FEBRUARY 2006
Groundhog Day has come and gone and I have gotten nothing onto the web
site. I feel like I’ve been as busy as your proverbial beaver for the past
month yet have actually accomplished very little. It’s been frustrating.
A good deal of January has been spent experimenting with some speaker
stand designs for the JBL L110 speakers that reside in the living room
system. This is in anticipation of doing some critical listening to my Eico HF-
81 through them. The Eico is also in the process of being upgraded with
some new parts. Neither project has gone as planned while using up a great
deal more time than I had expected.
I have been experimenting with several different cheap speaker stand
designs. While this has resulted in some stands that I think will work well for
my needs, it didn’t result in the article for the web site that I had hoped it
would. I was searching for a way to make some stands with minimal tools
and expense in minimal time. The results have been mixed. It’s something I
may revisit but a lot of time was spent not getting any results worth writing
about.
The Eico article bogged down with just trying to find the parts I needed. I
went through this amp about twelve to thirteen years ago and thought it
was time to see what more could be done with it. I was able to find a fair
number of the parts I need locally but had to mail order a number of
others. I am ready, however, to get soldering and I hope to have
something to relate fairly soon. The surprise for me was finding that this is
a hot amp, at least at the moment, to upgrade and use. I’ve been very
pleased with mine over the years and I hope to get it sounding even better.
We’ll see how the soldering goes.
I also have to confess that I also spent a fair amount of time on the poor
man’s HDTV setup this past week. I bought a used Direct TV tuner box with
the intention of getting free HD programming via my roof antenna. On the
whole, it has worked out really well. I ended up buying a new antenna (of
course), a toslink switching box, and a couple of toslink cables to make
everything work. Even with my pitifully small 32-inch 480i TV set, the Super
Bowl looked incredible*, which I guess says as much about how horrible
basic cable quality is as it does about how good the TV can look at its
maximum resolution. I wanted a picture as good as DVD quality and I’ve
been able to get it, at least for the majority of the network programming. (I
actually get four digital PBS stations now that are not available any other
way.) While I would like a larger screen for watching letter-boxed movies, I’
m inclined to wait out the next three years just watching DVDs and OTA
programming while waiting for all-digital programming to actually arrive. At
least now I can watch CSI in high-def.
Thanks for checking out my site.
Kent Johnson
February 6, 2006
*Ironically, the only way to see the Super Bowl in HD in St. Louis yesterday
was via a roof antenna. Due to a dispute between the local ABC affiliate and
Charter Cable, Charter could not rebroadcast the HD signal unless they
wanted to pay for it, which they did not. I feel for all the rich people who
spent big bucks on shiny new HD TVs for SB XL and then got stuck with a
crappy low-definition picture. Just kidding, no I don’t.
Groundhog Day has come and gone and I have gotten nothing onto the web
site. I feel like I’ve been as busy as your proverbial beaver for the past
month yet have actually accomplished very little. It’s been frustrating.
A good deal of January has been spent experimenting with some speaker
stand designs for the JBL L110 speakers that reside in the living room
system. This is in anticipation of doing some critical listening to my Eico HF-
81 through them. The Eico is also in the process of being upgraded with
some new parts. Neither project has gone as planned while using up a great
deal more time than I had expected.
I have been experimenting with several different cheap speaker stand
designs. While this has resulted in some stands that I think will work well for
my needs, it didn’t result in the article for the web site that I had hoped it
would. I was searching for a way to make some stands with minimal tools
and expense in minimal time. The results have been mixed. It’s something I
may revisit but a lot of time was spent not getting any results worth writing
about.
The Eico article bogged down with just trying to find the parts I needed. I
went through this amp about twelve to thirteen years ago and thought it
was time to see what more could be done with it. I was able to find a fair
number of the parts I need locally but had to mail order a number of
others. I am ready, however, to get soldering and I hope to have
something to relate fairly soon. The surprise for me was finding that this is
a hot amp, at least at the moment, to upgrade and use. I’ve been very
pleased with mine over the years and I hope to get it sounding even better.
We’ll see how the soldering goes.
I also have to confess that I also spent a fair amount of time on the poor
man’s HDTV setup this past week. I bought a used Direct TV tuner box with
the intention of getting free HD programming via my roof antenna. On the
whole, it has worked out really well. I ended up buying a new antenna (of
course), a toslink switching box, and a couple of toslink cables to make
everything work. Even with my pitifully small 32-inch 480i TV set, the Super
Bowl looked incredible*, which I guess says as much about how horrible
basic cable quality is as it does about how good the TV can look at its
maximum resolution. I wanted a picture as good as DVD quality and I’ve
been able to get it, at least for the majority of the network programming. (I
actually get four digital PBS stations now that are not available any other
way.) While I would like a larger screen for watching letter-boxed movies, I’
m inclined to wait out the next three years just watching DVDs and OTA
programming while waiting for all-digital programming to actually arrive. At
least now I can watch CSI in high-def.
Thanks for checking out my site.
Kent Johnson
February 6, 2006
*Ironically, the only way to see the Super Bowl in HD in St. Louis yesterday
was via a roof antenna. Due to a dispute between the local ABC affiliate and
Charter Cable, Charter could not rebroadcast the HD signal unless they
wanted to pay for it, which they did not. I feel for all the rich people who
spent big bucks on shiny new HD TVs for SB XL and then got stuck with a
crappy low-definition picture. Just kidding, no I don’t.
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