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In the Forum: Playback Listening
In the Thread: About the Audio Neutrality.
Post Subject: Taking neutral when/where one can get itPosted by Paul S on: 4/10/2007
The TAP TVC does happen support a fully balanced topology, for whatever that's worth. I have not discovered anything difinitive about this for myself, however. I can say that I do not consider the unit's situational neutrality as anything other than that. I happen to agree with Romy about the TAP's theoretical limitations (what's to argue?), and I have tried to consider these theories in my own installation in order to avoid and/or mitigate theoretical/potentially-audible problems. OTOH, there is a reason that RIAA networks are principally done with resistors and caps, and this is because these can shape a signal just like a transformer may, under given conditions. No free lunch.
It seems to me ironic that it is hard to find and implement a neutral device that "gets out of the way" to allow other, presumably active, devices to work what magic they can. In the back of the mind lurks the realization that if we can hear how wire itself affects a circuit/system, then transformers in a circuit are bound to be doing something, just as resistors, capacitors, diodes, op amps, etc. might do. The idea of passive versus active circuits in any given situation has spawned heated debate in some circles, on theoretical grounds and based on the experiences and preferences of the parties in question. To be honest, I can both "see" and hear good reasons for either approach, situationally.
I am presently wrestling with a fading cartridge and new phono stage, and I do not expect nor even desire to find a truly "neutral" cartridge or phono stage, even though my present (fading!) cartridge is/was more-or-less neutral in terms of "presentation" and it does a pretty good imitation of master tape. But I think that in the case of transducers one is pretty much stuck with an outright and basically obvious "rendering", for better or for worse. I do want to keep any audible additions or subtractions from any TT, arm, or wire, etc. to a minimum; basically, I want to keep additions and subtractions from other than transducers to a minimum at this time, except...
I spent years trying to find/install a "straight wire with gain" for an amp and then the ML2s totally turned my thinking around on this. I still can't tell you what they are doing, but they are not entirely "neutral", by any means, at least not as I understand this concept.
Of course, speakers are never going to be completely "neutral", although the best of them seem to allow or even create a particular sense of a given performance or type of performance. Here I find that given speakers do more-or-less "better" with one type of music or another, including the revelation of intent/expression. For example, for all the problems with planars, I have certainly been quite moved by solos rendered by well-implemented planars.
Still, generally speaking, I have found over the years that components that most wow me at first usually let me down the most over time. The first time I heard the ML2s I was just confused!
Best regards,
Paul S
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