rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Mar 11, 2012 21:20:50 GMT
Hmmmmm, Sean,
I do understand the concept of protecting your intellectual property, its just with a hybrid amp (tube and MOSFET), how much can be unique (especially if the PS is external and makes such a big difference)?
We also have CMOYS ranging in price from cheap to the sublime. A peek under the hood DOES show the major differences. Sometimes they are only the price........
When coming to a site well known for HQ DIY, superglue implies something to hide, but not necessarily a new or better idea. At 250 Quid, I think it is legitimate to be suspicious.
What bothers me is that a "high end" amp that costs a decent amount of money will sink or swim based on the external PS. If it were my design, I would not want the possibility for it to sound "bad". There would be enough of the PS in the box to make it ALWAYS sound great - regardless if fed with batteries, a "reasonable" wall wart or killer PS. It is not like a JLH takes up THAT much space..........
In any case, there is some pretty stiff competition for the amp. It will be interesting to read the comments after the honeymoon.
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Mar 11, 2012 20:45:57 GMT
Christian It also shows how impotent the U.N. really is. No single member, or 2 members colluding, should be able to veto a resolution passed by an otherwise clear majority of the other members. Alex Alex, that is the only reason that they are still united - no requirement to get things done! If Russia and China had to go along, how long would it last?
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Mar 11, 2012 20:43:04 GMT
The beauty of old valve amps is that they are mostly point to point wiring and getting it up and running again should be no major issue
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Mar 11, 2012 20:37:45 GMT
The Maya's have predicted armageddon for December 2012. I don't care about 2013. Maybe we should start again with year 1 after 2012 ends. We already tried that once - in 2000. The computing world did not die due to the date issue either. The Mayas did not predict Armageddon, rather, a new age - if the scientists got the translation correctly. I would say that we are in Armageddon now looking at the jobs available, the money spent that was not earned, the hotheads that own the land around our biggest energy resources and the wimps in the governments of the so called "free-world" and bankers more powerful than polititcians. Thank the lord that I have headphones and a decent amp that I can call paid for and my own! Now if only a JLH would make the iPhone sound better.........
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Mar 6, 2012 22:33:14 GMT
I have had the best luck with 3 subwoofers placed in 3 completely unsymmetrical places in the room and crossed over no higher than 70-80 Hz. You excite basically all of the resonant modes that way and can turn the subs WAY down with little to no boom and an excellent sense of pitch. Single subs are a desaster as are subs under each speaker. Start at low volume and turn them up slowly.
As far as spikes on ceramic, it really does not help tighten the bass up. I would use hard rubber feet on ceramic and wood, spikes on concrete.
True bass is moving air (unless you are in a small, closed room (like a car) where the air pressure determines what you feel. That means a high quality 12 or 15" woofer is going to do a better job than a small 10" or less.
Integrating the subs cannot be done with a meter, you HAVE to use your ears. The reason is the pressurized chamber effect that I mention above. It is really hard to measure as it applies to your hearing.
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Feb 28, 2012 21:37:34 GMT
Alan, i use standard supermarket 2 component epoxy. 3 euros for a years supply. I also have used polyurethane floor coating. It was left over from a renovation project.
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Feb 28, 2012 6:02:18 GMT
Instead of the tape, you can use quick setting epoxy - no microphonics. Just wrap the drill bit with plastic kitchen wrap first.
Great tutorial!
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Feb 28, 2012 5:48:36 GMT
There are many takes on death. I happen to think that there is a time for all of us and when it is up, it is up. There is always a reason for suicide - from a stupid dare to a planned "execution". I lost my best friend when I was 12. He pulled a plastic bag over his head - and suffocated. He had experimented with not drinking until he didn't need to pee and eating only stuff that the body could 100% process to keep from crapping. I guess the reason for death was curiosity?
We can't check the circuit diagram of the brain. We can only model our lives so that people that have "questions" about life see that there ARE those that care. That doesn't help much when a stupid adolescent experiment goes wrong, but it can be the deciding factor elsewhere.
Take this as a calling for you and the others affected to become a more obvious shoulder to lean on.
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rowuk
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Adele
Feb 25, 2012 19:03:40 GMT
Post by rowuk on Feb 25, 2012 19:03:40 GMT
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Feb 25, 2012 13:20:03 GMT
I would say, make boats available for them to travel home with. There are some exciting economy models that solve many problems at the same time: Even better, have their relatives send them magic carpets. Oh, sorry. Ever since Persia became islamic Iran, carpets no longer work.......
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Feb 25, 2012 13:14:43 GMT
That is what you get when you use a Mac like a PC. Since the advent of the internet, we NEVER have installed from e'mails.
I threw Norton out in 2008. It is a bigger virus than what it is trying to prevent. ClamAV seems to work just fine.
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rowuk
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Adele
Feb 25, 2012 13:03:41 GMT
Post by rowuk on Feb 25, 2012 13:03:41 GMT
............Or Adele's for that matter; the music and lyrics are good but her voice just grates on me.
Frans can design a filter for you.
I think that headphone amps need a multiband parametric equalizer to get the most out of the recordings and hardware.
Except for appreciable measures of noise and distortion, I feel that most audible problems are in the frequency domain.
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Feb 23, 2012 20:56:55 GMT
j w pepper is a big mailorder store. I think that would be a great place to start.
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Feb 9, 2012 17:48:19 GMT
I think that Assbook would be a better description. Also identifies the content in a more realistic way.......
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Jan 31, 2012 22:08:00 GMT
IF you get enjoyment out of 'reproduction of sound' you will need a range of headphones and perhaps 2 or 3 amps with quite different properties to suit the needs of the quality lovers. Those that only care about the essence of the music generally own/use but 1 or 2 headphones and couldn't care less about their source. I resemble that!
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Jan 31, 2012 22:03:47 GMT
Robin Perhaps you could post the details as a project ? Australia exports plenty of tender Angus beef, and other high grade beef to the U.S.A. , so our friends from the U.S.A. can then taste Aussie beef at it's best, not just like McDonalds serves it. Alex . Alex, yeah, tell me about it: mcdonalds.com.au/our-food/whats-in-itYour best beef IS going to McD......... The problem for an American expatriate living in Germany is getting the quality beef in. During business trips to the states, I get my world class steaks. Just here, finding a butcher that knows how to cut up a cow is tough.
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Jan 29, 2012 21:57:35 GMT
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Jan 29, 2012 21:15:17 GMT
That's why we all play tricks in CD production. It sells. Talking of tricks, don't you all think it's time that new releases were put out in a stereo version and a binaural, given that so many now use headphones and DAPS? It would be interesting to see how many of each version sell. (But that's off topic - sorry!!) My son did some research on this when he got his audio engineering degree. It turns out that most liked the "row 5" presentation compared to the on stage, row 16 or row 30 seats. AudioDVDs could provide enough space to give each version its own chapter, including a compressed version for the automobile. None of the labels want to touch it. They feel that signal processing will solve this in the next couple of years. Dial the distance to the stage that you want. I am surprised that automotive playback units do not have compressors implemented. There is NOTHING that improves playback with road noise more. No need to crank up the soft passages to hear them only to get blown out of the car by the next loud passage.
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Jan 29, 2012 21:04:54 GMT
Perhaps you just need a better HA? ;D Robin, are you using 120 ohms output impedance with your 701s ? Alex I think that I could use a better HA. Right now I am using what Rickster recommended when I joined many years ago. A Szekeres MOSFET output stage (not the one with the amplified ground rail) and various gain stages (valve, SS discrete, opamp) depending on my mood. The power supply is a never ending project. I wonder why we call it output impedance, when it is really output resistance? Yes, I use appropriate resistors to raise the essentially 0 ohm output impedance of the MOSFETs to the 120 ohms that the cans like. I also use coupling caps to keep DC out of the MOSFETS. I think that a good parametric is a mood equalizer. A switch to take it completely out of the chain is necessary. To be honest, I don't always like what the recording engineer force feeds us. Start reading up on the "best" microphones available and then how they are used. A bit of playback EQ is HARMLESS! Maybe with the equalizer I would no longer need my valve buffer?
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Jan 28, 2012 0:40:17 GMT
Is it the amp or the headphones that are responsible for sound quality? Many reviewers of headphones don't talk about the amp they are using and are therefore, IMHO, worthless. I have been using a prototype headphone amp the past few weeks (can't say much about it until it's released) but it's transformed my modded Superlux HD681's which now sound exceptionally good. so ATM I am inclined to say the amp is 80 percent responsible for the listening experience. Anyone disagree? Neither is most important. It is your EARS that are most important. Even crappy playback can be spectacular. Just think back to the beginnings of recorded audio. Do you think that great grandfather listening to scratchy gramophone records or radio play with static enjoyed less than the audiophile today with 1,000,000 in gear. I'll bet he ENJOYED the music even more. The phones need a sound that basically fulfills the frequency spectra expectations. The amp will not fix phones that do not match your brain. 80% is self delusion.
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Jan 26, 2012 22:45:19 GMT
I really have a tough time with reports about break in. I sit on stage with a symphony orchestra and even the real violins don't sound the same every day. I think that a lot of what one hears is not in the frequency domain. I sure can't claim good memory over even a couple of hours. A couple of hits from the brass section and everything sounds different.
My current take is that if I like what I hear, then it is good enough for that day. My AKG701s give me pretty much the sound that I have on stage. I am experimenting with a FransFilter for the 701s. I think that I need to make it switchable. Sometimes the strings are too clean with it (not enough scratchiness), other times the orchestral fabric has a sheen that is just magic. Voices don't seem to change much at all.
I think that I need an amp with a really great parametric EQ.
I am pretty sure that temperature plays a VERY big part in the sonic presentation
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Jan 22, 2012 18:47:22 GMT
The DT770s smooth out in the bass if you put a thick cardboard shim under the ear cushions to move your ears further away from the driver. 3mm is about right for my ears. The Btec was my first HA mod and I was very happy with the results. I tried a lot of different opamps, but ended up with the original 5532. It simply sounded best after a couple of months of messing around. www.rock-grotto.co.uk/B-tech.htm
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Jan 21, 2012 21:22:08 GMT
Favorite doesn't count anymore. Christmas brought me an insulin pen. I only sniff the cans anymore.
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Jan 21, 2012 21:20:19 GMT
Ever since I built a JLH for the stove, the steaks taste better. More flavor, depth and fine details. All of the harshness is gone and I never burn them anymore. Don't need anywhere the salt or spices. The potatoe rips are also much faster. Spare Rips have perfect color and texture!
Seriously I love to cook. Soups and sauces are my specialty!
In college we were not allowed to cook in the dorms. I built a stand to hold a clothes iron upside down and we made crepes and cookies on it. Teflon coated - no stick! We alo fried eggs on them on the wool setting.
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Jan 20, 2012 17:51:07 GMT
The best way to deal with this is to take up trumpet! Don't get mad, get even!
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