Hi Sy,
Okay, sorry about this.
So you did not post the statement below:
Quel dommage.
Who did then? Is someone hacking your account and posting statements that you disagree with? A case to appeal to the Moderators perhaps? I am sure you can get them to remove it and my post referencing it.
Ciao T
Okay, sorry about this.
So you did not post the statement below:
Quel dommage.
Who did then? Is someone hacking your account and posting statements that you disagree with? A case to appeal to the Moderators perhaps? I am sure you can get them to remove it and my post referencing it.
Ciao T
The Grateful Dead did not deliberately overload the PA in my experience, at least not on purpose. We attempted to equalize the room in order to reduce feedback squeal, with Altec Passive 1/3rd octave filters. We used B&K 1/10 octave filters (I think) at one point We did find as the audience grew, that the horn throat distortion became unacceptable. We just used more amplifiers and speakers as the audiences got bigger.
The individual loudspeakers that we used were much more linear, individually, than typical home equipment speakers, including K-horns, AR, or anything typical. They cost more, individually, too.
The individual loudspeakers that we used were much more linear, individually, than typical home equipment speakers, including K-horns, AR, or anything typical. They cost more, individually, too.
An Overlooked Message of Profound Wisdom.
This is true beyond a shadow of a doubt. In fact, if one makes a pure tube anything it is hard to make it sound bad. Any time you hear a "tube" product that sounds bad, I can pretty much guarantee that it is because they used solid state rectifiers, regulators, or active audio stages.
On the other hand, it is extremely difficult to make good sounding solid-state electronics. Understanding why this should be is helpful when attempting to do so.
I would say that 99% of the people participating in these forums would be better off to make tube circuits. They are easy to make and it is hard to make them sound bad and it is easy to make them sound very, very good. If you are talented, you can make them sound great.
On the other hand, there are probably less than a dozen designers on the planet that know how to make a great sounding solid state anything. Most of them don't share their schematics. But even if John published the complete detailed schematic for the Blowtorch, there would probably only be about a dozen people who would have the parts, tools, equipment, experience, and knowledge to make it properly.
Moral of the story: Go build some tube equipment and have fun listening to the really nice sounding gear that you built yourself.
This is true beyond a shadow of a doubt. In fact, if one makes a pure tube anything it is hard to make it sound bad. Any time you hear a "tube" product that sounds bad, I can pretty much guarantee that it is because they used solid state rectifiers, regulators, or active audio stages.
On the other hand, it is extremely difficult to make good sounding solid-state electronics. Understanding why this should be is helpful when attempting to do so.
I would say that 99% of the people participating in these forums would be better off to make tube circuits. They are easy to make and it is hard to make them sound bad and it is easy to make them sound very, very good. If you are talented, you can make them sound great.
On the other hand, there are probably less than a dozen designers on the planet that know how to make a great sounding solid state anything. Most of them don't share their schematics. But even if John published the complete detailed schematic for the Blowtorch, there would probably only be about a dozen people who would have the parts, tools, equipment, experience, and knowledge to make it properly.
Moral of the story: Go build some tube equipment and have fun listening to the really nice sounding gear that you built yourself.
LOL!
Charles,
I do not buy this at any level and I hope aspiring solid state audio designers are not taking this stuff seriously.
We are talking audio engineering (volts, amps, frequncy response, electrons - you know, the physics) and not the black magic of some inner sanctum audio designers cabal.
Anyway, I got a laugh out of it so lets have some more.
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Hi Sy,
So you did type this after all, why first claim that you did not?
BTW, the "context" you claim I removed was:
I have no issues with you saying Tubes and Transistors distort differently (I think that is a well established fact), nor that people (performers of not) may have a preference for one or the other (though I am seriously surprised you are not demanding that this is proven in a double blind test).
Nor do I wish to argue linearity between tubes and transistors (based on traditional measurements high feedback solid state is more linear).
I did however take exception to your assertion that (to paraphrase):
"In music production and performance overload is common"
lest such assertion is strictly limited to the narrow range of the genre oft called "contemporary" and even there only in a small subset of instruments.
So again, the truth is:
"In music production and performance overload is uncommon, with the exception of some electrically amplified stringed instruments."
Which around 70% - 80% the opposite of your claim. So I would call your quite extraordinary and in need of being reformulated or considered false.
In essence, I take exception (as I oft do in connection with your statements) of their general, sweeping nature and lack of precision and qualifications, which make them a priori simply and patently wrong.
So, no need to "play".
Simply make your statements less general and more precise, otherwise they are equal to those of the kind "Solid State sounds bad" or "Digital sounds Bad" or "Analog sounds good" or "Tweak X makes it sound better", which are ones to which you routinely take exception and which you routinely challenge.
So please engage in as much diligence, precision and an evidence based approach in your claims as you require of others, lest someone may suggest the old adage of pots, kettles and the colour black.
Ciao T
So you did type this after all, why first claim that you did not?
BTW, the "context" you claim I removed was:
I have no issues with you saying Tubes and Transistors distort differently (I think that is a well established fact), nor that people (performers of not) may have a preference for one or the other (though I am seriously surprised you are not demanding that this is proven in a double blind test).
Nor do I wish to argue linearity between tubes and transistors (based on traditional measurements high feedback solid state is more linear).
I did however take exception to your assertion that (to paraphrase):
"In music production and performance overload is common"
lest such assertion is strictly limited to the narrow range of the genre oft called "contemporary" and even there only in a small subset of instruments.
So again, the truth is:
"In music production and performance overload is uncommon, with the exception of some electrically amplified stringed instruments."
Which around 70% - 80% the opposite of your claim. So I would call your quite extraordinary and in need of being reformulated or considered false.
In essence, I take exception (as I oft do in connection with your statements) of their general, sweeping nature and lack of precision and qualifications, which make them a priori simply and patently wrong.
So, no need to "play".
Simply make your statements less general and more precise, otherwise they are equal to those of the kind "Solid State sounds bad" or "Digital sounds Bad" or "Analog sounds good" or "Tweak X makes it sound better", which are ones to which you routinely take exception and which you routinely challenge.
So please engage in as much diligence, precision and an evidence based approach in your claims as you require of others, lest someone may suggest the old adage of pots, kettles and the colour black.
Ciao T
I know. You are one of those guy who thinks that any circuit built with modern op-amps sounds about as good as it gets. So I'll leave you with one question and then a thought for the rest of the "aspiring solid state designers":
Quick, Bonsai. Since I am so full of sh!t in my entire post and I said that there are only about a dozen really good solid-state designers in audio, blow my theory apart and name two dozen. Feel free to name IC designers if you really feel that their products compete with the best discrete circuits.
For the "aspiring solid state designers" -- this is hard stuff. You are not going to find the answers in app notes or text books or Linear Audio magazine or any place at all like that. The best you can hope for is a nugget here and a nugget there. The rest will come (if it comes at all) as a result of a lot of experimentation, a lot of thought, and perhaps most importantly of all, a lot of listening. It can be done. But not by sticking a slew of the latest, greatest op-amps into a box.
Go look in Stereophile and tell me how many companies have more than one solid-state product rated in Class A. That will give you an idea of how hard it is. And Stereophile has been (justifiably) criticized for including far too many products in Class A recommended components.
But Bonsai thinks it is easy. So we all await your entry in the field of high end manufacturing, where you will clearly rake in the big bucks because you know so much more than John and I put together. Best wishes and good luck!
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What does having a Class A rating in Stereophile have to do with anything outside of marketing?
se
Charles,
You are trying to teach them.
A satguru (who incidentally taught for free) once told me:
Never teach anyone for free.
That which they acquire for free, though it be great wisdom and truth, is not valued by the profane.
Yet that which they pay for dearly, be it in work or coin, though it be falsehood through and through, they hold in high esteem.
It seems I too am not good in valuing his teaching, since they came to me for free...
Ciao T
You are trying to teach them.
A satguru (who incidentally taught for free) once told me:
Never teach anyone for free.
That which they acquire for free, though it be great wisdom and truth, is not valued by the profane.
Yet that which they pay for dearly, be it in work or coin, though it be falsehood through and through, they hold in high esteem.
It seems I too am not good in valuing his teaching, since they came to me for free...
Ciao T
Obviously anything I say will not convince of you of anything except what you already believe.
I guess the only thing that we can conclude with certainty then is that Q Audio products are marketed poorly.
EDIT: Speaking of "marketing", there appear to be at least two misleading statements on your website.
The first is "Keeping it simple since 1998." As cables are the only product for sale, the obvious conclusion is that you have been designing and selling cables since 1998. I do not believe this is actually the case. Would you mind telling us when you first started selling your cables to the general public?
The second is that the cables are claimed to be "limited edition". I suppose that as nobody besides you makes them that they will cease to be sold when you die. So in this strict literal sense, they are "limited edition". But other than your demise, is there anything else that would limit the number of cables you manufactured? (Not the rate, but just the ongoing production.)
Thanks.
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Charles
You again are quoting out of context (as you often do to try make your point) and on top of that you have missed my point. I don't recall saying anything was easy. So where did that come from?
You have made a sweeping generalization about tube amps vs solid state and on who is capable of designing anything half decent. I think statements like that are wildly inaccurate and fill this pastime with a load of mishmash and nonsense. I remarked in another post some weeks ago that it takes a newbie about 5 years to get up to speed and start to make some headway because they have to wade through a lot of unsubstantiated claims from people who really should know better. The whole feedback/tube/opamp debate really brings out the worst of this type of thing in my view.
Products sound different but please don't tell it's because they use opamps, or feedback or don't have some other special components in them. None of this is supported by a shred of evidence. Let me repeat: none of it.
You again are quoting out of context (as you often do to try make your point) and on top of that you have missed my point. I don't recall saying anything was easy. So where did that come from?
You have made a sweeping generalization about tube amps vs solid state and on who is capable of designing anything half decent. I think statements like that are wildly inaccurate and fill this pastime with a load of mishmash and nonsense. I remarked in another post some weeks ago that it takes a newbie about 5 years to get up to speed and start to make some headway because they have to wade through a lot of unsubstantiated claims from people who really should know better. The whole feedback/tube/opamp debate really brings out the worst of this type of thing in my view.
Products sound different but please don't tell it's because they use opamps, or feedback or don't have some other special components in them. None of this is supported by a shred of evidence. Let me repeat: none of it.
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With all due respect ,one of the most ridiculous statement i saw in this site,
and oddly, from someone who is not a newbie..
So in essence, all people by there are branded incapables of designing
a good amp , by the very same designer that advocate for amps
that are incapable of reaching the CD quality standards...
I cannot agree. There's plenty of really awful, high distortion, fuzzy, colored tube gear out there. 5% distortion, embarrassing signal to noise, and gross slew limiting is waved away. This is especially true of "classic" tube phono stages and power amps, where high impedance circuits are asked to drive capacitive loads, high and variable plate resistances are complemented by insufficient plate load resistances, high value cathode bypass caps cause blocking distortion, and poor power supply rejection topologies and implementations yield excessive noise and intermod.
No one loves tube circuits more than I, and I would humbly submit that my designs are pretty good, but given the choice between a Dynaco/Marantz/AR phono stage or a well-implemented discrete or IC circuit, I'd take the latter in a heartbeat.
The logical conclusion of this statement is that some solid state electronics sound better than tubes, thanks for reminding us John.
As a matter of fact the solid state electronics I was thinking about in this context is class D. Nothing beats a top notch class D at the moment.
I don't know.
What is it exactly that you're trying to convince people of?
Yeah?
"Keeping it simple..." is the company slogan. The company has been in existence since 1998, and previously sold a product other than cables.
Learn to read, Charles.
It says "limited production," not "limited edition."
se
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