Hi Steven,
After carefully explaining my audio needs to Vinnie, he outlined a strategy
for an ensemble of parts, components and functions that would give me the
maximum of flexibility...this flexibility could include all of the functions he is
building into my modified ClariT as an organic fully integrated whole...
a self-contained unit...or allow me to use particular aspects of the
individual components with stand-alone integrity...
Vinnie is accomplishing this by designing various functions to allow me to
bypass particular components in different combinations...
So that, for example, the built-in Monica dact can be used with the modified
ClariT, or bypassed in favor of an alternative dact...another example is the
potential to use a tube preamplifier in the future if that is something that
I want to experiment with...also several sets of input and output jacks to allow
for more than one source and to drive a subwoofer in the future if that is another
option I wish to explore...and a longer battery life...
All of these options Vinnie offers as a normal part of his upgrade path with the
ClariT and anyone can order these options if they wish to have this level of
flexibility...
Vinnie has characterized this particular ensemble of components and options
as the RealiT...and I am merely using Vinnie's nomenclature here as he imparted
it to me...
It is my understanding that every tube has certain characteristics that it imparts
to the sound no matter how it is used in the amplifiers design...these tonal
characteristics can be mitigated by circuitry and the combination of other
tubes in the all-over ensemble of the design...but it can never be entirely eliminated...
Really good amp designers build their designs specifically around the tubes or
transistors or digital chips they are using to process the sound...certainly that
is one of the secrets behind Vinnie's overwhelming success with the ClariT
in all of its iterations...Vinnie selects his parts, circuits and battery power in
order to allow the tri-path chips to perform with the greatest purity and control
and at the same time with the least obstacles to its potential realization of the
magic inherent in its intrinsic design...
Apparently the 6ns7's are known for their tonal fullness...however how the
designer integrates those tubes into the all-over circuit design will be a critical
part of the amps success...but if the designer understands the potential for
that tube to deliver the "goods"...its potential fullness of tone for example...
then what one hears in the implementation of the amp should be some aspect
of the uniqueness of that tubes contribution to the quality of the sound...
So for many SET afficionados, the 2A3, the 300B and the 45 triode tubes should
have their unique characteristics fully revealed in the SET amps that utilize them
to process the signal...they should not sound similar...as in homogenous...
but rather unique to their potential contribution to the quality of the sound...
Vinnie's philosophy, as far as I understand it, would be a very different direction...
Vinnie seems to feel that what he wants his amplifiers to do is to reproduce the
musical event in as pure and uncolored and rich and detailed and resolved a
sound as the tri-path chips have the potential to deliver to the signal...in other
words Vinnie is looking for a sound that is not being tampered with or "redirected"
by the inherent colorations that tubes impart as a natural consequence of how
they are designed...
Vinnie wants the positive things that transistors and tubes can impart to the signal...
depth, focus, resolution, timbrel richness, a wide gamut of frequency extension,
superb inner resolution and detail and all the rest of it...but he does not want the
signal to be "shaped" in the way that tubes do...he does not want any distortion to
be served up with the music as part of its "sound"...
That level of purity and inner resolution is what makes Red Wine Audio's amps
so unique and tremendously effective...the modified ClariT delivers the goods...
Vinnie understands how to allow the tri-path chips to process the signal with
the least distortion capable of being designed into the circuitry...he does several
really important things...not the least of which is using battery power to obtain
a very strong and pure energy source and he connects that energy source
as directly as possible to the tri-path chips...bypassing all of the clutter that
other less elegant designers put in the path of the signal which only mucks it up...
However, we music lovers that experiment with different amp and speaker
designs have a restless spirit for adventure and experimentation...we like to
see what happens when we try different combinations of things...we are looking
for a certain magic that is not always aligned with any particular audio designers
intentions...
Thus DMason is looking for a synergy with the modified ClariT that he feels can
release some "hidden" potential for musical bliss with high efficiency speakers...
and he feels he heard just such a unique sound with the ClariT and an iteration
of the 6ns7 tube preamplifier...
Our work as experimenters will probably never end...because it is our nature...
Why fight it?...I for one say let's find out...let's keep experimenting...
Meanwhile Vinnie is trying to give us the "ground" for as pure a musical
signal as can be achieved today...we can use his incredible and intoxicating
amplifiers exactly as he designed them, or we can experiment with the ClariT
with tube preamplifiers to see what synergy is possible in combinations...
and for that I say Bravo Vinnie, for your exquisite accomplishment!!!!
May Red Wine Audio live forever...
The best of luck to you at your Denver showing...we are all grateful for your
unceasing energy, creative innovations and wonderful help, friendship and service...
Warm regards -Richard-
