sean...Thanks for the straightforward answers. I could respond with follow up questions, but I doubt that we would ever agree completely.
My concern (probably too strong a word) is that many audiophiles spend a lot of money on things that have no (or very little) benefit because they have no engineering knowledge and are easily misled by half-baked pseudo-scientific smoke and mirrors.
About the audio amp that is powered by the audio signal, I can't remember exactly where I came across this: it would obviously be some unique situation, perhaps an impedance matching matter. Of course, electrostatic headphones use the audio signal to generate their high voltage bias. In my previous incarnation as an aerospace engineer we used a square wave instead of a sine wave for ac input power. It's more efficient, and the dc comes out the same.
My concern (probably too strong a word) is that many audiophiles spend a lot of money on things that have no (or very little) benefit because they have no engineering knowledge and are easily misled by half-baked pseudo-scientific smoke and mirrors.
About the audio amp that is powered by the audio signal, I can't remember exactly where I came across this: it would obviously be some unique situation, perhaps an impedance matching matter. Of course, electrostatic headphones use the audio signal to generate their high voltage bias. In my previous incarnation as an aerospace engineer we used a square wave instead of a sine wave for ac input power. It's more efficient, and the dc comes out the same.