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Old 07-07-15, 06:28 AM   #5
stevehull
Steve Hull
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: hilly, tree covered Arcadia, OK USA
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This subject is fascinating. I still have my Thorens turntable, tube pre-amps/amps and speakers I built in the 70's (new tweeters, but the rest is still perfect).

The direct to disk method of recording, if you have not heard them, are jaw dropping - even for non audiophile types.

But ALL that heat with 12AU7s or 12AX7s! Talk about inefficient!

Had a great talk with a similar audiophile friend who is an audiologist and professor where I used to teach. He feels that many of us, who grew up on AM radio, still have some RIAA equilization "mind set". He thinks our ears "learned" from AM radio. There is good data from so called "primitive peoples" that he is correct.

I also find the MOSFET amplified signals, to be "sterile". I hear this if I use analog or digital inputs. I wish I truly understood what the hot tubes add (or don't add).

And yes, headphones are the most efficient way to listen. Had a GREAT paid of wireless Sonys that would work throughout the house, but my son's damn dog chewed them up. The new replacements don't sound nearly as good and I just can't stand listening to them.

Physioacoustics is a wonderful world of electronics, inner ear transduction and brain processing. Our ears have used the latter two for many hundreds of thousands of years and we still don't understand much of how the brain processes audio. The more I learn, the more questions are out there.

For simple casual listening, an efficient class D may well be the least bad.


Steve
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