At Fecking Last!

[karatestu]

GAD is not something I have read anything about apart from what you have written here Steve. I don't mean to belittle it in any way but i fear it is what i suffer from (or very similar).

The not being in control and the anxiety that brings is something I have to deal with every day. It drives me up the wall watching things unfold like the way this government has stumbled through leadership. I find myself wanting to do everything myself because others can't be trusted to do a better job than me and they are going to rip me off.

I am not a wealthy person by any means. Since covid and this cost of living crisis my view of spending money has been very dark. I now assess everything by how much it costs. There is no fun in anything just the feeling of how much it is going to cost me. This is a problem that my wife will get tired of eventually, nobody wants to live with scrooge. I hope things change soon for the better.

[SteveTheShadow]

Yep Stu, I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but it sounds like there are elements of GAD going on. You’d need to see someone though as there are specific tests they do.

[SteveTheShadow]

GAD is not something I have read anything about apart from what you have written here Steve. I don't mean to belittle it in any way but i fear it is what i suffer from (or very similar).

The not being in control and the anxiety that brings is something I have to deal with every day. It drives me up the wall watching things unfold like the way this government has stumbled through leadership. I find myself wanting to do everything myself because others can't be trusted to do a better job than me and they are going to rip me off.

I am not a wealthy person by any means. Since covid and this cost of living crisis my view of spending money has been very dark. I now assess everything by how much it costs. There is no fun in anything just the feeling of how much it is going to cost me. This is a problem that my wife will get tired of eventually, nobody wants to live with scrooge. I hope things change soon for the better.

This article gives a good overview of GAD.

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/anxi ... er-gad.htm

It is difficult to avoid, but I’m trying not to live my life through the prism of the doom laden bollocks that we are being fed by the national media.

[Lindsayt]

This article gives a good overview of GAD.

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/anxi ... er-gad.htm

It is difficult to avoid, but I’m trying not to live my life through the prism of the doom laden bollocks that we are being fed by the national media.

I pretty much stopped listening to Radio 5 apart from when the sports commentary is on, or the film reviews. Because it seemed like incessant oh woe is me, isn't the world terrible, news and current affairs.

Resulting in me listening to Talksport as my default channel. Despite the adverts. Because at least Talksport is generally light and uplifting.

[SteveS57]

Nice of you to say so Lindsay. I appreciate that.
I’ve now abandoned the low power SE amp/high efficiency speaker scene. It was fun while it lasted, but ultimately I find high efficiency speakers far too demanding of the upstream components and I simply don’t have the funds to continue down the route of expensive amplification. The output transformer requirements are too far out of my financial league to make it a realistic proposition.
Yes, the Fane full range drivers are relatively inexpensive and good sound can be got out of them for not a lot of money compared to some of the more exotic drivers. However like much of the rest of the full range crowd they are just too coloured and in your face and I’ve had it with that kind of sound. It’s too stressful.
The tall, slim mini tower Mission 737 speakers are a revelation. They may not be the most exciting speakers if you are used to the roar and rort of high efficiency speakers, but they are even-handed across the frequency range and tonally uncoloured. They image like crazy and disappear on the right recordings. They play my oldest rattiest recordings without the slightest hint of shout or nasality and complement the NVA based amp perfectly, setting the music free. They are 85dB efficient: way lower than the 87/88 dB of most commercial speaker offerings these days, but The 60W NVA based amp drives them beautifully and kicks them along with gusto. The 5W EL34 amp does well with them but unfortunately the dynamics are missing in action, which is only to be expected with such low power.
I’ve never been happier with the sound.

Now I just need to get to grips with the anxiety and the goddam catastrophic thinking.

I think I've got a higher opinion of your Fane DIY speakers than you do.

The colour that they had to my ears at Owston was mainly down to some roll-off in the treble and a lack of ultimate bass extension - the sort that would be most apparent on classical recordings and them missing some of the concert hall acoustics that you get with properly full ranged speakers (ones that are pretty flat down to 20hz).

Compared to say KEF LS50's I'd rate your Fanes as overall less coloured. Because they don't have the double camel hump frequency response of the KEF's.

I wouldn't describe your Fanes as too in your face. There's loads of low efficiency speakers I'd rate as soporifically boring. Because they truncate transients too much. And I crave speakers that are OK at recreating live type transients.
Maybe some people like speakers that are like a relaxing warm bath after a hard day at work? Whilst my prefernce is for speakers that are like a walk through fallen leaves on a crisp, frosty, sunny November morning.

I think Richard Dunn was even more enthusiastic about your Fanes than I am. He loved components that gave musical reproduction for highly affordable cost.

[SteveTheShadow]

It’s all a bit academic now Lindsay. The drivers have been sold and the cabs have gone to the tip. At Shadow towers at least, low power amps and hi-efficiency speakers have been consigned to the history books.

[Lindsayt]

For Shadow Towers, your Fanes are academic.

For me, if any of my AV speakers, apart from the front mains go BER (beyond economical repair) I would replace them with DIY'd Fane 12 250TC's. In a sealed box. Probably in smaller cabs than yours were.

I also find myself recommending the Fanes as a nice, cheap, easy DIY project on another forum. As a great alternative to dealer bought speakers.

[SteveTheShadow]

About ten days ago, I refitted the NVA phono1 board and regulator inside the amp, so that the turntable could simply be plugged into the back, like in the olden days. Powered off the input/driver stage power supply, which is fed from a 300VA toroidal transformer and 6800uF of capacitance per rail, the reg provides a steady + & - 22V to the phono board.
This has allowed vinyl to re-enter the system and the box-count to remain the same.
The TT now takes pride of place on the top deck of the shelving unit:

B09210FE-F414-472D-99F8-460B1ABB00C9.jpeg (103.12 KiB) Viewed 1070 times

It all looks and sounds great.

Have just finished watching and listening to a recording of the BBC Young Musician of the Year, 2022. The sound from the Bridgewater Hall Manchester was superb. Winner Jordan Ashman’s performance on percussion was spellbinding and well worthy of the award.

The combination of RD’s technology (boards slightly modded by myself) and the Mission speakers was thoroughly captivating on the live classical. Can’t be arsed anymore with DIY or box swapping. This setup’ll see me out I think.

[Lindsayt]

Have you moved on to DIY'ing R2D2 robots? That looks like the top of his head on the right in that photo.

[karatestu]

Can’t be arsed anymore with DIY or box swapping. This setup’ll see me out I think.

I feel like that most of the time these days but some of the time I still want to get stuck in. Once my speakers and 21st century music centre are finished that's me done as well.

Steve, if you had found the combo you have now 20 years ago would you still have bothered with the diy ?