2. tech-talk
  3. 126864-1129

Class "A" sound, as related to Stereophile.


It's all about the sound.

It's all about sound, not how much it cost; when I got into "high end", I knew right off the bat I couldn't afford it, but I had to find one thing for sure; how do the various components sound in regard to Stereophile's classes, or ratings? In order to know this; I had to acquire the ability to identify "Stereophile's" class "A" class "B" and class "C" sounds, and the only way to do that was: first, subscribe to Stereophile, and next was to go to every high end audio salon within driving distance; there were 5 well stocked "high end" salons within driving distance. (Since I didn't take my wife, that created some problems)

After a few years of subscribing to Stereophile, plus auditioning equipment that Stereophile recommended, I knew the sound of those recommendations, and I absolutely concurred with them; "If you want to hear the music, you got to pay the piper". While that's true, it's possible to get class "A" sound with class "B" bucks or less.

At this moment, I am looking at 8 capacitors that cost $25 dollars each, plus 2 mono blocks with an instant resale value of 6K. Once I take the covers off and go in with my soldering iron, these mono blocks are worth a resell of O; my mission must be a success. After a successful mission, the resell is still 0; but those mono blocks will deliver class "A" or "A"+ sound, and that's some sweet music.

I have to visualize and hear music in my head before I can modify a component to deliver class "A" sound; but that's the only way for me to get what has become a necessity.

The pressure someone is under when they modify, is great, but the rewards are glorious. On these mono blocks, they are too small for the huge capacitors, therefore I have to figure a way to make the case larger. My reward is "sound" with absolutely no relation to money. I often wander if someone with a fat bankroll can identify the sound, or only how much they paid for each piece.


Happy listening.

orpheus10
dlcockrum's avatar
dlcockrum
2,190 posts
 
"Perhaps it's that I listen closer than 8 feet and the drivers can't sum properly in the near field or perhaps those slow crossovers don't knock the drivers down far enough out of the pass band for me."

Hi viridian.  It's the former.

Best to you,
Dave
Post removed 
orpheus10 OP
8,668 posts
 
You have good taste Viridian, but I already knew that.

My crossover is a 3-way, 4th order crossover, T-Type; but I didn't design it.  A very eccentric engineer designed it.  This was quite awhile ago, before computers were as common as they are now, and I watched him work with a computer that had "solid" geometric shapes in color; a cone was one of them, and they had numbers on them.  He was using two dials that merged these shapes how ever he wanted to engage them.

I have never seen anything like that before, or since.

While I know you would be able to put it together, it took me forever to get a cabinet that looked decent.  If you can't hire a cabinet maker, don't even think about it,


Enjoy the music.
Post removed 
dlcockrum's avatar
dlcockrum
2,190 posts
 
Hi viridian,

You are more than welcome to visit anytime you are in the Houston area. Seriously.

Never heard 1.5s, but I would imagine that the design was the best that could be done with the size and cost targets. I would never describe the sound of my 5i’s or the 2 2s I just sold to be slow. Not even close. These models were praised by almost everyone as having exceptional transient response and superior macro/micro dynamic performance

I am more of a fan of the Thiel 2 2, 3.5, 3.6, 5i era. Jim Thiel went to extremes to make the 1st-order crossovers work with these models IMO.

Indeed the 1st-order crossover is tough on drivers as the crossover allows them to see frequencies significantly outside of their stock design parameters. That’s why Jim took great care in driver selection and almost always used drivers modified to his specifications. Even the tweeters in the 2 2, 3.6, and 5i are custom made to Jim’s specs by Vifa to provide extraordinary excursion.

Jim published a white paper explaining it all very thoroughly. I can’t find a link to it on the web but I do have a hard copy. He used both a slanted & rounded baffle (the ones in my 5i’s are made of a heavy, inert marble/composite material) and carefully-engineered electrical circuits in the crossover to delay the signal exactly the right amount to ensure time and phase alignment between the drivers AT A SPECIFIED DISTANCE! of around 8 feet from baffle to listener. Thus, they do not work well in near-field environments. My 5i’s are 8 feet out from the wall to the front of the baffle, 8 feet apart from tweeter to tweeter, and 8 feet from my listening position, which is 8 feet from the wall behind me.

orpheus10, I can’t understand how the crossovers in your speakers could be modeled after the 1st-order Thiel crossover if they are 4th-order as you say?

Best to you both,
Dave
More to discover