Hoffman Amplifiers Tube Amplifier Forum
Amp Stuff => Tube Amp Building - Tweaks - Repairs => Topic started by: P Batty on November 24, 2013, 10:03:49 pm
-
Now matter how obsessed we may get with our tube geetar amps, the hi-fi guys are always way beyond us:
http://vinylsavor.blogspot.com/2013/11/live-from-berlin-etf-2013-part-4.html (http://vinylsavor.blogspot.com/2013/11/live-from-berlin-etf-2013-part-4.html)
-
:thumbsup:
-
Now matter how obsessed we may get with our tube geetar amps, the hi-fi guys are always way beyond us:
You could not have said that any better. I have a few friends that have Hi-Fi systems that would rival NASA.
Have you ever seen a million dollar set of speakers? It boggles my mind. If you have it though i say spend it.
-
Now matter how obsessed we may get with our tube geetar amps, the hi-fi guys are always way beyond us ...
Those of us who tinker are unusual among musicians and music-lovers. The inner workings of the amps may lose the veneer of magic. For those who can't understand what's under the cover, visual appeal and magic rule the day.
While most snake-oil stuff does have some positive impact on system performance, the law of diminishing returns applies. If your customers only understand magic, then that's what you sell them. If they have deep pockets, you sell them a lot of magic. :icon_biggrin:
-
At the only store of electronics and components we have in my town (or city ??) the proprietor told me he has a client who buys antenna cable for satellite television, put on it gold-plated RCA connectors and sell it for € 2000.00 a pair (near $ 2713.00) to HiFi guys
---
At a radio amateur flea market (Hamfest) there was a guy who told me he is able to hear the difference in an output cable (amplifier to speaker) if this is connected in one way or the other way (A to te amp B to the speaker or B to the amp A to the speaker)
---
if all this isn't snake oil ........ :l2: :l2:
K
-
Happy Thanksgiving! :think1:
-
At the only store of electronics and components we have in my town (or city ??) the proprietor told me he has a client who buys antenna cable for satellite television, put on it gold-plated RCA connectors and sell it for € 2000.00 a pair (near $ 2713.00) to HiFi guys
---
At a radio amateur flea market (Hamfest) there was a guy who told me he is able to hear the difference in an output cable (amplifier to speaker) if this is connected in one way or the other way (A to te amp B to the speaker or B to the amp A to the speaker)
---
if all this isn't snake oil ........ :l2: :l2:
K
To this day, the best example I've heard is the guys who were arguing over which +$1000 speaker cable was better, and so set up a blind test with a third friend as the proctor. They very quickly agreed the best sounding was.....the untwisted coat hanger the proctor used without telling them!!!!
Snake-oil is by definition useless and expensive - that's what defines the term.
Gabriel
-
Snake-oil is by definition useless and expensive - that's what defines the term.
that is what we are saying :laugh:
K
-
hahahahhaaaa……. been there done that……and I still have my marbles.
At risk of blowing any engineering kudos (don't care really ) here's my tuppence-worth.
I and my colleagues in the Sound Dept (i.e. electronics engineers) used to laugh at such notions as reversing cables to make differences in sound, that one cable would sound any different to another, as long as they were engineered well and suited the application etc, etc. after all, we ran in thousands of meters of cables in the TV studios without any regard to which way they were going, and everything tested just fine.
Until one day the company photographer brought in a pair of van den hul unbalanced phono to phono cables that he paid silly money for and claimed that he was amazed that he could hear the difference and said that we should really try them out.
After roundly slagging him off and taking the mick for being such a eejit, we all proceeded, individually and separately, from our initial cynical and incredulous standpoint, to audition these wonders.
There were a few sheepish faces afterward.
There is a difference.
The direction of the cable can make a difference.
Whether there is a difference, and the amount of the difference, seems to depend on the circuit the cable is in.
I really did not want to know this.
Here's a few cheap things you can try at home when no-one is watching.
Canare GS-6 guitar cable sounds different when you reverse its direction.
Loudspeaker cable - 2.5mm solid core mains installation cable (twin and earth) sounds different to 2.5mm stranded cable.
Take the 2.5mm solid T&E cable apart and reverse the direction of the blue neutral wire, it sounds different.
I didn't want to hear these things.
I approach the subject first with a guitarist's ears, and an engineering mind second.
If I can make a difference that I like for next to no outlay, then I'll use it, and work out why later.
I would love to know why the cable-reverse thing happens.
I don't know why it does.
I do know that a cable is a very complex circuit, and things get more complex if you connect it to a complex load like a loudspeaker crossover and speakers.
Please would some bright spark go and find out instead of slagging folks off. Yes, that's you, John Watkinson. Prove it doesn't happen if you can.
I've done these tests until I got sick of it, and felt I was approaching insanity. Now I just listen to the music on my hifi, instead of listening to the cables.
I use Canare GS6 exclusively for guitar circuits, and, for a change, or slight moment of madness, recently tried some Sommer Spirit XXL cable from Germany, but still prefer the Canare which I have been using for 20 years.
If someone doesn't hear a difference, that's fine by me. I won't think less of someone if they don't experience what I can hear. There isn't always a difference. You may not notice a difference immediately if there is a difference, as it's not like the difference you get when changing a speaker. It can be quite subtle, but once you hear it, you hear it every time.
I wouldn't let the theory put you off trying these things. The sound comes first to my mind!
So if you do go down this path, take care, there could lie insanity!!!
Take it easy, VB
-
I want to say only one thing
shielded cable has the shield connected only at one extremity ................
K
-
At risk of blowing any engineering kudos ...
It's not that sound is never improved by any of the stuff sold...
My point was it's easy to get wrapped up in the aesthetics of something if you don't know much about how it does what it does. Same with cars, guitars, anything really.
-
Oh dear.
Burning in cables.
You need a special purging resistor so that the bad electrons have to go round corners. This is something they do not like doing and they will depart from the amplifier through the gold plated fuse and leave the listener bee.
The burning in dummy load resistor has to be wound with corners on the coil former.
It is a very nice dummy load for purging all the bad electrons out of a bench power supply during test following a repair and i know because I used it in anger after my power supply broke down.
I personally have never used it for an amplifier but it was to hand when I was testing my repair.
-
welcome to SO Hi-Fi, may help you?
http://www.essentialaudio.com/humor/cliche.htm (http://www.essentialaudio.com/humor/cliche.htm)
http://www.tech-diy.com/audio_bs.htm (http://www.tech-diy.com/audio_bs.htm)
-
welcome to SO Hi-Fi, may help you?
http://www.essentialaudio.com/humor/cliche.htm (http://www.essentialaudio.com/humor/cliche.htm)
http://www.tech-diy.com/audio_bs.htm (http://www.tech-diy.com/audio_bs.htm)
Here is what I learned.
lifted-a-veil-from tubelike PRaT
embrace ubiquitous bearing
With the knowledge here, I cannot go wrong. Pete, man you are the best.
-
I have just saved the two links for a thread like this over in UK.
-
Share and share alike.
Brad :icon_biggrin: