Posted on Saturday, 23rd February 2013 by Auw Jimmy

Maybe you still remember my old article here. It was Nokia Lumia 800 used during my trip to Singapore. Now, visiting similar place but with slightly different ‘gun’, the Nokia Lumia 920. I know that Nokia Lumia 920 has been released for quite some time. But just now I have enough time to play more with it. My impression? Surely it has a better photo (and video) quality. Impressive Image Stabilizer function which is very useful when taking video and also impressive low light camera performance.

Picture should mean thousand of words, so let’s enjoy it

A shoot of coffee should light my day (with only around 5 hours sleeping time on the night before). It’s a free complimentary for ANZ card holder (4 times in a year for food and beverage, or 8 times for beverage only). BCA Prioritas would give you an unlimited one, though Back to the topic, the low light camera performance played important role here. A bit of grainy noise on the back, but the detail of the creamy chocolate coffee remained delicious

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Tags: Camera, Image Stabilizer, Lumia, Nokia, Nokia Lumia 920, Windows Phone
Posted in IT/Gadget, Personal | Comments (2)

Posted on Wednesday, 1st August 2012 by Auw Jimmy

Let’s move out from audio topic a bit and switch to photography. It’s well known that not all lenses are created equal. Indeed, they are not equal, both physical and performance. Today, I’m gonna compare 3 Nikon lenses:

• Nikon AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm / 3.5-5.6G ED (kit lens)
• Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm / 1.8D
• Nikon AF-S Nikkor 28-70mm / 2.8D

It’s interesting to see how they perform in 50 mm, with f/5, 1/13, and ISO-400. Sorry if some cropping are not exactly match.

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Tags: 18-105, 28-70, 50mm, Lens, Nikkor, Nikon
Posted in Collectible Stuff, Personal | Comments (1)

Posted on Monday, 23rd July 2012 by Auw Jimmy

I got a chance to short visit the Kuala Lumpur International Audio Video (KLIAV) 2012 show. It was held in JW Marriott Hotel at Bukit Bintang. Well, it’s a famous location with several shopping mall like Lot 10, Plaza Low Yat, Berjaya Times Square, and so on (I’m not used to shop, so hardly for me to remember all of them). I did a quick trip due to limited time, so here is the gift from the show. Basically for me who is more stere0-audio-centric, instead of visual-centric, the most interesting show was located on 8th and 7th floor. Totally, there was 5 floors used for this show.

This could be my first blog post with more than 50 pictures. So I cut them into several pages. I also didn’t have too much time to enjoy the system. So I will keep my comments for my own.

Btw, the good thing from this show was, many exhibitors were more than happy with a photographer like me. You could take any photo and even you got a warm ‘thank you’ after that!

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Tags: AV Show, KLIAV 2012, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Posted in DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (4)

Posted on Sunday, 8th July 2012 by Auw Jimmy

Finally, the Lundahl potting project has been completed. Now it’s the time to give initial measurement of the project. First is very simple testing, the inductance test. Next week, we shall have a listening test with this Choke.

The inductance test shows a positive result (though it means nothing at this point, except no open wire during the curing of the potting material). The inductance result for both side of the choke are quite same (2.879 H). Resistance also measured quite stable at 31.5 Ohm.

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Tags: Choke, Inductance Measurement, Lundahl
Posted in DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (2)

Posted on Tuesday, 19th June 2012 by Auw Jimmy

This weekend, I play a bit off topic from my regular hobby, which is audio. This is an old HP Palmtop 200LX. I own several units but due to improper storage, the LCD is ruined. What a waste and sad news as I realized this few years ago. But what has happened just couldn’t be reverted back. Sigh!

Okay then, from a good friend somewhere in Makasar, I got a working unit (LCD included, off course) of this Palmtop. The chassis and everything isn’t that good, but I believe I have enough spare around as shown below. Then I start to disassemble and building a fully functional unit.

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Tags: 200LX, HP, Palmtop
Posted in IT/Gadget, Personal | Comments (5)

Posted on Monday, 9th January 2012 by Auw Jimmy

Let’s forget a little bit about audio and move a little bit to another hobby of me: photography.

Recently, I rarely bring my camera during short trip. Why? Because mostly I visit a similar place which no longer interesting. If you have been there to a place multiple times, then the rest would become a boring day. Agree?

By the way, before continuing this, I have to admit that I’m not a professional photographer – not even close. My gear mostly an obsolete one (now I’m using Canon SX10 IS and Nikon D90). And I love night and macro photgraphy. I think it’s quite obvious throughout pictures on my blog here.

When I first time got the Nokia Lumia 800, I’m quite impressed with the camera quality. I think it can compete with most smartphone on its class. Not to mention the f/2.2 Carl Zeiss Tessar lens could give you better capture.

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Tags: Lumia 800, Nokia, Windows Phone
Posted in IT/Gadget, Personal | Comments (3)

Posted on Saturday, 7th January 2012 by Auw Jimmy

After the Part I has been done, now I continue to the Part II. On this 2nd part, I will see what’s wrong with the Marantz PM400AVK.

Simple testing method is to try it on other speaker. Initial diagnosis is the volume control problem, as I could hear some cracking and intermittent no sound on the speaker. But sometime the problem could be solved after turning the volume up and down. Definitely, initial problem is on the volume control. So let’s take a look inside.

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Tags: ALPS, Capacitor, Fake Capacitor, Marantz, potentiometer
Posted in DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (0)

Posted on Wednesday, 4th January 2012 by Auw Jimmy

If you have read this previous article, probably you got my point when reading this one. Now, I’m doing the modification for the speaker. After several serious examination (well, you know me, I can’t be more serious than this time), it seems that there is no hope for the tweeter. So let’s find a good replacement. After googling around for several hours, I stick to the Vifa XT25SC90 tweeter. I use the ‘older’ brother XT25TG30 on my other DIY speaker and quite convinced with its sonic quality (despite its poor off axis performance). Price wise, you can get a pair less than $50. What a bargain?

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Tags: Bennic, Cable, inductor, Mission 762, Siemens, speaker, Tweeter, XT25
Posted in DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (7)

Posted on Monday, 2nd January 2012 by Auw Jimmy

My wife knows and supports my hobby in audio. I think she even knows almost all of my expenses. Well, ‘almost’ means maybe there are some that she doesn’t care or aware of – not my intention to hide from her .

Once upon a time, when we were on her mother’s living room, I stumbled upon an audio system used there. It was quite old and sounded ‘ultimately’ bad. She jokingly asked me how do I rate this system. Honestly I said, maybe around 20 from 100 scale. Well, it’s true. Even maybe 20 was still slightly over rated. Then she challenged to improve it. After checking them for few minutes, I decided to give further examination as the condition was ‘terrible’. OK, I could bring this home for some new year’s fun. Then the adventure begun…

Now, let’s start with the speaker. The speaker is Mission 762. Quite good on its era (20 years back). But now, it sounds so bad. The woofer seems fine, but the tweeter I think already running out of his life. Too much noises and ‘too smooth’ (means no treble or detail) .

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Tags: Marantz PM400AVK, Marantz Receiver, Mission 762, Mission Speaker
Posted in DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (7)

Posted on Monday, 2nd January 2012 by Auw Jimmy

Time flies… I have owned this blog for more than 5 years. Despite the fluctuation, I think the trend is quite stable and showing a positive growing up trend. I think I have to start putting more convincing article (and more quantity for sure). I wish I have more than 24 hours a day. Actually I got enough toy to be played with, but so limited time.

Anyway, Happy New Year all. All the best (health, family, career, wealth, hobby, etc) for the upcoming year (indeed, now is 2nd of January).

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Tags: blog, other, statistic
Posted in Indonesia, Personal | Comments (2)

Posted on Monday, 26th December 2011 by Auw Jimmy

For most of my soldering life, I still use what we call as ‘Flux’ or ‘Soldering Paste’ (or also known as ‘Lotfett’). Although some people say that the use of Flux for soldering is for newbie work , but I don’t really care actually. What I do want is a perfect soldering quality.

Below is the frequently used Flux. It’s cheap (indeed, very cheap) and enough for most of us. I bought this long-long time ago and never can finish it although has been used hundred (if not thousand) times.

But few weeks ago, I started to think a better replacement. I saw a Rosin Flux made by Cardas (to be honest, not many brand makes such Flux any longer as most of the newer solder already incorporates Flux inside to simplify our soldering job). But again, in most of the time, a separate Flux still needed. As the price was quite reasonable (though still multiple times compared to the Lotfett), I decided to grab one.

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Tags: Cardas, lotfett, rosin flux, soldering paste
Posted in DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (11)

Posted on Wednesday, 22nd September 2010 by Auw Jimmy

I’m about to finalize this sound card mod. The output now is taken directly from the WM8770IFT, coupled with Jensen Copper Foil Paper Tube Capacitor (before it was Mundorf Silver/Gold/Oil). The sound improves quite a lot.

Soon, I will add an SRPP (tube output) in order to make this mod more compatible with most preamp or amp connected to it. After that, well, I think I will have an adequate digital player as source to replace my CD Player. Probably. Not so sure though

Tags: aureon, Digital Player, jensen, sound card, SRPP
Posted in DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (20)