I remember Ken Olsen (president and owner of DEC) was overheard by journalists when he said UNIX was snake oil... Not long after he was removed from his position and that was the start of the closure of a great company.
VMS version 6 ended up as Windows NT.
V->W M->N S->T.
Even if Microsoft "translated" NT to New Technology...
I hope you are more lucky so the snake does not bite you and injects the snake oil 😀
Ray, without being able to hear and examine your speakers, some more detailed descriptions might be in order. Technically, you haven't made much of a case.
Actually they are old news for me and I am working on other solutions.
I will build one final version with five 8" where four of them are slot loaded gaining some dB SPL and doubling the impedance around FS..
There are a lot of records where there are low frequency pulses due to artists knocking microphones or blowing into microphones etc..
These low frequency pulses are normally not detected as most systems simply cannot reveal them, or it is only the overtones of them that are detected.
Today the 1 Watt SIT JFET amplifiers need to push twice the current (because of the three driver arrangement) when these pulses occurs and as I dont want to change the amplifiers I build new speakers 🙂
Later I will finish the building of the full range AMT system with my bass AMT drivers. I only build the new hybrid version due to I already have the drivers finished and want to test the new configuration and have something to play on the next months.
Actually I will build a new ARM linux MPD player, new DAC, new mains filters and a new set of SIT JFET amplifiers to "finish" the new music room / office where the new hybrid speakers will be placed. The "stereo rack" will be installed the next few days, but I need help as its weight are well above 600 kilo, and each level are more than 125 kilo..
(It is now more than 2.5 years since I got the parts for the bass AMTs and its about time to build some of them.)
To another perspective on where I believe the 'battle' is, yesterday I was fooling around with the track "Manana" by Peggy Lee, recorded in 1947. This is a recording where everything must be right - it's a samba, there's a lot going on, a very rich instrumental backing; the recording quality is relatively poor, there is essentially zero content above about 10kHz when you look at the spectrum - I'm looking at a rip from a Capital Records best of CD. So all that percussion has none of the sparkle you would normally get from intrinsic high frequency content, poorly reproduced or not.
So, yes, this sounds very mediocre when you "just play it" in an ordinary way - it gets absolutely no help from what's in the recording itself. The finest speakers, capable of tremendous SPLs, will be of no use whatsoever in bringing out the best of this recording .
But, from experience, this is where taking enormous care with the setup of the system overall helps. The recording needs every bit of assistance, which means zero audible, additional distortion from the system components, from source input onwards. And so reveals the benefit, impact of tweaking in a very obvious way - a guide is the quality of Peggy's voice, this will vary enormously, subjectively, depending on precisely how good the whole chain is ...
So, yes, this sounds very mediocre when you "just play it" in an ordinary way - it gets absolutely no help from what's in the recording itself. The finest speakers, capable of tremendous SPLs, will be of no use whatsoever in bringing out the best of this recording .
But, from experience, this is where taking enormous care with the setup of the system overall helps. The recording needs every bit of assistance, which means zero audible, additional distortion from the system components, from source input onwards. And so reveals the benefit, impact of tweaking in a very obvious way - a guide is the quality of Peggy's voice, this will vary enormously, subjectively, depending on precisely how good the whole chain is ...
Or just EQ it and strain with your ears really hard to convince yourself that it does after all sound good 🙄 Sounds like (pun intended) that you rely upon subjective wishful listening to get your results.
Fascinating how people have this belief in the magic of EQ'ng ... I hear examples of this happening, and I hear Grubby A, Grubby B, Grubby C, or Grubby D, etc - is there a common thread in this, I wonder, 🙂.
If you have to strain, then it's ... Game Over. The 'trouble' with much conventional hifi is that you do have to strain - apply mental focus to extract the good stuff from the mud - try this as a mental exercise next time you're listening, play a little game with yourself: think for a moment or two, "this is not sounding too good, I can hear problems with the sound" ... and if lo and behold, that is exactly what you then hear - well, maybe that's telling you something ...
On a site, here, where a high percentage of people approach the business of audio in a highly technical way, there is nearly always a blurry gap between the construction and measurement of a piece of designed gear - and the verdict when they actually listen to what it does with a recording. Then, it's usually along the lines of "It sounds good!", or "It didn't sound too special ..." ... a very precise assessment, right there, 😉.
What I do is all in that blurry area - trying to understand precisely what exists there ... because that's where the real action is, IME. And a key part of dealing with what occurs there is learning how to listen, really listen ... to be able to hear what's not working correctly, and hopefully devise a solution ... 🙂
What I do is all in that blurry area - trying to understand precisely what exists there ... because that's where the real action is, IME. And a key part of dealing with what occurs there is learning how to listen, really listen ... to be able to hear what's not working correctly, and hopefully devise a solution ... 🙂
By the same token, be positive and tell yourself this track sounds good and I am enjoying it and, WOW you may find that music can be enjoyed, whatever system it is played on.
I tend to listen to the music, but I do have some white/pink/random noise CD's you can borrow, then you can listen to the noise without the music impeding on your enjoyment🙂
Its my positive contribution to the world for this week, normal cynicism has now been resumed🙂
I'm always impressed at the pace this thread moves along at, and it's self implied humour.
Thought I'd drop in a side note as I went to an audio store recently where they were demoing a high end set of speakers and amp (circa £40k/$60k for the two).
I asked if we could crank it a little and had a listen, when I told the salesmen it sounded very 'soft' (always love applying descriptive words to terms) he said he wasn't surprised I said that and wasn't the first, then took me to see the speaker cable they'd used to hook it all up.
He was sure these were the offenders. The cables were about an inch thick each of multi core copper. Needless to say he had no idea what the LCR values were for them, in fact I'm not even sure he understood the question. But he seemed very unimpressed when I said I swear by 1.5mm OFC studio cable, after all it's only £1.60/m. Must be crap then...
Oh well, looks like my HiFi's damned to be bottle-necked for the rest of it's existence.
Thought I'd drop in a side note as I went to an audio store recently where they were demoing a high end set of speakers and amp (circa £40k/$60k for the two).
I asked if we could crank it a little and had a listen, when I told the salesmen it sounded very 'soft' (always love applying descriptive words to terms) he said he wasn't surprised I said that and wasn't the first, then took me to see the speaker cable they'd used to hook it all up.
He was sure these were the offenders. The cables were about an inch thick each of multi core copper. Needless to say he had no idea what the LCR values were for them, in fact I'm not even sure he understood the question. But he seemed very unimpressed when I said I swear by 1.5mm OFC studio cable, after all it's only £1.60/m. Must be crap then...
Oh well, looks like my HiFi's damned to be bottle-necked for the rest of it's existence.
By the same token, any vehicle that gets you from A to B is good, it's done its job - it doesn't matter that it's a $200 bomb. MP3, YouTube, AM radio, it's all good enough - so long as you can work out the melody line, that should do you ... 😉
The reason that people are enthusiastic about an interest, some area of activity, is because they can see it 'going somewhere' - that there are possibilities beyond what they have right now. Why hang around, endlessly stuck in the same old rut of ideas and experiences - there are bound to be some things out there a bit more interesting in the wider world - why tie oneself to the mundane, the 'dead ends' ... ? 😛
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