Arfa Daily wrote:
What's a genuine expert ?
Dictionary opinion :-
ex·pert /n., v. '?ksp?rt; adj. '?ksp?rt, ?k'sp?rt/ Pronunciation Key -
Show Spelled Pronunciation[n., v. ek-spurt; adj. ek-spurt, ik-spurt]
Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
-noun 1. a person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular
field; specialist; authority: a language expert.
My opinion :-
Someone who has successfully made a subject his life's work, and whose
pronouncements are accepted as valued by more people who have an
understanding of a subject, than rejected - hence my qualification of
"genuine" rather than the unsubstantiated opinions that are put forward by
someone who only *claims* themselves to be an expert.
that an improvement in the dynamic
response and overall flatness of the response curve of a high end - and
we're talking 1200 quid monoblocks here - *is* both audible and
measurable.
And I were to tell you that they are complete knobs ?
Then I would have to tell you that that is a very jaded view, just your
opinion, and not really sustainable. And to be honest, not the sort of input
that I've come to expect from you, whose views I normally respect.
I know what you're saying - or implying at least - and under normal
circumstances, having been in this business for 35 years and having seen
and
looked into virtually every snake oil claim that there is out there, I
too
would be skeptical. However, knowing the credentials of the people who
have
made these claims, I have no reason to doubt them. I don't know whether
you
have ever been over on uk rec audio, but there are some furious debates
that
get going over claims about audible differences on cables,
Yes, they're quite barking mad and one of the guys who makes some of the
most
extravagant claims has utter rubbish for his 'system'.
*Some* are quite barking, I would agree, but that does no preclude the fact
that there are one or two on there who are respected figures in the field,
and whose opinions I would consider to have more value than my 'broader
understanding' ones, which are based on many years of repairing the stuff,
rather than designing, modifying and speccing it ...
and it always
comes down to measurable characteristics in the end, so that is why I am
prepared to accept what has been said with regard to these caps, in this
situation, by these people.
I genuinely believe that measurements with the appropriate equipment
*have*
been made, and a difference *has* been seen.
By whom ?
Errr ... By the people doing the measuring ??
At the end of the day, Jensen
are a reputable company, and have been around for a very long time
selling
very high quality caps. Whilst I appreciate that this is not a
recommendation for any claims per se, by the same token, in my
experience,
snake oil sellers tend not to last too long, before their claims are
discredited ...
Not in the audio business !
Yes, in *all* businesses.
Be assured that unless I was pretty confident of what I was saying, I
wouldn't actually say it on here, and potentially mislead someone that
may
be of lesser ability or experience than me. However, all of this has no
relevance to the OP's original question, which I answered with what I
believe to be an honest opinion, which is that attempting to replace
electrolytic interstage coupling caps, with bipolars, will not result in
any
audible improvement to his equipment.
Biploars will make it worse actually.
So I have to ask, and this is a genuine question, as you clearly believe
that you, unlike the people on uk rec audio, are an expert, in what way will
they make it worse, and why ? And if it is demonstrably the case, why do the
likes of Musical Fidelity use them as interstage couplers as a matter of
course in their high end preamps, and why do they get used as the C element
in better quality crossovers ?
Have you ever measured any capacitors?
I have.
Graham
Of course I have measured capacitors, but for the characteristics that are
important for repair purposes, not esoteric values that have an impact on
design of the surrounding circuitry.
What the Hell is a "esoteric value"? How does one measure "esoteric
values"? Is there a "esoteric value" meter?
I am sure you own a good cap checker. If you do, it probably measures
capacity, leakage, ESR, and breakdown.
If your trying to quantify some other test, then somebody needs to
explain it or it is snake oil. Now, if someone is sweeping a cap
from 20 to 50K with a audio signal and measuring variations in ESR
or such and can show a "VALID" difference, then that is a quantifiable
test. If that is what they are doing, then the test needs to be stated
with test conditions and type of equipment used.
There are cheaper electrolytics these days as i am sure you know.
Especially the little surface mount guys that have the 1/2 life of
a mouse being chased by a hawk. ANd then the infamous "we stole the
wrong cap formula" fiasco of a while back. So i am not totally against
the "defective cap" theory.
And how do you quantify the final result? Just saying it sounds
"warmer"? Unless its something you can measure on test gear, how do
you prove it? Only a qualified golden ear may apply? And how much of a
difference is it? Is the response smoother? less noise? lower THD?
Less phase variation?
You want to find some real HI-fi experts go down to aus.hi-fi.
Like politics, audio has its "spin doctors" that can convince gullible
people of anything. I imagine some people are still putting green magic
marker on there CD's and swearing they sound better.
Unfortunately, audio is going in the wrong direction. It used to be
the industry fought for another .1% drop in THD. Now we have lossy
formats such as MP3 whose sonic purity is questionable at best.
And cheap home theater receivers where 1 or 2% THD is the norm these
days. I call it the "dumbing down" of our ears. And don't forget the
disposable gear that's so cheap its not fixable. Its the beginning of
the end of the consumer electronics repair industry as we know it.
Bob
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