The Retirement Thread

[ColinJ]

Typo alert....................

For once, that was actually deliberate!

My pal is an electronics engineer specialising in audio. I asked if he had a spare stereo amp, on the off chance, and he DID. He sold me a recently serviced vintage amp for £30.

My plan is to use the amp with one of my several pairs of old hifi speakers to replace my TV soundbar. The £99 soundbar was a big improvement on the TV's own speakers but this new setup should easily surpass it.

I was going to use the Mission 77 bookshelf speakers that I used as a student in the mid-1980s, but I would have to put some shelves up for them...

I think I will make space and bring my massive floor-standing speakers down from the attic instead! They will be really good for TV sound, but also a huge improvement when I am watching music videos.

I finished hooking up the floor-standing speakers at about 21:30. I gave them a quick blast to check that everything works. It DOES... very well indeed. This system is as much an improvement over the cheapo soundbar, as the cheapo soundbar was over the TV's internal speakers. It's a pity that I waited 7 years to do this! The big speakers have stood unused in the attic all that time...

It is too late to do any more testing now, but I will give them a good go during the day tomorrow.

I'll have to tidy up the wiring. The other thing I will have to do is to deal with the tilt of the speaker on the left of the TV. I have mentioned before how this old house is tilted over and the tall speaker makes it very obvious. This is another area where my fussiness kicks in - lines that should be vertical and/or parallel but aren't annoy me!

The Leaning Tower of Speaker!

 

[classic33]

For once, that was actually deliberate!


I finished hooking up the floor-standing speakers at about 21:30. I gave them a quick blast to check that everything works. It DOES... very well indeed. This system is as much an improvement over the cheapo soundbar, as the cheapo soundbar was over the TV's internal speakers. It's a pity that I waited 7 years to do this! The big speakers have stood unused in the attic all that time...

It is too late to do any more testing now, but I will give them a good go during the day tomorrow.

I'll have to tidy up the wiring. The other thing I will have to do is to deal with the tilt of the speaker on the left of the TV. I have mentioned before how this old house is tilted over and the tall speaker makes it very obvious. This is another area where my fussiness kicks in - lines that should be vertical and/or parallel but aren't annoy me!

The Leaning Tower of Speaker!

View attachment 650409

That wiring is a mess. 3 amp fuses in each plug?

 

[ColinJ]

That wiring is a mess. 3 amp fuses in each plug?

I have tidied it up a lot now. There is a big shortage of power sockets in most rooms in this house so power blocks are used in several places. All for low power devices though (with suitable fuses).

The convector heater in this room only gets used on its 3/4 kW setting. A fan heater in the attic has its own 13 A socket and only gets used on 1 kW anyway.

 

[numbnuts]

Morning I'm up, but going back to bed

 

[Mo1959]

Morning I'm up, but going back to bed

I would too if I could sleep.

Another muggy night of tossing and turning so no enthusiasm for doing much. I have come to the conclusion that I don’t actually enjoy summer.

 

[Dave7]

Another lovely start to the day.
Sat with a cup of peppermint tea while listening to Tony B with SoTS.
I have a list of jobs to do but not sure I have the energy.....we shall see.

 

[welsh dragon]

Coooooeeee everyone. Another bleh day for us. Dull overcast and rainy. It's like an autumn day here.

Stay safe peeps

 

[Tenkaykev]

A good walk today as we followed part #2 of the Lancashire Witches Trail, 6.3 miles in total leaving +/- 38 to go. Interesting event today. My wife usually has OS maps running on her phone but for some reason this isn't currently working and our unofficial leader forgot his map but had some skimpy written directions. By chance and for no particular reason a few weeks ago I found a GPX of the entire walk and saved it on RWGPS. Opened the app and started to navigate and boy oh boy was it accurate. Amazing. Every time someone suggested we head in a particular direction within about 20 metres the app warned me we had headed off course and by how many feet and in which compass direction! Even my buddy who is the unofficial leader and very sceptical over technology was impressed!

It did hammer my phone battery. I usually get 30+ hours, using it today I was down to 16% after five hours just goes to prove how careful one has to be. I'm going to try my Wahoo next time and see what happens.

Mrs Tenkaykev and I both have Garmin watches. She did a new 5k route a while ago and on return was describing where she’d been. She saved the route as a gpx file, I downloaded it and sent it to my watch. When I started my run I selected “ follow route “ and started running. There were no maps, but a breadcrumb trail on the screen, with an arrow showing me which direction to go and when the route changed my watch would vibrate and I’d get an on screen alert such as “ turn right into Meadowsweet drive in 20 metres “
If you have earphones it speaks the instructions as you get close to a change of route. Very impressive for a watch.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Good morning from a bright but cool Coventry, I was thinking about a bimble but can't be a*** so I'll save it for another day, I'll go looking for the bottom of the ironing baskets instead. I need to nip out at some point and pick up my tablets.

 

[pawl]

Good morning from a bright but cool Coventry, I was thinking about a bimble but can't be a*** so I'll save it for another day, I'll go looking for the bottom of the ironing baskets instead. I need to nip out at some point and pick up my tablets.

I was going for a bimble bit to windy for me.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I was going for a bimble bit to windy for me.

I was a bit busy last week and I'm a bit knackard with low motivation at the moment so I'm taking it easy and looking at slipping one in during next week.

 

[Dave7]

Coooooeeee everyone. Another bleh day for us. Dull overcast and rainy. It's like an autumn day here.

Stay safe peeps

Ahhh the Snowdonia I remember well.

 

[Mo1959]

If you have earphones it speaks the instructions as you get close to a change of route. Very impressive for a watch.

I didn't know about that.

Just over 5 miles walk done. Last night's rain has helped it feel slightly fresher along with a breeze today so should be more bearable.

Time for breakfast. Granola this morning for a change.


Just had a look but I think it means you need to take your phone with you. Sod that. I can't be bothered carrying it on a run.

 

[Dave7]

I was a bit busy last week and I'm a bit knackard with low motivation at the moment so I'm taking it easy and looking at slipping one in during next week.

Ooh ahh missus

 

[Dave7]

Think I may go back to bed along with NumbNuts

Figuratively speaking of course