Believe me, I know. I choose FLAC/APE wherever possible, but I can't find any of Melissa's music anywhere else, and they only sell the mp3s...
If I could buy the CD and rip it to FLAC, I would.
After hearing Rene's hybrid amps one has to wonder whether it is the tubes, or a low current, high voltage output stage driving an output transformer.
I also wonder what else Paul's old Yamaha was masking.... the device with the least DDR tends to be the one that limits your system.
dave
If you are used to MP3, you may have to pick your jaw up off the floor so you can drop it again when you plug a full fidelity music file through it...
Uhh... I think you missed a post up there. Most of my collection is FLAC/APE, much of it at 88.2 or 96.
Having said that, I find a properly-encoded 320kbps MP3 to be very enjoyable. Preferable? No. Terrible? Not even close. If it is all I can get, I take it.
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I'm going to by "Ten" by Tenthing, as well. Introducing Tine Thing Helseth & tenThing Brass Ensemble - YouTube
Yikes?
Get a few glasses of scotch into you and play Nini loud.
That Haydn stuff is far too cheerful for me.
In reality, a tube amp reacts differently to a real speaker load than a solid state amp. It behaves more like a current source than a voltage source at some frequencies. This results in a flatter frequency response with some speakers. This is part of the reason that tube amps sometimes give subjectively "better" bass response; impedance fluctuations are far more pronounced in the bass region, whether it is a 2 way 3 way etc or a "full range." A current source will give flatter frequency response with a varying impedance load than a voltage source will. I will leave it up to the reader to do the math.
By far, the "best" (subjectively) amplifier I ever built was a tube amp. It was an EL84 ultralinear that used excellent salvage transformers. I employed a solid state regulated power supply for the 12Ax7 input and phase splitter stages and for the heaters. I also employed global feedback (including output transformers) and employed feedforward compensation to compensate for phase shift. It measured 37 watts RMS/ channel both channels driven and 85 dB s/n referenced to 1 watt output, which was comparable to good solid state amps of the era (mid 70s). No buzz, hiss, or pops from this baby.
That amp could blow any solid state amp of the era with any wattage out of the room. It could drive any speaker of any efficiency with authority. It really rocked. But I did too good of a job because it got stolen. I would give my left you-know-what to have it back.
By far, the "best" (subjectively) amplifier I ever built was a tube amp. It was an EL84 ultralinear that used excellent salvage transformers. I employed a solid state regulated power supply for the 12Ax7 input and phase splitter stages and for the heaters. I also employed global feedback (including output transformers) and employed feedforward compensation to compensate for phase shift. It measured 37 watts RMS/ channel both channels driven and 85 dB s/n referenced to 1 watt output, which was comparable to good solid state amps of the era (mid 70s). No buzz, hiss, or pops from this baby.
That amp could blow any solid state amp of the era with any wattage out of the room. It could drive any speaker of any efficiency with authority. It really rocked. But I did too good of a job because it got stolen. I would give my left you-know-what to have it back.
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Tine is pretty good, too. Tine Thing Helseth Exclusive Live Performance for C Music TV - YouTube
Get a few glasses of scotch into you and play Nini loud.
I don't like scotch either.
jeff
Some day I will. The transformers alone would cost as much or more than many tube amp kits. I would consider myself lucky to find salvage transformers of the same caliber for any reasonable price, if I could find them at all.
And the amplifier holds sentimental value for me. Although it was stolen in the early 80s I have never forgotten it. It was the first "real amp" I built. I was in high school at the time. It was not a kit; it was built from $15 worth of salvage parts, rat shack and Allied Electronic parts, and a case fabbed up for me by a machinist friend of my dad's. If I saw it at a flea market or in somebody's system, I would buy it back in a heartbeat if I didn't drop dead from excitement first.
And I have several other solid state/ chipamp designs that I am working on too.
Indeed, and you have the satisfaction of a job well done.
Some day I will build one. Maybe in retirement, when my possible death won't matter quite so much.
In the meantime I will enjoy this one; do some tube rolling and maybe consider re-capping it eventually, just to cut my teeth in electronics.
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