It sounds very good indeed so I will certainly claim that it is "high-end".
Some German magazine reviews showed photos of the internals and seeing those 8-legged critters was somehow bugging me and ALMOST stopped me from buying it but then the overall technical approach was still promising. There was one contender from Meridian with a similar concept and I think discrete output stages but then they had a switching supply inside the box.
P.S. Some sneered at the cost of the Blowtorch's cassis: While not as massive as the Blowtorch the Ayre has a neat brushed aluminium front plate and brushed aluminium chassis and the look and feel is very good. If it had the usual thin face plate and cheap tin box of consumer grade devices I would have looked elsewhere. Since the Blowtorch costs an order of magnitude more I doubt that CTC would have gotten away with anything less expensive looking.
Yes, I agree, the AD844 are one of the best kept secrets in audio. I used them in my error correction amp as precision gain-of-one-without-feedback.
You can set the gain with a single resistor and get an open loop buffer to boot.
You remember the AD846? Almost the same except that the max lin current for the transconductance output was 10mA in stead of 1mA for the '844. Discontinued, of course.
Barrie sort of confided that he had a much better part on the shelf but unless there was sufficient demand, they would probably not produce it.
If I only had a 100 grand!
jan didden
That might be often a problem, but if i am not mistaken CH got 3 pairs for listening tests and the coder was the only person knowing the correct answers.
That reduces the possibility of unconscious bias effects.
If that's accurate (hard to tell from the description) then yes. Apparently Charles isn't curious enough to investigate WHY he heard a difference, but that's understandable- it's not what he sells. I don't sell that stuff either, but I'm terminally curious, which is why I've been asking for the files.
I would have just changed vendors, Scott, or designed the IC (AD712?) out of the design, as I did with the HCA2200. The problem is that people like me want to believe in people like you, smart, friendly (at one time), a cut above the average engineer. We want to put our final efforts into your 'hands' so to speak, but when you can't accept our findings with your chip, then it is pointless to continue working with you. Don't you agree?
I trust that you and your company will give us something that works WELL, not just on paper, or by a measurement, but sonically.
When you deny that we find something 'wrong' with your chip in any not-easily measurable way, you just can't accept it, and criticize us in return. I sort of remember this, Adcom maybe?
I trust that you and your company will give us something that works WELL, not just on paper, or by a measurement, but sonically.
When you deny that we find something 'wrong' with your chip in any not-easily measurable way, you just can't accept it, and criticize us in return. I sort of remember this, Adcom maybe?
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Please explain what an analysis of the files is going to demonstrate or maybe you want to let SY answer that one? SY's claim of terminal curiosity is the best joke I've heard in a long time.
CD player John, and I was just pointing out that packaging is also important and not commenting on a particular price point. Holger Barske recently reviewed a Silvertech preamplifier in LP Magazin that costs somewhere above $100K, duh.
Interestingly, the dealer that sold me the CD player was particularly enthusiastic about CH's top preamplifier and thought that it was substantially better than other equally expensive preamps he had on display. Anyway, its neither in my price range nor do I want to buy a commercial preamp but I am still dead curious how and where in the circuit the volume control is implemented. Actually I have some ideas of what he might have done but being just a tinkerer I could be all wrong.
Now that is a piece of stunning design. I suspect it would sound different enough to actually pass an ABX test against many other preamps, but not due to superior measurable performance.
From the nickel core inductors used for the equalization that follow a vacuum tube based very high gain stage all the way to transformer in and out. It does not sound like a low distortion (modern definition) type rather more Picasso to my biased advertising reading callous self inflated ego.
I have no trouble believing that it will produce very nice sounding music. I do not object to adding color to compensate for what may have been lost getting to that stage. That is a valid design goal. Others may prefer different goals.
Eeh yes, that one. A Mr J.C. Morrison design if I get this one right. And it looks pretty homely I'm afraid.
P.S. Quickly looked up distortion figures from the review: 0.03% line level, pretty low noise figures, 0.3% phono section. A sound machine it maybe indeed if I understand the review.
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