Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mansaxel]

New arrival, Fluke 8022B.

Straight out of the (OK) packaging, switch on, comes to life (display is pristine), onto the 100Ω Norma reference resistor; reads 100,2Ω not compensated for cables; check with cables shorted produces 0,2Ω.

Yeah, that's why one buys Fluke. This one cost 20€ plus 6€ shipping.

I'll take it out to the bench and compare it to my other meters after dinner, testing for voltage and current.

[Cerebus]

I recently purchased a broken Datron 4700 calibrator... it hasn’t arrived yet.... I keep checking the tracking, even though I need to pay tax on it at customs first...

It's turned up and he's teasing his subscribers as to what's in the box:

We can but hope:

[Saskia]

@nixiefreqq I have a perfectly useable stereo system here for you.

T+A TMR80 transmission line speakers
Sony TA-E 86 preamp (or a Burmester as an alternative)
Nakamichi PA5 power amp
a CD Player
a Denon DP47 turntable

Why buy CL when you can buy locally ? 

@Med
If I may offer a wee bit of advice.
Take some Streacom or similar case with an external PSU and a Pico PSU (or similar
get a SlotIN DVD drive (12.7 mm, not ultraslim)
complement it with suitable mainboard (PM me)  (make sure it has a TOSLINK-Port)
shove in a 4GB stick and an SSD
Hook up a Cambridge Audio DACMagic 100 via TOSLink and connect that to your Amp
Load Daphile onto the small computer
Hook up ethernet, point your web browser to the address on screen
Calibrate your drive, then start ripping your CDs

Once done, you have: a decent library with lossless encoded CDs plus an internet radio with high quality PB.

[Cerebus]

"Ignore it". I wish I could. Trust me, I've looked for a user ignore function but the blog doesn't have one.

Perhaps you need to be an engineer to find it.

[Specmaster]

Thats not a bad setup, but I can think of a better setup that would greatly improve the overall sound and ease of use and take up considerably less space.

If that was mine, I give serious consideration to replacing the Sansui A990, the BSR EQ-3000, the Pioneer VSX3800 and the AV Link switch with a decent AV  amplifier that provide all of that in one unit, or even including the Technics ST-K55 tuner by the addition of a AV receiver which would leave you the dipole antenna. AV Receiver, B&K 2120, TVC XL-M409, front, rear and subwoofer speakers.

[nixiefreqq]

There are no limits on  anti-pattern designs on support, RMA and contact pages on many manufacturers, I sometimes got amazed of the incredible evil creativity, is there some kind of anti-repair, anti-customer  course teached nowadays in universities 

Support and after-sales activities are seen as cost centers, not as brand image enhancers. Some 15 years ago, I was facing the same simple problem, twice, with different manufacturers in the telco space:

• How many amps does this device draw from the -48V DC plant? 
  

(I was at the time working at an academic data center and we had stuff from everywhere in our rooms, to facilitate internetworking in acacdemia. It was not unusual to have machines turn up that were paid for by a foreign grant, that required power and networking. So we seldomly had a relation to the vendor, which is important to the continued story.)

• Manufacturer 1, Cisco, was easy. Googling "[device name] installation manual" gave a link leading to the full HTML installation manual with everything down to connector part numbers at various distributors detailed. Took all of 2 minutes to figure out.
• Manufacturer 2, Tellabs, was impossible. Web site was cryptic and circular to navigate, full of abstract sales phrases and login boxes. There was a form one could fill in requesting documentation access. So I did that.
  
  And waited.
  
  Three months later, I got a curt e-mail stating "You are not a customer. You will have no access."
  

Now, which vendor do you think I'd like to recommend?

my experience may have been overcome by events, but tellabs was one of the best for documentation.

back in the day when i used to put lots of their line conditioning stuff on BOMs, it only took one call and they would always send whatever you asked for.

it may have helped that my mailing address was always an official one..........like "camp swampy" or "ft lots-o-tanks". 

but i was never actually the customer because we almost never ordered the BOM.  some far away garrison or unit log guy i never met usually did the purchase.  sometimes the guy on the phone asked when he could expect an order....but mostly not.

my bookshelf was always crowded with tellabs 3 ring binders.

ymmv

[Saskia]

Tea-related:

any of you have a dead DSOX 2* from Keysight to harvest for 2 frontends and a few crunchie chips ?

[tonyalbus]

While not have been looking at this setup specificly... so no comment on that.
i am alway so supprized that people use an tuner/amplifier as an av station...
they use an aplifier to switch the Video and Audio... i never got that.
my big amp in the living... just switches audio... my tv has all the hdmi inputs for video.
using the fiber output of the TV to the amp, i get the feedback audio to the amp, when the amp is switched to tv.
i think you need the seperate audio and video, but i am very old school.
it works very nice with the Onkyo Amp and desent Jamo's... for my standarts.

[nixiefreqq]

@nixiefreqq I have a perfectly useable stereo system here for you.

T+A TMR80 transmission line speakers
Sony TA-E 86 preamp (or a Burmester as an alternative)
Nakamichi PA5 power amp
a CD Player
a Denon DP47 turntable

Why buy CL when you can buy locally ? 

@Med
If I may offer a wee bit of advice.
Take some Streacom or similar case with an external PSU and a Pico PSU (or similar
get a SlotIN DVD drive (12.7 mm, not ultraslim)
complement it with suitable mainboard (PM me)  (make sure it has a TOSLINK-Port)
shove in a 4GB stick and an SSD
Hook up a Cambridge Audio DACMagic 100 via TOSLink and connect that to your Amp
Load Daphile onto the small computer
Hook up ethernet, point your web browser to the address on screen
Calibrate your drive, then start ripping your CDs

Once done, you have: a decent library with lossless encoded CDs plus an internet radio with high quality PB.

thanks!   will ask the same question i just asked the guy with those 3 nasa nixie counters.

is local pickup available?

(he said yes)

[Cerebus]

Now, which vendor do you think I'd like to recommend?

Juniper.


 

Nope. I got something of the 'type 2' response type when I was trying to set up a Juniper support account a ways back. I create unique emails for everybody who asks for one for an on-line account, that way I can trace leaks, breaches and so on (Called 'traitor tracing' in the TLA world.), and no account shares credentials with another account - basic good security practice. Juniper declined creating the account claiming that 'juniper@<mydomain>' was a group email address. I explained that it wasn't, why it wasn't, why I wasn't going to use my personal email as a login credential in multiple places and got into an email discussion involving a succession of claims like this:

Please be advised that your account is currently in "Declined" status in our system due to mis-match information.

As I confirmed, the email address juniper@<your domain> is a group email account.

Each time I tired to get it into their thick heads that (1) they were wrong, (2) they were in no position to "confirm" anything I got the same stock phrase back:

As I confirmed, the email address juniper@<your domain> is a group email account.

In the end I gave them a piece of my mind, pointed out that it was very stupid of them to piss off someone with the power to make purchasing recommendations in their rôle consulting to <huge telco>.com went off and created a unique email @<huge telco>.com with autoforwarding and created the account with that. They have been on my shitlist ever since as a consequence - that kind of mindless, self-satisfied intransigence is not a quality I want in any vendor that I might have to rely on.

And today, it bites them in the arse again as I share my story with another group of people who will factor it into their purchasing decisions.

[Cubdriver]

thanks!   will ask the same question i just asked the guy with those 3 nasa nixie counters?

is local pickup available?

(he said yes)

I was contemplating throwing a bid at those, but really shouldn't as I have too much of a repair queue already.  If you're thinking about going for them, then I know they'll go to a good home and will refrain.  Good luck!

-Pat

[med6753]

Thats not a bad setup, but I can think of a better setup that would greatly improve the overall sound and ease of use and take up considerably less space.

If that was mine, I give serious consideration to replacing the Sansui A990, the BSR EQ-3000, the Pioneer VSX3800 and the AV Link switch with a decent AV  amplifier that provide all of that in one unit, or even including the Technics ST-K55 tuner by the addition of a AV receiver which would leave you the dipole antenna. AV Receiver, B&K 2120, TVC XL-M409, front, rear and subwoofer speakers.

That Pioneer VSX-3800 is an A/V Receiver and my original set up had it pretty much in the configuration you are suggesting and I wasn't happy with it. It has too many fiddly functions and I didn't want "surround sound" or "theater mode" and all this other assorted stuff. So for me separate components with a simple high power 2 channel amp driving the front speakers is a much better solution. And delegate the A/V unit to support in the background. 

[nixiefreqq]

thanks!   will ask the same question i just asked the guy with those 3 nasa nixie counters?

is local pickup available?

(he said yes)

I was contemplating throwing a bid at those, but really shouldn't as I have too much of a repair queue already.  If you're thinking about going for them, then I know they'll go to a good home and will refrain.  Good luck!

-Pat

have not actually made up my mind about them.   for one thing.....they are not hp.

2 hours 12 minutes.   107 miles.  right on the edge of being tempting.

6 days to decide.

[Cerebus]

There are no limits on  anti-pattern designs on support, RMA and contact pages on many manufacturers, I sometimes got amazed of the incredible evil creativity, is there some kind of anti-repair, anti-customer  course teached nowadays in universities 

Support and after-sales activities are seen as cost centers, not as brand image enhancers. Some 15 years ago, I was facing the same simple problem, twice, with different manufacturers in the telco space:

• How many amps does this device draw from the -48V DC plant? 
  

(I was at the time working at an academic data center and we had stuff from everywhere in our rooms, to facilitate internetworking in acacdemia. It was not unusual to have machines turn up that were paid for by a foreign grant, that required power and networking. So we seldomly had a relation to the vendor, which is important to the continued story.)

• Manufacturer 1, Cisco, was easy. Googling "[device name] installation manual" gave a link leading to the full HTML installation manual with everything down to connector part numbers at various distributors detailed. Took all of 2 minutes to figure out.
• Manufacturer 2, Tellabs, was impossible. Web site was cryptic and circular to navigate, full of abstract sales phrases and login boxes. There was a form one could fill in requesting documentation access. So I did that.
  
  And waited.
  
  Three months later, I got a curt e-mail stating "You are not a customer. You will have no access."
  

Now, which vendor do you think I'd like to recommend?

Every time something like this comes up I'm reminded of my first encounter with an HP Sales Engineer. I had a requirement for several bits of TE. This was in pre-internet days so a phone call to HP was in order. The requirements were sufficiently "needs discussing" that they made an appointment for a Sales Engineer to come and visit me.

Long story short: Some of my requirements were poorly met by HP equipment, the Sales Engineer -without hesitation- admitted so and recommended some competitors models to look at for those requirements. Some of my requirements were no problem, and the Sales Engineer fixed up a deal for me to purchase an ex-demo logic analyser (forget the exact model now) complete with 80286 and 80386 emulator modules. Something like a £10k value deal sorted out and agreed in an hour because the Sales Engineer's attitude gave me the confidence to believe his assessment that the LA would meet my needs - it did - and the confidence that I'd be treated decently if there were any problems.

Every salesman that I've had to deal with on my own side has been told that tale (the long version, with illustrations in crayon) in an effort to try and persuade them of the value of not trying to sell our product at all costs when it's not what the customer needs. "Giving away" a sale can be in your own interests, it leads people to trust you and make you the first port of call next time they have a requirement, even if you didn't make a sale this time around.

[Saskia]

@med

have a look at the recommended audio streamer setup. It is veeeeerry convenient.

[med6753]

You've got some decent brute force there between those two receivers and the sub; a proper DTS/THX decoder would make the soundstage come alive. Also would help stop beating up your sub with frequencies too high for it to handle; most of those speaker-level inputs are at best a 6dB/octave filter.

Also, you're making me miss my old forgotten Pioneer iron, dammit. 



mnem
*toddles off towards Kijiji to do some penance*

The subwoofer is set to 120Hz max and seems to deal with what's thrown at it with no issues. it's clean and not muddy. 

[mnementh]

Hoo boy. I am stayin' oot of this one.

My HT/Audio tastes are too exotic for the one side, and my current near-zero tolerance for assache makes my present setup entirely too plebian for t'other.

No way I can say anything more than I've already said and still be "constructive". 

mnem

[med6753]

@med

have a look at the recommended audio streamer setup. It is veeeeerry convenient.

I will, thanks. 

[Saskia]

@Cerebus just got a phone call from someone who wanted to buy a PC. I told him that I am selling off my surplus PC test/eval equipment and that my stuff has been slightly used. Then I asked him what he wanted it for to assess if the stuff I had was suitable and sufficient for his requirements.

He said that part was a completely new experience for him.

[Cerebus]

Also, there are other factors at play, like the absence of any real activity in the marketplace for TEA items, by that I mean, there is a shortage of gear on the market on eBay etc, and what is there is so often way overpriced for what it is, so there is often little to discuss as a result.

Argghhhh! And don't I know it. Nothing, like nothing, that I might be interested has shown up all year, and what little has, has been at stupid prices.

I'm now going to go off and cry into my beer   cold cup of coffee...

[mnementh]

@Cerebus just got a phone call from someone who wanted to buy a PC. I told him that I am selling off my surplus PC test/eval equipment and that my stuff has been slightly used. Then I asked him what he wanted it for to assess if the stuff I had was suitable and sufficient for his requirements.

He said that part was a completely new experience for him.

What... asking what he needs instead of telling him...?

You are a proper paradigm-breaker with that attitude, you are! No room for your type in modern commerce.

mnem
Please, do carry on.

[Cerebus]

Juniper is what everyone who has been burned by all the other vendors seems to settle on. It's like the old F5 load balancers. Everyone starts being sold F5 until people realise what a shit show it is. This is followed by nginx after which they discover they need a commercial feature and it'll cost them a chunk of liver. Then everyone settles on haproxy and the world is good. Then some new CIO comes in and sells you AWS with some dubious commercial advantage coming from confusing opex and capex and the next thing you know you're terraforming up ALBs for 5 hours a day while Bezos harvests your bonus to make space dicks with.

(having a bad day  )

The thing mentioned above which had led me to need a Juniper support account all of my own was battling with F5 load balancers. 

[med6753]

Hoo boy. I am stayin' oot of this one.

My HT/Audio tastes are too exotic for the one side, and my current near-zero tolerance for assache makes my present setup entirely too plebian for t'other.

No way I can say anything more than I've already said and still be "constructive". 

mnem

You think we have disagreements? Have to ever visited an audiophool forum and watch the fur fly? And those guys play and hold grudges for keeps.

It just proves there is no one "right way" when it comes to audio. Being happy with your set up is all that matters. And I am a happy camper. 

[med6753]

"Ignore it". I wish I could. Trust me, I've looked for a user ignore function but the blog doesn't have one.

Perhaps you need to be an engineer to find it.

Well I'll be damned. Somehow I missed that. I guess I did need that sheep skin to find it. 

[Cerebus]

@Cerebus just got a phone call from someone who wanted to buy a PC. I told him that I am selling off my surplus PC test/eval equipment and that my stuff has been slightly used. Then I asked him what he wanted it for to assess if the stuff I had was suitable and sufficient for his requirements.

He said that part was a completely new experience for him.

90% of customers have an XY problem. They ring up saying "I want to buy X" when what they should say is "I am trying to do Y" or at least  "I am trying to do Y and your X looks like it's suitable". It never hurts to break the script and ask them what they intend to use "X" for. To be fair, so many front line sales staff are so crappy nowadays due to lack of training that the customers can be forgiven for having trained themselves to skip that step.