Nothing In Particular

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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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#8131 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

DQ - 68 :| I just turned 70 3 weeks ago. :bounce:

Everyone is right (I must be in a good mood today) the benefits of the bigger amps is not power, that is ancillary. Anyway watts beyond a certain level means bugger all and over another certain level is dangerous in domestic systems. I put the domestic system power band width at 20 to 80w. BUT of course as you know tiny power can work, it is just more faff to get the speakers to work. My point is it is not voltage that drives a coil based speaker it is current, one of the few things Naim were right about.

Talking of Naim, for over 20 years we had a brainwashed controlled industry, that most people refer to now as the flat earth period (dying now thank god). I have a theory ( :roll: yes another one) that the brainwash so effected people that it became common knowledge (lack of) that no transistor amp could out perform musically a Naim amp. So when people finally decided they couldn't stand the in yer face domestic PA system that was the flat earth it was natural to look at valves as the alternative. This caused (both Naim and valves) the demise of many a good British transistor amplifiers companies, most are gone some still around. Colin Wonfor through trial and tribulation has survived as have a few others.

Time to let go of prejudice and listen to things again, you may prefer what you have but at least you have opened the mind a bit.
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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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#8132 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

Cressy Snr wrote: Fri Jun 23, 2017 10:00 am Seriously though, my speakers are so efficient that the A20 is quite sufficient for my needs.
A Jammy special 2 box A20 with big fook off power supply might be very interesting though. :wink:
That was an AP10h headphone amp not an A20.

Cant do what you suggest, you would have fried amp in no time. The heatsink in a A20 is an alluminium plate bonded to the base plate of the amp case. If you look at A30 up you will see progressively bigger heatsinks and the needed different and bigger cases. As I said last post it is current that is far more important than voltage, and passing current generates heat.
Cressy Snr
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#8133 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by Cressy Snr »

Cheers Doc.
There you see my extensive knowledge of transistor circuits coming to the fore. :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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#8134 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

The output transistors in a SS amp are for current gain and apply very little voltage gain if any. That is why they have to be bonded to heatsinks. Valve and transistor amps are very different beasts. A SS amp is more suited to coil speakers as it is a low voltage high current circuit, where as a valve amp is not suitable as stands which is why you need the output transformers to convert the high voltage low current to low voltage high current. This is why the natural match for a valve amp is an electrostatic loudspeaker, as the plates run on high voltage. Yet no one I know of has directly coupled valves to electrostatic plates. There was rumour a year or two ago that Nick was going to make it for Ali (I think) but the discussion died. Lots of problems least of which is hundreds or thousands of volts on your speaker wires.
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Thermionic Idler
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#8135 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by Thermionic Idler »

Daniel Quinn wrote: Fri Jun 23, 2017 11:07 am
Thermionic Idler wrote: Fri Jun 23, 2017 10:34 am Interesting how this goes though isn't it.

10 years ago my entire signal chain had to have valves in it. Hence the years of struggle with SUT's.

Eventually thought 'feck it', bought the solid state Whest and never looked back.

And now I'm building a solid state linestage - with op-amps in it (shock horror).
Do you not need a new name ? :D
LOL nah, I'm still insane enough to keep going with OTL's at the end of the chain.
Last edited by Thermionic Idler on Fri Jun 23, 2017 12:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Deck: Garrard 301 - Audio Origami PU7 - NW Analogue DH3S
Phono: Pete Millett LR, Lundahl SUT, AMB σ22 PSU
Linestage: Bruno Putzeys Balanced Pre + Hans Polak relay mod, LCDuino control
Power amps: 300B PP 'Symmetric Reichert'
Speakers: FF225WK Big Mets
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Nick
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#8136 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by Nick »

Dr Bunsen Honeydew wrote: Fri Jun 23, 2017 12:01 pm The output transistors in a SS amp are for current gain and apply very little voltage gain if any. That is why they have to be bonded to heatsinks. Valve and transistor amps are very different beasts. A SS amp is more suited to coil speakers as it is a low voltage high current circuit, where as a valve amp is not suitable as stands which is why you need the output transformers to convert the high voltage low current to low voltage high current. This is why the natural match for a valve amp is an electrostatic loudspeaker, as the plates run on high voltage. Yet no one I know of has directly coupled valves to electrostatic plates. There was rumour a year or two ago that Nick was going to make it for Ali (I think) but the discussion died. Lots of problems least of which is hundreds or thousands of volts on your speaker wires.
I made a prototype and took it to Owston, it worked and sounded great, the parts to make the real one are still on my shelf, but the problem at the time was getting the casework sorted. Its one of my many "I should do that, I own people to finish that" projects. We have a nice pair of Sowter center tapped chokes for it, and I have the other parts for a GM70 PP amp that was basically what it was going to be, its just a matter of time.
Whenever an honest man discovers that he's mistaken, he will either cease to be mistaken or he will cease to be honest.
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Ali Tait
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#8137 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by Ali Tait »

I need to fix one of the statics too, it wasn't too keen on it's last outing to Owston. :-)
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shane
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#8138 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by shane »

I still have a thing in the back of my mind to do something with my Stax SR3 headphones. It always seems to be a silly idea to step down the signal through a pair of oputput transformers, only to step it straight back up again after dumping the excess power into dummy load resistors.

Perhaps the only sillier thing would be for someone at my level of ignorance to build a high voltage device and clamp it to the top of my head, although some may say that's not a bad idea.
The world looks so different after learning science. For example, trees are made of air, primarily. When they are burned, they go back to air, and in their flaming heat is released the flaming heat of the Sun which was bound in to convert air into tree.
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cressy
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#8139 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by cressy »

Watching elbow at Glastonbury. Forgot how good they are
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IslandPink
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#8140 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by IslandPink »

Yes.
Looking forward to Radiohead, after Nick's use of Amnesiac at Owston.
I rather like that 'Future islands' band, very strange .
"Once you find out ... the Circumstances ; then you can go out"
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cressy
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#8141 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by cressy »

Little dragons were brill too today
Cant wait for foo fighters tomorrow
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Ali Tait
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#8142 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by Ali Tait »

cressy wrote: Fri Jun 23, 2017 9:09 pm Watching elbow at Glastonbury. Forgot how good they are
They have been some of my best memories in the last few years at Glasto. Remember watching them in the peeing rain, they began to play " One Day Like This" , the rain stopped and a shaft of sunlight broke through the clouds and shone on the stage. I kid you not. Definitely that year's Glasto moment..
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cressy
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#8143 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by cressy »

One of the most underrated bands going, must get their newest on vinyl. Havent heard it yet
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cressy
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#8144 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by cressy »

Radiohead have been bloody good so far, daughter isnt so sure about them though :D
They are an acquired taste in some ways I suppose
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IslandPink
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#8145 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by IslandPink »

Top notch - makes you realise how crap most current music is - unambitious.
"Once you find out ... the Circumstances ; then you can go out"
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