View allAll Photos Tagged InterConnect
Fully branded InterConnect E400 19196 parked in Lincoln bus station on 4.2.21, having arrived here from Skegness with a 56 via Horncastle. Alongside it is native Lincoln full height 19306.
Neil Forrest uses various systems of interconnecting nodes that spread in a matrix. These are generated as dimensional field ornament that corresponds to the distinctive curved space produced by arabesque and muqarna of Islam. Forrest’s work presents a detached ceramic ornament in response to the changing typographies within contemporary architecture - expanding systems intended to modify the psyche of space that is distinguished by lightness and openness. Forrest’s architectural ceramics are porcelain scaffolds, resembling coral environments and truss-like vertebrae.
Working from Gottfried Semper’s analysis that the dressing or decorative surface perform the spatial essence of the wall, and emphasizing the architectural significance of the ‘joint’, Forrest presents a tectonic and nomadic ceramic ornament. The project of ‘colonizing architecture’ is a theory of connectedness enabling close independence, which embraces the principle of non-hierarchical pattern behaviors that largely underpin the decorative arts.
Here ornament is understood as the libido for contemporary architecture, and can be tasked as having increasing utility to the organism of architecture, ready to engage an elegantly engineered world.
Neil Forrest has exhibited and lectured in North America, UK, Europe and Asia, and is currently Professor of Ceramics at NSCAD University. His most recent exhibitions were Wurzelwerk, Scaffs and Thicket. His ceramics have been published in books, craft magazines and architectural journals. Forrest studied at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Alfred University and Sheridan College of Crafts and is involved in several research collaborations that examine ceramics for architecture.
Served by:
Brylaine InterConnect 5
Boston, Cowbridge, Frith Bank, Anton's Gowt, Langrick, Gipsey Bridge, Thornton-le-Fen, Bunker's Hill, Hundle Houses, New York, Scrub Hill, Hawthorn Hill, Dogdyke, Coningsby, Tattershall, Tattershall Thorpe, Kirkstead, Woodhall Spa, Kirkstead Bridge, Martin, Martin Moor, Blankney Barff, Metheringham, Dunston, Nocton, Potterhanworth, Branston, Canwick and Lincoln
Brylaine 6
Coningsby, Kirkby-on-Bain, Roughton, Martin, Thornton, Horncastle, Scrivelsby, Wood Enderby, Mareham-le-Fen, Revesby, Revesby Bridge, New Bolingbroke, Carrington, Frithville, Cowbridge, Frith Bank and Boston
Brylaine/Stagecoach In Lincolnshire InterConnect 7
Boston, Haltoft End, Freiston, Butterwick, Benington, Leverton, Old Leake, Wrangle, Fold Hill, Friskney, Wainfleet St. Mary, Wainfleet All Saints, Havenhouse, Croft and Skegness
Brylaine 58
Kirton, Frampton, Wyberton and Boston
Brylaine 59
Spalding, Pinchbeck, Surfleet, Belnie, Gosberton, Quadring, Donington, Northorpe, Bicker, Bicker Bar, Swineshead, Baythorpe, Kirton Holme, Hubbert's Bridge, Baker's Bridge and Boston
Brylaine 61
Fishtoft and Boston
Brylaine 113
Spalding, Pinchbeck, Surfleet, Belnie, Gosberton, Burtoft, Sutterton, Kirton, Frampton, Wyberton and Boston
Brylaine 113
Spilsby, East Keal, West Keal, Keal Cotes, Stickford, Hagnaby Lock, Stickney, Sibsey Northlands, Sibsey, Hill Dyke and Boston
National Express 449
Mablethorpe, Sutton-on-Sea, Huttoft, Hogsthorpe, Chapel St. Leonards, Ingoldmells, Butlins, Skegness, Wainfleet All Saints, Wrangle, Boston, Kirton, Surfleet, Pinchbeck, Spalding, Market Deeping, Peterborough, Golders Green and London
Brylaine Into Town IT1-4
Boston Town services
Brylaine Into Town 5/6
Fishtoft and Boston
Stagecoach East Midlands has chosen to adorn a Scania N230UD/Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 in an all over livery for the Marie Curie Daffodil Appeal. The vehicle chosen was Lincoln based 15653 (FX10 AFO). The branding includes a number of daffodils which contain public messages from those who have been affected by losing a lost one to a terminal illness. A donation is required to have a message applied, with all proceeds passed on to The Great Daffodil Appeal.
The vehicle is now touring the East Midlands area, having already visited Hull and Scunthorpe. From the 15th May, it was working from Grimsby, entering traffic on the 17th May. It is due to visit Gainsborough, Skegness, Mansfield and Worksop over the coming months.
This second photo shows 15653 on stand at Grimsby Riverhead Exchange on 20th May 2016, awaiting to work the 1315 Interconnect 51 to Tetney.
New to Stagecoach East Midlands (Lincoln) 2010.
And there you have it; a fully branded up, purple InterConnect liveried Scania double decker on the 53 to Grimsby via Market Rasen... they don't get that kind of luxury nowadays. If all the Stagecoach operated InterConnect routes were to this standard three years ago then they really have run the brand down with conventional liveried E300s and the continual cross-route branding with Simplibus.
5.2.18
A transparent sounding interconnect cable. Silver coated pure solid copper single conductor. This is in 1.5 meters terminated with Amphenol plugs, silver soldered.
Stagecoach Interconnect Skegness 9 Mablethorpe to Skegness service on the A52 at Farmer Brown's Huttoft.
Neil Forrest uses various systems of interconnecting nodes that spread in a matrix. These are generated as dimensional field ornament that corresponds to the distinctive curved space produced by arabesque and muqarna of Islam. Forrest’s work presents a detached ceramic ornament in response to the changing typographies within contemporary architecture - expanding systems intended to modify the psyche of space that is distinguished by lightness and openness. Forrest’s architectural ceramics are porcelain scaffolds, resembling coral environments and truss-like vertebrae.
Working from Gottfried Semper’s analysis that the dressing or decorative surface perform the spatial essence of the wall, and emphasizing the architectural significance of the ‘joint’, Forrest presents a tectonic and nomadic ceramic ornament. The project of ‘colonizing architecture’ is a theory of connectedness enabling close independence, which embraces the principle of non-hierarchical pattern behaviors that largely underpin the decorative arts.
Here ornament is understood as the libido for contemporary architecture, and can be tasked as having increasing utility to the organism of architecture, ready to engage an elegantly engineered world.
Neil Forrest has exhibited and lectured in North America, UK, Europe and Asia, and is currently Professor of Ceramics at NSCAD University. His most recent exhibitions were Wurzelwerk, Scaffs and Thicket. His ceramics have been published in books, craft magazines and architectural journals. Forrest studied at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Alfred University and Sheridan College of Crafts and is involved in several research collaborations that examine ceramics for architecture.
After four long months my Audio Note Oto Line SE has finally arrived, along with Audio Note Lexus interconnects. More pix to come.
The Volvo one is sort of pretending to be a Vyking, but I'm a little disappointed these won't ever be seen in real life, since not one ALX400 in Lincolnshire ever got the InterConnect treatment... somehow. OMSI doesn't have Vykings, and I haven't bothered to make an InterConnect C400R livery yet, so here are a couple of 'old' IC buses that have had the branding removed and replaced with standard Beachball logos.
A de-branded InterConnect Trident meets one of Gainsborough's MMCs, which has wandered off from the 100 onto the 97... which if the AI worked properly would go of to Retford (well, off the map) but instead the bus would rather despawn. The livery on the MMC is the one off Fellowsfilm, and while it has all the right elements for one of the real buses, it looks a bit bright - especially the lilac. I'd make my own version to replace it, buuut, then effort would be required.
Stagecoach East Midlands Inter Connect livery FX54AOC 16913 in Cleethorpes.
2004 Volvo B7TL / East Lancs.
Unusually on local service 14.
FX54AOF Volvo B7TL / East Lancs Vyking. Stagecoach East Midlands (Grimsby) 16916 in Cleethorpes. New 2004 to Lincolnshire Road Car, Stagecoach takeover in 2005.
InterConnecting Lincoln.
The most modern double decks to be seen in Lincoln currently are the Stagecoach Enviro 400MMCs that operate the InterConnect branded 100 service between Gainsborough and Lincoln. 10900 was seen approaching the new Lincoln City bus station in October 2019.
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Lockheed P-38J-10-LO Lightning:
In the P-38 Lockheed engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson and his team of designers created one of the most successful twin-engine fighters ever flown by any nation. From 1942 to 1945, U. S. Army Air Forces pilots flew P-38s over Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific, and from the frozen Aleutian Islands to the sun-baked deserts of North Africa. Lightning pilots in the Pacific theater downed more Japanese aircraft than pilots flying any other Allied warplane.
Maj. Richard I. Bong, America's leading fighter ace, flew this P-38J-10-LO on April 16, 1945, at Wright Field, Ohio, to evaluate an experimental method of interconnecting the movement of the throttle and propeller control levers. However, his right engine exploded in flight before he could conduct the experiment.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Date:
1943
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 390 x 1170cm, 6345kg, 1580cm (12ft 9 9/16in. x 38ft 4 5/8in., 13988.2lb., 51ft 10 1/16in.)
Materials:
All-metal
Physical Description:
Twin-tail boom and twin-engine fighter; tricycle landing gear.
• • • • •
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Boeing B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay":
Boeing's B-29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of World War II and the first bomber to house its crew in pressurized compartments. Although designed to fight in the European theater, the B-29 found its niche on the other side of the globe. In the Pacific, B-29s delivered a variety of aerial weapons: conventional bombs, incendiary bombs, mines, and two nuclear weapons.
On August 6, 1945, this Martin-built B-29-45-MO dropped the first atomic weapon used in combat on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, Bockscar (on display at the U.S. Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio) dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Enola Gay flew as the advance weather reconnaissance aircraft that day. A third B-29, The Great Artiste, flew as an observation aircraft on both missions.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Date:
1945
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 900 x 3020cm, 32580kg, 4300cm (29ft 6 5/16in. x 99ft 1in., 71825.9lb., 141ft 15/16in.)
Materials:
Polished overall aluminum finish
Physical Description:
Four-engine heavy bomber with semi-monoqoque fuselage and high-aspect ratio wings. Polished aluminum finish overall, standard late-World War II Army Air Forces insignia on wings and aft fuselage and serial number on vertical fin; 509th Composite Group markings painted in black; "Enola Gay" in black, block letters on lower left nose.
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Boeing 367-80 Jet Transport:
On July 15, 1954, a graceful, swept-winged aircraft, bedecked in brown and yellow paint and powered by four revolutionary new engines first took to the sky above Seattle. Built by the Boeing Aircraft Company, the 367-80, better known as the Dash 80, would come to revolutionize commercial air transportation when its developed version entered service as the famous Boeing 707, America's first jet airliner.
In the early 1950s, Boeing had begun to study the possibility of creating a jet-powered military transport and tanker to complement the new generation of Boeing jet bombers entering service with the U.S. Air Force. When the Air Force showed no interest, Boeing invested $16 million of its own capital to build a prototype jet transport in a daring gamble that the airlines and the Air Force would buy it once the aircraft had flown and proven itself. As Boeing had done with the B-17, it risked the company on one roll of the dice and won.
Boeing engineers had initially based the jet transport on studies of improved designs of the Model 367, better known to the public as the C-97 piston-engined transport and aerial tanker. By the time Boeing progressed to the 80th iteration, the design bore no resemblance to the C-97 but, for security reasons, Boeing decided to let the jet project be known as the 367-80.
Work proceeded quickly after the formal start of the project on May 20, 1952. The 367-80 mated a large cabin based on the dimensions of the C-97 with the 35-degree swept-wing design based on the wings of the B-47 and B-52 but considerably stiffer and incorporating a pronounced dihedral. The wings were mounted low on the fuselage and incorporated high-speed and low-speed ailerons as well as a sophisticated flap and spoiler system. Four Pratt & Whitney JT3 turbojet engines, each producing 10,000 pounds of thrust, were mounted on struts beneath the wings.
Upon the Dash 80's first flight on July 15, 1954, (the 34th anniversary of the founding of the Boeing Company) Boeing clearly had a winner. Flying 100 miles per hour faster than the de Havilland Comet and significantly larger, the new Boeing had a maximum range of more than 3,500 miles. As hoped, the Air Force bought 29 examples of the design as a tanker/transport after they convinced Boeing to widen the design by 12 inches. Satisfied, the Air Force designated it the KC-135A. A total of 732 KC-135s were built.
Quickly Boeing turned its attention to selling the airline industry on this new jet transport. Clearly the industry was impressed with the capabilities of the prototype 707 but never more so than at the Gold Cup hydroplane races held on Lake Washington in Seattle, in August 1955. During the festivities surrounding this event, Boeing had gathered many airline representatives to enjoy the competition and witness a fly past of the new Dash 80. To the audience's intense delight and Boeing's profound shock, test pilot Alvin "Tex" Johnston barrel-rolled the Dash 80 over the lake in full view of thousands of astonished spectators. Johnston vividly displayed the superior strength and performance of this new jet, readily convincing the airline industry to buy this new airliner.
In searching for a market, Boeing found a ready customer in Pan American Airway's president Juan Trippe. Trippe had been spending much of his time searching for a suitable jet airliner to enable his pioneering company to maintain its leadership in international air travel. Working with Boeing, Trippe overcame Boeing's resistance to widening the Dash-80 design, now known as the 707, to seat six passengers in each seat row rather than five. Trippe did so by placing an order with Boeing for 20 707s but also ordering 25 of Douglas's competing DC-8, which had yet to fly but could accommodate six-abreast seating. At Pan Am's insistence, the 707 was made four inches wider than the Dash 80 so that it could carry 160 passengers six-abreast. The wider fuselage developed for the 707 became the standard design for all of Boeing's subsequent narrow-body airliners.
Although the British de Havilland D.H. 106 Comet and the Soviet Tupolev Tu-104 entered service earlier, the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 were bigger, faster, had greater range, and were more profitable to fly. In October 1958 Pan American ushered the jet age into the United States when it opened international service with the Boeing 707 in October 1958. National Airlines inaugurated domestic jet service two months later using a 707-120 borrowed from Pan Am. American Airlines flew the first domestic 707 jet service with its own aircraft in January 1959. American set a new speed mark when it opened the first regularly-scheduled transcontinental jet service in 1959. Subsequent nonstop flights between New York and San Francisco took only 5 hours - 3 hours less than by the piston-engine DC-7. The one-way fare, including a $10 surcharge for jet service, was $115.50, or $231 round trip. The flight was almost 40 percent faster and almost 25 percent cheaper than flying by piston-engine airliners. The consequent surge of traffic demand was substantial.
The 707 was originally designed for transcontinental or one-stop transatlantic range. But modified with extra fuel tanks and more efficient turbofan engines, the 707-300 Intercontinental series aircraft could fly nonstop across the Atlantic with full payload under any conditions. Boeing built 855 707s, of which 725 were bought by airlines worldwide.
Having launched the Boeing Company into the commercial jet age, the Dash 80 soldiered on as a highly successful experimental aircraft. Until its retirement in 1972, the Dash 80 tested numerous advanced systems, many of which were incorporated into later generations of jet transports. At one point, the Dash 80 carried three different engine types in its four nacelles. Serving as a test bed for the new 727, the Dash 80 was briefly equipped with a fifth engine mounted on the rear fuselage. Engineers also modified the wing in planform and contour to study the effects of different airfoil shapes. Numerous flap configurations were also fitted including a highly sophisticated system of "blown" flaps which redirected engine exhaust over the flaps to increase lift at low speeds. Fin height and horizontal stabilizer width was later increased and at one point, a special multiple wheel low pressure landing gear was fitted to test the feasibility of operating future heavy military transports from unprepared landing fields.
After a long and distinguished career, the Boeing 367-80 was finally retired and donated to the Smithsonian in 1972. At present, the aircraft is installated at the National Air and Space Museum's new facility at Washington Dulles International Airport.
Gift of the Boeing Company
Manufacturer:
Date:
1954
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Height 19' 2": Length 73' 10": Wing Span 129' 8": Weight 33,279 lbs.
Physical Description:
Prototype Boeing 707; yellow and brown.
• • • • •
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Boeing B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay":
Boeing's B-29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of World War II and the first bomber to house its crew in pressurized compartments. Although designed to fight in the European theater, the B-29 found its niche on the other side of the globe. In the Pacific, B-29s delivered a variety of aerial weapons: conventional bombs, incendiary bombs, mines, and two nuclear weapons.
On August 6, 1945, this Martin-built B-29-45-MO dropped the first atomic weapon used in combat on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, Bockscar (on display at the U.S. Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio) dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Enola Gay flew as the advance weather reconnaissance aircraft that day. A third B-29, The Great Artiste, flew as an observation aircraft on both missions.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Date:
1945
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 900 x 3020cm, 32580kg, 4300cm (29ft 6 5/16in. x 99ft 1in., 71825.9lb., 141ft 15/16in.)
Materials:
Polished overall aluminum finish
Physical Description:
Four-engine heavy bomber with semi-monoqoque fuselage and high-aspect ratio wings. Polished aluminum finish overall, standard late-World War II Army Air Forces insignia on wings and aft fuselage and serial number on vertical fin; 509th Composite Group markings painted in black; "Enola Gay" in black, block letters on lower left nose.
Stagecoach East Midland Gainsborough Based 10901 YX67VCO Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 MMC ' InterConnect 100 ' Is Seen Here At Lincoln Bus Station Working Service 100 From Scunthorpe On Saturday 3rd March 2018.
Butterflies reproduce the way other animals do -- sperm from a male fertilizes eggs from a female. Males and females of the same species recognize one another by the size, color, shape and vein structure of the wings, all of which are species specific. Butterflies also recognize each other through pheromones or scents. During mating, males use clasping organs on their abdomens to grasp females.
Many male butterflies deliver more than just sperm to their mates. Most provide a spermatophore, a package of sperm and nutrients the female needs to produce and lay eggs. Some males collect specific nutrients to produce a better spermatophore in an attempt to attract a mate. Some females, however, don't have a choice -- in some species, males mate with females before they have left their chrysalis or swarm the chrysalis waiting for the female to appear. In most species, males and females look a lot a like, but females often have larger abdomens for carrying their eggs.
Females store the sperm in a sac called a bursa until she's ready to lay her eggs. She fertilizes her eggs as she lays them, using the last sperm she received first. For this reason, males of some species will leave a substance that dries into a film on the female's abdomen in an effort to keep her from mating with other males. Females lay their eggs one at a time or in batches of hundreds depending on their species.
A butterfly has to take special care when laying eggs. The eggs must be kept warm and at the right humidity level. Too much moisture and the egg will rot or be attacked by fungus. Too little and the egg will dry out. Caterpillars also need to start eating as soon as they hatch, so most of the time females place the eggs directly onto a plant the caterpillar will eat. Typically, the eggs attach to the underside of a leaf so they are hidden from predators.
In spite of all the effort female butterflies make to protect their eggs, very few make it to adulthood. Ants, birds and other animals can eat the eggs themselves. Also caterpillars and butterflies are popular snacks for everything from birds to bats. Some insects also lurk in or around flowers to prey on adult butterflies. A butterfly's chrysalis also has few defenses from predators and, at all stages of life, a butterfly can succumb to fungi and diseases.
Parides iphidamas is a species of butterfly in the family Papilionidae. It is commonly known as the Iphidamas Cattleheart and the Transandean Cattleheart.
As the OMSI E400 MMC was updated, which required reworking of all the repaints, I thought I'd recreate the Gainsborough batch I'm familiar with from the 100, to replace the slightly more basic and inaccurate preexisting version of this repaint that no longer worked. Probably should have waited until I finished it before putting screenshots on FF because all that did was prompt the creator of the old one to update it... removing the need for me to make this in the first place. I do believe they call that "a kick in the teeth".
Obviously mine's better because the yellow cyclists sticker is on the back. I mean, you gotta have the yellow sticker or it's not a bus, is it? It'd be like turning up to a party and not bringing the police.
As the OMSI E400 MMC was updated, which required reworking of all the repaints, I thought I'd recreate the Gainsborough batch I'm familiar with from the 100, to replace the slightly more basic and inaccurate preexisting version of this repaint that no longer worked. Probably should have waited until I finished it before putting screenshots on FF because all that did was prompt the creator of the old one to update it... removing the need for me to make this in the first place. I do believe they call that "a kick in the teeth".
OMSI interior repaint templates are about as user-friendly as a salt shaker with no hole, so after much trial and error I got something that looked vaguely like a Stagecoach interior, minus a few bits that I either couldn't find on the templates or looked too tedious to even try bothering with. There was a lot of guesswork, as well as a general lack of interior reference pictures for the InterConnect examples.
The IC branding on the cab door I made to look reasonably accurate, while on the cove panels I just had to make it up because I've no idea what they have written up there. I'm fairly sure it's not "Lincoln-Gainsborough-Scotter-Scunthorpe" as that isn't even on the exterior, but there wasn't really much else to put, so I went a bit freelance in the end.
Solo SR WK11 APX departing Lincoln with an Interconnect 5 to Boston on 18.1.20
Having a Solo operate an Interconnect route seems a bit odd to me, not that I have any knowledge on what the IC5 is like as a route but just because at one time Interconnect meant Road Car B7TL (and subsequent Stagecoach deckers) and I just sort of imagine Interconnect would require heavyweight buses, even if not the 70-odd seats of a double decker.
Stagecoach East Midlands 15811 FX12BBV, Scania N230UD Alexander Enviro 400 in Interconnect 6 livery.
Stagecoach East Midlands Scania N230UD/ADL Enviro 400, 15176 (YN64 XTD), is seen at Immingham Civic Centre on 14th April 2017 (Good Friday).
Not an uncommon sight is this, an Interconnect branded vehicle not on an Interconnect route. It was working 'Simplibus' 5 from Grimsby to Immingham.
New to Stagecoach East Midlands (Grimsby) in 2014.
So over the last two or three weeks I’ve grown accustomed to the sound of the Nuforce Icon HDP and Quad QPM1 combination. The HDP has been connected to the iMac via the supplied generic USB cable supplied in the box. The Quads have had the audio signal passed to them via a couple of Monster Audio 250 Interlink phono cables. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been working late on the computer and listening to music with a pair of Sennheiser HD 238 ‘phones plugged into the HDP. Although the sound from the Quads has been pretty damn good it struck me that the sound from the 238’s was a bit punchier, cleaner, smoother and had a far better sense of depth and airiness around the instruments. Now these are good, but not great, cans. They certainly sound much better through the HDP than they do through my iPhone. It’s clear the HDP has far more power available to drive them properly. But they are not in the same audio league as the Quads.
So why did they sound better? What I was hearing from the Quads was beginning to annoy me. Complex passages of music, be it driving rock or orchestral pieces, were indistinct and lacked pace and dynamism. Compared to the headphones the sound was nowhere near as refined and articulate. At times with the headphones on I forgot I was wearing them and I was convinced sounds were actually coming from the room around me. I didn’t get this effect with the Quads.
Surely it couldn’t be the cables? As far as I was aware all the USB cable had to do was feed a bunch of zeros and ones along some copper and into the HDP DAC. Being digital, I wasn’t convinced the signal could degrade enough over the metre length of the cable to make much difference to the DAC. Then I started looking into it and discovered that cable manufacturers were adamant that jitter and timing errors could have a significant effect on the DAC’s ability to convert the data stream without introducing a detrimental effect on the audio fidelity. I have to admit that I was quite sceptical about this. But then again it all seemed quite technical and the more I read the more I began to be persuaded there might just be something in their claims. Also from my experience of the Quad 12l2’s in the front room hooked up to the Arcam with Audioquest Indigo cable I was sure the Quad QPMs should sound a hell of a lot better than they currently did.
The Wireworld Ultraviolet USB cable was getting rave reviews from the likes of What Hi-fi and they’re generally fairly reliable. I decided to take the plunge. I’ve always thought that the rule of allocating 10% of your expenditure on the audio gear should be allocated to cabling was a sensible one. I’ve never regretted any of the cable upgrades I’ve made in the past. So the Wireworld cable might sort out some of the digital confusion but I then had to deal with the analogue side.
I’ve never really rated Monster Cables. I think they’re overhyped and any cable manufacturer that flogs their wares in an electrical shop that also sells washing machines and fridges has got to be a bit a bit suspect. I’d only bought the 250 interconnect as a last resort because I couldn’t be bothered making the trip into town to by something better. I had a hunch the 250 cable was basically junk. Having read great reviews on the Chord Crimson Plus interconnect I decided I’d give it a try. What Hi-fi (again) had awarded it best cable of the year. It seemed to possess all the characteristics I was looking for. Transparency, neutrality, openness, good bass control, improved dynamics, great detail and acoustic delay. And quite affordable.
Knowing that poor cabling was very probably the root of my problems I was excited to try out the cables. I got home today and rewired the system and fired up the iMac. I can honestly say that the difference was immediately apparent. Anybody that tells you that cabling doesn’t make a difference to the quality of your system has never actually tried changing their wiring.
The difference really is immense. I was quite surprised and thrilled to hear the difference the new wiring made. Well worth the investment. Everything suddenly makes sonic sense. Everything is placed properly across the sound stage. The balance that the recording engineer intended is immediately apparent. A sense of scale and dynamics, sorely missing before, has been restored. The sense that you’re there with the musicians right in front of you is now evident. This, really, is what the hi-fi enthusiast is really striving for. Finally, it’s all come together. For the sound quality I now have in my first truly dedicated computer based audiophile grade audio system I'm delighted. And for the price I paid, a bargain. Plus it will last a lifetime.
Buy decent audio gear while your ears are still capable of hearing it!
345kv line interconnecting OPPD Sarpy County Station to Council Bluffs Power Plant of Mid-American Energy. Taken October 2012
Stagecoach Lincolnshire Roadcar's Skegness Based, Loaned to Stagecoach Hull, Alexander Dennis Enviro 400MMC '10899' YX67 VCM Can be seen on Anlaby Road, Hull, after completing the Service 12A from Kingswood Health Centre. Showing support for Andys Man Club. A charity for mens mental health.
New to Stagecoach Lincolnshire Roadcar Gainsborough in November 2017 & Spent it's life in Interconnect and Working the 100 between Scunthorpe & Lincoln. Transferred in 2024 after Gainsborough got the Ex Manchester 73 Plate Alexander Dennis Enviro 400MMCs.
Just over a week after the first ThreeFifty branded MMC strayed onto the 103 and visited Lincoln, it damn well happened again! Weirdly, this almost exactly mirrors the events of February this year, when two different FastCats ended up on the 103 within a couple of weeks of each other.
Completely new this time, though, is the identity of the vehicle. My first sighting of Stagecoach East Midlands 26175 comes here on 7.10.23, as it arrives with its 103 down Lincoln's Pelham Street, in the late afternoon sunshine.
YX67 VHG
Stagecoach East Midlands - InterConnect liveried - Volvo B7RLE / Wright Eclipse Urban 2 - AE09 GYU seen at Lincoln Bus Station whilst not in service on April 29th 2024
Climbing through Lincoln on 9.10.23 was Gainsborough InterConnect E400 MMC 10901, heading through out of service after having run the 573. According to the tracking map, the vehicle off the 573 usually congregates with some other deckers at what I assume is a school just north of the city, but none of them ever show any route number for whatever it is.
Anyway, the main reason I took this was because it had the "InterConnect, connecting people & places" blind showing, which is something a bit different. I think it came about in one of the bouts of blind reprogramming that Lincoln never partakes in, but I'm guessing it's a resurrection of an older, late 2010s blind, because the letters have that squared-off look to them.
YX67 VCO
Broadgate, Lincoln
Captured whilst working the above journey on InterConnect service IC5, Brylaine’s BMC 1100 Falcon type BU05 EEO is seen in the picturesque setting of Dunston village which is situated between Metheringham and Nocton. The stream in the foreground flows from right to left as we look and after crossing Dunston Fen it eventually joins the River Witham, which, as I have mentioned before, like service IC5 also connects Lincoln with Boston.