HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: exulox@exu.ericsson.se (Lasse Ohlsson, T/TDT, 1129)
Subject: Don't use paper towels on CD's!!
Originator: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Reply-To: exulox@exu.ericsson.se
Organization: Ericsson Network Systems, Inc.
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 21:23:23 GMT

Paper on CD's?
 This will definitely cause scratches and possible data loss
 when listening to your babies. I strongly suggest not using
 paper for anything that is not as hard or harder than glass.

 For CD:s you should pick a smooth cloth, like the ones they
 sell in the CD stores or even the "glasses store". Or if you
 have a pair of "kiddies undies" they might be soft enough.

 Also make sure you polish in a straight line from the center
 of the disc and out. This is in case you DO make a scratch,
 it will only ruin as many bits in a row as the scratch is wide
 as opposed to if the scratch goes along the track.
 
(Sorry David; soap and luke-warm water is fine though :)
Lasse

---

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Lasse Ohlsson         Ericsson Network Systems Inc.         (EXU Dallas) |
| E-mail: exulox@exu.ericsson.se       Memo: exu.exulox@memo.ericsson.se   |
| I don't want to have anything to do with what my company does or says... | 
| Or was it the opposite? Oh well.. regard this as a sort of a disclaimer. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
From: fry@chilli.reo.dec.com (Brent Fry [ISVG Europe])
Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
Subject: Celestion SL6S Port recommended
Date: 10 Sep 92 12:56:46 GMT
Distribution: rec.audio.high-end
Organization: Digital European ISV Group, Reading, UK
Originator: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu


I have owned Celestion SL6S speakers for some 6 years now.  Never liked
the sound, and especially agree with comments many have made that they
are dull, and lack bass extension.  Aluminum tweeter and about 8"
mid-bass unit, two way design, British stuff.

Well, years ago I removed the squidgy gray "acoustic" foam which stuffed
them full, and used more sensible damping materials like ordinary ceiling
acoustic tile on one surface, and a dollup of quilting inner lining material.
Minimum damping to achieve excellent Result: much improved clarity!

But (shock, horror to Celestion engineers) what I've done now (to this
sealed box design) is *ported* it !!  The port is located in the front
lower quadrant, some downspout pipe roughly 3 inches in diameter and 7
inches long.

Anyone owning SL6S's who has an interest in more details, is welcome
to mail me.  I would describe myself as a very discriminating listener,
and the result is truly magic in the areas of clean bass extension, and
overall increased clarity throughout the midrange.

I'd never again touch another "acoustic suspension" (sealed box) design
as a result of my long experience tweaking the Celestions.  An interesting
side effect is that, even though I am not a head-banger, prior to the porting
I had to replace the bass drivers twice, due to radial cracking of the
surrounds.  With the port, those nasty instantaneous pressure peaks just
aren't there any more.  The speakers move like mad (subsonically), and
the sound is great.  Highly recommended.

(Oh, my sound system is Linn Sondek Ittok arm currently Audio Technica
F9 cartridge [soon to buy a Denon cartridge!], into heavily beefed up
Inca Tech [now defunct] transitor amplifier, about 60W, biwiring to
the Celestions -- I split the crossover -- using a bell wire to treble
and heavy Exposure stranded cable to bass.  I also confess to using an old
DBX peak unlimiter, which adds a bit of life if used sparingly.)

Comments?

Brent

--

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Brent Fry, European Third Party Applications (ISVG-Europe)
 Digital, REO1-F7/7B Imperial Way, Reading, Berkshire RG2 0SU  UK
 DTN 830-3918, TEL +44 (734) 203918  FAX 204687  Reception 868711
 Internet: fry@chilli.enet.dec.com, Easynet chilli::fry
Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
From: poole@admin2.usask.ca ()
Subject: Re: What is MDF?
Originator: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Reply-To: poole@admin2.usask.ca ()
Organization: University of Saskatchewan
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 17:40:55 GMT
	(queueing-rmail) id 105639.11753; Fri, 11 Sep 1992 10: 56:39 EDT

|>In article <1992Sep9.172602.8805@cs.tulane.edu>, piscine@rs1.tcs.tulane.edu (henry bart) writes:
|>
|>I've seen many references to MDF for stereo racks, etc.  I would like to build
|>my own rack but don't know what MDF board is or what MDF stands for.  Is MDF
|>available through regular lumber supply houses?
|>
I believe it stands for Medium Density Fiberboard.

This stuff appears to be that same stuff as your regular particle board (some
know this as K-3 board) only it is much more dense that the regular board.
You can really tell the difference by the weight, rigidity, and the edge
that is left after the board is cut. The ordinary particle board will leave
a porous edge when cut while MDF will leave a smooth hard edge. MDF can be
cut, routed & shaped easily with carbide tiped tools.

I believe that many better quality speaker enclosures are built from MDF but
Mr.Pierce would be able to confirm this.

Regular lumber supply houses may carry one or two different thicknesses and
can probably special order you other thicknesses if you want. I have found
that specialty type of lumber yards that specialize in plywoods will have
a better selection and price and will split sheets if you do not need a
complete sheet.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Chris Poole
Computing Services                         CA*Net:  Poole@ADMIN.USask.CA
56 Physics Building                        Phone:   (306) 966-4807
University of Saskatchewan                 FAX:     (306) 966-4938
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, S7N 0W0

Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
From: "Todd Smith, 80\"HSM OP TECH" <pasmith@inland.com>
Subject: Re: What ever happened with Stereophile?
News-Moderator: Approval required for posting to rec.audio.high-end
Originator: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Organization: Inland Steel Company; East Chicago, IN
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 21:23:32 GMT

In article <zarthac.715206560@camelot>, zarthac@camelot.bradley.edu (Matthew
Simmons) writes: 
> I keep hearing references to some kind of Armor-All incident.... What
> happened?  (I must have missed that/those issue(s).... 
> 
> 
A while back, one of the writers in Stereophile recommended polishing your
CDs with Armor All. This was supposed to DRAMATICALLY improve the sound. The
problem was that after a while, the Armor All would leave a fine powder on the
discs which could get into the CD player and on the lens. Shortly after this
was reported, the author emphatically retracted his suggestion.

-- 
Todd A. Smith            | Internet:   pasmith@inland.com
Inland Steel Co.         | 
Operating Technology Dept| CompuServe: 72557,3713
East Chicago, IN 46312   | America On Line: ToddS4

Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
From: P.Smee@bris.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Subject: Re: CD drive question
Originator: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Reply-To: P.Smee@bris.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Organization: University of Bristol
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 12:39:43 GMT
          id <sg.19767-0@ben.uknet.ac.uk>; Wed, 9 Sep 1992 10: 06:02 +0100
          id <8949-0@eros.uknet.ac.uk>; Wed, 9 Sep 1992 10: 05:45 +0100

In article <1992Sep8.141220.16211@eua.ericsson.se> Jesper.Ullerstam@eua.ericsson.se (Jesper Ullerstam) writes:
>I frequently use a CD-ROM player with my computer
>and I know as much about computers that I realise that my
>CD-ROM always must deliver the exact data stored on the disc.
>A CD-ROM is quite cheap if you compare to a high end hifi
>CD-drive. If the CD-ROM delivers the exact information,
>why can't you build a hifi drive that does the same thing, at
>the same price? 

I would guess that you can get away with more slack in the design of a
CD-ROM, since timing shouldn't be as critical as for audio CD.  With
CD-ROM, the computer isn't really going to care if the next 1K bits
come in a bit faster or slower than the last 1K bits.  It's not going
to disturb things if the CD-ROM drive misses a track, and has to skip
back to pick it up, or if it has to re-read a section for any other
reason.  With audio CD, on the other hand, it is the drive which is
responsible for making sure that everything happens once, in the right
order, and at the right time.

(Note that most of this could be dealt with by putting, say, a
1Megabyte cache RAM between the CD-ROM and the digital output, to
smooth out any variation in the drive's reading speed.  I note that
Sony plan to do this in their mini-disk players, and keep wondering why
no one seems to want to apply this approach to CD.)

-- 
Paul Smee, Computing Service, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UD, UK
 P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk - ..!uunet!uknet!bsmail!p.smee - Tel +44 272 303132

Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
From: dszpiro@student.business.uwo.ca (Daniel A. Szpiro)
Subject: Re: What is MDF?
Originator: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Organization: University of Western Ontario
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 17:39:33 GMT

piscine@rs1.tcs.tulane.edu (henry bart) writes:

> I've seen many references to MDF for stereo racks, etc.  I would like to buil
> my own rack but don't know what MDF board is or what MDF stands for.  Is MDF
> available through regular lumber supply houses?
> 
> Thanks....
> 
> 		Mike
> 
MDF = Medium Density Fibreboard (or Fiberboard if you live in the US).

MDF is basically wood fibres bonded together with glue under pressure.
But unlike chipboard, MDF uses very fine fibrous particles. It can be
milled or worked on a router with greater detail than chipboard or
plywood. You might have to special order MDF from a lumber supply
outlet as I doubt it is commonly stocked.

Danny


dszpiro@student.business.uwo.ca (Daniel A. Szpiro)
Western Business School  --  London, Ontario
From: jwithana@phoenix.princeton.edu (Janaka Withana)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
Subject: budget audiophile cd player
Keywords: cd,budget
Date: 15 Sep 92 13:54:26 GMT
Reply-To: jwithana@phoenix.princeton.edu
Organization: Princeton University
Originator: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu

i presume that the Rotel models 855, 955 and 965 are still the best choices
for budget audiophile cd players. i am also considering a NAD 5000 cd player.
could you recommend any mail order sources for these products? especially for
the Rotel products....

please reply via e-mail. advTHANKSance

--j

---
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| jwithana@phoenix.princeton.edu                 janaka@lucille.princeton.edu |
| janaka@ee.princeton.edu      JWITHANA@PUCC.bitnet         bt283@po.cwru.edu |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: wem53067@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (The Bard )
Subject: Newbie Needs Help....
Originator: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 21:32:05 GMT
  (5.67a8/IDA-1.5 for <rec-audio-high-end@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>); Tue, 8 Sep 1992 14: 12:32 -0500
  (5.67a/IDA-1.5 for rec-audio-high-end@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu); Tue, 8 Sep 1992 19: 12:27 GMT

Ok, here is the problem. I've owned various junk Sony stuff in the past, but
I believe it's time for me to move up in the audio world.

The Problem is, that although I've gone and aditioned a bunch of equipment, my
newbie ears are overwelmed with what the hear. I "can" not the difference for
instance between krell and adcom components, but when I start comparing adcom 
with more realistic equipment, it's harder to distinguish the defernece.

I have approx. 5k to spend on equipment, and I understand that a good portion
of that should go into speakers... (2k aroundish)? Where I need help is 
this all down and perhaps for some of the so called "experts" namely you, to
suggest components with in my price range to audition.

The thing is, I want a descent system to stat out with, but one where I can
start to build upon in say 2 years when I get some cash... :) So, I'm assuming
I should get a good pair of speakers, (sink moist of my money here) so that they
can be the last item to upgrade when I get around to it...

As far as my preferences: I enjoy punchy bass, and I enjoy a full sound. I
dislike overly bright stuff, but slightly bright is good... I enjoy LOUD but,
I am also a classical fan (Heh, altenative AND classic DO mix..) so I need
equipment that has a bit of punch to it....

Welp, I seriouslt hope someone can help me, cause 5k is alot of $ to make a
mistake with  :)

-Later, The Bard
Wayde Milas
wem53067@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu

Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
From: wkb@cblph.att.com (William K Brummett)
Subject: Re: What is MDF?
Originator: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 17:40:08 GMT


    In article <1992Sep9.172602.8805@cs.tulane.edu>,
    piscine@rs1.tcs.tulane.edu (henry bart) writes:
    > I've seen many references to MDF for stereo racks, etc.  I would like
    > to build my own rack but don't know what MDF board is or what MDF
    > stands for.  Is MDF available through regular lumber supply houses?
    > Mike

    As I understand it, MDF is a particular type of particle board.  As a
    guess, I'd say that the acronym stands for something like "medium-
    density fiber" or similar.  It is sold with a rating of pounds (per
    what?).  Audio Concepts makes a big deal of using 49.3 lb. Willamet(sp?)
    MDF in ther speakers.  For the Sub-1 clones some friends and I made, we
    used regular ol' 3/4" particle board from the local home supply store.
    I think the rating was 30-something pounds -- it cost $11 per 4x8 sheet.

    If you read up on DIY speakers, you'll find that particle board is
    almost always recommended as the box material.  Properly braced, it is
    much more resistant to resonances than, say, plywood or solid planks.
    It can be a little hard to work with sometimes, but accepts veneers
    well so that the end product looks nice.

    BTW, a buddy of mine claims that particle board is the most wonderful
    substance ever discovered by man.  Of course, you may notice that I
    said *discovered*, not invented.  He also claims that particle board
    comes from collapsing stars as they leave the main sequence.  :-)

    -- Keith

-- 
    | (614) 860-3187         Copyright (C) 1992, by       AT&T, Room 3B202 |
    | att!cblph!wkb  or,     W.K. Brummett and AT&T      6200 E. Broad St. |
    | wkb@cblph.att.com       All rights reserved.      Columbus, OH 43213 |
    `----------------------------------------------------------------------'

Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
From: rsd@sei.cmu.edu (Richard S D'Ippolito)
Subject: Re: Tube sources
Originator: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Organization: The Software Engineering Institute
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 12:55:36 GMT


In article <1992Sep8.150545.20132@sei.cmu.edu>, I wrote about the 12AX7 vs.
the 12AX7A: 

|> It depends on your point of view -- the "A" version has "controlled" noise
|> and hum characteristics, having an average of 1.8uVRMS (10KHz bandwidth)
|> refered to the grid.  

An email communication from John Shriver (thanks) reminded me that serious
users of tubes supply the heaters with regulated DC for lowest noise.  I
remember doing this for radio station gear in the early 60s with an additional
consideration: to prevent uneven cathode degeneration we carefully isolated
the heater supply from the plate supplies and reversed its polarity every week
or so.

We also found that a stable ground was required and that it generally mattered
which heater lead was grounded.  This was determined on a tube-by-tube basis,
and a separate ground lead independent of the plate supply was run to each
rack module.  Having the heater supply floating made this possible.

This was a real pain in the butt, as replacing a tube sometimes required
changing its heater polarity, and some tubes had center-tapped heaters.  We
were happy to move to solid state, and I don't miss those firebottles at all!

Rich


   "Please keep in mind that the ultimate goal [of hi-fi] is the
   reproduction of art, and that the invocation of science, while a neat
   parlour trick, is often unnecessary, flawed, and unreasonable."
   --  name mercifully withheld...                            rsd@sei.cmu.edu

Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
From: rust@rs049.intel.com (Camron Rust)
Subject: Re: Maggie/Vandersteen Amp Matching
Originator: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Organization: Intel Corporation, Beaverton, OR
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 12:39:28 GMT

The Magnapan's you mention are probably a flat 4 ohms across
the spectrum. I have some other Maggies and they are 3 ohms from
the bottom to the crossover point then 5 ohms from there up.
The transition is very smooth and the phase plot only deviates 
from 0 deg. at the crossover and only by a small amount. The 
SMGA's do not have a crossover and are basically a long piece
of wire (resistor). In box speakers the box presents a complex
load to the driver which makes the impedance vary across the 
spectrum. This is not neccasarily bad if the amp is sufficient.
If the Luxman says "8 ohms only", just don't turn it up too high.
If it is only speced at 8 ohms, it does not mean that you can't
use lower, just that the specs arn't published for that condition.
Somewhere it should say a minimum impedance. The problem only occurs
when the current at a voltage level near peak output is such that
excessive power is absorbed by the output devices. The current/power
absorbed in the output devices will be approximately double that
of the output with 8 ohms load. The smaller the output impedance
of the amp the safer you are with this problem. Another area of
concern would be other areas where high current might stress a
part. All of these only come into the picture at high output
levels. There may be some other problems of which I am unaware.
--
Camron Rust		rust@scic.intel.com
Intel Corporation	Supercomputer Interconnect Components Group
503-531-5040

Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
From: rshapiro@bbn.com (Richard Shapiro)
Subject: fm antennas
Originator: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Organization: BBN, Cambridge MA
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 21:28:27 GMT

Anyone have any direct experience with the passive FM antennas made by
Audio Prism? In particular, the 6500 and the 7500? Or any other
recommendations for an indoor, passive FM antenna? An outdoor antenna
isn't practical at the moment and my experience with active antennas
leads me to distrust them.

I'm living in an urban situation, lots of buildings around, and lots
of interesting but low-powered college radio stations scattered around
the metropolitan area. My tuner is a Carver TX-11a -- only so-so
sound, but excellent sensitivity and reasonably effective at coping
with multipath. At the moment, I'm using the little "Silver Ribbon"
dipole marketed by Magnum, which isn't bad. But several stations are
still too weak for listenable stereo reception.

rs/rshapiro@bbn.com
From: sbradley@scic.intel.com (Seth Bradley)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
Subject: Re: Women and Hi Fi
Date: 15 Sep 92 13:53:43 GMT
Organization: Intel SCIC, Beaverton, OR
Originator: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu

In article <1992Sep14.072519.15627@news.weeg.uiowa.edu> smills@news.weeg.uiowa.edu (MuffinHead) writes:
>   Please note that I'm not saying that ALL females are technologically
>deprived, it's just the case with most. An ex-girlfriend couldn't hear a
>problem when her $129.99 special was distorting. My current girlfriend
>has Sony, Onkyo, and Awai components and Infinity's. World of difference.
>   Also, boys growing up tend to putz around with things and open tape
>decks to see how they work more than girls do.

This would make great sense except that there are _lots_ of women involved
with photography, including professionally, and they tend to be (from my
limited experience) just as technically oriented as the men.  Even in other
traditionally male, technological persuits (say cars and firearms) one finds
a fairly significant, dedicated female contingency.  Audio seems to be
virtually unique in its near total lack of female participation.  Seems like
a great topic for a psychology thesis :-).
-- 
Seth J. Bradley, Senior System Administrator, Intel SCIC
Internet: sbradley@scic.intel.com   UUCP: uunet!scic.intel.com!sbradley
----------------------------------------
"A system admin's life is a sorry one.  The only advantage he has over
Emergency Room doctors is that malpractice suits are rare.  On the other
hand, ER doctors never have to deal with patients installing new versions
of their own innards!"  -Michael O'Brien
Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
From: P.Smee@bris.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Subject: Re: CD drive question
Originator: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Reply-To: P.Smee@bris.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Organization: University of Bristol
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 12:59:35 GMT
          id <g.03115-0@ben.uknet.ac.uk>; Mon, 14 Sep 1992 11: 23:37 +0100
          id <6886-0@eros.uknet.ac.uk>; Mon, 14 Sep 1992 11: 23:30 +0100

In article <1992Sep10.202350.11066@cypress.com> daver!cypress.com!ssr@decwrl.dec.com (Bapcha/FPGA) writes:
>In article <1992Sep9.090412.4048@bristol.ac.uk> P.Smee@bris.ac.uk (Paul Smee) writes:
>>reason.  With audio CD, on the other hand, it is the drive which is
>>responsible for making sure that everything happens once, in the right
>>order, and at the right time.
>
>I am sure that this idea was put in your head by the idiots who write
>about clock jitter in the magazine 'Stereophile'.  In digital circuit/
>peripheral design (with the exception of magnetic tape drives and EPROM
>programmers,  you get 1 ONE chance to read/write the data correctly.

No, a reasonable guess but wrong in every important respect.  We don't
get Stereophile over here, for a start.  It's based rather on a
novice's knowledge of CD, and of years of working with computers,
including a number spent as a technician designing/building various
custom computer peripherals (for PDP-8's and 9's, since you asked,
which probably tells you how long ago that was).

The important difference is that in a CD player, the transport is
responsible for providing a very accurate clock.  In the computer
peripheral, the exact timing is normally enforced by the processor
clock granting a memory cycle, and (if the peripheral is built
properly) it won't matter if those are not precisely the same time-delta
apart, or even if you miss a few because some higher-priority device
grabs them.  Its life is ultimately controlled by an external timing
mechanism.

The error-rate is a red herring.  Yes, the CD-ROM has to have a much
lower bit-error rate than an audio CD, but the only important feature
is that that error rate has to be lower AFTER the CD-ROM has dumped its
info into the computer's memory, and sent the 'I'm finished'
interrupt.  It can (potentially, at least) spend a bit of extra time,
if necessary, doing whatever is needed to get there -- including, if it
wants, trying a re-read.  The audio CD transport doesn't have that luxury.

-- 
Paul Smee, Computing Service, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UD, UK
 P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk - ..!uunet!uknet!bsmail!p.smee - Tel +44 272 303132