As tube preamplification is a complete black area for me, could you share soem example of good ones ?This is 10-100x worse than any tube preamp design that a competent designer can do with no effort.
As tube preamplification is a complete black area for me, could you share soem example of good ones ?This is 10-100x worse than any tube preamp design that a competent designer can do with no effort.
I wonder what you'd make of a Croft Micro 25 preamp, until recently (before Glenn's untimely passing and subsequent cessation of business) around £800 or less. The line stages have plenty (too much) of gain which was best altered by adjusting feedback resistors I believe, noise was low and when I quickly compared with my trusty neutral op-amp based preamp, the two sounded broadly the same. HFN tested the matching power amp which was a valve input-MOS-FET output and measured just like a typical valve amp (2.4 ohm output impedance) but they never did the preamp, the nearest was a Stereophile mauling of the integrated amp, which used a fairly similar line stage apparently (the RIAA was awful, but Glenn claimed they loaded the fixed output incorrectly, or words to that effectI can't help but think that both the noise and distortion performance could have been improved significantly, even for a valve preamplifier. With the right kind of two triode feedback loop amplifiers, utilising odd-order distortion cancellation, and using a suitable feedback volume control I think these parameters could have been upgraded threefold...
Voted 'not terrible' as I guess it's a product aimed at a certain market and almost certainly has the 'valve sound' the customers want.
Very true, even something ancient like 10Y DHT... of you can't get 0.05% from it you are doing something wrong.Strongly disagree. This is 10-100x worse than any tube preamp design that a competent designer can do with no effort.
American right? anyone who does not understand what a manual gearbox is for and what it can do in the hands of those who know how to use it is generally because they are American....
It's obvious. Don't take it as an offense, but only those who have always driven automatic cars don't understand the total difference in feeling with a manual gearbox car. Driving is not only changing from one gear to another in the shortest possible time on a straight line, it is also being able to feel and fully manage the relationship with the engine, having the clutch under your foot and being able to control the rpm and how it affects traction, climbing a series of tight hairpin bends and managing braking and re-acceleration just and exactly as YOU want, using engine braking without breaking down the car and without a sophisticated electronic card having to do it for you. Using a manual gearbox is the essence of sporty driving, even if it doesn't perform as well as a sports automatic, but this is difficult for those who have only ever used an automatic gearbox to understand. (it's also incredibly funnier)Do you believe you could outperform a Dual Clutch Transmission with a stick and clutch?
I bought my M3 with the stick rather than the DCT option because it would be more fun for me, not because I had a prayer of doing faster lap times. When was the last time you saw a stick in an F1 car?
Oh, and I'm American.
I'm unfamiliar with the current commercial landscape, so can't help there. But certainly any of the examples in Morgan Jones's book or any of my own designs (like this or this or this) will run rings around the unit reviewed here. Or Allen Wright's preamps. Or the Joe Curcio designs. Or Tim DeParavicini's. Or...As tube preamplification is a complete black area for me, could you share soem example of good ones ?
I can't help but think that both the noise and distortion performance could have been improved significantly, even for a valve preamplifier. With the right kind of two triode feedback loop amplifiers, utilising odd-order distortion cancellation, and using a suitable feedback volume control I think these parameters could have been upgraded threefold...
Voted 'not terrible' as I guess it's a product aimed at a certain market and almost certainly has the 'valve sound' the customers want.
Strongly disagree. This is 10-100x worse than any tube preamp design that a competent designer can do with no effort. Even a so-called "no feedback" design can do far, far better.
That's a common claim, but only true for some single-ended tube amps. Otherwise, the clipping behavior of most tube amp designs is abysmal- unless it is specifically avoided (and that's not easy), blocking distortion is universal.
Unlikely. The basic design here is flawed.
OK. What does that have to do with Primaluna?Octave brand amp is solid build
Driving is not only changing from one gear to another in the shortest possible time on a straight line, it is also being able to feel and fully manage the relationship with the engine, having the clutch under your foot and being able to control the rpm and how it affects traction, climbing a series of tight hairpin bends and managing braking and re-acceleration just and exactly as YOU want, using engine braking without breaking down the car and without a sophisticated electronic card having to do it for you.
Would like to think I could but you are probably right. Which does beg the question as to why this product would even exist.Very true, even something ancient like 10Y DHT... of you can't get 0.05% from it you are doing something wrong.
Anyway I would still bet that almost no one here could hear a difference in level matched blind test between this and 120dB SINAD preamp if noise is not a problem
As tube preamplification is a complete black area for me, could you share soem example of good ones ?
Yes, American. And I drove my fair share of manuals, and got pretty darn good with heal toe too. There is nothing functional a manual can do that a dual clutch can't do better.American right? anyone who does not understand what a manual gearbox is for and what it can do in the hands of those who know how to use it is generally because they are American....
The analogy is stick with dual clutch. Never have I mentioned automatic.I don't buy that analogy. A stick shift can let an experienced driver do things not easily done with an automatic, especially for some off-road cases, or roll starting. I'm not sure what a tube amp does better, except some people enjoy it more (which is also true of stick), which is a perfectly valid reason to buy one.
Often asserted, never demonstrated.The primary reason folks like tube amps is that they produce relatively high levels of 2nd and 3rd order harmonic distortion.
I see no reason why DCT can't be for a sports car neither. Maybe I drove enough stick in my life and no longer care for it, but once I drove DCT for the first time in my life, I knew I was in the future.A DCT to me is for a race car. A stick is for a sports car.
If you want to get from point A to point B, in the highway, local, uphill, downhill, and then get on with your day, automatic is the way to go in my opinion. My Subaru is CVT auto, let's me do what I need to do with efficiency. Now if I was rich, I'd buy two more cars, one stick, one DCT.An automatic is for my mother