Protos
Sorry to disappoint but it's nothing revolutionary. An AVR/ADC is generating sines out of a look-up table; not that the sine is better than what you obtain from a Wien bridge, it just gives the flexibilty to change to say 400Hz or (still not implemented) a 'multiwave'. A parallel 3886 and step-up transformer follow. That's it.
From what i understand commercial units also use a step-up for 220v but with a much lower ratio (2:1). Short of building a full discrete high voltage amp, a 3886 with an external complementary pair hooked to give some voltage gain and powered from a higher voltage source will probably do the trick. Shame the 3886 current protection won't work.
My enthusiasm for buiding higher power regenerators is very low. Judging by other's opinions they will seriously limit the dynamics of a power amp.
Re: Power Cord Induced Ground Loops
I agree with all of your points. entirely, without exception..
I don't think the majority of home audio does that, though..
And I've used "one point" methods sucessfully for 100 foot unbalanced runs (luckily, I didn't have to run balanced to overcome problems, although I did buy 1000 feet of balanced mike cord for personal use, it was 170 dollars, as opposed to 150 bucks for 500 feet..)
Isn't floating all the grounds but one a safety issue? I at least kept that, just ran a 100 foot powercord in the snake with my unbalanced audio feed to run the source rack.
Cheers, John
EE_Mark said:
I agree with all of your points. entirely, without exception..
I don't think the majority of home audio does that, though..
And I've used "one point" methods sucessfully for 100 foot unbalanced runs (luckily, I didn't have to run balanced to overcome problems, although I did buy 1000 feet of balanced mike cord for personal use, it was 170 dollars, as opposed to 150 bucks for 500 feet..)
Isn't floating all the grounds but one a safety issue? I at least kept that, just ran a 100 foot powercord in the snake with my unbalanced audio feed to run the source rack.
Cheers, John
Safety Ground
If all the chassis are connected and one of them is tied to earth ground then there's no safety problem. Burr Brown makes a nice unbalanced to balanced driver ( http://pssaudio.com/Technique/BB/drv134.pdf ) as well as a balanced to unbalanced reciver ( http://focus.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/ina134.pdf ).
If all the chassis are connected and one of them is tied to earth ground then there's no safety problem. Burr Brown makes a nice unbalanced to balanced driver ( http://pssaudio.com/Technique/BB/drv134.pdf ) as well as a balanced to unbalanced reciver ( http://focus.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/ina134.pdf ).
Regarding breakin
i am wondering if the golden-ears would recommend that you break in your cables by running the toaster oven through them, or more delicately listening to "Bachiana" -- hmmmm???
i actually worked manipulating copper atoms when I was a lab-rat as an undergrad. watched how the electrons flipped when you changed the magnetic field (the electro-magnet was about 5 feet in diameter.) perhaps we should get a nitrogen-dewar container and immerse in LN before running 20 amps through...
i am wondering if the golden-ears would recommend that you break in your cables by running the toaster oven through them, or more delicately listening to "Bachiana" -- hmmmm???
i actually worked manipulating copper atoms when I was a lab-rat as an undergrad. watched how the electrons flipped when you changed the magnetic field (the electro-magnet was about 5 feet in diameter.) perhaps we should get a nitrogen-dewar container and immerse in LN before running 20 amps through...
Re: Safety Ground
Depends how they're connected. If they're just connected to each other by way of the interconnects, there may very well be a safety problem as not all interconnects could withstand fault currents.
To take a rather extreme example, consider the Mapleshade interconnects which use either 42 gauge magnet wire or exceedingly thin metal foils. Under fault conditions they could either blow like fuses breaking what should be a low impedance path to the safety ground, or they could glow like heater elements possibly causing a fire.
se
EE_Mark said:
Depends how they're connected. If they're just connected to each other by way of the interconnects, there may very well be a safety problem as not all interconnects could withstand fault currents.
To take a rather extreme example, consider the Mapleshade interconnects which use either 42 gauge magnet wire or exceedingly thin metal foils. Under fault conditions they could either blow like fuses breaking what should be a low impedance path to the safety ground, or they could glow like heater elements possibly causing a fire.
se
Safety Grounding
At work I tie all our instrument chassises together with a fat braided wire for ESD prevention purposes but at home on my audio/video system the way it is configured right now the only connection to Earth is on the RF cable coming in from my dish on the side of my house. If I had a ground or safety issue I'd connect a 16 or 20 gauge wire from each chassis to one another but I've never had any noise or safety problems where I needed to do that, but it's certainly not a bad idea.
At work I tie all our instrument chassises together with a fat braided wire for ESD prevention purposes but at home on my audio/video system the way it is configured right now the only connection to Earth is on the RF cable coming in from my dish on the side of my house. If I had a ground or safety issue I'd connect a 16 or 20 gauge wire from each chassis to one another but I've never had any noise or safety problems where I needed to do that, but it's certainly not a bad idea.
I am no expert on break-in effects in cables- it typically takes too long and is not easily reversible and i am too much of a cheapskate to buy a 'control' pair. In short i tend not to trust my hearing for long term comparisons.
Others though, blessed with better long term aural memory find that you can easily 'overbreak' the cables passing too much current. Once i tried some pure silver ICs and was not too impressed with the sound and experts suggested i run 1KHz square wave through them into a 10k load for a week. Not sure if i heard an improvement. I still have them today and though find them quite listenable I still prefer copper. Did the extended break-in help? Maybe, maybe not.
If one really wants to know if power cords do break in a 'control' cord is essential.
Power Cord Break-In
Okay, I wasn't going to tell anyone because this is top secret information but when I worked for the Department of Defense I learned the proper method for breaking in wire. First, the wire must be exposed to an extremely large magnetic field at exactly 87.6204 degrees C for 784.26 hours and then the magnetic filed must be reversed and then the wire held at 46.8827 degrees C for 459.62 hours. Then, the wire must quickly be flown to the North Pole and left exposed to the environment for 15 to 17 years; no more, no less. If a Husky urinates on it during this time the entire process must be repeated. Then the wire must be flown to the equater on an SR-71 Blackbird and parachuted into the ocean where it is retrieved by a nuclear submarine. Quikly it is transported to a Strategic Air Command lab deep in the Colorado mountains and connected to a generator that sweeps a pure constant amplitude sine wave from 0.01 Hz. to 20.00000076 MHz. at a 46.2 cycle rate with a 34.87k load paralled with 687 picofarad and a 43 mH. choke. After 372.84 hours of that (all at 45.245 degress C, of course) the wire must then do 86 orbits of the Earth in the space Shuttle but NOT DURING ANY SOLAR FLARE UPS!!! Then, my friends, the sound is as sweet as anything you've ever heard. If a bird pooped on a windshield of a car 20 miles from the recording studio where your favorite recording was made you almost get the urge to go wash your car it is so real. Please don't let anyone know I furnished this information or I'll be locked up in Guantanamo Bay faster than you can say "Where can I buy a $6,000 power cord?"
Okay, I wasn't going to tell anyone because this is top secret information but when I worked for the Department of Defense I learned the proper method for breaking in wire. First, the wire must be exposed to an extremely large magnetic field at exactly 87.6204 degrees C for 784.26 hours and then the magnetic filed must be reversed and then the wire held at 46.8827 degrees C for 459.62 hours. Then, the wire must quickly be flown to the North Pole and left exposed to the environment for 15 to 17 years; no more, no less. If a Husky urinates on it during this time the entire process must be repeated. Then the wire must be flown to the equater on an SR-71 Blackbird and parachuted into the ocean where it is retrieved by a nuclear submarine. Quikly it is transported to a Strategic Air Command lab deep in the Colorado mountains and connected to a generator that sweeps a pure constant amplitude sine wave from 0.01 Hz. to 20.00000076 MHz. at a 46.2 cycle rate with a 34.87k load paralled with 687 picofarad and a 43 mH. choke. After 372.84 hours of that (all at 45.245 degress C, of course) the wire must then do 86 orbits of the Earth in the space Shuttle but NOT DURING ANY SOLAR FLARE UPS!!! Then, my friends, the sound is as sweet as anything you've ever heard. If a bird pooped on a windshield of a car 20 miles from the recording studio where your favorite recording was made you almost get the urge to go wash your car it is so real. Please don't let anyone know I furnished this information or I'll be locked up in Guantanamo Bay faster than you can say "Where can I buy a $6,000 power cord?"
Re: Power Cord Break-In
Sorry, Mark (and DoD) that procedure is almost self-evident. Thanks though for actually confirming my thoughts on this matter.
It is interesting, though, that something that at first seems so simple, someone was able to indicate a real potential issue--a ground loop in the chassis grounds.
Mark,
Something fresh to think about. Discrete v integrated circuits: debate is that op amps are bad because of high open loop gain. How many recording studios do you think use only discretes?? Thoughts?
JF
EE_Mark said:
Sorry, Mark (and DoD) that procedure is almost self-evident. Thanks though for actually confirming my thoughts on this matter.
It is interesting, though, that something that at first seems so simple, someone was able to indicate a real potential issue--a ground loop in the chassis grounds.
Mark,
Something fresh to think about. Discrete v integrated circuits: debate is that op amps are bad because of high open loop gain. How many recording studios do you think use only discretes?? Thoughts?
JF
Re: Re: Power Cord Break-In
I can confirm for everyone's benefit: none.
If you ask a pro audio company to show you the guts of their mixing console, you will be positively surprised by the number of (low quality) op amps and horribly power cords.
Anyone thinking s/he can improve sound quality by using exotic chips, resistors, or power cords should take a tour of any reputable sound studios.
johnferrier said:
I can confirm for everyone's benefit: none.
If you ask a pro audio company to show you the guts of their mixing console, you will be positively surprised by the number of (low quality) op amps and horribly power cords.
Anyone thinking s/he can improve sound quality by using exotic chips, resistors, or power cords should take a tour of any reputable sound studios.
analog_sa:
BTW, per... I've always wondered what that picture is supposed to be...
With all due respect, I don't think your hearing is trustworthy for short-term comparisons either...
How in God's name can you "overbreak" a cable...???? How could you even conceive of "breaking" it in at all? What physical change do you think copper can undergo due to passing current... except for heating up, glowing red and eventually melting...?
What experts were those? Anyone who can utter such distilled horse**** as advice deserves to have his **** trussed up till they look like per_anders' picture logo!
BTW, per... I've always wondered what that picture is supposed to be...
analog_sa:
Sure, here you go... but don't waste it! Pop it over your head. I hear the cellulose fibres are fabulous natural bandpass filters which will enhance the smooth sound of any well run-in power cord. But only if a 1kHz square-wave was used for the run-in. If you used a sine or triangle wave then you'll need a plastic bag...
No. Only our perceptions of electricity, reality, logic, reason, conduction, metal crystalline architecture and bull****ophiles masquerading as demi-gods of audio. Everything else is exactly the same
DrG, let's keep things away from the personal, please. And please note the forum rules against the common Anglo-Saxonisms.- Status
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