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Old 28th Sep 2020, 5:47 pm   #1881
jhalphen
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

Good day, Gentlemen,

More fun about outrageous claims (& prices !) for audiophile electronic components,
Today : capacitors

https://www.v-cap.com/tftf-capacitors.php

Be sure to see the price list, per cap, at the bottom of the page.

Home page : to see the whole shebang
https://www.v-cap.com/

What about poor old resistors ? anyone seen (yet) 500£ for a 1/2 watt 1K Ohm resistor

After all we have outrageous prices on :
- Valves
- Transformers
- Inductors
- cables
- ...

I demand equality for resistors !

Best Regards
jhalphen
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Old 28th Sep 2020, 7:27 pm   #1882
GrimJosef
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

If you can find a stock of tantalum film resistors made by the Japanese company Shinkoh in the popular values then you could quickly become rich. Here is what they are worth in unpopular values, which is pretty much all there are on the open market:

http://www.acoustic-dimension.com/re...-resistors.htm.

You can get very close copies, specially made by Audio Note. Sales volume is low though, so they are even more expensive https://www.hificollective.co.uk/com...nmagnetic.html. You can get them in the popular values. But in the end, they aren't Shinkohs are they ?

Cheers,

GJ
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Old 28th Sep 2020, 8:03 pm   #1883
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

I have to admit to been disdainful towards this thread in the past, but I have just had a moment "on the road to Damascus".

Some of the mains fuses being sold these days may not be the best quality, and I took a look at Google in search of enlightenment.

One of the first hits was a company offering high quality mains fuses (for the standard 13A plug). The price was £89.99... but it was not clear what quantity this referred to, and my first guess was £89.99 per 100?

But no, that price is for just one, for these are for audiophile use and have been subject to cryogenic processing which gives them special properties!!! I'd want a new suit, some fish and chips and change from £89.99. Sorry if such fuses are already well known here, but they came as a real shock to me.

B
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Old 28th Sep 2020, 8:07 pm   #1884
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

Hi,

Now that’s where I’m going wrong and my amps don’t sound any good... I’m buying Panasonic, Vishay, Welwyn and Yageo resistors from the likes of Easby, Anglia and Avnet.....

Terry
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Old 28th Sep 2020, 10:59 pm   #1885
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

Now have a look for the prices of mains cables and plugs to go with those fuses, Bazz.

Be sure not to be holding any hot drink while looking.

Magic fairy dust is very expensive, and completely invisible to non-believers.

David
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Old 29th Sep 2020, 12:29 am   #1886
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

I was looking at the prices of tube audio amps and YouTube reviews yesterday. I didn't know there exists a rich collection of vocabulary and phrases to describe how an amp sounds like. I am glad that I was born poor and tone deaf, not having discerning taste for audio amp sound quality. By birth I acquired an immunity from falling into those scams. Arnie once said " there is a sucker at every corner".
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Old 29th Sep 2020, 8:13 am   #1887
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

Back to resistors. The Audio Note "Silver Tantalum Non-Magnetic Resistors" have silver end caps and leads, and tantalum film resistor element.

To you, sir, £41 each plus vat and shipping.

Not up to the price of the V-caps. But you might only use one of those for every twenty resistors.

Alternatively you could go for the non-magnetic TT/Welwyn RC55, 0.1% tolerance for £1.70, or the equally non-magnetic Vishay RN50C mil spec resistors for 55p.

The RC55 has been tested in a major study of resistors for excess noise by LIGO, and is almost vanishingly small. https://dcc.ligo.org/public/0002/T09...rent_noise.pdf

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Old 29th Sep 2020, 8:55 am   #1888
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

Tantalum resistors? Would that be pure tantalum as a film, or Tantalum nitride as a film?

If the latter, there's a hilarious punch line.

By the way, to get the full value of the non-magnetic properties of these special resistors in an amplifier, be sure to use non magnetic parts throughout, especially the transformers.

David
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Old 29th Sep 2020, 10:10 am   #1889
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

Looks like tantalum nitride...nuff said.
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Old 29th Sep 2020, 10:58 am   #1890
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

Maybe the excess noise adds 'character'

They haven't got a clue.

David
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Old 29th Sep 2020, 2:36 pm   #1891
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

Same reason that some at the outer limits rate the sound quality of old stock AB carbon composition resistors. And a worse performing resistor doesn't exist.

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Old 29th Sep 2020, 3:55 pm   #1892
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

At the rate those drift, there might be a business opportunity for a re-banding service to redo the coloured bands to reflect their drifted values. At only 5/10/20% tolerance grades, just mark them to the nearest E12 value.

David
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Old 29th Sep 2020, 5:34 pm   #1893
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler View Post
At the rate those drift, there might be a business opportunity for a re-banding service to redo the coloured bands to reflect their drifted values. At only 5/10/20% tolerance grades, just mark them to the nearest E12 value.

David
Lol. Before I read your post I'd looked at the price of those resistors and my mind automatically switched to my fine artists brush and the few tins of Humbrol that I have.
Then I suddenly remembered that I may not sleep at night.
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Old 29th Sep 2020, 6:18 pm   #1894
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

Post No. 1882

-'Resistors that offer amazing transparency, and are highly musical and detailed'

I have holesaws (tank cutters) in my shed that are pleasingly sonorous (no, really, try it- but remove them from the mandrel first) so if music is quantifiable they win (and what's more the manufacturer doesn't make any claims for them beyond cutting holes)

Dave
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Old 29th Sep 2020, 6:26 pm   #1895
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

Ah, a holesaw can generate a perfectly transparent hole in a sheet of material.
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Old 29th Sep 2020, 9:17 pm   #1896
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

Hello,

another topic in this area that needs attention: The energy coming from the outlet is often polluted by bad waves, disharmonics, pulses and more.

So a clever guy has offered the solution on the internet: An "energy tank" for $40k only. It looks great, it is sealed and guaranteed to deliver the purest DC ever, needs a day to charge and then you can connect whatever amplifier you specified when ordering your "tank".
It was a villain who wrote "contains cheap Auto Zone car batteries nothing else", and well, there is a slight chance he is right me thinks ...

I will try to find the link. There must be great demand.

Regards,
Joe
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Old 29th Sep 2020, 11:52 pm   #1897
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

A battery of primary cells will give you brand new virgin electrical energy which hasn't previously been used in things which would have spoiled its sonic signature.... things like music centres, cheap amplifiers and direct drive turntables.

Besides, they will be reassuringly expensive and therefore exclusive!

David
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Old 30th Sep 2020, 10:25 am   #1898
Malcolm G6ANZ
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

Is this the magic box?
https://stromtank.com/technology/
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/superio...wer_Review.htm

Only $19000 for a UPS!
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Old 30th Sep 2020, 10:46 am   #1899
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

No UK dealer.

Maybe they've written us off as unsophisticated boors with no understanding of the finer points of their products?

Maybe they've written us off as sophisticated people, well-educated in science etc. and they just don't want to be laughed at.

Take a UPS, whomp up the styling of the case. Add an ammeter illuminated in eco-suggestive green, and all the rest lies in the pamphlet and website where they can really let fly with the market-appropriate language.

I always get suspicious when it seems that more value was placed in choosing a clever name than in developing the product.

David
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Old 30th Sep 2020, 12:27 pm   #1900
Craig Sawyers
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Malcolm G6ANZ View Post
And from their website, the S2500 is a relative baby. There are several higher power, and hence more expensive than $19k.

Craig
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