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In the Forum: Melquiades Amplifier
In the Thread: Valve Preamplifier for Macondo/DSET
Post Subject: ClarificationPosted by anthony on: 8/11/2020
 Romy the Cat wrote:
Anthony, I do not know what you new buffer is. A few notes. The difference between sub 10R and 300R of output impedance is significant for the load you have (Milq) between your new buffer and your 10Y preamp. The type of the description you provided, however, is not something he I feel might be attributed to impedance difference.

 


Nice pick Romy.  The output impedance of the buffer is < 0.1R.  One of the chips it uses is spec'd for 600r loads and it will drive 300r satidfactorily...apparently.

 Romy the Cat wrote:
Now the important note. Beside the acknowledgment of the sonic differences (which is semi-important) you might look at the overall musical capacity. When you get a grip of the overall musical capacity then the cataloging and recognizing the sonic differences begin to have slightly different twist for you as you have a context under which the sonic differences are observed. The “imaging is clearer”. What is it mean? I do not mean to be cynical at all. It is a legitimate question. How much imaging clarity we need and how much other problems we will tolerate to have “imaging clearer”? We certainly do not have “imaging” during our live events.  Just think about it. I know, it is an annoying part of me and my wife goes crazy whan she tells me that she loves me and I ask her “what does it mean?”
 


When listening to the various preamps/buffers thus far there has been a direct correlation between 'clarity' of the image and how realistic I perceive the sounds on the individual instruments to be.  When in the sweet spot, Macondo throws a spectacular soundstage with images locked in place.  A piano that is a little to the left of centre seems to be more coherently "put together" in the soundstage when the sounds that it is making seem more "real".  It is not something that I recall noticing with other speakers.  A pair of good 2-way standmounts can image wonderfully when setup correctly, but they do not image in the same way that Macondo seems to be imaging.  With the point source speakers the image is there and you can move around the room and it does not really fall apart or move but with Macondo in nearfield you move far from the sweet spot and the soundstage collapses.  However, the show that Macondo gives you from that sweet spot surpasses anything that I have ever experienced elsewhere, and the more "right" instruments sound the clearer they seem to image within that soundstage.

I think the 'clarity' is related to how well DSET is responding to the preamplifier.  The reason I say that is that I have brought the Placette Active Linestage back into the room.

First, I rewired the Placettes dual-primary power transformers for 230v operation rather than the default 115v.  Guy advised just to run a step down transformer and I had been using a variac, but now there are no compromises.  Secondly, I made up a 5v linear power supply that runs the relays and volume control to replace the failed supply.  Then I brought it into the room and matched the volume between it and the 10y using sine waves from a number of frequencies...I'm sure I have a pink noise file somewhere for this but it has disappeared.  The 10y has 18dB of gain on paper and to match the Placette it is being run at -19dB, so pretty close.

More volume would be nice, but it is what it is.  Previous experience suggests that the Placette gets better with time, so other than the initial listen immediately after matching the volumes, I will continue to listen to the Placette for a day or two to reorient myself with the sound and then compare it formally to the 10y.
 Romy the Cat wrote:
Ok, let me give you a tip in this direction. I would make a statement that many people would not understand but trust me, I know what I am taking about. Imaging is super important byproduct of playback as it is a very objectively depicts timing of everything. The ultimate objective in playback is however is not to get best imaging but take it to next step: to make system to present music with no imaging at all. According to my experience it happens only in DPoLS configuration. The DPoLS playback also has imaging but it has absolutely nothing to do with imagine that a playback has outside of DPoLS. Saying that, do I feel that we need to have “imaging clearer” outside of DPoLS? Yes, we do. We, however, always should ask ourselves what does it mean in connect of a larger picture.
 
 
DPoLS sounds like such work.  Yet to be experienced. 

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