I choked on my cornflakes!

[Bigun]

“The design has the shortest signal path with all resistor and capacitor leads cut to less than ¼ inch long. So the conventional approach does not apply to this amp “.

Sophia Electric 845 Single Ended Mono-Block Amplifiers

I guess a short signal path really is a Short one!

 

[HumbleDeer]

Shortest path to the land of snakes & slippery oil.

 

[DUG]

"Most importantly: it is extremely musical with a rich tonality that nevertheless remains accurate."...

... Super linear, distortion-free sound,..."

Hmmm

 

[scottjoplin]

I thought when an amplifier is described as "musical" it means it distorts?

 

[HumbleDeer]

I thought when an amplifier is described as "musical" it means it distorts?

That's what the bureaucrats tried to convince you! They're only trying to sell their more expensive "clean" audio. NO PROOF! /s

 

[jjasniew]

I guess a short signal path really is a Short one!

Mine's even shorter - within the chip itself. I wonder how short it really is, between the "DAC" and "amplifier" physical die construction, as depicted in the block diagram?

 

[astouffer]

If you think it about that just means they mounted everything on a PCB.

 

[Tubelab_com]

Cut the component leads short to minimize the signal path. Does not that same signal flow through about 500 FEET of wire inside the OPT and the other transformers only to fight its way through more wire to get to your speakers? It didn't make a flying leap out of the turntable either. Lets see, those grid wires inside the 845's are nearly an inch long....each. Maybe they need some trimming too.

So, even if the "shortest path is best" mentality is 100% correct, how much improvement was made by trimming a few component leads? .000nuthin percent!

If you think it about that just means they mounted everything on a PCB.

We all know how bad those things are.....suitable only for cheap MP3 players! Guess I screwed up real bad....My 845 amp has 3 of them.

Hey, for $20K the PCB's should be made from gold plated Kryptonite.

 

[soulmerchant]

If the signal path is so short, the price has got to be short too, right?

 

[dgta]

Well, if you read in their KT88 amp description you'll discover they have a guy who "voices" the amps. So if that guy decides shorts are good, then shorts it is. Perhaps short shorts.

 

[scottjoplin]

So if that guy decides shorts are good, then shorts it is. Perhaps short shorts.

 

[avtech]

"Most importantly: it is extremely musical with a rich tonality that nevertheless remains accurate."...

... Super linear, distortion-free sound,..."

Hmmm

Don't forget

Distortion: -0.1% at 1 watts at 1KHz

 

[Pano]

I thought when an amplifier is described as "musical" it means it distorts?

Why would you think that?

 

[boswald]

The ad copy isn't really bad until the cornflakes(and milk) come out your nose.

 

[JMFahey]

Why would you think that?

Well, extremely fast and clean SS amps are often described as "cold analytical" while slower less damping way more distorting Tube ones are often described as warm - fuzzy - musical.

Not my words, but they are out there ... even inside DYA.

 

[scottjoplin]

Why would you think that?

What does it mean then?

 

[jhstewart9]

"Most importantly: it is extremely musical with a rich tonality that nevertheless remains accurate."...

... Super linear, distortion-free sound,..."

Hmmm

Pls define 'musical'. Would a politician's speech become 'musical' on such an amplifier while otherwise sound bland?

 

[AllenB]

No, but it may include distortion

 

[Tubelab_com]

No, but it may include distortion

We need a new distortion measurement criteria for that one since most of the distortion is not of a harmonic nature.....I propose TIN, Total Inharmonic Noise (or Nonsense). Most of what flows out of the TV set these days runs about 100% TIN.

 

[N101N]

I thought when an amplifier is described as "musical" it means it distorts?

The fewer spectral lines the lower distortion. The clean contemporary systems do not produce many spectral lines. A richly characterized musical content is regarded as dirty.