June 28, 2004

make some noise

One of my new speakers is finally near completion. The french polishing took FOREVER, 10hours or more. Right now the crossover is hooked up wtih alligator clips and draped over the piano bench. Very ghetto, I know. So far I absolutely love the Morel MDT20 tweeter. The word pure comes to mind . . . As for the rest of the speaker, I like it, but am not sure if I'm done with the crossover. The speaker sounds a little forward in the 1khz region. Also, the vertical off-axis response seems a little spottier that I thought it was going to be. Keep in mind my testing consisted of me moving my head up and down. Other than that, all I can say for sure is that the vifa midranges are very detailed and with a few more tweaks, these speakers are going to sound very nice in a small room.
speeek.jpg

Posted by mrpibb at 5:24 PM | Comments (0)

Sunday

I got my butt out and onto the saddle this sunday. I had the cubs game crankin' while I was pedaling. Why is it that the cubs always play horribly against the whitesox? Anywho, I rode to Batavia/Geneva and back again (48miles). One of these weekends when I have some time I'm going to go VP->Aurora->St. Charles-VP. While I was out, I unknowingly got into a race with another guy. Well, not really unknowingly, but unexpectedly. I passed him in Geneva as I started heading back east. About 5 miles after I passed him I started slowing to take a swig of gatorade. zZOOMm He rockets right past me. I could tell he had sped up considerably to pass me; it's kind of a tough-guy thing to do. I'd have done it too :) So I followed him at a reasonable distance for another 5 miles or so. He wasn't very good on the climbs. As we entered West Chicago I started riding his tire. He seemed kinda peaved. I took a short cut I knew and ended up 30ft in front of him. Then HE took a different shortcut and passed me. By this time we were in downtown WestChicago. He started blowing through red lights. I chose not to. I was behind by a quarter of a mile or so but that didn't matter. I kept up a good cadence and eventually caught him again at Geneva Rd. and County Farm Rd., but alas, he saw me and went through that light too. I gave up right there. Too much chasing. Hopefully he'll be out next weekend. Maybe I'll bust out my road bike (he was on a road bike).

Posted by mrpibb at 5:09 PM | Comments (0)

June 21, 2004

always more

I've always wanted one, but for the last week or so it's been driving me nuts. I'm talking about a motorcycle. I'm not sure why I want one or what kind exactly, but gimme, gimme, gimme! I'd probably stick to a Japanese made bike (ie Honda or Yamaha but no Suzuki). Right now I'm a big yamaha fan. They make amplifiers too! anywho, I can't decide if I want a super-sport touring bike or just a super-sport bike. I came across this picture of a Yamaha R1 and decided I definitely want a straight-up super-sport. And none of this R6 crap, gotta be an R1.

here's the pic
wallpaper_mcy_04_fz6_blu_5_800_zz.jpg

Posted by mrpibb at 4:26 PM | Comments (6)

June 19, 2004

like glass

So I started my french polishing. My test board came out really bad. The shellac wouldn't adhere to a large spot on the mahogany. Nonetheless, I started polishing the back of one of my speakers. The same problem was happening. The shellac wasn't sticking to a couple of spots. I changed my rubbing technique and voila, the wood started to shine! There's two more processes of polishing to go, but so far everything looks very promising. A few rough spots remain, but most of the wood is smooth as glass.

Here's a picture:
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Posted by mrpibb at 4:03 PM | Comments (0)

June 13, 2004

SSSun Burn

I finally got a REAL ride in this year. I went from VP to Batavia up to Geneva and back to VP. At some point I'm gonna try going from VP to Aurora to Elgin and back to VP. I'll save that for a little later in the season :). Nothing really interesting happened during the ride. Oh, what the heck is with the ladies between the ages of 17 and 23? What do they do? Probably everything that I don't. The only ladies out riding bikes today were either too young or too old. Grrrr

Today's stats:
Distance 47.7miles
time ~3h20
avg ~14.5mph
note: I bought a cheap ass cycling computer ($8) so it doesn't have all the fancy features that my other computer has.


Here's a picture from last week when I was in Aurora.
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Posted by mrpibb at 7:29 PM | Comments (0)

June 10, 2004

Riding the tube

the tube tester is up and running! Well, kinda. A light, which acts as a fuse, has burned out. But anywho, the massive box of tubes in my room will be sold soon via e-bay. Apparently tube testers are selling for ~$500 on ebay! I don't think we'll (dave and I) sell ours though. The testers are really hard to come by now adays. Besides, I'm probably going to be constructing some tube amps down the road.

I started piecing together the other speaker. Man, one of the boards is really warped. I had to clamp it down crazy style. Hopefully the glue will hold. I've been trying to research 2.5-way speaker designs, but I haven't been able to find much info. I guess I'll just have to model the thing out on the computer and then test it by listening and maybe if I get my jig built, I can measure it. It shouldn't bee too hard (the 2.5-way design). I think it'll work out well because of the reduced number of passive components.

Here's a pick of the tube tester. OOooh that's a lot of knobs.

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Posted by mrpibb at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)

June 8, 2004

who's ashamed?

so why doesn't america get it's bitch ass out of the middle east and help some people who really want our help? (ie Africa) it's fucking sick seeing what is happening in Sudan right now and how America hasn't stepped in at all. BBC reports that an estimated 250,000 people are dead do to the ethnic cleansing that is happening in Sudan and that's just within the last month or so!!! i'm not usually so vocal about human rights, which is sad I know, but talk about looking after our own interests. if we're going to pretend like we care about Iraqis then we shouldn't make it so obvious that we're looking after our own interests. if Bush doesn't do something soon, I'm going to have to say that he is, by quite a marging, the worst president ever when it comes to dealing with foreign affairs. he's a disgrace, really, to what America should stand for.

Posted by mrpibb at 10:36 PM | Comments (1)

June 5, 2004

transcendental riding

I just read this post on a forum and thought it was a great description of what happens during long, continuous and repetitive exercise.

"Zoning out- letting my eyes relax to a lazy, drunken type of state. Something becomes clearer this way. Forgetting about the spin, just letting the spin happen. Purposefully losing awareness. Clearing the perceived understanding of the moment, and replacing it with a void. Senses aren't either emanating from me or being absorbed by me. They are simply hovering there, just outside of my realm. The tension on my muscles loosen, creating a fluid essence to my body. I am no longer an entity traveling about through time and space, but have become that time and space like hydrogen and oxygen become water. I am the green when my previous yellow aura and the blue of the world are mixed together with the finger paints of a child. A truly innocent human yet uncorrupted by the convention of truth. Truth to her is the tree, not the scientific name of the tree. A good time playing with her neighbor. Riding her bike down the path, not to get somewhere, but just to ride. Petting her dog, because he is her friend... In a few years she will be taught what is important, and the world to her will become nothing more than a categorized succession of truths. Realities which she doesn't need to understand, but only needs to accept. Right now, though, she is finger painting, and that is all that matters...

Bike lane blurring underneath. A comfortable hum, a breeze, a smile on my face all at once. An air that becomes the ground, the ground a cloud. A whisper that started nowhere, but heading in all directions. It said to me, as I said to it: Be.
A young man a child again. A young man everything. Peacefulness riding with me as I breath in, turn the crank, and be."
- gonesh9

Posted by mrpibb at 10:03 PM | Comments (1)

June 4, 2004

Today's ride

pedaled aroung fermilab and batavia today. I'm going out riding sunday with some guys from work. Hopefully I don't get dropped too soon :)
today's stats

time: 1:38
distance: 26.89m
avg: 16.3mph
max: 26.5mph

Posted by mrpibb at 9:42 PM | Comments (0)

June 3, 2004

M-M-M-Moped

How come it seems like there's never enough hours in a day. . . I finally brought the moped out for this year. VVvvrooom. Took it on over to Al's Hobby Shop to get some Klotz 20% castor oil. The bottle says don't use with oil injection systems. Hmmm...
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On a side note, I've started reading "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". I must say that the classical french authors that I've read (Leroux, Hugo and Dumas) rock socks. I have a hypothesis that France's culture has been all downhill since WWI. I dunno, it's just that I haven't heard any great things about the French in a long ass time. The history of France and the French people is definitely noteworthy, but as of late there hasn't been much coming out of France.

Posted by mrpibb at 8:51 PM | Comments (3)

June 1, 2004

dirt machine

well the picture doesn't do the dirt justice. It really looked nasty.
dscf0143.jpg

Posted by mrpibb at 6:32 PM | Comments (3)

New Speakers!

Well, here's my new speaker project. It's no where near done, but I have high hopes. This is going to be the first speaker that I've totally designed by myself. I'm using mahogony to build the enclosure (uh-oh!) because I want to use a french polish as the finish. I've never tried a french polish before. . . I'm off to work.
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Posted by mrpibb at 6:31 AM | Comments (1)