And if it powers the heaters while producing no audibly deleterious side-effects, it is doing its job perfectly. It doesn't matter whether it's emitting magnetic fields, clouds of miniature leprechauns, or clusters of magic pigeons in the process. Assuming the corpses of said leprechauns or pigeons aren't cluttering up the inside of the housing, that is.
That is certainly the subjective audiophile position. The objective reality is that at least one component of the audio chain - the amplifier - has been perfect for decades, inasmuch as existing flaws are below human perception levels, and the audible performance therefore cannot be improved upon.
There are, of course, audibly very imperfect devices still in our audio chain, such as vinyl records and their pickups, most microphones, and virtually all loudspeaker systems. Those are not relevant to a discussion on different ways to wire up your valve heaters, though.
-Gnobuddy
I agree to the degree that they're the least troubling item in a reproduction chain.
<pedant>
However they are far away from perfect. There's a vicious circle of design problems around noisefloor vs stability vs HF IM distortion vs clipping behaviour. Oh, and cost.
</pedant>
But I agree, they're the least of our problems. And such pedantry belongs in another forum.
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Well, let's see. 110 dB S/N ratios are easy these days. Video amplifiers in oscilloscopes have had complete stability, along with bandwidth from DC to hundreds of MHz, for many decades. Massive audio power is now so cheap that clipping behaviour simply isn't an issue - I bought an amp with five channels, each capable of 100 W RMS, for sixty bucks USD, and I doubt my loudest listening peaks top 10 watts. Certainly the cost of home audio amplification is still non-zero, and may not be affordable in third-world countries, but is not an issue in more fortunate nations.
So let's agree to disagree.
-Gnobuddy
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