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Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ.

RE: The would according the engineer Nelson Pass

Well I disagree with the famed NP. Bigger is not always better. It's stupidly simplistic to make such statements. Have any of you heard of low powered single ended DHT amps? They are among the sweetest sounding amps around.

But just to show that the great NP is not infallable, take just one quote from the linked "Commentary for consumers"

"The best power transformers are toroids" - Now whenever someone makes blanket statement that something is the best, I always wonder "best for what?"

It's complete bullshit to state that "The best power transformers are toroids" wihtout qualification.

Torroids in fact have several issues that some other transformer types don't have. For example, they saturate real easily if there's any DC on the mains (that's why torroids sometimes hum). They tend to let through HF noise. And so on.

NP goes on to state "They pack the most power for weight and size, and they make less noise" .. well thie first part is true. But the second is not true if there is an unruly mains supply, a common occurence.

Remember, the great NP also has amplifier designs that use electrolytic caps in the signal path. Now tweaker, you gonna go replace all your signal caps with leccys because your hero does?

imho it's a mistake to fetishize engineers. Better to fetishize engineeering itself, but that requires real effort..

When it comes to picking transformers, capacitors or other components, it's important to understand the pros and cons of each type, so you can use something appropriate to get the best performance.

Thus questions of the sort often heard here "What is the best sounding capacitor/diode/fuse/etc" are fundamentally flawed, as much as asking "what is the best tire" without saying whether the intended use is racing, snow, gravel, low noise, best fuel econmy, etc, or even mentioning the vehicle.




Edits: 10/06/16 10/06/16

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