Can we have an "Ask Sean" catagory?

Marco: You are probably closer in your description than of my "clutter" than Matty is. As to your question, i responded there prior to coming back to this thread. As such, "you've got mail" ( in that thread ). Sean
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Thanks for the kind words Mt10425. I do what i can, when i can and am glad that i can help. Having said that, Tubino is absolutely correct. I've already got a big mouth and don't need any type of "throne" to give me an even bigger head. On top of that, i need to spend LESS time on the computer in order to get more things done AND maintain my own learning. After all, i'm only repeating / expounding upon subjects that have already been covered by those that are truly deserving of recognition.

If i personally had to say "THANK YOU" to someone, it would be:

1) my Father for exposing me to "audio", which led into other forms of "electronics" in general.

2) J. Peter Moncrieff of International Audio Review ( IAR ). He showed me what it was to be an "audio scientist" and made me want to understand in explainable form the how's and what's rather than to guess at them or believe what i was told by "guesser's" aka "GESR's" ( Golden Eared Subjective Reviewer's ).

3) David Spiegel of Audio General Incorporated ( AGI ) for being both a visionary and demonstrating that audio can be both "spectacular" and "reasonably priced".

With the education that i received from those mentioned above and my background in RF ( radio frequency ), i think that it has allowed me to look at / examine AF ( audio frequency ) from a slightly different point of view than that of most other "audiophiles". With that in mind, it sometimes amazes me that AF guys overlook some design attributes that us RF guys take for granted / assume should be "standard issue". Then again, the folks that design and work with devices that work at "ultra-mega-super-duper high frequencies" probably laugh at all of us "low frequency fools", me included.

We've all got our place in audio / electronics. So long as we keep learning and climbing up the ladder, we'll make room for someone below us to pass that knowledge on to as they start their climb. If we all take the time to share what we've learned, people won't be shopping for audio gear at Best Buy for very long : ) Sean
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PS... If we all knew what we should know about the subject and passed it on, "high end" wouldn't exist as we know it today. As much as it would upset some people, "Snake oil" would no longer be available for sale : )

Clueless: Thanks for the kind words : ) Sean
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PS... BWA-HAHaha... : )

Buscis: "open mouth, insert foot" category? Sheesh, i'll be busy with both of these going at the same time. The scary thing is that i wear a size 15EEE. At least now you folks can see where and how i got the big mouth. Maybe sometimes i shouldn't try to fit BOTH feet in there at the same time : )

Thanks for loving and / or putting up with me folks. We are like a big family here, in-breeds and all. Does this mean i can show you my scars now? : )

I know that some think of me in some ways as the "older brother" aka "the know-it-all". Sometimes though, i'm sure that i'm closer to being the "younger brother". That is, the one that "speaks before thinking" : )

Either way, don't hesitate to hit me with the "stupid stick" when i get out of line. Just remember, i might like it, so use it sparingly : ) Sean
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PS... Me and Slappy together as an audio talk show??? Sheesh, i can't begin to imagine. As "un-organized" as i am in real life and as much of a "lovable knucklehead" as he is on these forums, i think that the only thing that ever got finished between the two of us would be a LOT of bottles and cans. CRANK up the tunes : )

Thanks to everyone for the kind words. I appreciate it, even though i know that i'm "like a rose". That is, nice to look at from a distance, but up close, you have to watch out for the thorns : )

Jes45: According to IQ tests that i took 25 years ago in high school and other testing that i took for a job ( you wouldn't believe what this place put you through ), Sean is a genius. He is also Irish, making him unmotivated and willing to let others benefit from their efforts.

If you wonder why i bring up being Irish as an "excuse", look at Ireland as a Country. How many other Countries in this modern day and age are still governed by another Country? Irish people are all great talkers and deep thinkers ( just ask them ), but we just aren't motivated enough to follow through with all of our "brilliant ideas".

As such, many of the ideas and research that i come up with end up in other people's product lines. I've done research and development for over a half dozen different manufacturers in the past and still do work for some today as needed. I hope to change that soon for my own financial benefit, but i'm not starting with audio related gear.

Many of my ideas are quite diverse and nothing that i myself would like to market. Given that i don't know how to approach a manufacturer with an idea without having them steal it out from underneath me, i've sat on these ideas / potential products.

If you're wondering how i could design or research a product for other manufacturers and not know how to go about approaching one with an idea, those manufacturers always contacted me first. As such, they presented the idea of what they were looking for / wanted out of a product, we worked out the facts and figures and i gave them what they were asking for. To be honest, many of these "opportunities" came about after they got to know me. How did that take place? Simple. I called them up on a regular basis to yell at them about how they were screwing up their products and offered insight as to how they could make them both better and less costly to manufacture. After getting several earful's and following through on a few of my suggestions, they saw the value in what i had to offer and took advantage of the experience that i have in the field that i work. That field is RF communications.

Walking in off the street with an idea for a marketable product and not having your intellectual properties stolen from you is another matter all-together. I'm not a lawyer, have never played one on TV and don't sleep at a Holiday Inn Express on a regular basis. As to why i haven't contacted a lawyer to go about doing this, figure it out for yourself. I'm Irish : ) Sean
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PS... I've had offers from various audio related manufacturers to work as part of a R&D team on several different occassions. I've always turned them down. The reason ? I love audio. I used to love RF communications before it became a full time job. I still like RF, but it is no longer my main source of enjoyment. On top of that, i enjoy communicating and working with people on the subject of audio and would like to continue to do so without any limitations. Working for audio related companies and then discussing various products from different manufacturers would be a conflict of interest as far as i'm concerned. As such, i'm willing to turn down money in order to maintain what i enjoy as a hobby and source of enjoyment. How much longer that will last, i don't know.

PPS... While talking to Arnie of Audiogon a few years back, i mentioned that i had a very specific audio related business in mind and was working towards making that a reality. Given that it was a few years ago, you can see how well i've followed through on those plans?

Damn that Irish blood. Maybe i need a transfusion. Or a drink : )

Dweller: Much of how long components can sit will depend on the temperatures that they are exposed to and the build quality of the components used. Due to the high voltages involved, it is easier for a cap to "go south" in these devices than it is for SS. That's because the high voltages make it easier to jump across / arc out whereas the lower voltages found in SS gear won't do that.

With all of that in mind, most newer caps are very stable and can hold their own for quite an amount of time. Capacitors drying out were much more of a problem 20+ years ago and have only gotten better since then. As such, i don't see much of a problem with letting items sit for extended periods of time. At the same time, i would not take an amp out of storage and throttle it hard right off the bat. Any other type of line level device should be okay for normal use.

If you want to be "careful", you can purchase a variac and power the devices up gradually before applying full voltage. This allows the capacitors to gradually "re-form" without massive in-rush current, increasing both their reliability and minimizing the potential for damage. Starting off at 10% - 20% of rated voltage for 24 hours and then gradually stepping the voltage up over an extended period of time ( several days ) is the best way to do things. This is kind of a slow and painful process ( who wants to wait and got the room for all this stuff to be laying around plugged in??? ), but it can be worthwhile if you have very old gear and / or gear that has sat for an extended period of time.

As a side note, it is better to simply power up gear every now and then rather than let it sit forever and then try to variac it.

Jes: Here's a list of some of the companies that i've worked with in the past. Some of the products involved are radio communications transceivers, antenna design, antenna mount design, microphone design, communications grade speaker design, wire & cable design, etc...

Ranger Communications: Ranger is based out of Malaysia and is one of the largest manufacturers of radio communication devices in the world. They design, build and manufacturer well over a half dozen different brands of products, both for themselves and for other manufacturers. When they introduced a new product line appr 5 years ago, i worked on the prototypes and was the "expert" quoted in their press releases that were sent out to various distributors and retailers.

Funny thing about that situation was that i didn't quite say what they put in print / attributed to me. Do you wanna guess if what they printed was MORE or less "flattering" to their products than what i actually said??? Remember, they are advertising their own products here : )

As a side note, i have pretty much broken all contact with these people. Due to what turned out to be a rather "one sided" relationship and a LOT of broken promises, i no longer correspond or consult with them.

Galaxy Electronics: This company produces radio communications transceivers, transmitters and HF linear amplifiers marketed under two different names. I have worked with this company in resolving various production problems for appr 7 years now.

Cobra Electronics: Manufacturer of radio communications transceivers, hand-held two way radios, communications accessories such as microphones, speakers, antennas, cordless telephones, radar detectors, etc... Worked as consultants helping to solve production problems / reduce failure rate on specific products. After implimenting the suggestions made, both product reliability and performance have drastically increased and sales are up. The person responsible for contacting us and putting many of our recommendations into production has since been promoted.

Astatic: Currently under new ownership, Astatic manufacturers communications grade microphones, antennas, antenna mounts, etc... They also used to manufacture audiophile grade phono cartridges, replacement stylus assemblies, etc.. I had previously worked directly with Scott ( former VP ) and Mark ( former head design engineer ) on several projects. I am currently working with their marketing / QA department in trying to resolve an on-going problem that came about due to a production change.

Workman Electronics / Twinpoint Incorporated: This company manufactures / imports / distributes various electronic and communications based products under multiple names. They produce everything from wiring harnesses to light bulbs to antennas to speakers to microphones to antenna and radio mounts, etc... Many of their products / assemblies are sold to other manufacturers who market them as OEM parts. I've worked with one of the owners of this company for several years both developing new products and refining existing designs.

Wholesale Parts Incorporated: Another manufacturer / importer / distributor / OEM supplier of misc radio communications and electronics products. Have worked directly with the owner in refining existing antenna designs and antenna mounts in the past. Am currently designing new antennas and antenna mounts for future introduction.

I was asked by one of the largest wholesale distributors of RF gear in the USA to write a column in their monthly sales literature. The owner of this distributorship also asked me to write a book pertaining to RF communications i.e. kind of a "big dummy's guide" for several different types of installations. Given that i don't like the business ethics of this company and didn't want to be publicly associated with them, i turned them down.

There are other situations that i could mention, but i think that you get the idea. As i've mentioned before, i am basically a "tweaker" i.e. good at "refining" existing designs. Most of my work with the various manufacturers listed above has typically been to take an existing design and "squeeze" measurably better performance and reliability from it. Many times i am able to do so while lowering production costs, which really makes the manufacturers happy. I have also built prototypes and given design specifications for new products, so i'm not just limited to "cleaning up" someone else's mistakes. Sean
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Cdc: I am not a huge fan of most Goertz interconnects, so there must have been some type of mis-communications here. Having said that, i AM a huge fan of their flat speaker cables.

As far as their "Micro-purl" interconnects go, they can work pretty well for balanced cables but less so for single-ended (RCA) based cables in my experience. The dielectric used is of low quality and the potential for VERY high capacitance, which rolls off the top end, is also quite prominent. The electrical characteristics will vary depending on how the conductors are configured / wired up. Given that these are a three conductor design ( like the PBJ but WAY different ), they can be used either way ( XLR or RCA ).

For use as a balanced cable, the cables should be configured so that you have the hot, neutral and ground in that order. Given that some XLR equipped gear uses different pin configurations than others, the only way to know if the cable itself was configured in the appropriate manner would be to verify continuity from pin to pin. I'm not sure which pin configuration that Goertz uses from the factory, so you might want to find out what lay-out your specific gear uses and then discuss this with Goertz if you're interested in using these cables.

As a side note, Component A, using one XLR pin configuration, combined with Component B, which uses the other XLR pin configuration, will produce horrible results. As such, you should ALWAYS make sure that your components use the same pin configuration BEFORE buying or using XLR type cables. There are two different standards in use and it can be VERY confusing.

As an RCA type cable, I found these to sound somewhat bright and bloated. I would think that these cables would work best in a "budget" system that lacked extension at both ends or in an HT installation. The tilted up extremes might tend to sound more "dynamic" or "punchy", which might be exactly what you want for a lack-luster movie based system.

Their flat interconnects, the one's that look like mini versions of their flat speaker cables, are VERY high in capacitance. With some components, high frequency loss and blurring may become instantly noticeable. I have a set of Goertz Silver Sapphire's and tried them between the digital source ( Philips SACD 1000 at the time ) and my HT Pre/Pro ( Sunfire Theater Grand ). I compared these against several other designs in that specific location of the system. Some of the other cables were copper, some were silver and some were a hybrid silver & copper. The Silver Sapphire's didn't do too badly and actually beat a few other cables. While the SACD 1000 didn't have the most "revelatory" high end, i didn't notice any detectable reduction in extension or blurring. Other components may not respond in the same fashion. As such, you might want to check with the manufacturer of your components to see how load stable they are with high capacitance interconnects.

Other than that, i do appreciate the kind words of support from all of you folks. Best wishes to all and good listening... Sean
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Slappy: Adam & Dr Drew ??? Sheesh. I'm resigning before we start : )

Cdc: I have a lot of respect for Art Dudley. I just wish that he would stick to audio when writing in audio mags. He's not afraid to share his opinion about gear ( or anything else for that matter ), even if it isn't "PC" or positive.

Having said that, even if i don't agree with the point of view being expressed, i admire someone that is willing to let it all hang out as he does. Hopefully, Stereophile will not soften up / change his vantage point and he'll figure out that we are most interested in his thoughts on gear, not world situations. Sean
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Unsound, we're always glad to see both seasoned vets return to the fold. We all need time and space and i can understand your thoughts / feelings on the situation. I'm in one of those places right now, hence my lack of posting to the extent that i normally do. I hope that your vacation from Agon was beneficial, both to you as an individual and to your sense of musical enjoyment & respect for the system that you've already accumulated. Best wishes, good listening and see ya around : ) Sean
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