run eat run

I went jogging on tuesday late at night....

I went for buffet dinner on wednesday....

Now i need to burn everything off today.... if the weather permits me to go jogging......

I need to shed more grames....
 

@whathifi, 29/6/11 1:28

Whathifi.com (@whathifi) 29/6/11 1:28 NEWS: Jurassic Park comes to Blu-ray: restored and remastered http://bit.ly/jE6Cb4

Will anyone bite??

Sent by mobile mail

Night stop

Went for a midnight jog....

And now enjoying a cool drink & night scene....

Different discs

I know for sure the shunmook mpingo discs are effective and have also read and heard about acoustic revive's natural quartz discs....

Has anyone done a straight shoot out..????

Sent by mobile mail

dose and doze

sometimes i wonder how much coffee can one person take in a day.....

one for the morning is compulsory but how about the rest of the day......???

morning tea break, lunch, afternoon tea break, after dinner????

is that too many?? will it be bad for health..???

i try to limit my daily intake to 3 which i think is a little on the high side.....
 

late and hard....

i still try to brake late but i also realise that i no longer brake as hard as before...

maybe the experience of over-cooking the brakes still haunts me.....

most importantly when there's no need for hard braking, i will release the throttle early and let the engine braking do the work.....
 

washed out

slept at 0230 hrs and woke up at 0630 hrs...

now?

feeling all washed out......

YAWN..!!!!!!!!!!

3 wooden discs

This is the recommend way to place 3 shunmook mpingo discs on a CD player .....

And I think it kinda works better than the equilateral triangle placement meant for other electronics....

Why didn't I do it earlier???

Damn....

more on stereo knight preamplifier

this is the one i am talking about....

fully balanced and totally passive except for the remote control and its electronics....

Another choice

This is cheap ... At $4.95

Best of all it's not too sweet.....

The taste is ok though... Nothing spectacular nor memorable...

more contact

i like the look of the federal FZ201 quite a lot...

should check out the price and see if i should consider this as well.....

Over drive

Yeah someone confirmed my suspicions that the ultra high output from the nuforce DAC 9 has driven the active circuits into clipping, hence the audible distortions from the loudspeakers....

Is there any other convertors with so high an output voltage? Not any that I can recall.... 4 volts or 5 is the max I have seen...

So this has made my adcom preamplifier's active redundant for a long time to come ....

And I will stick to the passive mode until I find another preamplifier to suit my needs... Which the stereoknight transformer volume control seems to be....

Sent by mobile mail

clips and tags

between seeking perfection and being pragmatic, manufacturers will usually lean towards getting the job done in the shortest possible time....

compared to soldering, using snap on connectors is so much easier: cheap, cheer and fast.........

one simply has to strip the sleeve, crimp and connect........

even though i can understand the reason, i am still a little disappointed to see that even high-end companies use snap on connectors for internal speaker cables in their products......  

and includes loudspeakers at $25,000 and even $50,000...!!!

i think we deserve something better.....
 

Cheaper and cheaper

I was about to grab a bottle of 100 plus at $2 when I saw Gatorade was only $1.70.....

Hmm isn't that cool when ang mo brand is cheaper...

But that's nothing!

Cos H2O can be had for $2 for 2 bottles ..!!!

Well I just picked the best deal and left to enjoy my cool drink...

Sent by mobile mail

one minute by one minute

when i was first placed on this shift, my target was to wake up at 0715 hrs.....

as time went by, i began to slack a little.... 0715 became 0720 and even 0725 as i grappled with the arduous task to wake up for work...

somehow every minute or every second counts SO MUCH when it's about sleep...
 

wash and dry 2

towards the later part of the evening, the sun decided to take a rest and the weather then cooled to a comfortable level.....

since there's no longer an excuse not to clean the car, i had to change and get down to work.....

using a spray bottle, i wet the roof, bonnet, sides, windscreen, rear wing and boot. this is a superb way to cut down on the amount of water needed to a car wash..........  and with my bare palms to spread the moisture, it was very easy to remove the surface dirt and the car was clean in no time......

after all the hard work, it's kinda satisfying to see the car clean and smooth......

tiring? yes.... shiok? yes.....

wash and dry

sunday is usually a good day to wash the car but it's way too HOT and SUNNY at 4 pm today....

let's wait for the temperate to fall before doing anything strenuous....

i dun wanna end up all wet and tired.....

drop one

interestingly the jap version of the acrolink webpage shows that the 7N-A2070 has been discontinued......

so far there's no news of any replacement.....

will the 7N-D5000 remains as the only non-Mexcel series 7N signal cable???

i find the A2070 to be priced reasonably for the level of performance and while the D5000 is good, it's getting near to expensive....

let's hope there will be good news about a new cable....

hesitant

being patient is good .... 

and taking time to think through all options and possibilities can prevent BIG headaches when it comes to the job itself....

most importantly there is no need to rush and then regret.....

my aim to to make sure it's bull's eye ...

crimp or solder???

let me think it through....

@Planet_F1, 17/6/11 17:35

Planet F1 (@Planet_F1) 17/6/11 17:35 #f1 Dad defends under-fire Lewis: Lewis Hamilton's father has defended the McLaren star's driving style, insisti... http://bit.ly/iTwJlh

Well I hope LH continues to put himself on the wall.....

Sent by mobile mail

out of sync

i feel weird..... and i think the active mode is driving me nuts

on one hand, it's more exciting and dramatic but then i had a problem getting the right volume ....

at between 7 and 8 o'clock position, the transition from soft to loud to LOUD is too abrupt and sudden and there's nothing in between that feels right.....

so it's either too soft or too loud....... and because of this, i ended up listening at a level that was a wee bit uncomfortable.......

then there's something else.....

during certain passages, there was a hint of compression or even distortion from the left loudspeaker....... something i'd never experienced before

i tried my best to pinpoint the source but it remained elusive.....

strange that it didnt manifest itself when i use the passive mode.....

is the high gain from the DAC giving the system a problem??? maybe maybe.....

then i continued listening and trying to catch the problem......  

i thought i caught it but i wasnt 100% sure.....

in my mind, maybe the speaker clips to the mid-woofers were loose or it could be something worse......

since there's no harm making sure and i simply had to find out, i carefully and gently unscrewed and removed the lower mid-woofer to check.......

sure enough the clips were slightly loose..... !!

before i removed the clips, i'd prepared contact solution ....... and upon pulling them off, i wiped all the contacts with a pre-soaked cleaning swap........

you can call me anal but i always make sure i keep electrical contacts clean and fresh......

after cleaning, i used a long plier to squeeze the sides of the clips to tighten the grip and guess what? i snapped one side of the wider clip before i could say anything.....

DAMN!!

i cursed myself for being clumsy and foolish but hey, i was not going to murder myself for this....

fortunately the grip was still ok with only one side and everything seems alright after i fixed everything back......

somehow i still feel the distortion was there..... but again i was NOT very sure......

fearing the problem could persist and lead to other headaches, i switched the preamp back to passive mode and all seemed ok again.......

maybe i should just stick to the passive mode......

my worry now is should i...

a.        replace the broken clip with another? or

b.        remove all clips and solder the cables to the mid-woofer? or

c.        replace all clips with mini spades and connect everything together with screws and nuts?

the problem with me is i cant do nothing about it.....
 

Passive vs Active

To be fair, I should give the active stage more time to settle in as it has been used for a while....

But then I can't help myself...

Until tonight my past efforts to compare between the 2 were fruitless .... I was not able to tell the difference on a consistent basis in the past....

So I think the active stage with 40 mins of running time was

More exciting & energetic

Slightly more detailed in the highs

Seems to have more depth

Somewhat similar in the bass

Less relaxed

Tighter focus

More colourful

More compressed? I need more time to confirm this...

I will let the preamplifier settle in before I listen again...

Sent by mobile mail

Revisit

Tonight I'm giving the active circuits of the Adcom preamplifier a good spin....

It must have been months and probably years since I'd used the active stage ..... And I thought I should let some electrons flow thought the caps and chips...

Other than giving me too much gain, it's pretty awesome..... In fact I'm quite surprised by the energy and spatiality ...!!

Maybe it's because I'm using the full potential of this balanced preamplifier .....

Just as Mr Nelson Pass intended

Sent by mobile mail

tube stuck

it was supposed to be easy to apply and one was expected to squeeze and the glue will flow forth.....

halfway through the process, i found so tough until i almost gave up.....

i cannot understand why i had to squeeze so hard to get just a drop of glue......

and so hard until the tube was bent and glue was oozing out from the sides of the tube.....

so i ended up with glue on my fingers and nails......

i even had to use turpentine to get rid of the mess.....

later on i found hardened pieces of foreign matter within the tube......

all these must have impeded the flow and in turn caused the pressure to burst the tube.....

since the tube was leaking, i quickly applied what i needed and then dispose of the rest..... what a waste......!!!

fortunately it costs $5.80 only...... even though it's very effective.....!!

Sticky nails

I think this one will hold ....

Polk for sale

I saw a pair of Polk audio LSi-15 in Audio House ...

And they are selling for $2799....

Not expensive at all.....

Sent by mobile mail

Diffract

To make things better I've change to auralex diffusors on the ceiling.....

And it's really a step ahead of using ecophon panels....

left and right and left and right

the video says it all...

black danger

i was on the lane that can go straight or turn right.....

and this bugger came from the turn left lane to jump into my lane.....

SHAME ON YOU..!!

Bright discs

After cutting the rotors were rare & raw...

With some miles & doses of progressively hard braking things are feeling better ...

It was almost devoid of bite when it was put back in place....

reduce now

i weighed myself last night and my target is to cut 3 to 5 kg.....

for decades i'd been trying to gain weight .... and in recent times, i now have a different problem.....

sigh....

even with reduced carb intake and regular exercise, it's still so tough......
 

@Planet_F1, 9/6/11 18:19

Planet F1 (@Planet_F1) 9/6/11 18:19 #f1 Hamilton in the clear with the FIA: FIA President Jean Todt insists Lewis Hamilton will face no further puni... http://bit.ly/m9y1pw

Shameful ..!!!

Sent by mobile mail

@stcom, 7/6/11 19:45

The Straits Times (@stcom) 7/6/11 19:45 Our reader says he was caught in a jam at the 2nd Link for 6 hours despite having called the LTA hotline beforehand. http://is.gd/iAoXnR

Obviously the line is not that HOT after all :)

Sent by mobile mail

start afresh - brake rotors

my job now is very simple: i have to bed-in the brake rotors all over again and i may have to stretch the time of doing it carefully this time.....

when the brake kit was new, it was a revelation ......

compared to the stock units, i had improved brake modulation and bite and braking from triple-digit speeds was faster and more assured.  

something happened along the way and even though i cant remember when it started, it was obvious something was amiss......

i began to feel a slight wobble in the steering when braking but it didnt happen all the time..... usually the problem would manifest as vibrations during light braking at higher speeds; sometimes i can feel the uneven braking at low speeds......

all these left me bewildered and frustrated....

what surprised me the most was i did nothing until someone drove my car and confirmed my suspicion......

finally i found time to get the rotors skimmed and now the dreaded vibrations are gone......

so what happened?

        a.        did i cook the brakes? maybe

        b.        did visiting a car wash harm the rotors when they were still HOT? maybe

        c.        did someone wash the car when the brakes were still HOT? maybe

        d.        the brake kit was defective? maybe

from now on, i will eliminate the chances of allowing para b and c to happen. as for para a, i dun think i can change the way i drive cos i dun believe in braking too early anyway..... if i didnt have any problems with the stock brakes, why should the supposedly-superior BBK develop this shimmering effect?

i can only hope the problem will not come back if i give the rotors more time to bed-in before i use them to the max...........
 

@AAAauto, 4/6/11 0:56

AAA Automotive (@AAAauto) 4/6/11 0:56 Are your tires gasping for air? 85% of drivers don't know how to properly check their tire pressure! http://bit.ly/kFCPeN

Maybe it's closer to 90% in Singapore ...

Sent by mobile mail

restart now

i was down with flu for about 2 weeks and of cos i stopped jogging for the time....

exercising when one is sick is a sure-fire way to get worse and get killed...... and i have no wish to try my luck....

after resting for awhile, the tough part is to re-start the twice a week jog.....

come on, dun stop..!!!

even though the temptation is just let go can be SOOOOO strong.......
 

gain up

never in my dreams did i expect this outcome:

the system has TOO MUCH gain now..... !!

what do i mean by too much...??? well, the Nuforce DAC 9 gives out 8 volts from its balanced output!! a regular CD player / DAC typically has 2 volts from its RCA connection....

since using the adcom as a passive preamp, i've always desired more gain.....so much so that when ordering the D-100 power amps, i'd even requested for the high-gain version......

with the 2 volts from the MSB DAC unbalanced output and using XLR cables between preamp and power amps (6 dB gain), my regular volume setting hovered at 12 o'clock, sometimes even reaching 1 o'clock...... and i kinda liked it that way since volume pots usually do not track well at their lower range ....

now?

i am using XLR cables from DAC to preamp to power amps and it's tough to go past 9 o'clock.........

by then it's REALLY LOUD....

before bring it home, i wondered why is there a low gain version of the DAC 9 (2 volts RCA / 4 volts XLR) available on special order.....

the answer is...

it's possible to have TOO MUCH of a good thing.....!!

run to win

what's wrong with running for money???

since there are prizes offered, surely one has to expect people to wanna win them......

if these africans can beat everyone else that's bcos they are good at it.....

 

Din din

It's a disaster when the noise level at the eating place hits above 80 dB .....

So noisy until no one can have a proper conversation and each has to shout to be heard....

Ouch..!!!

Sent by mobile mail

Buy & patch

Touch-up paint is cheap and easily accessible ..... Using it is altogether a different kettle of fish ...

Too much and it looks like acne gone wrong while too little means try harder .....

The trick is to apply sparingly one step at a time one drop at a time.....

Make sure it's just enough to fill in the gap, chip or scratch....

Sent by mobile mail

@stcom, 2/6/11 20:30

The Straits Times (@stcom) 2/6/11 20:30 Our reader says she's seeing more drivers using electronic gadgets while driving. Have you ever done that yourself? http://is.gd/SdlSAh

Occasionally maybe...

But definitely not in recent times cos driving is too fun for distractions now....

Sent by mobile mail

Sinful

Do crustaceans and a spiky fruit mix well?

No idea but it sounds pretty SINFUL.....

Anyway I am trying to diet so pls dun tempt me....

Christmas or New Year

I wonder what are they waiting for?

Chuck this engine into a compact coupe and give US a real option!!!

Turbo power is wasted for crossover with this high a CG....

What for????

Real deal

Unlike the super duper expensive OSIM massage chair, this offering from OTO comes at a real world price ....

$1880?

At least I could dream to own one while the U-divine is reserved for the rich kingdoms of men....

Cut it

Ok I'd overspent for May and now I have to cut some expenditure this month....

My hope is for everything to hold fast so that I can stick to my plan...

If something fails then it means money is at risk...

I hate it when good things fail....

Sent by mobile mail