John Curl's Blowtorch preamplifier part II

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Just following the criticisms made by others in respect to the CTC Blowtorch preamp that is often criticized for being too deep, even though it uses a very large set of switches and is active, so it NEEDS more space.

No, it needs a more optimal ARRANGEMENT so you're not having to run wires from the rear panel up to the switches and attenuators on the front panel and back again.

And again, do you REALLY need a four deck switch just to handle the polarity of two stereo channels? You're able to switch four stereo channels with a two deck switch, why exactly does a two channel polarity switch need FOUR decks?

se
 
The 'passive preamp' that I put up, was criticized for being too 'deep' for a passive preamp. You know, too much wire. Just being consistent, with previous criticism.

That's fine. Standard rack depth, you know.
It serves two purposes:
- passive volume control
- opamp buffer tester (connected behind attenuator)

Hell, all these active components are audible and change the sound ...
 
Where is the future of the music industry that some of us still want to work with and develop products for?
Well, for a start there should be permanent demo rooms set up so people can walk in off the street and experience sound as near to as good as it can get, so they have something to aim at. Just recently I checked out one of the "premium" audio shops in Sydney, and there was that same old tired, OTT, "look at me" hifi sound, that would drive a person nuts after 10 minutes.

If you're trying to get people interested in red wine, you don't pull out a real roughie, in a bottle that's coated with gold and silver doodah's, and costs a fortune, and tell the bemused visitor how fantastic he should find the experience ... :)
 
Over a number of years I worked out a technique that works quite well for me: I don't keep adding "nicer" and "nicer" bits in the hope that somehow, magically, good sound will fall out of the sky when I achieve that infamous "synergistic" combination. From experience, I know how good the sound is from my recordings, therefore if I don't get it there's a problem or problems somewhere in the system; so, I isolate the first problem, fix it, move on to the next and repeat. Strangely enough, this iterative process is quite effective, and gets me sound that I can live with quite nicely ... anything else strikes me as a rather tedious way of going about it ... ;)
 
Spaghetti boiled in squid ink was delicious.:)

George
Agree, but this was pink. Part of a plate of three "aphrodisiacal" rotting fish gonads or secretions. What do you think soft roe is? The funny thing is my host was the office foodie who I asked to challenge me. He took us to a place three alleys removed from the street in Osaka run by a widow and her two daughters with a list of top sakes. After a couple of hours he says he's too drunk on Sapporo to order any.
 
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