John Curl's Blowtorch preamplifier part III

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#35,382
Tournesol said:
your hatred for audio professionals is just that of competition.
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Only in your imagination. Why? Because you can't quote a single post of mine showing such thing.

Bonsai said:
This is the kind of cheap shot inter-generational good old boy folklore bs you hear from time to time. I would think you were a bit better than this.

Maybe where you’re from.
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Perhaps it's different where you are but where I am and have been (east coast, west coast and mid west of US), that's what I've observed. As I've said, to each own.

syn08 said:
WTF is an "audio professional" and how would one be recognized as such?

-Is a musician an "audio professional"?
-Is a acoustics PhD an "audio prefessional"?
-Is a high end audio store salesman an "audio professional"?
-Is an EE designing audio electronics an "audio professional"?
-Is a DAC chip designer an "audio professional"?
-Is, in general, any individual making money out of audio an "audio professional"?
-Are there good and bad "audio professionals" and how do we recognize them accordingly?
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Pretty good list. You left out "shill". :2c:
 
#35,383
Evenharmonics said:
"decided to try Jam's cables and get it over with. I connected them between the XLR outputs on AK4499 eval board and the Neurochrome HP-1 headphone amp input.

Wow! Everything sounded better, less distorted, and the difference was easy to hear! I was basically stunned, never expected it."

That looked like a sales pitch to me and it's not isolated to that thread. But YMMV.
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I missed that, easy to hear but no input/output signal comparisons no matter the resolution show any difference. Ironic Jam comes from a Pass Labs background where the amplifier colorations are easily measurable (I consider Jam a good guy BTW). This all makes no sense on numerous levels.
 
#35,386

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#35,390
Markw4 said:
I haven't designed a power amplifier yet, although that may happen at some point (if my friend Jam has his way). For now I am still working on DACs. Have you built any DACs yourself?
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I understand, because you never design an amplifier. Maybe you do not familiar with measurement (THD, IMD, signal to noise ratio, FFT, damping factor, etc).

I have different priority when each time I design an amplifier. I called it philosophy of design. I want to know what sound difference when design with different philosophy.

Maybe many designer here do have a philosophy when design an amplifier or do not understand what relationship between measurement and the sound.
 
#35,392
gpapag said:
Thanks Scott for listening and commenting.
This dynamic range is realistic for classic, opera is even more demanding.
Not many recordings convey such dynamics and I don’t think that’s accidental.
Recordings with high dynamic range speak trouble for the majority of home listening (ambient noise, high SPL). Ed has posted some proper (frightening) numbers in the past, listening is always more informative.

George
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Most speakers I have owned have seriously limited dynamic range. Such that they all sound compressed compared to real live sounds.

The QUAD ESL is very limited in dynamic range... but flat, wide bw and low distortion.

The dynamic range of the JBL M2 with their recommended power amps finally get it right IMO. Fabulous dynamic range. One should try to get a listen to them; Just to know and a point of reference.


THx-RNMarsh
 
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#35,393
chris719 said:
Gross exaggeration to suggest that they don't know how to use their own product that they designed just because they don't subscribe to your belief system.
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Exactly. These serious engineering companies just don't sign up to Voodoo electronics and haphazard listening tests. The problem with the AK4499 finding it's way to the market might be that it was 600 usd per sample, last time I checked, whereas the AK4490 is just 2.50. And it is good enough for the RTX or the RME 2.
 
#35,396
Bonsai said:
“ Those who are about 10 years younger than you say that 80's was the summit. Those who are about 20 years younger that you say that 90's was the summit. As they say, to each own.”

This is the kind of cheap shot inter-generational good old boy folklore bs you hear from time to time. I would think you were a bit better than this.

Maybe where you’re from. My children and their musician friends regularly remark on the quality of musicianship and artistry of 70’s pop/rock.

As for the classics, 1960 - 1980 we are spoilt for choice. This was they heyday of DG and Decca and conductors like Abaddo, Maazel (who was in his 30’s and 40’s), von Karajan, Previn et al.
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It is my observation that the average skill of musicians has increased over the years.

Edit: and quite considerably so.
 
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#35,397
syn08 said:
For niche products like the AK4499 the price has very little to do with the manufacturing cost. The big problem of the AK4499 is that it has no place in a cell phone.
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These "phones" are really just tablet computers with a camera and phone stuck on them.

Since many people hold their music files on these tablet computers, it might make sense to have good DAC in them to play thru speakers at home.

Cost to have high quality DAC is low with the high tablet/phone volumes sales.


THx-RNMarsh
 
#35,398
RNMarsh said:
These "phones" are really just tablet computers with a camera and phone stuck on them.

Since many people hold their music files on these tablet computers, it might make sense to have good DAC in them to play thru speakers at home.

Cost to have high quality DAC is low with the high tablet/phone volumes sales.


THx-RNMarsh
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Quiescent power is too high for any of the high end designs. Once the public finds out your fancy audio phone has crap battery life they will have to destroy the leftover stock.

LG has already tried this with ESS mobile chipsets and found that no one gives a damn because the phone still sucks.

The integrated codecs from Qualcomm and Cirrus are actually pretty good now and I don’t think ESS will last much longer in that market. I actually don’t even know about Cirrus’ prospects because they are so dependent on Apple. Android phones will all use Qualcomm since they are the dominant SoC provider. If Apple kicks Cirrus to the curb and brings design in house after poaching key employees, it will not be good to be holding Cirrus stock. Apple does this inevitably with every vendor, so I consider it more of a when and not an if. Cirrus is lucky their parts are low enough margin that they haven’t been ransacked already. Apple accounts for 83% of their revenue. Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket.

You can do lossless streaming over Airplay and DLNA, so there is not much of a home use case for a headphone jack.
 
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