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Snake Oil Department, Top This

You need premium, dude:
Ya, REAL Leaded Premium, not this decafed, no balls juice they pump today.
I gotta go the the local Hot Rod shop and buy mine by the 5 gal can to get "the real thing" !!!
 
Lead interferes with neuronal migration, cell proliferation and synapse formation during critical periods of early vulnerability. The con- sequences are loss of intelligence and disruption of behaviour. Because the brain has little capacity for repair, these effects are permanent and untreatable


It should have been banned in the late 1950’s when the damage/danger of leaded fuels were becoming apparent but thanks to lobbying power/money it continued to be used for a further 40years causing needless deaths
 
Hard on the heels of his new love affair with op-amp rolling, Danny Richie jumps the shark again.
 
Lead interferes with neuronal migration, cell proliferation and synapse formation during critical periods of early vulnerability. The con- sequences are loss of intelligence and disruption of behaviour. Because the brain has little capacity for repair, these effects are permanent and untreatable


It should have been banned in the late 1950’s when the damage/danger of leaded fuels were becoming apparent but thanks to lobbying power/money it continued to be used for a further 40years causing needless deaths
But it also does all sort of good things.
Like lube valve stems and cushion the seats on closing. Lubes the cylinder walls along with slowing combustion time and increasing
octane rating along with raised HP. Most anything that can be done with a ICE engine without it can be done better and longer with it. ;)
 
Hard on the heels of his new love affair with op-amp rolling, Danny Richie jumps the shark again.

So according to Danny, signal travels faster along cables with lower resistance? Must be a bummer for recording studios. Mics and instruments will be all over the place due to the resistance variation from differing cable lengths.....:facepalm:

I was looking around at Class D amps for the extra 2 channels required for my active setup. Happened across Nord Acoustics' offerings which looked quie good (although their Nord One NC500 didn't exactly turn in a state of the art performance when Amir reviewed it) but I just couldn't take them seriously when they got into the "Softer warmer" character of their Sparkos 2590 Op Amp buffers vs the "Open Airy Dynamic" character of the Sonic Imagery 990 Op Amp buffers.

In the end, I've gone for a couple of the standard Hypex Nilai 500 DIY mono amps which turned in a markedly better performance.
 
I was looking around at Class D amps for the extra 2 channels required for my active setup.
That role in a multichannel system is extremely undemanding. Since I was already using a DSP unit to optimize the response curve of my (four!) ambience/surround speakers, I chose a couple of inexpensive little TPA3255 chip amps to drive them, since I could easily compensate for their load dependence with the same DSP unit. In my experience there's no need for anything fancier for that particular job unless you have a big room and/or a yen for high SPL -- YMMV.
 
That role in a multichannel system is extremely undemanding.
I don't disagree. However, the other 4 channels are catered for by a pair of AHB2s and I wanted something in the same league (another AHB2 would have been nice, and I did consider it, but common sense prevailed!). Low gain was also a consideration with the Motu Ultralite interface having a +21dBu output. I looked at cheaper options, including some of the offerings from Topping, but I had my fingers burned by the original PA5 failing. Though to be fair, the PA5 II in my office setup has been fine, so far.....

Ideally, I also wanted the option of Neutrik Speakon connectors, which the DIY kit will allow me to add to the rear panel. That would have voided the warranty on any retail fully-assembled amp.

The Hypex Nilai amps come with a 5 year/20,000 hr warranty and the cost was met by selling my HPA4.
 
I don't disagree. However, the other 4 channels are catered for by a pair of AHB2s and I wanted something in the same league (another AHB2 would have been nice, and I did consider it, but common sense prevailed!). Low gain was also a consideration with the Motu Ultralite interface having a +21dBu output. I looked at cheaper options, including some of the offerings from Topping, but I had my fingers burned by the original PA5 failing. Though to be fair, the PA5 II in my office setup has been fine, so far.....

Ideally, I also wanted the option of Neutrik Speakon connectors, which the DIY kit will allow me to add to the rear panel. That would have voided the warranty on any retail fully-assembled amp.

The Hypex Nilai amps come with a 5 year/20,000 hr warranty and the cost was met by selling my HPA4.

Ah, I got the impression that the other speakers in your system were active, which is my situation. Point taken -- these decisions are all about individual use cases and, of course, budget considerations! :cool:
 
Ah, I got the impression that the other speakers in your system were active, which is my situation. Point taken -- these decisions are all about individual use cases and, of course, budget considerations! :cool:
I'm only powering one pair of speakers with a 3-way active crossover:
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20240724_205555.jpg


I do agree though that my amplifiication choice is a little overkill.....
 
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So according to Danny, signal travels faster along cables with lower resistance? Must be a bummer for recording studios. Mics and instruments will be all over the place due to the resistance variation from differing cable lengths....
Well it probably does differ if we were talking about summing gigahertz signals and nanosecond time differences.

But that is what audiophile marketing people often do:
They take engineering knowledge way out of context and mis-apply it.
 
Well it probably does differ if we were talking about summing gigahertz signals and nanosecond time differences.

But that is what audiophile marketing people often do:
They take engineering knowledge way out of context and mis-apply it.

While discussing something over at Hoffman, re: jitter, I detected someone trying to lead me on to comment so they could reply with a (serious) study he had lock and loaded re: jitter in digital circuits, caused by EMI and RFI. Somehow this person had it in his head that it was a mic drop.

First thoughts? READ THE PAPER - look at the interference levels and frequency they were working on. Heck, it might even happen at audio frequencies. But again, LOOK AT THE LEVELS! :D

From my research, way beyond what is experienced in our towns and cities... but, again it was used as justification for a $1000 USB cable.. I think...
 
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Well it probably does differ if we were talking about summing gigahertz signals and nanosecond time differences.

But that is what audiophile marketing people often do:
They take engineering knowledge way out of context and mis-apply it.
He'd have a heart attack if he saw my speaker cables. The right side is ~ 1 metre long, the left ~ 4 metres. There's a seperate run of Canare 4S11 to each drive unit (3 cables per side) and from my measurements of resistance, inductance and capacitance, there's zero possibility of any audible effect.
 
While discussing something over at Hoffman, re: jitter, I detected someone trying to lead me on to comment so they could reply with a (serious) study he had lock and loaded re: jitter in digital circuits, caused by EMI and RFI. Somehow this person had it in his head that it was a mic drop.

First thoughts? READ THE PAPER - look at the interference levels and frequency they were working on. Heck, it might even happen at audio frequencies. But again, LOOK AT THE LEVELS! :D

From my research, way beyond what is experienced in our town and cities... but, again it was used as justification for a $1000 USB cable.. I think...
How to be a snake-oil subjectivist in 3 steps:

1. Assume audibility thresholds don't exist. Everything is audible if you listen closely enough, for long enough. Masking? It's not even halloween!
2. Assume cognitive biases only affect what other people hear. You've been listening to a lot of systems for a long time, you know what you heard.
3. Based on 1 & 2, assume that some (perhaps many) things are audible but not measurable and are beyond current science. Thousands of people agree with you, who cares if they know how to read measurements, they're obviously right!

You are now prepared to defend all audio products at all times at any price point. Good luck!
 
While discussing something over at Hoffman, re: jitter, I detected someone trying to lead me on to comment so they could reply with a (serious) study he had lock and loaded re: jitter in digital circuits, caused by EMI and RFI. Somehow this person had it in his head that it was a mic drop.

First thoughts? READ THE PAPER - look at the interference levels and frequency they were working on. Heck, it might even happen at audio frequencies. But again, LOOK AT THE LEVELS! :D

From my research, way beyond what is experienced in our town and cities... but, again it was used as justification for a $1000 USB cable.. I think...
Jitter is another phenomenon that many audiophiles just completely fail to comprehend. Many can't even grasp what it is, let alone how it affects the analogue output of a DAC, and just how bad it has to be to be audible.

And of course, given the asynchronous nature of USB, jitter is a non-issue for any half-way competent DAC....
 
And once again Danny shows his ignorance. EE101: Signal speed in cables is related to the characteristic impedance, which is found from the materials in the dialectric and the cable dimensions. No resistance is used.
What's the point of an EE degree if you just turn around and sell standard copper cables at sensible prices, based on simple scientific facts? Where's the profit in that?
 
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