John Curl's Blowtorch preamplifier part III

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One 'scam' is an outrageous markup for the dealers on certain brands of quality audio cable. I have heard up to 90%. This is so the dealer can make a big profit on the cables, and even be in a position to 'discount' them to make a final sale. I do not approve of this, never have. The usual mark-up for dealers is 40% for normal products, and perhaps somewhat more for accessories, like cable. More is just a scam.

Retailers LOVE accessories, this is where they get their best margins. Cables are in there for sure because its an 'accessory' everyone needs.

But I can beat that 90% markup. I have a phono cartridge that I am not allowed to even mention and you can buy for around $5000 US. I got it as one of the first ten samples made and nude (no body) and otherwise exactly the same. We are talking handmade by a pair of famous hands (not v. Hul, but from the same continent) and I paid 1/10th the price. That is 1000% markup at the point of sale in the US - but what a wonderful opportunity for the retailer to be 'generous' and maybe willing to take a whole grand off? Want fries with that? Gotta love capitalism. 😉
 
YES, The write up is weird. But with a guarantee, I tried it. I did not measure or look inside. No bias that way. Just listened to it. Now Jam came over and he listened. Sounded better to him also. In a couple days, Mark will come over and after he listens we will take a look inside.

I cant measure anything... all has been sent to Thailand now.

My understanding is that the rework involves emi/rfi absorption techniques.

There may be something new to learn here. I dont know if anything with this DAC-3 is transferable ideas to other products but -- maybe. It is often that a change leads to more accurate reproduction and the reason given is wrong. But, we can see what is what and if there is anything to learn from it.



THx-RNMarsh
 
Can you give us an example of something you have built which exemplifies these ideas?
You may want to ask about something he has sold. 😉

YES, The write up is weird. But with a guarantee, I tried it. I did not measure or look inside. No bias that way. Just listened to it. Now Jam came over and he listened. Sounded better to him also. In a couple days, Mark will come over and after he listens we will take a look inside.

I cant measure anything... all has been sent to Thailand now.

My understanding is that the rework involves emi/rfi absorption techniques.

There may be something new to learn here. I dont know if anything with this DAC-3 is transferable ideas to other products but -- maybe. It is often that a change leads to more accurate reproduction and the reason given is wrong. But, we can see what is what and if there is anything to learn from it.
How about playing couple DACs but not tell him which one is on? You know, for the possibility of learning something new. It may be worth a try. :scratch2:
 
You may want to ask about something he has sold. 😉

Point taken, but I don't care about what he, or anyone else, has sold. He talks a lot about audio perception, and this is a DIY forum, so I would like to know how all his words are used in anything that he has built.

I have just been catching up on this thread, and the S/N ratio here has been worse than I recall ever seeing for the past couple of weeks. A few people have tried to talk about audio electronics a couple of times but got drowned out by the fudmasters and clowns.
 
Good amps should be audibly transparent within the designed range of operation.

Good amps (Qualitatively). Please understand that i'm looking for best amps. It's easy for me because quantitatively the universal standards are quite low. But according to my ears (and knowledge) amps do not sound the same. I have a reference amp, which imo is the most transparent of all. I use this amp as a reference to 'voice' the other amps. I use this amp to judge recording quality too. I believe that if you were to listen to it, you could perceive the difference because it is so... different, but I called it transparent.

The problem is that different is often perceived as better, for a while, one can continually upgrade one's system by switching in and out the same difference periodically 😉

I believe it's a personal experience hehe 😉 Why it is important to have perceptions attached to 'numbers'.We can then consistently achieve the same perception by achieving these 'numbers'.

But there’s nothing left to talk about.....it’s as good as it’s gonna get?

You're right. ToS was not entirely honest. If he's honest he will know that if we really really honestly want to learn electronics, we don't come to forums like this.
 
YES, The write up is weird. But with a guarantee, I tried it. I did not measure or look inside. No bias that way. Just listened to it. Now Jam came over and he listened. Sounded better to him also. In a couple days, Mark will come over and after he listens we will take a look inside.
My understanding is that the rework involves emi/rfi absorption techniques.
There may be something new to learn here. I dont know if anything with this DAC-3 is transferable ideas to other products but -- maybe. It is often that a change leads to more accurate reproduction and the reason given is wrong. But, we can see what is what and if there is anything to learn from it.
Hi Richard.
What did you pay for the DAC-3 and what was the additional cost of the mods ?.
How does the modded DAC-3 compare to other DACs and price points in your opinion, also Jam's opinion ?.


Dan.
 
YES, The write up is weird. But with a guarantee, I tried it. I did not measure or look inside. No bias that way. <snip>

My understanding is that the rework involves emi/rfi absorption techniques. There may be something new to learn here. I dont know if anything with this DAC-3 is transferable ideas to other products but -- maybe. It is often that a change leads to more accurate reproduction and the reason given is wrong. But, we can see what is what and if there is anything to learn from it.

Your decision to purchase from such site might look like incredibility. But you are smarter than that. Thinking like a billionaire, I will do the same thing and see if i could 'steal' some knowledge.

I often purchase books hoping that I will learn a half or 1% of the book. And that can be a LOT. If I got 0%, it's a cost of learning.
 
Except you don’t learn anything buying a secret upgrade to a sealed box. Based on what I read, I’m pretty sure Richard has more knowledge and test equipment than this so-called upgrade guru.

Some guy that believes Wi-Fi is killing you can stuff textiles, foams, or ferrites in a box and ship it back to people claiming it absorbs emissions. Without a shred of test data, of course.

I find it amateurish. If I were to steal your money with crappy mods that may or may not have anything to do with the audible output I’d surely give you a nice printed certificate with before and after measurements of the dreaded RFI bogeyman 🙂. This guy can’t bother to get a spectrum analyzer and nearfield probes it would seem to generate some easy basic relative measurements.

If you viewed EMI as a problem, would you not just go to an expert in the field? There are engineers that do this stuff for a living. Or, you could just choose this nut who doesn’t appear to understand basic principles...

This often shows up on automotive forums too, where someone’s buddy Joey does the best mods and ECU tunes. Sometimes ends in hilarity.
 
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I've been off stocking up on popcorn for this one, but what intrigues me is that Benchmark have been in business for a long time supplying some of the toughest customers in the business with a 'good engineering' mantra. I would be suprised if they had missed something related to EMC.

Hopefully Mark can take his unmolested DAC3 over for comparison.
 
I've been off stocking up on popcorn for this one, but what intrigues me is that Benchmark have been in business for a long time supplying some of the toughest customers in the business with a 'good engineering' mantra. I would be surprised if they had missed something related to EMC.
Benchmark supplies equipment for (American) National Public Radio. They probably have a clue. This is the long, dark teatime of the soul both politically and on this thread. Coincidence? (Maniacal laughter.)

Always the best fortune,
Chris
 
Good amps (Qualitatively). Please understand that i'm looking for best amps. It's easy for me because quantitatively the universal standards are quite low. But according to my ears (and knowledge) amps do not sound the same. I have a reference amp, which imo is the most transparent of all. I use this amp as a reference to 'voice' the other amps. I use this amp to judge recording quality too. I believe that if you were to listen to it, you could perceive the difference because it is so... different, but I called it transparent.
Can You tell us brand and type?😉
 
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