BSG Spoilers and more Vinyl

[pyoor_excuse]

So, the fucked up and failed to send me a record. I complained. No reply. Then I complained though paypal, and y'know what, I got a single through the post today... accompanied by *another*, free, single. Woot!

Of course, the one problem is despite 300k of resistors, it's still distorting. I'm beginning to consider that the 'phono' input on that amplifier is no-such-thing, but instead a proprietory phono intended only for whatever record deck was meant to be with it.

*Sigh*

At any rate, I'm picking up a freecycle Denon amp this evening, I hope, so that might rock.

I also picked up my prescription, I'd forgotten to collect it on Saturday, so yesterday was conducted at half dose. Fortunately my lecture finished at 1130 so I was able to pick up my tablets and have my morning one. Sanity rules! :-)

I've got enough of my state sponsored drug habit to take my nice shiny drugs to 'merkia. They're not interesting drugs, just maintain my endocrine system in some degree of a useful state; and kill my allergies a bit. I've only got one pack of the allergy tablets which is annoying. £19.50 for flipping tablets. Nominal prescription charge my *arse*.

Actually, I didn't feel too bad for missing one tablet. Meh. Might be worth cutting down for the sake of my knackered liver

And yeah, so, I watched the second half of the second season of Battlestar Galactica today, the bastards!
So, yeah, bloody hell that was good.

Who are the other 8 cylons? istr from Season one that the Sharon variant of the cylons wasn't 'well regarded' by the other cylons, presumably because of its tendancy to wander off and do its own thing. But she's now a really interesting character.

It's also interesting too to see how and what is shared between the cylons. They're obviously not always reporting back their knowledge, or experiences. The cylon that normally inhabit's Gaius's head didn't know about the prisoner aboard the Pegasus, and yet Sharon can remember things seen by another Sharon. Why?

That whole thing with the abuse, that made shivers run down my spine. Scary, really scary. Fucked up scary stuff.

What's going to happen between Galactica and Pegasus? I've read that the original cut of that final episode was 90 minutes, as opposed to the 44 minutes that aired. I really really want to see the full version of that episode. You knew that there was going to be a collision between Adama and Cain, but on the scale that it appears to be happening...? Will they attack each other?

I was suprised to see that season 2 was only 10 episodes long, so it wasn't entirely shocking to discover that it's only the first half of the second season I've seen. Anyone know when they're showing the second half of the second season. I've heard 2k6. This is not what I want to hear.

The Ciccone album arrived Saturday, it rocks. Although I had to pay extra fricki'n postage 'cos the seller hadn't paid it all, so he put 17p short in stamps on and I get to pay £1 handling charge plus the frickin' postage. Grrr.

Comments

[howlsthunder.livejournal.com]

Yeah. That last episode had me in tears of sympathy for the two captured cylons. Boomer has been one of my favorite characters from the start, before I knew she was a cylon. :\ (Bill Adama being my other fave).

You've GOT to get Trey to watch BSG before she gets here.

[pyoor_excuse]

Mmm, she doesn't seem keen. At all.

[howlsthunder.livejournal.com]

why? because we're on her case all the time? :D

[pyoor_excuse]

Well, probably :-)

[howlsthunder.livejournal.com]

heh, tha'ts righhht... I forogt about the three-month factor. It has to be Trey's own idea to do it; just watch. Three months from now, she'll casually watch it on her own and will like it and act as if we had nothing to do with her watching it. This is how she learned to make French Toast, too.

[emilydm.livejournal.com]

It sounds like the phono pre-amp is expecting a mic-level signal (a few dozen millivolts), and the phono cartridge is putting out a line-level signal ( a couple of volts). Adding resistance to the stage just changes frequency response, because cartridges work using inductance. At least I'm pretty sure. They're strange beasts. Perhaps try a different cartridge instead and see if it improves matters.

[pyoor_excuse]

It's not a cartridge one, it's a stylus only.

I actually had the same problem with my amp, which was expecting a much lower level input, but that had spaces on the board for resistor packs (which were marked Rxxx) but just linked across.

Record decks have always been a black art, as far as I'm concerned :-)

But I'm now a bit unsure as to how to proceed....

[c0re-dump.livejournal.com]

First thing is to decide whether you have a magnetic pickup or a ceramic one. The magnetic type is much better quality, but produces a much smaller signal. The magnetic type also requires RIAA equalisation, whereas the ceramic type does not (it's done mechanically in the cartridge). So, if your pickup is ceramic but your amp expects a magnetic signal level, it'll overload and distort. A ceramic pickup can be wired to a "CD" or "AUX" input and work OK, but I'd recommend getting a magnetic cartridge somehow. I have one made by Shure, which was a good make at the time.

[c0re-dump.livejournal.com]

Ah! It's all coming back to me now. I was wrong about the "CD" input! It's OK for level, but the ceramic cartridge that you have (BSR model SC11M) requires a very high impedance amplifier. I have the specs here for the BSR SC12M, and it needs 1-2Mohms. That reminded me about a charge amplifier circuit that I built waaay back in the 1970s for the school radio station. I've found the article, and it mentions that a ceramic cartridge is a capacitive signal source.

[pyoor_excuse]

Oh ah. That'd explain a lot then.

Feh.

Feeeehhhh.

So I do need a diferent cartridge then; poot.