2. amps-preamps
  3. 176566-170020

Can a Amp be "timeless" and compete with todays amps?

I’ve been into hi resolution audio for 20+ years, well longer than that but acquired high quality gear about that time. I veered off into other interests for 15 years but still had my system sitting idle in it’s dedicated room. I became interested in it again 6 months ago and began to update it. I still have my Rega Planar 25 table and a Dragon phono stage.  I retained my CEC TL1 transport, but replaced my DAC with a Dinafrips Venus II, I also have the Hermes DDC which I feed my CEC into as well as my Cambridge Streamer. I sold my Genesis V speakers because they were having an issue with the left channel bass and since they were out of business I had no way to fix them, it was over my head. I found someone that wanted them and was willing to repair them himself. (he is very happy with them) I replaced them with some Goldenear Triton 1.r’s which I love. So here is the nostalgia part. I still have my VAC Cla 1 Mk II pre amp and my VAC Renaissance 70/70 Mk II amp. I feel they still hold up well sonically, so my thoughts are to send them both to VAC for the Mk III updates this fall of 2022, which includes replacing any necessary parts and "voicing" them back to new as intended when they were first made. I really believe these pieces are worthy of the restoration, are newer pieces today really going to make much headway? I cannot afford to replace these items with "like" items as I am retired and the discretionary income isn’t there anymore. I just feel like they are still really good and offer a very high quality sound. I mean 8- 300 B tubes can’t be all that bad can they? I’ve voiced the pre amp with with Telefunken 12AX7’s and I have a small stash of them. Tube sound is still great right?

128x128fthompson251
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,408 posts
 

I would advise against trying to simplify technical issues like negative feedback.  It won’t work.   The devil is always in the details and how well the experts do things.  That’s why we pay them to design and build things for us. 

teo_audio
2,197 posts
 

Negative feedback does not work, in the final aspect of looking for perfection in it, in looking for perfection that is reasonably attainable (compared to other possible solutions).

Positive feedback might, if it is programmed correctly. A mighty big if, if there ever was one.

Problem is, that in an entire playback chain, that positive feedback aspect has to be carefully programmed. But some impossibilities remain, or at least seem impossible. Chaos/’infinite variation’ aspects, at least with our normal level of ability to unwind their complexities.

Negative feedback, one might say, is the simplified method of getting past those potentials in error within executing positive feedback. One that fails to take on the fundamental. Rather that it is ’clever’ and sidesteps it all, instead.

I did do a design where I combined negative feedback with a specifically shaped interference in the given amplified signal. It tends to sound like the best of both worlds. People remarked that they’d never heard anything like it before.

An example of this sort of area of thinking is found in Jim Strickland’s Accoustat TN amplifier circuit. It looks kinda dumb at first glance. The trick is that it is dynamically active.  It is transient wave shaping, in it's feedback effects, in the realm of time and level.

mapman's avatar
mapman
22,408 posts
 

Case in point. 

teo_audio
2,197 posts
 

You're welcome.

Irony is a must, in all things that are observed in moderation.

Take..er.. your 'give and take', in it's norms. It's ambiguity, and shortness, for some, is designed from the ground up, to speak in ways of inflicted harm, via the least words possible. Trolling without seemingly being trolling. I see you.

deludedaudiophile
493 posts
 

It has become an interesting thread. Two people are talking about negative feedback. One clearly understands the topic and appears to be able to talk about it in great length. The other appears to talk at great length. It is up to the reader to decide who is correct. I enjoy both, but for different reasons.

More to discover