Not many, which is why they are 12 years in and they have not got a finished product.
I do admire that they are prepared to try.
CD may well go the way of the Concorde, but it might still prove to be a high water mark.
Can digital get to vinyl sound and at what price?
- Thread starter ScottK
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Not many, which is why they are 12 years in and they have not got a finished product.
I do admire that they are prepared to try.
CD may well go the way of the Concorde, but it might still prove to be a high water mark.
Electric cool aid = Lysergic acid diethylamide, or something like that anyway, or are you referring to the Rev’d Jim Jones cool aid?What does the cool aid taste like ?
I honestly don't know myself, but don't really see Audio Note (UK) as innovators. Time will tell.
Sounds right. But remember, you have to make a production copy of the master to go to the pressing plant. The tape has to be stored well. The plant has to have a well sorted playback machine tied to the lathe. Many times I hear the production master is sent through a mixing board and some engineer there may fiddle to get things sorted for the pressing.
don't forgrt about chokes. I tried new air core that affect the woofers and was very pleased.
Sent through a mixing board where some engineer may fiddle, don’t get me started!
Agreed! I use massive air core inductors - a Solen 10awg on the bass, Mundorf 12awg on shunt filters. I use a Jantzen wax foil inductor on the top of the mid. Duelund inductors were just a step too far for me.
I used Black Gate capacitors (all types) in my 2A3 amp when they were available. They sound different, that’s for sure, but are highly colored, with a romantic sound. They’re not my cup of tea anymore. I’m glad they’re gone because they’re extremely colored and the opposite of neutral. If they had been around, they would be used by more companies and pollute the sound, in my humble opinion. They’re so colored that, in that regard, almost all high-quality Japanese capacitors can be considered neutral.
What makes you say that? Is it the big, menacing and serious looking parts? This is as simple as it gets, for normal box speakers.
Almost everywhere but mostly in power circuit.
I used Black Gates in bias circuit, input and driver tube power circuits and Heart Of Muse models as main filter caps. I used Duelund cast copper caps for coupling power tubes.
You are probably right, but why so many capacitors?
The resistance I gather is there to deal with sensitivity mismatch of the two drivers?
Having heard AN speakers (I owned a model and heard others on numerous occasions) my feeling is that something holds back the sound.
I agree that it is much simpler than some other box speakers, like the Harberth P3ESR (which I also owned) and Rogers LS variations (which I heard on many occasions) who sound completely dead to my ears - I correlate that to the complexity of those crossovers, but here again I could be wrong.
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You can only make pure metal foil caps so big. I would say they needed to parallel up a load of caps to get the right value.
It is hard to correlate crossover complexity to sound qualities, unless you know what you're looking at and for. There are these shorthand rules that 1st order is better than higher orders, etc etc. None is better than everything. Well, that all depends on the rest of the system and the types of compromises you worked with (and there are always compromises), so just saying those things as general rules means very little to nothing in an actual conversation. I'm guessing this is another area where our intuitions, something pretty talked about in these last pages, leave a lot to be desired.
This actual crossover has a number of parallel caps probably just to get to a specific value, there is nothing esoteric about it, it's just a function of the caps they chose. Sensitivity mismatches between drivers are always present, even if just by half a db, so again, nothing weird about that. The weird situation is being able to get a crossover with no impedance adjustment. It happens, but it is not normal.
I'm not surprised with your reaction to these types of monitors. They have a very deep signature, not likely to be everyone's cup of tea.
Pity you had no luck with them. As I said, some of them worked in some place but not in a lot of others. My preamp is full of them but I have almost none in my power amp. I also have found that there is compatibility amongst parts.In my experience Black Gates don't like being paired up with metal foil resistors and sound best with carbon films, carbon comps, or tantalums.
I am surprised to read your impression of BG caps because they are so far removed from my own. To be clear, there were different BG models and they sound quite different. I find the BG 100uf WKZ (either single or dual 100+100) to be the very best sounding caps for a high-voltage tube-rectified power supply. Bar none. I use the 100uf WKZ caps exclusively in my phono stage, linestage and DAC. In the past, I used them in my SE amps but I prefer these days to run the BG caps more conservatively to give them the longest life possible. So far I have 20+ years on many of my BGs and they are still just fine. BTW, the 50uf WKZ is too thin and lean; it’s the 100uf that has the magic.
There are a number of other BG models that were less expensive such as the VK series, but they sound mediocre at best. The only other BG cap I like is the FK series which came in lower voltage ratings. I find the FK caps just right for cathode bypass duty.
Someone mentioned Audio Note Kaisei caps which PQ claims are very close to BG. I wish that were true; unfortunately it’s not. They aren’t even close.
While I am on my soapbox, someone also mentioned Audio Note niobium resistors and all the research work that went into developing them. I have tried Peter’s niobium resistors, regular and silver, in a number of places, and to my ears they are too colored—much too lean in the bass and too bright as well. The best sounding resistor Audio Note makes is the 2 watt Silver Tantalum. (Not the 1/2 watt or 1 watt, and most certainly not the regular non-magnetic tantalums.). I use many of the 2w Silver Tantalum’s throughout my system.
i respectfully suggest it's time to take the ultra techie caps and AN OEM build discussion over to another thread as it has zero to do with the topic. might certainly be worth another thread to some and go have at it......there.
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