I don't think so - it's potential is exhausted - I hope for at least a 3rd, centre channel - compatible with 2 channel recordings and even better with 3 channel recordings. And a recording standard for acoustical recordings which make use of a standard mechanical sound source ( a "clap" ?) to be excited in a position where the music is performed, recorded and distributed with the phonogram so that it could be analysed and used to compensate (using dsp) for errors in the recording, playback-chain and room so to recreate the original event more faitfully.
This I believe would push the SOTA forward. qvantum purifajers not so much...
Progress is an architectural problem not an implementation problem these days.
//
I'll be showing (and playing music thru) a DIY amp at Burning Amp 2019 in San Francisco, which uses old, OLD products from National. So old they're in TO-99 metal can packages. So old their datasheets had National's quirky, obsolete logo copied below. I managed to find a printed-in-the-databook datasheet for these parts that carries the date August 1971, but I'll bet there exists a three hole punched, standalone datasheet meant for loose leaf notebooks, dated before that. However I haven't found one yet.
Come have a listen to early-70s semiconductor solutions of early-70s problems. Look for an amp you could describe as Black And Blue. I'm told there will be a video made of all the demos, and when it's published online I'll link to it, here.
Come have a listen to early-70s semiconductor solutions of early-70s problems. Look for an amp you could describe as Black And Blue. I'm told there will be a video made of all the demos, and when it's published online I'll link to it, here.
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I am getting old, at 77, I am older than Einstein ever got, and that gives me thought. Please, those of you, much younger, try to make the best audio products possible. IF you can make something that sounds exceptionally good, the world may well thank you.
However, if you just want to make something that makes decent specs, but may not sound very good, if I were you, I would leave it to the Chinese or Indian engineers that are so happy with their new position in society, being design engineers.
Now when it comes to my latest designs, I am still making a few. Recently a new phonostage for Audible Illusions was released at $11,500, apparently directly competitive to a Nelson Pass design at the same price. It is all discrete fets, and not easily buildable by amateurs. It is not exactly a Vendetta, but very close.
Parasound has a new 'super amp' now ready at the prototype level. It is to replace the JC-1, designed almost 20 years ago, but has 50% more power supply capacity, and 30% more output devices, as well as other modifications to make it yet lower distortion, etc.
A more practical amp, the JC-5 is now available and is what I am personally using at the moment. It, at first glance looks like a stereo version of the JC-1, and has approximately 1/2 of the original JC-1's power supply for each channel. It can drive 4 ohm loads well enough, but it will not replace the JC-1 for difficult loads. It hasn't been reviewed yet by the major mags yet, and since Parasound hasn't advertised in these mags for years, it may be ignored. That would be a shame, but I can't do anything about it, if advertising was now mandatory for a full review. It wasn't before. The Vendetta phono preamp for example, did not advertise, but got reviewed, nonetheless. Times change.
Without Charley Hansen in the game anymore, the competition for Class A status in the major mags has lost its luster. He really was a true competitor to me, and I miss him. He really cared about sound quality, and that is what I try to convey here on this thread. He could never handle the 'Sophomoric' criticism here, so he was always kicked off fairly quickly, whether in his own volition or alternatively.
Now when it comes to 'stupidities' like Bybee and tubes. I know what works when I hear it, more than most, in my life experience, extending from even before I got into audio reproduction, and once collected acoustic guitars. I have always had this 'gift' although I really fall short in double-blind tests for some reason. Yes, I can be fooled, but not easily in open testing.
When it comes to 'modern' design, I will never compete again. I try to work with my strengths, not with potential weakness's of IC's or prohibited devices. The best engineer in my personal knowledge for this is Dimitri, who now works for Mark Levinson. He is doing excellent work, given the tradeoffs that have been put before him, like no quality P channel jfets, etc.
Just today I was offered a design assignment by yet another company, and I am pretty sure that I have to decline it, because it does not fall into what I am still good at. That is: fully complementary jfet dominated designs that I have done for AI, Parasound, Constellation, and myself, including the CTC Blowtorch and the Vendetta Research Phono Preamp, both of these designs not built for more than a decade. So some of your comments have merit.
However, if you just want to make something that makes decent specs, but may not sound very good, if I were you, I would leave it to the Chinese or Indian engineers that are so happy with their new position in society, being design engineers.
Now when it comes to my latest designs, I am still making a few. Recently a new phonostage for Audible Illusions was released at $11,500, apparently directly competitive to a Nelson Pass design at the same price. It is all discrete fets, and not easily buildable by amateurs. It is not exactly a Vendetta, but very close.
Parasound has a new 'super amp' now ready at the prototype level. It is to replace the JC-1, designed almost 20 years ago, but has 50% more power supply capacity, and 30% more output devices, as well as other modifications to make it yet lower distortion, etc.
A more practical amp, the JC-5 is now available and is what I am personally using at the moment. It, at first glance looks like a stereo version of the JC-1, and has approximately 1/2 of the original JC-1's power supply for each channel. It can drive 4 ohm loads well enough, but it will not replace the JC-1 for difficult loads. It hasn't been reviewed yet by the major mags yet, and since Parasound hasn't advertised in these mags for years, it may be ignored. That would be a shame, but I can't do anything about it, if advertising was now mandatory for a full review. It wasn't before. The Vendetta phono preamp for example, did not advertise, but got reviewed, nonetheless. Times change.
Without Charley Hansen in the game anymore, the competition for Class A status in the major mags has lost its luster. He really was a true competitor to me, and I miss him. He really cared about sound quality, and that is what I try to convey here on this thread. He could never handle the 'Sophomoric' criticism here, so he was always kicked off fairly quickly, whether in his own volition or alternatively.
Now when it comes to 'stupidities' like Bybee and tubes. I know what works when I hear it, more than most, in my life experience, extending from even before I got into audio reproduction, and once collected acoustic guitars. I have always had this 'gift' although I really fall short in double-blind tests for some reason. Yes, I can be fooled, but not easily in open testing.
When it comes to 'modern' design, I will never compete again. I try to work with my strengths, not with potential weakness's of IC's or prohibited devices. The best engineer in my personal knowledge for this is Dimitri, who now works for Mark Levinson. He is doing excellent work, given the tradeoffs that have been put before him, like no quality P channel jfets, etc.
Just today I was offered a design assignment by yet another company, and I am pretty sure that I have to decline it, because it does not fall into what I am still good at. That is: fully complementary jfet dominated designs that I have done for AI, Parasound, Constellation, and myself, including the CTC Blowtorch and the Vendetta Research Phono Preamp, both of these designs not built for more than a decade. So some of your comments have merit.
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My experience is always tested with the listening response of others in the same listening tests. This happens regularly, but I must say, that I am more 'forgiving' than I used to be. I suspect that Jam has better ears than I have at the moment. I don't know if I would trust anybody else as much.
The Pass Labs preamps and phono stages are designed entirely by Wayne Colburn.
And yes, Jam has very good ears.
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Define "good", "better", "best". If your success metric is audio magazine chimp reviews and sales numbers then I am sure you won't find here anything young(er), other than the usual suspects clueless wannabees. People changed in the last 50 years, as much as technology.
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Yes, I'm glad I've picked a career trajectory that relies much more on objective end results, where intuition helps solve poorly understood problems but ultimately has to meet a hard end point.
To rely on my perception and the compromised feedback of others (there's so much more going on to a listening test, especially sighted than just the sound), no thanks. We as humans are shown to be too unreliable for that kind of work.
To rely on my perception and the compromised feedback of others (there's so much more going on to a listening test, especially sighted than just the sound), no thanks. We as humans are shown to be too unreliable for that kind of work.
I am trying to every waking hour and without using those complimentary jfets that LS has a stranglehold on.
People who have a healthy right brain can better use their left brain tools in positive ways. That is the purpose of the left-logical brain: to serve the right brain—doing serves being. Being is the soil from which all our plans, details and actions must flower if we are to experience personal fulfillment and truly contribute to the world.
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” ~ Albert Einstein
The Right Brain Develops First ~ Why Play is the Foundation for Academic Learning - Vince Gowmon
-RNM
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” ~ Albert Einstein
The Right Brain Develops First ~ Why Play is the Foundation for Academic Learning - Vince Gowmon
-RNM
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We should keep in mind, that "stereo" means "spatial reproduction" but not "two channel reproduction", so just more than one channel (neglecting for the moment that even one channel reproduction can have at least "depth of image" information -> basically spatial).
He is not alone to think the same
And I had no idea of who was behind your pseudo. Just based on what I read from you in the forum, always very clever and accurate.
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I understand what you are saying but I don't know how much better that is than relying on your own hearing when making judgements about whether something sounds better.
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