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In Reply to: Amplifier design and quality parts, does it matter? posted by astrostar59 on February 19, 2007 at 00:36:40:
A humble suggestion.As other people have suggested, it's one of those "weakest link" situations--design, parts, and construction all have to be top notch, and one area can't fully compensate for a weakness in another.
That said, I'm under the impression that transformers are a particularly cruicial and expensive link in the SET's chain. It's challenging and expensive to build one that sounds great.
Certainly those challenges exist in other areas, but the relatively high cost of the transformer and the constraints of physics means if shortcuts are going to be made, they'll be made there.
I read many posts about people who have upgraded OPTs and love the sound, etc. That makes sense to me as more than psycho-acoustics, because of the engineering challenges.
Bottom line: from what I've read, if I had a blank check and could upgrade one part of my SET, it would be the output transformer. Perhaps something with silver wiring that weighs a couple hundred pounds.
But I've been wrong before. What do you all think?
Best,
Follow Ups:
to design, and super-exotic/expensive OPTs are not necessary. I'd
have to say that to build a sonically exceptional unit requires some
thought and a little more money for better quality OPTs and so on
--but still nothing too outrageous if you are building in the 1-10
watt power range. I've found the SET topology to be quite forgiving
in most respects ( much more so than push-pull), and even the little
Hammond cheapie 1625 units can be used to make really quite nice
little 2A3 jobs. That extra little bit of refinement could really
cost though. Also: going much above 20 watts things start to get
expensive fast, and suitable (not to mention affordable)OPT's
get much more rare and harder to source.-T.M.
...makes the most difference.As all of us have agreed, everything makes a difference, but I believe that improving the quality of the powersupply will bring the highest rewards. That's why I start there when improving amps.
Read Lynn Olson's 'Ultrapath, Parallel Feed, and Western Electric' article in issue 16 of 'Vacuum Tube Valley'; you might agree.
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Tin-eared audiofool and obsessed landscape fotografer.
http://community.webshots.com/user/jeffreybehr
Just say by comparing a stereo to a pair of monos assuming the same size power supply. In the stereo the power supply is for both channels and in the monos they have their own. So if all the conditions are similar, the monos should be better?
For instance, the best-sounding PS might include tubed rectification, the highest-quality caps money can buy, low-DCR, correct-inductance chokes, etc., and all sized correctly. Also the same should be done for the supply/supplies for the frontend* and maybe the bias and heater (if DC) supplies too.I think a super-high-quality PS would have NO 'lytics (but for BlackGates) in it and be composed of all film (or PIO) caps, carefully selected, of course. Conrad-johnson has been doing this ('this' being using NO 'lytics and using 'propylene and 'styrene caps in HV PSs) for years now, and I think their reputation for excellent sound is due at least partially to that.
I do NOT want to sound pendantic**; these are only my opinions, but they guide what I do with my own stuff.
* I THINK (but don't KNOW) that ASL got that right in the AQ1006(845) with its vacuumtube-regulated PS (using a paralleled-sections 6SN7 error amp and a triode-wired 6L6 as a series-pass device) for the 2 'N7 Voltage-gain/driver tubes.
** and I written many times that I'm NOT golden-eared, in the sense that I cannot easily hear subtle differences that others apparently hear. But I do hear cumulative differences and improvements (or 'disprovements') thereto, to the point that I've managed to build, with lots of advice from Jeffrey Glowacki of Sonic Craft, the best-sounding system I've ever heard...anywhere...anytime. Of course, ALL other systems start with a handicap--they're not tuned for MY sonic preferences. :-)
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Tin-eared audiofool and obsessed landscape fotografer.
http://community.webshots.com/user/jeffreybehr
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