Rotel RB-985 Power Amp

I use this power amp with the Yamaha amp below (RX-V657). What a combination! I have always wanted to own a Rotel RB-985 and finally managed to when one came up on Trademe. I paid a good price for it but one channel is doggee. The seller didn't want to discuss it (nice way of saying he didn't want a bar of it). So I use the Rotel to drive the 3 front channels and the rear surround channels are driven using the inbuild Yamaha rear surround amps. This works well and probably gives me a bit more than the 100 watts per channel for 5 channels that the Rotel puts out. The RB-985 is a few years old now but still sounds very good to my ears. The Yamaha is a great preamp, I recommend it.

Yamaha RX-V657

Well I purchased on of these the other day to use as a pre-amp. Got great reviews when it came out and as a second hand purchase is very good (depending on what you pay for of course!!).

More Details, Lanyu TW-747 Cessna

When I had problems with the radio gear, I searched the internet and could find very little about Lanyu and the TW series. You find internet rc shops selling the product but no reviews or comments from people who have purchased the product. First up, the manual is not alot of help. The english is bad (amusing more like). As an example, there is a push switch on the left side of the fuselage. The manual does not explain what it is for. Well its a safety switch for the engine. Always turn the transmitter on first and place the throttle in the slow position (down). When you connect the battery to the plane connector, the motor circuit is not connected and for good reason. If your throttle was set to full, the engine would roar into life and risk injury. With this switch you can prepare the model for flight and then set the throttle to the desired position, and press the safety switch. The engine will start when you are ready for it to start.

I always hand launch this model as there is not alot of excess power for takeoff and I fly over grass. Paved areas are probably ok for takeoffs but not grass. There is not a lot of clearance propeller once the tail comes up as she builds speed for takeoff.

Lanyu TW-747 Cessna

Over a year ago, I purchased a cheap foam 4 channel radio control plane which I was interested to see what the quality was like for China - well I think I came in a bit too cheap! Well it didn't take long for the wheels (wings?) to fall off. I got one flying session out of it and then the radio control gear stopped working (all landings were quite smooth). I have to say it flew quite well for a $NZ170 aircraft. The guy I purchased it off, sent me a new transmitter and receiver and ESC, but nothing fixed it. The RC was dead and there was no way of diagnosing the problem. Well I finally purchased a e-sky rc unit of the most popular online auction site here in NZ and we are flying again. Had about 15 10 minute flights so far and the plane goes well. Rolls are not too hot with the lifting wing section but she is fun to fly and doesn't require much flying space and is quiet. So a word of warning, you can buy too cheap. I would recommend spending around $NZ250 to get a reasonable RC unit with the aircraft.

Of course, I don't know how long the servos will last, or the brushed motor... yes no less there!!

PS3 and upscaling

Finally got my Sony PS3 which I got as a package deal with my Sony 40" LCD W Series Television (nice TV - I'm very pleased with it). Anyway I discovered the PS3 will upscale video to 1080p which I have to try of course. Suzanne Vega never looked so good! Well I have never seen her in the flesh and although there is some debate whether upscaling actually improves the quality of the video, in some cases, I feel it does. certainly there was less noise with Suzanne Vega's concert.

Welcome

Hi there, if you are reading this, you have obviously stumbled across my blog. So a friendly welcome.