How do you know if your system needs more power via a bigger amplifier? Especially if it was working great before you changed room size. Watch Now
AUDIO: DIY / Technical
Found 173 results
Paul McGowan writes: I struggled with how to write this because the subject’s rather complicated and in the end decided to keep it simple. Heck, it’s Sunday after all and we’re supposed to be taking a day off. Yesterday we covered analog volume controls and how they, by virtue of adding something into the signal […]
There’s a constant battle going on inside me over two fundamental urges: control or convenience. On the one hand, I want to place myself in a position of control over life’s simple variables like dialing in the exact time and temperature of morning toast or setting the thermostat to suit my immediate needs. On the […]
Sorry for the long winded question. I have been trying to figure out how to ask this for a while. I haven’t got much experience with many amps but here is what I found over the years. 1984 I bought an HK 580i. It seemed to play anything. The bass was deep and the mids […]
John Siau writes: The Benchmark AHB2 power amplifier and HPA4 headphone amplifier both feature feed-forward error correction. This correction system is an important subset of the patented THX-AAA™ (Achromatic Audio Amplifier) technology. It is one of the systems that keeps these Benchmark amplifiers virtually distortion free when driving heavy loads. It is also the reason […]
Hello Colin, please be patient with me because although I am an experienced listener I’m not very conversant with the technology that is available today. By this I mean I really just plug in and just listen. However recently I started to think about some of the units I use, In particular a Musical Fidelity […]
I’ve just got a copy of the old “Hifi sound stereo test record” and on the phase tests it seems to indicate that my speakers are out of phase as the image doesn’t come from the centre on the in phase test but does on the out of phase test. I’ve checked all the cabling […]
There’s something very wrong with the idea of a transparent image. If it’s transparent it means we can’t see or hear it. And yet, the term has great meaning. Our audiophile lexicon is a wonderful tool for communicating with each other. It does seem to fall a bit short when conveying a sense of what we […]
Dear Colin, Computer grade parts? What are computer grade parts.. such as Computer grade power-supply caps? Are these type of parts an upgrade and/or better than audiophile grade parts? For example, I’ve heard some people say, “I’ve upgraded my power supply caps in my amp to computer grade caps”. I don’t think I’d want computer […]
“Does anyone here have any impressions on the Hifi tuning fuses and how they possitively or negatively affected components in their system? According to some audio enthusiasts, installing premium grade fuses in preampss, amps, phono etc make a significant improvement in the overall sound. Any comments are most welcome since I’m considering this relatively inexpensive […]
For the last post in this impromptu series let’s look at my goal of somehow increasing the size of power supply capacitors within a unit connected to a Power Plant. On the surface, this seems like a crazy goal. How can we affect something internally? First, let’s think about what happens when we increase the […]
Hello Colin and may I congratulate you on your resurrection. My question is this. As it is generally agreed that as a consequence of the variation of the mains waveform systems sound different at different times of any twenty four hours, do you do your fine-tuning at a similar time each day for continuity? Or […]
This IMPORTANT forum thread starts as follows: Hi, My name is Ann from the PlugSafe safety campaign. I know there have often been discussions here about mains plugs and fuses; I would like to clarify a few issues. Mains plugs supplied in the UK for domestic use MUST comply with BS1363-1 and MUST be approved […]
I learned a new word from one of my readers this morning: conflate. It means confusing two messages together and apparently that’s what I did yesterday in my post; so I’ll start by clearing the conflation up. I first defined what I believe Listener Fatigue is and then went on to describe how music communicates […]
Dear Colin, impedance match of preamp and main amp. I am considering mating a McIntosh Mc602 with a Bat Vk 51se. I noticed the input impedance on the Mc602 is 10K. While most Bat amps are much higher. Do you see a problem with this? It seems I remember at Stereophile I used to know […]
Paul White writes ….. No sooner had I opened a new file to write this leader column, aimed squarely at the annoyance of external power supplies, than I received an email from one of our long-time readers asking if he could submit a Sounding Off piece in favour of them. His argument was that by […]
Dear Colin, An audiophile friend made the following argument to me: “Stop looking for a new CD player. With a very good to excellent high-end interconnect you will not only improve the performance of the CD, but other downstream components.” I had to disagree with my friend claiming a $400 or $500 IC is not […]
Q: I know vintage gear isn’t your business of course but, hey, I trust your expertise and so I wonder if you can help with a component issue please? I’m doing a Sansui restoration and the main caps are Nichicon & Elna. There are many differing capacitor ranges, do you have any specific recommendations? […]
Sound On Sound write ….. The way we listen to music has changed fundamentally in recent years. Not only are we not buying CDs any more, but increasingly, we’re not buying downloads either. Instead, streaming is now the main route by which music reaches the ears of the public. Last year, for example, 431 billion […]
I’m contemplating installing a separate mains spur for my hifi. I’ve avoided doing it because it’ll be quite a hassle due to the layout of my house. I’ve been thinking of adding a spur to my Consumer Unit of 10mm2 mains cable to an unswitched single socket. For me, this will be a fairly expensive […]
When people ask me if parts of identical value but different construction sound unlike one another I kind of scratch my head. In my world, parts in the signal path all sound different. It’s like asking me if chocolate and vanilla taste different. The answer seems so obvious. But then I climb out of my […]
Dear Colin, I’ve ordered a pair of 4-Pin DIN plugs to construct an interconnect for a Quad 33/303 system. Do both the channels need to be individually shielded, or is crosstalk not an issue here, and one could use something like this with just an overall shield? http://www.van-damme.com/14.html Failing that, can you recommend a really […]
Anybody doing this? I have an NAD CD player with a USB port, so I thought “why not?”. I’ve gotten real frustrated with wi-fi streaming and I like the relative simplicity of usb. My NAD’s USB port is limited to 320Kbps mp3 or WMA, so that’s a definite down-side, but honestly, I struggle to hear […]
At first thought, it would seem obvious that a hard-wired connection between a digital source and a DAC would have to be better than a wireless connection where multiple steps and technologies combine to do the same, simple transfer of data as a simple hard wire. But because something is obvious doesn’t necessarily mean it’s […]