Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/10/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]In-Reply-To: <199610160042.UAA18460@worldy.worldy.com> > Unfortunately, this is not true regarding high end excellent sounding > audio > equipment. You can design equipment which will test excellent on the > bench > and sound terrible. Early transistor designs were a proof of this. Well yes, but that was understandable. The designers treated the new transistors very much like valves, while the latter were much more predictable, and exhibited *far* better linearity, having been developed for decades. > The > were > designed to have both thd, im distortion and frequency response which > would > beat tube equipment, but sounded absolutely terrible. Actually I think those errors came later with the replacement of germanium devices with silicon. All of a sudden the designers had *oodles* of gain, and were tempted to throw negative feedback at any problem in sight. You don't get a good amplifier by wrapping -ve feedback round a crap one. A failure on the part of the engineers to realise that, and a consequent failure to identify transient intermodulation distortion, opened the door to the subjectivists (who were correct in this instance, though in few matters subsequently), and so lead to much of the reprehensible science at the 'snake oil' end of the audio industry. dmorton@cix.compulink.co.uk | "The loss of an old man david@cassandra.compulink.co.uk | is like the destruction Kilburn, London, England. | of a library"