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 3 responses by twoleftears

@gnaudio I’ve had several amps over the years plugged in the same room in the same AC receptable. A 300B stereo power amp didn’t hum. My current solid-state monoblocks don’t hum. But a popular US-based, US-manufactured, relatively inexpensive, tube integrated did hum, not a lot, from *both* the transformers and through the speakers, enough that when combined the hum could be heard from listening chair when music fell silent.

I lifted the ground. I ran an extension cord from the other floor of the house. I turned off every breaker in the whole house save for the one receptable being used. I tried ground loop eliminators, like the Hum X. I tried DC blockers, like the HumDinger from AVA. I followed the "how to eliminate hum" instructions from the PS Audio webpage. I tried isolation transformers (Furman pro). I tried a PS Audio unit. I tried a variety of other power conditioners. The company blamed it on the sensitivity of my speakers. I tried different speakers, with same result. Eventually I gave up.

It’s not any kind of discovery that the quality of manufacture of transformers used in different amps varies a good deal (designing to a price point + variable QC), but this demonstrates clearly that what works in location A will not necessarily work in location B, and that makes/models that achieve considerable popularity will not work for everybody, always. Live and learn.

Because mild to moderate hum is not fun or glamorous or sexy or exciting, I suspect it's a problem that occurs more often than is reported or discussed.


Technical question: Do certain electronic components, e.g. capacitors, need to "form" before they operate at their best?