Masterpiece

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No, but tubes usually have no problem with harshness and spit.
A problem is the noise. Because modern tubes are not selected anymore for noise and microphonics so heavy selecting is the oder of the day.
I was able to build a tube transimpedance phono that is low noise on phono MC without transformer.
I had to select the two input tubes out of 12 by just inserting them and listen.
It was interesting to note that the tubes that measured best on the curvetracer ( highest Gm ) did not give the lowest subjective noise.
 
No, but tubes usually have no problem with harshness and spit.
A problem is the noise. Because modern tubes are not selected anymore for noise and microphonics so heavy selecting is the oder of the day.
I was able to build a tube transimpedance phono that is low noise on phono MC without transformer.
I had to select the two input tubes out of 12 by just inserting them and listen.
It was interesting to note that the tubes that measured best on the curvetracer ( highest Gm ) did not give the lowest subjective noise.

Interesting! How do you think tubes compare to good solid state?

I don't have any experience with designing with tubes, so I can't say :magnify:
 
Here is an alternative setup with high sensitivity wide band speakers and active m-dipole bass. With this setup tubes sound best, no question.
 

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The Enviee is exceptional.
I get in that baffle plus-minus 2dB from 100Hz to over 20kHz.
Sensitivity is 96dB with more then 8 Ohm.
The bass under 100Hz is active and there is a 6dB line filter before the tube amp that plays the Enviees to suppress the deep bass by ca.12dB at 20Hz.
Dynamics, resolution and soundstaging are in a class of it´s own.
The systems plays so loud ( also in a big room, ask Frans ) with a few watts that i can hurt my ears with ease.
 
that is pretty impressive!
Then let me ask you this: why would dynamic loudspeakers with 88-92dB sensitivity have a reason to exist if with a wideband speaker you can manage to use a very low power high quality power amp and yet opbtain equivalent sound pressure SPL and frequency range?
 
Stefanoo,
You have to remember that in the golden days of audio large format speakers were the norm and it was easy to have a high efficiency speaker and lower powered amplifier. As speaker size was reduced and bass speakers got smaller efficiency went with it until we are where we are today and most speakers being the size of a 3" or 4" speaker with an 8" or 10" subwoofer to make up the difference in the low end. We have come full circle to the opposite end of the spectrum with atrocious sound from most consumer products. You just have to see that the major player these days is Dr. Dre and now they are going after the speaker end of the consumer market. People have just seemed to have lost the connection of the equipment and the sound, they just have no references of what sound can be.

I am working on some consumer designs for small format speakers, an equivalent to a 6 1/2" speaker and a 1" dome. It is not easy to produce both a high efficiency cone driver that also has low bass frequency output, it is a tradeoff that has to be made. I could easily increase the efficiency by using a short gap magnetic system and a long coil but I don't like the idea. I have an extremely long gap and short coil that gives you lower efficiency but much lower distortion at the same time. Since I plan these speakers to be self powered I can size the amplification accordingly to give you all the spl you could ever expect from a small driver. I haven't put the spl meter to the speakers but I would say they are capable of about 110db max output which should make most anybody more than happy. I know I can barely stay in the same room with them at full output, and distortion is minimal. The low frequency output is in the neighborhood of 35hz and this was tested before the speakers were completely broken in so they should go a few hz lower in actuality. The top end will be a beryllium dome tweeter that I am in the middle of development on. I have the beryllium prototypes finally in hand and am on to that part of the final design work. Balancing the dome to match the cone driver should be fairly easy as the cone will easily run up to 2.5khz with no problems.
 
Yes, Z-Foils with zero temperature coefficient can have modulation distortion in the bass.
Did not know that. He also talks about the issues with teflon.
He also sais that some audiophiles like the sound of teflon so he is not only hardcore.
I use film and foil ( PP and PS ) when i can anyway and big sized thin film melf resistors so i feel safe.
Sometime i also use PPS because they come as SMD stack foils.
 
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I recently heard Audyn Copper for first time. Hard to pick between it and Mundorf SIO, but it seems to be a little warmer. For me. The Susumu RG and Vishay TNPW give all I want from a resistor. Very large diminishing returns after that, especially considering the price. Vishay makes their Z foils in SMD as well. I have yet to try Isabellenhuetter PBH power resistors, but they will be in my next power amp.
Great thing about them all is that they have numbers to back up their potential.
 
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