Lowering the noise floor

Here some (uncontroversial) sources of noise or distortion that might not have been mentioned.

1. The induced magnetic field produced by the large transformer that extends outward to all electrical components and wiring in proximity.

2. The mechancal noise produced by the large transformer and direct coupled to the chassis and the circuit boards.

3. Low frequency seismic vibration that is capable of exciting the resonant frequencies of the turntable platter, tone arm and cartridge AND of affecting the laser reading process in CD players, producing jitter.

Oh, they could. But it would take, what, 10,000 car batteries? And crew of a hundred.

Bingo! I’m off the grid! I use a portable battery powered player, a Walkman. I use Grado RS 60 headphones. By getting off the grid I avoid all the ills associated with the grid, and all the ills associated with cables, fuses, and the other stuff I already mentioned. Trust me, it’s audible, even on my modest system. I mean, I still can tweak it, right. I use only treated batteries and everything has been quasi cryod at a minimum and everything is mechanically isolated. And some other, you know, stuff. 😬 No more grid, no more noise, no more distortion. No more teacher’s dirty looks. Since technically SNR is the power of the signal over the sum of the Noise + Distortion powers, eliminating ANY type of Noise or Distortion would be a good thing, right? Just on the level of Signal to Noise Ratio. Including induced magnetic fields’ distortion and the distortion of wires, fuses or cables that are in the wrong direction, etc.

I never said I eliminated all noise. What I said or at least intended to say is I eliminated all RFI/EMI type noise produced or carried by the house AC, cables, fuses, power cords, AND all magnetic type noise produced by transformers (induced magnetic field) and the induced magnetic fields inherently produced by current traveling through cables and wire. And no GROUND issues. I thought I was pretty clear. Furthermore, by minimizing the player itself, which is a portable player, noise and distortion produced by the player itself is obviously MINIMIZED, e.g. NO BIG TRANSFORMER. NO FUSE. NO BIG CAPACITORS. Capish?

I hate to jump to conclusions but it certainly appears I’ve completely avoided a huge amount of RFI/EMI interference of ALL frequencies from 0 Hz to umpty ump GHz by completely circumventing the house AC. I’ve also completely avoided all magnetic interference produced by transformers and by current running through wire and cables. I’ve also circumvented all issues related to power cords, fuses, interconnects, large capacitors, digital cables and speaker cables, including directionality issues. I’ve also circumvented ALL issues related to room acoustics. AND I’ve avoided the costs associated with dealing with all of those issues. I’m a big believer in cost avoidance. AND reducing the Audio Nervosa Quotient as much as possible. 🤪 I don’t like tips of icebergs and I don’t like icebergs.

You can do wonders with spread spectrum communications. Noise disappears out of the equation. 

It’s Interesting and not terribly surprising how pervasive ignorance is among audiophiles on the dodgy subject of cryogenics. I realize how hard it must be to break out of the paradigms of the 70s and 80s. It’s like trying to get an electron to move to the next higher energy orbit. In fact, cryogenics itself improves SNR of all wire, including cables, fuses, transformers, inductors, power cords, wall outlets, what have you. It improves SNR by improving conductivity. This is why most high end cable manufacturers routinely employ cryogenics for their products. Because they know they cannot compete in the marketplace unless they do. Duh! 😛 It’s also why you see some (enlightened) manufacturers like Tannoy and Meitner employ cryogenics for their electronics. For digital gear reducing vibration means, you guessed it, improving SNR by reducing jitter. I.e., reducing noise. For structural or mechanical elements such as tonearms, racks, nuts and bolts, turntable platters and even LPs and CDs, cryogenics improves the strength and reduces brittleness, make them less prone to vibration. As I said, everything should be cryo’d. ⛄️

I have one word. Cryogenics. Cryo everything! Eveything in the signal path and everything not in the signal path. ❄️

One of my favorite quotes was by Shannon Dickson in Stereophile magazine, referring to CES in Law Vegas that year, “I went to the geek meet in the Desert, where once again almost all of the exhibitors failed to get up out of the noise floor.”