purplepeople:
But I do think that the price of this commercial unit and historical reputation/prominence of other manufacturers using them may be one of the strongest driving forces behind the diy clones. That and the combination of cost, ease of implementation and virtual "guarantee" of a listenable result, as Upupa said.
On to cars...
Now THIS is a can of worms best opened elsewhere, or perhaps not at all. But if you want a small-saloon 4 seater high performance vehicle there aren't that many options. BMW M3, MB C32AMG, Audi S4, Subaru WRX Sti, Volvo S60R, Alfa 156GTA and Mazda RX8. I don't like British cars (prejudice born of shitty experience) and most American performance cars are not available in RHD South Africa. Many are more straight-line racers than great handlers anyway. Most high-performance Japanese models aren't available in South Africa. Of those that are I like the RX8 and Subaru. The Subaru is a real screamer but a harsh ride and prefers 102RN fuel at our altitude (1600m asl) which is a pain in the butt. And the turbo-lag is immensely irritating, worse than a 2-stroke motorcycle. I don't believe in front-wheel drive for performance cars, thereby eliminating the Volvo and Alfa. So, these considerations narrowed my choices somewhat. I also wanted a manual gearbox.
Which left only the M3 (S4 was not yet released). I might upgrade along my only "logical" path soon to a Porsche 911, probably 2nd hand though.
There's a contradiction here... Whatever the 47Lab Gaincard is or isn't sonically there is no way in hell any sane person could consider it excellent value! And BTW I can't pay that sort of money for an amp either.
But I do think that the price of this commercial unit and historical reputation/prominence of other manufacturers using them may be one of the strongest driving forces behind the diy clones. That and the combination of cost, ease of implementation and virtual "guarantee" of a listenable result, as Upupa said.
On to cars...
Now THIS is a can of worms best opened elsewhere, or perhaps not at all. But if you want a small-saloon 4 seater high performance vehicle there aren't that many options. BMW M3, MB C32AMG, Audi S4, Subaru WRX Sti, Volvo S60R, Alfa 156GTA and Mazda RX8. I don't like British cars (prejudice born of shitty experience) and most American performance cars are not available in RHD South Africa. Many are more straight-line racers than great handlers anyway. Most high-performance Japanese models aren't available in South Africa. Of those that are I like the RX8 and Subaru. The Subaru is a real screamer but a harsh ride and prefers 102RN fuel at our altitude (1600m asl) which is a pain in the butt. And the turbo-lag is immensely irritating, worse than a 2-stroke motorcycle. I don't believe in front-wheel drive for performance cars, thereby eliminating the Volvo and Alfa. So, these considerations narrowed my choices somewhat. I also wanted a manual gearbox.
Which left only the M3 (S4 was not yet released). I might upgrade along my only "logical" path soon to a Porsche 911, probably 2nd hand though.
DrG said:
No contradiction... if I could truly afford it, I would just get a few and save myself the trouble of having to build them.
This thing is a Ducati in a world full of cars and trucks. More power than you need in a small package and finely tuned for precise control over the power. If you need more power to get things moving, buy a truck (or a Bryston). Anything in between is a compromise, like the car.
ensen.Not so... all 3 are compromises, depending on purpose and viewpoint. The Ducati sacrifices space and safety for power/mass and performance. The truck sacrifices comfort and speed for cargo carrying capacity. If your needs include safety, family transport, and performance then the truck and Ducati become the compromises...
So it is with audio in the absence of a holy grail. And there are both compromises and advantages inherent in gainclones for diy. The advantages are obvious and I think agreed upon, more or less. The limitations are real too, possibly more important in my view than in others', but there nonetheless.
Anyway, this is a fruitless debate. Solid Snake asked for opinions, and these are mine: on the basis of cost-power-performance, the best results I have attained are with hybrids. Input tubes are not too expensive, compared with output tubes/transformers and generally make for clean, musical voltage amplifiers. Transistors are superior and cheaper current amplifiers, better suited to high-power applications. The marriage of these seems to retain the sonic qualities of valve audio while providing superior speaker drive and control. My advice: build a simple hybrid. There are some excellent circuits out there.
DrG said:
After a dozens of posts in more than a few threads, I finally see your point of view. Too bad that in hindsight we were a little to combative.
I prefer the simplicity of having fabs do my engineering and so I use ICs wherever I can. I think we can agree that we disagree.
Solid Snake: No one can ever confirm or deny if you've made up your mind. The fact that you've got pre-conceptions (either way) tells me that you haven't heard one. If you go to the store and demo a Genelec active monitor, then come back and say it sounded like crap, I might argue. But, I'd have to give your opinion credence. That the question was rhetorical makes me wonder about the intent. DrG tried this in a previous thread resulting in similar bandwidth usage. I don't mind having a good argument, but the exchanges always seem more jolly when an opinion is actually offered in the first post.
ensen.I think the price on the original gc is key to its success. Quite frankly, a lot of people don't know how to listen (some forum members include) and associate high prices with high quality and when they figured out that you can diy a free-from-sample amp that is essentially a $3K amp that got some rave reviews (and not so rave reviews) hyped by people with all sorts of interests, they jumped on it.
I am currently in China and saw, quite interestingly, quite a few commercial amps based on the ns chips. they are not very well received here because of their low prices, and are having a hard time exporting them because of their low prices.
Go figure.
saw a brand spanking new one in Beijing, with a roll-cage and recaro 5-hardness seats. That is a screamer.
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