almarg
Responses from almarg
| Amp damping factor? Bifwynne, most tube amps have much lower damping factors than most solid state amps. Some very highly regarded tube amps have damping factors in the vicinity of 2, although most tube designs are somewhat higher than that.What is important is that ... | |
| How essential is shielding? Are there any generalizations about the typical effects of shielding on cable capacitance? Does shielding increase capacitance?No, I don't think any such generalizations can be made, Bryon. Many shielded interconnects having low or very low capaci... | |
| Can clicks and pops blow a tweeter? According to some old literature I have, the Fisher 400 is rated at 28 watts rms per channel, and "65 watts music power" (which based on how power ratings tended to be defined in those days, I would interpret to mean the sum of the short-term dyna... | |
| How essential is shielding? I tend to think of "openness" as correlating with upper treble extension. For a line level interface, what would maximize upper treble extension (or at least minimize any degradation of it) would be low cable capacitance (meaning low capacitance p... | |
| How essential is shielding? Here's the stupid question: ... What would happen if you "simply [broke] the chassis to chassis shield connection" in an effort to eliminate interchassis ground current?Hi Bryon,That isn't a stupid question. The answer is that you would also be br... | |
| biwire trick Unless there is a downside electrically, which I haven't read yet .... I think that the only conceivable downside would be a philosophical one, along the lines of Shadorne's last comment. It could be argued that you are raising the effective cable... | |
| $6 Million Dollar Man? Not that it has any particular significance, but it may be of interest to note that the owner's late father and grandfather were both famous classical performers.Regards,-- Al | |
| How essential is shielding? A comment on the Cardas video linked to above. I don't disagree with anything that was said, but I would point out that the main reason for the dramatic changes in the waveform displayed on the oscilloscope as the cable was moved about is that the... | |
| How essential is shielding? Hi Bryon,My opinion is that the case for shielding is strongest when it comes to unbalanced interconnects, both line level and phono level.In the case of unbalanced line level interconnects, signal return currents flow in common with extraneous in... | |
| biwire trick Thanks very much for the nice words, gentlemen.Rcrerar, no, what Tholt is describing is a conventional biwire arrangement but with the + conductors of the two cables interchanged at the speaker terminals. It may not have been clear to you that the... | |
| biwire trick Shadorne and Riley804, I'm not so sure. Keep in mind that the swap Tholt is describing will result in different frequency components flowing in the + leg and the - leg of each two-conductor pair of wires. It seems to me that would in effect amount... | |
| Ultralinear vs. Triode vs. SET Paul, I suspect that the lower output impedance/higher damping factor of the 4 ohm tap (probably a factor of 2 different compared to the 8 ohm tap) was also a significant contributor to the differences you heard. That would be particularly so beca... | |
| Phono Preamp Picking Up Radio Signals Here is one of a number of prior threads that have addressed this kind of problem, in which several approaches are suggested that you may want to try in addition to those suggested above.In that case, as you will see, the problem was ultimately re... | |
| Ultralinear vs. Triode vs. SET Some really excellent posts above!I'd be interested in further comments that anyone might have on how much of the 45/2A3/300B "magic" tends to be sacrificed in well executed designs that use higher powered transmitting triodes, such as the 211 and... | |
| Thiel CS 3.6 mid-range problem Hi Glenn,Yes, I would strongly recommend doing that. The one minute figure, though, was just a guess based on my experience with other high powered solid state amps. I suppose that a good way of determining how much time to allow would be to play ... |