“your heart is like a diamond
you throw your pearls at swine” Stones
made me think of the Ayre Diamond circuitry....plus it’s a great song..
i don’t think Eric is a troll , but maybe has a bit of a jones for repetitive topics ...featuring Pass....
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actually, it’s feed forward |
IF I have to drink an IPA it’s always a Bastard Kat from bellingham, but I would rather par boil a dozen brats in IPA than drink the stuff....make sure you add onions too....
does this count as global negative feedback ? |
@atmasphere I think the weighting system is a splendid idea and certainly a tool designers could develop internal to the firm as a way to score various designs. We used a weighted multi variable trade space to evaluate designs for Aerosystems, etc |
@gdnrbob OK a short comparison and context for the upgrade and eventual replacement. I bought the VX-R to run Vandersteen 5a after a lengthy evaluation of several other amplifiers, notably the ARC REF150 and the Aesthetix Atlas Stereo. All from competent designers certainly held in high regard by Vandersteen. All three had virtues, ultimately I chose the Ayre for its seamless one character top to bottom balance. I did audition at some length the MXR w Vandy 7 also. I very happlily ran the Ayre for a period of years and eventually landed on the 7 speakers. Leave the Ayre amps on a d they shine after 24 hours or so, before that they sounded just a hint metallic and etched on the very top end. So just leave it on !
the On Semiconductor output devices w thermal trac proved problematic and i lost a channel, Ayre stepped up w shipping both ways and the repair covered under warranty some 4 years on...I decided while it was back at factory to get it upgraded to Twenty series. In short the twenty sings twenty minutes out of standby and lacks any of the etched quality and IMO the midrange sounds more warm and lush, like the REF150. Neither amp has the low end of the Aesthetix. Per my other comments, before I invested in a better amp, I would go as far as I could with speakers...just my buck fifty... |
@earthtones Welcome to the unfair advantage of Vandersteen powered bass and finally an amplifier PURPOSE designed to exploit that advantage. The M7- HPA replaced the Ayre in my system, not a fair fight for a lot of reasons. yes Vandersteen had very specific goals to hit for odd order harmonic distortion in the M7 and M5. Really a towering achievement IMO and little understood : just 5 parts in audio signal path, liquid cooling for bias set point and device stability, no emiter resistors, analog temp control ( no RF trash near audio ), built in HRS suspended truss isolation, 128 V DBS....cyclotronic circuit....the list goes on, but of. course the music and the listening are the gig....
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Wolf - harshing the mellow love it....what low distortion strings are ya using on the eight thousand dollar wonder ? |
Ralph a tour de force post and recognition of the true scientist engineers that also LISTEN
Eric two points of clarification; Yes the relative distortion levels between components is massive, especially when comparing transducers to gain devices. AND look at the Ayre QSB DAC white paper for a Phd in filters that measure well but sound worse...hence the measure/listen switch,
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well also look at the measure. vs. listen switch on an AYRE DAC for a Phd in. why measurement might not matter , especially if the specification standard does not properly reflect the real world, phase angle being IMO a perfect example for amps and speakers... |
higher in distortion compared to a driver that makes 90 db per. wattt with a great deal of the output out of phase ( non pistonic inn the pass band. ).... is the point...diitto for other transducers...
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well in general, the question what kind of distortion are you attracted to is certainly valid and reaches into the realm of the psycho acoustic, a rich vein as yet not fully mined....so few audiophiles own an SPL meter yet claim to understand the origin of the loudness button..... probably a different thread...
I do dabble is semi serious listening while writing and reading....like a heavy deep dive of Linda R while reading her book Simple Dreams...
peace
jim |
sure I have heard both and while I chose to own an Ayre VX-R in both the initial and then Twenty ( Diamond ) design, I think you might be missing the point a BIT...compared to many other components in the chain, amps are VERY low in distortion...OF course both Nelson and Charlie gifted genius designers with KEEN ears. I did own many Threshold products and think highly of his current work. I think listening to the product in a system with similar design principles and objectives might be more illuminating than a point comparison. For example the effects of negative feedback on a temporally accurate transducer....or not...
have fun, enjoy the music...
Jim |
