[R-390] Audio resistors?

[Barry Hauser]

One of the Barrys wrote:
>
> It has been rather quiet so far. Some folks are saying metal film and some
> are saying carbon.

Either one, just clip those cheap leads off close as you can to the resistor
bodies and wire up with low oxygen monster cable.  It's a little difficult
to work with, especially around the tube socket terminals, but, y'know, hey
..

Glad I didn't mention a thing about what I read about
> these test or maintenance CDs for audiophiles. It is supposed to bombard
the
> stereo gear with a lot of noise all across the spectrum so that the caps
> don't form badly from routine music sources.

Excellent idea.  Some music in particular can make the caps electrically
"lumpy".  Also, periodically, large speaker drivers should be rotated 180
degrees to minimize cone sag which can result in the voice coil rubbing.

Similarly, tubular caps should be rotated every 200 hrs. or so to balance
wear and electron flow.  Eventually, from doing this important maintenance,
the leads will break off near the bodies.  No problemo -- simply splice on
some more of that monster cable, which, BTW, should be stored in a sealed
plastic bag with some dissicant and stowed in the freezer, but not too close
to the flashlight batteries.  A little pyramid couldn't hurt either.

>
> My personal favorite can of worms on the list is the cat urine thread,
which
> also includes cats sleeping on warm radios.

Ahhhh yessss ... the ol' cat urine thing.  Related to that, and this is a
true story (as distinct from the pack 'o lies I just told, except about
speaker drivers):  Way back a long time ago, I had (still have) a pair of
Altec Voice of the Theater systems.  (Don't ask me why.)  These were the
true, gray four-and-a-half foot high cabinets with the big decals on the
side.  For convenience sake, and breaking the bass-reflex acoustic rules, I
parked the big horns in the bottom of the cabinets, slightly tilted up.
They're supposed to go on top of the cabinets, not blocking the port.
Meanwhile, we had this tomcat -- unfixed and partial to marking his
territory, which would have covered the entire North American continent if
we let him.  One night, I noticed the left side Altec was lacking the highs,
and the midrange for that matter.  Well, to make a long story a bit shorter,
those horns are like funnels.  The grill cloth I had in front of them was of
no help.  Fortunately, they're also modular and the drivers come off and you
can replace the voice coil -- which I did, as the original was mostly green
and eaten away.  The aluminum/alloy around it wasn't too pretty either.  Let
me put it this way -- if you could somehow put tomcat squirt in a pen, you
could etch your own panels.

 I don't think we ever determined
> the best lubricant for RF deck gears or if Simple Green is okay to use for
> cleaning.

Don't remember a consensus on that -- it was split mostly over three
choices -- either Mobil One 10W-30 oil, the 75W Mobil One gear oil, or a
high grade of grease found in better gun shops, but I forgot the name Carl
recommended.  Nolan Lee stressed that Mobil One oil was the best thing and
not to use the gear oil as it's hypoidal -- with sulphur compounds (and may
be even some tomcat squirt) in it.  But we haven't heard from Nolan in a
long time.  He told us about his cat that likes warm radios.  There may have
been a fur-ball issue with that.  (Sorry gang, it's getting to Auld Lang
Sein time and I'm getting a bit nostalgic for the good ol' prewar days on
the reflector.)

As for Simple Green -- the conclusion was that it's very good and very bad,
depending.  Those who use it say that it's great -- they spray all over the
modules, blast 'em with the garden hose, throw 'em in the dishwasher, bake
'em in the oven or the hot Arizona, California, etc. sun.  Dave Medley says
he rinses with distilled water.  On the other hand, there's that thing about
ionizing cleaners (like SG, 409, etc.) and deposits of salt compounds in
phenolic and ceramic insulators, which makes them conduct/arc at high
voltages.  Sooo, other Barry, you were probably just kidding, but the answer
to the SG question is probably the same as the answer to the classic Dirty
Harry question:  "Do you feel ...... lucky?"  And, of course, the eternal,
ultimate truth of the universe -- your mileage may vary.

Barry