John Curl's Blowtorch preamplifier part II

Status
Not open for further replies.
Soundminded, tasteless jokes are part and parcel here, BUT the VERY IDEA of listening to the GD at 130 dB in my home, even IF they played 'Saint Stephen' is absurd, AND misleading. 100dB will do, thank you, at most.
As far as protecting your ears from potential damage, I also suppose that you put earplugs in your ears when near a construction site, and have NEVER used firearms or been in the military. These are causes of potential hearing damage also, perhaps more than an exposure of the GD on a fine day.
 
So are you saying that you think if I listen to "Hell in a Bucket" at an SPL of130 db I will be able to hear the difference between the JC-1, JC-2, and Blowtorch preamplifiers? Afterwards will I still be able to hear anything? Will I still want to? :D

Playing music too loud can cause hyperacusis - just want to point that out.

No. If someone had a cooling fan in the next room, not a loud one - one you couldn't even make out, when it got real quiet a night, expect when you'd put your ear flat against the door - could you detect when someone bumped it a quarter inch to the right or left, sitting anywhere in your room?

Not only could I detect this difference it drove me nuts, and would hurt. I had a extreme dislike for the sound. And every time my dad would bump it and it would move a tinny bit, I notice and I'd have to go in there and fix it. Couldn't be off by more that .25". That's not Hyperacusis though, it's misophonia which many with hyperacusis also develop.
 
So you have a Bose system?:D
Have you heard one? I haven't but maybe it's purchasers are not buying it because of sound - careful study of user feedback & judging their opinion & comparisons are needed to establish what benchmark is being used.

The same would apply to MP3 players - popularity would indicate that this is the best music system there is but what criteria is being used as the benchmark for this?
 
Last edited:
Have you heard one? I haven't but maybe it's purchasers are not buying it because of sound - careful study of user feedback & judging their opinion & comparisons are needed to establish what benchmark is being used.

The same would apply to MP3 players - popularity would indicate that this is the best music system there is but what criteria is being used as the benchmark for this?

Correct...so because we can't know the internal perceptual biases, preferences, or delusions of other human's subjective wants and needs we can't use their perception as arbiters of sonic goodness!
 
The same would apply to MP3 players - popularity would indicate that this is the best music system there is but what criteria is being used as the benchmark for this?

An excellent example, thanks. The word "best" is the problem- what's "best" for me may not be "best" for you, and takes on a different meaning when talking about "best" from the viewpoint of what pleases most people. For critical listening of excellent recordings with high quality systems by people who highly value the fine points of sound quality, MP3 is certainly not "the best." That's about 0.1% of the market. :D For most others, the sound quality is well past "good enough," and the convenience, versatility, file sizes, and large installed base of software and firmware make MP3, on balance, "the best" for most people.
 
Correct...so because we can't know the internal perceptual biases, preferences, or delusions of other human's subjective wants and needs we can't use their perception as arbiters of sonic goodness!

Not so fast there now - a lot is revealed when a person writes their review/opinion about a product so yes, we probably can determine a lot about the bias, etc. Don't discount it so readily.
 
Last edited:
An excellent example, thanks. The word "best" is the problem- what's "best" for me may not be "best" for you, and takes on a different meaning when talking about "best" from the viewpoint of what pleases most people. For critical listening of excellent recordings with high quality systems by people who highly value the fine points of sound quality, MP3 is certainly not "the best." That's about 0.1% of the market. :D For most others, the sound quality is well past "good enough," and the convenience, versatility, file sizes, and large installed base of software and firmware make MP3, on balance, "the best" for most people.

Exactly, so that's why the bias & benchmark that people are using in their product evaluation is as important as the evaluation itself. If a large number of product evaluations are available, it is probable that characteristics of the product can be ascertained & the consensus about those characteristics identified.
 
Not so fast there now - a lot is revealed when a person writes their review/opinion about a product so yes, we probably can determine a lot about the bias, etc. Don't discount it so readily.

So for you when a reviewer describes "veils" being removed in a review do you conclude he (she) is an accurate reporter, or not. How much "air" around instrument sonic images in a review is the optimum to conclude that the reviewer knows his (her) stuff? Does the reviewer even report what he (she) actually heard...or simply construct the review to illustrate that his (her) golden ears are indeed 24K?
 
I buy my specs from the local $2.00 shop, and for the princely sum of $12.00 I got 6 pairs that cover the whole range of powers available.
Once I worked out which ones suit me (different ones for general or detail close up work) I went back and got some more.
This way I always have spares on hand to cover those accidents like getting sat on and no paying some 'expert'.

Dave.

opamp rolling coming into my mind :rolleyes:
 
Scams

Howard, please lighten up. IF you find so MANY SCAMMERS in your life, then you are like a police officer, seeing a potential 'criminal' in every person...

Hi John, sorry to come off so heavy on this issue, indeed I have had the same experience as you, and have only met a few people in the audio biz who were intentionally deceiving to make a sale. I will moderate my hyperbole in the future.

I have NOT met very many audio 'scammers', yet I probably know more audio accessory manufacturers than you do. Why? Is it because I am an innocent bystander, who 'believes' in everyone? I don't think so. It is BECAUSE I trust my ears. This is helpful to me. Throwing out any potential scams that get past my listening evaluation, may be useful, but not useful enough to throw everybody with a strange idea out the door. Please consider this.

As you state for yourself, I am usually the odd man out who thinks there is a difference between amplifiers, etc., when others around me claim to not hear it, so I understand your point. I think I have been successful at limiting my inherent suspicion of ideas to the realm of investment schemes for the following reason: the audiophile market is so small, anyone who thinks they are going to get rich quick (the scammer creed) doesn't even consider making audio equipment. This is in contrast to the investment scheme arena where there is a LOT of money to be made just by getting initial funding and leaving town.

I hope you notice I do not weigh in on any technology that I have not personally spent time evaluating. I can have my own ideas, and if they conflict with the inventor's, well, I may ask for clarification, but I will not throw out an idea without due diligence.

The reason I am interested in this forum is for the input of designers like yourself who have had insight into the subtle factors which separate great from good equipment. These differences are there, I hear them in my own equipment at home AND at the radio station, so I am not a disbeliever in general!

One thing I would contribute to the discussion regarding subtle sound differences: There are cases, especially in a studio environment but also at home, when the signal is not present and the noise floor sounds clean, but in the presence of signal, ground current noise modulates the signal. Triple shielded power transformers and separate ground drains for the interstitial shield have historically worked well, but no equipment I know of currently utilizes this technology, so there is often of power line and ground leakage causing HF contamination, if not hum.

My cure for this historically has been to utilize transformer isolation for cables interfacing with remote rooms. It is the only way I have been able to easily stop a multitude of different noise effects. Historically I used UTC A-20s, but due to their inavailability I currently use Jensen JT-11s. Within their headroom limits, the sonic benefits of complete galvanic isolation are tremendous, but to get to the point: it occurs to me that this may be some of the reason that in certain circumstances tube equipment can sound better in an audiophile context. Just my $0.02 worth.

Howard Hoyt
CE - WXYC-FM 89.3
UNC Chapel Hill
www.wxyc.org
1st on the Internet
 
Kevin, I'm not going to get into a discussion of exactly what criteria, keywords, etc are important, what I'm saying is that with the "intelligent" reading of end-user reviews & other research such as parts & devices used, layout & design, etc i.e as much info as is considered appropriate for the evaluation, a good picture can be ascertained. No hard & fast rules for this but a lot can be gleaned in this way.
 
I worked at a Michael Buble concert last night....thousands of stunning women at the show going crazy, but you won't find his records in my collection.

Dave.

Who dat, Mike Bubble?? You mean Michel Boo-bley accent grave over the e, never heard of him. I hear Liszt garnered the same treatment.

Soundminded - How about Brendel playing Liszt? I had a friend (professor of art history) who lamented the current lack of highly individual musicians with eccentric technique and interpretation such as Joseph Szigeti for instance. He also liked stinky Burgundy and old style Barolo (5yr. in giant ancient chestnut casks) like me.
 
AX tech editor
Joined 2002
Paid Member
[snip]But, if all controls give consistent data and you get test results in which you trust (under the constraints of statistical and scientific reasoning) it might be the same results that Joshua got right from the beginning. :)

Yes that's possible. In fact, I expect it to be the case in 50% of the cases, roughly. Either Joshua says he can hear a difference and a controlled test confirms it or not.
So?

jan didden
 
Yes that's possible. In fact, I expect it to be the case in 50% of the cases, roughly. Either Joshua says he can hear a difference and a controlled test confirms it or not.
So?

jan didden

For myself I know what I hear. I don't care convincing others about what I hear. When there is hum or pronounced distortion in my system I don't need any controlled test to know it. The same goes for other aspects I hear.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.