I paid extra for Rodersteins in my Goldpoint attenuator. In my case it really was voodoo.
Hi,
@John Curl: not being familiar with that preamp, what's the reasoning behind putting Vishay (or any) resistors across a vol pot?
Personally, in a switched attenuator or anything else that does not require particular voltage/wattage demands, I'd use these naked film and foil from Texas Components which I find very transparent sounding.
Way back when I quite liked the Resistas, Holcos, Beyschlag and Welwyn wirewounds for high wattage. Dale was hard to come by in Europe these days
Cheers,
@John Curl: not being familiar with that preamp, what's the reasoning behind putting Vishay (or any) resistors across a vol pot?
Personally, in a switched attenuator or anything else that does not require particular voltage/wattage demands, I'd use these naked film and foil from Texas Components which I find very transparent sounding.
Way back when I quite liked the Resistas, Holcos, Beyschlag and Welwyn wirewounds for high wattage. Dale was hard to come by in Europe these days
Cheers,
Well, being European, and since Germany has always been the prime supplier of electronic parts, I have been using Roe(derstein) resistors and some caps ever since I started out, 39 years ago. Wima has always been my first choice, although I don't shy away from Siemens polypropylene caps either.
Not to even mention Fisher & Tausche big caps, but also BC Components and Philips (while Philips was still Philips), and, if price unimportant but performance is of prime importance, Siemens Sikorel caps (while it was still Siemens, today it's Siemens/Matsushita, and I suspect actually all Matsushita).
Elna, Nichicon, Rubycon at al. never had a big presence in Europe; they were always here, but were also always hard to find and often disgustingly expensive. They always concentrated on the US market. Ditto for Japanese transistors, although they were more easily available, and today, no problem. But Motorola and RCA you would find in any self respecting shop, always. I was weaned on Motorola.
Not to even mention Fisher & Tausche big caps, but also BC Components and Philips (while Philips was still Philips), and, if price unimportant but performance is of prime importance, Siemens Sikorel caps (while it was still Siemens, today it's Siemens/Matsushita, and I suspect actually all Matsushita).
Elna, Nichicon, Rubycon at al. never had a big presence in Europe; they were always here, but were also always hard to find and often disgustingly expensive. They always concentrated on the US market. Ditto for Japanese transistors, although they were more easily available, and today, no problem. But Motorola and RCA you would find in any self respecting shop, always. I was weaned on Motorola.
Hi,
The associations of Siemens with Japanese companies is rooted in WW2 history.
Siemens is traditionally more of a trading company, they rarely manufacture much themselves. Quite often they do the research, develop something really outstanding and when it turns out to be too expensive to keep manufacturing it they abort that company by selling it.
You should really try Ben Duncan's slit foil caps. I think BC Components made some for him. The range is very limited and of little use to me but the difference in sound quality is easily noticed.
I hope for Nigel to chip in on this as he may know Ben Duncan's work better than I do.
With the advent of ever cheaper and larger value MKP caps that's what I use. But then I'm much into valve designs so I rarely need high value caps.
Cheers,
The associations of Siemens with Japanese companies is rooted in WW2 history.
Siemens is traditionally more of a trading company, they rarely manufacture much themselves. Quite often they do the research, develop something really outstanding and when it turns out to be too expensive to keep manufacturing it they abort that company by selling it.
You should really try Ben Duncan's slit foil caps. I think BC Components made some for him. The range is very limited and of little use to me but the difference in sound quality is easily noticed.
I hope for Nigel to chip in on this as he may know Ben Duncan's work better than I do.
With the advent of ever cheaper and larger value MKP caps that's what I use. But then I'm much into valve designs so I rarely need high value caps.
Cheers,
Frank (fdegrove), I have remained faithfull to Fisher & Tausche to this day. I have said this before, and now I repeat, each and every time, without fail, that I have replaced an Elna cap with same value F & T, I got a better sound, sometimes more, sometimes less so, but always.
To me, they fall squarely into what I call "The Motorola Class", denoting products from companies which never once failed me. Even when I did something stupid with them and when they had every reason to fail.
Ditto for Toshiba transistors, damn good stuff.
To me, they fall squarely into what I call "The Motorola Class", denoting products from companies which never once failed me. Even when I did something stupid with them and when they had every reason to fail.
Ditto for Toshiba transistors, damn good stuff.
Do you have a question or just an unproductive comment?
The Vishays show a distortion component that is not from thermal effects. So that distortion does not behave the same when increasing frequency or reducing levels. But you knew that, so why the comment?
I have seen plots as well as the lack of any credible evidence that things at this level have any audibility. I don't find the toss off comments about the audibility of -120db artifact as if they are proven fact productive either. BTW did you see the 1kHz LP reference tone I posted, all the distortions you could want probably different every time you play it.
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Hi,
Dejan, I'm not steering you away from F&T caps. I know them as they're available in the high voltage range I need in my own designs.
What I was saying is that since you do not require such high voltages and Ben Duncan's slit foils are limited to 100VDC max, maybe you ought to try out these slit foil caps.
Black Gate being what they are, in a PSU these slit foils made a huge difference to my ears.
These don't come cheap though which is why I'm hoping for Nigel to comment on them.
Cheers,
Dejan, I'm not steering you away from F&T caps. I know them as they're available in the high voltage range I need in my own designs.
What I was saying is that since you do not require such high voltages and Ben Duncan's slit foils are limited to 100VDC max, maybe you ought to try out these slit foil caps.
Black Gate being what they are, in a PSU these slit foils made a huge difference to my ears.
These don't come cheap though which is why I'm hoping for Nigel to comment on them.
Cheers,
Yes there are resistors that have distortion high enough that there should be little argument if it is perceived using even a single device.
Now thermal and other distortions can sum in-phase and so are a bit more of a bother than just random issues.
All of the ones raised here have very low distortion, although it is possible with the Vishays to get the very low frequency distortion greater than -100 db.
Now I can measure these distortions as can you. I usually make no judgement as to what people report they can hear, although I reserve the right to laugh at some here.
But if I can spend less money and get a better part that to me is useful information.
Yes, I find it amazing that there is barely any mention on the forum of the impact of the type of distortion on the perceived quality; the number that pops up is king, and nothing else matters ...
A distortion can be almost unmeasurable, and yet completely ruin one's ability to just "enjoy the music" - digital playback tends to be very bad for this sort of behaviour.
A distortion can be almost unmeasurable, and yet completely ruin one's ability to just "enjoy the music" - digital playback tends to be very bad for this sort of behaviour.
The type of distortion is very important and to design for the best number isn't the route that always make the best sound. For test equipment it is what you want though.
Hi,
Even mechanical distortion can be lowered significantly using the right treatments.
Stop listening to that old scope, Pavel.
And no, SE tube distortion is not O.K. but you obviously have no clue how musically correct these DHT triode can sound despite of this distortion, right?
NFB is not a no go per se, GNFB to swap design flaws under the measurement carpet is.
Resistors do distort. Some more than others.
For the record, the only thing that matters to me personally is to reproduce sound as if it were real.
After 30 years of trying I know there's no measurement I know of nor hardly a component around that does not deviate from reality.
No matter how it measures.
Cheers,
Even mechanical distortion can be lowered significantly using the right treatments.
Stop listening to that old scope, Pavel.
And no, SE tube distortion is not O.K. but you obviously have no clue how musically correct these DHT triode can sound despite of this distortion, right?
NFB is not a no go per se, GNFB to swap design flaws under the measurement carpet is.
Resistors do distort. Some more than others.
For the record, the only thing that matters to me personally is to reproduce sound as if it were real.
After 30 years of trying I know there's no measurement I know of nor hardly a component around that does not deviate from reality.
No matter how it measures.
Cheers,
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