Just sharing what kept me busy during the holidays.
THE SOURCEThe plinth of my new toy. It measures 18 in x 20 ins. I didn't want to buy new veneer so I ended up doing a 2-tone (oak/ebony). I used 6 layers of marine plywood on this one.
This is a vintage Pioneer belt-driven transcription table. The platter weighs a respectable 5 pounds. I had speed problem with this one. I couldn't adjust the speed electronically, so, I just filed the pulley until I got the right speed. Thanks to Doc Angelo for lending me his speed checker. I can imagine the horror getting the speed right by ear. I greased the platter bearing, replaced the old belt and it easily beat my AR XA tt.
While going through my wood stash, I found an old Dao block. Saan ko kaya pwedeng gamitin ito? It ended replacing the metal speed selector casing. Custom headshell with matching arm stand and a narra ashtray with brass weight as my stabilizer. I also repainted the chassis to metallic grey.
THE HARDWAREAfter a long long time (my fault here), I finally got hold of this EL34 parallel SET from my tukayo Tony Tecson. My Motorola tube amp had to take the backseat for the meantime.
As usual, I had to do something with the look. This is solid oak. Nice grain.
THE ROOMI think I finally got the right combination of acoustic treatment for my room.
This diffuser made a big difference with the SQ of my system. It is a Stepped Diffractal (stepfractal) designed by Tim Perry. Scattering starts at 125hz, diffuse at 450hz and the high frequency cutoff is 20087hz.
The micro cells on top of each well is what made this diffuser hit 20khz. I made 5 modules arranged/mounted in different heights. It measures 4 feet x 7 feet. It was complicated to build, but, it's worth the effort.
All of these made this Xmas holidays the best I've had.