2. amps-preamps
  3. 140029-80294

Does anyone care to ask an amplifier designer a technical question? My door is open.

I closed the cable and fuse thread because the trolls were making a mess of things. I hope they dont find me here.

I design Tube and Solid State power amps and preamps for Music Reference. I have a degree in Electrical Engineering, have trained my ears keenly to hear frequency response differences, distortion and pretty good at guessing SPL. Ive spent 40 years doing that as a tech, store owner, and designer.
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Perhaps someone would like to ask a question about how one designs a successfull amplifier? What determines damping factor and what damping factor does besides damping the woofer. There is an entirely different, I feel better way to look at damping and call it Regulation , which is 1/damping.

I like to tell true stories of my experience with others in this industry.

I have started a school which you can visit at http://berkeleyhifischool.com/ There you can see some of my presentations.

On YouTube go to the Music Reference channel to see how to design and build your own tube linestage. The series has over 200,000 views. You have to hit the video tab to see all.

I am not here to advertise for MR. Soon I will be making and posting more videos on YouTube. I don’t make any money off the videos, I just want to share knowledge and I hope others will share knowledge. Asking a good question is actually a display of your knowledge because you know enough to formulate a decent question.

Starting in January I plan to make these videos and post them on the HiFi school site and hosted on a new YouTube channel belonging to the school.


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Showing 10 responses by mrdecibel

mrdecibel
2,887 posts
 
BTW, I am believer in both pcs and fuses. Enjoy ! MrD.
mrdecibel
2,887 posts
 
I will be the first. I never owned an amp of yours. I have owned other tube amps by several other manufacturers. I gave up on them, and this has been through a pair of modified and tweek'd pair of Klipsch Lascala. Why did I give up on them ? Noise, microphoncs, pretty often biasing, warm up time ( I leave ss amps continuously because of the superior sq ). and " timing " in the bass ( muddy ). I go passive through a Dac. Should I try an amp of yours, and why ? I listen loudly to rock and jazz. Thank you... Enjoy ! MrD.
mrdecibel
2,887 posts
 
Roger, thank you for the response. I have to disagree with you as to warm up time of a component ( which is relative to break in time ). For me, 5-10 minutes is never enough. " Don't sound bad when they come up slowly ". For me it takes much more time. I am not talking measurements, I am talking " listening ". I would like to leave it at that, as this, too, could wind up being a very controversial discussion, and not new to Audiogon. Enjoy ! MrD.
mrdecibel
2,887 posts
 
Roger, thank you again for your response. My ears have required long warm up times for almost all of the gear I have had over the years. Solid State as well as tubes, dacs, tuners, tape machines, etc. I suppose R. V. knew what I was talking about, the warm up problems. Is the forming switch the same as an amp having a stand by mode ? I assume it is this capacitor thing that I have been responding to. I am glad you are here posting, as I am greatly enjoying the information. Enjoy ! MrD.
mrdecibel
2,887 posts
 
This is not in a bad way. " First I'm not using this post to sell amplifiers, that is up to you. " Exposure, soft selling, putting the puppy in my arms. Genius ! All good. Love the thread ! Enjoy ! MrD.
mrdecibel
2,887 posts
 
No one has said this yet, except Roger, in his response to my 1st question. If this isn't a form of advertising and exposure, and yes, to sell some amplifiers, I do not know what is. Awesome Roger ! Enjoy ! MrD.
mrdecibel
2,887 posts
 
Roger, this is a GREAT thread, thank you. I agree that all of the nasty comments and bickering should be kept out of this thread ( as well as all threads ). This thread is about learning, as I see it, and I am learning a great deal ( maybe understanding 1 % of it ) And yes, this thread has me thinking about trying tubes again in a power amp. : Going back to damping. In my early years, I owned several ss power amps, a few high powered. Two in particular, were an original Ampzilla, and a factory built Dynaco 400. Having many speakers at the time ( DQ10, AR 3, Klipsch Lascala, just to name a few ), the Dynaco had a bloated, slow, ill defined bass in comparison to the Ampzilla. Both were rated at 200 wpc into 8 ohms ( as I mentioned, these characteristic were also in all of the tube amps I had at the time ). Can you explain if these characteristics between the Amnpzilla and Dyna had anything to do with damping ? Thank you in advance. Enjoy ! MrD. 
mrdecibel
2,887 posts
 
We need to stay away from the power cord debate here, imo. However, I have stated in other cable threads the subtle, to dramatic differences pcs make, to these ears. Cannot explain why, and I do not really care. But in my listening room, with my equipment and system, and with every one of my familiar recordings, I hear it immediately. I am talking about IEC cords, and those I have replaced with hotwiring. Sorry Roger, I will try and stay on point. Enjoy ! MrD.
mrdecibel
2,887 posts
 
Tomic, the ADS L 2030 was ( likely still is ) an awesome speaker.....Enjoy ! MrD.
mrdecibel
2,887 posts
 
Krelldreams, I use an Luminous Axiom II, Walker Mod, 3 rca in, 2 rca out, with remote, and I feel it does not have a sound of it's own. $1249. retail. Tim Stinson from Luminous spent a lot of time with me on the phone, and I could not be happier. Enjoy ! MrD.
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