The amplifier I use is a Class D amplifier designed around the Jensen 4-pole linear power supply. This power supply is the same supply used in the $650,000 Pivetta Opera One amplifier. It is so fast that changing power cords on my amp makes virtually zero audible difference.

As for your audible noise when close to your speakers agear. That was a grounding issue with your amplifier. High sensitivity speakers tend to have gain matching issues with high gain amplifiers. Especially at 100dB sensitivity they will have a hiss if the amplifier is not grounded properly. I know this from first hand experience with the EPs that grounding even the crappy class D amp you used easily removed the hiss. I use a complex grounding layout in the Class D amps using Goertz ribbon, even with high gain there's no noise from the speaker.

You were also listening to the Apogee Duet. Which although nice, is only a $500 piece of gear and can't be expected to replace gear costing thousands of dollars (your Z, or The Dude, it's just not likely). You also have a terrible switching power supply attached to your mac mini, which is a huge bottleneck.

You guys still don't understand what I mean about noise. The problem is that you think that noise is audible. Audible noise is distortion and is something totally different. Noise Floor is audible noise that can only be heard when your volume is up above 100dB. THAT is not the noise I am talking about. It's easy for a tube system to have a black background and depth, but that's not low noise. The noise I'm talking about is noise you don't know is there until it's gone. It's the veil that so many audiophiles speak about that hides the resolution of the music. That resolution comes from a properly designed power supply and good parts. VERY few companies use good parts.

Even TRL uses relatively inexpensive parts. I demoed my amp for a Gentleman out here who has the GT-200 monoblock amps. He is planning to buy a set of amps from me.

I think you underestimate the amount of gear that I have heard. I don't just base my theory off of hearing one or two systems. I've had hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gear move through my system over the years. I have heard just about everything on the market in various systems. I worked in recording for 4 years and now in the film industry. I also listened to live music twice a week for YEARS.

But I am correct about vinyl. I've heard the Walker turntable ($20k), DiVinci Turntable ($50k), Clear Audio Statement Turntable ($150k), and yes, even your Galibrier, plus a few lower end tables. I am yet to hear a turntable that doesn't color the sound and exaggerate dynamics. Most of what people like about vinyl and tubes are attractive distortions.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I imagine neither of you listen to live music on a regular or occasional basis. So we are after two totally different goals. I am after a real reference of live music, and most people are after what they think live music sounds like.

That's what puts audiophiles in two different camps. Music lovers or Audiophiles. Music lovers listen to the time, tune and tone of the music. Terms like dynamics, slam, liquidity aren't even in their vocabulary. Most audiophile systems sound like HiFi.

mintzar August 15, 2010 12:08

S/N doesn't tell the whole story.

Vibrations = Distortion: When a male enters puberty his voice typically begins to crack. That is distortion. Whether its caused by vibrations or something else is irrelevant.

Tube microphonics is another form of distortion caused by vibrations.

Vinyl too is the same way. It's often artificially musical because dynamics are exaggerated when the needle jumps from right to left.

You have a lot to learn. Youth is a good thing, it means you still have plenty of time (barring the unforeseen) to catch up to those more experienced.

You judge solid state the way you do because you are unfamiliar with what is preventing solid state from doing what tubes are doing and you haven't heard truly well-designed solid state gear.

Not sure where this is coming from but the only piece of tube equipment in my system is my amp. Everything else is solid state. I have heard many great solid state designs and owned a TRL D-225 (stereo version of the Samson monoblocks) and some Nelson Pass designed amps. In my experience and opinion the best transistor designs use bipolar transistors. In the right circuit they produce a more natural sound and are just as quiet as JFETs and MOSFETS. The Class D modules (T, ICE, etc.) can be good (Audio sector for example), but still has a ways to go, especially if they're designed around a switching power supply.

The power supply is the key to the foundation of any component design. People like Paul Weitzel and Roger Modjeski have known this for a while. Ironically the Music Reference RM-10 MkII amp is one of the quietest amps I have ever heard. Even at a local audiophile meeting it was quieter than a pair of well known solid state monoblocks.

clio09 August 15, 2010 11:14

I am saying that ONE of the causes of hiss in a tube system can be attributed to the electrons smacking against the sides of tubes.

Tubes will always be noisy, and I am yet to see a tube circuit that can boast a S/N ratio greater than 110dB. I am not saying they aren't enjoyable for music, nor have I ever said that. What I said was that tubes don't have the potential of solid state.

The goal in home audio is to create the illusion of live music. Most people have NO benchmark for what live music sounds like.

People like tubes and consider them "musical" because they are fast. Their speed allows them to have less time/phase distortion compared to solid state. The lack of phase distortion is what lends to a more musical and harmonically rich presentation with better articulation.

HOWEVER. Solid state has the potential to be just as fast if not faster. The problem is that most solid state gear has a crappy power supply. The power supply is too slow to react to the changes in signal. Because of this many people consider SS to be dry and lack emotional content.

Speed = detail. Lowering the noise floor = more speed. And to lower the noise floor a better power supply and better parts are required. The higher quality the filtration the lower the ripple in the supply. What that translates to is the supply's ability to articulate microdynamics. That extra speed is what allows you to hear the liquidity of a voice or tonality of the strings on a guitar.

I disagree that the voice is a result of distortion. The voice is a result of vibration. Because everyone's vocal cords work at different wavelengths we produce different frequencies when we talk. Some of those frequencies can be considered fatiguing when you don't like someone's voice. But even the room you are in or how close you are to the wall plays a part in what your voice sounds like.

What people don't seem to understand is that MUSIC IS MUSIC IS MUSIC IS MUSIC. It doesn't matter what you are using to play it back if your system is accurate. The problem I have face with even the highest end $300k tube systems is that they're artificial and lack REAL detail. Vinyl too is the same way. It's often artificially musical because dynamics are exaggerated when the needle jumps from right to left.

My point is that you can argue why something is better than something else until you're blue in the face. But when you do so you should understand what is making that component sound the way it does. You judge solid state the way you do because you are unfamiliar with what is preventing solid state from doing what tubes are doing and you haven't heard truly well-designed solid state gear.

I have heard a million times that this SS Amp is very "tube-like" or a DAC is very "Analog". That's because there's no such thing as tube-like or analog sound. Music sounds like music.

mintzar August 14, 2010 14:06

My sentiments exactly Clio09. Solid state (transistor) and digital gear both produce idiosyncratic "noise." I experienced a system with 100 dB efficient speakers fed by a Mac Mini, Apogee DAC and digital amps, and there was audible noise when close to the speakers. That is no different than what I have now with my tubed pre-amp and traditional SS amps from TRL.

agear August 14, 2010 13:59

Are you saying that tube hiss is the audible result of electrons smacking up against the plate?

I think most anyone around here knows that tubes emit hiss or tube rush. The quality of the tubes and the circuit in which they are used, assuming its well designed and optimized for the specific tubes it is to be used with, certainly can mitigate most of this.

All sound (even speech for example) is inherently the result of vibrations and distortion. What pleasures or displeasures we derive from those vibrations and distortion are for us to decide. Case in point: ever found yourself listening to someone speak and say to yourself you dislike the sound of their voice.

clio09 August 13, 2010 18:21

It's simple physics. There is virtually no way to prevent the electrons from bouncing off the glass tubes. It's been proven and is 100% measurable.

That doesn't negate that people like tubes. It merely poses why tubes are noisy no matter what you do. I think most people don't understand what noise does to musicality, tonality, and resolution until it's gone. People love the Dude Preamp, but that doesn't mean it isn't colored and doesn't veil the sound. We noticed just that when we put the Topaz in your system and removed the Dude.

At any rate, if someone enjoys their sound and they have tubes in their system then power to them. I know that most people who have tubes are searching around looking for upgrades because they feel like something is missing.

mintzar August 12, 2010 21:48

That is what I suspected.

agear August 09, 2010 19:42

That information is from Ben's instructor who has a very fancy physics and digital engineering degree.

mintzar August 08, 2010 13:41

Ryan, where did you get that information information about electron behaviour and tubes?

agear August 07, 2010 15:24

I've been going crazy battling a resonance-related issue in my system over the past few weeks. Turns out the Herbie's footers under my amp weren't working ideally. I had some brass footers lying around and placed those under the prism and amp. What a difference! I was getting ready to pull my hair out.

Another cool tidbit of information:

One of the biggest noise issues with tubes that you can't get away from NO MATTER WHAT has to do with the electrons SMACKING up against the plate.

Yes, the electrons fly through a vacuum and HIT the plate on the other side...this noise is QUITE measurable and audible.

No matter what you do with the PS or anti-vibration and all that you can NEVER get rid of this SUBTLE background "hiss"...this is why you will NEVER see tube gear with noise much lower than 100db...it is physically impossible.

Cool, huh?

mintzar August 07, 2010 12:21

Everything is really breaking in nicely. I couldn't be more thrilled with the sound.

The system is so high resolution that you can hear their clothing rustling when they're standing by the microphone. You can tell what direction they are facing on the stage. Tonality is beautiful with exceptional energy and realism. Music you FEEL inside and out. Stunning system to listen to.

A few adjustments to make to the system still, but otherwise I won't be changing anything for a while.

My next project is to rebuild my Playstation 3 power supply to make it a better bluray player. I opened it last night to see what I was up against. Plenty of stuff to at least swap out with better parts. We'll see what happens from there...

mintzar July 24, 2010 16:27

Total agreement. Great stuff.

gadmanrdh July 24, 2010 08:31

System edited: Added a temporary picture of the system. I'll replace the phone picture once my camera decides to recharge. Obviously haven't hung room treatments or anything yet.

mintzar July 23, 2010 20:25

Let me clarify what I mean by noise. I think you guys are getting signal to noise ratio confused with the noise I am referring to. SNR above 100dB is WAY more than what is necessary, since most people don't play above 100dB anyways.

What do I mean then?

Picture a sine wave. Now draw a bunch of polka dots around it. Obviously those polka dots aren't audible to us. The issue is that our components can see these polka dots. What happens is these polka dots merge with the soundwave and cause ripples and spikes.

What happens is those spikes cause frequency anomalies. The frequency anomalies act much like a standing wave in an untreated room. They cause phase cancellations and mask the resolution of the music.

I am not necessarily speaking about RF-based noise. Noise can be caused by ripple in a power supply for instance. A good power supply will have low ripple and be able to handle a large amount of voltage swing. THAT is why people like tubes. Compared to a good SS amp which can have 100Vpp, a good tube amp can have anywhere between 250-350v.

That means that you can get more gain from a single tube stage. So what you get is more 'swing' from tubes. Granted, to get a tube amp to play anywhere near the level of detail of a SS amp it would cost 3x as much and be 5x the size. Just look at Paul's amps.

Tubes are noisy. They have far more wiring to pick up noise, often crappy power supplies, and poor grounding.

Now let's step back to the idea of noise. Articulation comes from space between notes. Take a square wave as an example. With Jitter that square wave has edges that become rounded. It becomes difficult for the receiving component to understand whether the signal is on or off. This causes timing issues. That timing issue causes frequency anomalies. Those anomalies mask details and dynamics. They create a veil over the music. It is this veil that I consider noise.

I use noise and distortion as one and the same, perhaps mistakenly. Though they are both a means to the same destination. One causes the other.

Good power supplies and parts will do a better job at filtering out noise. They will also be capable of better voltage swing.

The best tubes sound like solid state. The best solid state sounds like tubes. If you have truly accurate gear then it doesn't matter what format you use. It all should sound the same.

mintzar July 23, 2010 13:40

I have nothing against Paul. As I mentioned, The Dude is a phenomenal piece of gear.

The tricky thing about noise is you don't know it's there until it's gone.

The Dude WAS neutral. The Dude was WONDERFUL. Every component I've had was the best thing since sliced bread when I had it. Because I do my homework before jumping over to a piece of gear.

That doesn't mean there is nothing better out there.

What I can say is that I owned the Dude and have heard it now in four different systems. Not one of those systems sounded bad. I have UPGRADED from that sound and am not looking back. There is nothing about the sound with The Dude that I miss.

At the same time, my benchmark for what sound I like has always been live music. I listened to live music twice a week for years. I was able to listen to live music, listen to the music in the recording studio, and further compare that recording on my own personal system.

The Dude was a really great sound, but it didn't bring me to what I heard to be real.

My system now has FAR better tonality, body, and instantaneous dynamics than the Dude ever had. The imaging is far more pristine, the soundstage deeper, wider and more stable, and the sound itself is exceptionally detailed. To make things better, it is totally non-fatiguing and I haven't even used my DSP to correct the response yet. I found the Dude to be fatiguing on my system and on Andrew's system at one time or another. I even upgraded the tubes in The Dude to great affect, but my sound got better when I took the Dude out of the system.

I never said the Dude was a bad piece of gear. I just said that it was colored and noisy compared to what I am running now.

The system I am running now I am happy with. I have no interest in upgrading anything, nor do I feel the need. So I had no intention of being hypocritical when I wrote The Dude's review. I had NO idea I would be changing my system so dramatically. But I took a blind leap and ended up with a stellar system that I can live with for a good long time.

mintzar July 21, 2010 00:43

Just because Paul has heard those high-end pieces of gear doesn't mean his Dude preamp competes in the same league as those pieces of gear.

At the same time, Paul is trying to get you to hold onto his Dude. Of course he will say all of the other products you were looking at weren't as good.

Where's all this coming from. A while back you were saying things like:

Imagine a silent space, devoid of all noise. There you sit with your eyes closed. Breathing. Quiet. Now imagine a giant drum one thousand feet away. Boom. Boom. Boom. The gusts of energy rushing like a tsunami toward your ears almost blowing you backwards by sheer act of will. Again, boom boom boom and the eruption of a voice so angelic, so open and lovely that you can’t help, but be mesmerized. Where does it come from, you ask? It beams from one hundred feet away up towards the stars and as large as the sun. This is your soundstage. This is The Dude, and he does abide.

and

Like Paul, I have done a fair amount of recording and mixing both for film and two-channel audio. There is nothing that compares to the original master recording in the studio. This preamplifier is bringing me as close to that as I have ever heard in my system, but in a more enjoyable, less edgy, way.

and

For me, neutrality is the ability of a component to completely disappear, to become invisible to the music and the system. The Dude is truly neutral. You can tell when the Dude invades a system, because it’s a transformative experience. You cannot hear it once it’s there, but you know it’s there doing its job, bringing you in, tying the room together.

Now the Dude is noisy and colored?

Maybe its just me but I'd have to say Paul Weitzel has a whole lot more experience when it comes to electronics and recording than you do. Sure TRL has a house sound and granted its not everyone's cup of tea, nor do I always agree with Paul's opinions. At least Paul knows what he likes, it sounds like you're still trying to figure it out. Either that or you're harboring some angst.

clio09 July 20, 2010 18:58

The Dude uses a tube regulated PSU. Tube regulation is noisy. Most of the tube gear I've heard sounds pretty good. But it never is the best sound I've heard.

People like tubes for their speed. And not just musical speed, but ability to process the music. Their speed is what allows them to have better harmonic integrity and linearity, which is why many tube pieces have better tonality than solid state pieces. However, if you lower the distortion from a piece of solid state gear that is using proper parts (better parts are substantially faster) then you have all of the tonality you would ever get from a tube amp/preamp. Most tube products just color the sound.

The Dude compared to the prism is very colored. It's a nice color certainly, but compared to the Prism I didn't care for the color.

As for the Prism vs other Pro gear. For recording, the industry standard is actually Pro Tools HD. Audibly there are certainly better pieces of gear.

Just because Paul has heard those high-end pieces of gear doesn't mean his Dude preamp competes in the same league as those pieces of gear.

At the same time, Paul is trying to get you to hold onto his Dude. Of course he will say all of the other products you were looking at weren't as good.

The EPs were quite fatiguing and ultimately not very realistic. There are better, more enjoyable speakers out there. The Duet is probably a decent piece of gear, but it's not fair to compare a $500 piece of gear to a $5000 piece of gear no matter how good someone says it is.

After hearing the TC, the Prism is a totally different animal even from that. I wasn't getting ANYWHERE near optimal performance out of the Prism when using the EPs. Even before the AN15s showed up and I was using a $25 set of plastic bookshelf speakers and headphones, the system sounded considerably better than it did with the EPs.

I am not finding the prism to be even the slightest bit fatiguing. It's extremely clear and very sweet sounding, with excellent slam and dynamic capability. It's just in a totally different league from what I had with The Dude. The Dude was fantastic when I had it, but this is another way. We both found the Dude to be fatiguing at one point or another.

Granted, I am now running a new amplifier that I built. The power supply ALONE in my new amp costs me about $1000 to build. My amplifier beat a $15k Class A tube amplifier and a $10k hybrid tube/ss Amp without contest according to the individuals who bought it.

I have no need for Tube Emulators in my system. Tonality is as close to real as I've ever heard it. Is there better? There's always better. But the only system I have heard that can keep up is a six figure Magico system. Not only that, there are A LOT of things my system does better.

We can discuss tubes vs SS until we are blue in the face. Music is just music. It doesn't matter what is processing it. Tubes and solid state sound more and more alike the better those products get. The question is... who wins? The guy with tubes who is still looking for better sound? Or the guy with SS who has found that sound and doesn't feel a need to upgrade anything. Or the other way around, the guy with SS who is still looking vs the guy with tubes who has it all.

Noise floor isn't everything. Distortion is a broad word and I use it broadly.

mintzar July 19, 2010 23:13

Ryan, I am glad your system is progressing. The PS upgrade to the Mini was a grand idea.

As for your theology in distortion and musicality, I am less certain. Solid state entities theoretically create non-linearity in dynamics and transistor "switching noise" that causes, IMO, some people to prefer tubes. A transistor is a switch and a tube is a valve...blah, blah. There is an interesting experiment done in Germany looking at listener fatigue in stereo systems, and blinded subjects (audiophiles and non-audiophiles) preferred the tubed system: http://www.stereophile.com/features/203/

As for Dude vs. digital front end (Prism), it is hard to know which is better. I presume you never had a chance to a side by side comparison. I had the Apogee Duet briefly and was able to compare it to the Dude. The Apogee piece is a tremendous value but compared to the Dude, it lacked body, sound depth and width and overall musicality. My wife briefly came down to listen to it and said made a face and said it sounded "sharp." That being said, the Duet required a dbx digital x-over upstream feed into the Emerald Physics 2.3 speakers I was demoing. The Prism is in another league obviously and you have no cheesy pro audio digital x-over unit in the way. Ironically, Paul Weitzel, head of TRL and the creator of the Dude, has done a lot of recording for Sony and others and has used and heard the Prism, and TC Konnect. He said they are not what he would call musical. He has used the 2 million dollar Euphonix consule that employs the 64-bit ASK chipset. He likes that unit. He also said the Sony Sonoma, which is several rungs down from the Euphonix, blows the Prism away. Obviously, there is pro audio and there is pro audio. The Prism is consider by Paul and others to be more "prosumer." Another interesting facet about the Prism interface and others like it is that people are using DSP tube simulators to plump up the sound. One guy who wrote a review of the Prism/Spatial audio/Emerald Physics system found it ultra stark and clear but fatiguing and was thus farting around with tube simulators (little DSP programs) as a fix. The irony of that is too good to pass by. To each is own. Despite all the flaws and shortcomings of our respective systems, we twiddle away in the name of music and that's fun.

For the record, the Dude does not use tube rectifiers....

agear July 19, 2010 20:51

Upgraded my Mac Mini power supply. A whole new level. Soundstage depth is tremendous and detail is out of this world, with absolutely zero fatigue.

Should have my system up and running (finally finished) in the next few days.

I replaced the power cords on my isolation transformers with Mojo Audio 8awg cross helix and built the 8awgX into the rest of the system. I plan to test the power filters used in the Shunyata Hydra V-ray in my transformers in the coming days as well.

Amplifier is breaking in nicely. WOW does it sound good. The jensen 4-pole caps in the power supply are real winners. Then again they're the same caps used in the Tripoint Audio Spartan $35k power conditioner. They're extremely dynamic and detailed, but totally smooth. Very easeful sound -- sounds like music.

The Mac Mini PSU was an incredible upgrade. After listening to the megabuck Magico system last week I found that my $12kish system gets me 99% of the way there in terms of detail and does quite a few things better (coherency and top to bottom tonal balance).

I'll post pictures in the next week hopefully.

mintzar July 19, 2010 01:56

Just because I sold The Dude doesn't make it a bad piece of gear. On the contrary, it's still one of the best preamps in the world.

But when I went to this computer-based system with the Orpheus, which replaced my DAC and preamp, I got such a huge leap in performance that the Dude was obsolete.

The dude is very colored and romantic-sounding. It's a wonderful piece of gear, but it's noisy. I had it paired with Nuforce amps which are also noisy. So now that I've gotten rid of the noisy tubes and upgraded to a MUCH nicer amplifier I just hear a lot more of the music an a lot less of the distorted colorations.

It's just a different way of doing things. For me, it's more real sounding and ultimately more enjoyable because I'm not distracted by colorations or noise.

The one thing the Dude did really well was cast a deep sound stage, since my system isn't 100% up and running yet since i've moved I haven't been able to compare that with my new setup. The soundstage with the Orpheus is FAR more precise and wider, but we shall see what happens in terms of depth... I'll post a followup in the next few weeks along with pictures.

mintzar June 27, 2010 12:14

Imagine a silent space, devoid of all noise. There you sit with your eyes closed. Breathing. Quiet. Now imagine a giant drum one thousand feet away. Boom. Boom. Boom. The gusts of energy rushing like a tsunami toward your ears almost blowing you backwards by sheer act of will. Again, boom boom boom and the eruption of a voice so angelic, so open and lovely that you can’t help, but be mesmerized. Where does it come from, you ask? It beams from one hundred feet away up towards the stars and as large as the sun. This is your soundstage. This is The Dude, and he does abide.

Devoid of all noise? Now it becomes ........
and you sell it? Lost in space by the sun and stars.

Where has the new gear taken you if the Dude took you to outer space?

Kind of like the wind, you never know which way it will blow next.

glory June 27, 2010 10:33

I plan to post pics as soon as I finish settling in at my new place. It's a bit of chaos at the moment. Probably in a couple of weeks!

My new listening room is FANTASTIC. It's larger than my room in NC. It's trapezoidal in shape with 10' ceilings. Probably 10x15x30 if I had to estimate. I'll measure it at some point. I totally lucked out on these new digs -- needed to get out of the crappy area I was in.

I am enjoying the fiddling. I really don't feel the need to upgrade anything -- not that I hear anything that really needs upgrading.

My plan in the near future is to run over to Weinhardt designs and listen to his Magico system for comparison's sake.

mintzar June 21, 2010 00:43

Ryan, I did not realize you had finished your speakers? Pics please. BTW, I am glad you are having fun fiddling on your audio journey. Keep it up....

agear June 20, 2010 04:19

You are right, SNR is only one component to good sound.

I am one of the privileged few who has the opportunity to listen to live music multiple times a week. I also worked in recording. So I was in a unique position to be able to compare the real thing, to the recorded thing, to the thing on my system. So my reference has always been REAL music, not what I think music sounds like.

There are a lot of variables in sound. However, when I say remove the noise and remove the distortion that goes for a few things.

Removing noise is a simple concept. It means lowering the noise floor so that it isn't masking out any aspects of the music. Distortion on the other hand is something totally different. Distortion actually corrupts the waveform and alters time and phase coherency.

Music has three domains. Time/Phase, Frequency/Amplitude, and power (the rate at which energy flows).

Fixing distortion serves two purposes. One, it flattens the frequency response so that the audio spectrum is as intended. Distortion also corrupts the time and phase of the music. That has to do with imaging and transients, and harmonic alignment etc.

People like tubes because they are very fast. This serves two purposes. The first being that because of their speed they are much more coherent and accurate to time and phase. That is why people say tubes have more accurate tonal accuracy and cast a wider/deeper soundstage.

People like solid state because it is lower noise. The lower noise serves to make the sound more detailed and grants a more linear frequency response.

HOWEVER...

As each of these pieces of gear gets better and distorts the sound less and less, they sound more and more alike. I imagine you've heard that an amp sounds very "tube-like". There's no such thing.

Music is music is music. It doesn't matter what components you are using to get there. Accuracy is accuracy.

What my system does correctly is a few things. One, it has extremely low noise. This low noise allows the system to be extremely detailed and have a flat frequency response. My room itself (arguably the largest source of distortion in most systems), is corrected with an EQ to flatten the In-room response along with acoustic treatments.

The second thing is that it's low distortion. The prism receives bit-perfect audio signals with nearly zero latency. The Prism itself has arguably the best DAC and Clock available on the market next to the ULN-8. That means it has extremely low jitter. That translates to no timing errors or distortion in the phase domain.

The signal is nearly perfect when it leaves the prism. We have low noise, time and phase coherent, and flat 20-20 response before it gets to my amp.

The amp is a Class D design with a Linear power supply to remove the problems with switching noise. The power supply is a large Jensen 4-pole supply with IXYs rectifier. The Jensen caps are considered the best PSU caps on the market... at a price ($90 each). The board itself uses SMDs for lower distortion, shorter signal path, lower impedance, and less distortion from mechanical vibration. The board itself is a 4-layer PCB also for lower resistance and mechanical dampening. I use pure copper binding posts and bare wire for a copper to copper connection for no impedance mismatches from cabling. I also use one of the best balanced input circuits on the market. It was all designed with performance in mind.

No for the speakers. The speakers are a true point source full-range speaker. The larger driver is flat 22hz-15khz. Given that there is zero information above 10khz on redbook CDs that wasn't a problem. With my EQ software I am able to flatten the response 20-20khz. Being a point source there is no crossover and the speaker cables are direct hardwired to the drivers. Losing the crossover removes a huge source of distortion and phase errors. Music itself is a point source and 360 degrees in phase, this is as close to that as I can get. The large driver's dispersion is also corrected in my software. Since the latency is so low, it does no distortion to the audio signal itself. (Believe me, I've done extensive AB comparisons -- gotta love the bypass feature!)

So my signal arriving at the speakers is extremely low distortion and low noise. The speakers are a perfect point source and are perfectly time and phase coherent. Their tonality is exactly the same from top to bottom.

Needless to say, it's the closest to live music I have heard for under $300k -- and does many things better than the $300k systems I have worked on.

One of the things I pride myself in is that when I give someone a suggestion for their system it always makes a positive difference. Not only does it make a positive difference, but it makes the same EXACT difference in every single system. That's how it should be.

Musical tastes may change from person to person, but when music is accurately portrayed it's no longer an equipment or sound preference -- it's a musical preference.

Musical reproduction is actually fairly simple. It's audiophiles and marketing companies that complicate it. They make us think it's harder to get than it really is and so we need this tweak or that to get there. Not true.

Ok... I'm stepping off the soap box. Thanks for your comments!

mintzar June 14, 2010 15:49

SNR is only A component to good sound. In this crazy hobby, there's no right or wrong and good or bad but just one's personal preferences :-) Glad you found the sound that works for you.

BTW, I'm not a TRL Dude owner.

knghifi June 14, 2010 10:47