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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
fleschler
2,008 posts
 
Funny that the latest ARC amps I've heard sound greyish, muted dynamics, etc.  My friend has an ARC 75 which is no match for his Classic 60s or my voltage regulated amps.  Worse, his amps, Ref 5 preamp and $10K CD player all have had significant break-downs after only a year or two.  Yuk!

My question remains, I'd like to know what you opinion is of the VAC IQ (continuous autobias) amplifiers. They sounded great wherever I heard them and they appear to be conventional designs well executed. They must have good impedance outputs to make them adaptable to drive many types of speakers like your own amps.
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,911 posts
 
i may jinx myself but my REF5se is going on 6K hours.....zero issues...I am on the 3rd 6550 ( a USA made TungSol )
.....
unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma
979 posts
 
Ramtubes:  

“SPL”

you just went technical on me. 

I’m gonna take a wild guess: sound pressure level?

I think the debate between cone and electrostatic is reminding me of the great cable interconnect debate. Could it be that this is just personal preference? Or even that my ears are just trained and accustomed to whatever cones do to the ears? I’ve listened to my share of electrostatics. Some were very impressive. Some were better than my Altecs in many respects. But none moved me. 

Back to SPL. I do get the bit about moving air as opposed to mass. In theory, that is more efficient.  But then if true, there would be an electrostatic subwoofer. ? Maybe there is? 
unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma
979 posts
 
Atmaspheres:

I have 6,000 LPs. A lot of them have a good bottom, some have an excellent bottom. 

I love the Theodorakis performance, but alas it’s like listening through cotton.

Let’s see what it sounds like in my new room. I’ll let you know. 

M


shkong78's avatar
shkong78
1,485 posts
 
Thanks a lot Roger for your kind explanation why Tube SET amplifier sounds good.

I had used only 4 tube amplifiers in my life.

Jadis 500 made in France

Silbatone 300B SET made in Korea

Rogue Cronus Magnum II made in USA

Line Magnetic 508 SET made in China

I really like the sound of SET over PP.


You can see my audio history in the below link.

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/the-most-musical-sound-in-my-40-year-s-audio-history

Thanks again for your kind advice

Thomas
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