Bad Shipping … the bane of ebay

view mounting ear poking through the side of the box!

not packed tightly with monitor foam!

View of the amp as seen when I first opened the box

View of the original foam showing how it collapsed and let amp ship all around during shipping

As part of my biamp project, I recently bought an old Crown D-75 off eBay. Seller said the Amp was in good shape, and I trust people at their word. I have bought and sold parts via eBay – I sold a pair of Triumph motorcycle forks, and a pair of JBL 4312 speakers – big heavy things, I padded and packed them tightly and they got to the buy on the west coast just fine.

When the Crown amp arrived a few weeks later, I was just amazed. Somehow the seller decided to use a box for a DELL flatscreen monitor and the original white foam for the monitor as packing material for the heavy amp. As you can see in the pictures, this didn’t fill the box and there was no extra foam/ bubblepack or anything to hold the amp in place. It must have bounced all over the place because it broke up the foam and bashed a hole in the package. Thats not UPS’s fault – its the seller’s fault for doing such a poor job of packing.

I hooked the amp up to my speakers and it works fine, but I give all the credit to Crown for making a bulletproof amp, not to this yahoo seller who apparently just used his old computer trash/packing to ship a $130 amp! Amazing!

biAmpin’ the monsters

4320s on the shelf

My old (early 70s) JBLs are big box 3 ways – 15″ woofer, 1″ horn midrange, and a slot tweeter. I’m currently running them with my aging JVC AV receiver – its a nice unit, but it doesn’t provide much headroom for the woofers. JBLs are very efficient speakers – it doesn’t take a lot of power to run tweeters or mid-range horns, but woofers are power eaters in a decent system, and big woofers are worse. You see, speakers make music by moving air, and it takes lots of power to move a big speaker cone.

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Been Missing!

I’ve been way busy in the other world … I just haven’t been updating this site regularly!

Work has been busy –

Summertime always means lots of yard work.

Our friend Janet is now Reverend Janet Avery!

Last weekend we attended Roanoke Pride

Emma has been getting ready to start a new Church plant in Harrisonburg…

And I’ve been building the website for her …
http://www.mccshenval.com/

Roanoke Pride 2006

Watergardens in the sidwalk at Elmwood park

Rev Emma reading scripture
As usual, click the image to see a doublesize version.

Sept 17 we drove down to Roanoke, VA to become members of MCC of the Blue Ridge (MCCBR).
This was an important part of the process of Emma starting a new church in Harrisonburg, VA – MCCBR would be the “host church”, overseeing the financial side (tracking tithes and contributions, writing checks from that fund for rental space, etc) … and we were looking forward to this also because it was Pride Sunday in Elmwood Park in Roanoke and the Sunday service was to be held outdoors in the park.

Rev Janet Avery

Sunny day inside MCC DC

Rev Emma left, Rev Janet Avery on the right
As usual, click the image to see a doublesize version.

I always loved the style of MCC DC – such a wonderfully open space, full of light, and with that huge tree behind the altar and cross …

We had been invited to the ordination service for our friend Janet Avery, what a great day it was.!