Whoops -- I should also have said: in addition, we have power transistors with vastly larger Safe Operating Area (see attachment 1) and vastly higher fT -- 60 megahertz(!) Neither of which were available to audio designers in 1976.
_
The reason for a lack of consensus is because the concept of a rectifier diode having a "sound" is ridiculous.
Here is my work in progress. You don't see too many amplifiers in the forum that are doublesided pcb and smd.
Are you kidding me? Rectifiers make no difference? Same as your statement new parts have not improved. You are absolutely 'out to lunch'. All an amplifier is, is a modulated power supply. Everything starts with a good power supply design. Of course a low noise power supply makes for better sound. 1000s of builders knows this. Nasty 1N5408 or 1N4007 been out for years! You lack of knowledge for a person that builds amps is astounding. You do not read datasheets, not me.
After you build your amp, send it to me and I will 'tweak' it for you. Guaranteed to end up a better sounding amp. I sent amps around the world, I am USA based..Oh, I will toss in the parts & labor for free.
What is a good PS ? One of the best performing modern amps has no shame in using an SMPS : The AHB2 - A Radical Approach to Audio Power Amplification - Benchmark Media Systems
The interesting thing about modern parts is that they allow the use of new topologies, not simply repeating what was done 50 years ago.
The interesting thing about modern parts is that they allow the use of new topologies, not simply repeating what was done 50 years ago.
SMPS is a great power supply. It is far superior to standard non-regulated power supplies with a few volts of ripple in all vintage amps and most new amps. The SMPS has less than 30 millivolts of ripple and no voltage sag under load. Only power supply that is better is a linear design. Heavy, large, inefficient, but has less than 5 millivolts. 30 or 5 millivolts? no difference IMO.
I know power supplies, I was a consultant to Hewlett Packard on a power supply years ago. It was one of the first SMPS designs.
I know power supplies, I was a consultant to Hewlett Packard on a power supply years ago. It was one of the first SMPS designs.
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You cannot build a great amp. You have no knowledge of what sounds good and not. There are so many techs that do not know how to build a great amp. They can only build or re-build a reliable amp. Buy a Rega Brio, you likely be better off..
I replied to your posts as I at least took you somewhat seriously. I do not now. Damn.
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Please stick to capacitor swapping and op-amp rolling, those vintage receivers need those modern audiophile boutique parts.
I'm with indiglo. Sony6060 is so full of audiomyths it squirts out of his ears.
I have amps organs & radios going back to the fifties. Starting about 1960 sound became hifi with vacuum tubes, then about 1978 it got even better. I could write a long entry about what was wrong with my 1966 solid state amp, but there are other threads about that. Upgradeable to really good sound for about $20 in parts.
What is better now is noise & gain in small semis. People still obsess over the bc557 etc with noise & gain specs, when your bog standard On part will outperform them. Look at the news. Fab has automation handlers and no people, but maintenance men in tyvek suits. No skin or hair contamination of dies! Low noise in the 70's was ladies with meters sorting the garbage out of the production run.
What is better now is metal film resistors versus carbon comp. Much less hiss in 100 kohms & higher.
Don't diss the NE5532. Every LP or CD produced after 1978, the signal has been through about 6 of them. What 5532 don't do as well as more modern parts, is they use more power. To hear the difference between 5532 & LM4562 you need headphones, not speakers. And hearing to 20 khz which 99% of US males do not have. I'm good to 14 khz and that is very rare.
What is best in power supply rectification is the bog standard 1966 technology silicon diode, with slow recovery that doesn't transmit RF into the high megahertz when it shuts off. All these fast diode transmit multi-milliwatts of high RF, which is so bad switcher supplies have to be kept in metal cages with all kind of iron & capacitor filters to keep the RF in.
What is better in capacitors is polyprophylene, which sounds better than mylar which was in all the old consumer grade products.
And industrial grade electrolytics are not bad either, I've put about 400 of them in amps, preamps, radios, & organs since I quit working in 2008. What is better is you can buy better sealant that will last 5000 to 10000 hours at temperature. Using non-life-rated store grade ecaps, I had to replace the e-caps in my 1961 ST70 4 times for cause. No "audio" myth parts here, but the premium long life caps I've bought from nichicon, rubicon, vishay, panasonic, have performed almost ideally.
A real upgrade in capacitors is the trouncing of the myth told by salesmen about the advantages of the tantalum electrolytic capacitor. 80% of the ones in my units failed, and the ones I bought at the store had popcorn noise. Back to the industrial grade aluminum electrolytic, which shapes the sound reliably in dozens of circuits in my organs. Also is 33% the size of a 1960's aluminum electrolytic, with longer life due to better sealants available.
What is better than 1950 is transformers that go all the way down, instead of rolling off at 100 or 200 hz. Speaker drivers are a lot better too, with alnico magnets or even niobium which mainly saves weight. Fluid filled tweeters with higher watt ratings & flatter frequency response.
Class D I'm not even going to get into. I keep my PC, phone and all digital RF emitting stuff in a different room, on a different circuit, than my music production analog equipment. I had an early synthesizer based on Apple chipset, that howled into everything at 5000-10000 hz depending on what program it was running. Bleah. FCC compliance for RF is not good enough, IMHO.
What is worse now is pots. the milspec centralab or cde was good for 100000 cycles with thick tracks. Then alps fever took over, and they don't produce anything that will fit my products. New bourns stuff seems to be good for about 1000 cycles. But it is rectilinear, obviously light years ahead of rotary pots!
Enjoy your customers sony6060. I'm not going to be one. I'm making beautiful music just tweaking a few parts to drag dynaco & Peavey products into the 90's where things were almost perfect. The one improvement after 1990 I've found, the SP2 speaker 2004 version produces the best simulation of a grand piano of any box I have heard in this tiny 2 million population city in this flyover state. And the CS800s amp weighs 20 lb less than anything with transformers, without howling into everything.
I have amps organs & radios going back to the fifties. Starting about 1960 sound became hifi with vacuum tubes, then about 1978 it got even better. I could write a long entry about what was wrong with my 1966 solid state amp, but there are other threads about that. Upgradeable to really good sound for about $20 in parts.
What is better now is noise & gain in small semis. People still obsess over the bc557 etc with noise & gain specs, when your bog standard On part will outperform them. Look at the news. Fab has automation handlers and no people, but maintenance men in tyvek suits. No skin or hair contamination of dies! Low noise in the 70's was ladies with meters sorting the garbage out of the production run.
What is better now is metal film resistors versus carbon comp. Much less hiss in 100 kohms & higher.
Don't diss the NE5532. Every LP or CD produced after 1978, the signal has been through about 6 of them. What 5532 don't do as well as more modern parts, is they use more power. To hear the difference between 5532 & LM4562 you need headphones, not speakers. And hearing to 20 khz which 99% of US males do not have. I'm good to 14 khz and that is very rare.
What is best in power supply rectification is the bog standard 1966 technology silicon diode, with slow recovery that doesn't transmit RF into the high megahertz when it shuts off. All these fast diode transmit multi-milliwatts of high RF, which is so bad switcher supplies have to be kept in metal cages with all kind of iron & capacitor filters to keep the RF in.
What is better in capacitors is polyprophylene, which sounds better than mylar which was in all the old consumer grade products.
And industrial grade electrolytics are not bad either, I've put about 400 of them in amps, preamps, radios, & organs since I quit working in 2008. What is better is you can buy better sealant that will last 5000 to 10000 hours at temperature. Using non-life-rated store grade ecaps, I had to replace the e-caps in my 1961 ST70 4 times for cause. No "audio" myth parts here, but the premium long life caps I've bought from nichicon, rubicon, vishay, panasonic, have performed almost ideally.
A real upgrade in capacitors is the trouncing of the myth told by salesmen about the advantages of the tantalum electrolytic capacitor. 80% of the ones in my units failed, and the ones I bought at the store had popcorn noise. Back to the industrial grade aluminum electrolytic, which shapes the sound reliably in dozens of circuits in my organs. Also is 33% the size of a 1960's aluminum electrolytic, with longer life due to better sealants available.
What is better than 1950 is transformers that go all the way down, instead of rolling off at 100 or 200 hz. Speaker drivers are a lot better too, with alnico magnets or even niobium which mainly saves weight. Fluid filled tweeters with higher watt ratings & flatter frequency response.
Class D I'm not even going to get into. I keep my PC, phone and all digital RF emitting stuff in a different room, on a different circuit, than my music production analog equipment. I had an early synthesizer based on Apple chipset, that howled into everything at 5000-10000 hz depending on what program it was running. Bleah. FCC compliance for RF is not good enough, IMHO.
What is worse now is pots. the milspec centralab or cde was good for 100000 cycles with thick tracks. Then alps fever took over, and they don't produce anything that will fit my products. New bourns stuff seems to be good for about 1000 cycles. But it is rectilinear, obviously light years ahead of rotary pots!
Enjoy your customers sony6060. I'm not going to be one. I'm making beautiful music just tweaking a few parts to drag dynaco & Peavey products into the 90's where things were almost perfect. The one improvement after 1990 I've found, the SP2 speaker 2004 version produces the best simulation of a grand piano of any box I have heard in this tiny 2 million population city in this flyover state. And the CS800s amp weighs 20 lb less than anything with transformers, without howling into everything.
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Same post at Audio Asylum as here, a new post confirmed what I am hearing from my upgraded Allied 395- great audio. The poster has more experience than I.
Calling an amplifier something else doesn't stop it being an amplifier, nor make it magically different in reality. Basically this is a rhetorical piece of nonsense, it
doesn't have useful insight.
You might as well say all a power supply is is an oscillator set to zero Hz,
or is an amplifier with fixed DC input, or that an amp is a heterodyne mixer with
gain (and one input DC)!
All real amplifiers are imperfect, comparing them involves figuring out all the kinds of imperfection, weighting their importance, and measuring (or attempting to) them for each amp.
Some posts have been deleted, and for the same reasons this thread is being closed.- Status
- Not open for further replies.