lynn_olson
Responses from lynn_olson
| Vacuum Tube preamp with my KRELL KAV 250a, a no no......WHY? The big thing to confirm is the preamp under consideration has an auto-mute circuit, which triggers both for turn-on and turn-off, as well as brief power drop-outs. Not every preamp has a power management circuit that protects against all sources ... | |
| Vacuum Tube preamp with my KRELL KAV 250a, a no no......WHY? Conventional vacuum tube preamps often use a "cathode follower" to assure low output impedance and compatibility with a wide range of power amps ... vacuum tube, transistor, Class D, GANFet, etc. The plate circuit of the cathode follower is typic... | |
| Spatial Audio Raven Preamp Hope you enjoy it! Don Sachs, Spatial Audio, and I are right at the beginning of the production curve, with the preamps a little ahead of the Blackbird power amps. The designs are finalized, stable, and several steps more advanced than what was s... | |
| 300b lovers By the way, the traditional definition of "efficiency" is: (Max RMS output power at stated distortion level) / (Total power going into the plate circuit). Power consumed by heaters, filaments, input and driver tubes, or regulators is not usually c... | |
| 300b lovers Some fixed-bias amps have a separate servo circuit that monitors the bias of each tube, so user does not need to adjust the amplifier. This servo circuit needs to be very reliable, though, since a failure would destroy the output tubes, and possib... | |
| Spatial Audio Raven Preamp I expect to be there for the Oregon Triode Society demo as well. Maybe I’ll meet some old friends ... I joined the OTS way back in 1990 or so, at the second meeting. Way too far to drive all the way from the Denver metro area, so I’ll fly again, ... | |
| Spatial Audio Raven Preamp That's why I was pleased to collaborate with Don Sachs, starting a couple of years ago. I already owned his preamp, and I was quite impressed he had decades of experience on the insanely complex Citation I and Citation II preamp and power amps. Th... | |
| Spatial Audio Raven Preamp I started my career in audio with the invention, patenting, and prototyping of the Shadow Vector quadraphonic decoder, back in 1973. That SQ/stereo decoder was specifically designed to preserve ambient cues and spatial impression, without adding a... | |
| Spatial Audio Raven Preamp Of course, things were a little bigger back then. This entire rack is one channel of amplification. Two racks were typically used, with instant changeover in case of failure while the movie was presented. | |
| Spatial Audio Raven Preamp One of the points of inspiration: the late-Twenties Western Electric Model 43A amplifier, used in the WE Mirrophonic theatre systems. | |
| Spatial Audio Raven Preamp Yes, I’m curious too. Oddly enough, even though I designed the Raven in 1998, I never actually heard one until the Seattle show last June 2023. Don and I agreed it was good to choose tubes that were (A) in current production from respected vendor... | |
| 40+ watts SET, cost is not a problem I agree with pretty much all the postings here. I think the owner of the new-series TAD speakers needs to be open-minded and willing to travel to audition these very expensive amplifiers. I would NEVER buy an amplifier unheard, and yes, they will ... | |
| 40+ watts SET, cost is not a problem Low-order passive crossovers (6 or 12 dB/octave) are less sensitive to amplifier output impedance (damping factor) than high-order crossovers (18 or 24 dB/octave). High feedback is the most direct method of reducing output impedance for both tube ... | |
| 40+ watts SET, cost is not a problem Hmm, well the Blackbird puts out an honest 22 watts, with half-second transient peaks probably around 60 watts. They power highly reactive electrostats with no issues, because of deep Class A biasing and zero feedback ... the load-lines for the PP... | |
| 40+ watts SET, cost is not a problem Most audiophiles who have heard tube amps have listened to "Golden Age" push-pull circuits that date from the Fifties, with a few modern tweaks like regulated supplies or a current source or two sprinkled through the design. A smaller number have ... |