The Night Mail

[jjb1970]

On hobbies, while many hobbies and sporting activities will never be 'cheap', neither do they need to be expensive. I am a cycling enthusiast and you really don't need an expensive bike to just enjoy cycling. I'm an audio enthusiast and if anything the performance of a lot of audio gear is inversely proportional to price given some of the crazy snake oil in that hobby. These days any smartphone has a camera capable of taking excellent pictures. and so it goes. And one of the nice side effects of the 'all the gear no idea' brigade is that every time some nice bit of gear is released you know that almost immediately you will see hardly used examples advertised at good discounts from the people who rush out to join the hype train and then find out it does not change their lives and so get rid of it to look for the next miracle panacea.

My advice to people asking for advice on any of these things is to avoid magazines and most serious hobbyists as usually the group think mentality means they're the people who will say you 'need' that really expensive bike, high end mirrorless camera body, a silly $$$$$ DAC etc when in reality in more and more fields it is now much harder to get a product that isn't perfectly good than to get a stinker. I do recommend avoiding supermarket bikes and going to a bike store and paying more for an entry level machine from a recognisable bike company as you do get a much better product which will last for not that much more.

[SM42]

I once knew an audio enthusiast 

 

He was enthusing about how good his £2,000 speakers were now that they were on his new £3,000 speaker stands

 

" Surely"  I said" they are only as good as your ears"

 

This, I think sums up nicely the problem.

No matter how much you spend, the perceived quality or ease of use is limited by your own physical ability to see, hear or operate said equipment. 

 

Whilst   I accept that dirt cheap will not be the best and very expensive may be a rip off, buying what you can afford that does what you need it to do effectively is often the best option. 

 

I bought a towards the bottom of mid priced bike from a well known shed way back in 1999 as I had agreed to go cycling with some friends ( two weeks notice) and a road bike was not appropriate for the terrain 

 

It's still going strong, and it's minor  shortcomings do not affect the pleasure I get from being out on it.

 

Would I replace it with a more expensive model that doesn't have its issues 

 

Maybe, but let me ride this one to destruction first. 

 

Andy

[jjb1970]

Audio has something in common with cycling in that set up is critical. Just as a well fitted bicycle well set up will be far better than a top of the line bike that doesn't fit the riders and which has not been well set up so decent but modest speakers well set up in the listening room will outperform superb speakers just dropped into a room with no thought for set up. And of course set up and fit don't necessarily have to cost anything if people have the knowledge or are willing to do a little studying to prepare.

[Happy Hippo]

This afternoon's railway activity was supposed to be some sorting and tidying, but I decided to forego that and carry out some papier mache work on some of Pantmawr North.

 

I also started to cut out some of the buttresses for the stone retaining wall.  I have come to the conclusion that wherever designed the sheet did not have any intention of it making anything other than a flat sheet.  Cutting it and turning it through 90 degrees involves a  lot of forethought in order to get the courses both to line up, and also to line up so as to be able to fill the voids and bumps with DAS and then reshape the corner joints. 

 

Next time I'm probably make such a wall with DAS and hand carve all the stonework.  It might take longer, but it will be fair less brain racking!

[iL Dottore]

47 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

…..And of course set up and fit don't necessarily have to cost anything if people have the knowledge or are willing to do a little studying to prepare.

Nail. Head. Hammer. Hit.

 

I’m planning to convert part of my rambling ramshackle garden into a Japanese style garden. But before I do so, I am reading up on everything I can find about creating an easy care Japanese garden. I am also looking into who is available should professional assistance be needed and what they are likely to charge. Not a bush will be uprooted or a spade of earth turned until I am satisfied at plans, costs and likely outcomes.

 

Mrs iD thinks that I can be an impulsive buyer, but this is not the case.

I usually do a lot of prep work on what I want to acquire and then - when the right thing comes along at the right time and at the right price - I pounce.

 

About the only thing which is an impulse buy for me (outside of any offers on whiskies or good cigars) are items for model railways. Not so much because I think “oh that looks nice, I’ll have one*” but more a case of “the production run on this is going to be short and if I want to have this on my layout I’d better get it now”

 

iD

* 99% of the time, honest!

[polybear]

3 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

I'm an audio enthusiast and if anything the performance of a lot of audio gear is inversely proportional to price given some of the crazy snake oil in that hobby.

 

Ah yes, "oxygen-free cables with gold-plated connectors".......🤣

About 20 years ago I recall friends of mine being sold some cable or other to go with their new recorder that was recommended by the oik working in Curry's - he told them that anything less wouldn't be much good and the picture quality would suffer.

And the cable?  Seventy quid...

A cable manufacturer in Oz was so incensed with all the bullsh1t going on that he actually GAVE AWAY scart leads free of charge to anyone who phoned up for one.

As for Bear, well my quid scart lead jobbies from Poundland seem to work just fine (do they still sell scart leads in Poundland?)

 

3 hours ago, SM42 said:

I once knew an audio enthusiast 

 

He was enthusing about how good his £2,000 speakers were now that they were on his new £3,000 speaker stands

 

And all so he could listen to The Sex Pistols.

 

3 hours ago, SM42 said:

I bought a towards the bottom of mid priced bike from a well known shed way back in 1999 as I had agreed to go cycling with some friends ( two weeks notice) and a road bike was not appropriate for the terrain 

 

It's still going strong, and it's minor  shortcomings do not affect the pleasure I get from being out on it.

 

Would I replace it with a more expensive model that doesn't have its issues 

 

Maybe, but let me ride this one to destruction first. 

 

Andy

 

It seems that the more expensive the bike the greater the chance you have of being robbed by a couple of machete-wielding scrotes on a scooter.

[Tony_S]

21 minutes ago, polybear said:

t seems that the more expensive the bike the greater the chance you have of

When Matthew went to live in Utrecht he bought a fairly nice used bike for about 200 Euro. After a month it was stolen. His friends said you are now a Nederlander, as having your bike nicked is some sort of rite of passage there. So after that he paid as little as possible for what looked like wrecks. When he left he just left it outside without a lock and it soon disappeared. 
 

[Tony_S]

I suspect the really high end HiFi stuff would perhaps be wasted on me now. I did a frequency response test on my hearing and couldn’t hear much above 5kHz. I kept the signal going and at 11kHz Aditi was imploring me to turn it off. This is why she can hear all the high frequency beepers on appliances and I can’t . 
My ancient Pioneer turntable for listening to vinyl records did start to fail and I replaced it a year or so ago. I have preferred digital playback (cd or downloads) for quite some time but possibly the old turntable was at fault. The new one does produce more acceptable sounds than the old turntable.  I have been really struggling with the sound mix from our Sky HD box for a couple of years. Listening to stuff originating from our BT TV box is much better. 
Sky’s customer service were fine when I terminated the contract but since then I have loads of emails and letters imploring me to return for a fraction of the cost I was paying.  

[SM42]

Typical 

 

Three weeks with hardly a drop of rain and now the heavens open as I pack the car

 

Andy

Edited August 20, 2022 by SM42

[Tony_S]

5 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

zily over the top in my view. Today we went shopping for a new rice cooker (for anyone who eats a lot of rice dishes and doesn't yet have a rice cooker my advice is to go out and buy one),

I have no intention of getting divorced after so many years of marriage but suggesting we need a rice cooker to a person of Punjabi heritage would not be well received. Years ago we had a lovely conversation on the train to Nottingham with an elderly chap from Jamaica who tried to convince Aditi that Indians don’t know how to cook rice. 

[Happy Hippo]

I decided to open my bottle of Penderyn Legend before our evening meal.

 

Luxury!

 

I've just started a second glass.

[pH]

43 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I did a frequency response test on my hearing and couldn’t hear much above 5kHz. I kept the signal going and at 11kHz Aditi was imploring me to turn it off. This is why she can hear all the high frequency beepers on appliances and I can’t . 

Our high school class visited a tech college and one of the demonstrations we saw was to show the frequency range that people can hear. Two of us surprised the demonstrator by being able to hear a 25KHz sound.

 

In my 20s, I could tell if a shop had an anti-vermin sound system operating  (frequencies above 20KHz) - my balance would be disturbed. 
 

All that’s long gone now, of course.

[AndyID]

54 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I suspect the really high end HiFi stuff would perhaps be wasted on me now. I did a frequency response test on my hearing and couldn’t hear much above 5kHz. I kept the signal going and at 11kHz Aditi was imploring me to turn it off. This is why she can hear all the high frequency beepers on appliances and I can’t . 
My ancient Pioneer turntable for listening to vinyl records did start to fail and I replaced it a year or so ago. I have preferred digital playback (cd or downloads) for quite some time but possibly the old turntable was at fault. The new one does produce more acceptable sounds than the old turntable.  I have been really struggling with the sound mix from our Sky HD box for a couple of years. Listening to stuff originating from our BT TV box is much better. 
Sky’s customer service were fine when I terminated the contract but since then I have loads of emails and letters imploring me to return for a fraction of the cost I was paying.  

 

The sound quality on most of the flat-panel TVs we have is terrible. I bought some inexpensive sound bars from a shop that was closing down and they make a huge difference.

[J. S. Bach]

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I suspect the really high end HiFi stuff would perhaps be wasted on me now. I did a frequency response test on my hearing and couldn’t hear much above 5kHz. I kept the signal going and at 11kHz Aditi was imploring me to turn it off. This is why she can hear all the high frequency beepers on appliances and I can’t . 
My ancient Pioneer turntable for listening to vinyl records did start to fail and I replaced it a year or so ago. I have preferred digital playback (cd or downloads) for quite some time but possibly the old turntable was at fault. The new one does produce more acceptable sounds than the old turntable.  I have been really struggling with the sound mix from our Sky HD box for a couple of years. Listening to stuff originating from our BT TV box is much better. 
Sky’s customer service were fine when I terminated the contract but since then I have loads of emails and letters imploring me to return for a fraction of the cost I was paying.  

Maybe the stylus was worn. That will degrade the playback quality and permanently damage the record.

[Northmoor]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

Ah yes, "oxygen-free cables with gold-plated connectors".......🤣

The automotive world is full of hollyhocks like this.

 

My next-door neighbour is a lovely retired bloke who has some health issues which seriously affect his mobility.  His 15y.o Mercedes gets used about once every fortnight (he's had the AA out twice in the last year to sort out a flat battery, probably because it's used so little) and a while ago I noticed a couple of his tyres were quite soft.  I was tempted to just pump them up while doing my own but saw him before I got the chance and mentioned I'd be happy to do it.  He was grateful but glad I hadn't as he always got them filled with Nitrogen. 

 

The use and benefits of using nitrogen in high performance car tyres on the race track is often disputed as the "evidence" is pretty spurious.  I suspect the benefits on a car that might have done 300 low speed miles last year, were likely to be undetectable.

[simontaylor484]

I had problems with our 65 plate Mercedes with the battery when I had to stop driving after a seizure. It had 2 batteries in 2 days the Rac replaced the replacement battery under warranty without quibble it was nearly £200 advanced glassmat technology they said.

I did buy a charger/maintainer After that until we managed to sell the car it was during the first lockdown.

[PhilJ W]

10 hours ago, rockershovel said:

Oddly enough, our former family home in Dalston (North London) remains externally much as when we left in the early 1960s, although the area is unrecognisable. I can't bear to visit the area. 

My mums family came from Dalston, in fact the house she was born in 102 years ago still exists in Brownlow Road. We used to visit family in the same road up until the 1970's. The family owned several properties and businesses in the area about the time that my mum was born.

[AndyID]

59 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Maybe the stylus was worn. That will degrade the playback quality and permanently damage the record.

 

Wot you need is a fiber needle 😀

 

 

[Tony_S]

59 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Maybe the stylus was worn. That will degrade the playback quality and permanently damage the record.

Before the motor started playing up, it was ok I thought but not as good as cd. The difference with the next step up sort of system was noticeable. I am sure a hifi expert would still rate it as entry level but I am happy. I was always careful about the cartridge and stylus. The new one even has the same make cartridge (Ortofon). I didn’t expect to hear such an improvement, and I am glad I spent the small amount more than an equivalent of the old one. 
Tony

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

The sound quality on most of the flat-panel TVs we have is terrible. I bought some inexpensive sound bars from a shop that was closing down and they make a huge difference.

The sound on our Samsung TV is fine from terrestrial broadcast signal, or apps using broadband but not when using our Sky TV satellite receiver. The only way to get something listenable to was to divert it to the cinema sound receiver. When their price went up again I looked for a way of getting the same programmes from someone else. As the subscription channels now come through our broadband I had a couple of satellite cables floating about . Our TV has a satellite receiver built in so I connected them to the TV and can receive loads of  channels from the Astra satellites if I want to.  Apart from motor racing, cricket and two police drama episodes I haven’t watched much TV recently. I do see the news whenever Aditi watches it to get a weather forecast. 

Edited August 20, 2022 by Tony_S

[J. S. Bach]

51 minutes ago, AndyID said:

Wot you need is a fiber needle 😀

I once had a Victrola that had fiber needles, they had a very different tonal quality than the steel needles.

[SM42]

Oh my it's  early 

 

Time to hit the road soon. 

 

Andy

[jjb1970]

10 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I have no intention of getting divorced after so many years of marriage but suggesting we need a rice cooker to a person of Punjabi heritage would not be well received. Years ago we had a lovely conversation on the train to Nottingham with an elderly chap from Jamaica who tried to convince Aditi that Indians don’t know how to cook rice. 

 

Out here rice cookers are an obsession, with the Japanese and Korean manufacturers trying to outdo eachother to stuff the things with tech and trick features. There was a craze for talking rice cookers, if people like that then who am I to question but I just want something that cooks rice.

I always say that nothing summarises the cultural differences between Asia and Europe better than rice. In Europe rice is basically a filler, white stuff to add bulk to sauces. In Asia to call rice just food is like saying to a religious person that their holy book is just a book. The rice aisles here are crazy, with more options than you can shake a stick at and my wife assures me every variety has unique taste and quality. My mother in law genuinely doesn't consider a meal to be complete if there's no rice.

[rockershovel]

38 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

 

Out here rice cookers are an obsession, with the Japanese and Korean manufacturers trying to outdo eachother to stuff the things with tech and trick features. There was a craze for talking rice cookers, if people like that then who am I to question but I just want something that cooks rice.

I always say that nothing summarises the cultural differences between Asia and Europe better than rice. In Europe rice is basically a filler, white stuff to add bulk to sauces. In Asia to call rice just food is like saying to a religious person that their holy book is just a book. The rice aisles here are crazy, with more options than you can shake a stick at and my wife assures me every variety has unique taste and quality. My mother in law genuinely doesn't consider a meal to be complete if there's no rice.

Yes, but try to get proper spuds in the Far East. 

 

FWIW I've always found Asian cultures to be completely alien. Rice is the least of it. 

 

[rockershovel]

8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

My mums family came from Dalston, in fact the house she was born in 102 years ago still exists in Brownlow Road. We used to visit family in the same road up until the 1970's. The family owned several properties and businesses in the area about the time that my mum was born.

I guess we were both part of the mass exodus of the 50s and 60s? We had two houses, a shop and two lockups but by the early 60s the end of steam (substantial closure of Kentish Town MPD, reduction of Hornsey) , attendant disappearance of the coal trade in Central London, rapidly accelerating closure of Port of London (with the attendant disappearance of the road haulage sector serving them) disappearance of major manufacturers like JAP in Tottenham meant the businesses had largely ceased to make any worthwhile returns. 

 

Our customers left en masse for the New Towns being built in a great arc from Milton Keynes to Stevenage, and round to the Leigh and Medway. We went to Cambridge. I remember helping my aunt move from her rented flat in Seven Sisters Road to social housing in Waltham Abbey in the late 1980s but the rest of the family were long gone by then.