Erukian

I know it's all fine to blame the speakers or the recording. but if mr. dee cant reproduce this audible distortion on some of his SS gear, then it's definately the tube distortion. I've probably said it too many times, but tubes distort just like an equalizer, they boost and cut on certian freq's for better or for worse. to me it sounds like you found a recording where the typically plesant distortion the tube provides is not quite so plesant. Again, just to make sure it's the not the recording/speakers and specifically the tube amp, i would try a simple amp swap. -Joe

I know this might sound stupid, but could the fact that the RF7's go so low vs the heritage series and maintain it's efficiency be advancements in driver technology like bigger excursion without losing control before it hits the xover. Also the fact that the RF7 is ported and some heritage was not. I could be wrong though.. I don't believe anything in the speaker business defy's physics, it's just a matter of understanding it. -Joe

---------------- On 7/28/2005 9:55:38 AM sunnysal wrote: I am still thinking of battery power as a bit of a fad thing...tony ---------------- I'd have to disagree. I think battery power is a great solution for the DIY'er who want's the cleanest power pretty much out there. It saves bundles of money that would otherwise be spent on filtering out interference that goes into high-end power supplys. It seems the high end consumer and the audiophile now care about clean power (line conditioners) so I think battery power is here to stay, at least in the DIY community for sure. Eventually something cleaner/smaller will come out and replace the technology, but I can't see SLA's leaving the hearts of DIY'ers as the cleanest power source. -Joe

---------------- On 7/26/2005 8:45:47 PM mdeneen wrote: Well, there you go - the fifth complete demise of tubes in 40 years! mdeneen ---------------- Tubes will never die. Their distortion works like an equalizer making it sound nice which is ALWAYS going to bring in new people until Class-D can emulate tube distortion. But this is, for sure a full transformation of solid state happening before our very eyes. Exciting times. -Joe

Fun review to read, I share many of his opinions about the sound of the tripath chip and the amp unit itself. Thanks for the link Colin, if you find any more, post em up! -Joe

As always, something over 5000 songs on random. -Joe

If right now your just going to use the audio card for playback, then forget digital out, use the analog outs, unless you own a higher end DAC than what's on the e-mu (which I'd guess you dont), like a Benchmark DAC1 or an Apogee minidac. The manual should tell you what connections are on the main and the sync card, which are balanced, which arent, etc. You'll probably need to head down to ratshack and buy some adapters. -Joe

Dream Theater ROCKS! I never said that they aren't awesome! Yes, James LaBrie is the weak link in the band, lead gutarist, bass guitarist, drummer and keyboardist are AWESOME. Before kebyboarder Jordan Rudess joined DT they made a CD called "The Liquid Tension Experiemnt" where there's no lead singer. It's basically a jam session by what I consider to be some of Prog-Rock's/Metal's best to this date. I've been listening to some more stuff. I found on mtv.com (have to use internet explorer to stream the video's) check out Muse's video Stockholm Syndrome. The lead guitarists solo is just awesome! He gets WAY into his music. His voice is a copy of Radiohead's lead singer Thom Yorke (which isnt a bad thing) and the band has a very prog-rock sound. I found a friend who goes to my Uni (40+yr old guy) who owns about 1000+ CD's of prog-rock/metal music (yeah, i can't believe that much exists) but he keeps them in mint condish because he's a LP/Vynil guy, yet he has crappy speakers, i'm gonna build him a new Heritage system when it comes out this summer. I borrowed some stuff of him, check out Arjen Anthony Lucassen, Derek Sherinian (old DT singer, GREAT voice and good features with other big metal wigs), Edenbridge, Erik Norlander, Klaus Schulze, Procupine Tree (the recording has great fidelity but clips from time to time -- yes it's the recording, i checked on 3 systems), Rasputina, Rhapsody, Spock's Beard, Steve Vai, Symphony X, Tangerine Dream. Those are all his recommendations from years of listening. Hope some of you enjoy, I'm having a hard time wrapping my indie rock n' roll loving head around a lot of the technicaly crazyness of these recordings, but i'm really starting to appreciate the music. But I still don't get the long hair and tight leather clothes at all. lol.. The kickdrums on some of these recordings are using my sub like crazy! and my xover's set to 50. I'm hearing some deep bass and feeling even more vibration than i'm used to from rock recordings. Of course this is only when i turn the system up so all the bass going down to 25 hz can really come out. -Joe

As far as I know, Tripath put a trademark on "Class-T" as an acronym for Class-Tripath. If other companies want to use Class T to label their Class-D amps, then they'll have to get Tripath's permission and probably pay them lots of dinero. We don't have to worry about Class-D becoming Class-T. It's just a brilliant marketting scheme to sell more units. With all the hype that Class T has gotten, it's given Tripath it's own "Class of amps" which is what they want! It'll sell more units! All in all, Class D is class D, Tripath just does it well by removing a lot of the distorion some of the PWM amps introduce. Also I wouldn't be surprised if the Tripath engineer's designed their amps to have (mostly) even harmonic distortion as well. And they could of easily smoothed out the mids and highs to make the amp sound more tube like to make audiophiles ooooh and ahhhh at their prodcuts' sound capabilities. -Joe

RB-25's 6ft apart. I'm 6 feet away from them. I have the toe working just nicely now (i've tried every angle of toe-in to get the best sound) and having the speakers aim 6" to 1' away from each ear gives me the best soundstage without sacraficing detail. I feel weird listening this close though compared to some of you guys. It's just if I scoot back, move the speakers about 10' apart I can hear the detail start to dissapear and I definately lose a lot of soundstage/imaging. But this is probably because i'm using bookshelves, not ginormous towers. -Joe

any powerstrip/surge protector should be able to handle the ultra's fine, even the $5-10 ones. I've never heard of a bad surge protector hurting sound quality, honestly. Thats like the myth that power cords affect sound quality. Also, try to keep promedia questions to the promedia forum, that's what it's there for, so people who actually own the product can help you, not just give you "best guess" like some of us do in these forums. -Joe

I gotta back up the Doctor Aureon's fidelity in almost all their albums is better, imho, than any DT album. I say this while blasting their song The Banishment from The Final Experiment. I wouldnt ever say Aureon or even Kamelot is better than DT though, no metal artists have been able to touch the skill DT has technically as musicians. One thing i've learned from dipping my toes into metal, that you really really have to be in the right state of mind to enjoy it and get into it. If it's hot, i'm sweating, i got a thousand ideas and problems my minds trying to work out, sometimes it just hits the spot just right. -Joe

If you don't mind my asking, why are you selling it? Find something better? That's a damn good deal. -Joe

There are a few cards out there that support dolby digital encoding in 5.1 on the fly. Nforce's Soundstorm has been the most popular implementation, but recently, in the past 6 months a few cards have come out with the technology. Here's one I just googled up in ten seconds. http://www.cmedia.com.tw/product/CMI8788.htm It'll encode 2/4/6 channel content into a DD or DTS stream of your choice. Keep in mind, the GMX only does DD, no DTS support. -Joe

There's two types of digital amps. Digital Hyrbid amps (ones that take in an analog signal, and digitally add gain. And real digital amps, which take in the signal ususally in 1's and 0's and amplifies it then converts the digital to analog right at the binding posts. I'm sure Colin or someone here could explain to you better than I can about how these two types work, but dont think that because the amp is labelled "digital" that it sucks. It is just a marketting term put on the amp because it uses transistors and a chip that calculates algorithms to amplify and then clean up the audio and then send it out. In my opinion, since I first heard the teac that cost me $108 shipped, i was so blown away by the price/quality ratio that I can't see them not overtake all SS amps within the next 5-10 years except the high-high end ones that are for the most part entrenched in their niche. -Joe

the GMX's only accept digital 5.1 inputs and 2 channel analog inputs. So nope, no 5.1 with an A2 as your source. you'll need the full blown Ultras with all 6 channels in or the original 5.1 THX promedia's. Or get a soundcard that does dolby digital live like nforce2 mobo's have integrated into them if your heart's set on the GMX. -Joe

My friend abx'd reversing polarity. He compared two songs, blindly, using a computer program called Foobar2000 with an ABX testing plugin and a home-made plugin for reversing the polarity. He did this about 50 times and his 'margin of guessing' was about .5% Keep in mind though, these are high end headphones (costing about $300) which give him bass response we could only dream of in a speaker system (because of room acoustics/dimensions/etc) So it's definately audible, no queston about it. -Joe

I could swear that it's changing the timbre and imaging of the music, but I'm no engineer or have ever been, so I can't be sure if it's just all in my head. -Joe

It's not that they don't care about good audio systems. It's that they have different priorities. For the most part, I believe they don't value the technical and sonic advantages of a great audio system vs it's ugly-factor. Face it guys, they do tend to have a sense of fashion, while most of us could care less about dressing for the seasons other than 'short sleve shirt when hot' and 'long sleeve shirt when cool'. Just like i'm not into fashion enough to justify spending $100 on a pair of shoes like my girlfriend. It would make sense why their not attracted to speakers that are designed for guys. -Joe

Here's a cool quote i picked up from this article. --QUOTED-- In operation, digital amplifiers use the width and frequency of a digital pulse train-pulse-width modulation (PWM) to carry an audio signal. The pulses are generated by trip comparators, matching the voltage levels of an audio signal against those of a sawtooth reference to trigger the pulses. Thus, a high-amplitude, high-frequency signal is represented by a dense cluster of short-duration pulses; a lower-frequency, lower-amplitude signal will have longer pulses, farther apart. The audio signal is produced by pumping the digital pulse train into a pair of power MOSFETs, typically wired in a push-pull configuration. An additional inductor-capacitor filter (as well as the speaker coils themselves) adds "persistence" to the signal, effectively smoothing out the pulses. Transistors are not natural amplifiers; they are switching devices. To get a transistor to behave as an amplifier, as with conventional Class AB amplifiers, you have to apply a bias current, which forces the transistor to forever hang in a region between being completely on and completely off. That means the transistors of the Class AB amplifier will be sucking up current-and generating heat-even when there is no audio signal present. On top of that, audiophile equipment manufacturers have learned that many types of power transistors perform most linearly (and are claimed to sound the best) when they are "hot biased"-that is, when they are given almost, but not quite, enough bias current to snap them into an "on" state. This will make the power transistors extremely hot to the touch, and it is no wonder (or exaggeration) that these high-end Class A amplifiers will come with 30 pounds of aluminum heat sink. The digital amplifier, in contrast, uses power transistors much more efficiently. The pulse-width modulator switches them on or off and tries not to spend too much time (or power) in the in-between state. Consequently, the chain among PWM, driver stage and power transistor output in a Class D amplifier is significantly shorter than it is for multistage AB amplifiers. The problem is that the output of the audio amplifier must be carefully filtered to block the residue and harmonics of the digital pulse train. That puts the semiconductor supplier in the filter design business, and there is no guarantee that the customer the consumer electronics equipment maker will adhere to the reference design or follow the semiconductor maker's recommendations. Thus, if the end consumer is unhappy with the sound quality of a home theater system, he or she might well blame the semiconductor supplier, when in fact it might be the fault of an underdesigned filter. Tripath Technology Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) was one of the earliest companies to attack the filter problem head on. Using a variable-frequency sawtooth oscillator to spread the pulse about a 1-MHz region-a form of spread-spectrum technology the company called Class T-Tripath effectively reduced the complexity of the filter network required. For example, it found that the electrolytic capacitors used with switchers operating at 250 kHz could be replaced with smaller, lower-value capacitors when the switcher operates from 600 kHz to 1.5 MHz. ... Even Tripath is using a form of DSP-sigma-delta A/D conversion-on the front end of its audio amplifier modules. The sigma-delta converter reconstitutes a 44.1-kHz audio pulse stream as if it were being sampled at 12.5 MHz (or 256 times 44.1). This "oversampling" effectively flattens audio amplitudes into a 1-bit-plus-sign digital stream-easily manipulated by a digital amplifier. The oversampling also positions the quantization noise and harmonics way up in the frequency spectrum, where they can easily be lopped off by a capacitor filter. --END-OF-QUOTE--- Good stuff eh? Probably nothing you wouldnt find in tripath's documentation though. -Joe

---------------- On 7/11/2005 11:16:42 PM Griffinator wrote: No matter how good the EQ is, you're creating distortion by boosting specific frequency bands. ---------------- I thought when you cut you create distortion as well as boosting. I was also under the impression that when you boost above 0 or 'flat' that your not only distorting the audio, but your clipping it before it even hits the amplifier as well -- even if it isnt sometimes audible. -Joe

Power supply quality matters A LOT when it comes to PC's, get a good brand like Antec/Enermax that stick to their voltage rails tightly, if you do that, and if your mobo can do stuff like AGP and FSB spread specturm adjustments, your PC can act much more like a dedicated component of your AV system, and not a crappy source. What video card are you using for video output? When you disconnect the coax cable, is it coming from the computer or is it cable television? If it's the PC, i'd say it's the power suppy. Buy an antec truepower or a good enermax, hook it up, if it goes away keep it, if it stays consider line conditioning on your PC and TV. My friend had the same problems with all the TV's in his house, he bought some cheap line conditioners but they cleaned things up nicely. -Joe

From how I see it. Purists look at musical reproduction on loudspeakers with a much more technical prespective. They view THD as bad, they have room's that reflect the sound all over using panels and what not. They believe that through the science and math of loudspeaker design, amplfifier design, what have you, they can obtain a much more realistic presentation of the music. If your a tube user, your not a purist, tube's add distortions much like equalizers. Purists have the idea that distortion is a bad thing in any stage of your equipment and that it's the job of the components in your system to 100% accurately reproduce the audio from the source without coloration, distortion, interference, etc. It boils down really to distiortion (ie, tubes, equalizers, bass/treble knobs) and whether or not you believe it's a bad or good thing when it comes to reproducing music. -Joe

---------------- On 7/6/2005 11:08:49 PM toddvj wrote: So, all this does is records 6 wav files? Couldn't you already do that before? Once you have the wav files, how do you play them back? If this really is something new, I'm sure someone soon will automate the process. It would be nice if you could just rip the AUDIO_TS folder to your Hard Drive, and click on the AUDIO_TS.AOB file, and it would start playing. Or you could rip to an Image file (which I have done) mount in a virtual drive and play (I could only get Dolby/DTS when I did it, but all the files seemed to be there.) Nonetheless this looks very exiting, and when I have a few hours to play with it, I'm going to figure it all out. ---------------- Sure you could before, but you'd have to capture the analog stream, after it's been converted. So you'd be losing sound quality. What this does is re-direct the digital stream from going to the soundcard to going to a wav file on your hard drive. You play them back with in 5.1 by having 5.1 speakers on your PC or using a spdif out to a receiver. If you want 2 channel, use foobar2000 and in the DSP activate the 5.1 downmix to stereo. This is the first time on a sofware level that the digital PCM can be captured in it's fullest fidelity. 24/96 6 channel or 24/192 in 2 channel. The topic is a little misleading (sorry about that), it's wasnt cracked, but circumvented at the lowest level. You have to use windvd 5/6/7 to redirect the pcm output, so it's more of a hack-around solution until someone actually cracks CPPM and MLP(PPCM). -Joe

I'll through together a quick guide for you guys First uninstall the windvd dvd-audio plguin -- if it's already installed. Insert your dvd-a, if a dvd-player starts, close it. Open up my computer, right click on the dvd-drive, click explore. go into AUDIO_TS. if the file DVDAUDIO.MKB exists, skip down, if it's missing, keep going. * If DVDAUDIO.MKB is missing, that means your disc isnt encrypted, which saves you quite a bit of pain. Extract PPCMripper (PPCM = protected PCM which = MLP) into any folder. Create a folder on a drive with at least 7-8 gigs of free space. I used C:\classical for one of my classical discs. Then start>run>cmd.exe browse to where PPCMRipper.exe is (this takes some DOS skills). Whether or not your dvd-a is 24/96 or 24/192, you'll have to decide here how you want it ripped. Most likely it's 24/96 or 24/48. So in our example it's 24/96. then type (PPCMRipper.exe 96000 "C:\classical") This will launch windvd, when it's loaded just select a track, start playing it and it will dump the audio into a .wav file, all 6 channels in 24/96 in real time. So you have to play back through the entire dvd for all the songs to be ripped. You should see in the cmd.exe window the wav file being dumped. If you do, then your golden *If DVDAUDIO.MKB exists (which it doesnt btw on any of my dvd-a's) you have to use the DVDAripper. Just follow the directions in the readme, it's not that much different of a process than using the PPCMripper. Don't use the dvd-a explorer, for ripping dvd-a to wav.. their useless. Feel free to ask any questions if you get stuck. Couple threads here hydrogenaudio.org it starts at post 40.. and here doom9 forums -Joe