dynamiclinearity
Responses from dynamiclinearity
| Leaving my amplifier on ok? In general for tube amps it's better to turn them off. With one exception that I know. David Berning's amps. David designs for long life, very, very long life in total contrast to almost every other tube designer. I know from a friend who was ther... | |
| Tube Preamp: How many tubes does it take to ................. I'll throw in another possibility for 'extra' tubes in a preamp that can improve fidelity, cathode followers after again tube. They supply a nicer impedance match to the next gain stage. If every gain stage in a preamp used them you end up doublin... | |
| Best EXTERNAL DAC suggestions Mike Moffit, the Schiit digital designer is one of the greats. He's been at the top of his field for over 4 decades. | |
| Perplexed on how single driver speakers can cover such a large Hz range Speakers don't exactly create different frequencies and then put them together. The single signal is a complex combination created by a signal composed of all the frequencies a microphone picks up. The signal is a complex of hills and valleys one ... | |
| Perplexed on how single driver speakers can cover such a large Hz range An interesting oldie from the 70s was the Rectilinear X(ten) 3 way but the mid range ran from 200 Hz to 8 kHz with a 2 " cone tweeter above that and a 10" woofer in a closed box below so an almost full range speaker. And interestingly the crossove... | |
| What speaker could safely be ordered without hearing it first? None no matter how revered they are even by every expert. No speaker is perfect and the combination of characteristics that make you happy may be very personal. Saying that there may be two ways to do it. The safest is, of course, if you can retu... | |
| A Black Box to Solve Everything It isn't as simple as adding higher tube distortion. The Carver concept of transfer function actually works though, to signmake a solid state amp sound like a matching tube amp, which is exactlly matching the electrical output of two amps. But I ... | |
| Why is solid state more popular when tubes are better? It would be simple if there was at least one perfect amplifier. There are none. Amplifiers have multiple characteristics and all of them vary their strengths and weaknesses and each of us varies in which of these characteristics and their combinat... | |
| Is simpler better? There's a famous Einstein line: The simplest answer is the best answer, as long as it works. | |
| Can an audio rack be that important? In audio with the best systems EVERYTHING matters. Micro vibrations matter. I put special feet under a DVD I used only as a CD drive and it was a completely different, better drive. There are lots of ways to isolate micro vibrations in a syste. A ... | |
| Active ATC vs Spendor / Pass Labs This is past history so take that into account. I was friends with Gordon Holt from the mid 70s until his death. Gordon was concerned with accuracy, the knid that sounded like the real thing on good recordings. Gordon did a lot of recording includ... | |
| I'm thinking about a low watt tube amplifier? Just a thought. A big part of tube sound is their low damping factor. You need way more power than you're using even at reasonable levels if you play music with wide dynamic range. It's only for micro seconds but pianos can give 30 dB peaks and th... | |
| What's the point of reviewing? Reviews are fun. They introduce you to products you might miss. If the reviewer understands functionally how a product is designed(a few do) you learn what the designer is trying to do and a bit of if he's going in the direction he wants. If you r... | |
| Why do speakers improve with more powerful amps? I'd love to answer but there are so many variables it would take a small book. But all things being equal my friend George Bischoff who built triode tube amps(Melos) with over 400 watts/channel always said a good big amp will beat a good small amp... | |
| DIY Cheap crossover parts effect on frequency response Parts values determine how crossovers operate. But the quality of crossover parts affects things like dynamics, transparency, etc. Also 1st order crossovers demand very high quality, wide band drivers. Otherwise they will still have significant ou... |