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MerkinMuffley

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Posts posted by MerkinMuffley

  1. May 1, 1918

     

    Dear Customers,

     

    With the advent and rapid growth of the new automobile industry, demand for our fine products has plummeted below the profitable threshold, and we are sad to announce we will discontinue the manufacture of all models of the Flegglehouser and Sons buggy whips immediately.  Remaing stocks of finely crafted buggy whips can be found at your local general store.

     

    Sincerely,

    Mortimer Flegglehouser

     

  2. "High Resolution" - - 

     

    ...is a special term applied to DIGITAL recording(s). Analog recordings are infinitely continuous, which is to say,  you can zoom in infinitely with no break in the slope.  The demon of analog is noise, not resolution.

  3. "Format" seems to be the wrong word. Maybe it's just simply another SKU?  Suppose we have....("My Song"  - a  bundle of bits from the original session), and then,  ("My Song" a  Bundle of Bits With MQA Applied). Aren't those two different SKUs for SONY or MCA? 

     

     

  4. PTP Solid 9 Turntable Origin Live Encounter tonearm with supernal cryo'ed rewire.

    Grado Statement V2

    Volti Audio Rival Loudspeakers

    Current Issue McIntosh MC75  X 2

    Silenzio by E music server

    Benchmark DAC3

    McIntosh C-22 re-issue Pre-amp

     

    Wow - - never heard of "Volti" speakers before......something new every day.

  5. The Benchmark post certainly EXPLAINS MQA in a mostly (to me) understandable way.  Clearly though, hardware makers are not going to want to be paying more license fees, or possibly hog-tying their own developments to a grand third party somewhat like Dolby. I'm pretty sure music producers also have no interest in adding a license to their cost roillup either. 

  6. Natural vs. Unnatural (Re: J. Matthews)

     

    I would propose that when the discussion is "food" most dieticians and health experts use "natural" to imply whole food stuffs that (usually)  occur throughout the world without assitance from man and machine and processing. An orange is an orange is an orange, whereas "bread" exists as the creation of men. Many of the ingredients in grocery store bread requiring massive chemical plant infrastructure to obtain. See photo.

     

     

    IMG_0048-copy.jpg

  7. How is Mr. Comey any different than all the other career political creatures of the top layers of power? Which is to say, working for self interest, representing an institution with no credibility and concerned only with advancing personal political power. (Ref: botched cases, vindictive prosecution, total bumbling, etc.). Guys write their own hagiographies when no one else will. 

  8. Example of how Tone Controls can cause troube. Refer to the diagram attached. 

     

    The two pots RV1 and RV2 control the amount of bass and treble cut or boost applied to the signal. Surrounding both pots are several caps. If you want FLAT response, the two pots would have to be electrically centered AND the surrounding caps would have to be very precise in value. Any variation in the caps, or centering of the pots will yield a non-flat response. In budget prodicts, these pots are probably 10% tolerance and the caps could be 20%, 10%, 5%, or even 2%, but how do you know? By centering the pots, I don't mean the DETENT they probably employ, but whether or not that detent EXACTLY divides the pot? 

     

    The solution to these inexpensive style tone controls is to have a bypass switch that circumvents the signal around ALL those pots and caps. Without a bypass, there is very little chance of getting a flat response. 

    simple-audio-tone-control-circuit-diagram.png

  9. On 4/8/2018 at 12:31 PM, LarryC said:

    With K-horn efficiency, I've had to work at minimizing noise audibility.  For example, selecting a preamp with lower gain in the line-stage section, to minimize amplifying noise traveling from circuitry prior to the pre-amp volume control. (I once had a preamp with an excessive 26 db gain in the line stage, which could only exaggerate pre-VC noise from the phono stage.  My current preamp has only 4 db line stage gain!)  Or, for another example, choosing a power amplifier with a low gain figure, that does not have a very high (numerically low) "sensitivity" figure for full power out.  This means being careful NOT to select an amplifier that produces several hundred watts out for only 0.5 v. in -- a sure noise producer on K-horns IMO.  My amp eliminated one stage of gain and probably requires 2.5 v. in for 100 watts out, a very low gain that minimizes pre-amp noise

    Good comments. Most of the classic separates were designed in the era of PHONO, TAPE heads and FM sources, which had very low outputs in the mV range. So, preamps needed 40+dB gains in the phono and tape and as much as 22dB for FM and integrated tape in the line stages. In the classic era, 2V in for full power was standard and reasonable. Tben came sources like CD. DVD, TV and all the other very high output devices which have no need whatever of a preamp. 

     

    If not using phono or tape, preamps offer little benefit. If you do (still) use phono, the old (classic) separate preamps (Fisher, Mc, Marantz, Scott, Dyna, ARC and dozens of small brands) had vastly superior "phono sections" than any modern integrated amp. Modern amps work best for the new world of digitial sources. And, listeners who dumped vinyl for digitial almost universally freak out over "noise" making it almost mandatory to have modern SS gear.  

     

    For playing records in 2018, it would be hard at any cost of modern gear to top the luscious sound of a Marantz 7 and 8b combination. But that would do bupkis for CDs.

  10. JMON,

    Wonderful photos. We like the same kinds of subjects. I agree with your comment that great photos are everywhere once you look. You don't have to go far. Some of my best photos were taken in a small town. Most of mine are paper prints (from film) so I can't share, but I am enjoying yours! The "Blue ship with porthole" was my fave in that group. It's like a besutiful artwork waiting for someone to find it.

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