drbarney1
Responses from drbarney1
| Help me understand "the swarm" in the broader audiophile world Mine is not likely typical. I tried to integrate subwoofers with Magnepan 0.7's and the subwoofer or pair of them always call attention to themselves without integrating into Magnepans. I wanted a more full bodied bass and I now use a pair of DWM'... | |
| Tubes? If anybody has the balls to do it, an 833-A SET with its grid driven by a tube headphone amp with a transformer output about 600 Ohms and the 1000 Volt B+ to the 833A's through Hammond 1642SE transformer will give you more than enough power. It is... | |
| A pragmatic view of cartridge expenses / many questions I find something almost Zen about tangential tracking tone arms, playing back the record the way it was cut. But there are several reasons I would not do it. First is the need for near frictionless air bearings, the noise of an air pump and air hi... | |
| My pet peeve: "revealing" speakers I think what you describe about speakers also applies to live music in a concert hall or an opera house. The sound is colored by differences in acoustics in different seats, how many people are seated near you, and how absorptive the clothes they ... | |
| Replacing driver screws with brass screws It is not necessarily the brass vs ferromagnetic steel screws but screws better bonding speaker frames to the cabinet. | |
| Sam here.l realize now why so many people think my ideas are crazy? Laboratory measurements of the specific electromagnetic Maxwell equations 3 and 4 you adduce, please. | |
| Anybody want a laugh? I make my own amplifiers and get to choose to over-design: resistors rated for several times the wattage they will dissipate, Polypropylene power supply capacitors rated at more than twice the voltage (2.3 kV rating foe a 1 kV power supply) transf... | |
| A challenge to the "measurement" camp While I agree with listening experiments with cables, my quarrel is with the "physics" used to sell cable designs. The most common is skin effect, which is accused of causing high frequency roll-off and distorting phase angles of different frequen... | |
| Who says cables don't make a difference? While there could be a difference, there is some bad physics used to sell some cables. For instance, skin effect and the claim to need to mitigate it with litz or ribbon construction. Skin effect is alleged to increase the resistance of speaker ca... | |
| Best tube preamplifier for under $15k I like the 27 SET preamplifier, but it has to have DC for the cathode heaters to silence hum and it is very tricky for its plate power. I like the blue glass Arcturus 27's and they sound good too. You have to build your own. You can also use 2C22'... | |
| What are the sexiest components ever made? My 833-A SET amplifiers; see Robert Vincelette system. | |
| Is there a Solid State amp that can satisfy a SET guy? I have come to like the 833-A SET which can effortlessly drive Magnepans more than loudly enough. The best way to do this is to build your own 1000 Volt power supplies using 3 Amp 1000 volt rated diodes two in series for twice the Voltage you will... | |
| Which one to choose between two 80K$ tube amps? Don't rule out building your own amplifier. You can have the same parts as an $80,000 amplifier and save tens of thousands. | |
| Why don’t tube amps sound like tubes anymore? Consider building your own SET. The design is very simple and for a few hundred dollars you can have something with all parts as good as an you get in a factory made SET costing five figures. It is not as difficult as you might think. | |
| These seem a bit pricey $$$ I am sure it costs more to get a box speaker with cone drivers to work really well than an open baffle planar speaker such as Magnepan. Crossovers are more complicated in cone speakers in a box because they have to deal with back EMF at different ... |