Dear Colin, PSU caps. There are two (2) large rectangular caps at the ac inlet of the PSU of my DIY amp. They are labeled as such; 0.1uF 250V~X2. What does the X2 mean? Yeah I know, stupid question, but I’m at least looking for a intelligent answer and seeing all the past Colin’s Clinic […]
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Hi Colin. I love your ‘clinic’. Neil promised that you might be offering education for us novices. So may I ask – have you ever thought about using braided hose to run your interconnects. I am talking about type usually found as brake lines on motorbikes and car braking systems, i was messing around with […]
We often think of the revealing nature of a great system as a double-edged sword: wonderful recordings sound better while poor ones sound worse. The idea of a system’s ability to magnifying a recording’s good and bad points is problematic when it comes to simply enjoying the music. This is why a lot of folks […]
Paul McGowan The notion of using one amplifier perfectly matched to the tweeter and another to the woofer made such elegant sense. Tubes for the top end, solid state grunt for the bottom. Brilliant. That was at a time when the choices in amplifiers were limited. Big, powerful solid state amps sounded pretty poor reproducing […]
Hello experts. I have used audiophile fuses for years in various equipment without problem, generally appreciative of sound quality improvement. Recently, I’ve encountered problems with audiophile fuses blowing in my Coincident Turbo 845SE amplifier. At this point I’ve had two failures of Synergistic Red Quantum 6.3a 250v sloblo fuses in this amp. Recently I discovered […]
THEY SAY: Argentum company produces and distributes audiovisual cabling systems. Argentum’s wiring is a spectrum of knowledge in the field of empirical and universal principles of physics, chemistry and engineering, and technology of their own. Developed and implemented innovative technologies and maintaining technological regimes are a guarantee for the products Argentum high quality standards of […]
When audio signals pass through a capacitor they sound different depending on which kind of capacitor is in use. Why? And, for that matter, what is a capacitor and how does it work?
Dear Colin, I have just fitted stock 2R7 Panasonic 0.1% metal film resistors to replace the “green” 2R2 wirewounds in series with the Millennium tweeters in my WD25Tex speakers. I expected a change ( a bit warmer) but was not prepared for such a drastic change – is this due to the 0,5R increase or […]
What is damping factor and more so what is the major influence for it ? Aanswers on a postcard please ..or just leave a simple reply Real question is how does one maintain or create the tube sound in a transistor amplifier ? Dip in (and then out) HERE
Paul McGowan / PS AUDIO While emailing back and forth with several new members of PS Audio’s HiFi Family it became apparent they weren’t aware of our podcast, Ohm’s Law. In fact, turns out they had yet to everlisten to a podcast of any kind. This is foreign to me. I listen to podcasts daily and find […]
Paul McGowan / PS AUDIO Over on the PS Audio forums, there’s a thread about cable lifters. You can read it by clicking this link. Elevating the speaker cables off the floor works to improve the sound. Should you run out and grab a set of cable lifters today? Much depends on the state of your […]
Paul McGowan / PS AUDIO If we believe analog is superior to digital or vice versa, we tend to gravitate toward other groups that believe the same thing. It seems true in politics, stereos, cars, and perhaps even stamp collecting. We’re looking for affirmational support that we made the right choice. Newbies to our hobby […]
Paul McGowan / PS AUDIO In yesterday’s post, I gave a bit of background on our path at PS Audio of increasing power transformer sizing. Quite by accident, we had found that oversizing the power transformers in our products delivered audibly superior performance. It was the increased wire gauge with its subsequent lowering of impedance that […]
Paul McGowan / PS AUDIO: When we built Music Room One we made a point of electrifying it properly: Dedicated circuits with heavy gauge wire. Had we the time and budget we would have also used grounded conduit as a shield against noise. The importance of a proper AC foundation cannot be understated. The two properties we […]
Paul McGowan / PS AUDIO It doesn’t take long to figure out the importance of AC power, and perhaps no device can better demonstrate the advantages of perfect AC than a Power Plant. I wonder how many of the thousands of Power Plant owners across the globe really understand what’s important in power—why their AC […]
Paul McGowan / PS AUDIO When we need to switch inputs on an analog preamplifier we use a switch. The kind of switch we use affects sound quality. For years we had only mechanical switches from which to choose. Standard switch contacts in those days were nickel or tin-plated while the more expensive and better-sounding […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan I remember thinking to myself; this is nothing short of magic. Kind of like the RIAA. Boost the heck out of the high frequencies and then run them through a low pass filter to make everything right again. In the process, hiss is lowered. Magic. What’s worth noting about this […]
Paul McGowan / PS AUDIO We know that galvanic isolation can make a big difference in digital audio. Any owners of the new DirectStream MK2, with its ability to switch on and off the isolation of every input and output for best sound, can attest to the benefits of customizing levels of galvanic isolation. So, it […]
We asked around and from Singapore (thank you Mr. Tan) e received the following: Legendary Japanese producer of tonearms and pickups founded in 1964 by a former factory manager at Grace by the name of Osamu (Isamu) Ikeda, and introduced it’s first product in the form of the Fidelity Research FR-1 moving coil cartridge in […]
Paul McGowan / PS AUDIO I have probably spent a total of 5 minutes on social media. Facebook, Instagram, Tick Tock, and whatever new connection program out there has zero interest for me. It feels like a potential blackhole vortex waiting to suck me in and chew up my time without any obvious benefit. The […]
Paul McGowan / PS AUDIO Let me share an interesting experience. At Octave Records, we have built a state-of-the-art mix room with the best equipment we know to exist: FR30 loudspeakers, BHK monoblocks, BHK pre, DSMK2, Audioquest Dragon cables, a pair of custom 21″ subs. Fed from Octave masters, it sounds amazing. And in Music […]
It is comforting to believe that we use the best simply because it is the best. Tell that to Mark Levinson (the man) when he tried to force a change in the industry to the Lemo connector. Or remind anyone who uses on their test bench the superior BNC connector why that same connector does not grace the […]
Dear Colin, I’ve just picked up a Quad 405 ready for service. When I serviced my previous 405 I used the Dada kit which came with the necessary wire. Can you tell me please what size / gauge wire I should use to replace the existing power wires? Would this be suitable? http://www.rapidonline.com/design-te…0m-reels-62317 or could […]
Yesterday I turned on my Halo JC-1s for a little listening. As I walked over to drop a CD in the drawer I smelled a slight burning odor. When I looked back the lights were out on one amp. A check of the line fuse verified it had blown. Since the Owner’s Guide did not […]