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Old 18th Nov 2017, 10:36 pm   #41
joebog1
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Because of the super steady physical, chemical characters and the special microstructure of the carbon fiber, there would be no "Skin Effect" which is usually caused by the metal conductance during signal transmitting, and also no kinds of distortions caused by the signal lose on the ionic crystal interface. What is most important that those characters will not attenuate as time passed. Because of these advantages, this cable could afford exquisite and soft sound, wide sound stage as well, especially the rich musicality.

Skin Effect?? I guess that guy has an amplifier that can reach gigahertz, especially when its transmitting through the ionic crystal interface.
I think we all attenuate as time passes too!! like my hearing which is soft sound, and my tinnitus reaching rich misicality, that, of course changes daily, from a 2khz whistle ( PURE sine wave of course), to 10,000 budgerigars, all screaming at once.

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Old 19th Nov 2017, 9:00 am   #42
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Even down at 50Hz skin effect sometimes causes issues. The high power national grid lines on their pylons are strung with spaced quads of smaller conductors rather than having one larger conductor. Inches of diameter, GigaWatts and miles of length I know, but some hifi interconnects are getting a bit big....

David
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Old 19th Nov 2017, 10:42 am   #43
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And high current AC busbars are made up from spaced quarter inch (6mm if you insist) plates.
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Old 19th Nov 2017, 12:42 pm   #44
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Hi
When I first queried the price of a cartridge I never expected such a response.
All very interesting, and informative, I suppose it could go on and on as it is very subjective.
Cheers John
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Old 19th Nov 2017, 2:40 pm   #45
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The goings-on nowadays in the audio world defy logic and science. I haven't made my mind up whether I ought to be amused by them or deeply saddened.

What it has done is hyped the prices up of a number of nice old valves that would otherwise have been affordable to keep period equipment going. Taking the mick is the only available retaliation for this

I fear it's not even as tangible as subjective. It's mostly into the realms of imagination and suggestibility.

A sense of proportion and a sense of humour are needed to prevent being sucked in (and suckered)

David
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Old 19th Nov 2017, 3:31 pm   #46
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When I first queried the price of a cartridge I never expected such a response.
Entirely predictable on here! It's the latest of many threads, all approaching more or less the same subject from a different angle, and mostly reaching the same conclusions.
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Old 20th Nov 2017, 10:28 am   #47
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What it has done is hyped the prices up of a number of nice old valves that would otherwise have been affordable to keep period equipment going. Taking the mick is the only available retaliation for this
Which "nice old valves" are these? As fa as I can see the vast majority of current hi-fi and guitar amps use the "usual suspect" valves like ECC82, 83, 88 EL34, 84,KT66, 88 and all these are still being manufactured and are available at prices not dissimilar to those being charged in the heyday of valve technology.
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Old 20th Nov 2017, 10:53 am   #48
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Power triodes, mostly.

Have you seen what a pair of NOS PX4 will fetch?
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Old 20th Nov 2017, 11:27 am   #49
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Quote:
As far as I can see the vast majority of current hi-fi and guitar amps use the "usual suspect" valves like ECC82, 83, 88 EL34, 84,KT66, 88 and all these are still being manufactured and are available at prices not dissimilar to those being charged in the heyday of valve technology.
The real 'sophisticates' view amps built with these valves as mass market junk. Only original 1930s valves sound good enough for the serious listener
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Old 20th Nov 2017, 12:43 pm   #50
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Gold has a conductivity of 18
Copper has a conductivity of 1 ( assuming its the right way around )
Silver has a conductivity of .92 ...
Noting the comment that these are relative resistivities, not conductivities, for the record the figure for gold is not so high. Silver does indeed have about 92% of the resistivity of copper, but gold's resistivity is only about 1.45 times that of copper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electr...ious_materials. They're all very good conductors.

And as someone once pointed out, if the difference between 1 and 0.92 mattered then we'd spend a lot of time making sure our interconnects were as short as they could be. Does a 2m lead really sound much worse than a 1m one ?

Cheers,

GJ
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Old 20th Nov 2017, 1:09 pm   #51
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And as someone once pointed out, if the difference between 1 and 0.92 mattered then we'd spend a lot of time making sure our interconnects were as short as they could be. Does a 2m lead really sound much worse than a 1m one ?
Interesting point GJ.
I generally keep all connecting wires as short as conveniently possible on the basis that it can't do any harm.
As some here already know, my way of doing things with the homebrew power amps is to site them as close to the loudspeaker as possible with as short a connecting lead as looks neat. This generally means using a very long (up to 10m) connecting lead from preamp to power amp. I usually use some fairly mundane "bandridge" pro microphone cable for this lead and I don't think I can really tell the difference in length, bearing in mind my preamp has a very low output impedance into the 1meg input resistance of the power amps. These long leads work equally well with my Valve pre, (really a unity gain cathode follower type stage as i do not need gain here) output Z in the region of 1k, and with my commercial solid state pre (rega Cursa3 set to unity gain).
Perhaps this part of the discussion should be split off into another thread?

A.
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Old 20th Nov 2017, 3:46 pm   #52
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Quote:
Originally Posted by paulsherwin View Post
Quote:
As far as I can see the vast majority of current hi-fi and guitar amps use the "usual suspect" valves like ECC82, 83, 88 EL34, 84,KT66, 88 and all these are still being manufactured and are available at prices not dissimilar to those being charged in the heyday of valve technology.
The real 'sophisticates' view amps built with these valves as mass market junk. Only original 1930s valves sound good enough for the serious listener
Please give some examples of current commercial hi-fi valve amps built with "original 1930s valves". The KT66 is a 1930s power valve but they are still made. The 300B is a ancient power triode but they are still made.
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Old 20th Nov 2017, 4:15 pm   #53
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We're not referring to commercial amps made in large quantities - these do indeed use things like new production KT66s and EL34s. The exotic and rare stuff is bought by homebrewers and boutique manufacturers making amps to order, particularly in the Far East. You only need to check the NOS prices - these aren't being bought by forum members restoring RGD radiograms.
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Old 20th Nov 2017, 4:40 pm   #54
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Yes, jacking the price of PX4's up, closer to home as well, not just the far east...:

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/...arch=%22px4%22

Lawrence.
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Old 20th Nov 2017, 5:56 pm   #55
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From '68 to '73 (ish) the price of PX4's was fairly static at around 14 bob in W.W.

Lawrence.
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Old 20th Nov 2017, 7:00 pm   #56
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But, presumably, they had all disappeared by 1984, otherwise the advertiser would have nipped down the Edgware Road and snapped them up at £0.70 a go. And the world stock of NOS PX4s won't have increased since then. I suspect that the "boutique amplifiers" use the PX valves manufactured by KR in the Czech Republic. It's just a case of supply and demand, not "hype".
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Old 20th Nov 2017, 7:21 pm   #57
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A customer of mine has a relatively modern (1990s ?) British made stereo amp which uses one PX25 in each channel. It gives just a few watts, but he has efficient speakers and he loves it. I'm not sure which valves it was sold with but when I first saw it (it had a failing mains transformer) it had KR PX25s in. My customer had also acquired three used Marconi-Osram valves which he asked me to test. They were in pretty good condition so he substituted two of them for the KRs. He told me that they sounded better than the KRs ('sound' is in our heads of course, so he is the only person who is competent to make this judgement). It's also not lost on him that when M-OV were making these they were doing so in large numbers which meant that they had the resources to do a good job and the experience which can really only be gained in large-volume production. With the best will in the world no modern valve manufacturer has nearly as much resource or experience. I can see why people believe that valves made in the good old days are better.

Cheers,

GJ
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Old 20th Nov 2017, 8:29 pm   #58
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The AUDION website still shows a PX25 Hi Fi amplifier - single ended stereo.
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Old 20th Nov 2017, 9:59 pm   #59
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Possibly one of these made by Tom Willis of Art Audio in Nottingham?
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Old 20th Nov 2017, 10:00 pm   #60
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Hi,

Some 43 years ago I bought a complete RGD amp with 2x PX4’s for 50p from a friend’s father. I have to add he was a bit bewildered I wanted a such old valve amplifier, even back then, and he showed me the 50-watt amplifier he’d built using MJ2955/2N3055’s saying this is what you want to be doing – Well I do both now!

Terry
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