ricevs,
My comments are intended as factual observations of my own, as well as comments on others' observations. It just so happens that they are based on LOVE for the truth, as best as I can determine it. I believe that people who are sincere and honest are also expressing true love. But mere declarations of love from people who are not honest are really sham. I'll take it as a compliment from you that you appreciate my honesty. |
Ric, can you stay on topic instead of attempting to be a enlightening guru? You're distracting from the thread
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One of my supreme torture CDs is Annie Lennox Medusa. My jaw
dropped as I played it all the way through. The V has unraveled all that
was wrong with all the class D amps I've owned, including the EVS 1200,
which I suspect is the Switching Speed
Although I've been using a
1"+ x 6 x 12ish heavy marble slab on top, when i tried to replace the
springs with Mapleshade triple points and Herbies cups, I could hear the
ringing. This morning I am going to remove the lid, as I did previously
with both my EVS 1200 and Oppo 105
Ric says he is adding vibration deadening material to the Vs he's modding
hth
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The ego defines and defends...attacks and brings down......Love appreciates, enjoys and is uplifting. You pick. There is nothing but the test of LOVE. All the rest is just playthings. How much love do you feel for me? That is your test. How much love do you feel for everyone? That is your test. It will always be the same. You pass, you fail......it is up to you. We all get there.....but we are all take our OWN time. You have forever.....there is no judgement of how long it should take. Enjoy the ride. Judging and condemning will not get a "Pass" Please try again. You are the one who judges you. This is what is so funny about all this. We are projecting our own self "unlove".....or projecting our real self love.....or something in between......every second. Since we create our reality out of the quality of our thoughts, words, feelings and actions.....then the more time you spend on positivity....then that reflects back on you. The more time you spend judging and bringing down.....then that reflects back on you. If you want to be happy.....then wish everyone happiness. Let them have the expensive toys and worldly glory.....be happy for them......Celebrate everything and everyone. It really works.....it really does. You want happiness? Then pass it on.
Who really cares about my or your opinions? You know what Clint said about opinions......just more grist for the mill. Do not take yourself so seriously.....there is really nothing here but us chickens.....cluck, cluck cluck. Actually, I prefer ducks.....quack, quack, quack.
Smoke and mirrors is believing that you are smarter and better than someone else. It is trying to make yourself big.....because inside....you feel worthless. When you have real self esteem....when you have real self worth.....then you love everyone....because you know that they are just as beautiful as you and deserve to be happy.....Its called a Win/Win
It is what the essence of your parents wanted for you. The trouble is, they were programmed to feel worthless by their parents.....so they did not really know how to fully love you. This is on purpose. If it were easy....then it would be no fun. Coming out of the dark cave into the light can seem scary......but true lovers are fearless.....they keep walking into the light until they are bathed and immersed in it. Be brave....walk to the Love....walk to the light.....you can do it. You deserve it. It is your destiny.
My sweet ones....sending you all kisses and hugs. |
Is this the Ram Dass forum? Did I just bear witness to someone’s Timothy Leary flashback? Like I told him he needs to change his bong water a little more regularly. Cheers George |
Is this the Ram Dass forum? Did I just bear witness to someone's Timothy Leary flashback? I thought this was audio, not some peace and love new age electric koolaid acid fest... I suppose when you have nothing of substance to back up your opinions you can always try to dazzle with smoke, mirrors, and emptiness.
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You are beautiful, I love you and thank you for sharing your light with me and everyone.....it is a blessing that you are in the world
You mostly don’t test stuff or rarely change your equipment, you make comments on what others say. You are like Howard Cosell.....calling a fight.....you summarize and make pointed comments. Are you being of service? What did we just learn? Service is love with doing. What is the actual purpose of your last post? Did the post come from your heart?.....or from some need for recognition?....or ? Only you know. Real knowledge is power. The power to make a real difference.
We all eventually will do this....for....a life unexamined....is a life asleep. I try and make every word and post a blessing to all.....sometimes my ego gets in the way.....we are all bozos on the bus. Our reality will catch up with our deepest intentions. My deepest intention is that everyone.....I mean everyone....is happy.
The purpose of life is to awaken the possibilities of life....loving, living, feeling, enjoying, connecting, knowing, laughing, dancing, singing. playing......being happy.....no matter what the circumstance because we learn we are infinite and eternal.
We awaken to our soul......we awaken to love.....to service.....to connection. Blessings. |
ricevs,
No, we actually agree mostly all the way. It is intuitively plain to me how resistors could have their own sound relating to their materials and design. Transistors are semi-conductors, and even the name "transistor" is similar to "resistor" he he. Vacuum tubes have been called natural amplification devices, and it is surprising that semi-conductors have the great specs that they do. So resistors are devices of their own. Someone must have come up with measurements that correlate with the superior sound of the resistors you like. So in what way was the 150K resistor better sounding than the 38K of the same brand? Did the 150K in that circuit have more HF extension than 38K, analogous to how the 47K ohm loading of the MC cartridge has more HF than at 100 ohm?
Your cartridge story is amusing. Cartridges are complex beings like speakers, and it is well known that speaker measurements don't correlate much with the character of sound emanating from those boxes. However, I can well imagine that the best sounding cartridge you heard had better specs than the others, but the routine simple amplitude/freq sweeps, static/dynamic compliance specs don't tell much, and are merely at the kindergarten level. |
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Of course, that is exactly where we heard the difference.......as a cartridge load to ground. We all heard the difference in ALL brands and types of resistors.....still can, wherever they are used in a circuit. Tons of audio companies pick resistors for "sound". It is true that most "metal film" resistors of the same type and wattage will sound similar.....but try a Caddock or Nude Vishay or various good sounding surface mount resistors.....and a way different sound emerges. |
You are both wrong.....he he....resistor types/brands can make as much difference as anything..... That was always going to be a given, doubt very much you could tell any difference between all the "known good branded" same value/wattage metal film resistors as an input loading resistor to ground. Just like you say you can see many mods you can do to this amp to take it to another level just by looking at this photo, https://ibb.co/Dr86JY6 |
You are both wrong.....he he....resistor types/brands can make as much difference as anything.....We found that out years ago with different brands of resistors loading our moving coil cartridge.....huge differences.
Same with impedance. $150K sounded much better than 49K......both had the same brand and type of resistor. The "better" brand of resistor was already superior to the stock resistor. This is on the input of the amp (not a cartridge load.....we also liked 100 ohms for our Supex cartridges).
Here is an interesting story for all you measurement types. Back in the 70s it was all a big club....everyone knew everyone. High end was super small and few companies. We knew David Fletcher who owned Sumiko (importer of Supex and Fidelity Research Cartridges)....in fact, we were in the same City (Berkeley, CA). So, we borrowed 10 brand new Supex cartridges form Dave and mounted them on universal headshells and gave each one a number on a piece of small masking tape on the side of the cartridge. Three of us listened all day on my system......All the cartridges came with frequency sweep graphs that told you nothing as they were so similar. There were three categories of cartridges.....the meh ones....the OK ones and the great ones (three of them).....and one was clearly the winner.. This is how you learn to trust your hearing. All three of us agreed with every ranking.....it was easy to hear. I wonder if cartridges are as variable today as they were back in the 70s. By the way, we did the same test with 5 Fidelity Research cartridges....maybe a year later.....mostly we preferred those to the Supex. |
With the 1K output impedance, 38K is a ratio of 38, and 100K is a ratio of 100, both way above 10, so I would expect the 38K and 100K to sound the same, as you found. However, public demonstrations in unfamiliar systems are not as revealing as making changes in your own familiar system. So ricevs' improvement in sound quality must be due mainly to the better quality resistor he is using in his mods compared to stock. Let ricevs say whether I am correct or not.
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Viber
No, what I’m saying these are two very different scenarios, one (the phono cartridge) has quite variable output impedance due to it being a electro/mechanical device, it "could" go very high impedance in the highs. Where a solid state output stage is quite fixed, especially if it direct coupled, if capacitor coupled and not large enough it can go very high in the lows.
You try the same but with the preamp output stage(<100ohms) vs the poweramp input stage 37kohm or 100kohm, you won’t find a difference.
Also you haven’t mentioned what’/if the parallel pf capacitance has been used across each channel of the cartridge, or in the phono stage.
I’ve done many presentation at our audio society, with a solid state direct coupled low impedance output source (eg: <100ohms) you will not find any difference in sound with a load impedance of 38kohm v 100kohm, and nobody at the meetings could pick the difference, the 100kohm "could" get slightly more noisier, as seen on a scope, and create filtering effects if the interconnects are extremely high capacitance.
Cheers George |
George,
No, what I heard from 47K loading of a few MC cartridges into a few phono stages was more extended HF, rather than reduced bass which thins the tonal balance but doesn't yield more HF.
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Different story with a mechanical/electrical source as MM or MC Cartridges, they need sometime none or lots of electrical damping, which in some cases can give the impression of more detail extension and clarity, maybe because of reduced bass output. As they do not have a mostly fixed output impedance like a solid state output stage has. We used to load down the Supex SD900 with 10ohms to get them to sound right.
Cheers George
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ricevs,
You said, "...the difference between bad sounding 38K resistors and great sounding 148K resistors (the brand of resistor and the impedance both give a sonic improvement....my source was 50 ohms high current capability....class A output discrete stage)."
Ah, the difference. What you found is the difference in the quality/brand of the resistors. What if you try the same high quality resistor for 38K and 148K? That would address George's point about whether the value of 38K, 148K makes the difference. I know you said you did this, that the value makes a difference, but it would be nice to evaluate technically with measurements also. Ideally, the better sound should correlate with better measurements. We need both the subjectivists and objectivists to have the best understanding of how we all can improve sound. The objectivists need to do more listening, and the subjectivists should try to do more measuring, although even the smartest objectivists don't have all the answers.
George,
I understand your point about how 38K is high enough, which is similar to the interface principle about having the input impedance of a power amp be over 10 times the output impedance of the preamp or other source. But maybe 100-1000 times is better than 10 times, as with my Denon 305 MC cartridge with its impedance of 40 ohms, having more HF extension and clarity going into a phono stage at 47K ohms rather than 400 ohms. Is my analogy correct? |
@ricevs Give me a call when you are free. Some potentially exciting news for you about having a lot more ears on my modded amp. |
I have never seen more bologna being thrown around outside of a bologna sandwich. Entertaining it is but far from reality. |
Already a used Voyager for sale on Audio Mart. |
I still have a pair of attenuators. Alas, my system is all true balanced
George, did you try this tweak, or summarily dismiss it, like most things you argue against?
K&M Magnets sell a wide variety of magnets
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Like I said time to clean your bong water |
Talking about ignorance!!!!!.......this is the "other" tweaky Rick Schultz
I am Ric Schultz
He is even more tweaky than me in some ways......must be the name.
Peace, I offer you. |
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I am sure most people can make up their own mind about the value of tweaks and modifications. They can also decipher for themselves the value of posts here. No more needs to be said.
Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu. |
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one of the best DACs in the world in the late 90s.......only 15 of these incredible hand made things exist.
Sounds like it really took the market by storm. And the other one sold 100...Wow, not much love it seems for these mind blowers...So much for building a better mousetrap. But you did soldier together some resistors and "create" an attenuator. Bravo. And this is why people should believe you can improve and optimize state of the art products like Purifi, Voyager, etc., to heights their designers were not capable of achieving? And you wonder why there are skeptics? It just keeps getting better. |
Products developed:
Ultimate Attenuators......I invented the shunt attenuator in 1989......Ultimate Attenuators were class A rated in Stereophile for 7 years. Reviewed by Robert Harley in July 1990.
Hand Made DAC......this DAC using the UltraAnalog DAC chips and input receiver as well as the HDCD digital filter was one of the best DACs in the world in the late 90s.......only 15 of these incredible hand made things exist.
Millennium DAC.....these lower cost DACs are still prized by many.....see reviews at Audio Review......about 100 of these made......last version had fully custom discrete fet output stage that was my own design.
Lots of mods to SACD/DVD and Blue Ray players...many using a discrete fet stage of my own design......check out my website for pics of the latest hand made tweaky deaky thing.
Modified Nuforce class D amps.....made and sold amps using modified UCD modules and modified IcePower modules.
My list of accomplishments could go on forever.....but it will never convince someone who is set in his ways....that anything I do or say has any value. My results speak for themselves and my customers.....speak for me. I have a great reputation. That says it all. People are happy with the results of my products and mods......of course, not everyone......but rarely does anyone have anything negative to say about the sound of what i do.
No patents here.....but that does not mean I don’t have a ton of knowledge as to what makes good sound. You listen, you learn. You don’t listen....you don’t learn. What have you listened to and what did you learn? I am continuously learning.....I just learned that my binding post bypass system that I have been using is actually no better than a great binding post.......because......if you use a metal binding post as the clamp it sounds as bad as running the signal through it. You want to use Nylon, Teflon or wood as your clamp......nothing conductive. The mass of the metal conductor acts as a bad electron storage device. You really want to remove any connectors on your speaker wires.....it will BLOW your mind.....no spades, no bananas, no five way binding posts......you either solder or clamp using no metal.....for best sound. Just discovered this, this last week......there is always more.....and more.....into the infinity of love and joy......Blessings.
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Every improvement by every manufacturer is a mod/tweak of what they did before. It’s called product development. Like when Bruno Putzkeys developed the UcD amp, then improved it through r&d into the Ncore, and now, after developing mathematical models to define the feedback behavior of his circuit, testing, analyzing, and measuring, it has been refined and the result is the Purifi amp. They don’t give patents to tweaks to someone else’s work. What product have you developed? To try and frame your racing stripes as somehow on the same level as the development work Bruno has done to perfect his circuit is ludicrous. Like comparing a brain surgeon to a prison tatoo artist. Pathetic. Bad sounding this, good sounding that...the Oracle has spoken... Only listening to something gives real knowledge.....your opinion.....is based on nothing real Indeed, your opinion is based on nothing real. It's all just a wave of the hands, a wink and a smile, send money. “Perception
is merely a lens or mindset from which we view people, events, and
things.” In other words, we believe what we perceive to be accurate, and
we create our own realities based on those perceptions. And although
our perceptions feel very real, that doesn't mean they're necessarily factual." |
Love is not just in a corner but everywhere present......right this moment. It is in you, Woodstock. Me, I am sunshine. Actually, people used to call me that years ago......I really am Sunshine.....a beam of light......a Light Being.....and so are you.....so is everyone.
Blah, Blah Blah went the person who did not hear the difference between bad sounding 38K resistors and great sounding 148K resistors (the brand of resistor and the impedance both give a sonic improvement....my source was 50 ohms high current capability....class A output discrete stage). But of course, you had to be there and listen to know anything. Only listening to something gives real knowledge.....your opinion.....is based on nothing real....no listening tests. |
OK, you can talk about love and so on,
Always the peace/love/dope/Woodstock card comes out when backed into a corner. Changing the input impedance from 38k to 150k will do absolutely nothing if the source has a "normal low'ish" (say <150ohm) output impedance that will drive both, making the input 150kohm, could very well "only serve" to have higher measured noise in the end. And willy/nilly changing the input of an amp to something 4x higher "can" create offset and other problems, there was a reason it was 38k to start with. Cheers George |
LOL this is some entertaining stuff...
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OK, you can talk about love and so on, but you also mentioned that your mods bring more clarity and speed. You talk about that also, which is fine. We don't know all the technical correlates of great sound, but a skillful designer knows what circuit designs bring about whatever type of sound he desires. You also must know a lot about this also, such as why 150 K sounds more open or whatever. It is more obvious why your direct connection to the internal wiring, bypassing the binding posts, yields more open sound. |
Just a waste of time. Most of the stuff that changes and improves the sound has no technical (measurable at this time) benefit. You cannot convince ANYONE of anything. They have to be ready to change. The ego does not want to change......its whole game is survival of what is ALREADY known. Just like you are addicted to constantly talking about clarity and speed......and I am more and more addicted to Love and listening, sharing and mother/fathering. What addictions are most beneficial to real knowledge and real joy? We are all addicts! I love you. |
ricevs,
To convince skeptics that your mods increase the clarity and speed, for example, maybe you can explain in technical terms why they produce those sonic improvements. For example. on IceEdge amps like Legacy iv2 or Rouge, the input impedance is 38 Kohms or so. You increase it to 150 Kohms. To make an analogy with moving coil phono cartridge loading, I have always found that high loading of 47 Kohm yields more HF with clarity compared to loading in the 100's. Some have claimed that the 100's avoid the HF boost from loading at 47 Kohms. Personally, I don't care about whatever technical flaw of HF boost occurs--I like the increased openness and clarity at 47 K.
So why did the stock designers settle on 38K? Didn't they experiment with 150K? Maybe you will say that they didn't put in as much listening time as you did, and just decided that 38K measured well and they just settled there.
More generally, if Voyager did all these revisions, they did the listening. So why do you get better results after only a week of playing with it, compared to their 2 years of delays due to their tweaking? |
Blah, blah blah went the weeping anti tweakers.....If I described exactly what I did and know then it would not matter......you would say its still all voodoo......You guys have no clue because you do NOT LISTEN.....If you listened.....you would know. But instead, its a righteous rant.
Do you realize that all your equipment is modded? Every improvement by every manufacturer is a mod/tweak of what they did before. Everything is improving. Most here would not want amps, preamps or whatever from the 80s......they just are not modded enough.....not tweak enough. Mark Shifter said there were 5 revisions of the first board considered for the LSA......the new board....is rev D.......so that makes 9 mods.....9 tweaks. Don't you get it?.....any improvement is a tweak.....and mods includes, jacks, wire, fuses, chassis damping, op amps, capacitors, circuits, heatsinks, timing issues, rf, shielding....etc. etc. into infinity.
Again, many that have not listened to parts and things in a serious way think that it is all numbers......but most high end manufacturers are changing things to make it sound better....not measure better.....sometimes they get better measurements.....but usually, just better sound. Check out the latest buzz on the the Schitt audio Iggy DAC....they now have 3 different versions that all measure differently and a lot of those who listened blindly.....liked the worst measuring one the best......come on....go read it...
Wake up and smell the tweaks....a lot of nice flavors here. |
I don’t like charlatans bilking people out of their money by claiming they can do a few superficial "tweaks" and suddenly take a solidly engineered product with state of the art performance and, wave hands, dramatically "improve" the product. It’s a con. People want to believe and there’s always a prophet willing to accommodate them, for a fee. History is full of these scammers and the world full of those all too willing to believe their tale. Here here🤙 especially when they don’t say what mods they will do for how much, when they just see a pic of it with no measurements and or oscilloscope bench testing and say they can take it to another level. Cheers George |
I really do not understand what you are trying to communicate here. You
do not like mods and think they are a waste of time. Great! However, I
do not think that way and I have an example of where mods took a ground
breaking audio piece, Sony SCD-1, to much greater levels of audio bliss.
If this is to become a religious argument, so be it. I am a believer. No, I didn't say I didn't like mods and think they are a waste of time. I don't like charlatans bilking people out of their money by claiming they can do a few superficial "tweaks" and suddenly take a solidly engineered product with state of the art performance and, wave hands, dramatically "improve" the product. It's a con. People want to believe and there's always a prophet willing to accommodate them, for a fee. History is full of these scammers and the world full of those all too willing to believe their tale. There are mods that surely improve the performance of any machine, based on science and engineering. You want your car to go faster? Modify the engine to produce more horsepower, don't put racing stripes on it. Can you think of another industry where you charge people to improve the performance of something and then denigrate those who ask for proof that they have actually received something for their money? "Trust me"....um, no thanks. |
Just read some of the other posts here about not fixing anything that is not broke. Please do not do that to your gear and get your stomach tied up in knots. I understand that the precious warranty must be preserved until the very end.
Let others who are curious waste their money, total the warranty and do what they please. If it ain't hurting you why do you care?
I need to get back to work and not waste more time in this type of conversation. |
Funny the Benchmark is the one with the most clarity. It is also the one with the lowest distortion. Imagine that!
No kidding. My Benchmark AHB2 monos are connected to a Topping pre90 and a Topping D90se DAC. Do I need to tell you what type of sound I am after on this system? My living room system. I really do not understand what you are trying to communicate here. You do not like mods and think they are a waste of time. Great! However, I do not think that way and I have an example of where mods took a ground breaking audio piece, Sony SCD-1, to much greater levels of audio bliss. If this is to become a religious argument, so be it. I am a believer. |
These tweak people are like parasites that live off the work of real engineers- what do they produce? Nothing- they take someone else’s
work, wave their hands around and pronounce "I took it up another level". Exactly !! I don't mind adding noticeable tweaks on old Ancient stuff purely for reliability and maybe sound quality as a bonus. But when it comes to tweaking new stuff. What's the point especially since it void the warranty. Yes, I'm a Fanboy of the Orchard Audio Amplifiers but aside from power supply changes merely cause it will look cool and it save me money from buying 3 switching Power Supplies with the same VAC/Amps. I won't touch what he has done with the very minimalist circuitry that's he's wrapped around GaN Amplifier chips. It sounds amazing. If it ain't broke....don't "fix" it.
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Something truths are worth saying....some untruths are a waste of time......and speaking of time......you will all see.....in time....whether my prediction will come true or not........very soon! |
It's like talking to a wall......just don't bother to respond.....he will just keep saying the same thing over and over. When you have nothing of substance to support your claims, this is the typical response. Just keep waving your arms and taking the money. |
It’s like talking to a wall......just don’t bother to respond.....he will just keep saying the same thing over and over. Yes, kind of like that guy who has said that class D will make expensive class A & A/B amplifiers worthless boat anchors about a thousand times. |
How is the amp coming Ric? Update on the mods and sound? |
It's like talking to a wall......just don't bother to respond.....he will just keep saying the same thing over and over. |
We are all different with varying levels of curiously and open mindedness. Yes, exactly my point, we all are different, with different tastes and preferences. You can order a steak rare, medium rare, medium, or well done for a reason- what might that be? There are people who swear by tubes, vinyl, and horns. There are just as many people who swear at them. Class A is best! No, class D! Ribbons! Horns! And on and on it goes. So it is only reasonable to state that something that is "better" to one person may only be "different", or worse, to someone else. "oh, I can see 10 things I can do to take it to another level" is not going to be truth for everyone, despite the manic pleas of "just trust me, I have been doing this for years". Every time anyone asks for any objective proof, the answer is always "trust your ears". Well, I do trust mine, but I don’t take your money and tell you to trust my ears, I say trust your own. If you want to pay someone money to mess around with your equipment based solely on blind faith, a wish, and a prayer, without any basis is tangible reality, go ahead. Like old PT said, there’s a sucker born every minute. You don’t see people like Bruno Putzkeys asking you to "just trust your ears". He publishes the results of his efforts. These tweak people are like parasites that live off the work of real engineers- what do they produce? Nothing- they take someone else’s work, wave their hands around and pronounce "I took it up another level". If they are such audio wizards, why don’t they have a go at designing and building something of their own? No wonder it’s called snake oil, fraud, and a con. They pray on the insecurity of others, nothing more. And heaven knows there are few groups as insecure as audio nuts. Put your cd in the freezer lately? |
Value is after all in the eyes and wallet of the beholder. How else can the success of the AMC Pacer be explained ?
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Don’t bother with this gentleman as he has made up his mind without even trying the stuff he does not understand. Really nothing one can say to a person with this mindset. Best to ignore and at worst get a chuckle.
We are all different with varying levels of curiously and open mindedness. |
