NOISY IN HERE!!

AKSA · « **Reply #160 on:** 5 Dec 2008, 02:57 am »

Thanks Ian,

Fascinating story, I had some part in this thanks to you, but it is interesting how this reveals the two camps - the lush, tube sound v. the tight, detailed sound of good SS. There is no doubt that the most universally appealing amp of all, however, is that which combines all these features. I might add that the power supply used for the 100LF helps too, and seems to take any harsh edges off the SS sound.

For myself, I am always surprised how the THD distortion paradigm has survived to this day when there is so much evidence around from people's preferences that it does not correlate well with highly rated subjective assessment.

I just sold a LF55 to the head cellist of the Swiss Romande Orchestra who is already the owner of a 55N+. I will be very interested to hear Karl's thoughts on the comparison. This man is one of the foremost musicians in the world, and a personal friend of Jean Hiraga, would you believe. (Sorry Karl, I hope you can forgive a little name dropping, but you are rather important to Aspen!!)

I am immensely pleased with the VSonics, Seano, and recently bought the rights from Laurie for the transmission line sub woofer, which seems to have more grunt than a pig farm, and none of the malodorous downside......

Cheers,

Hugh

elb · « **Reply #161 on:** 5 Dec 2008, 09:22 am »

Hi,
I'm the local retired gentleman.Everything that Ian said is true.To non AKSA/Aspen owners do yourself a favor and try to listen to these amps.The proof is in listening,a sonic revelation.

To Ian And Hugh,thanks for your kind support and time.You are both truly GENTLMEN.
Also,Ian's "Baby Huey" is sonic revelation too.

PS. Ian when you have your new workshop finished and caught up with your backlog of projects then I might hassle you to build a GK1 for me.

Regards,Les.

Geoff-AU · « **Reply #162 on:** 5 Dec 2008, 10:04 am »

Quote from: AKSA on 5 Dec 2008, 02:57 am

For myself, I am always surprised how the THD distortion paradigm has survived to this day when there is so much evidence around from people's preferences that it does not correlate well with highly rated subjective assessment.

I'm surprised an intelligent man such as yourself can't grasp a simple concept, Hugh. THD stands for Total Harmonic Distortion, and Distortion is bad therefore the lower the THD the better!!

Basically it's a yardstick by which people who only know how to measurebate can compare amplifiers. Those who have trained their ears and are discerning listeners will trust the musical experience over a single figure. It's like saying an amplifier of 150 watts RMS is better than an amplifier of 50 watts RMS because there's more headroom for transients. Yeah maybe, but it only tells a very small part of the picture. Same with THD!

I find Rod Elliott's SIM (Sound Impairment Monitor) to be an interesting idea. Basically it's an op-amp subtractor that gives you the difference between the output of an amplifier and the signal applied to the input. Any kind of distortion should show up! Without getting too involved I think the difficult part may be coming up with a consistent and objective way to use this to compare amplifiers, as there seems to be a bit of "tuning" involved to set it up for a particular amp and this might limit its chances of performing an apples to apples comparison.

Jens · « **Reply #163 on:** 4 Dec 2009, 02:52 pm »

Well, guys!

Where's all the noise gone?

Everyone sitting at home drooling over their new Soraya amps - or?

Or has all the attention moved to DIYAudio?

Hugh, how is everything in Rosanna - baking hot?

AKSA · « **Reply #164 on:** 4 Dec 2009, 08:46 pm »

Hi Jens,

Yeah, quiet as a churchyard, c'mon guys, MORE NOISE!! Remember our youth? Same again, please......

I am frustrated by my web edit software, it's not able to access my website for some badly needed changes. Can't understand why, must talk to West.

It's been good for the last week, prior to that we had two weeks of 35C+ temperatures, rather early, hottest November on record. It's all a bit galling, don't enjoy the heat, but must say I didn't seem to mind this time.

Off to get my cat chipped, should be a whole lotta love......

Cheers,

Hugh

LM · « **Reply #165 on:** 4 Dec 2009, 11:14 pm »

Quote

Off to get my cat chipped, should be a whole lotta love......

You're making your cat digital???

Hugh, I never thought I would hear such sacrilege from an old analogue man.

Quote

Everyone sitting at home drooling over their new Soraya amps - or?

You bet Jens.

No 'or' about it. You should hear some of the tracks from your old compilation CD on the Soraya 09. I'm still get that lovely feeling of excited anticipation each time I switch it on for a session. aa

Geoff-AU · « **Reply #166 on:** 6 Dec 2009, 04:07 am »

No no, it's not a digital conversion.. it's a performance mod. Just don't ask where they put the chip

Holy thread revival, 1 year no posts. I have completed my car audio installation in that time - Nakamichi head unit, AVI split speakers (I blew one up the other day cost me $375 to replace 1 woofer

) and a Peerless 12" sub in a custom enclosure. Sounds pretty damn good for a car system, given your environment is compromised from the start. Home system is still my homemade Vifa P17WJ/D25AG speakers, AKSA 55 and ESP pre-amp, although Altronics have a new pre-amp kit available that I can get wholesale for $200. I couldn't even buy the parts for that so I am going to give it a bash and see how it sounds!! The hi-fi system is basically doing home theatre duty these days, although I do sometimes sit down and listen to a CD to relax

AKSA · « **Reply #167 on:** 6 Dec 2009, 10:57 am »

Geoff,

The Altronics preamp is very accurate, and focussed. Should sound OK, but won't much engage, if you get my drift.

Nice car system...... and my cat does need a performance enhancement, it's so timid I call him Wooser.

Cheers,

Hugh

Geoff-AU · « **Reply #168 on:** 6 Dec 2009, 02:11 pm »

That's about what I expect from seeing the specs, although my current pre uses a cheap rotary switch and crackles when I change sources whereas the altronics one uses relays and also has a motorised pot so it will be much more convenient for HT. I'm already using opamps (OPA2134) so it can't get much worse, right?

I might build a little valve module to warm the sound up a bit, just for shits and giggles. Would put it as a buffer stage between the CD player and pre-amp. If I ever get around to building new speakers then I'll revisit the rest of my system but that won't happen any time soon

Occam · « **Reply #169 on:** 6 Dec 2009, 03:28 pm »

Quote from: Geoff-AU on 6 Dec 2009, 02:11 pm

I'm already using opamps (OPA2134) so it can't get much worse, right?

Swap in an OPA2107. You might even find it engaging....

FWIW,
Paul

bluesky · « **Reply #170 on:** 6 Dec 2009, 10:51 pm »

I have just returned from being away for a few days.....

Getting your cat chipped is all well and good, but the only time my cat was imprisoned in the local pound, none of the attendants could hold the little guy down long enough without being scratched to pieces to run the scanner over him!

I am still interested in what "hot ups" might be available for the power supply of the Lifeforce 55 (epic) build I am undertaking. Ginger mentioned some cheapish Schottky's which I gather have no recovery time, although I doubt anyone could hear the difference with the 25ns of the spec'ed diodes. Would adding some bypass caps across the 4700uF Nichicon Golds do anything? I have some 4.7uF film caps I picked up for a dollar each one time to try out.

Ian

AKSA · « **Reply #171 on:** 7 Dec 2009, 12:11 am »

Try it, Ian,

See what happens, not too difficult to do it. You will find that bypassing is a black art, and difficult to predict.

Cat scarcely noticed the chip insert. No blood, no scratching, little pain, I was surprised. I found myself wondering how long it would be before we humans too need a chip to declare our citizenship..... after all, we've delayed 1984, Orwell's seminal novel, for 25 years now, can't go on forever.

Hugh

Geoff-AU · « **Reply #172 on:** 7 Dec 2009, 08:37 am »

Quote from: Occam on 6 Dec 2009, 03:28 pm

Swap in an OPA2107. You might even find it engaging....

Cheers for the tip, Paul! Looks like the Altronic one uses op-amps too so I will give the 2107 a bash and see if it helps the sound.

Jens · « **Reply #173 on:** 7 Dec 2009, 01:14 pm »

Quote

Quote
Everyone sitting at home drooling over their new Soraya amps - or?

You bet Jens. No 'or' about it. You should hear some of the tracks from your old compilation CD on the Soraya 09. I'm still get that lovely feeling of excited anticipation each time I switch it on for a session. aa

Well, Lyn - I'm pleased to hear you are still using my compilation

I'm still working on a new one - and have in fact just come across a couple of tracks that might be good candiates. Still need 6-7 more tracks, but it's moving along albeit slowly

I did have a brief listen to the new Soraya at Hugh's when I visited (thanks again, Hugh and Sri) a little over a month ago. It sounds magnificent, and I've been wrestling with various ideas on how to be able to afford one or two for my system ...

stvnharr · « **Reply #174 on:** 10 Dec 2009, 03:46 am »

Quote from: Geoff-AU on 6 Dec 2009, 04:07 am

No no, it's not a digital conversion.. it's a performance mod. Just don't ask where they put the chip

Holy thread revival, 1 year no posts. I have completed my car audio installation in that time - Nakamichi head unit, AVI split speakers (I blew one up the other day cost me $375 to replace 1 woofer ) and a Peerless 12" sub in a custom enclosure. Sounds pretty damn good for a car system, given your environment is compromised from the start. Home system is still my homemade Vifa P17WJ/D25AG speakers, AKSA 55 and ESP pre-amp, although Altronics have a new pre-amp kit available that I can get wholesale for $200. I couldn't even buy the parts for that so I am going to give it a bash and see how it sounds!! The hi-fi system is basically doing home theatre duty these days, although I do sometimes sit down and listen to a CD to relax

What on earth are you doing wasting your money on an Altronics unit when the best preamp you could ever want is Hugh's GK-1 kit?

Geoff-AU · « **Reply #175 on:** 10 Dec 2009, 07:37 am »

The system is mainly doing HT duties these days. I currently have a pre-amp with manual 5 source select, and the equivalent GK-1 is $1200. The Altronics unit cost me $200 wholesale, and it has remote control input select and volume which is far more convenient than what I have. Considering the quality of the sources I usually use (media PC) it's not worth the cost, I'd be feeding the GK-1 garbage. A wonderful unit, I have absolutely no doubt, but I mainly listen to music in the car these days. If my priority was listening to music in the loungeroom I would not hesitate.

andyr · « **Reply #176 on:** 10 Dec 2009, 08:07 am »

Quote from: Geoff-AU on 10 Dec 2009, 07:37 am

A wonderful unit, I have absolutely no doubt, but I mainly listen to music in the car these days. If my priority was listening to music in the lounge-room I would not hesitate.

Aah, sad, Geoff. I suggest you should retire yourself from this thread and go join a "Car Audio Doof Doof" thread.

Then again, you could (if you don't already have one) buy a vehicle that would enable you to incorporate a GK-1 and some LFs into its music system?

Regards,

Andy

Geoff-AU · « **Reply #177 on:** 10 Dec 2009, 08:37 am »

I have one CD that is labelled "Doof music" actually

this kid who used to work for us took an interest in my system so I told him to burn me some music. It's quite funny.

There will be plenty of time to sit perfectly still in "the sweet spot" when I'm old..

AKSA · « **Reply #178 on:** 10 Dec 2009, 08:50 am »

Geoff,

You can enjoy that time now if you overeat, drink too much and eschew exercise........

Cheers,

Hugh

Geoff-AU · « **Reply #179 on:** 10 Dec 2009, 08:57 am »