Do equipment stands have an impact on electronics?

Bingo!  

Atmasphere, I got it, you must be Ralph Karsten:

http://www.atma-sphere.com/AboutUs#Company

Why don’t you just use your name? I always use my name. Even when I owned my acoustics company I used my real name. Even before the Internet, when the main gathering place for audio talk was the Music & MIDI forum in CompuServe, I used my real name.

Ralph, I find it hysterical that you sell low power tube amplifiers that don’t even quote a distortion spec, but you’re glad to criticize my choice of equipment. For the record, I still use my Pioneer receiver, and it cost all of $150 at Costco. It offers six reasonably hefty power amps with max distortion of 0.1 percent. This is not great, but it’s surely better than any tube amplifier! At full output of 110 watts with all channels driven the distortion is less than 1 percent. Since I use powered monitors and a killer powered SVS subwoofer, the Pioneer’s amp distortion is irrelevant anyway. I just use the line outputs.

I find it amazing that you agree with me about overpriced power wires, and about Geoff Kait, and probably 99 percent of everything else about audio. But to avoid alienating people you want to sell stuff to, you’d rather attack the one time I forgot to qualify power cords as needing to be competent. And to think some folks here called me a shill!

I’m new to this forum, but I can see based on the replies that many here prefer to remain willfully ignorant. That’s fine! If you peeps find the truth about audio fidelity offensive, you’re welcome to ignore facts and buy overpriced crap that makes zero difference in sound quality or is even worse than "normal" gear. It might seem that one-off boutique audio gear would be better than mass-produced amplifiers and DACs etc. In fact, it’s the opposite. If Sony makes a mistake it can cost them millions of dollars. So these large companies hire the very best engineers and designers they can. And for the most part their products reflect that. I’ll take a $400 Crown power amp over some BS $15,000 amp featured in Stereophile every day of the week!

The point is that WE DON"T CARE WHAT YOU THINK!!

Is that simple enough for you, Ethan?

Dave

For the record, I still use my Pioneer receiver, and it cost all of $150 at Costco. It offers six reasonably hefty power amps with max distortion of 0.1 percent. This is not great, but it’s surely better than any tube amplifier! At full output of 110 watts with all channels driven the distortion is less than 1 percent. Since I use powered monitors and a killer powered SVS subwoofer, the Pioneer’s amp distortion is irrelevant anyway.

You are incorrect (you must not have seen the 'Specifications' link that appears on each of our product pages), we quote a distortion spec on all of our amps and apparently its lower than your Pioneer and composed of a spectrum that is less irritating to the human ear. So- 30 watts is the lowest power we make- the largest is over 500 watts. What is the value you regard as 'low power'??

Ethan, you must be aware that tubes were considered obsolete way back in the 1960s or 70s (depends on who you talk to). But for some reason, the market has chosen to keep them around. Normally when a technology goes obsolete, the only place you see it after that is at antique shows or junk shops. This isn't happening with tubes, which suggests that they might do something that the market likes.

Turns out it has to do a lot with how the human ear/brain system perceives sound (if you are an engineer, I am now suggesting to you that understanding how sound interacts with the human physiology and then applying engineering to take advantage of those perceptual rules is the key to building better sounding audio equipment; the fact that the audio industry in general ignores these rules is why you see so many subjectivists).

It is inside of that conversation where it is possible to understand why your Pioneer actually has **more** perceptible distortion than many tube products which on the bench otherwise have a greater THD, although I agree that its use on the sub takes care of some of that problem, although I can point to other issues that make it unsuitable for playing bass correctly.

If you want to know more about this, I suggest you read the writings of two of some of the best solid state designers alive today- John Curl and Nelson Pass (both of whom can do considerably better than Crown or Sony). They both understand that it is the higher ordered harmonics to which the ear is most sensitive (and not the lower orders, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th). The ear is sensitive to the higher ordered harmonics because it uses them to ascertain how loud the sound is. Your Pioneer, which is apparently a high distortion amp by solid state standards,  has a lot more of those higher ordered harmonics than our amps do; in fact most solid state amps (even those with very low THD figures) are also higher distortion than our amps in this regard.

In case its not clear, our amps were designed specifically to not make higher ordered harmonic distortion, while at the same time keeping the lower orders and IMD down as well.

BTW, our amps are fully differential from input to output, and thus don't feature the 2nd harmonic in their THD.  Have you ever wondered, if triodes are supposed to be so linear, how come it is that tube amps usually have more distortion? A lot has to do with topography. A lot also has to do with the fact that tubes don't need as much feedback on account of that linearity. We don't use much in the way of feedback at all in our amps.

So these large companies hire the very best engineers and designers they can. And for the most part their products reflect that. I’ll take a $400 Crown power amp over some BS $15,000 amp featured in Stereophile every day of the week!

I can point you to a simple example of how one person can do what a large well-funded company can't. Google 'Rohloff hub' and you will see a 14-speed (internally geared) bicycle hub designed by a single German engineer. It is durable and refined in every sense of the word. Compare that to Shimano's Alfine 11-speed hub; Shimano came out with their 11-speed to try to horn in on the market Rohloff created; needless to say they failed miserably- the Alfine was a disaster (the hub is is weak, shifts poorly, has less gear range and fails without provocation). Shimano is one of the largest players in the bicycle parts world, and yet for all their 'expertise' they couldn't get that one right to save their lives.

BTW I happen to use a Crown power amplifier with my keyboard setup. Its not a bad amp, but in no way can it keep up with actual high end amplifiers. But it is lightweight (class D, 22 pounds) and makes good power (500 watts/channel) and so is very practical as a keyboard amp.

Dave, you are welcome to ignore me! I don't care what you think either, but I don't get bent out of shape about it and feel the need to say so IN ALL CAPS. :->)