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Re: Apples and oranges

Posted by morricab (S) on April 13, 2006 at 01:50:20

In Reply to: Re: Apples and oranges posted by Charles Hansen on April 12, 2006 at 07:41:18:

Thanks for the interesting comments, Charles. So if you seem convinced from your experiments and experience that a volume control is a significant enough degradation to invalidate my test then perhaps a design I saw recently is the way to control volume.

That design was by C.E.C. and what they are doing is controlling the volume not with an attenuator but by gain varibility. The "volume" control was in fact reducing and increasing gain.

This is interesting because it means at low level listening you will have a lower gain and this generally means lower noise floor. If you have a fixed high gain then you always have the same noise floor regardless of the signal output level. Interesting idea don't you think?

My intention at some point in the near future is to add a high quality stepped attenuator to my phonostage and run it directly to my amps. I can see first hand the amount of loss I get through the attenuator.

"Exactly. And in my experience, contrary to what one would expect, a really good active preamp has less impact on the sound than does a really good passive preamp. I'm not saying it necessarily makes sense, but then again it doesn't make sense that cables sound different either."

Yes, and it is generally my experience as well, with this one notable exception, which I will make an apples to apples comparator to satisfy my curiousity on the matter.

As to cables, it is my understanding that there has been some theoretical work done in this area, specifically by Dr. Malcom Hawksford, and that basically according to the way a signal propogates down a wire (it doesn't seem to actually go through it precisely) a small crossection of solid wire or flat ribbon seem to be the best signal delivery system for all frequencies. In other words, thin is in.

I have replace most of my cables (except speaker) with thin, solid core silver wire with thin teflon dielectric and some shielding and it has increased the transparency in my system significantly. It does not sacrifice bass (as some seem to worry about with thin cables) and sounds well balaned across the spectrum. Is it the only right way? Doubtful, but the theories seem pretty sound and the cable was inexpensive and is working better than any other I have tried before.

"I have found that "listening" is a better way to find out how something sounds than "thinking". I'm not trying to be facetious, I'm just trying to have you learn from my mistakes."

I kind of disagree because I see it as a circular process. First you listen and what you hear starts you thinking about how and why it is the way it is. More listening and more thinking. To me, they are intimately coupled together, afterall hearing and especially listening are largely the processing of the brain and not the ear mechanism itself. As a scientist I find I cannot stop asking how and why.

BTW, I realize your experience in the field is greater than mine and so I appreciate you making the effort to share your experience. Some manufacturers would rather sneer at those who have less experience and spent time studying fields other than audio (I am an analytical chemist by professional training). I am catching up rapidly, however, by reading, reviewing, and making hifi.

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