Welcome Frans!

[Kolind]

I just noticed this new, for now empty sub-forum, and thought that would be a good opportunity to welcome an electrical expert here - That is always a nice thing to have anywhere!
I have appreciated your input several times at 'the grotto' which is usually much more unbiased than others and focus on the technical viewpoint instead of believing in 'magic' immeasurable stuff!

Welcome -

[Claus-DK]

Also a BIG welcome from me, I really hope you will enjoy your time here and that members will use this opportunity..

[Sorensiim]

Hoved-Fi.dk is becoming international! Look out Jude!

...and a big welcome to Frans as well

[Solderdude]

Thanks for the warm welcome !

Who am I :
My name is Frans de Gruijter and am Dutch (the Netherlands)
50+ in years, balding, and active with electronics from about age 10.
Had a technical education and have been working in audio/video repair business from about age 16 to age 40.

What’s my experience:
Worked for a local Hifi/organ shop, Technics/National Panasonic importer (service), and serviced/repaired/modified audio (and video/TV) equipment for about 25 years.
Now I work for a company that designs/builds monitoring equipment for railway applications.
EMC/RFI engineering, electronic designs (mostly analog) and PCB designs, assembly, installing and after sales service is my daily job.

Hobby/passion:
Audio has been a passion all my life.
building amplifiers and speakers (dynamic and electrostatic) but, because of kids, into headphone audio for the last few years.
Photography has been a (passionate) hobby as well (in the Analog years)

View points:
Entering the audio-world at around age 16 I came from a ‘subjective’ viewpoint.
I gradually changed to the ‘objective’ side as a result of having access to (expensive) test-equipment, access to high and lower end audio gear and lots of listening and comparing.
Having easy access to as electronics parts as well for experimenting, I have come to accept certain findings as rigid facts.
These are (strangely enough) often not similar to findings in the subjective audio-world though.
I could be considered to have similar viewpoints (in general) as NwAvGuy but think I have a slightly different way to approach things, not as 'rigid' one could say.
I don’t mind using discrete parts, opamps and tubes (valves) or mix them together.

Last 3 years on the web:
I had been an active member at Rock Grotto for about 3 years under the same alias (solderdude)

Limitations:
No being Danish speaking it will be hard for me to follow the many threads.
I assume I will be picking up Danish words along the way, so as a result won’t be participating in forum discussions at least until I understand the language.
I have noticed some words are very similar to Dutch.
Also I cannot advice on best sounding amplifiers, DAC’s and sonic properties of certain parts.

What I can / do I intend to offer:
Technical support (in English, German or Dutch) but from a TECHNICAL point of view only, not from a subjective point of view.
Meaning questions like ‘which part sounds best’ I can’t/won’t be able to give.
Questions should be asked in this forum section, or when needed via PM or e-mail: solderdude4u[at]gmail[dot]com
It may take some time before some questions are answered.
In case direct support is desperately needed I could offer ‘support’ using Skype.

What equipment do I use:
Portable: Sansa Fuze (dial type), sometimes a portable amp.
PC: Windows XP, Ubuntu 10.04, older machine, external USB Sound Blaster X-Fi HD and Toshiba Laptop with external HD’s and external USB Sound Blaster-16 soundcard.
Various home made headphone amps, most of them are described in the pdf article section.
Loudspeakers; home made tension-less electrostatitic speakers with active compensated subwoofer (currently not in use, kids and cats) and a 3 way DIY speaker (Dynaudio 17W75, Vifa M110, HiVi RT1L) with the mentioned active subwoofer (200W with 2x400mm aluminum woofers) it does 16Hz to 100Hz flat.

Current headphone stack:
SFI drivers in DT990 housing with dedicated filtered amp (lacks bass extension)
Beyerdynamic DT1350 (with HD25 velours pads)
Superlux HD681 (filter modded, velours pads, alu rings)
Sennheiser HD650 (foam replaced by stretched nylon stocking, foam in driver removed)
Beyerdynamic DT990 (stock, new type pads)
Koss KSC35 (hole in foam)
Koss KSC75 (hole in foam)
Koss KSC50
Sennheiser HD238 (modded pads/drivers)
Sennheiser HD438 (filter modded)
Skyerdynamic DT330 (Skytronics drivers in DT330 behuizing)
Audio Technica ATH-M50
AKG K518 (modified, HD25 pads)

On their way out:
Jays V-Jays (filter)
Silvercrest KH2347 (noise cancelling)

owned and sold again:
AKG K500
Sony MDR-7506
Sennheiser HD580 (foam replaced by stretched nylon stocking, foam in driver removed)
Sennheiser HD280 (filter modded and pad modded)
Superlux HD661 (filter modded)
Creative Aurvana Live! (modded)
Sennheiser HD595 (not quite 'it')
Shure SRH840 (sold, too dark and clampy)
Philips SHP9000 (stock)
K701 (sold, too 'flat' for my taste)
HD250-II (sold, just not 'the dog')
DT770 (modded) (sold, found the highs to be over the top and bass not quite 'right' even after mods)
DT880 (2003 model) (sold, lacked bottom end IMO but great for Jazz)
SR60 (sold, lacked bottom end as well IMO didn't like the fit, even with inverted Sennheiser pads)
Koss PortaPro (modded foam)
Koss Sportapro (fit is lousy and affects the sound)
Koss KTX1-pro (boomy)
Samson NC900 (noise cancelling)
Superlux HD681B (only for a few days for filter modding, not mine)
Superlux HD668B (velour pads)
Superlux HD669 (velour pads)
2x Samson SR850 (filter modded, end caps, velour pads)
Ultrasone PRO line 2500 (NOT my taste)
Sennheiser HD400 (my first entry level headphone)
Sennheiser PX100
Philips SBC HP890
Skytronics
Beyerdynamic DT330
Beyerdynamic DT231 Galaxy
Electret (forgotten which brand)
Technics and Sony earbuds

Favorite headphones:
DIY ortho with dedicated and filtered amp for desktop and Beyerdynamic DT1350 (EQ-ed and HD25 pads) for portable with Sansa Fuze.

[DaveK]

Hi Frans,
A big heartfelt welcome from me. I hope your new venture here is as big a success as your greatly appreciated posts at the 'Grotto' were. Anyone who is not aware of Frans' exceedingly deep knowledge of audio electronics is in for a pleasant surprise as it is only matched by his unstinting willingness to share it with other audio enthusiasts.
If you have any questions about the technicalities of audio electronics, ask away, I'm sure you will not be disappointed by Frans response.
Dave.

[vaskebjørnen]

A big welcome Frans.

Im sure you can be alot of help here

[Javier]

Hi everyone,

Comming from Rock Grotto too, I suscribe all of DaveK's words and will also add that he is also a great guy in every way.

[Claus-DK]

Hi Javier a big and warm welcome to you also, nice to see you here.

[Javier]

Thanks Claus!

[Solderdude]

Hi Javier,

Good to see you have joined.
Please feel free to offer your assistance with computer/digital related questions.

[Kaps]

Use your ears to enjoy music, not as an analyzer.

Thumbs up!

[juke]

Another Grottie signing in!

Syd

[Claus-DK]

Hi Syd
Are we being invaded ??

Welcome..

[ronzo56]

Hi Frans,

I figured out how to register! Glad to see you here.

Ron

[Javier]

Hi Javier,

Good to see you have joined.
Please feel free to offer your assistance with computer/digital related questions.

Thanks Frans, I'll be happy to be of any help in PC related stuff though my Danish is probably as good as you Swahili and I have no idea how proficient people on this forum are with computers. Should there be any interest, can we open PC related topics on this subforum?

As to digital... I have far more questions to make than answers to give ( ). I'm still on a quest for a cheap 'n decent native DSD DAC for peanuts price and I'd love to hear from anyone with experience on programming I2C commands for TI or WM DACs (I finally have the tool to configure the Amanero board as a uController).

[Alpha]

...though my Danish is probably as good as you Swahili

Change your settings with: Brugerkontrolpanel -> Boardindstillinger -> Mit sprog -> British English
A (kind of.. ) translation of the site can be done by Google Chrome.

[Claus-DK]

Hi Javier,

Good to see you have joined.
Please feel free to offer your assistance with computer/digital related questions.

Thanks Frans, I'll be happy to be of any help in PC related stuff though my Danish is probably as good as you Swahili and I have no idea how proficient people on this forum are with computers. Should there be any interest, can we open PC related topics on this subforum?

As to digital... I have far more questions to make than answers to give ( ). I'm still on a quest for a cheap 'n decent native DSD DAC for peanuts price and I'd love to hear from anyone with experience on programming I2C commands for TI or WM DACs (I finally have the tool to configure the Amanero board as a uController).

We have a Computerpart here http://hoved-fi.dk/viewforum.php?f=54
But to me it is a bit of a prickle, I prefer we stay danish, but on the other hand I have no problems having some post (and threads) in english, I and I think most members have no urge or wish to turn this into an english forum..

So it is a difficult thing,..

But as always the members here helps me decide which way to go..

I will make a thread in "forslag og kommentarer" to discuss this subject..

[Javier]

Claus, I don't want to cause any trouble. If everybody is happy with things as they are no probs with me. As Google's translation service are not really up to the task I'll just stick to overloading Frans with millions of questions in this sub forum.

[Claus-DK]

You are not causing any kind of trouble, perish the thougt..
I just wants everybody to feel welcome and if possible be active in the forum, we are a new forum and are evolving all the time, which is a good thing..

It is just a thing I never even thougth about when I started the forum, so I just need some time to think about things and get feedback form other members before anything gets done, maybe we should get a Spanish part ?? LOL
But I am affraid you will get pretty lonesome there....

[Claus-DK]

I do not ahve that much experince with google translate, but have an idea that the best results will be if you translate into english, do not know if you tried it, I have tried to translate som polish site into danish and it went completely beserk, but it worked og when I chose to get it in english..

We have a pretty strange language, we often use the words in a different order and have lots of words spelled the same but meaning 2 or 3 very different things, which makes Danish quite a challenge for our visitors..

Dutch is very close to having the same order in the wording nad for a dane dutch is quite easy to read, but impossible to understand when spoken..

In spanish I am limited to "Hola" and count to 10, but it also have a completely different origin than the germanic langauges, the germanic languages share a lot of words but are often spoken very different, I guess it is similar when you compare spanish/Italian/portugeise, which have the latino origin in common. I konow it is the case with the slavic languages..