It will depend on your source - what do you listen to? Since opamps running in classAB on relatively high OP impedance regs (what are they incidentally? - you have the BOM) are almost ubiquitous in audio kit nowadays, if you've already got one in the chain prior to the Mod-86 you'll not hear the effect.
In order:
At matched levels and EQ, probably the same. It will have greater noise immunity, but that's because, unlike John, I'm not constrained by what the installed base uses and can do things like balanced inputs. He can't because his customers aren't going to wire up non-standard cables and connectors.
No, if my design were commercial, it would probably have to sell for more. I could certainly do a design with the same performance virtues for a lot less money, but I arbitrarily added non-sonic constraints (using tubes for voltage amplification). Yes, that's a fashion statement.
Not disparaging? Really? Funnny, I had a clear idea that was a rather disparaging set of comments.
Also, reducing everything to price alone, there are some $15 kits available from China, and in that context, even $200 is a rip off. >$2k is sheer lunacy by that standard. Unfortunately, prices are relative to incomes, and their perception will vary in some proportion to incomes, and will invariably be most different in different countries of the world. To make things worse and yet more complicated, the issue is also relative to how important is phono playback to someone. All of which makes determining of limits VERY difficult.
John does what he does, and since he's still in the business, obviously he has a customer base willing to pay for his work. So do the cheap Chinese kits. Not to mention the slew of in-betweens.
All of which tells me one should not go name calling so easily. I have heard of John's work about 30+ years ago, and I have been made aware of SY's existence only on this forum. I do not know whether SY 's work has ever been awarded and by whom, I don't know that it's available to the general public, I don't know how it performs, and therefore I have no reference point. I don't even know whether SY sells it in any form. But it would be interesting to learn. Could they perhaps be competitors?
Also, reducing everything to price alone, there are some $15 kits available from China, and in that context, even $200 is a rip off. >$2k is sheer lunacy by that standard. Unfortunately, prices are relative to incomes, and their perception will vary in some proportion to incomes, and will invariably be most different in different countries of the world. To make things worse and yet more complicated, the issue is also relative to how important is phono playback to someone. All of which makes determining of limits VERY difficult.
John does what he does, and since he's still in the business, obviously he has a customer base willing to pay for his work. So do the cheap Chinese kits. Not to mention the slew of in-betweens.
All of which tells me one should not go name calling so easily. I have heard of John's work about 30+ years ago, and I have been made aware of SY's existence only on this forum. I do not know whether SY 's work has ever been awarded and by whom, I don't know that it's available to the general public, I don't know how it performs, and therefore I have no reference point. I don't even know whether SY sells it in any form. But it would be interesting to learn. Could they perhaps be competitors?
That is my understanding also....the Parasound JC designs are offered as sonically very well performing gear at sensible prices wrt the higher quality range offerings of the usual Japanese majors...Yamaha, Pioneer, Denon, Onkyo etc, etc.
Yes, they utilise components costing more than the 'majors', and the production runs are likely lower than the majors, and the point of sale is more likely a quality audio dealer rather than the chain store high volume AV /everything type retailer, so yes expect to pay more.
The upside is that the purchaser is buying purpose built and sonically evaluated gear with proper after sales service/backup.
All of this majors higher quality range gear quotes similar quite decent specs....ime none sound particularly good, some sound ok, some sound tolerable, and some sound plain awful.
Hmmm, the thing is that the great unwashed buy from the major retailers.
The jockey on sales commissions pushes whatever is benefit to him/his boss, and not necessarily to the benefit of the buyer !.
I have lost count over the years of hearing comments like ''I have the best (Yamaha, Sony, Pioneer etc), it sounds fantastic''.
These systems ime drive me out of the room, and likely the many of those present here.
For example, I bought a five years old better quality range Onkyo AV receiver from an ad in the local Trading Post classifieds....cheap so I don't mind the cost of the experience.
Good specs, good reviews, BUT for me it's unlistenable and lives on a shelf in the back shed alongside the similarly unlistenable Belkin power filter box I mentioned some pages back.
The great unwashed typically have no experience of really good sound reproduction, so if it's new and shiny it sounds good.
RNM bought a new CFB Marantz amp a while back...any updates on your subjective evaluations Richard ?.
I'm sure Stuart gets out plenty.
From what I gather Mr Yaniger tends to listen with the engineering/specs type ear, and has not yet learned to pick out the very fine details/nuances/behaviours that differentiate decent reproduction from the outstandingly realistic reproduction that most of us strive for and some achieve.
I don't mind to be corrected, over to you Stuart.
Dan.
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The problem I have is that the 'nuance' crowd trust their ears and biases, so without even some basic attempts to measure what is going on there is nothing to increase understanding.
For us who is not in the audio design business, we tend to think that a good amp can be made with less than $200, so more expensive ones must be a rip-off. But try to earn an equal living by becoming 100% audio designer...
For individuals or small companies, it is impossible to compete with big players who can take small profit margin (per product) but can sell more with efficient distribution channel and operation (e.g. after sales). The only chance is to sell less but with higher profit margin, and this is only possible in the niche high end market where 0.1% improvement (which is often difficult to measure, such as using different capacitors) is critical.
The problem is of course a seller who acts unfair such as deliberately claiming nonsense/lies without "money-back" policy.
No, they usually don't, which is why they are resistant to ears-only evaluation. "Trust your ears" becomes a mantra meaning exactly the opposite.
If there is a difference you can usually measure it, but much easier to get marketing to write up a 'lifestyle' statement as many journos lap that up and write it into their reviews. This is the preferred approach of many in the high end community. take this example PranaWire Scores a Touchdown | Stereophile.com Silver ground plane. that must improve your mains
Even then it may not change a thing - the attendance in the rooms at the audio show spoke volumes: the TAD room was jammed solid, with those enjoying the "professional", gutsy, hifi sound - the Bryston roon had one or two people vaguely poking their head in, and quickly moving on - it just didn't sound like a hifi, therefore wasn't interesting ...
And again, I disagree that tubes are a fashion statement per se. From what I gathered here, you always were a tube man, in which case tubes are what I'd expect from you. How is that any different from my strong preference of BJTs and a certain dislike of MOSFETs? A man should always use what he's most comfortable with.
It would be a fashion statement only if you used say BJTs so far, and now suddenly switched to tubes, as it would indicate your running for a better market position, tubes are in, so you switch. But this is not the case, is it?
So you used tubes when they were not "in", to you they are the normal state of affairs and I see nothing wrong with that. I've heard good stuff made with tubes and bad stuff which used the tubes for fashion reasons, just the same as with BJTs, FETs, MOSFETs, ...
You can always estimate the parts costs of some of the high end stuff, the electronics, it can be quite interesting. Same with other areas such as an add on clock that sells for £400 with a BOM cost of £20.
The units that retail for many tens of thousands are in a niche market and the BOM cost is no-where near that, but they are selling fashion to people with lots of disposable income, same with ridiculously priced cables.
The units that retail for many tens of thousands are in a niche market and the BOM cost is no-where near that, but they are selling fashion to people with lots of disposable income, same with ridiculously priced cables.
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