The Audiophoolery Thread.

[Radio Wrangler]

I knew you were having us all on MM.

There hasn't been enough time to do all the essential listening tests. Toolstation haven't been in business long enough.

David

There hasn't been enough time to do all the essential listening tests.

I disagree, sound comes out of the 'speakers and, so far, has lasted long enough to reach my ears. A million times longer than the electric takes to go down the wires, must be good stuff. No hint at all of "thrift", "economy", or (worse) "cheapness" to the sound.

[Herald1360]

Surely this is OT- it smacks of reasonable common sense!

[wd40addict]

Much too sensible, try this instead:

https://www.analogueseduction.net/re...MOOKprod4.html

[Craig Sawyers]

Well, I have nice plank of bog oak several thousand years old. Maybe I ought to turn some record clamps. Sounds like a significant retirement fund if the foolishness above is anything to go by.

[mark_in_manc]

"The vibration generated by the diamond stylus in the vinyl groove as well as inducing an electro flux through the phono cartridge also excites the ebony molecules causing it to resonate. This in turn is fed back through the stylus and is reproduced as an expanded sound staging, enhanced separation, sharpened focus and enriched tonal balance of the music."

'Nuff said.

"Due to the rareness of the ebony, there is no doubt that this will become a collector’s item in the future."

Somehow reminds me of this:

http://viz.co.uk/2014/10/07/elvis-pr...e-tutankhamun/

[Radio Wrangler]

Notice that the grooves up the conical part are erratically-spaced. Only a true acoustic feng-sui master can get them positioned just right to do that acoustic focus thingy.

Such skill is expensive even just for a reasonable hourly rate for all the meditation before each cut.

Of course, the user has to find the optimum angular orientation of the clamp to be aligned precisely each time before the turntable motor is started. A small magnetic compass using an unworked piece of natural magnetite is needed.

David

[Ted Kendall]

Originally Posted by Craig Sawyers

Well, I have nice plank of bog oak several thousand years old. Maybe I ought to turn some record clamps. Sounds like a significant retirement fund if the foolishness above is anything to go by.

A certain "remastering engineer" of my acquaintance insisted that the ancient oak base of his N......... A....... turntable gave an indefinable solidity and authenticity to the sound, although the nice shiny blue LED on the exotic cartridge he had installed must have had something to do with it.

[mark_in_manc]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

Notice that the grooves up the conical part are erratically-spaced.

Oi! That turning's not erratic, that's generated using a 2^(n-1) MLS pseudo-random number sequence! Or perhaps it was a Barker code. Whatevs.

[its ur aerial]

Will it fit my Amstrad TS99 ??
That's the question I wonder if they actually sell any

Ken G6HZG, VMARS, AM ARS.

[Radio Wrangler]

As seems normal in the audiophilia industry, prices are astronomical and sales volumes are tiny. Few companies operating in this area are of any size, and they are not making a lot of money. Even the big names seem to keep surviving hard patches. No-one seems to get rich. Most of this sort of product is from tiny companies who pop up, floated on one wild idea, and who fade along with it.

Perhaps we should divide the industry up into two segments; products which can and can't be made in a garden shed.

Bits of turned wood - garden shed
Bags of pretty coloured pebbles - garden shed
Electronics especially valve and discrete transistor non-SMT - garden shed
Arms, Turntables - not garden shed.
Non-precision mechanicals, like spiky feet - garden shed

The precision mechanical stuff needs larger lathes for platters and precision grinding machines for bearings. This sort of work could be contracted out, but development still needs to be done, and the financing for tooling.

These factors set what sorts of businesses we find in these areas.

David

[mark_in_manc]

I just sold a Rega Planar turntable which came my way. Before getting shot I was sorely tempted to go out the shed and knock out some transparent polycarbonate platters - there's a big surplus lump of 1" thick stuff at work, and these things seem to fetch some money. But I couldn't handle the shame

[Craig Sawyers]

Well, much to my surprise, Audioquest, whose name is associated with ridiculous money cables, is actually a major business, supplying cable to AV installers and other mass markets worldwide. And the cheapest speaker cables a few quid per metre.

This is a factory tour of the home base in California. Although they also have a plant in Europe, and possibly elsewhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x09bUTmMmIs

Certainly not a cottage industry!

Here's another one. Although Kimber is know for braided cables, the majority of his business is in heat shrink, and most of his warehouse is devoted to that. Any colour, gauge, thickness. And printable with any logo you want. The snapshots of the cable braiders is pretty impressive though. All the machines are custom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL2Zo27vRg0

And here's Audio Research, who only manufacture valved amplifiers. They have been around since 1970. Definitely not a garden shed ;-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a58bDqQQ-xY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvL9FNuPwkE

Craig

[GrimJosef]

I once worked on an Audio Research very high-end (at least, in terms of cost) valve pre-amp. Whatever else you might think of it it was beautifully built. Not the least of my issues was having to de-solder and then re-solder some of the wiring as (extremely) tidily as the original craftsperson had done it.

Cheers,

GJ

[Refugee]

Those braiding machines were invented by the Victorians. The one linked to a couple of posts back looks like 1960s with modern safety shields fitted.
I have found a video with a more modern one with several white threads among darker ones that shows better how they actually work. You can see how the supply spools pass from hub to hub.
At a textile museum some years ago I was allowed to slowly rotate Victorian one by hand through a small part of one cycle in order to see how it worked.

[Craig Sawyers]

When Ray Kimber tried to go into manufacture of the first braided cable, he tried a rope braiding machine with insulated wire. The result was not pretty, apparently.

I'm not sure that his machines are adapted old school machines, or entirely custom, but seeing the larger ones braiding 12 positive and 12 negative conductors at high speed is impressive.

Yes - I've visited them in Salt Lake. I was trying to license something to them (it didn't work out), but the return flight and accommodation for a number of days was on their ticket, so I had nothing to complain about.

Craig

[joebog1]

Originally Posted by Craig Sawyers

but seeing the larger ones braiding 12 positive and 12 negative conductors at high speed is impressive.

Craig

THEN measuring 500 microfarads per inch, JUST to see how stable your transistor amp was. Mind you, most valve amps hated them too. Err, maybe just my amps, of both topologies.

Joe

[Refugee]

One of the more common uses for braiding these days is nylon rope for rock climbing.
It needs to have a certain amount of spring in it in the event of the climber falling.
The idea is that it acts like a damped spring as opposed to yanking the climber to an abrupt halt.
I forgot a link on my earlier post.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87szS--xkmA

Some twit made an eight ohm transmission line just for 'speakers, misguided fool.

[Craig Sawyers]

Originally Posted by joebog1

THEN measuring 500 microfarads per inch, JUST to see how stable your transistor amp was. Mind you, most valve amps hated them too. Err, maybe just my amps, of both topologies.

Joe

They are about 400pF per metre. So 5 metres is about 2nF. Any audio amp that is freaked out by 2nF of cable capacitance isn't designed right. And such an amplifier certainly couldn't cope with an electrostatic loudspeaker load.

The Douglas Self Blameless amps cope with that sort of load without any trouble at all.

Craig