affordable juice bars - belden power cords

if money is "enough", then everything in the house would be using super-duper expensive acrolink power cords....

but alas!!! we all live in the real world and so i can only stick to buying multiple acrolink 4030 and one acrolink 6100 power cords in the audio system...... no super-duper expensive stuff for me ..

then how about the video system in the living room????? hhmmmm......

well since money is not enough, i have to make do with belden power cords....... this time round, i bought enough to make AC cables for the MJ subwoofer, sony ps3, mio set top box and hubstation.......... which meant 4 x MK plugs, 2 x IEC plug, 2 x figure 8 plug and 6 metres of belden cables........

all on DIY as LHS was way toooooo busy yesterday........

black oh black belden AC cables....

MK plug exposed.....

stripping and preparing the internal conductors......

bare ends all tightly clamped.... one tip: remove all the brass plug-ends before trying to connect the ends..... once OK, push them back into position.... so much easier.....

for the IEC plugs, there is no need to solder anything as all ends are made by clamping...... but for figure 8, one has to resort to soldering.....

my trusty WBT silver solder.............

figure 8 connectors exposed......

ready to solder...........

putting on heat shrink for the finish.......

i would have made one for the TV if not for the captive power cord.......... EEEKKSS!! what a pity........!!!

2 watts

Ok here is how 2 watts of LED power look like ......

Just dim enough for my liking....

Making the place conducive & seductive...

Step down

The original bulbs were 50 watts and that means they were sucking a lot of juice...... To make the room cooler and also to save some coins along the way, I have switched to osram 20 watters @ $2.90 each....

If you are the true and one kind of green person, your choice will be LED replacements: 3.6 watts!!!!!! But at $26.... !!!!

I guess it only makes sense if you use it for perhaps 5 hours a day..?????

Cost vs efficiency..... That's always the challenge we face

Fibre link

Ok just received my monoprice toslink by mail.... And it will be used to connect the mio box to the onkyo av amp .....

Let's see if I can get f1 in 5.1 ......

Plus one

Collected the free hdmi cable from da store this afternoon.....

Better than having nothing .......

Beware

Beware: market values & subsidies are dirty words .......

Don't let them confuse you with saying a lot without actually telling you anything......

Sent by mobile mail

One bulb

Walked past a basement shop that specialises in LED bulbs: they have standard replacement for fluorescent tubes, halogen bulbs, incandescent bulbs etc....

At first I was only curious and so I stood outside to read the pastes brochure .... How about a 3 year warranty? Not bad huh....

So I bought 2 of the smallest 1 LED bulb which will replace some the energy sucking halogen bulbs in the listening room.....

Power output? 1 watt.....!!!!!

Sent by mobile mail

Motive murk

When a dealer "shares" the virtues of his products in discussion threads, it's only reasonable for others to question his motive......

It's as simple as that...... Just take it with a large pinch of salt ok?

Sent by mobile mail

help me?

with 2 races to go, how do we expect the drivers to act..........?????

massa has no chances at all so he can only affect others' chances........

button has a slim chance but only if everyone else ahead of him crashes for all of 2 races......... and that's unlikely to happen.......

vettel still has a good chance so he will fight....... i guess he will secure the pole position in interlagos.............

hamilton has a good chance and he's not giving up......... even though uncle lee has ordered kopi sua for him, i dun think that will come true.....

webber is pretty close and the car is still good......... next to alonso, he's the best bet.......

alonso...??? using race-weary engines will be his big worry........... he may be leading the points but any blow up will cripple his effort to win his 3rd world championships.......
 

Our king

When people are talking about the lion king, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?

The Disney animation? Well maybe....

As for me, the only lion king is 辉哥. Period.....

Sent by mobile mail

One by one

Using the audyssey is simple & straightforward .... Just plug in the mic and let the software do the measuring and computations......

After 20 mins or so your surround system is ready for blasting......

But since I do not have a current model with the latest software, I have to make do with yesteryear's technology....

It's still good enough to do a good job.....

By the road

Here I am trying to setup the 7.1 system using the audyssey system and a loud wrx just went past @ 74 dB..

CB lah.......

Sent by mobile mail

The key

Rule of key applies to all...??

Yes we all know that....

The key is, how to apply.....

We all know that too

Sent by mobile mail

Flat tube

YouTube on tv....

2.5 D

PS3 now supports 3D ....

But I dun have a 3D tv but it's ok ..... I dun like 3D

Lim Kopi

Oh well the renault engine failure meant vettel has no 红牛 but has to go 喝咖啡!!!!!

Sent by mobile mail

Restrained power

Latest mileage = 10.89 km/l.......

Sent by mobile mail

Just a switch

Only a while ago there were many complaints about lack of parking, especially overnight parking in some housing estates....

Suddenly it dawned upon me that if we disallow G plate vehicles to park overnight in housing estates, then no need to spend public funds to build more carparks....

But then since government is 99.9999% sure not to pass on the savings to me, why should I care????

Sent by mobile mail

Kimchi race

Qualifying now.....!!!!!!!!!

And right now it's too close to call.......

Sent by mobile mail

What bulb what bulb.....

Other than fringe brands like palladine, no one can beat LG on price....

So if 47 LED TV is about 2600 and 55 is 3200, which one is your choice?

Complicating the issue is a panasonic 50 plasma TV at 2900.....

How how how...????

Sent by mobile mail

Euro cheap

Indeed the offer is very good......

CSC3 at this price? Almost unbelievable......

Too bad it's not the right size for my car; I need 225/45-18 or 235/40-18......

But it's nice to see good deals....

free export....

"register concerns'..????

why not summon their ambassador for a dressing down....????

it's not funny at all when all of us have to suffer so that they can plant their crops...............
 

All at once

Bad things strike all at once....?????

First da phone

Then the subwoofer

Now the TV....????????

Now I need a new TV.......!!!!!!!!

Damn damn damn.....

What to buy this time? 55 abit too expensive....???? Maybe 50 is alright......

Sent by mobile mail

Wet fire

Serious accident spotted on ECP towards changi airport just before xilin ave exit....

Raining heavily but a car was burnt to bare metal with its head buried into central divider..!!!

Scary.!!

Sent by mobile mail

Murky

I wanted to go for a slow jog but when I knew the PSI was 80, there was only one ending: go home...!!!

Sent by mobile mail

white and white

a person said "white guys" are running asian airlines..... and that became an issue cos some people were offended....

but how much "white guys" running asian universities....... ok or not ok????
 

Bang bang

When I saw this scene I was quite amused.....

So the way to know if your car was backed in properly is to make sure you crush the traffic cone?

Home sweet home

On the way home with the MJ.....

one small part....

many people were hoping to win yesterday's toto prize of $1.5 million......

but to those who can spare $750 million, what is $1.5 m? it's really a joke to understand the difference between the 2.......

life is not quite the same, isnt it.......
 

One marque

Here's a 6N copper signal path.....

Power in: acrolink 4030 with oyaide 004 connectors

Signal in: acrolink 2110

Signal out: acrolink s-3000 & s-1010 with oyaide spades

never ending

when i upgraded to acrolink 2110 interconnect cables a few months ago, i had wanted them to stay for a long time...... switching cables back and forth is never my cup of tea and i seriously wanted something good at a reasonable price to accompany me for at least a few years.....

the 2110 certainly met my targets for price (about $300+) and performance ....  but i have heard so many good things about acrolink's better interconnect cables such as the 2400 (still 6N), 2070 (7N!) and 5000........

from my personal experience with their more expensive power and speaker cables, i am afraid the more expensive interconnect cables will spank the 2110...... at a price, of cos!!!

yeah yeah, it will never end cos there'a always something better .....

let's not get carried away......
 

counting the days....

very soon in a few days to come, i will complete 365 days without buying a watch......

is that an achievement? you bet..!!
 

Bargain bin

The one on the right is $3 and the other one $6......

Always happy to find a good bargain....

Back to the centre

Something in my head said to me I should rearrange everything...

Perhaps the previous setup wasn't ideal and the lingering doubts manifested itself as a small seed in my head which refuse to go away.....

It had to be done...... And now everything is on the symmetrical plane......

I am just going to let everything settle in in the days to come......

Our choice?

Not everything that's branded is the best ..... And so I thought I should give this a try....

Nescafe, Super, Cheong Aik, Old Town are all household names for White Coffee but you dun have to pay the premium prices cos this is pretty good.....

Most importantly it's very much cheaper than the rest...

CGH

Ah some construction is going on just outside my place and I can't park the car in the porch...

CGH = can't go home leh....

Sent by mobile mail

no joke....

many people are pissed off to know the bear suit was a stunt....

but then, it's hardly believable......

a bear that weights a few hundred pounds rummaging through a rubbish bin? how can that be taken seriously....????

it could have smashed the bin the pieces without breaking a sweat........ and which goondu bear would stand on 2 legs to sieve through a bin....???
 

infrequent exertion

ok, got the update after trying to call the service centre on 2 occasions today.....

according to the technician, the woofer mechanism is jammed and a replacement is required....

all for S$300 including parts, labour and GST....

OUCH....!!! and DAMN...!!

no face...

that mandate-less hypocritical murderer prime minister wants to help myanmar with their general elections when he cant win one in his homeland..????

sheessshhhhh, he's absolutely has no shame at all........
 

once in a while..

yesterday's dinner wasnt too healthy but i guess it's ok to feast once in a while:

cockles boiled

clams in chilli sauce

sting ray BBQ

squid in chilli sauce

mussels in chilli sauce

oyster omelette

satay

crayfish in chilli sauce

washed down with sugar cane drink and kirin beer.....

pretty satisfying......
 

Big guns

I like retro and this is an awesome piece even till today.....

triple attack.........

to make sure i wake up on time i depend on my usual triple attack....

1.        clock radio at 0557 hrs....

2.        phone alarm with snooze at 0600 hrs.....

3.        table clock with snooze at 0601 hrs........

yesterday i tried to do it by forgoing 1 and failed miserably ........ DAMN!

going elsewhere....

even though the MJ subwoofer is very well-built and performs pretty well, i didnt think it was comfortable trying to be a slamdunk LFE subwoofer...... competitors like SVS and velodyne may be more suitable for such a use........ i.e. dealing with cannon shots, big explosions and making all sorts of noise in movies.....

but i love it for its compact size and good looks...... and was also kinda attracted by its supposedly low frequency response: it could go lower than 20 Hz....... in practice, the living room is perhaps too big for the MJ to deal with.......

hope the repair will be short, swift and affordable......................
 

Rest well

Managed to send it in....

Started engine @ 1651 hrs

Reached Jalan Peminpin @ 1711 hrs

Dropped off the MJ

Head for home

Rest well my friend.....

Sent by mobile mail

Safe passage

Ok strapped in to go hospital after work....

Tune & tune

For troubleshooting I also tried running test tones to find out who was at fault.....

No matter what I did, all the bad noises came from the MJ subwoofer.....

:(

Looks like another repair bill is just a day away....

Tight & loose

There were odd noises from the subwoofer so I thought maybe I should tighten all the Allen bolts.....

It helped a bit but sadly couldn't solve the problem ..... Sigh I think this needs a trip to the hospital....

Damn.....

tiny bit....

within each shelf unit are 4 tiny little spikes that enables the owner to level the insulator boards.......

i kinda like the look of TAOC AS racks.....

quick and clean....

there was a pair of acrolink 2400 interconnects up for sale in extremeplace on saturday........

gone in a flash.....

maybe the $600 price is just too good to miss????

one fine day i must get my hands on either the 2070 or 5000 ........ one of the 7N interconnects to try......

Cutting job

Men hard at work cutting the wall plate......

Creeping forward

Again I managed to hit 11 km/l..... With similar driving patterns

Keep it up!!!!

Sent by mobile mail

Wait please

Biz so good for Aston's.....

Culprit....

Here is the culprit .... LCD panel!!

one by one....

it's always better to take things one step at a time especially when it comes to upgrades and improvements...... let it be your audio system, car and others......

maybe i was too anxious and too excited over the power enhancements...... so when i upgraded to a acrolink 6100 and oyaide wall base and plate in a span of 2 days, it was tough for me to discern which was doing what ....

but then, the jump in performance is kinda HUGE....

and seriously i am not complaining at all haha......

in between i found that someone had shifted my acoustic revive room conditioner... and after i placed it correctly, the full spectrum of magic came back.....

wait till sunday....

singapore is blazing hot right now....

but over in suzuka it's raining cats and dogs......

so too bad no qualifying today.....

TOO WET TOO WET.....

hard facts....

in life, not everyone can be the same.......

i dun think i wanna live to 90..... cos it's unlikely i will have enough money to last until 90.......

and if i am bedridden, i'd rather someone kill me.........

reading about how others suffer in old age makes me feel very vulnerable and upset......

just hope to die in peace and no pain..........
 

remote

i find that i dun "interact" with my x1 as much as i did with da iphone.............

cos i dun need water and harvest crops, clean building and collect coins, race other cars and so on......

da x1 is just a phone that's all....

da iphone is something else..............
 

Short but sweet

Catching a short nap after a day's work can be so sweet ..... Ahhhhh just the right moment to deflect some pain here & there.......

sent via sony x1

testing

Have to use the sony x1 while the iphone goes for a good rest.....

sent via sony x1

new face 2......

if you follow my audio journey regularly, you are no stranger to my previous set-up, namely the oyaide r1 outlet and a $25 aluminium wall plate........

joining the r1 from the wall to oyaide mtb-6 was an acrolink 4030 with 004 plugs..... which are just the normal stuff for a budget conscious audiophile.....

this went along for quite some time until i became curious about the oyaide WPC-Z base and wall plate....

the oyaide product is certainly jewellery-grade: superbly engineered for the audio enthusiast..... but dun ever let your wife know how much this piece of aluminium costs; i think she will be very annoyed ....!!

all along, matching the r1 with a piece of MIC wall plate wasnt my kind of match-made-in-heaven but then i had no choice.........

i wanna install a stout wall base but WPC-Z cannot fit onto a UK size 2 outlet AC box but what can i do???

mount a US size box ...?? i can do that but the in-wall wiring may not be long enough to reach the r1...... in addition i am reluctant to mess with the decor and those US outlets one can buy are quite bad when it comes to aesthetics...

unable to think of a simple and effective solution, i decided to KIV the idea until .... until i decided i really wanna do it......

fast forward to 2nd Oct 2010...... as i was sitting in a couch at x audio, pieces of the puzzle came to me ...... and as i was busy explaining my idea to ryan and swee, i became excited that it can be done.....!!! FINALLY!!!!!

so what do you need....????

firstly you'll need a $25 piece of wall plate as shown below........

after which you have to get a metal workshop to make a larger cut-out to fit the r1....

once this is done, the rest is straightforward ....... however, do note that the assembly is the reverse of what is usually done........

and please please remember to turn off the power to the room before doing anything else.....

then you will first mount this wall plate onto the wall........ followed by the oyaide base ....

important instruction: to ensure these 2 pieces are attached together tightly, 2 washers and nuts each are required...... these are used on the inside of the $25 wall plate........

dun worry about the screws as oyaide provides all of which are required......

once ok, it will look like this.....

final steps will be to connect the cables to the r1....... before you do that, you should apply your favourite contact cleaner and conditioner to all the bare wires and wire clamps....... this is very important..!!!

when the connections are tight (pls check and check and check ....!!!), you can fit the r1 into the base and tighten with 4 screws........

attach the carbon-plastic wall cover and YES..............!!!! job completed......... *AHHHHHH*

switch on the power from the circuit breaker and plug in da power cord....... for now the 6100 is my new KING......

if you have done everything right, you can sit back, relax and enjoy the music......

dun forget to congratulate yourself for a job well done....!!!

hope you like this update.......

ICU

my phone is officially in ICU....... although i cant classify this as water damage, it's obvious that water is present inside the phone.......

if i remember correctly, it more or less happened like this....

sunday afternoon 2 pm, used a wet finger to swipe the screen (certainly not the first time)......

3.30 pm, tried to take a pic but found the camera was fogged ......

4.30 pm, found the screen dead..... at that moment, i knew it's finished........... DAMN...

5 pm, phone rang?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh it was still working...!!!

7 pm, put the phone on the mio set top box to heat it up......

8 pm charged the phone.......

9 pm saw faint images on the screen........ ahhhh so the screen is working but it was all too faint........

today, still on a drying routine to see if the backlight can be resuscitated.....
 

new face....

from this.....

to this.......

how to do it...???

will let you know soon......

Read da sign?

Saw a BMW ..... Displaying parking coupon in a carpark which has Sunday free parking....

Read da sign la...

Sent by mobile mail

可爱鸡

Fans of 可爱鸡 can now find one outlet in bedok south hawker centre...!!!!!

Sent by mobile mail

Escape

How do you escape from a problem? Deal with it? Or how about deflecting it?

Recently I've been sleeping my problems away... Cos during sleep I can't feel a thing....

The problem is during work days I dun have the luxury of sleeping so much....

That's a real problem ...!!!!

Sent by mobile mail

Deposed.....

This is the creature that deposed the 4030 from the wall-to-distributor link......

Without wasting time, let me tell you the order of magnitude in improvement is not insignificant; in fact almost like day and night.....

What I got after 4 hours are

More extended high frequencies.....
More air.... Better and longer decay
More silence.... (amazing)
Deeper & more powerful bass....
Images become more dimensional ....
Soundstage is deeper and wider.....
More organic & natural presentation; voices & instruments are more lifelike......

End result = more music more enjoyment ....

Knocked out

Many people have told me that there's a big gap between the 4030 and it's bigger brothers and even though I believe them I could not plonk the cash down for a thicker bunch of 6N copper .....

Ok let me warn you, dun wanna buy then better not try..... My itch got the better of me and I now understand what all this meant..... Cos the 4030 got KO by the 6100.... Straight KO!!!!!!

Not even close....!!!!!!!

Front plate

This is an ordinary-looking aluminium front plate .....

But will be the basis of my upcoming project to match this with the oyaide front plate....

Stay tuned....

再见。

All gone...!!! Damn..!!!

Drool....!

Wilson Sasha...!!!! With pass labs amplifiers..!!!!!

I want.....!!!!!

Sent by mobile mail

Not here but there

OG is having a store-wide 20% discount sale.... But they didn't stock the latest Ferrari cap...

Too bad as isetan is offering 10% only.....

Sent by mobile mail

Back from the dark

Since my iphone is out of action I have to reactivate my sony x1.....

Hopefully the drying tips can save the apple....

sent via sony x1

Shorter

I switched to a retractable cable to keep things neat .... And it kinda looks cool in White ...