I don't want to talk about wire differences, so why don't we cool down on the wine differences. I agree that there are differences in wine, and I won't hold the rest of you to discerning differences in wire, but I wish you would leave me alone about it.
For the record, the BEST wire that I have ever used was first found by BEAR, our DIY associate, and it IS expensive. However, I would gladly buy more, if I could. My Blowtorch is wired with it, including the connecting wires inside my Vendetta. It sounds (to me) wonderful! Clear, without edge, pristine.
For the record, the BEST wire that I have ever used was first found by BEAR, our DIY associate, and it IS expensive. However, I would gladly buy more, if I could. My Blowtorch is wired with it, including the connecting wires inside my Vendetta. It sounds (to me) wonderful! Clear, without edge, pristine.
No, not really. You can find tests showing poor correlation between price and organoleptic preference or identification, but there are no tests, none, zero, nada, zip, which show wines in general to be indistinguishable by organoleptics alone. Wine is really a bad analogy and you ought to finally retire it.
Well I heard a wonderful concert today, the second program of the 26th season of the chamber music series Pacific Serenades. And afterwards, having found no one to accompany me (one couple pleaded "pinching pennies"), I went to my favorite Thai place in NoHo, armed with a 2/3 bottle of the 2008 Ramey Ritchie Vineyard Chardonnay. I knew what I was drinking of course. I had kept it cool in the overall trip using an insulated bag and a "cold pak" insert. It was IMO at an optimal temperature by the time I drank it.
But my favorite "variation on a blind testing theme" was the new piece by the artistic director of PS, the second on the program and its second performance ever (the first at another venue last night). Mark Carlson's "Cave Paintings" was a lovely work. And to my ears, quite convincingly structured, intricate, attractive without being trite in any way, an advanced harmonic language without being per se atonal.
But I felt something was not fully formed, somehow, near the end of the final movement. Nothing that sounded like outright clams, but just something slightly unsatisfying, somehow abrupt or unfinished.
I saw Mark at the end of the concert (after a spectacular Schumann Piano Quartet performance, as good as one could imagine) and after commenting on violinist Roger Wilkie's continued and ever-improving mastery, and the overall quality of the concert, said "I loved your piece. But ... I have a feeling somehow, that, if time permits, you will wind up revising slightly the last movement."
Mark said: " Um. Well. They lost their place".
So I said Well then! The movement will rewrite itself!
There will be one more public performance at the UCLA Faculty Center on the 13th. The acoustics of that room are charitably speaking, lousy, but it will still be worth attending. If you are in town I recommend it. 8 PM.
But my favorite "variation on a blind testing theme" was the new piece by the artistic director of PS, the second on the program and its second performance ever (the first at another venue last night). Mark Carlson's "Cave Paintings" was a lovely work. And to my ears, quite convincingly structured, intricate, attractive without being trite in any way, an advanced harmonic language without being per se atonal.
But I felt something was not fully formed, somehow, near the end of the final movement. Nothing that sounded like outright clams, but just something slightly unsatisfying, somehow abrupt or unfinished.
I saw Mark at the end of the concert (after a spectacular Schumann Piano Quartet performance, as good as one could imagine) and after commenting on violinist Roger Wilkie's continued and ever-improving mastery, and the overall quality of the concert, said "I loved your piece. But ... I have a feeling somehow, that, if time permits, you will wind up revising slightly the last movement."
Mark said: " Um. Well. They lost their place".
So I said Well then! The movement will rewrite itself!
There will be one more public performance at the UCLA Faculty Center on the 13th. The acoustics of that room are charitably speaking, lousy, but it will still be worth attending. If you are in town I recommend it. 8 PM.
But, weren´t the phrases "single-blind" and "double blind" used with a different meaning than in psychophysic experiments?
If i recall it correctly "single blind" means that all wines presented were made from the same type of grape, while in a "double blind" the participants doesn´t know anything about the wine.
In any case, I have found audio to be succession of refinements. Some are expensive, unfortunately. For example, the use of gold on connectors has gotten very costly, obviously. However, it has been known for more than 100 years that there is no equal alternative in many cases, including connectors and relay contacts. If we want the 'best' we can't skimp on thickness or purity, except to harden it, with a small addition of specific elements that do so.
It is the same with cases. As SY pointed out to me, years ago, much airborne RFI can be removed by a shield thickness of aluminum foil, BUT not all of it. It is also well known that steel shielding is much more effective against the MAGNETIC component of the RFI that is low impedance and frequently comes from nearby transformers. However, steel has been shown to add a small amount of distortion to nearby audio circuits. Is it worth it to use steel? Well for the Blowtorch, we decided on thick aluminum because it doesn't ADD distortion, and the thicker it is, the better the magnetic shielding it provides. Now, it is not perfect against a nearby transformer at 50-60Hz, even with 1/2 inch shielding, but it is VERY EFFECTIVE against any higher frequencies coming from the transformer, such as harmonics. Aluminum can easily be machined and finished with a virtually impregnable coating of a variety of colors. Of course a THICK sided box will not rattle, and can support relatively heavy or hard to turn components like Shallco military grade silver on silver switches, without bending or loosening. However it is NOT cheap to use thick aluminum and because of this, it raises the cost of the unit. Over the years we have tried all kinds of fabrication methods, including aluminum welding, 'hogging out' a solid billet of aluminum, and tricky and elegant assembly of different pieces that look nice and solid when put together, perhaps without any assembly bolts showing, normally. In this business, using a 'thrown together' case is not going to sell, any more than a fine wine can be sold in a plastic bottle. In reality, the cost of fabricating the chassis can be one of the most expensive outlays in a hi end design.
It is the same with cases. As SY pointed out to me, years ago, much airborne RFI can be removed by a shield thickness of aluminum foil, BUT not all of it. It is also well known that steel shielding is much more effective against the MAGNETIC component of the RFI that is low impedance and frequently comes from nearby transformers. However, steel has been shown to add a small amount of distortion to nearby audio circuits. Is it worth it to use steel? Well for the Blowtorch, we decided on thick aluminum because it doesn't ADD distortion, and the thicker it is, the better the magnetic shielding it provides. Now, it is not perfect against a nearby transformer at 50-60Hz, even with 1/2 inch shielding, but it is VERY EFFECTIVE against any higher frequencies coming from the transformer, such as harmonics. Aluminum can easily be machined and finished with a virtually impregnable coating of a variety of colors. Of course a THICK sided box will not rattle, and can support relatively heavy or hard to turn components like Shallco military grade silver on silver switches, without bending or loosening. However it is NOT cheap to use thick aluminum and because of this, it raises the cost of the unit. Over the years we have tried all kinds of fabrication methods, including aluminum welding, 'hogging out' a solid billet of aluminum, and tricky and elegant assembly of different pieces that look nice and solid when put together, perhaps without any assembly bolts showing, normally. In this business, using a 'thrown together' case is not going to sell, any more than a fine wine can be sold in a plastic bottle. In reality, the cost of fabricating the chassis can be one of the most expensive outlays in a hi end design.
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... and then neglected by using insulated RCA connectors, with all the RFI getting inside along shields of signal cables. The HF shielding effect of the massive box is gone. It will work only to several hundreds of kHz and would be almost ineffective for tens of MHz and nothing special in units of MHz.
You would need to use RF connectors with body tight connected to the box, if you wanted to get HF shielding effect. As is, it is only misused overkill. Gold does not prevent against HF EMI.
I think that it should be pointed out that we were not making a military RF proof device. We were making a CONVENIENT line stage/phono preamp of the highest quality that we could. We KNEW that the shields on single ended RCA connectors are not EMP proof. So what? What we really worry about is the stuff from 150-150KHz, that is where the action is, in my opinion. If we had TVI or microwave tower problems, we would probably use specially shielded RCA cables with a separate external chassis connection, and/or an input and output transformer, but where most people live, that is not a problem.
Actually one of the problems meeting RFI specs is that when the connector is in the same plane as the circuitry that allows a "line of sight" RFI path. This is a big problem when using PC mounted connectors. That is why even on consumer gear the RCA connectors are mounted to a small PC board that is mounted above the main circuit board and connected with small flexible cables.
If you understand your grounding scheme you can ground these connectors and keep the Faraday shield almost intact.
Have you found anything that was oscillating and until then you didn't know it? (Would you admit to it if you did?
)Have you tried injecting noise and seeing what else comes out? Or what gets worse fast?
ES
Not any oscillations as they are usually audible, show up on scope or AP.
We have simple very linear circuits and they are pretty stable not 7 or 8 gain stages and all the phase shift.
Mostly power supply noise and harmonics way out there. Some of the text book methods either didn't work or made them worse. YMMV
We have simple very linear circuits and they are pretty stable not 7 or 8 gain stages and all the phase shift.
Mostly power supply noise and harmonics way out there. Some of the text book methods either didn't work or made them worse. YMMV
Lost their place??
One question?? Have you ever played a musical instrument in an ensemble or orchestra??
If you have, it's pretty evident, even in music you've never heard, to tell when and if the musicians have "lost their place".
John L.
But my favorite "variation on a blind testing theme" was the new piece by the artistic director of PS, the second on the program and its second performance ever (the first at another venue last night). Mark Carlson's "Cave Paintings" was a lovely work. And to my ears, quite convincingly structured, intricate, attractive without being trite in any way, an advanced harmonic language without being per se atonal.
But I felt something was not fully formed, somehow, near the end of the final movement. Nothing that sounded like outright clams, but just something slightly unsatisfying, somehow abrupt or unfinished.
I saw Mark at the end of the concert (after a spectacular Schumann Piano Quartet performance, as good as one could imagine) and after commenting on violinist Roger Wilkie's continued and ever-improving mastery, and the overall quality of the concert, said "I loved your piece. But ... I have a feeling somehow, that, if time permits, you will wind up revising slightly the last movement."
Mark said: " Um. Well. They lost their place".
So I said Well then! The movement will rewrite itself!
There will be one more public performance at the UCLA Faculty Center on the 13th. The acoustics of that room are charitably speaking, lousy, but it will still be worth attending. If you are in town I recommend it. 8 PM.
One question?? Have you ever played a musical instrument in an ensemble or orchestra??
If you have, it's pretty evident, even in music you've never heard, to tell when and if the musicians have "lost their place".
John L.
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