Frap's post is interesting and points out a real issue.
There are two intersecting factors in his turntable story. The first is that since phono has the lowest signal levels that you are likely to find in any system, they seem to be most sensitive of all. People who use my Silver Lightning product between the turntable and the phono pre often report rather significant improvements in almost every aspect. I take it to mean that the low level signals are most likely to be effected by *anything.* The second factor is that most people have really *never* heard, or had an opportunity to hear the effect of a single, simple change (assuming it had an effect at all)! So, it is obvious that they will be very skeptical to say the least.
I had a really wierd episode with sonic effects of materials at one time, which made me really scratch my head and wonder if I wasn't hallucinating. To make it brief, I thought my big Symphony No.1 amp, one just built and being listened to for the first time, was distorting badly in both channels. I was really worried that I had made some stage on the PC board non-linear by inserting the identical wrong parts on two boards! It really sounded odd, the highs were "lifted" above the speakers, and they sounded oddly strident as well. Wrong as far as I was concerned. I am sorry to report that the problem was cured by changing the binding posts. The binding posts that were "bad" were of another manufacturer and were the standard 30 amp 5-way style, and *identical* in every visual respect to the "good" ones!
No, I did not (this is now 12 years ago) save the bad ones, and run comprehensive tests to see what the technical differences were - I wish I had. But, since the problem went away immediately, there was nothing much to think about.
If you never had this sort of experience, you'd think I was completely wacky in the head. Indeed, the experience is/was wacky, and I can not explain it. It was certainly not a mass delusion or some sort of sighted bias at work. The last thing that I wanted was to have completed an amp at 2:00 in the morning, and have to trouble shoot it because it sounded like dog meat.
So, there are those who have had these sorts of things happen, and those who have not. Some of the have nots simply don't have gear that would permit them to discern what was going on (like if your amp has those brand binding posts on it all the time! :- ) ) or simply have just never been in a situation where it simply HAPPENS. They, with good reason, tend to be very skeptical about these reports. I understand.
_-_-bear
There are two intersecting factors in his turntable story. The first is that since phono has the lowest signal levels that you are likely to find in any system, they seem to be most sensitive of all. People who use my Silver Lightning product between the turntable and the phono pre often report rather significant improvements in almost every aspect. I take it to mean that the low level signals are most likely to be effected by *anything.* The second factor is that most people have really *never* heard, or had an opportunity to hear the effect of a single, simple change (assuming it had an effect at all)! So, it is obvious that they will be very skeptical to say the least.
I had a really wierd episode with sonic effects of materials at one time, which made me really scratch my head and wonder if I wasn't hallucinating. To make it brief, I thought my big Symphony No.1 amp, one just built and being listened to for the first time, was distorting badly in both channels. I was really worried that I had made some stage on the PC board non-linear by inserting the identical wrong parts on two boards! It really sounded odd, the highs were "lifted" above the speakers, and they sounded oddly strident as well. Wrong as far as I was concerned. I am sorry to report that the problem was cured by changing the binding posts. The binding posts that were "bad" were of another manufacturer and were the standard 30 amp 5-way style, and *identical* in every visual respect to the "good" ones!
No, I did not (this is now 12 years ago) save the bad ones, and run comprehensive tests to see what the technical differences were - I wish I had. But, since the problem went away immediately, there was nothing much to think about.
If you never had this sort of experience, you'd think I was completely wacky in the head. Indeed, the experience is/was wacky, and I can not explain it. It was certainly not a mass delusion or some sort of sighted bias at work. The last thing that I wanted was to have completed an amp at 2:00 in the morning, and have to trouble shoot it because it sounded like dog meat.
So, there are those who have had these sorts of things happen, and those who have not. Some of the have nots simply don't have gear that would permit them to discern what was going on (like if your amp has those brand binding posts on it all the time! :- ) ) or simply have just never been in a situation where it simply HAPPENS. They, with good reason, tend to be very skeptical about these reports. I understand.
_-_-bear