Audiozen,
I can obviously get pretty dumb.... I am actually responding to your
comment...
You shouted,
why do you think 100% OF ALL HIGH END
COMPONENTS HAVE NASA GRADE PARTS.. BETTER SOUND
QUALITY
If 100% of all high end components have "NASA grade" parts, then
why bother making the comparison between Accuphase's better "NASA
grade" parts compared to McIntosh' "NASA grade" parts?
Making that distinction is meaningless.
And if V-CAP tells me their caps are NASA grade, but the "lower grade
cap" with the same capacitance with cheaper dialectric materials also
tells me their caps are "NASA grade", then why bother? And the $5
cap? It too could be "NASA grade." The appellation "NASA grade"
doesn't mean any guarantee of quality such as the quality in the V-Caps.
Methinks you are missing the point... I am simply saying that "NASA
grade" means almost nothing in terms of sound-quality, and now that
you have confirmed that 100% of high-end components use "NASA
grade" parts (which I will not disagree with), your original comment is
rendered meaningless. I can absolutely guarantee you that NASA does not
perform listening tests on their caps in audio circuits to determine whether
certain caps meet "NASA grade" standards or not. If you can
provide evidence to the contrary, I will retract everything I said. However, I
think you are relying on some Stereophile reviewer's mid-80s hyperbole.
Your definition of "NASA grade" seems to be the rough equivalent
of "it's really really good." My definition of "NASA
grade" is those parts which meet the specifications of MIL-STD 975M,
which are roughly unchanged in the past 15 years, and remain US DoD
guidelines because the US govt does not abide by 3rd party independent
testing in many cases still. Having read the NASA procurement guidelines
"for fun" a while back, I can confirm that I fully expect high-end
audio components use "NASA grade" parts, because that means
that the failure rate of the electrical components in my equipment is probably
low enough to allow me to plug them equipment in safely.
Taters,
I fully expect they do. In fact, I would expect they have all made efforts to find
good-sounding capacitors within a certain price point of "NASA
grade" parts so as to improve the sound vs the less-good-sounding
"NASA grade" parts. I also expect that all Japanese high-end mfrs
would use parts which would meet or beat "NASA grade" specs for
performance and reliability, despite being made in Japan. Oops... I forgot,
Black Gates are made in Japan. As are Nichicon...
