holbob
Active Member
I'd like to see things like xlr and rca attenuator's, and xlr and rca high pass filters being reviewed. Seeing if they are truly transparent or messing with the sinad. Also to see if the high pass filters are any good!
It would be great to measure the impact of power conditioners or regenerators on day and amplifier performance. ie what is the delta on an alreaqdy tested day (eg Chord Qutest) of supplying that from a $20,000 BS Audio regenerator for example.I like to get a gauge of what categories of products I should be testing more (electronics only). So please vote.
As usual, I won't necessarily listen to you all. But like to have the data anyway.
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I'm definitely curious about vintage receivers as well, but I think it's silly to hold them to modern standards. There is definitely a vintage "sound" and people like it for a reason. I would love to see what that "sound" looks like by the numbers. My vote is for a Sansui 331.Most of all I want to see popular vintage gear like Marantz, Sansui, and Pioneer etc tested. So many claims this was the best of audio gear and maybe it was, maybe they're nestalgic or stuck in the past idk. I want to see how the old stuff compares to the new stuff. I'd like to see some testing on turn tables and specs on vinyl. Lastly see more testing and info on op amps or tube amps.
I'm definitely curious about vintage receivers as well, but I think it's silly to hold them to modern standards. There is definitely a vintage "sound" and people like it for a reason. I would love to see what that "sound" looks like by the numbers. My vote is for a Sansui 331.
Point taken for sure. I'm no expert but I do think there's a reason some amp designers like Nelson Pass keep bins of dead stock transistors lying around, and it's not about perfect reproduction. Though just bringing him up on this site is likely to bring out strong opinions (I've never heard one of his experimental amps but I am curious...)I don’t know that you could expect any vintage gear to actually perform at original standards, unless refreshed already...and if that were done the unit would not be original parts anyway. So I doubt the results would be ‘portable’ in the sense you could expect a randomly obtained unit would be anything close to what’s measured.
is there a “vintage sound”, or is that just a myth? Perhaps “vintage sound” is what you get with old equipment that has noisy transistors, degraded caps, filthy pcb’s and contaminated controls. (I did a Luxman L100U integrated amp, with several dozen transistors with silver plated leads, causing silver migration...all had to be replaced).
I have repaired quite a few vintage and semi vintage products last few years. I really doubt that, once refreshed, they have substantially different sound or performance to newer gear.
David Hafler claimed, with his xl280 product, that not only had he created the perfect “wire with gain” device...but that it could be proven that is true with a test box that you could borrow from dealers...as I understand it you could do a null test using that device, and adjusting an internal trimpot to optimize the null.Point taken for sure. I'm no expert but I do think there's a reason some amp designers like Nelson Pass keep bins of dead stock transistors lying around, and it's not about perfect reproduction. Though just bringing him up on this site is likely to bring out strong opinions (I've never heard one of his experimental amps but I am curious...)
Reminds me I need to give my hafler SE120 some love (looks to be of the same era as xl280). Great power amp, but the binding posts always come loose from the inside which is a pain.David Hafler claimed, with his xl280 product, that not only had he created the perfect “wire with gain” device...but that it could be proven that is true with a test box that you could borrow from dealers...as I understand it you could do a null test using that device, and adjusting an internal trimpot to optimize the null.
He claimed perfection, many years ago. That’s a fun claim that I would love to see tested with today’s tools.