Minor Changes

Gentle readers,

I made a minor change to the stereo.

I'd bought a used (twenty years old it turns out) Denon DCD-560 CD player. It was listed with a problem (cup-holder won't open) for $9.99.

It arrived and I found the CD door would unlatch, but not motor open. Yet, I could pull it open. Took it apart, a little oil here and there and it mostly worked. The good thing was that it played. Then.

A couple of days went by and I tried it again. Nothing. No lights, nothing. Eventually it started working again, but wouldn't play any more. Then nothing again.

OK, learned my lesson. Don't buy broken things unless I'm certain I can fix them.

Still, it had some very nice feet on it. So, I salvaged them and completely disassembled it, recycling everything.

I thought, these feet would look right nice under my Adcom pre-amp. I was right. While I had it pulled out from the wall, I marked all the RCA cables and dusted everything.

The feet did fit perfectly and do look good:

If you recall what the stereo looked like in the living room, you may note some differences. I sold the Chinese Indeed hybrid tube headphone amp and moved the watt-meter down between the power amp and SACD player. Neater appearance over all.

Thanks for looking!

Scott

Got Miatas out of my system!

Gentle readers,

I have not written anything about cars lately. You may recall that I drive a tastefully modified 2000 Audi TT quattro. It's denim blue inside and out as seen above.

I truly love this car. We've had it for two years and three months. It came with the six-spoke 17" wheels that were factory options with Toyo snow tires mounted on them.
I bought the wheels you see via eBay. They are replicas of Audi RS4 wheels and have
General Exclaim UHP summer tires mounted on them from Tire Rack.

The car has given me some problems since we've owned it, mostly electrical in nature.
I fixed them all, however. Then..............

A couple of months ago, I accelerated away from a stop light and heard a clunk! I looked in the mirror to see if I'd run over something or if something fell off, but saw only pavement.

I pulled into a lot and heard the noise again. OK, time to call AAA. They towed it home and it took me weeks to finally pinpoint the problem and fix it: The previous owner, amongst the various modification he did, replaced the stock lower engine mount with one made of solid aluminum and polyurethane bushings instead of rubber bushings. The bolts supplied with it snapped off even with the holes they were in. I fixed it with factory bolts and drove the car perhaps a week when another problem arose.

Rounding the corner on to our street, I heard the power steering moaning as if low on fluid. It was, I added some, noise went away until the next morning when I started it.
Another long search and even longer repair. The right side of the steering rack had sprung a leak.

On the PITA meter, this replacement was a huge one! Finally with help from a friend and Nancy, we succeeded and am I glad we did. I'm in love with the car again.

While I agonized over that huge repair job I was facing, I considered selling the TT and buying something else to drive. One main choice was a Mazda Miata. I've always liked the little things and began an Internet search. Not far away I found a lovely (in pictures) 1999 Tenth Anniversary Edition model. Blue with bruise interior (black and blue, get it?). Six speed and lots of other nice stuff. The price was low. Here it is:
Looks right pretty, doesn't it? Looks can be deceiving. This one was accessible on the lot, the other one they had, also a '99 was the base model; green with black fabric seats, same wheels but painted, five-speed, not six. Less mileage and $400 less price. Much better condition too.

I found immediately with this blue one: Antenna snapped off, top holed and shrunken, clear coat on paint starting to peel. 75,000 miles and it was a one-owner, but I doubt they took care of it. Engine although steam-cleaned showed it's age.

Right in front of the green Miata was a slightly newer blue Audi TT. So Nancy could see and pace-off that Miatas aren't THAT much smaller. Anyway, we squeezed into the blue one and took off. Tiny shifter. I fit, but we both felt like we were wearing the car. Nancy felt unsafe, pointing out how low the doors were compared to our cars. She drives a Scion TC. Also no side air-bags.

The car ran fine, pulled stronger than I expected (about half the horsepower and torque of the TT, but also 600 pounds lighter). It felt good to drive despite the way we felt otherwise. Still, it isn't a four-seasons car like the all-wheel-drive TT is.

We got back to the dealer (they took the Miata photo above) and got out. There were PLENTY of gorgeous and some rare cars there: BMW Z3 coupe, Volvo S60 R AWD, some other drop-top sports cars. Even a gorgeous BMW M3 convertible.

BUT, since my hopes were on selling the TT and buying a replacement for cash, and most of all realizing that a Miata is not for me. We drove off happily in the TT. I remarked to Nancy that I felt a weight lifted from my shoulders. No longer was owning the TT in doubt.

Thanks for reading!

Scott