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Tube versus SS


Since I just installed some rather expensive NOS 6922 Telefunken tubes in my Phono-preamp, that yielded outstanding results, I decided to compare CD to Phono.

From the best of "Jacintha", CD, I selected "Danny Boy". Her voice emerged deep center stage from a jet black noise free back ground. It sounded more like what I expected from the analog.

That was followed by special LP's of Dinah Washington that had recently arrived. Those LP's were everything I expected with the NOS 6922 Telefunken Tubes in the Phono, but the surprise was the fact that I couldn't tell the two apart; both were outstanding.

What may surprise you, is the fact that I attribute these outstanding results from the COVID 19 "lock-down" which has given us the quietest "grid" ever in history. That means those of us with lesser means have the same AC power as the richest who can afford expensive AC power "clean uppers".

BTW, I have made extensive comparisons to recordings made before and after, the lock-down that confirm just how much of a difference it's made. I must admit that I had doubts about expensive power conditioners, but this confirms that fantastic results come from taming the wild AC.

It's my belief that we can not achieve better results than we have from the current "quiet grid", which means power conditioner or no power conditioner, we are all presently getting the same results.

Could it be that the dominant factor when comparing tube and SS when they both are of comparable quality is "The quality of the AC"?
   
orpheus10
mikelavigne
2,199 posts
 
Why are many of the most expensive preamps 2 box units? Do they have two boxes just to impress you? Of course not, they have one box exclusively devoted to turning AC into DC for the signal section.
i have 2 preamps.

my darTZeel pre has a main chassis, and a power unit; the power unit is really a charger since it's battery powered.

my CS Port phono is also battery powered.

so A/C power is bypassed for all my pre-amp functions.

turns out that battery power has advantages for low noise AND dynamics.
ebm
9,311 posts
 
This subject has been talked about many times in the past.
orpheus10 OP
8,668 posts
 

Battery power is the best.


I first wrote about this in March; that means your rig was improved at that time, by now you've gotten accustomed to the improvements.
david_ten
5,480 posts
 
@orpheus10 The Nature article linked above points out this:

"A noise reduction of this magnitude is usually only experienced briefly around Christmas, says Thomas Lecocq, a seismologist the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels,"

I’d expect other widely observed and region specific religious and secular holidays to track or exhibit similar patterns.
orpheus10 OP
8,668 posts
 

The "jivest" power supply is on the computer. I tried to figure out a way to improve that, but there just isn't enough room, can't be done.

That power supply has been improved by the improved incoming AC. I also down-load my LP's to hard drive. in this process, there is a "wall wart" to that device which has been improved by the cleaner AC.

I'm down-loading identical LP's with the same equipment I used before and getting big improvements on the new playback. When you think about all the industrial equipment; such as high voltage electric welders that can cause an instant drain on your grid, which would result in a blip on your AC line, that are now silent, you can begin to understand how your AC is better. It's only when all this noise is gone can you tell the difference.

When I referred to the Jacintha CD and the Dinah Washington LP, I was comparing the totally noiseless black background on both, and the "holographic" effect that's usually reserved for the upgraded analog and not the CD, but I had that on both CD and LP.

I could think of a lot better ways to spend my time than to down-load the same identical LP's with the same identical equipment, if I wasn't getting a remarkable improvement.

Think about it, those who can afford it got a low level power conditioner, a high level power conditioner, and another one specifically for the computer. Now that the AC from the wall is improved, you have them all from the wall.


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