[thunderbrick]

Never underestimate the lack of understanding and/or experience in others. A few years ago, I taught a senior lab project course for undergraduate EE majors, a requirement for graduation, at a real doctoral degree granting institution. I was somewhat dismayed to find some of my students (who were actually quite bright and were wizards with Matlab) had never used a soldering iron.
I showed them how to clean and tin a soldering tip, flow a joint, etc...and cautioned them to be careful and not touch the tip lest they get a rather severe burn. I really hadn't thought it was necessary to also caution them not to touch the metallic barrel. I was wrong.... 

The first thing after finding the burn(s) were not overly severe, and reminding myself not to laugh, was the thought - 'Are these kids going to sue me?'
The next thought was that although as a child of the Sputnik era I've been using a soldering iron since the age of 7, it really wasn't fair of me to make assumptions as to what these students knew and did not know.

FWIW,
Paul

I work at a highly-regarded engineering school and can see that stuff all the time, but not to say I haven't burned myself on the heated item from time-to-time.

We have a saying around here that goes "never let an electrical engineer wire your house."   

[Niteshade]

Most electronics work in college is breadboarded. We never used soldering irons in lab. In fact- we did EVERYTHING else but solder! 

In fact- we were taught to wire-wrap. An interesting skill...

The people in college who could solder usually had an external interest in electronics (i.e. as a hobby or they had an Amateur Radio license).

This was an interesting tangent!

How many people suffer from RFI in their audio system? I'm wondering what kind of filter would benefit the most people.

[Danny Richie]

Wow, I thought $595 for a really good conditioner was the dirt cheap, steal of the year deal.

[Mariusz]

Wow, I thought $595 for a really good conditioner was the dirt cheap, steal of the year deal.

Hi Danny

As you know I own this steal of the year deal and agree that it is really good ..... But here, on the cheap & cheerful side, $595 can be quite a chunk of money. 

Mariusz

[Danny Richie]

$595 can be quite a chunk of money.

Yeah, I learned that this year. One persons bargain is another persons "you got to be crazy".

[JohnR]

It's not just about cost but the challenge and the fun of doing something different. Guidelines for this circle are here:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=71233.0

[Danny Richie]

Hitting price points in those ranges are really challenging.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Those Lieberts are *fairly* plentiful on Ebay. The one I got  (mentioned in Doug's post, page one) retailed for something like $1100-$1200, and I got it for $135, with shipping. A few days after I got mine, another ACer got the model below it for real cheap. When I was looking, there were several models up for sale.
Not only are they great UPS units, as it turns out, they clean the power quite nicely too due to the circuit topology.

Bob

[TerryO]

Wow, I thought $595 for a really good conditioner was the dirt cheap, steal of the year deal.

I consider $595 and a bit of work enough to put together a pretty nice CD based system. But I'm cheap and can wait for the right deal!

Best Regards,
TerryO