300b lovers

Electronics Engineer (EE)

Volume Control (VC)

For me and the amount of Typo's I keep making, it would be great if I could abbreviate a lot more words.     

Once you hear the difference an IT makes, you realize: "Aha! So that’s what RC coupling sounds like!" And then you start hearing that coloration everywhere in mainstream audio equipment, and can never forget what it sounds like.

This is an experience no reviewer ever has, even if they have $250,000 systems. Because why would they? Everything has been handed to them on a platter. They don’t know what’s inside the pretty box... it could be elves doing magic tricks for all they know.

What drives this exploration is curiosity. What will this sound like? Well, you don’t know until you try, and why take somebody else’s word for it? That’s no fun.

Grounding in the physics of tube function helps, because you get a feel what the device "wants to do". Pilots have a saying, "the airplane wants to fly". If you’ve ever been at the controls of an airplane as it lifts off the runway, you feel it. The vibration stops, the wings lift, the ground falls away, and you keep moving forward, a creature of the air, not the ground. You are now in a different realm.

Tubes are the same. They want to amplify. It’s what they’re made for. Our job is to get out of the way and let them do that, so we get into load-lines, the most linear region, what happens as the current dips downward, staying away from trouble spots, etc.

I made a little post a few days ago on Facebook, quoting a meme from my Ukrainian friend, Misho Myronov. When asked what his amplifiers amplify, he replied: "Happiness! My amplifiers amplify happiness!"

All of us who create tube amps get this. We do it because it makes us, and our friends who listen to them, happy. In the comments to Misho’s post, I added:

"I was just talking to Karna, and said, an amplifier is like a dance partner for the speaker. If the partner is dull and disengaged, the speaker will be bored and not interested. If the dance partner is lively and fun, the speaker will light up and come alive."

All of us who have solved a difficult technical problem, or just got a better amplifier, will hear the speaker really come alive and surprise us. That’s the happiness.

@donsachs 

not being an EE myself I may have this wrong, but isn’t IT a long established superior way of coupling? Nobu Shishido’s Wavac EC300b with its superb Tango transformers is a prime example of the technique, isn’t it?

@donsachs ​​​​@lynn_olson 

It was great to meet you both at PAF and thanks to each of you for taking time to talk to me. That was the main reason I went there (and yes, Lynn, the lines at SeaTac were awful flying out). My given name is Jonathan and I know you were talking to a lot of different folks up there so you might not remember me. Don, you gave me information about a cable company and a semi-affordable DAC that wasn't as expensive as the top LampizatOr tiers. 

I posted most of my thoughts of the Blackbird (I suggested to David Whitt that you might come up with different names due to Raven Audio's avian naming for their tube amps) in the Spatial Audio Circle at Audiocircle but I was impressed with everything in both Spatial rooms and I spent significant time listening to both the Blackbird/Raven combo and Cloud's updated Valhalla amp with the X4 Ultras and both were impressive. 

I thought the Songer speakers were impressive as well although there are so many components in a room that, if you are unfamiliar with the speakers/amps/cables etc it is hard to attribute something you really like to one thing.

Since this was my first audio show, I asked a guy in the Seattle HiFi/Modwright room how things work because it seems to me the speaker is like the lead singer in a band, getting most of the credit and the spotlight and not always deservedly. He told me that they try to get synergy and sell the equipment as a unit rather than just sell individual components and I thought that probably makes sense.

I also saw certain kinds of music being played in most rooms, usually female vocals with sparse arrangements in order to show off the dynamics and quiet background. Some rooms had the music playing too loud to really make any opinions about anything other than "it's hurting my ears."

One of the things I liked about the Spatial rooms is that they were willing to play any kind of music and not always modern/hi rez stuff and they played at what I would call reference volumes which Goldilocks would say was "just right."

Anyhow, because of both of your willingness to share time and experience there and here, I really had a worthwhile time and learned a bunch. Thanks.  

@antigrunge2 Yes, IT is known as an excellent way of coupling, but it is expensive for very good ITs, and also they take far more physical space than your typical coupling cap.  So most vintage tube amps use RC coupling due to cost and size considerations.   Bad ITs don't sound very good, they can oscillate, or have very poor frequency response.  Done correctly with top shelf ITs and with a plan for the layout, then IT coupling walks all over RC coupling.   Medium ground is LC coupling with a high quality anode choke and good capacitor.  Also, there are circuits and tubes that are very difficult loads for ITs, so it is process of using the right method for the right circuit.  It is not one size fits all....  But in the right spot, I prefer IT coupling....