2. amps-preamps
  3. 140029-80294

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.
.
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
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,861 posts
 
Thanks for the link. It is clear to me that above and below 1 KHZ there is 6 dB of EQ on either side of the red line, making a total of 12 dB as stated before.
I think you might be misinterpreting something- The red line is not the EQ curve. If you look at the actual curve, at 500Hz it only rises about 3 dB to 1Khz and then about 2 1/2 dB to 2KHz. The scale on the left is 5 dB per gradient.


I've seen a number of older console and stand-alone components that had networks installed for the ceramic cartridge inputs. Loading of ceramic cartridges is pretty critical if you wan them to work right.


Strain gauge cartridges seem to be the high quality version of a constant amplitude device in that they can track at 'normal' tracking pressures and have decent bandwidth. But its always bothered me (nor am I alone in this by any means) that they are often sold without proper compensation. I went to hear one back when CES was still at the Alexis Park and brought an LP that I knew quite well since I recorded it. You could tell it was the same music but the tonality was definitely off. The manufacturer was claiming that it needed no EQ... I thought about offering to do an equalizer for it but with his remonstrations it seemed an uphill battle. I think your comment about the Win hit the nail on the head- there's a bit of a consistency problem.
ieales's avatar
ieales
1,201 posts
 
@atmasphere 
µs, not ms
75 µs, 318 µs and 3180 µs
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,861 posts
 
µs, not ms
75 µs, 318 µs and 3180 µs
<facepalm>Correct!</facepalm> 
zimmerma's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
zimmerma
102 posts
 
Sir---- I cannot get any responses on the Digital forum to my query about the variables affecting the implementation of dac chips in dac units. So, I hop that you can address this question for me. [My private email address is zimmerma@sfu.ca if you prefer to address it is private.] 
Here is my formation of the question:

What makes for good implementation in a dac?

By now it is conventional wisdom on this digital site and others that the dac chip itself counts for comparatively little of the overall quality of the unit. The slogan has become something like: "The chips 10%, the implementation 90%." However, I cannot recall any very detailed discussion of precisely what very good to excellent to superb implementation actually involves. 
Yes, there are general references to the quality of the power supply and especially to the quality of the analogue output stage; but nothing [that I can recollect, anyway] that goes deeply into the details....
So, I raise that question here. I do hope that the technologically adept members of this forum can address it, with some attention to the various dimensions of implementation, e.g. op amps vs tubes in the analogue output stage, some concrete examples of brands and models that do it well and do it badly.   
clio09
3,360 posts
 
I can say from Roger's perspective that while he listens to digital sources, I am not sure he would comment on their circuit designs given his lack of interest in manufacturing such a unit. Roger is all about research first and foremost, as a great designer should be. From my conversations with him I don't think he has done much of the research necessary to formulate a response to your questions. Of course I could be wrong and I'm sure others with an opinion might chime in.

I for one, having tried both, always felt that tubes really don't add much value in digital sources. Yes I'm sure the "it's all in the implementation" folks will jump all over that one, perhaps the "jitter" folks as well, but that is just my experience. I've been using the same DAC for 12 years now and have had others in for audition, but the incumbent stays. Is it the PCM 1704 chips? The battery powered output stage? The direct coupled design? The Word Clock output? Not sure, but all I know is nothing else makes me want to replace it.
More to discover