The Blog

Miss Melody ES688 - ESS AudioDrive 688 Capacitor Replacement

Nix McRetro // 2nd April 2023 // Repairs, YouTube

Recently I had the joy of being able to replace the capacitors on a Miss Melody ES688. The poor thing had NCK branded caps, which are way past their best before date. Installed some Panasonics and Rubycons and it’s ready to roll. Just need a machine to test it in.... Continue reading

Capacitors Manufacturer Tier List Ranking

Nix McRetro // 1st April 2023 // Repairs

Capacitors Manufacturer Tier List Ranking

I’d previously linked to this list at Tom’s Hardware for my Cisco SPA. I was lucky that my capacitors were even on the list. It’s occurred to me that many do not even make it to tier 4… I forked an existing list from five years ago, I tidied up... Continue reading

TrueNAS Tinkering

Nix McRetro // 27th March 2023 // IBM PC, Nature

Sometime in October 2022 during RetroChallenge 2022/10 I started to tinker with TrueNAS Scale. I’ve been on the search for more storage for a while now. Well not more storage, but a way to store my data reliably. I learnt about magical things like ZFS, RAIDZ2, spinning rust, HPE MicroServer... Continue reading

Cisco SPA8000-G4 8-Port IP Telephony Gateway - Recap Overview

Nix McRetro // 15th January 2023 // Nature, News, Repairs

Good old Su’scon capacitors. Where do they sit? Tier 4, the lowest of the tiers. If Tom’s Hardware capacitor manufacturer tier list is anything to go off then they are trash. They placed my favourites at the top (Panasonic and Rubycon) so I’m inclined to agree with them. And there’s... Continue reading

Horizon Forbidden West (2022) Live Stream

Nix McRetro // 31st December 2022 // Livestream, Sony, YouTube

Firstly, I would like to give a hats off to the developers. This game did not crash once on my PlayStation 4 slim and performance was on par with Horizon Zero Dawn. Plus, I only got stuck in a wall once! And after Cyberpunk 2077… I’d get happily get stuck... Continue reading