Tube Rectifiers do sound different

[Wavebourn]

Evenharmonics;

ears hear differently than microphones. Where microphones hear boosts and cuts on frequency response, ears hear reflections and diffused reverberation of still the same sound. That's why Denon Audissey makes sound much better than other equalizers that try to compensate variations caused by microphone position.

[kevinh]

Lynn Olson did a lot of measurements on Rectifiers when he was building his 300B amp.

The Amity, Raven, and Aurora

from the page:

"Moving on to the main B+ supply, I first tried a 5R4-GY rectifier (a traditional choice for 300B circuits), but was dismayed with the arc-overs and poor reliability in several examples. Maybe they were old and weak, but this sort of failure should never happen in the first place. By contrast, TV damper diodes, including the New-Old-Stock 6C*3 family and the new Svetlana 6D22S, have more-than-ample peak curves, and derating for continuous use gives more headroom in current and voltage than the traditional tube rectifiers seen in 2A3 or 300B amps. The low voltage drop (15V), huge peak currents (2A), and slow warm-ups (30 seconds) are just additional bonuses.

Matt Kamna also demonstrated a technique for zooming in on the waveform on the power-transformer secondary (about 10V/div on the scope screen). The rough appearance around the zero-crossing was very obvious with solid-state diodes. HEXFRED's gave a small improvement, but conventional tube rectifiers looked much smoother, and the TV damper diodes were by far the smoothest of all. So even in low-current preamp applications, TV damper diodes give the least noise. I know from experience in the Tektronix Spectrum Analyzer division that it's much easier to eliminate noise at the source than filter it afterward. If there was an even quieter device, I'd use that, but as far as I know, TV damper diodes are the quietest from the viewpoint of switching noise. Considering that the main B+ supply is switching five hundred volts, this is not a small consideration, since switch-noise is radiated in all directions, into the B+ supply, the interior of the chassis, and back into the power cord."

The page is a good read.

[MOER]

If you do not use double blind A-B testing methods it is impossible to tell the difference. The time you take to change rectifiers is far longer than the brain's ability to "remember" the slight sonic differences.

The double blind testing method has been proved time and time again

[analog_sa]

Originally Posted by DF96

I don't believe in little goblins.

Do you really believe that example is somehow relevant to optical reproduction? Or are you just trying to be insulting?

[M Gregg]

Originally Posted by JimPS

It's not practical, but would batteries (that presumably wouldn't sag under load) be considered the ultimate DC power supply, or would they just be yet another sound?

Just another sound...

The batteries are capacitors at the end of the day...would you like to hear lead acid or nickle metal or etc ...or do you bypass the batteries with a cap what kind of cap....it goes on..

Regards
M. Gregg

[M Gregg]

Originally Posted by 20to20

I listened to it and then thought about doing the listening comparison to the old disc. I was really just doing a test on the burning system which had a different burner that burned at higher speeds and a Linux based software compared to the Windows program the old disc was burned on.

.

I like linux (Puppy is good)..prefer it to windows...FLAC..is better...sorry off topic..

Regards
M. Gregg

[Original Burnedfingers]

Quote:
That's why Denon Audissey makes sound much better than other equalizers that try to compensate variations caused by microphone position

Well, that not correct. Dennon has a very user friendly product however it is not one of the premier products on the market. Ever checked the EQ after using a product like Denon?

[M Gregg]

Rectifiers..

SS type UF, UF soft recovery, Hex<<probably the best of the bunch..

Compared to tube rectifiers..isn't it interesting how some manufacturers will pay good money to fit a tube rectifier rather than 4 SS diodes are they mad or....

Regards
M. Gregg

[Original Burnedfingers]

Kind of curious here ....some seem to think that rectifiers all sound the same therefore do all caps and all resistors likewise sound the same? Maybe since we have moved our heads 1/8 from the listening position that if we could duplicate the same listening position then there would be no difference in the sound between different caps either.

[M Gregg]

I suppose,

It depends on what you like...Old sound...Old caps, old resistors..
Why can't cheap HIFI sound like a good HIFI?? If the components are cheaper and better...I don't believe that they design it to be rubbish..they would have a world beating product..

So back to rectifiers...if nothing makes a difference (buy cheap parts) we are all kidding ourselves because you don't need an o/p Tx to get tube sound with SS do you?
Because something would have to be distorted to have a difference between one and the other..

Regards
M. Gregg