It is my considered opinion that several days with Bob simply wore Larry
and John out.
I agree with your statement that the AC neutral becomes the defacto audio ground. That is why and reduction of the impedance of the neutral return wire will improve all of the power supplies in the system--including the TV.
Adding multiple ground rods to the AC neutral at the box also noticably reduces rf noise even if the ground rod resistance is higher than the resistance to the pole transformer return.
I know that an engineer should not take metaphors literally but I would suggest this is the way to breakthrough thinking. John Bicht told me to disable my suspension on the turntable. He told me that his cheaper turntable that did not have air isolation sounded better because it created a path from the platter to the plinth for the vibration to travel. He told me to create a path for the vibration and do not attempt to snub it. So I disabled the supension and made sure there was no isolation all the way from the platter, though the plinth, through the stand to the solid concrete floor. The result was more apparent bass depth. This is distinct from bass frequency. The bass sounded less truncated by isolation. NOthing sounds worse that vibration being reflected around an isolated box.
I have a lot of respect for you Bonsai. But this stuff is not all nonsense. I have the privledge of listening to some of the best systems in the world in LA and SF. When they have taken their system to a certain level of refirnement, everything begins to matter and has a clear audible effect where it not be even be noticable if someone just throws a system together with so called class A++ equipment. Most designers of equipment never take their systems to such levels because they are too busy trying to design the perfect device.
For instance if you glue a block of ebony to the magnet on a tweeter in a loudspeaker the improvement in delicacy is major. Yes, you could argue it just shifts the freqeuncy up or down or whatever. But I swear must people would say don't remove it once they hear it.
On the other hand, you can also do hard enginerring and oversize the power transformer to reduce the seconary impedance, use an EI transformer with split bobbin with minimal interwinding capacitance instead of a stupid toroidal that conducts all of the power line noise into the system. Even Bob Cordell discusses this in his new book.
Both both techniques one hard science and one soft science offer major improvement.
Then I have friends who actually have musical instruments in their rooms that answer to the speakers. He added a huge upright bass to fill in a loss of midbass frequencies. Laugh all you want but he is a pioneer of room acoustics and the room should parcipate in the sound not be an indifferent listner. He is a true music lover with vinyl worth well over 100K so he really cares about what he hears.
For instance if you glue a block of ebony to the magnet on a tweeter in a loudspeaker the improvement in delicacy is major. Yes, you could argue it just shifts the freqeuncy up or down or whatever. But I swear must people would say don't remove it once they hear it.
On the other hand, you can also do hard enginerring and oversize the power transformer to reduce the seconary impedance, use an EI transformer with split bobbin with minimal interwinding capacitance instead of a stupid toroidal that conducts all of the power line noise into the system. Even Bob Cordell discusses this in his new book.
Both both techniques one hard science and one soft science offer major improvement.
Then I have friends who actually have musical instruments in their rooms that answer to the speakers. He added a huge upright bass to fill in a loss of midbass frequencies. Laugh all you want but he is a pioneer of room acoustics and the room should parcipate in the sound not be an indifferent listner. He is a true music lover with vinyl worth well over 100K so he really cares about what he hears.
With such an open mind, more great things await you. You are not done yet. Now if you could just find a way to build the products your way and not be subject to cost constraints. As you have said many times, the design, the parts selection and the implementation all have an equally important role. I am sure you are aware that alot of the new cheap crap parts made for the computer industry sound like ****.
I knew Crump as well. Down to earth guy if I ever met one. He told me to use the eagle Ac receptacles, the switchcraft IEC jacks---he was right on all acounts.
I knew Crump as well. Down to earth guy if I ever met one. He told me to use the eagle Ac receptacles, the switchcraft IEC jacks---he was right on all acounts.
Steve,
Just cut it up into small blocks and see!
They're only 3/8" thick. I'd have to laminate a few of 'em first.
Too lazy.
se
Sorry, you are correct. I made a follow up post. I was jumbling up myrtle and alder, which I believe was considered a nuisance wood at one time. It is one of the few hardwoods that is softer than most softwoods. It also is common in Oregon (I think that's why I got them confused), but they have commercialized with some success. Thirty years ago there was a company making furniture kits from butcher-block-style alder, and "Apple-Ply", a common substitute for Baltic birch plywood is made of maple faces on a core of alder layers.
While myrtle lumber is available, it is not so readily available as to be a commercial item outside of southern Oregon.
I built a power supply box out of this wood. Beautiful very expensive ****. Love it. I was told it is partialy decomposing on the forest floor. It is being attacked by microorganizms that changes it grain structure. For audio you don't want it to get too soft, it will crumble in your hand if it is left on the forest floor.
The Little Prince
by Antoine de Saint Exupéry
Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.
Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
Ce qui embellit le désert, dit le petit prince, c'est qu'il cache un puits quelque part...
"What makes the desert beautiful," says the little prince, "is that somewhere it hides a well."
Mais les yeux sont aveugles. Il faut chercher avec le cœur.
But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart...
by Antoine de Saint Exupéry
Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.
Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
Ce qui embellit le désert, dit le petit prince, c'est qu'il cache un puits quelque part...
"What makes the desert beautiful," says the little prince, "is that somewhere it hides a well."
Mais les yeux sont aveugles. Il faut chercher avec le cœur.
But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart...
Yes, spalting softens the wood. But you can have it stabilized. This is a process by which the wood is impregnated with acrylic resins. Stabilized wood is often used for pen making, knife handles, etc. You don't have to apply a finish to it. You can just polish it as if it were made of plastic.
se
"Mystic" by D.H. Lawrence
My elder son just received his lesson books back from 9th grade. He is attending a Waldorf school, where they teach things that are truly useful and important. For example, except for math they make their own lesson books, which are the texts they use.
I started looking through his "Organic Chemistry" lesson book. The first lesson was to write down and illustrate a poem:
Mystic -- by D.H. Lawrence
They call all experience of the senses mystic, when the experience is considered.
So an apple becomes mystic when I taste in it
the summer and the snows, the wild welter of earth
and the insistence of sun.
All of which things I can surely taste in a good apple.
Though some apples taste preponderantly of water, wet and sour
and some of too much sun, brackish sweet
like lagoon-water, that has been too much sunned.
If I say I taste these things in an apple, I am called mystic, which means a liar.
The only way to eat an apple is to hog it down like a pig
and taste nothing
that is real.
But if I eat an apple, I like to eat it with all my senses awake.
Hogging it down like a pig I call the feeding of corpses.
My elder son just received his lesson books back from 9th grade. He is attending a Waldorf school, where they teach things that are truly useful and important. For example, except for math they make their own lesson books, which are the texts they use.
I started looking through his "Organic Chemistry" lesson book. The first lesson was to write down and illustrate a poem:
Mystic -- by D.H. Lawrence
They call all experience of the senses mystic, when the experience is considered.
So an apple becomes mystic when I taste in it
the summer and the snows, the wild welter of earth
and the insistence of sun.
All of which things I can surely taste in a good apple.
Though some apples taste preponderantly of water, wet and sour
and some of too much sun, brackish sweet
like lagoon-water, that has been too much sunned.
If I say I taste these things in an apple, I am called mystic, which means a liar.
The only way to eat an apple is to hog it down like a pig
and taste nothing
that is real.
But if I eat an apple, I like to eat it with all my senses awake.
Hogging it down like a pig I call the feeding of corpses.
Just cut it up into small blocks and see!
We've had more than a few spalted wood blocks pass through our hands. I've never notice any obvious differences in the sound, but I like to hang on to the "curly" or "flamed" ones when I see them, simply because I like the way they look.
This is the result of the tree growing in a windy location. The tree naturally forms a zig-zag pattern in its grain, that when sliced into planks yields a "tiger stripe" look. One area will change from light to dark depending on the angle of view. Most trees grow in groves or woods and only the trees on the edges are exposed to the wind. That is why this grain pattern is less common.
I don't disagree, but I am at a loss since I haven't heard you CTC preamp or Charles's equipment. I know that we all have different thresholds for noticing differences in sound. I have relied on my wife when evaluating equipment, she doesn't know or care about different technologies and has no opinion about what should sound good and why it should sound good, she just listens and decides if she likes a system or not. She does hear differences quickly that would take me longer to pick up on. Her HF hearing has always extended further than mine and she is very sensitive to screechy sounding distortion.
I think we all have our own set of filters that we use to determine what is important and what isn't as important to us. IMO three factors dominate, speakers, room acoustics, and tonal balance of recording, then would come the electronics and accessories. I have heard vast differences between electronics playing the same hi res speaker in the same room (with good acoustics) as well as cable differences, now the cable differences weren't nearly as large as the electronics, but were there none the less.
The differences you are speaking about are very subtle and may or may not show up on the systems of others.
I do think it is good you , CH and others make people aware of the possibilities so they car see for themselves whether it is worth it for their systems.
- Status
- Not open for further replies.