pg. 208 Stereophile mag Oct 2007 Industry Update

[HaflerFreak]

Greetings forum,
When I was very young, I had a subscription to 'Stereo Review' and 'Audio' magazine. It was the 80's, and I remember Julian Hirsch, cassette decks that physically flipped their tapes for you, and arc-welding with a Mark Levinson (At least I think it was a Mark Levinson).

The good old days. I really wish I had those old mags for reference now, because some things never change.

A perfect example of this is the fact that I recently picked up the October 2007 issue of 'Stereophile' magazine after a seventeen year hiatus from stereo mags and found Charles Hansen making a most profound statement on page 209/210.
I quote,
'If anyone thinks for a moment that a resistor or capacitor fabricated from a dirty piece of sand (ie, the doped silicon used to fabricate ICs) is a better sounding part than what is available in a discrete form, I can assure you that they are flat-out wrong. If you don't believe me , try to find any company that sells discrete parts made in this fashion. It simply isn't done, as the limitations imposed by these materials make it literally impossible to make high-performance parts in this way...'
- Charles Hansen, Ayre Acoustics

I think it is obvious that high-quality reproduction of the recorded arts comes down to analog... Really, really sweet analog and very high-quality discrete parts.

With a current trend in retro auto design etc., it seems to me it opens up the sagging high-end audio market for 'retro' amp designs and a return to simple, quality construction, components, and, of course, ginormous heatsinks.

The market seems wide open to the right kind of spiel coupled with the MOSFETs to back it up, especially in the $1000 category. Considering the good ol' 80's tech, I find it hard to believe that discrete semiconductor equipment is fading.

So sad, but maybe that is the greatest legacy DIYaudio.com will leave behind - info to save the dinosaurs!

[PMA]

Originally posted by HaflerFreak

A perfect example of this is the fact that I recently picked up the October 2007 issue of 'Stereophile' magazine after a seventeen year hiatus from stereo mags and found Charles Hansen making a most profound statement on page 209/210.
I quote,
'If anyone thinks for a moment that a resistor or capacitor fabricated from a dirty piece of sand (ie, the doped silicon used to fabricate ICs) is a better sounding part than what is available in a discrete form, I can assure you that they are flat-out wrong. If you don't believe me , try to find any company that sells discrete parts made in this fashion. It simply isn't done, as the limitations imposed by these materials make it literally impossible to make high-performance parts in this way...'
- Charles Hansen, Ayre Acoustics

Thanks for this, Charles is a master in explanations, he always hits a nail on the head !!!

[PMA]

I wonder how a piece of dirty coal would sound!

Wow, you have made my day much better. Thanks!

[Khron]

Weren't the carbon resistors something like that?

[PMA]

Yeah, the question is what is more dirty, sand or coal??

I suppose that coal (carbon) resistors are the most recommended hiend discrete parts.

[GK]

:bs:

[PMA]

Maybe Charles would like to tell us more?

[HaflerFreak]

Uh, I think G.Kleinschmidt is raising a 'BS' flag - perhaps he would like to explain his stance?

[audiosteve]

Luddites.

BTW, I have some $2000.00 cables for sale that were hand twisted on Tasmanian Baglewood frames under a full moon by Tibetan monks. I think they sound great with a liquidity and pace that is not possible with lesser cables. But they do have an occasionally annoying artifact. Every time I mention the price I think I can hear the electrons inside them falling down laughing at me .

[MikeBettinger]

Originally posted by audiosteve
Luddites.

BTW, I have some $2000.00 cables for sale that were hand twisted on Tasmanian Baglewood frames under a full moon by Tibetan monks. I think they sound great with a liquidity and pace that is not possible with lesser cables. But they do have an occasionally annoying artifact. Every time I mention the price I think I can hear the electrons inside them falling down laughing at me .

There is a lot of snake oil salesmen on both sides of audio. So the $2K speaker cables aren't any different than National putting in a sound room and calling the product High-end. Actually I'm currently playing with the National chips and they are interesting. My very early feelings are that they are very low distortion, bottom end is excellent and the sound is extremely clean in the high end but I keep wanting to turn up the system to get a bit of something (how's that for something to chew up). It's like something is over damped.

I'm using it in a MC step up and there are still many variables that might be causing the effect and not the chips. So my jury is still out.

What I'm getting at is spend the $5 a chip and build something. At least you'll have a real opinion only skewed by your own biases and not based on something you've read.

I'm going for an apples to apples comparison of the National chips, the OPA627's (although the ones I just bought didn't work and I'm afraid they are fakes) and a discrete FET design using the exact same power-supplies chassis etc.

The latest Absolute Sound has a report on the chips as well. National's marketing dept is all over this high-end thing. Actually I wouldn't mind if it was true. It might bring High-end performance down out of the stupid buck range where real music lovers could experience it daily. And make it easy to build good stuff.

The amplifier that was welding was the Great American Sound Co. Godzilla. It was done at the CES to promote it's bullet proof design, unfortunately not long after the company proved less than bullet proof.

Regards, Mike.