OK, class, lets start with 2+2. First, we need to wait a couple of hours for
these numbers to warm up and achieve their full potential. Ideally they should
be thought of a day in advance. We noticed immediately that these numbers have
a warm, friendly valve-like quality with none of the brightness and edginess
of, say, 5 or 13. The numbers were first tried out in a HP 2385F calculator
system.
This showed great timing and pace, the numbers appearing crisply on the LCD
display. We then switched the new stock Japanese batteries to NOS Duracells,
and immediately noticed a greater depth to the image and more blackness around
the numbers. In use, the calculation produced a rather disappointing result of
4. However, when the calculator was mounted on 'Calcapod' TM oak feet a much
better result of 5 was obtained. Conventional wisdom that one should spend 50%
on the calculation, 30% on the calculator and 20% on oak feet seems to be
confirmed by this result.
We then proceeded to try 5+5 in this setup, which produced a disappointing
result of 9, which in addition had a muddled and congested feel to it. Clearly
the system is sensitive to its source componants - if there is any brightness
in the numbers this will show up quite clearly. Switching to the HP 2998K
calculator system a result of 13 was immediately obtained, and after it was
left on day and night for a week with random numbers fed through it a very
satisfactory result of 21 was obtained. In particular, the componant digits of
the result were now better delineated in the digit field, almost jumping out of
the LCD. It felt as if the calculation had started to want to be made,
bettering the previous result by a fair margin. Resolution, detail,
transparancy and focus were all excellent.
We tried the calculation with a monophonic setup of the calculator on the desk,
and found that a 15% toe-in gave the best results. I feel I can confidently
recommend the calculation of 5+5, though 2+2 may well work better on a
back-of-the-envelope system using a single ended NOS fountain pen (review next
month).
=== Andy Evans ===
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