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In Reply to: RE: LEDS and audio posted by unclestu on March 27, 2015 at 12:27:51
I use a pair of 5 MM ultra bright white 2Hz flashing LED I make a power supply from a wall wart :12 volt DC although you can use other voltages. Key is you need a current limiting resistor in series with the anode of each LED. The company Lighthouse LEDS has a handy chart for various resisters needed for various voltages. Current draw is only 20 mA, so it it is also easily calculated., even without the table.In the pix from Black Discus thread below I make one box as a "mother" taking in the power supply and have ports to distribute power to other boxes. Kinda reduces the tangle of wires and makes it easier to install. Plus it makes experimentation much easier....
The use of flashing LED's is critical. Steady state glow LED's are somehow not as effective as the flashers. You can buy the LED's with the flashing capability built in. They are available in two cycles: a one hertz and a 2 hertz. I used these since it eliminates the need for a timing circuit (I'm lazy).
The 1 hz LED does not sound as good to my ears as the 2Hz models. Don't be alarmed if the two LED's go out of synch: doesn't seem to affect performance. There are noticeable differences between different colors,.. White light technically is more full spectrum ( remember prism with white light breaks up into the colors of the rainbow).
But I do not like the visibility of the flashing lights (they are bright!), I place them in a small hobby box. Found in many craft store,s these are cheap chinese made soft pine boxes, made of very light pine. The lighter and more porous the wood, the better it sounds ( no box is the best but then the light is irritating). Tried a nicer walnut box: Yuck ! Finishing also seems to adversely affect the sound of the box: making things brighter and edgier.
I place the LEDs inside with the alexandrite and simply plug in. Placed over transformers and speakers, the sonic gain is noticeable and perhaps the most effective. Adding color change garnets to the the mix further increases the top end.
Note Alexandrite is only second to diamond in hardness. I buy boules, the cheapest form, wrap them in cloth and hammer them against a steel anvil.
In fabricating the boxes, i have been testing them sitting on a sofa without the crystals (to make sure I wired the diodes up correctly).To my surprise, the light boxes even 8 feet away from the components makes a small but audible difference. Adding the crystals does help though, increasing the effectiveness.
The audible differences are instantly heard. Surprising as my light boxes are on separate circuits and not connected to my components in any way. (Bell's theorem?, nah......)
Another application is the use of bright flashing orange LED's on tube gear. I had a Vincent tube CD player with a tube in the front panel well. The player had a provision to vary the intensity of the orange illumination LED's or to turn them off completely. Being an "audiophile" I naturally assumed that turning them off would sound the best. Pix is of a Kavent CD player, a Chinese clone of the Vincent. The player runs three pairs of orange lights (steady glow) and you turn them off in pairs.
To my surprise the ugly orange lights added more dynamics and greater detail. That puzzled me immensely. LED's were supposed to add noise, not lower the noise floor. Again , I find the flasher diodes seem to work better.
The orange LED's are similar in color to the filament glow inside the tube. I am assuming they thus running at the same frequency as the tube filaments. I was thinking perhaps they were enhancing the cathode emission, but the plate structure is blocking most of the external light, so now I am a bit more doubtful of that surmise, as very little of the LED output will reach the cathode.
Use of the "mother" box, enables me to try different LED's in intensity and color. Once satisfied with the results, I have tapped the filament supply of, say , preamps and installed the lights inboard and thus controlled by the power switch, Works great, particularly enhancing the midrange. I've tried amber, blue, green and a few UV diodes, BTW. Those colors did very little if anything, IMHE.
Nuff for now
Edits: 03/27/15 03/27/15Follow Ups:
Hi stu,About the orange led: you put it in the middle of the tubes or in a box to protect you from the flashing light?
Could you tell us the exact model?Are this ones with built in resistors: convenient?
Edits: 03/30/15 03/30/15
Doesn't work well in a box, the light has to shine on the tubes
Hi Uncle,
You help us a lot with your experiments so there are my 2 cents:
Your orange FLASHING leds made me think that without being blind flashes should be very disturbing especialy at night...
Then I fought why not enlighting srpp and power tube with a more diffuse light which would envelop all tubes?
The orange color reminded me my salt lamp... so you see the rest of the story :)
The result: a better midrange with more flesh on the voices wich became more 3D (whitout music became dry). It's what I thought I heard... But I have to say in the same time my kids get on my nerves...So I'll to try once again... But if you have an orange salt lamp...
I think we can mabe modulate the effect with differents bulbs: why not whith leds???
Edits: 04/01/15
I use non flashing orange LEDs for the tubes
About tube tweaking:
Here in France in the haute fidelite forum a guy called Claude tried on small tubes some mumetal shields he found on old stufs and report very good results...
That made me think about such accessories made of tailpieces... with an orange led in it wich would be reflected by the chrome all around the tube...
2 in 1 solution...
Interesting....I'll have to try it.
I have noted that wrapping copper foil tape around the base of tubes makes a noticeable difference. On a 12AX7 about 6 mm wide foil just on the bottom of the tube up to the lower mica sheet. Increases midrange and upper end detail. Covering the phenolic base of power tubes does the same.
This emulates those highly desirable and expensive metal base tubes like the Sylvania metal base 6SN7, and early Philips 5AR4's and EL34's
My first idea was to use nickel chrome tailpieces to shield tube with an orange light inside reflected all around the tube by chrome.An another one in the case of an external enlightning, as you can see on the picture I post a few post before, with a salt lamp next to the tubes...
It's made of a special inox (304) with about 10% nickel and let some light going in and shield the tube. It's used for water pumps. Don't know the word in english...sorry!
Inox 316 contains nickel too
Edits: 04/02/15 04/02/15 04/02/15
and now for bigger tubes:
I'll soon receive adhesive copper so I'll test it on my 12AX7!
And maybe try too a layer of nickel foil if you see what I mean...
On my brass base 6J5 I'll try too!Some homework!!!
:)
Edits: 04/02/15 04/02/15
be sure to solder the overlapping ends as the glues will come off with heat. With nickel foil overlap the ends but be sure to round the corners, magnetism does NOT like sharp 90 degree corners.
Hi stu,
I made an another test with the salt lamp lighting the tubes: The results stills the same: a better midrange with more flesh on the voices wich became more 3D (whitout music became dry).
So there's a positive effect with orange color! Maybe better with leds?
Have to test!!!
Stu, do you have an orange salt lamp to test vs leds?
For the copper tape tweak: did you test it on bigger tubes like my 211?
David
but I have done it on KT-88's and other octals.I have salt lamps but the effect is minor, IMHO, compared to the orange LED.
Part of the salt lamps workings involve ion generation, I believe
I thought overhead LED lights in the living room or in the space with stereo equipment adversely affected the sound. Not true?
Most of the issue is result of their switching circuits which contaminate your power lines and great RFI.
Seems newer PS have much lower emissions.
Also bear in mind a pair of the LED's I use only consumes 20 mA each and their color is essential to performance.
So if I have my system on an isolated circuit LEDs wont affect the sound?
I'm not sure what you're really asking, so pardon I seem like I'm shooting off into space.........
The new generation of LED lightbulbs may affect the sound, but to put it honestly, I have the older compact fluorescents and they have not died yet so I have not experimented with the newer LED types.
I do know the current draw on the LEDs are significant lower than the compact fluorescents so that may be a beneficial factor factor. Also I notice that the fast recovery diodes are sooooo cheap everyone is using them so that may be factor too. I'll have to investigate when I have time.
I had expected the LEDS on gear would worsen the sound, but they do not, strangely ( well they have to have certain characteristics including the light emitted)
I'm talking about the led lights that come on when you flip the light switch upon walking into a room. The one on your table lamp, bedside lamp, any reading lamp. I've read that such leds emit a strong rf frequency that may affect remotes and other electrical devices. True? If, such lights as I've described might very well affect sound systems.
Those are what I thought you were referring to. Again a lot has to do with their power supply, for compact size they use switching supplies which do generate RFI.
I have noticed, as mentioned earlier. newer power supplies ( which are becoming quite sophisticated) seem to be using fast recovery diodes ( to further energy savings, maybe?) so emissions seem to have dropped a bit. I haven't taken apart the latest LED types though..... Too much to do , so little time.
Yes a kind of Z sleeve for tubes!
An idea for 211 tubes?Maybe a another kind of ers: specs seem better.
Copper and nickel in a nylon tissue: it is used in bio housing.
Much much cheaper.
Edits: 04/01/15
Stu, one thing to note about white leds is that they are nearly always made as a blue led with a yellow phosphor, so it mixes blue and yellow light to get sort-of white (which is why white leds don't give really good color rendition). You can get some white leds that use RGB leds to make what we perceive as white light, but in reality they are just mixing 3 colors. A filament bulb will give a true broad spectrum white light.
Also it occurred to me that the flasher circuit in the led could be having an effect?
Another idea is to run the leds from AC, thus giving you 60Hz flashing
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