. I noticed big time trying to order a new batch of USB cables. Electrolytics, too. I'll keep a watch on them, but it could force me to nudge up prices myself. We'll see. Mar 03 ------ Dang, the HP15C are going for well over $300 in eBay auctions. I found the 11C and 10C are pretty close, with fewer features, mainly without the complex math, which I don't use much anymore. Actually, if I can just figure out how to scroll the digits to the right one place, I can live with my broken one. It's just the leftmost digit is in a broken LCD area. Got my RMAF room on 11th floor! This time 1104, near the elevators. Pretty good location. All the way opposite Thom's room. *** Looking into ways to run an automatic picture slide show for my new website. Sort of doing a nice fade in and out of various glamour shots of the new HAL products. Found this blendTrans() filter function that is somewhat helpful. Looks like a bit of work, though. Maybe I need to just do the flash thing. Or insert an applet. *** Running short on parts again. I swear, I'm placing new orders while the previous orders are still in transit. Out of screws. Out of HAGUBS boxes. It never stops. Those things are selling like hotcakes. And most going overseas. With the dollar dropping like a rock, I am now shipping most stuff to foreign addresses. Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't have made the HAGLABS stuff 120Vac only. *** Ok, I sort of figured out how to do this. I used the VACUTRACE page as an example. It used to have a bunch of example curve images that if you clicked on it they would change. Ok, so I automated it and put in the fade feature. It seems to work. Maybe just on IE, not opera or safari, I really don't know. Hopefully they will at least display the first image as static. Anyway, try it out, see if the image fade feature works for you. VACUTRACE page with image fading Mar 02 ------ Someone emailed me saying they read an article in the Chicago Tribune about the HAGUSB. So I dug it out. HAGUSB article Mar 01 ------ Ok, I just bought a new computer. Pretty lazy about this, I always just buy a Dell. Yeah, I'd rather have an iMac, but am so entrenched with PC software, I got no way around it. Layout, schematics, credit card processing, etc. This was not a purchase I really wanted to make, but having been given the two minute warning, I'd be a fool not to. Why Dell? Because I like to really personally configure the machine. No box store is going to package all of the options I want. For $800 I get quite a machine. Delivered. The Dell prices are tricky, always start with one of their "deals" or special promotions, then tweak from there. What else do I recommend? Optical mouse. Floppy drive. I even splurged for the widescreen 2" displays. Always wanted to be able to put two word docs side by side (I write a lot of product manuals). Windows XP. And then I read the stereophile review of the cayin integrated. Jeez, $1300 retail for this tube amp. If I built that thing, it would cost me $1000 in raw parts, unassembled. And that's their street price! They actually build it for probably half that! That's why I don't compete on price anymore. I sell performance. *** Eventually, you are what you leave behind. *** Hey, good news. Just got notified the first of my three pending patents was approved. I don't know if it's been assigned a number or not. Have to wait until the lawyer sends me the forms to sign. Anyway, the basis for the invention is described in this white paper. Hyperbolic Horn Helical Mass Spectrometer Feb 29 ------ Just so you know, the other speaker I am looking into for RMAF08 is the Veena from 3A. I heard the de capo years ago and was mesmerized. The idea of direct coupling really appeals to me. So far, it's either these or the de Vore super 8s. Remember, I gots me only 6 watts. Any other recommendations? Speaking of which, the Melody i2A3 reviewed by Tellig claims 18W out of the same tubes and configuration I get 6W. Damn! What am I doing wrong? Well, it is because I operate in full class A. They must be pushing it very close to class B, with a small AB crossover region. Put the bias at 350V and 15mA, you're still on the recommended operating load line (which I don't use because there is a sonically BETTER load line). This shift in bias gets them from a limitation of 100Vp signal swing to 170Vp swing. Basically, only one tube is operating at a time, the other is in cutoff. I guess if all you care about is power, then this is how you do it. *** Ok, good news is that Saelig says they won't charge me the 15% restocking fee for the Owon scope, since it didn't operate as advertised (no persistence in XY). They seem to be good folks. I've bought stuff from them years past, the USB scope and an I2C unit. *** However, trying to start the FLUGELHORN layout modifications to the ARCHIVER, I found the file would not read in. That's ok, I got plenty backups. And I've been having boot issues and a lot of blue screens lately. Gee, I wonder if it is time for a new computer? So I figured I would do a chkdsk. Sure enough, it fixed the FAT partition where I run layout software. Then I ran it on my C: windows drive, see if that helped too. Well, it started, lasted for awhile and then blue screened. Did it again. Got farther, almost done! BS. Sheet. Am I ever going to get through this? Keep in mind, each cycle here takes about an hour! I'm wasting the entire morning, wondering if I will ever see my email again. Third time it made it. And the blue screened. I tried going around it with other boot disks, etc. No luck. The problem is that now every time I boot it starts that 1 hour chkdsk routinge. I finally figured out that unplugging the machine right as it starts the chkdsk, it then realizes it actually crashed and lets me start up with "last known working" whatever. Ding! That did it. Got me booted up and launched into XP again. Everything still here. Email, quickbooks, credit card processing, etc. Suppose the HD is on its way out. At least I have time left to do something about it. I'm not worried about losing data (everything of value backed up), merely the week long hassle of configuring a new machine. Anyway, I did get the FLUGELHORN relayout done. It makes for much easier wiring and fit into the new chassis. Will probably order production boards on Monday. I always like to give it a day or two (if possible) just to see if I think of some feature to add (like a ground hole or test point label). *** The first perfect HAL VACUTRACE is done. I'll take a bunch of photos for use in manual and on website. I'm thinking on my homepage a spot of cool product photos being shown as a slideshow would be neat. Gives the page some "life". Feb 28 ------ CORNET2 boards came in. I will fill all backorders today. Trying to get as much done this week as possible, as my wife will be out of town all next week. Going to be difficult, with all of the trips to school and all. *** Finished a CHIME and VACUTRACE today. Well, except for one is missing the handle ferrules and the other a plastic LED dome. Jeez. Ordered the parts last night. So difficult to keep perfect JIT inventory. Thinking I'll do some minor makeup changes to the FRYBABY-HAL version. It will be red case, of course. I'll put the gold plated HAL RCA jacks in it, and also the more expensive solid aluminum knob. Common pieces with the rest of the HERITAGE series. Price will be a tad higher, maybe $269 or so. The important thing is that I don't screw my dealers MD and AA by undercutting them with the free shipping. They still get the original FRYBABY at $249. *** Tried out that Owon digital scope. Whoah, really cheap. They did a great job making this low cost. But hey, if it works, great! The display is huge, maybe too much. At the low resolution it is fuzzy. Also really low contrast. Kind of hard to look at. Traces are not clean. Anyway, finally hooked up the VACUTRACE to it today to test it out for curve tracing. Fell down flat! Ok, it runs in XY mode, but their display is not so good. The USB scope I have is way better. And the damn variable persistence mode does not work. As I change it from none to 1s, to 2s, 5s, and infinity, there is no change in the display whatsoever. The function does not work. I am probably the only one who ever tried it. As a result I could not get a reasonable display of curves, as it would only capture parts of them. I am very disappointed, I thought this was going to be really trick. Sending it back. Feb 27 ------ Updating schematics today (SU-10, et. al.), sketching up layouts for HAGLABS website, and I realize I need a better way to connect the output of a PL-10 to both an HA-10 and PA-10. Room for only one set of RCA output jacks on the PL-10 (a compromise, you wouldn't believe the ripple effect from such a small thing). So I figured, hey, just put a loop-through on the HA-10! One set for input, the other output. Change the colume control to 100k and it is quite transparent. Turn the volume to zero and it looks like a pure 100k resistor in the audio band. I'm also adding an extra RCA to the PA-10. Same thing. This way you can loop out to a subwoofer with same signal. The TEN series is now a small line, but nicely integrated. The LC provides power, PL the control, DA the digital, and PA the output. You get a complete system by providing the six source components, such as PC (for DA), FM, SACD, TAPE, and 3 TT. Yes, you can connect three turntables (or arms) at same time. Decided for sure to do my "what-if" for the HERITAGE series. And it got big. It has 4 categories. 1) BURN-IN: with FRYBABY (in red), FRYKLEANER, and FRYDADDY (which I am again working on the proto). 2) TEST: with VACUTRACE, JUMPER and BLANK adapter cards. 3) ACCESSORY: with UFO (black). 4) PHONO: with FLUGELHORN, CORNET, TRUMPET, PICCOLO, and STEP-UP. The HERITAGE series is nice and full, all re-packaging of previous machines to go with the new HAGLABS appearance. And lucky for you, HERITAGE is only sold factory direct! I can't tell you how much stress that decision took off of my shoulders. Panic with this possibly faltering economy, how to justify the doubling in price of a TRUMPET, etc. It also solves various little issues, like knobs, umbilical, etc. Just plain makes more sense, and most likely is a more profitable strategy. It buys me a LOT of time before I have to make any dealer or distributor decisions. *** Thinking the panel for the FRYDADDY will look something like this. It fits into that rugged serpac box, same as I use for VACUTRACE adapters. Compact, rugged, portable with handle. Very professional it will look, just like a mini VACUTRACE. Anyway, it's basically a re-shaping of the FRYKLEANER (GOLD) with more output power and a connector for burning in power cords. It has the usual binding posts, XLR, RCA, but the BNC is a raw output, not current limited. You can then use this to either monitor the signal, or have it drive something else, like a speaker or custom rack of connectors. It makes the machine more versatile. Lots more output swing and power is due thanks to an LM1875 power amplifier and balanced output transformer. The AMPLITUDE control is like that on the FRYBABY, but with the added CABLE setting, which is 20dB above line level. I'll have to run calculations, but I think I can get it close to 8Vrms (+20dBu). Price will be somewhere $599 to $699. FRYDADDY panel *** Ok, the text description of what I did for the SU-10 (now STEP-UP) in weeks past may be confusing. So I finally got the schematic done. This is how I get the CineMag CMQEE-3440A tranny to work best for me. The outputs float, getting their ground reference from the phonostage inputs. The case gets a copy of the separate TT ground wire (no signal on it). I then tie this to the tranny inputs, as they need some sort of common mode reference. I don't like floating them in space. This gives the cart a reference ground, yet it has no signal currents on it. It is the exact same ground as what the tonearm gets. This works best for coaxial cart cables. If they are twisted pair, it is also fine, although you might be able to do better by balancing it. This is done by splitting the primary side loading into two resistors, each of R/2 value. The center tap to earth ground. This forces the cartridge to operate in true balanced mode, by providing the necessary 3rd terminal. Anyway, my machine will be with single-ended RCA connectors. S1 selects primary side loading. S2 changes gain. Gain is set by selecting a primary tap, and then the same switch kicks in the proper secondary tuning for optimum transient response. You can have your cake and eat it too. Not a huge range of loading (LO, MED, HI, and extra HI), but it covers the full range. You'll also find that primary side loading is NOT as sensitive as secondary side loading is. Hence, relatively big steps are ok. CineMag wiring The result is gains of 16dB, 22dB, and 27dB. Lowest possible loading on cart is roughly 21 ohms. *** Reading Entrepreneur magazine tonight. Honestly, it's not my thing, I actually read very little of it. But it does make me think. Ok, ok, that Kawasaki guy writes a good column, which I read every issue. Mostly, I skim until I find a good tidbit or sidebar. Anyway, has me wondering if I should put up an eBay storefront. Or add automatic paypal invoicing to my website. Mostly, I realized I need to operate the new company the same as the old one. Both should have identical policies. This will also help prevent confusion. So what does this mean? Well, for starters, I had envisioned HAGLABS products to not have free shipping. Hmmm. You know what, that is exactly backwards! With the declining value of the dollar, I need to focus more on foreign sales. That means I need to offer free shipping, always. Not just USA, but worldwide. Heck, for a long time now I've neglected to charge shipping on HAGUSB orders. Mostly, it's just a pain in the butt to spend the time putting on an extra $6.30 charge. Yes, this is the way to go. Focus on the customer needs, make it as easy to buy as possible. So there it is. Or rather, here they are, the NEW rules for both HAGTECH and HAGLABS: 1) Free shipping. Anywhere. My choice of carrier, though. That is UPS ground for large boxes to USA, first class mail everywhere else. If you want it faster, you pay. 2) 30 day trial period. If you are not satisfied, for any reason, you can send item back for refund. See #4. 3) 10 year warranty. Transferable. That's right, I don't care how many times it changes hands, the warranty is still valid. 90 days for tubes. 4) 5% restocking fee. What? Where did that last one come from? Well, I have to cover the free shipping costs somehow. I think this is reasonable. It also prevents abuse. Dealers subject to same rules (yes, they get the free shipping!). Feb 26 ------ Lately I've been playing a lot of FLAC files through my proto DA-10. And I just love it! I am having so much fun with this digital stuff. It can really sound good. I love digital. And then I find myself playing LPs. God, I love this sound! I love analog. Hmmm, revelation. If I had a tape machine or a decent FM radio station to tune into, I bet I would love them too. And there it is. The answer to that long running debate on analog versus digital - they are both awesome! Merely different means to the same end. And I am happy to report than some of the latest songs to hit the charts are recorded really well. Songs such as "Bubbly", "Teardrops on my Guitar", and "Delilah" are products of fine engineering and mastering. *** Thought I would see what I could do to improve on the HAGDAC, other than removing the unnecessary parts from the optional gain section. Nothing obvious as it was pretty well tweaked a few years ago. So I ran another set of jitter tests, thinking maybe I could lower the output jitter from the CS8415A SPDIF RX chip. Triggering off of the SPDIF signal (from my HAGCLOCK modified CD player) I can easily see edge jitter on a scope of the receiver's output. On an analog scope I see roughly 2ns peak to peak. Now don't think that's a crazy number, because it likely means something like 300ps RMS. The problem is that there is no easy way to correlate PP to RMS (except using the erfc function and BER rates). Oh wait I could have photographed it and then looked at the histogram of the luminance values. Duh. Then if it approximates a gaussian curve, the RMS is equal to 1 sigma. Maybe next time. Anyway, I tried various shifting of the PLL filter values to see what helped. Heck, the data sheet recommendations produced some horrible jitter. Fast lock times, though. Finally, after a lot of tweaks, I realized I was right back where I started. The good news is that the clock output from my VCXO PLL reclocker (after this) totally cleans it up. Absolutely no visible widening of the trace. Not just a 10x improvement, either. Way more. So I have to believe the 5ps RMS specification for the VCXO is realistic. The PLL will add a little random noise to this. Regardless, it is rock solid performance. I wish I could get stereophile to put it on their analyzer. Hmmm, maybe if I can get them to review a DA-10? Feb 25 ------ Finally got that FLUGELHORN prototype completed. Took more work than I expected. Bought me this very nice twisted pair cable for the I/O signals, it is silver plated copper, stranded, in teflon with outer teflon jacket. Nice to work with. I wired up every thing direct, sort of point to point. Missing one LED at the moment, but from this photo you can see the boards mounted to the panels, nothing but wires in the middle. Chassis is lightweight, also consumes only a few watts of power. FLUGELHORN Measurements look ok. So I hooked it into my system. Hey, noise floor is really good. I was worried about the twisted pairs too close to the ac power supply. No problems! In fact, this machine sounded great. I was stunned at how clean and neutral and detailed it was. With zero break-in! Hmmm. I'm working from long term memory, but this sounds better than the original ARCHIVER. Is it the better power supply? Could be. I have a few extra volts to work with, so a tad more headroom. Wow, this sounds incredibly good. It doesn't have that "slowness" that I found with the original. Remember, I always thought the musical pacing was slow and relaxed. Not with this version. Everything moves along with great detail and dynamics. Missing that extra weight and fullness of a CORNET. Or maybe it is just the difference in presentation between the PICCOLO and STEP-UP. Afterall, the FLUGELHORN has a PICCOLO-like front end. Very natural, but not with the usual solid state staleness (BUGLE). Oh wait! I just remembered this sample uses different caps. I wonder if that is it? I'll FRYKLEAN it and listen again later. If all is good, I'll paint the covers. Then I can finally get a real photo of its final appearance. *** Hey, my new digital scope came in already. I'll have to go check it out. Have a new VACUTRACE half built, will make for a good XY test. *** Shoot, I just can't get over this. Playing the new FLUGELHORN and it continues to amaze me how damn good it sounds. Spot on. So I ran it up against my reference CORNET. Whew! Thankfully the CORNET edged it out, slightly more real on cymbals and more chesty and full. That part I don't understand, as they measure identically on equalization. It ain't a dB thing. The CORNET with PICCOLO front end was awfully close in sonics. Noise floor just a tad higher than the FLUGELHORN. CORNET and STEP-UP is definately quieter again. More of that organic sound. My preference. Back to the FLUGELHORN, very much quiet enough for use with my LOMC, slightly leaner and more neutral. Cranked up some Jacintha (not exactly a rocker) and let it fly. No fatigue, easy to hear down into the deep depths of ambience. Even the bleedthru from tracks was clearly intelligable. For the same price as a CORNET, it ain't giving up much, while offering way more flexibility, features, and gain. Honestly, I really didn't expect this much from the machine. Now I just have to figure out if it the power supply or the caps that did it. Have to build another one, I guess. *** Sold the last FRYGOLD. Now it is red. Same machine, new color, new name. I am giving it the original FRYKLEANER moniker. Hey, this is the culmination of everything I learned on generations one (FRYPRO) and two (FRYBABY). FRYDADDY will be gen 3. Anyway, same price. Same everything except color. Once I get this unit done I can take photos. FRYKLEANER Feb 24 ------ Still wondering about my retail/direct mix. After crunching a lot of numbers for business plan, running various scenarios, I find some interesting things. My complicated pricing formula (different multipliers based on amount of inventory carried, plus 10% for shipping), which comes up with the retail price ends up being almost an exact X multiplier. Industry standard is closer to 2X. Shux, in about ten different part lists, they all end up at X. And that means once you take out the dealer's 40% cut, you get a Y markup for oem pricing. Y = 3/5*X. Damn, I had been using Y for years! It has turned out to be marginal. It works fine with robust sales, not so with minimal revenue. So I am simulating another what-if. What if I sold the new TRUMPET and CORNET direct, instead of retail? I would make them roughly $2499 and $1499. And chances are, I would end up selling more of them. They are both older designs, I'm not so confident dealers will want to to sign up for them. Plus they have a history of their mark I versions costing $2k and $1k. To me, this makes more sense. The problem is that I suck at marketing. I have often before undersold myself! Still, seems to me from a profit viewpoint, selling these models direct could be better. Besides, if we enter a recession right now, this strategy makes me way more competitive. So maybe I do a "classic" series under the HAL banner? Hey, Klipsch has their "heritage" series. Then I separate the TEN series as the newer stuff. Do I screw my dealers this way? I like that, "heritage". Perhaps I organize in this category the CORNET, TRUMPET, CASTANET, VACUTRACE, FRYKLEANER, FLUGELHORN. Along with that I should move the PI-10 and SU-10 with them, as they sell in combinations. And honestly, over a grand for the SU-10 seemed high to me. They would be maybe $449 and $649. In the end, the profit margin is exactly the same for me. The premier "10" series is thusly shrunk to LC-10, PA-10, DA-10, and the upcoming PL-10. The glitch in this logic is the HA-10. It is an all new TEN machine. Do I sell it as a TEN or as the CASTANET? Damn, I hate wavering on this stuff. *** Ok, I looked again at my formulas, and I realize the X multiplier method is just too simplified, not taking certain things into account. The pricing is better with the advanced method. Plus, using the Y multiplier, the VACUTRACE goes to over $2000! I realize this is a bit messy, but it is a transition period, so I have a good exuse. The TRUMPET and CORNET HAL models will not last forever. They are an interim measure until I can get PL-10 production up to speed. So now I get the HAGLABS HERITAGE series sold factory-direct: PICCOLO (red) $449 STEP-UP (red) $649 FLUGELHORN $1499 TRUMPET (red) $2499 CORNET (red) $1499 VACUTRACE (red) $1699 FRYKLEANER (red) $449 And then the HAGLABS TEN series, retail: HA-10 $2410 LC-10 $2080 PA-10 $3240 (each) DA-10 $3760 PL-10 $???? Eventually I will add the FRYDADDY as a heritage product to replace the FRYKLEANER (which is a red version of the FRYGOLD!). The CASTANET will be sold as half-kit only. *** I just realized the UFO (assembled) can be a HERITAGE product. Only have 3 or 4 more left, so it's not a big deal. On my HAGTECH home page, I moved all of the HERITAGE-to-be stuff down to the bottom. Feb 23 ------ Aw crap, I dropped my trusty HP 15C calculator. The LCD is broken over the left most digit. Shoot. 25 years I been using this thing. I'll have to find another on eBay. Can't work with anything else. My brain works on RPN. Dang! A good condition 15C on eBay is up to $222 already with 2 days to go. Sometimes I am nuts. As if I didn't have enough work to do, I discovered a new project. Was sort of simultaneously working on a VACUTRACE, CHIME, and the FLUGELHORN builds when I came across the panels for a custom ARCHIVER. This was for the project I cancelled, the panels didn't fit right into the chassis. But hey, here they are, beautiful panels in every other way, and worth about two hundred clams. Last thing I want to do is throw them away. And then I realize I have an old 19" rack mount chassis on the shelf, from about 5 years ago. Dang, these ARCHIVER panels fit right onto the existing ones! Shoot, it looks pretty damn nice, too. So here's about $300 in parts, just rotting away. Fine, let's build it! I can turn this into a revenue project. A one-of-a-kind custom ARCHIVER in a big metal box. It is actually sort of the fore-runner to the FLUGELHORN. So here you see the two partial assemblies side by side. FLUGELHORN and custom ARCHIVER I will sell this on Audiogon. Luckily I have maybe 90% of the parts already in house. Yeah, this one is all about making a few bucks. I admit it. Then again, anyone who ends up with this for under a grand will score a fabulous phono machine. Seriously, compare this jewel to a ph3d. *** I remember all the shit I got for making the CHIME the way I did. Like in John Rocker's professional magazine review of it. He just could not figure out why I did what I did. It made no sense to him (then why the frik didn't you ask?). So he bashed me in writing (ultrafitimes). And many other folks did it in various online forums. They all thought I made a huge mistake. Well, time has proven me right. I foresaw all of this. The main question centered around why I chose to go from USB to SPDIF and then to I2S, instead of straigh to I2S, like everyone else does. Simple Sherlock. It's to avoid the ground contamination. So many audiophiles have problems and resort to nasty solutions like in the post below, or they end up buying the super expensive Opticis cable. Read what this guy has to try and do. It's insane. Asylum post All HAGUSB and CHIME owners have avoided this! I see similar posts all the time and just want to scream. Hello? Now do they get it? Now do they understand the reason for the isolation tranny? Ok, sorry. I had to get that off my chest. Feb 22 ------ Lots of good forward progress this week. I solved a ton of technical issues, bought lots of production pieces. I'm still wondering about how to split up the marketing of various machines. The CASTANET is the main problem. The question is how to turn it into an advantage. You see, the retail price with dealer markup is $2k+. That's ok, but not when you can DIY the machine for under $600. I've wavered on this tpoic before, but I think it is reasonable to offer some machines stricly direct, not through retailers. It has to be a balanced portfolio that makes sense, and does not alienate any customers. I've already put the CASTANET (black panels) up for sale. The thing is, I want to migrate some of the HAGTECH machines to red. I re-did the FRYGOLD into a FRYK red. VACUTRACE is now red. The new FRYDADDY to replace FRYGOLD will look like a VACUTRACE in red (but small). Yeah, the FRYGOLD missed the mark. It does not sell anywhere near as well as the FRYPRO did. Better machine, wrong form factor. So I just take the loss, discontinue it, replace with the FRYDADDY. Well, the reasons are many, but to make a long story short, I'll continue with the HAGTECH professional series, which mainly consists of the VACUTRACE. I will make the CASTANET red and move it into this category, and then add the FRYDADDY. Meanwhile, I'm going to pull the FLUGELHORN from the HAGLABS lineup and move it here. Again, a SS phonostage for $3k just doesn't seem right. The damn thing costs me a lot to build, though. I will only offer it in 120Vac, so it doesn't compete with the similar AA oem unit, which may retail for about $2k (import costs & markup). Same sonics, different chassis. The red HAGTECH units will have the HAL logo. Given recent inflation and other considerations, I think these will end up at: VT-10 (VACUTRACE) $1699 HA-10 (CASTANET) $1299 FL-10 (FLUGELHORN) $1299 FD-10 (FRYDADDY) $599 All great machines. These are factory-direct prices! After you buy one, you'll wonder how I can offer the VT-10 so cheap. The HAGLABS retail lineup then is something like this: Remember, prices are NOT finalized, and are preliminary. Each of these is a really, really fine piece. LC-10 $2080 (Line Conditioner) PA-10 $6480 (Power Amp) per pair! DA-10 $3760 (Digital to Analog) PI-10 $730 (Piccolo) SU-10 $1080 (Step Up tranny) CO-10 $2380 (Cornet) TR-10 $3790 (Trumpet) So yeah, I continue to organize, upgrade parts lists, set up business model. Launch date for HAGLABS is still 4/1, although that only gives me a month! Keeping up with current production makes it difficult. Right now I am humming along with my time split roughly into thirds. One part production, one part R&D, one part overhead (customer service, order processing, purchasing, etc.). That seems a pretty reasonable mix to me. I get all emails answered in a timely fashion, most orders ship right away, and I still get enough design time in for new machines. The R&D is something you have to continually invest in. Whoah, that should keep me busy for this year. I hope it leaves time enough to get a proto up and running of the PL-10. Afterall, that will be the flagship component. Must be ready by RMAF08! Meanwhile, I'll see if I can slip the FRYDADDY in on weekends. Mostly it is already designed. I should also be able to do the CLIPPER detector, as a small half-kit. It will be about the size of a 9V battery. Then in 2009 I can do the PA-20. Yes, I am already thinking what I need for RMAF09. Mostly, a more powerful amp. Maybe LS-10 too? Feb 21 ------ I scanned in the final PA-10 schematics last night. Proprietary stuff, but shoot, nobody is gonna copy me. Nice stuff to look at, though. PA-10 power supply PA-10 amplifier Did some more testing. At full power the waveforms begin to distort at the frequency extremes. So I swept a -3dB level to see where distortion begins. I get clean response from 25Hz to 19kHz. Above and below that, the waveforms deviates from a perfect sinewave. That would be full power bandwidth? At 1W the response is much wider. I also did a distortion check at 1kHz at a 10W power output level. It was 3.5%. Hmmm, a lot of other manufacturers state their power level at 3% to 5% distortion, so I guess competitively I could call this a 10W amplifier. Not sure I will do that. Here's the bench testing at 19kHz. PA-10 testing *** Searching for new knobs. I need a round big knob for the PL-10. Can also use on the HA-10. But it cannot have a pointer! That's what make it hard to locate. The best so far is the alcoswitch kn1751bs1/4. At newark they want $33! Mouser is only $21. Sheesh. The good news is that it has little brother sizes for the SU-10. This will set the machines apart from the HAGTECH stuff. Damn cost of aluminum! *** Back into the lab for DA-10 testing. I tried out some silicon-carbide diodes to see if they gave any improvement in the inductive switching crossover glitch (see Feb 07). No change. I think this is all a secondary resistance issue. Current waveforms are beautiful, the glitch only shows up on voltage, and isn't reflected too bad onto the primary. Whew! Ok, so I tried the common mode choke (balun) trick installed in front of the diodes. Again, no matter how I wired it up, no visible change whatsoever. Maybe I had too low inductance on the balun? I dunno. But zero change. Fine, enough research down this drain. Then I checked out a bunch of surface mount shielded filter inductors for the HAGDAC I-V circuit. The pure RC variation produced very little noise. I got about 0.2mV broadband on the outputs. That's 80dB SNR unweighted. It's good enough with critical listening tests. But I really wanted to restore the original 3rd order Bessel filter, for improved noise rejection and transient response. The stock coils gave me 0.26mV and 0.14mV. I forget which channel was favored. Turned the noiser side coil around (different field orientation) and got it down to 0.2mV. This seems better than before. Tried the 308-1513-1 which definately added some buzz, up to 0.24 and 0.36. The lower inductance 513-1392-1 gave me .14 and .14 after I figured out orientation (they are opposite each other). The PCD2127CT was also very good at .16 and .14. Using high gain and headphones, both of these solutions we pretty much buzz-less and pleasing. The 553-1100-1 gave .16 and .38, but I didn't bother to turn it around. I like the 513 and the PCD better than stock. They both have improved construction, but I think my choice comes down to the 513, as it is larger with more ferrite. At 0.14mV noise it sounds the best. It is rated 330uH at full current, so at almost zero current, inductance should be much higher, hopefully close to the 470uH nominal of the filter. It is not critical. And so that problem is solved. Now I can order production DA-10 boards. With A-weighting, this is probably 85dB to 90dB. *** Alrighty then. Just ordered tons of production pieces. Not ordering huge quantities of circuit boards, as it may not be wise to sit on so much inventory at this time. And I hate to dig into debt. The price is that PA-10 boards end up costing me $49 a pop, and the DA-10 is $52. Hey, a C2 half-kit at $99 is a steal! Where is my margin? I also forked over for production panels. Bought me DA-10, HA-10, PI-10, SU-10, and PA-10 sets. Also bought a set for the Artisan Audio project, an upgraded and modified oem version of the ARCHIVER. So now I should have the major pieces to get production started. Almost done with units #1 of CO-10, TR-10, and FL-10. The design for LC-10 is lagging, but the big isolation trannys are on their way. I have to have at least one perfect example of each new machine for website and brochure photographs. That reminds me, I'll need some for reviewers. *** Some customers reporting issues with tics on their HAGUSB. Anyone else out there getting random glitches? I'm thinking it could be an issue with xtal loading. Changing C9 to 47pF to compensate. Might have had a batch of marginal 33pF caps. I haven't confirmed this yet. If you are having trouble, let me know. So far, this is may be 1% to 5% of units. Presently running some tests. Feb 20 ------ Really worried about this inflation thing going on. The devalue of the dollar. Ok, the good news is that I get a ton of sales from EU. Everybody elses prices are jumping 20%, or so it seems. So I have to keep track of my costs, reflect the final retail pricing using my formula. It's very hard to keep exact numbers on every part used in 20 or so different products. No, I'm not totally computerized with automation (such would cost me more than what I might save?). So, I double checked my parts for HAGUSB. It's a perfect example. I figured my suppliers track their prices really well, so any change by them is a real one, and I should adjust. Well, it hasn't hit me yet. The price for HAGUSB parts hasn't really changed over the last two years. Why is that? I think the suppliers are getting more efficient. They have kept pace. That means I do NOT have to raise my prices. I was thinking HAGUSB might bump up another $10, but it does not have to happen yet. Honestly, I am suprised at this outcome. Maybe my calculations are off, but if that satellite is to be shot down at 3:30 GMT Thursday, then that would be 5:30pm tomorrow night here. The boats are straight west of here. Shoot, I can stand on my roof and see this. Too bad it won't be dark. Let's see, 10 degrees longitude west of Maui, we got 25k mile circumference, that's 700 miles. Aw crap, I can't see it. Nobody can. Too much curvature. Satellite 193 kill zone What? And now I read they may delay the shot because of weather. Hello? The weather out here is absolutely friggin perfect. The seas are dead quiet. Whatever. Meanwhile, I just sold the last assembled CHIME. All out of chassis parts now. I can continue to sell the kit/2 style for a long time. Anyone wanting an assembled machine can look to the newer DA-10. Relayed out the PA-10 to put in all the recent changes. Little stuff, mostly. Add a 33 ohm resistor to ground for the speaker outputs (they were floating). Add the 1.5k in series with interstage primary, change filament dropping resistors to 3 1W in parallel rather than a single 2W (which don't come in the 0.33 ohm value required), and add the traces to back panel for RCA input. This design came out better than I expected. Superb topology, and thanks to that 6E5P driver tube it delivers ultra-low distortion. Shux, 0.12% at 1W, with no feedback anywhere! And less than 0.5% at full power? That's amazing when you consider the huge voltage swings involved. *** Reading EDN, I came across an ad for a new cheap digital scope. Hmmm. It is a dead ringer for the Tek TDS320 from 15 years ago. Made in China. But hey, it might not be so bad. There are times when I wouldn't mind having a digital scope. They can come in handy. Shoot I think I might buy one of these things. It looks to be a perfect mate for a VACUTRACE. Does XY mode and has a hardcopy button which send the screen to PC (or printer?). How handy is that? For this price, it is hard to pass up. Cheap digital scope Ok, I just bought it. Will let you know how it turns out. Feb 19 ------ Hard to get back to work. We are having some phenomenally idyllic weather here. Got my Lundahl trannys in already. Fast! They must want to be my supplier. They look so nice. I'll have to fire them up and see what they do. Wish I had my HP4261A. The handheld inductance meter I have gets easily fooled. Whipped up a quick circuit yesterday to do the clipping detector. I had the parts already on hand, so made one up today. Decided to use a BUGLE as the circuit board. Easier than a full custom breadboard. Came up with the circuit below. Then I realized, duh, I use a single +9V battery supply, but forgot about the negative signal swings. They will reverse bias the substrate diodes on the inputs to the comparators. So I reduced signal level by nine. Using a 2.5V reference, I can therefore measure peaks up to about that level. The extra clamp diodes on the input are not necessary. I combine both channels to trigger a single one-shot, which fires an LED for 1ms minimum. You could use an LM556 or two of them if you want an LED per channel. For me, as a diagnostic tool, I don't really care. Clipping detector schematic For the PA-10, it reaches full power at 0.95Vrms. That's 1.35Vp. I take that and divide using 100k/10k pad and get 0.122Vp. That's the level I adjust the pot to. All I have to do is insert this device inline with the PA-10 inputs and I'll know when I am driving it too hard. Clipping detector board Feb 17 ------ Trying to catch up on a VACUTRACE order. Them things take forever to build. Also a backlog of FRYBABYs. Built me some more interconnects, and experimental speaker cables. I figure, hey, this amp has a damping factor of 2.5, so why would I need 12 awg cables? So I built some using twisted pair stranded silver plated copper in teflon. Only 24 awg I think. We'll see if they work as good as the thick solid silver I have right now. Interconnects are military surplus silver plated copper, stranded coaxial in teflon. Nice small diameter. I loathe the garden hoses most of hi-end uses. Burning in right now. And then I get this email regarding the FRYBABY, MM asks "are you a sane person, or just a con artist?" He he he. I told him "neither." Meanwhile, I added a set of RCAs on the back of my CASTANET that are connected to the HI outputs. Thus, it makes me a simple low gain linestage. I used it today to play the PA-10 into a frankenvandy. DA-10 as a source. Nice to not have it cranking or pushed into overload (DA-10 pumps out 1.9V, double what the PA-10 can handle). Anyway, one-channel sound is still thin. Bass is there, deep, but shelved down. Everything is too midrangy. I'll not know until I can get the second channel running and the speakers placed, or buy an SS amp. Was thinking of something like a Bryston 2B. Pretty cheap on eBay. Would make a good reference (high damping factor). I should also try the 4 ohm tap. The other thing I discovered is that the microphony was not the 2A3, but the frame grid 6E5P. It has the same "ping" sound as the 7788. Some o-rings helped. Still, you can hear it with your ear up against the speaker. I'm wondering if I wait until production boards come in or just build me another proto. I might not buy me that new Mac for a music server. Burning through the cash way too fast lately. I don't mind spending it on parts that I will end up selling in a product, but I do mind spending on myself. Seems I could use my old IBM laptop (the same one from RMAF06 and RMAF04). For some reason, the usb-audio driver is working perfectly now. I has been having trouble swapping between the EMU for spectrum analyzer measurements and the USB audio out. Now it never glitches. So I must have done something right in one of the myriad dialog boxes. No idea what it was. Oh hey, that reminds me. I am also able to reproduce the random dropouts some people are experiencing. This happens to me regularly (up to 10 times per song) when I stream through WiFi. Move the FLAC file to my local disk and all is well. So, now that it is working well, I can just make some playlists that are appropriate. Been buying a couple tracks every week now. Yesterday the acoustic version of Plush. Anyway, the old IBM can play CDs at the show. So bring 'em! I'll see if it can also do double duty as a scope for the VACUTRACE. Started looking into the LC-10 again. I have one half built. Need to buy 3 more isolation trannys. Looks great, except the fuses are under the line filter and you can't reach them. Need to do a slight redesign. Putting together a ton of notes on stuff to do. Tweaks here and there. Like that I have to move an electrolytic on the PA-10 board in order to shift the binding posts to the middle. Also using just 3. One ground, a 4 ohm tap and a 9 ohm tap. Interestingly, between the 4 and 9 ohm taps gives you a 1 ohm tap (riding on top of the 4 ohm signal. That should translate to an output impedance of 0.4 ohms. DF is constant at 2.5. Might be an interesting test. More notes? I find the 6688 is so short it doesn't stick out of the chassis. How to change? The PA-10 monoblock weighs in at 15 pounds. I need some sort of inline connector for power transformers, so the top cover of PA-10 and TR-10 can be removed. Feb 15 ------ Ha! I told you I would prove it. My tricks worked. Splitting the loading up (separation of variables) allowed me to re-tune the interstage tranny in a much better fashion. I realized this morning that I can use series damping as well as parallel. So I did that for the 74kHz resonance. I used the input capacitance of the 2A3 itself as the snubber capacitor, then upped the grid resistor to 10k. Seems high, but not really. That's very low for dc. Anyway, that ran great, and I could then damp the 26kHz resonance with parallel resistors. This time, I loosened up a little ad used 47k. I also added a 1.5k in series with the primary. This doubled the output impedance of the driver stage, from 1.5k to 3k. But hey, it balanced out the edge injection from the interwinding capacitance. Gone are all the ripples and squiggles. I did not have to damp so hard, actually resulting in higher overall gain! The amplifier output is now completely tame and handles overloads nicely. I also got the power bandwidth out to 25kHz. So that is reasonable. I'd like to get more, so will later do some experiments with the other tranny. (hard to tell out of circuit). Anyway, here's the new response. PA-10 5kHz square wave PA-10 full power sine (6W) A few more tests showed the onset of clipping is 6W, but in overload can reach 13W. Input sensitivity is 0.93Vrms. Bandwidth from 6Hz to 25.5kHz. Output impedance still 3.5 ohms. Distortion (measured the old analog way) came out to 0.12% at 1W and 0.43% at 5W. That's incredible! Full power tube amp with no feedback and it's still at a half-percent. Fabulous. That easily surpasses the CYMBAL. Input ac power is 95W for roughly 6% power efficiency. Please don't compare that to your average class-D amp. Then again, here's the clipping with a 6dB overload condition (1.8V input). Can your amp do this? Beautiful symmetry into grid current class A2. PA-10 clipping Ok, now the interesting stuff. The "harmonic balancer" operation of the old western electric 93A. That's the value of resistor that sets the ratio between parallel single-ended and pure differential operation. The CYMBAL is all differential. Well, I figured the resistance value would be about 250 ohms, based on my unsolved theory and what WE did. Well, first proto showed a low value of about 10 ohms to be best. Ok, so I built the machine at 50 ohms. Here's what the spectrum looks like (I used the unbroken channel on my EMU): PA-10 distortion at 50 ohms Not bad. So let's see what happens with I raise the value, shifting towards differential mode. PA-10 distortion at 1000 ohms Whoah, the 3rd comes up and 2nd goes down. Ok, that's the wrong direction! How about 10 ohms? PA-10 distortion at 10 ohms Very good. Let's lower it to 5 ohms. PA-10 distortion at 5 ohms Aha! The power supply noise just jumped 10dB or more! Ok, so I decided to compromise and run as high as I could and still get low 3rd and low 60Hz. That was 15 ohms. I'm pretty happy with this result. Not sure why noise floor came up, maybe I moved some wiring. This is my hand-built wein-bridge generator into a pot, the amp, a 10x scope probe, into my hand-built probe buffer, into the EMU. Wires everywhere scattered across two benches. Anyway, this is not a bad result. Distortion digitally measured is 0.11% at 1W. PA-10 distortion at 15 ohms Ok, so why does that 3rd stay up there so high? If I could only drop it 10dB this would be the best amplifier on the planet. Hmmm. So I connect the raw generator input and measure that. Generator distortion Maybe? It is good for 0.002%, but I see some 3rd order in there. I wonder if this is too low to matter or if it contributes. Mostly, I think the problem is a matching of 2A3 tubes. The circuit runs absolutely fine with mismatched tubes, however I may find that matching them on an ac basis will lower the 3rd. That's a more likely answer. All I need now is to buy some matched 2A3. These tests were all done with the cheap current production Sovtek 2A3. Imagine how good some RCAs would be! *** Closed it up with top and bottom covers to see what effect putting the power tranny is it's proper location (closer) would have. Well, very low noise, buzz and hum. More than acceptable. In fact, I'm thinking I have enough headroom to try and move the RCA input to the back panel again. I'll throw in some tracks on the board that I can jumper in, thus giving me the choice of front or back. No need to do another proto. I am ready for production. One thing I noticed, is that these Sovtek tubes are microphonic. And I am not using chassis mounted sockets, they are on the board, which flexes and gives a nice suspension. In fact, the music itself stimulates the microphonic. Turn off the music and the "shimmer" hangs in the background, decaying in about 5 or 10 seconds. Ok, this is way down in the noise floor, with my ear to the speaker. But still, I expected better. The driver tube is fine. I really ought to get me some RCA black plates. Better give Stu a call. Also can hear microphonics on my RB300 tonearm. At high gains, just touching the arm (while not in groove) will get into the cart. I'm seeing how everything is microphonic. I've had cables where you can clearly hear them being handled. Must pay attention to these sources of smear. I can't wait to build the stereo pair. Having one channel sucks. You can't tell anything. It sounds lifeless and thin. Although, I can hear an incredible openness and clarity on vocals, even if tonally off. Shoot, gotta also get me a SS amp to for A/B comparisons. My Hafler ain't working. Either I fix it or buy something else. A good reference is nice to have. Feb 14 ------ Still working business plan stuff. Yeah, I read all the mags. Trying to write down my unique selling point, customer description, marketing strategy, all in simple short sentences. You know, they say you need an 11 second "elevator pitch." What do you do? Bam! You blurt out a concise 11 second description of your business that makes perfect sense to anyone, grabs their attention, and makes them want to throw money at you. Well, so far I got this tag line: "Hi-fi for those who want the absolute best but can't afford it." Bam! Ok, maybe that doesn't make sense. But you know what I'm trying to say. Now start thowing money... *** People ask me what do I do. I say "I design and manufacture hi-end audio electronics". Usually I get a blank stare. Then I add "My company builds stereos like Ferrari build cars". Oh. So here's what I came up with for the seven sentence business plan. 1. (action) "Visit website and sign up for a test drive". (the best way to sell these things is to see and hear them in person) 2. (advantage) "The best audio money can't buy." (this one needs work) 3. (customer) "The demanding audiophile, especially analog lovers." 4. (marketing) "Internet forums, google, reviews, shows." (I need to add in distributor) 5. (niche) "Performance, masterly engineered electronics with cool and useful features." 6. (image) "Hagerman is the premier circuit designer in all of audio." 7. (actual) "Down-to-earth engineer." Does this make any sense to you? I have a hard time with it. Trying to learn marketing is like trying to understand women. This magazine article was useful in that it really tried to narrow your focus. Go very specific. No generalizations. Zoom in on what you do, your market advantage, your customer. Mostly, I think the best tidbit I got was at the end, where it said the image you present is huge; make nice color brochures. *** Not having much luck with package design. I'd like to not have a huge box. The chassis come in two sizes, 10x7 and 10x10. Height is normally 5" with clearance, but the TR-10 comes in at 6" and PA-10 at 7". So perhaps a 12x12x8 box? The PI-10 and SU-10 go in the small 6x6x6 boxes I already have. Ok, so I check out the prices of foam, the kind you can cut up and glue into various cushion shapes. Well, it works out to about $5 per square foot of 1" thick stuffing. Double, by the time I get the material shipped out here to Hawaii. Hmmm. So what about those nice expandable foam in place bags? They're called instapak and go for about $5 in a 12x12. Would need two of them. I think they take up too much space, though. Too costly. Do I just stick to chewed up paper from shredder? Virtually free. *** DA-10 back on the bench. Seems I can induce a little buzz here in the shop, where machine is dead quiet in listening room. Could be nearby equipment, or the variac I am powering it through. The key, however, is that the philips pq tubes are noisier than the RCA. So this is somewhat tube dependent. I wonder if they are affected themselves by nearby magnetic fields. Steel pins or plates? My new HAGDAC inductors should be here soon, I can then test those. I don't think the diode change did anything. The good news is that I did a new distortion test. Using the same 1kHz flac file, I put the output on my trusty HP333A. Well shux, distortion at full scale was a mere 0.08%. Now that is much more like it. Not the 0.5% the damn EMU told me! Shoot, I wonder if I blew out my EMU. Anyway, ignore ALL of the previous distortion plots in this blog. They are suspect. It might also explain why I could not find the null in the PA-10 harmonic balancer? Also full scale output was 1.8Vrms. Hey, not bad, considering the CD spec is 2V. So the 7788 was a good choice. That's easily more than 20dB headroom. BW of 8Hz to 410kHz. Speaking of transient performance, here's a shot of a digital 1kHz -3dBFS square wave. DA-10 1kHz response *** So I finally fired up the PA-10. Shazam! It worked. I started with no tubes, then just the 6E5P, the the 2A3, then the 5AR4. Each time, check ac and dc voltages. Only one minor mistake, swapped positions of a 22k and 100k resistors. Easy to do when there is no silkscreen. Anyway, it runs like a charm. All of those changes came out right. Perfect voltages, bias, etc. Well almost. The output current fell to 46mA. I want 50mA. So I'll just change the 5.6V zener to 6.2V. I forgot to measure distortion and sensitivity, but other numbers came out to 85dBA SNR (it was really quiet) ref 1W output, 6W output power prior to clipping (it does about 12W peak), 3.5 ohm output impedance, 9Hz to 22kHz bandwidth. I am still limited by that interstage tranny. But the important thing is that I got the new self-balancing and harmonic cancellation architecture to work. So here's some plots. PA-10 5kHz square wave PA-10 5kHz full power The square wave is a mess, very much bandlimited with some squiggles. The sinewave at full power is nice. I get 20Vpp into 8 ohms. Yeah, only 6W. I think I can edge this up a little by fixing the bias. So what to do about that bandwidth? I looked online at the Lundahl stuff. The LL1635 looks pretty nice, but is a large bulky package that probably won't fit into my tight space. Perhaps it I make a bracket for it? Better yet, let's just fix what we have. Got out the spare tranny (low nickel version) and took some measurements. Hmmm. 700 ohms on one secondary and 800 on the other. The leakage inductances weren't matched either. I hokked up to a pulse generator and fed primary through a 1k ohm resistor, approximating the driver tube. I got the same messed up response, but not as rolled off. A sinewave sweep revealed resonances at 26kHz and 74kHz. Huh? There should be just one. Then I remembered earlier I had found different damping resistors per secondary. I did that and things were getting better. Applying finger pressure on the leads simulating tube capacitance added the rolloff effect seen in the scope photo above. Hmmm. Swapped primary leads. Hey, the glitch is now reversed. Doh! My eureka moment. I was driving the primary unbalanced. One side had the signal the other was grounded. Well, the interwinding capacitance to the secondaries was off to one side, and hurt one more than the other. Added an extra 1k on the grounded side of coil. Bingo! Now things are balancing out. Losing some gain, but this is a good area to play in. I finally realized that the tranny is constructed with primary wound first, then one secondary, then the other on top of it. Hence, the outer secondary (even though it has the same number of turns) is longer, resulting in the higher resistance. Balancing the interwinding capacitances gives better symmetry with the transients. Also, the outer coil is less coupled to the core, giving it the higher leakage inductance. That's why they have two different values for damping. One likes to see 47k, the other 22k. Interestingly, using the values for inductance and frequency, I ran my snubber calculator (from the famous paper) and came up with values of 18k and 21k. Very close to the experimental 22k. Finally, the last trick is to greatly increase the grid resistor. This will decouple the load capacitance from the secondaries, hopefully allowing them to pass much higher bandwidth (the driver stage is good to at least 500kHz). This separates the two rolloffs, making it easier to tune. Hey, nothing so bad about a 10k or so grid resistor. Two 40kHz rolloffs in series is way better than one at 20kHz. Note, this is the exact same trick I pull on the BUGLE, with the 316 ohm output resistor (keeps interconnect off the feedback). Really, two rolloffs are better than one. I will prove it tomorrow. Oh yeah, then I hooked the PA-10 up to a frankenvandy. Almost zero audible noise. I had to get my ear about 3" away to hear it. One problem solved. Played some music, not bad! I hate listening to one channel, especially when signal is not mono. Usually sounds very odd. But this was ok. A little thin, but plenty bass, very clear vocals. So it is going to work. *** While doing a training run, came up with this idea of selling practice boards. Such would be very useful for the DIY novice or anyone to practice their soldering skills. Doh! I've been cleaning out old stuff, and realized that I have bunches of bad boards. I can't use them or sell them. For a working machine, anyway. I will add this to the order menu. Practice boards for $9. Free shipping. Your choice of large (like a CORNET2) or small (like BUGLE). Practice for big or small parts. Feb 13 ------ Redesigned the switching topology of the PL-10 today. I'm using hermetically sealed telecom relays (silver contacts) for input and gain switching, thus controllable via CPU. Being gas tight makes them last over time without any corrosion. Anyway, the new style has maximum flexibility for choice/gain etc. It uses a LOT of relays, as I wire them up in parallel, not series, for minimal impact on signal. Worst case is 4 contacts (mc phono), best is 2. There is input select, gain, mono, and phase. I have as many set to compensate on/off for virtually constant current load on power supply (one goes off, another goes on). Minimum is 4 relays, maximum is 5. The oddball is mono. It is a single switch to connect channels. Although, if I were nuts, I could add a dummy load to compensate. Loading, volume, and mute are by vactrols, and I think EQ will be too. The phase relay coils are wired opposite, so it doesn't matter which polarity is selected. Yeah, these little things matter. You focus on all the tiny details and they begin to add up. Each one alone may have no sonic impact, but together they do. And now I turn my thoughts to packaging. I need something a little more professional than a used DigiKey box. Problem is that I have two chassis sizes and some have trannys sticking out top or back. Sitting in traffice I got an idea. Just copy what they do for a DVD player! I can use one generic box size and use foam inserts to hold box in place. Ok, so they won't be custom molded styro inserts, but I think I can cut shapes and glue together to approximate the same thing. Thus, all chassis will fit into same box. Boxes get lots of cushion on all sides. I do not ha