Does anyone care to ask an amplifier designer a technical question? My door is open.


I closed the cable and fuse thread because the trolls were making a mess of things. I hope they dont find me here.

I design Tube and Solid State power amps and preamps for Music Reference. I have a degree in Electrical Engineering, have trained my ears keenly to hear frequency response differences, distortion and pretty good at guessing SPL. Ive spent 40 years doing that as a tech, store owner, and designer.
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Perhaps someone would like to ask a question about how one designs a successfull amplifier? What determines damping factor and what damping factor does besides damping the woofer. There is an entirely different, I feel better way to look at damping and call it Regulation , which is 1/damping.

I like to tell true stories of my experience with others in this industry.

I have started a school which you can visit at http://berkeleyhifischool.com/ There you can see some of my presentations.

On YouTube go to the Music Reference channel to see how to design and build your own tube linestage. The series has over 200,000 views. You have to hit the video tab to see all.

I am not here to advertise for MR. Soon I will be making and posting more videos on YouTube. I don’t make any money off the videos, I just want to share knowledge and I hope others will share knowledge. Asking a good question is actually a display of your knowledge because you know enough to formulate a decent question.

Starting in January I plan to make these videos and post them on the HiFi school site and hosted on a new YouTube channel belonging to the school.


128x128ramtubes

@tomic601, your mention of mentoring has jogged my memory (too much alliteration? ;-) . Everyone who met or even read the writings of Harvey Rosenberg knows what an interesting character he was. He was also a generous man, as I found out in the mid-80's.

Harvey was famously known for his love of three hi-fi produtcs: the original Quad ESL loudspeaker, the Futterman OTL amplifier, and the Decca cartridge. I had a Decca Blue back in '73/4, then moved on, along with everyone else, to a Supex SD-900e moving coil (into a Levinson JC-1 head amp). By the mid-80's, my interest in the Decca had been rekindled, partly because of Harvey's writings about it. He obviously understood the cartridge better than anyone else, so I wrote him (no email ;-) at NYAL, asking him every question I could think of about the Decca.

One day the phone rang, and it was Harvey. I hadn't included a phone number, but he called Glendale information and got it! He started talking about the Decca, but soon had to put me on hold to take care of something (a knock at the door, perhaps). I put down the phone, and ran for a pen and paper. When I again picked up the phone, he was yammering on, oblivious to me not being on the other end ;-) . He told me ALL about the cartridge: capacitive and resistive loading, appropriate arms, damping, etc. I wrote it all down, and still refer to my notes. Thanks Harvey, you are greatly missed.

Sigh, in the best way possible. The RM-5, one of my favorite components of all time regardless of price.

Speaking of Harry, I was tuning up two of his systems, one with the CAT and one with the Classe. I had my RM-5 with me and me and Harry listened to it for about two hours.

Man did I ever love that preamp! You could mate the RM-5 with anything and it would transform that amp and speaker combo. When Kenny started dampening his Pre-amp it was all over for me, I kept the RM-5 close by. It tuned better than all of them. I think I toured with the RM-5 for about 3 years.

mg

@bdp24 Well, share the Decca notes, man! Which way did he go on 'load the Decca with 33k or 1 meg'?

There was no bamboozling and nothing like the pseudoscience you propose on your website. http://www.teoaudio.com/technical/

I ran into you on the cable threads. This thread is about answering questions.

Please leave us alone.


Before you answer a question, you have to define the question.

You failed to properly define the question.

As for the science of fluid metals, bring us your answers for questions you don’t understand.

The world of fundamental physics awaits. 
 
 
You should really be careful about that definition of questions aspect.  As for leaving you alone, I will do as you ask.
@teo_audio actually made some reasoned and reasonable comments. Why attack him and his business here? Seriously,  I am reading far to many words stating others are “dumb, morons, snake oil marketers, build poor gear” etc... Goodness it’s time to be more humble and professional about other people’s business, hard work and achievements in life.

Others have areas of expertise and experience we can all learn from. I learned long ago when I feel most everyone has it wrong and only I have the answers and truth, then it’s time for me step back and really look at my myself.

This has the potential of being one of the best threads I have read here on Agon in years. Great posts by the OP and others. I simply ask for us to please stop demeaning and name calling builders, business, posters and people we may disagree with. Plenty of very smart and experienced people like the products from these other companies and can appreciate the sonic differences that are found in these pieces of gear. Many appreciate the sonic differences and fine tuning that can be found in parts, wire, and even fuses.

What some call snake oil might, just might, be a blind spot for the person judging. No individual knows it all and there are products out there that just plain old do as advertised even though we might not fully understand why........yet!