lynn_olson

Responses from lynn_olson

??? WHY WHY WHY ??? Class A vs Everything Else
Keep in mind that nearly all audio amplification is done in Class A: Class AB or Class D stages are only used in the final stage of amplification to drive inefficient loudspeakers. (Speakers with a 1% conversion efficiency are actually "efficient"... 
??? WHY WHY WHY ??? Class A vs Everything Else
Ralph, I hate to disagree, but a pure Class B amp (like the Quad 405), switches from the upper set of transistors to the lower set with no region where both are operating. Class AB has an intermediate region where both are operating. In a typical... 
300b lovers
If my vague memory serves, a neighbor of mine, Thom Mackris of Galibier Design, has been building an amp similar to yours. The lineup is: 1/2 6SN7 RC-coupled to a triode-connected 6V6 driver, with SE IT coupling to the 300B grid. Isolated B+ suppl... 
300b lovers
Hi Alex! Unfortunately, I think you are limited by the maximum DC current the interstage will accept. As Ralph mentions above, SET transformers, whether interstage or output, have air-gaps in the core so they can tolerate the DC offsets. This has ... 
??? WHY WHY WHY ??? Class A vs Everything Else
The choice between Class A operation vs Class AB comes down to a simple decision between: (A) Inherent low distortion and absence of device switching over the entire waveform, and also the least efficient mode of operation. (AB) Significantly hi... 
300b lovers
Don and I wanted to avoid unobtanium vacuum tubes, while leaving the option of "tube rolling" up to the owner. All we ask is the owner uses matched pairs, whether vintage or modern. This retains DC balance while keeping distortion low ... with typ... 
Spatial Audio Raven Preamp User Experience
Here's an early review of the Raven and Blackbirds: YouTube Review of Raven and Blackbirds  
ATC SCM150 Amp and Preamp recommendations
Side note: if you are serious about 1 kW/channel amps, you’re going to need an electrician to install a dedicated 20A circuit going back to the breaker box. That will also give cleaner, lower-noise feed to the audio electronics. Improving the wiri... 
Spatial Audio Raven Preamp User Experience
The soundstage is enormous, although if the recording is poorly panned and the reverb not that great, it only goes a little way beyond the speakers. On the other hand ... if the reverb is natural, or classic EMT plate from the Seventies and Eighti... 
Spatial Audio Raven Preamp User Experience
Well, I’m hardly objective, but I didn’t actually hear a Raven until fairly recently. When you design a product, you imagine how it will sound in your mind’s eye ... you do have a goal in mind ... but actually hearing the device up and running can... 
300b lovers
Thanks for the update, Don. Yoder, there was a lot of progress sonically after the first prototypes. What we have now is actually simpler in some ways. We went for a pair of spacious monoblock chassis mostly to simplify assembly, and to improve c... 
Did I just cook my preamp?
Safety advice: do not turn on the questionable electronics until repaired, and get a socket tester for your house. They’re not expensive and are worth getting.  
300b lovers
Yes, Don and I are working on a medium-price (by high-end standards) amplifier, most likely a stereo integrated amp. Not much to say about it now, since it's mostly conceptual at this point. If people are looking for value, I think Spatial may sti... 
Send in the Clowns
Using Science as a fetish object, or a pseudo religion. There's plenty about human perception and consciousness we don't know, and that directly overlaps with measurement technique.  
300b lovers
Certainly a great benefit in a phono preamp where you have to overcome the wall of noise in the very first stage, and yes, cascodes are more linear than pentodes. The EF86 mike-preamp pentode so popular in the Fifties and Sixties is now very expen...