lynn_olson
Responses from lynn_olson
| Spatial Audio Raven Preamp I own a Geshelli DAC and their new balanced headphone amplifier. Although value-priced, both products use the Sparkos (made in Colorado!) discrete op-amps, with a very large Class A operating region. If you’re going solid-state, this is an attract... | |
| Help on ancient Audionics CC-2s A few years ago, I walked into a Boulder camera store and saw a pocket book documenting a "Classic Camera Series - Nikon FE2". Hey, I bought that camera new, a month after Nikon introduced it! Not only that, it was my *second* SLR, after my 1963 v... | |
| Help on ancient Audionics CC-2s Hi there folks, old Audionics hand here. First off, replace all electrolytic caps, both large and small. Electrolytics have a finite lifetime, and modern ones are more compact, more reliable, and quite a lot better sonically. The CC-2 was designe... | |
| Western Electric 300a and 300b The only difference between the 300A and 300B is the locating pin, which is not used by any modern amp. I believe the 300A was only made by Western Electric for one or two years, then replaced by the 300B. I would check the provenance of any tube... | |
| Spatial Audio Raven Preamp RFI = Radio Frequency Interference EMI = Electromagnetic Interference (includes magnetic fields) 15.75 kHz (or close to it) is the horizontal scanning rate of 525/60 NTSC (color or monochrome) analog television. The 625/50 PAL or SECAM rates are... | |
| Spatial Audio Raven Preamp The Raven accomplishes several things at once: 1) Moderate voltage amplification (from the 6SN7). 2) Substantial current multiplication (from the internal step-down transformer). 3) Signal conversion from either RCA or XLR to RCA, XLR, and head... | |
| Spatial Audio Raven Preamp Both the preamp and power amp are so symmetric we have to take extra care during assembly to make sure the phase is correct at the output. Multi-color wire comes in handy here. For that matter, the circuit is so robust it still amplifies with one... | |
| Spatial Audio Raven Preamp I should go into regulators and their sonics a little. Yes, regulators have "a sound". Regulators are amplifiers that feed amplifiers, with the difference the "amplifier" amplifies incoming audio, while a regulator amplifies a DC reference voltage... | |
| Spatial Audio Raven Preamp I’ve been using damper diodes (from old TVs) since 1997. I’m frankly surprised why people are still using the audiophile favorites. Damper diodes have (much) quieter switching, have substantially higher peak current, and sound noticeably better. T... | |
| Spatial Audio Raven Preamp Part of the reason for the sonics (aside from the circuit) is the physical simplicity of the preamp. No circuit board is needed because there really isn’t that much to the audio signal path. Input selector -> balanced switched-resistor volume c... | |
| Spatial Audio Raven Preamp As Don mentioned, avoid the thick and crazy-expensive audiophile cables. You have to remember most audiophiles have noticeably colored transistor gear, and use aftermarket products like power conditioners and $5000+ cables to minimize glare, grain... | |
| Spatial Audio Raven Preamp Yeah, stay away from the garden hoses and faux snakes, no matter what the reviewer says, or in what magazine. Simple is good, less capacitance per foot is better. The studios don’t use garden hoses or faux snakes, why should you? Many of the revi... | |
| Spatial Audio Raven Preamp I heard the powered ATC monitors at the last Rocky Mountain Audio Festival, and they were some of the best speakers at the show. The ATC midrange driver, in particular, is a legend in the speaker industry, and ATC did a really good job with the ac... | |
| Spatial Audio Raven Preamp The Raven design is stabilized and they are in production at Spatial Audio Labs in Salt Lake City. Don Sachs lives in British Columbia in Canada, I live on the outskirts of Denver in Colorado, and we both communicate with Spatial on a regular basis. | |
| Spatial Audio Raven Preamp There is a whole subculture of modding the classic Klipsch products ... Cornwall (probably the easiest to tame), La Scala, Belle Klipsch, and of course the Klipschorn. Look up "Klipsch Forums" and off you go. Classic Klipsch are famed for dynamics... |