Normally that's how I do it too, for safety reasons. But I have to admit I'm living dangerously right now with a direct connection to the compression drivers. A "woopsie" could cost me $250. But it's a tiny tube amp with low gain. Low voltage out and a transformer are giving me a false sense of security.
90
90
Hi Pos - thanks for the thorough answer. Some thoughts.
Yes, that's true I suppose. But might that damage a tube amp? An impedance so high it looks like an open circuit?
Sure, you can design the passive crossover for the impedance seen at primary of the step down transformer. OK if you never change it - but what if you change the attenuation? Then the impedance can change significantly, thus changing the frequency response. That's why we use L-Pads. They are somewhat constant impedance.
In may cases yes, but not always. Maybe OK for some transistors, but output tubes often have ideal operating points. Change that by a lot and you can change the sound.
Not sure I understand that. For a given driver voltage and attenuation, the amp has to have the same output voltage for either L-Pad or Transfo. Or am I missing something.
Some claim lower damping is advantageous for compression drivers. I really don't know, but have often found that series resistance makes then sound better. That could be for entirely different reasons, tho.
I have several of those, including from Parts Express. They are not pretty when measured.
I've not tried them on the midrange, but maybe I should.If I had some money to throw at it, I'd have Bud Purvine wind a pair with 3 or 4 taps for me. It would be interesting to hear if there is any difference vs a resistive divider.
I was transferring some recordings from tape to digital files and noticed recordings did not have the same polarity which tells me that mics can have different polarity as I have noticed in doing measurements. Does this make a difference? Well, my experience was quite interesting.
When the speaker driver performance was not ideal, polarity difference can be heard, but there was no clear indication which was correct. As the driver was tuned to better performance, there was a clear preference depending mostly on which brand of music content was being played. Then as development of the Exaltation commenced and work on it's amplifier commenced, the better the amplifier got, the less polarity difference made although the difference and preference could be detected.
I once asked the question in a mic builders forum how they determined the polarity of the mic they used in a recording, seems like there are standards but no guarantee they are followed, and most were not aware this was a problem.
Since we have no control of the process of music creation through publishing, the only thing we can do is be diligent and cautious consumers when choosing music.
This is what I would expect. Unless the studio engineers are really diligent they will not worry about polarity, especially if they are denyers.
Trouble is you will end up with a mishmash for a whole bundle of mikes more likely on a mix of polarities. So nothing you can do here. With more transparent reproducers it can sometimes matter less because there is so much presence already. Guys like us often have polarity switches ans many frequency analysers are sold with a CD giving a range of tests as you know and include a polariy checker. Very useful and time saving. If the recording is in the same polarity for say an orchestra the music will feel fuller in the mids and bass.
That makes sense. The usefulness of more bit depth is an entirely different discussion for recording and production than for playback of the final product.
Ultimately, everything is digital, thus says quantum mechanics.
Then it is just a matter of bit depth and sample rate.
Hands up all those who have not lived "dangerously" at some stage with audio gear!
Hmmm ... I thought so ...
Damn, same here, except that it will cost me many times higher. May be its time to look (again) at protection projects. Dedicated small transformer on a portable protection board.
If it was "fine", studios would use it for mastering. There is a reason they don't.