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  1. #1
    Join Date: Oct 2012

    Location: NE England

    Posts: 4,173
    I'm Jez.

    Default Mythbusters does Hi-Fi.

    Or at least this mythbuster, singular, will

    First somewhat of a lengthy introductory preamble to "set out my stall".... It was suggested in a thread a few days ago that I put my "foo fighters" hat on and set straight some of the myths in hi fi. This being a "subjectivist friendly" site I presumed Marco would not wish me to go ahead with this here on AOS.... but I have exchanged PM's with Marco on the matter and he's all for it!

    Hi Fi is a vast subject which encompasses many engineering disciplines such as analogue electronic engineering, digital electronic engineering, mechanical engineering and acoustics etc. My own area of expertise is analogue electronic engineering, and it is within this field that most of my "lecture" shall be aimed. "Lecture"? Well yes.. rather than a debate as such this is me offering information, fact and a smidgeon of opinion based on decades of professional EE experience, so if you feel the need to add that you tried a "foomaster MkII green pen" on your CD's and it "literally transformed" the sound quality then please don't bother...

    Once upon a time hi fi was a mainly technical hobby. Back in the '50's and '60's many people built their own gear from kits, or from scratch based on articles in the likes of "Wireless World " and "Practical Wireless" etc, and people tended to have a much greater knowledge of electronics than in today's much broader based hobby.
    The likes of Donald Aldous, Angus Mackenzie and Stanley Kelly ruled the roost in hi fi reviewing and were highly competent engineers in their own right. Anyone suggesting that fuses, mains cables etc could effect the sound would have been dismissed as a lunatic as swiftly as someone claiming to speak to fairies at the bottom of the garden....

    Today the majority buy "black boxes" and form a system from them in which everything beneath the covers is regarded as "here be dragons".

    Electronics is a complicated subject.... and not a particularly intuitive one to many people. This makes it fertile breeding ground for myth and suspicions to be put in the minds of the largely non technical end users of hi-fi equipment. Many of these can be traced back to specific marketing ploys in the dim and distant past.. some not so distant! Many others to people adding 2+2 and making 5 and then telling enough people about it...
    In these days of forums and the internet, Chinese whispers can travel very quickly and unfortunately become entrenched until they become "common knowledge" and even "accepted wisdom"... despite in many cases being QUITE WRONG.

    It has sadly come to the stage where, if I may make a clumsy medical analogy, we were once in an age of enlightenment where scanners were coming into use, computers making a difference, new and effective drugs coming into use on a monthly basis... and then we get to where we are now... where due to Chinese whispers on the internet etc, lay people have once again started to believe in "unbalance of choleric and melancholy", "the evil eye" or "demons needing releasing" to such an extent that an experienced doctor telling them this is just old wives tales is regarded as a quack by his patients!

    I shall, if readers will indulge me, attempt to bust a few of these myths, explain where others are true but only in certain cases, some true but likely to have such a small effect as to be unnoticeable, some wrong other than in a very specific case etc etc.

    As promised elsewhere earlier I shall start with switch mode V linear regulated PSU's...
    Arkless Electronics-Engineered to be better. Tel. 01670 530674 (after 1pm)

    Modded Thorens TD150, Audio Technica AT-1005 MkII, Technics EPC-300MC, Arkless Hybrid MC phono stage, Arkless passive pre, Arkless 50WPC Class A SS power amp, (or) Arkless modded Leak Stereo 20, Modded Kef Reference 105/3's
    ReVox PR99, Studer B62, Ferrograph Series 7, Tandberg TCD440, Hitachi FT-5500MkI, also FT-5500MkII
    Digital: Yamaha CDR-HD1500 (Digital Swiss army knife-CD recorder, player, hard drive, DAC and ADC in one), PC files via 24/96 sound card and SPDIF, modded Philips CD850, modded Philips CD104, modded DPA Little Bit DAC. Sennheiser HD580 cans with Arkless Headphone amp.
    Cables- free interconnects that come with CD players, mains leads from B&Q, dead kettles etc, extension leads from Tesco

  2. #2
    Join Date: Nov 2010

    Location: Yorkshire

    Posts: 9,302
    I'm Andrew.

    Default

    Great idea but I still feel that there are those of us that are prepared to listen and ponder your musings to try and understand our hobby (that's me), those that don't give a shit, and those that will say your theories are incorrect and they are in fact correct. Sounds like you've a hard gig coming up. I think your barking completely up the wrong tree if your trying to flog more gear, personally I wouldn't bother and just let your equipment do the talking.
    SS
    CD Teac VRDS25X(Audiotuned) DECK 1210 Mat Crystal Audio Mods MN Base/Bearing/Platter+Ebony armboard Feet Isonoe PSU Paul Hynes SR7EHD-27XL/DCSXL Ag DC lead/3 Stage Regs/Recap PCB+No Pitch/Strobe/Light ARM SME V(Kondo Ag Rewire&Tags) MC Cadenza Black FGS CABLES Arm Yannis SPD-4 IC Yannis 222 Litz+Ag bullets Power WAR PRE ATC SCA2 SPEAKERS ATC 50ASL STANDS Atacama PHONO Sugden Masterclass PA4 SUT Ortofon ST80SE POWER PSAudio P10

    VALVE
    PRE
    Croft Epoch(Modded) AMP Sondex S100 (Modded) SPEAKERS Tannoy 15"MG+RFC Warwick cabs+ Ref XO + Batpure supertweeters DECK Garrard 301 Mat Teunto Bearings 401(Bastin) Plinth Bamboo Arms 3009/3012 PSU Eagle+Tachometer MC Ag Meister II/FGS + Ortofon SPU MONO CABLES Arm Yannis 420.5 Litz+ SpeakerPC Tripple C+WBT-0681 Ag IC Oyaide FTVS-510 AgWBT 0110Ag Phonostages Paradise(4 Box Mega-Modded) / Croft Musicmaker



  3. #3
    Join Date: Nov 2011

    Location: Newcastle UK

    Posts: 3,745
    I'm Rich.

    Default

    Hurrah!

    Have at it Jez. Pleased you've started this thread.

    I see it as welcome relief from mains cable n fuse threads and as one of laymen of which you speak, if I learn a bit tech then all the better.
    One of these days... I'm going to cut you into little pieces.

  4. #4
    Join Date: Oct 2012

    Location: NE England

    Posts: 4,173
    I'm Jez.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by RichB View Post
    Hurrah!

    Have at it Jez. Pleased you've started this thread.

    I see it as welcome relief from mains cable n fuse threads and as one of laymen of which you speak, if I learn a bit tech then all the better.
    Oh don't think fuses and mains cables won't be tackled
    Arkless Electronics-Engineered to be better. Tel. 01670 530674 (after 1pm)

    Modded Thorens TD150, Audio Technica AT-1005 MkII, Technics EPC-300MC, Arkless Hybrid MC phono stage, Arkless passive pre, Arkless 50WPC Class A SS power amp, (or) Arkless modded Leak Stereo 20, Modded Kef Reference 105/3's
    ReVox PR99, Studer B62, Ferrograph Series 7, Tandberg TCD440, Hitachi FT-5500MkI, also FT-5500MkII
    Digital: Yamaha CDR-HD1500 (Digital Swiss army knife-CD recorder, player, hard drive, DAC and ADC in one), PC files via 24/96 sound card and SPDIF, modded Philips CD850, modded Philips CD104, modded DPA Little Bit DAC. Sennheiser HD580 cans with Arkless Headphone amp.
    Cables- free interconnects that come with CD players, mains leads from B&Q, dead kettles etc, extension leads from Tesco

  5. #5
    Join Date: Apr 2012

    Location: N E Kent

    Posts: 51,624
    I'm Geoff.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Arkless Electronics View Post
    Oh don't think fuses and mains cables won't be tackled
    Ah. You'll have some nice fancy upmarket ones to recommend then?
    It is impossible for anything digital to sound analogue, because it isn't analogue!

  6. #6
    Join Date: Nov 2011

    Location: Newcastle UK

    Posts: 3,745
    I'm Rich.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Arkless Electronics View Post
    Oh don't think fuses and mains cables won't be tackled
    I expect nothing less..
    One of these days... I'm going to cut you into little pieces.

  7. #7
    Join Date: Oct 2012

    Location: NE England

    Posts: 4,173
    I'm Jez.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by REXTON View Post
    Great idea but I still feel that there are those of us that are prepared to listen and ponder your musings to try and understand our hobby (that's me), those that don't give a shit, and those that will say your theories are incorrect and they are in fact correct. Sounds like you've a hard gig coming up. I think your barking completely up the wrong tree if your trying to flog more gear, personally I wouldn't bother and just let your equipment do the talking.
    I'm certainly not going it to flog gear!! How very dare you Just not something I would do Many of the myths came about from people wanting to shift more kit in the first place! From techno babble marketing people etc.... If anything I'll be risking treading on the toes of those who continue propagating certain myths for financial gain I suppose

    A hard sell well yes.. The biggest problem maybe that if the myths came about from peoples lack of technical knowledge then they probably won't understand the rebuttal of the myth... and/or if myth came from technobabble then the myth may sound as plausible to the lay person as the rebuttal does!
    Arkless Electronics-Engineered to be better. Tel. 01670 530674 (after 1pm)

    Modded Thorens TD150, Audio Technica AT-1005 MkII, Technics EPC-300MC, Arkless Hybrid MC phono stage, Arkless passive pre, Arkless 50WPC Class A SS power amp, (or) Arkless modded Leak Stereo 20, Modded Kef Reference 105/3's
    ReVox PR99, Studer B62, Ferrograph Series 7, Tandberg TCD440, Hitachi FT-5500MkI, also FT-5500MkII
    Digital: Yamaha CDR-HD1500 (Digital Swiss army knife-CD recorder, player, hard drive, DAC and ADC in one), PC files via 24/96 sound card and SPDIF, modded Philips CD850, modded Philips CD104, modded DPA Little Bit DAC. Sennheiser HD580 cans with Arkless Headphone amp.
    Cables- free interconnects that come with CD players, mains leads from B&Q, dead kettles etc, extension leads from Tesco

  8. #8
    Join Date: Aug 2012

    Location: North East

    Posts: 3,670
    I'm Steve.

    Thumbs up

    Slightly unfare methinks especially when there are other desingners/manufacturers out there who spot vitriolic shite whilst infering their designs are superior to others. I think this article by Jez i a cool one. I for one will be following it.
    Quote Originally Posted by REXTON View Post
    Great idea but I still feel that there are those of us that are prepared to listen and ponder your musings to try and understand our hobby (that's me), those that don't give a shit, and those that will say your theories are incorrect and they are in fact correct. Sounds like you've a hard gig coming up. I think your barking completely up the wrong tree if your trying to flog more gear, personally I wouldn't bother and just let your equipment do the talking.

  9. #9
    Join Date: Aug 2012

    Location: North East

    Posts: 3,670
    I'm Steve.

    Default

    Speaking as one with very little knowledge of electronics apart from the most very basic elements and one of the gulable fools who in the past spent silly money on mains cables, interconnects and their likes i welcome the wisdom of someone like Jez who in the past has worked for one of the largest UK Hi-Fi manufacturers and walked due to having a consience. Start of a good thread is this.

  10. #10
    Join Date: Nov 2010

    Location: Yorkshire

    Posts: 9,302
    I'm Andrew.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Floyddroid View Post
    Slightly unfare methinks especially when there are other desingners/manufacturers out there who spot vitriolic shite whilst infering their designs are superior to others. I think this article by Jez i a cool one. I for one will be following it.
    No! Have you actually properly gone through my post? I support Jez and if I didn't care I wouldn't post.
    SS
    CD Teac VRDS25X(Audiotuned) DECK 1210 Mat Crystal Audio Mods MN Base/Bearing/Platter+Ebony armboard Feet Isonoe PSU Paul Hynes SR7EHD-27XL/DCSXL Ag DC lead/3 Stage Regs/Recap PCB+No Pitch/Strobe/Light ARM SME V(Kondo Ag Rewire&Tags) MC Cadenza Black FGS CABLES Arm Yannis SPD-4 IC Yannis 222 Litz+Ag bullets Power WAR PRE ATC SCA2 SPEAKERS ATC 50ASL STANDS Atacama PHONO Sugden Masterclass PA4 SUT Ortofon ST80SE POWER PSAudio P10

    VALVE
    PRE
    Croft Epoch(Modded) AMP Sondex S100 (Modded) SPEAKERS Tannoy 15"MG+RFC Warwick cabs+ Ref XO + Batpure supertweeters DECK Garrard 301 Mat Teunto Bearings 401(Bastin) Plinth Bamboo Arms 3009/3012 PSU Eagle+Tachometer MC Ag Meister II/FGS + Ortofon SPU MONO CABLES Arm Yannis 420.5 Litz+ SpeakerPC Tripple C+WBT-0681 Ag IC Oyaide FTVS-510 AgWBT 0110Ag Phonostages Paradise(4 Box Mega-Modded) / Croft Musicmaker



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