2. amps-preamps
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Does anyone care to ask an amplifier designer a technical question? My door is open.

I closed the cable and fuse thread because the trolls were making a mess of things. I hope they dont find me here.

I design Tube and Solid State power amps and preamps for Music Reference. I have a degree in Electrical Engineering, have trained my ears keenly to hear frequency response differences, distortion and pretty good at guessing SPL. Ive spent 40 years doing that as a tech, store owner, and designer.
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Perhaps someone would like to ask a question about how one designs a successfull amplifier? What determines damping factor and what damping factor does besides damping the woofer. There is an entirely different, I feel better way to look at damping and call it Regulation , which is 1/damping.

I like to tell true stories of my experience with others in this industry.

I have started a school which you can visit at http://berkeleyhifischool.com/ There you can see some of my presentations.

On YouTube go to the Music Reference channel to see how to design and build your own tube linestage. The series has over 200,000 views. You have to hit the video tab to see all.

I am not here to advertise for MR. Soon I will be making and posting more videos on YouTube. I don’t make any money off the videos, I just want to share knowledge and I hope others will share knowledge. Asking a good question is actually a display of your knowledge because you know enough to formulate a decent question.

Starting in January I plan to make these videos and post them on the HiFi school site and hosted on a new YouTube channel belonging to the school.


128x128ramtubes
desktopguy
383 posts
 
Roger, glad to see you pop up in this thread. I still own 2 RM-9s from the mid-1980s. At my request, you modded each to become  pentode/triode switchable (dropping total power from 100 wpc pentode to 50 wpc triode). That amp in triode mode + Vandersteen 4s and VTL Ultimate remain the best sound I ever heard. My love of tubes dates from those RM-9s. 

All that gear has been in storage for decades...now it's all desktop audio/headphone audio in home office, where I recently got an OTL tube unit for several high impedance headphones (Woo WA3). Impedance issues aside, everything I love about tubes is right there, just as before--the palpable feel of music, 3D notes, imaging, humane/slightly warm tonality.

Wish I could hear your more recent designs, because based on the RM-9s, they must be very very good.
ieales's avatar
ieales
1,201 posts
 
And, with regard to the great interconnect debate: do you know of any testing done that approaches that of scientific blind testing that shows that any given wire, if made out of a certain material, and wound in a certain way, and shielded in a certain way, will cause electrons to move in one manner as opposed to another that can be explained as doing so and that because of that movement can be explained as yielding sonic performance that is measurably and quantifiably superior, or even just different?
One is building a system in which all components sum for the final sound. A cable that sounds fine in one system may not in another. See http://ielogical.com/Audio/CableSnakeOil.php for more information. Be sure to read the PS Audio links. It’s a good primer on audio cable.

The great problem in HiFi is that products are touted as ’the solution’ when in reality, only ’an option’

A great deal of what is claimed is absolute nonsense.
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,994 posts
 
+++++ for a DIY amp kit recommendation as Grannyring requested

i have been considering the 60 wpc kits Ralph puts out...thanks also for your participation here also..

tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,994 posts
 
Roger - thanks for the tube tester reply - I have a B&K 667 on the way...already learning a lot
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,994 posts
 
I also have both the RS analog and digital meters. Have had the analog since my time at Ohio State, no palm trees, probably more like UVA...

I suspect what is happening is logic gate ones and zeros are dominating....along with semi automated IC design....

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