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Re: Any better Comparision? Suggestion???

Hi,

> I am not sure that the references you quote would contradict D.
> Self's advice.

Hmmm. Did you read them? My main point is that evaluating THD with single tones is as related to sound quality as is the colour of the CD case to how the music inside is. He dosen't even examine the spectrum....

> They are both fairly old

I'm not sure what you mean with "both". I referred to about for very recent articles by Walt Jung and two or three more by Barrie Gilbert in EDN, which I can't find any longer. I also added a link to a very old article, the first known to me to introduce the concept of transient distortion. So one link, to something very old and indirect references to stuff that is rather new.

> and reasonably general/theoretical aren't they?.

Hmm? Yes and no. I'd rather call them fundamental.

> As I understand it, D.Self's basic advice is that for a general
> unity gain buffer, an NE5532 at about 50p is outstanding. He
> would possibly reccommend different for I/V conversion after a
> DAC or whatever.

You should read more Wireless world and maybe Mr Selfs Website. When his "precisition preamp" design (a NE5532 grave if I ever saw one) was published in wireless world a number of people commented, including making much more polite (more polite than me) remarks that perhaps the choice of the NE5532/34 was not the most ideal.

In the ensuing corrospondence Mr Self asserted that there was nothing better, full stop, other than perhaps the AD797, but according to him it is not a stable op-amp (funny - I have to get one to oscillate - but hell, I know people who make living from modifying Recording consoles designed by Mr Self - the main mod is actually to sort that mess out that he calls "grounding"). Now not only are there MUCH better Op-Amp's out there than 5532/34 (objective and subjective) I personally thought the whole design with dozend or so Op-Amp's was hardly ideal or sensible.

> Why doesn't somebody ask him what he thinks

Because those who really know his writings in Detail and have asked/voiced dissent before had enough of Mr. Self already.

> instead of all the unsavoury comments?

Well, they are only deserved. Maybe one day you should read his piece on Audio Cables, which he calls a scientific investigation. My problem is that Mr. Self already knows what outcome he wants and thus arranges his tests to show that and then proclaims proudly to have PROVEN the non-existence of the issue under discussion (be it 5534/32 = crap, Cables make a difference or any other funloving issue).

In a rare moment of lucidity Mr. Self admitted to distortion in capacitors and indeed measured Elna Cerafine Cap's of the same Value materially lower for distortion. But not "liking" what he considers "pseudo science" in audio he proceeded to insist that by just increasing the Value of the cap 10-fold one could match the distortion levels. He failed to mention that is monster cap cost several times as much as the Elna and that it is much larger and heavier.

Mr. Selfs "brand" of "science" and "scientific investigation" quite frankly deserves a quote from good old William - "There is something foul in the Kindom of Denmark!"

Later T

(PS, I do respect Mr. Selfs work on Amplifier distortion based on it's merit, I just can't stand his attitude and militant, baseless socalled "objectivism")

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