maxwellseq
Responses from maxwellseq
| Why is solid state more popular when tubes are better? I find myself convinced by much of what @atmasphere says. I was lucky to be taught tube design at university (due to the non-retirement of an aged lecturer). In other labs I manufactured ICs! Tubes have a lot of strengths and it’s quite possible... | |
| Top two most important sound qualities 1. Extremely low noise 2. Accurate tonal balance | |
| Is an isolation transformer better than a power conditioner? As an electronic engineer, I feel that power conditioners should not be necessary. The power supplies inside quality audio kit should be able to reject any noise on the powerline, it's flawed if it can't! Where there may be a benefit is with main ... | |
| Digital Interconnects - Which one is the BEST ??!! 1. SPDIF must use a coaxial cable. 2. SPDIF characteristic impedance of the cable must be 75 Ohm 3. SPDIF cables are often orange 4. It's a digital signal and as long as the cable is well made, there should be no difference in errors and so no dif... | |
| Balanced versus single ended A fully compliant AES 48 installation with good cables will always measure better than a non-balanced RCA installation. Regardless of line-length, noise rejection and other cable artefacts and earth separation will be better. In theory, it should ... | |
| Volume matched inputs on a preamp? I went a different way and use a Drawmer MC2.1 which allows this sort of level control. | |
| Cassette decks. How good can it get? I'm an electronic engineer that has worked in recording studios. I've worked on hundreds of professional reel-to-reel tape machines as well as digital audio recording systems - lining them up as well as repairing them. I also worked on hundreds of... | |
| For all you Bose 901 Haters! Stereo means "solid", and in stereophonics, the ability for two point sources to use phase and intensity to generate a consistent audio sense of solid sound sources in depth as well as width (an image). Most stereo sources (LP, CD, Stream) are abl... | |
| McIntosh -- good for show, not for sound, says dealer Outside of the US, McIntosh are a known brand but there is no large fanbase. Generally, if one of their products is good, people will buy it but I've never seen the "wall of McIntosh" installations. At any one time, a vendor may have a brilliant ... | |
| CD transport vs.streaming If a CD is perfect, there should be no difference in sound between it and a file ripped from it (preferably using EAC). But many CDs have minor (easily recoverable) flaws. Some have worse flaws. If you are playing a CD, there is only a limited amo... | |
| component grounding Electronic engineer here. I was tinkering with a tube (valve) amp when 14 years old and got a bad shock. My father (electrical engineer) was an expert witness for some investigations into death by electrocution. I recommend taking every step nece... | |
| Doesnt resistance mean same as impedance?? In simple electronic models, a resistor is considered perfect as is a capacitor and an inductor. In practice, they all are flawed and have small elements of each other in their behaviour. For example a simple inductor can be a coil of wire, but ob... | |
| How important Is shielding with RCA wires? (Ethan Winer, new video) You should always shield interconnects if you want good signal to noise ratios. If your kit is very good at noise rejection and you live on an island miles from anyone else and Jupiter is having a quiet day and the only kit switched on is your mu... | |
| Clocking: again! I have built and engineered (including hands-on physical inspection and RF analytics) of 100s of thousands of Ethernet ports. Ethernet does not have a clock on the wire. If you are running industrial Ethernet (e.g. Electrical grid switching, tra... | |
| Recommendations Wanted Section 8.5.3 may be a good starting point: |