Colin

"Fledging Under Juicy Wing "I was also lucky enough," Ostby says, "to have another forum member Mark Deneen, Juicy Music Audio and Paragon Audio owner take me under his wing for a first few years that I was mostly playing with this gear as a hobby. Well as I worked on the gear, I posted what I was doing on the Klipsch forum and the next thing I knew I started getting request to restore them for other members…. it wasn’t long and it mushroomed into a full time business. I now have customers from every corner of the internet and the world." "Well honestly, I’d say," my greatest achievement, he said, is "making a full time successful business out of this for the last almost 13 years while keeping a stellar reputation." His typical turnaround time varies, but for the most part somewhere between three and five weeks. Ostby’s minimum bench fee is $125 for repairs, but he rarely does specific repairs like those mentioned above. "I don’t really charge by the hour. My labor charge for most vintage integrated amps is from $185 to $285. It just depends on the model. People rarely abandon or leave equipment, "when it does its usually because the cost of repair is beyond the gears worth or the part required to repair is just not available. I might have three or four abandoned projects on hand and they just sit waiting to see if the owner ever claims them. At some point I will have to just call them mine I guess. In most cases with gear, with say, bad transformers or something like that, the customer and I negotiate a reasonable price as a parts unit. I keep here for spare hard to find parts." Ostby's worst repair nightmares are "projects I take on are units sold on eBay advertised as "gone over by my tech" or worked on by a novice DIY type. Those unknown technician or novice DIY can do some really strange things under the hood and you often have to go over the units chasing down poor quality work. These situations can really hurt the schedule and bottom line when you do things as a package deal and not hourly.""

Refurbish Valves In Michigan I know Craig Ostby of NOSvalves in Michigan for over a decade on the Klipsch consumer forums. In the arcane world of tubes, New Old Stock refers to vintage tubes manufactured long ago but never used. Somehow, decades later, the supply of NOS tubes never seems to wear out. Valves is the British term for tubes. So NOSvalves means New Old Stock tubes. Ostby has an excellent reputation there for refurbishing vintage tube amplifiers. Ostby also makes the VRD amplifier with KT88 tubes (60 watts ultra-linear / 30 watts triode switchable). It is one of the best tube amplifiers I have ever heard on Big Ole Horn loudspeakers. He used to post a public queue for his repair jobs, but he no longer updates it. Nonetheless, the list is an excellent reference of vintage models. Ostby also has refurbished amplifiers for sale. Ostby works strictly on tube-based electronics, but he avoids certain kinds of limited repairs. Vintage units that either reached or are approaching the 50-year mark, he does "complete restoration/rebuild or I'd rather not get involved since doing any type of "fix what is broke" type work will just end up with both parties unhappy as the next 50-year old failure prone component fails." With more modern tube gear from the 1980's and up, he says he will do basic repairs. "My father learned from his father," Ostby grew up helping his father work on all types of tube based electronics. His father's favorite side line business was buying and refurbishing WW II era ham radios. His day job was electronic repair of all types of household appliances. "I helped him all through my formative years in both ventures. I kind of ventured away from the business/hobby for many years until I reached my 40's (2001 to be exact). At that time, just by chance, I stumbled into the Klipsch forum about a problem I was having with some Klipsch computer speakers and found many folks were using old tube based vintage integrated, preamps and tube power amps with Klipsch speakers. I knew I was capable of working on this stuff and decided to get one myself." http://enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0215/Breathe_New_Life_Into_Old_Gear.htm

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/1212/garber_fi_x4.htm For the golden elixir of musical nuances, for the roaring majesty of mountainous crescendos, for the exotic delicacy of female vocals, nothing comes as close to the joy and feeling of reality as the magical coupling of low-powered Single Ended Triode (SET) amplifiers and ultra-high efficiency horn loudspeakers. Horns love tubes! The combination is the pie and ice cream of practical audio nirvana.

Passive dual amplifiers! Tubes on top. Solid-state on bottom. I matched tube amplifiers with a 40-pound, Class A, solid-state amplifier rated at ten times more power. I use the delicious sounding tubes on the mid and high horns, with the cement amplifier on the bass bins. Maximum power at clipping on the Bottlehead Paramours is 6-watts. Clipping on the Pioneer M022 is 60-watts. I think this power ratio is important to balance loads in a passive dual amplifier configuration. Otherwise you get some nasty balancing issues, which are best resolved by an active crossover. Using active 3-way stereo crossovers however, is more expensive and tricky to get just right. Passive amplification with dual amplifiers sounds better for me, since the bass bins are driven by my massive Class A amplifier with excellent impedance control. Yet, I am NOT getting the full benefits of dividing the signal ahead of the amplifiers. It is more like driving my big ole horns with a sweet and powerful sounding 200-watt amplifier – at a quarter of the price.

bigger is better!

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0614/dana_cable_braided_onyx_speaker_cables.htm Gingko has a fascinating video on their site demonstrating the dampening factor of their slinky black Dana weave cables versus a typical thin big-box retail stereo cable! The demo shows a waveform as good as no cable at all between the amplifier and the loudspeaker. In addition to the visual proof on the scope, the video has a listening test too.

Some great plays! Overruled catches, jumping over the entire offensive/defensive line. Now there are four. Not sure if GB can beat Seahawks. If the Colts can stop Peyton Manning, can they also stop Belichec and Brady? Not sure who I favor now that my man is out of it.

posted https://www.facebook.com/pages/Big-Ole-Horns/142663002431283?ref=bookmarks

Too Much Coffee I was addicted to coffee. Probably my own fault. When I was married, my wife was a little coffee hound, despite her high blood pressure and sleepless nights. I researched how to make good coffee. Used a water filter. Got the beans. Got a oval grinder. Made it fresh every day. Delicious. But I got headaches, stomach aches, nasty and cravings if I didn’t have a cup every morning. My mother’s and restaurant coffee made me sick; didn’t seem to be strong enough! Felt like my body was rejecting it. Then I got headaches, stomachaches, jitters, nauseousness and diarrhea when I did drink mine! I was working at Applied Bank in Boca Raton when the planes hit the Twin Towers on 9/11. The bank treated everybody like cheap phone slaves in a call center, even professional programmers and Tech Writers. It charged for coffee. Something no business should do. I decided that taking a break, walking down a floor and paying for it was a good time to quit. I think I had to talk an aspirin or two every day for a while for the headaches. I know I gained weight with the munchies. Switching to tea helped. Now I can have a cup with no problems. Two makes me jittery again. Coffee & Ice Cream DietWhen I was young, I had one of the worst possible diets. If I was one pound over weight that day. I would run out the door, grabbing a cup of hot coffee to drink on the cold commute. Grinding my own fresh beans was the single greatest increase in my coffee drinking experience. The coffee broke my overnight fast, gave me something to digest and energy for the busy day. I skipped lunch and sipped cold coffee through the day. Filled up with fluids. At night, I might have a dinner later, but first I grabbed something quick, easy, cold, smooth and creamy. That’s right, ice cream. Always tasty, always fun to eat, ice cream cut my cravings. I’d go easy on the big late night dinner (no time left for late night exercise). I’d drop a pound that day (probably expulsion of roughage as much as anything else). The girlfriend out of town recently. She doesn’t like coffee or ice cream snacks. So I revert back to short-term bad habits. Drop a few pounds. Turns out, ice cream is one of the 10 lowest glycemic foods! A diet of narrow food choices is NOT healthy – the widest diversity and selection is best for nutrition and taste - but as a short-term fix to start losing weight, The Coffee and Ice Cream Diet gets me started down the path. Favorite ice cream? Hagen Daz Swiss Vanilla Almond, with coconut flakes and chocolate chips, topped with whipped cream

I think they are getting too picky about whether not he caught the ball or not! He got the ball. He brought it down to the ground. That's enough for me. http://www.businessinsider.com/dez-bryant-catch-2015-1

the Colts shut down the Broncos passing game! Any talk of the world's greatest living quarterback retiring is premature.

Mannig vs his old team and successor! http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2319132-nfl-divisional-schedule-2015-dates-times-afc-and-nfc-matchup-preview?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=programming-national2

12/31/2014: Seahawks number one! Really? World’s greatest living QB at number four! Five teams at 12 and four. Four at 11 and five. Local Bucs in the basement of course. http://espn.go.com/nfl/powerrankings

haven't heard much of "Omaha" this year! Or the highe leg up before the pass... Patriots, Broncos and Cardinals are 10 and 3 http://www.nfl.com/standings

although football is a long three-hour game, I do appreciate watching the world’s greatest living quarterback, Peyton Manning, still in the game. Last night the Broncos mostly ran a ground game against the KC Chiefs (old Texans), otherwise it looked as if the Bronocs cold run away with the score. The Packers though stopped the Patriots! Painful though to watch the hapless Jets against the incompetent Dolphins. Like watching inapt college ball.

besides you can always replace them with Avantgarde horns for only $10K!

11/23/2014: Peyton made it look like neither Broncos or Dolphins had defense. Nice to see Dolphins have a chance against any team when they were so hopeless before. Brady and Patriots still look tight.

Oiling your cabinets https://www.facebook.com/notes/big-ole-horns/oil-your-speaker-cabinets/519385028104224

In the northern US, the low humidity of cold winters dries out wood, ruining the sheen and eventually cracking it. Old steam and hot water radiators contribute to the problem, sweating out what little moisture there is in the air with condensation. Most commonly recommended is a quarterly rubdown with furniture OIL to nourish the wood; NOT furniture polish to merely dust it. In the southern US, high temperatures and high humidity rate - both over 90, Fahrenheit and percent - combine to create scalding heat indexes over 100F. Sensitive wood designs are protected with an annual rubdown of lemon or tung furniture oil.

After Denver's Week 11 dud in St. Louis and Kansas City's dramatic victory over Seattle, the division rivals are tied at 7-3. Are the Broncos, No. 1 here just three weeks ago, still superior in the eyes of ESPN's Power Panel (a group of more than 80 writers, editors and TV personalities)? Yes, but not by much. https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/forum/29-2-channel-home-audio/

Arizona is rolling! (9 and 1) Brady looks good too!

I heard, but have not seriously auditioned, yet!, Craig’s new VRD amps. (http://www.nosvalves.com/vrd.htm) They are just as good as the Deltas and the powerful Quads I heard at DaddyDee’s Klipsch gathering in Arkansas (now five years ago)!

are Cardinals the second best team? Really? http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000426649/article/nfl-power-rankings-week-11-browns-49ers-fly-up-the-board?campaign=Facebook_writers_harrison Eagles number 4?

Khorn Bass is lean and accurate I use a PASSIVE bi-amplifier arrangement with a low-power (rated for 22-watts, peaks at 60) Class A solid-state monster powering the bass bins and 2A3 tubes (rated for 3-watts, peaks at six) powering the mid and upper range horns. The cross-over sounds a full range signal to the bass bins, but eliminates the bass from the metal horns. His give my bass a solid feel. I also use a steep 24-dB slope dual crossover on a 1,500-peak Class A/B sub-woofer.