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On 26 April 1939: Test pilot Fritz Wendel flew a prototype Messerschmitt Me 209 V1, registered D-INJR, over a three-kilometre, closed course at Augsburg, Germany, setting a new Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) world record with an average speed of 755.14 kilometres per hour (469.22...

The recent thread where the (supposedly) female member asks for information about THD in amplifiers made me think. After three pages on that thread and reply from the OP, it's pretty obvious that the member is not the psychologist Erin English. So for any lonely audio nuts out there, sadly we...

I have chosen to upgrade my speakers and amplifier from non-existent to this... After tolerating the speakers in our TV for a long time, I suddenly got the urge to improve the setup and also provide a convenient way to listen to music in the living room. I picked these Q Acoustics Q3010i's...

I recently binged a series of videos on the Parts Express YouTube channel that showcased their annual speaker design competitions. Prior to stumbling on these videos I was completely unaware that such things existed. I have to say the designs were fascinating and ranged from a 4' tweeter made...

The definition of noise is “a sound, especially one that is loud or unpleasant or that causes disturbance”. A technical definition might be “irregular fluctuations that accompany a transmitted electrical signal but are not part of it and tend to obscure it”. Now haven’t these definitions got...

Audio recording has come a long way since the first wax drum was cut in the late 1800’s. The search for ever higher quality and more realistic recording and reproduction has driven numerous technologies forward. From LP records to the Compact Disc, engineers and designers have poured their...

The concept of a needle running in a modulated groove has been around since the first wax drum recorders were launched by the Edison Company in 1877. The original stylus was an assembly with a bar and the stylus attached. Play-only styli were rounded in profile while record capable styli were...

In 1999 the world of music was changed forever with the launch of Napster. Napster was a peer-to-peer file sharing system biased towards music in MP3 format. Considering the internet was still largely on dial-up at the time, network speeds were favourable for music file sharing as a typical four...

I posted an article on this forum which included some florid prose written by Dawid Grzyb reviewing a “high end” power cable. The post caused another member to comment that the author in question could be an effective wine reviewer. I responded with agreement but it started me thinking “what is...

By the end of the 80’s it was obvious that conventional reel to reel audio tape was pretty much dead as a domestic music format. What was a more than competitive technology in the 60’s and 70’s with respect to fidelity had morphed into the compact cassette but that wasn’t enough to save tape...

Post WWII, it was discovered that the Germans had forwarded tape recording technology far beyond that in use by Allied countries, in fact wire recorders were the norm in the US and UK. The requisitioning (looting) of German radio stations provided equipment and recordings that would become the...

In any well designed HiFi amplifier, there will be a power supply whose job is to convert the AC mains supply voltage to a DC voltage. The power supply must also be able to provide a reserve of power to cope with any sharp transients in current demand without suffering a decrease in voltage...

Imagine this. You are a high-end HiFi reviewer, you have a high end HiFi setup and a dedicated listening room all set up to try out any new HiFi product that arrives in your mailbox or is sent to you by a magazine or website. Then, joy upon joy, a new product arrives! :-) Being the modest and...

The year is 1877 and Thomas Edison presents his “Phonograph” to the world. It wasn’t the only device able to reproduce recorded sound but it was the most reliable. The medium in this early machine was the “Brown Wax” cylinder, which was not actually composed of wax but made of a metal soap...

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-truth-about-hifi-amplifier-power-supplies.1151401/ Above is is my first real post on the Steve Hoffman forums. I had a good read here looking for a forum to launch this on (I have a couple more articles in progress). It's mainly brought out the...