Hi Larry,
Thanks. I completely agree that a sound design is based on sound engineering, not on a particular product which may, or may not, be around next week. I suppose it was just the way it was phrased that struck me so.
Larry also said;
"yes we tried them, but they made no difference"
This I find truly interesting. I’ll agree with you 100% if you say that good parts cannot make a bad design sound good. OTOH, Black Gate caps, for example, can make a good sounding design sound as good as it can, as opposed to Panasonic FC’s etc.
Older Elna caps in the DC actually seem to add grunge to the DC resulting in high frequency distortion which ends up sounding like the component is bright. I figured that out when modifying a Forte F-44 preamp. It was ok as long as all the electrolytics were Elnas. Originally it sounded as though a blanket had been tossed over my speakers, but with a slight high frequency edge to it. I replaced a few of the Elna’s, which proved to be a mistake, with Nichicons and Black Gates and it sounded absolutely horrid. I should have replaced all the Elna's I later figured out. I had too do some serious head scratching to figure out what was going on to be sure.
The easiest and least expensive test I know of is taking a Sound Valves SV-100 preamp, usually about $150 on the used market, and about $300 new, and replacing the 1N4004 diodes with General Semiconductor UF4007’s, and the Illinois Capacitors in the amplification stage with Black Gates of the same value. My 80 year old Uncle who has a hearing aid noticed a tremendous improvement when I did this to the SV-100 I had given him. I cannot believe if he can hear it, that almost everyone cannot also hear the difference.
I do know, or have been told I should say, that Frank seems to think zip cord and dime store interconnects are fine. I listened to Julian Hirsch in Stereo Review on that one too. Then a store in St. Johns, Newfoundland, offered to allow me to return some speaker cables if they did not perform as promised. I was stationed at the submarine listening post we used to have in Argentia at the time.
Trust me, I was in the Navy and did not have any real money, I REALLY did not want to spend the $200 plus they were asking for these cables, and tried them more to humor them than because I believed them. I still have those cables buried around here somewhere.
I have been running electrostatic speakers for many years, so while I have been able to tell the difference between junk and decent cables, due, I believe, to the design of the estat speakers, I have not been able to hear great differences in boutique speaker cables. I believe they exist because I have heard too many people whom I absolutely trust tell me they have heard these differences.
ICs have been a completely different story. There is no question but that they can make a difference. Again, a good stable design can minimize those differences, but it cannot eliminate them.
I’ll tell you what, I’d really like to get an amp and preamp from you guys, mod it out, use sheathing on cables so no one could tell which is which, and using the same type of source and source material, and do an A/B at say, the Chicago Audio Society. I’d be willing to make a small wager, though I do not generally bet, that those present would by a 2 to 1 majority, if not much higher, prefer the system I have tweaked. Say a dollar wager?
