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The Contour System – Directional Wiring of Audio Parts

Hi guys!

The topic is about subjective homemade research of conductors directivity. I know most people don't believe in such phenomena so probably the story is not for them but for those who find it unbearable to listen to imperfect sound of chaotically directed wires and components.
As for me, I hear direction difference distinctly. The matter started from interconnect cables quite long ago, after a while I added to my research inner wiring of loudspeakers, then discover the importance of mains cables direction. After all I decided to find the directions of all the wires and components of my pretty vintage DIY tube mono SE amp and after everything had been done I drew a resulting schematic and wrote the article. It was in 2005, I have translated it in English only now. Hope you will find the article useful or just enjoy it.
Here is the Link: https://www.backtomusic.ru/audio-engineering/theory/contour-system.
anton_stepichev
anton_stepichev OP
150 posts
 
Nice job, that makes me think if same models sound identical when leaving factory.

Of course they sounds different, the only question is to what extent. If we, for example, compare two modern conveyor amps made in the same day or week, they may differ just slightly. But if we compare any couple of amps of the same model with an issue date difference of several years, the contrast in sound may be as large as if it were completely different amps. And the old stock one will most likely be better, but it is impossible to guess for sure.
antigrunge2
1,403 posts
 
@anton_Stepichev,

as far as I am aware when done in the digital domain (my experience is with puremusic) it doesn’t involve going through all sorts of additional DSP hoops. That would be dysfunctional and is one of my key issues with Roon which has poor SQ compared to a pure renderer (e.g. Squeezebox-based)
anton_stepichev OP
150 posts
 
Unfortunately, I can't say anything about Pure Music or Squeezebox. I've never heard of them.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Good work Anton on something I have been thinking about for a long time. The fundamental idea is sound of course but in practice daunting and so congratulations for taking on something so many others simply throw up their hands and mock as impossible. 

Once having done all the work to map and sort you probably could build an amp that would far outperform what anyone would be able to get from the same parts any other way. Have you built complete amps for sale? Or is this more of an intellectual pursuit? Either way, awesome!
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,836 posts
 
There was an audio internet site that was run by a bunch of Japanese audio enthusiasts. They were among the first to use those NOS WE 16GA speaker cables. They were very fastidious about it, trying all the types they could get their hands on. 

Many here tried those cables and loved what they heard. Going through what else they were into showed them to check directionality in the cables they used when building their gear, if I'm not mistaken. It's been quite awhile and I can't locate the site.

All the best,
Nonoise
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