Still many thanks for your help.

About the A1, what can I say?

When I purchased the A1 I was 19 years old, and it seems to me to buy a
"Cadillac" (also for the efforts to save the money!).
It was really a pleasure to listen to it, with Celestion 5 speakers.

Time goes by... I come to the feeling the A1 is a myth:
* I thought it is 20 Watt class A, now I read it is only 2 Watt class A...
It heats like a true class A to tweak the listeners ?

* The volume pot failure is a design failure.

* Some components (example the caps) are not well suited for the high
temperature inside.

* Users report different failures.

* Musical Fidelity feedback is null...

* Do you see http://www.musicalfidelity.com/merchandise.html ?
Watches... pens... ridicolous!
The "keep in touch" page: nothing to send a question, only their way to
cater information from the user.


Now I want to build a Gainclone. If it will sound better than A1 I
understand the business: marketing and psichological stuff. I already think
it for hi-end, but facing this also for the A1 is sad :-(

Going to hi-fi and hi-end, you pay
- sometimes, the handcraft manufacturing
- the high costs of manufacturing low quantities
- the brand
- some excellent materials, but they don't improve sound quality (carved
wood, gold everywhere, shark oil for cdrom, cables more expensive than Nasa
Shuttle ones, abuse of special and expensive electronics parts to obfuscate
customers minds - perhaps the design is weak, and so on...)

Here it is my Murhpy law about hi-fi:
price quality
10 10 % cheap
20 20 % midi
30 30 %
40 40 % mini
50 45 % hi-fi
60 48 % hi-fi
100 50 % hi-end
1000 55 %
10000 60 % madness!
you never reach the perfection, it is all marketing hyphens.

Better for your wallet, more amusing and satisfying is do some DIY project!

ciao, Massimo
ITALY

On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 17:33:17 +0100, Sala Massimo wrote:

Still many thanks for your help.

About the A1, what can I say?

When I purchased the A1 I was 19 years old, and it seems to me to buy a
"Cadillac" (also for the efforts to save the money!).
It was really a pleasure to listen to it, with Celestion 5 speakers.

Time goes by... I come to the feeling the A1 is a myth:
* I thought it is 20 Watt class A, now I read it is only 2 Watt class A...
It heats like a true class A to tweak the listeners ?

* The volume pot failure is a design failure.

* Some components (example the caps) are not well suited for the high
temperature inside.


So? You've obviously had a lot of enjoyment from the A1. Forget the specs
for a minute; do you still enjoy the sound that it makes? If so, why
bother whether it is class A up to full power? It's all just numbers -
it's your ears that have to be satisfied at the end of the day!

If you are dissatisfied with the sound, why not build something like the
Zen? You can have true class A then. You could even use a class A mosfet
if you fancy trying that. If you *really* hate the A1 you could build a
really nice Zen in the A1's case - it has a lovely heatsink just waiting ...

or you could give it to me... :-)

--
Mick
http://www.nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini information
Also at http://www.mixtel.co.uk where the collection started.
Currently deserting M$ for linux... :-)

So? You've obviously had a lot of enjoyment from the A1. Forget the specs
for a minute; do you still enjoy the sound that it makes? If so, why
bother whether it is class A up to full power? It's all just numbers -
it's your ears that have to be satisfied at the end of the day!

Mick, I agree with you until the time the A1 volume pot broke.
It sounded good and I was very satisfied.
I never stressed the ampli, I used it in a "religious" way, always
wired to my Celestion 5 speakers.
Now I discover it is not a single failure, other users complain about
a bad design. I am very upset.

I stop trusting Musical Fidelity.
I purchased the A1 for its sound AND for its quality (hi-fi products
claims).
A1 design quality is worse than many consumer products... so I am
wondering about sound quality... it is really a thorn in my side.


If you are dissatisfied with the sound, why not build something like the
Zen? You can have true class A then.

I am thinking about "Death Of Zen" project (funny names...)
See Elliott Sound Products, http://sound.westhost.com
I appreciate really much his feelings about hi-fi and electronics
projects. Take a look at the very interesting web site!

ciao, Massimo

Sala Massimo wrote:
So? You've obviously had a lot of enjoyment from the A1. Forget the
specs for a minute; do you still enjoy the sound that it makes? If
so, why bother whether it is class A up to full power? It's all just
numbers - it's your ears that have to be satisfied at the end of the
day!

Mick, I agree with you until the time the A1 volume pot broke.
It sounded good and I was very satisfied.
I never stressed the ampli, I used it in a "religious" way, always
wired to my Celestion 5 speakers.
Now I discover it is not a single failure, other users complain about
a bad design. I am very upset.

I stop trusting Musical Fidelity.
I purchased the A1 for its sound AND for its quality (hi-fi products
claims).
A1 design quality is worse than many consumer products... so I am
wondering about sound quality... it is really a thorn in my side.

But superficial build quality and engineering quality are two separate
things... Look at the new Ferrari Enzo - reports of trim bits falling off
in the first few hundred km but the core mechanicals are still well
engineered. Closer to the topic, the knobs on my Cyrus 2 lost all their
paint within a couple of years but 15 years on the amp still sounds great

Sala Massimo wrote:
So? You've obviously had a lot of enjoyment from the A1. Forget the
specs for a minute; do you still enjoy the sound that it makes? If
so, why bother whether it is class A up to full power? It's all just
numbers - it's your ears that have to be satisfied at the end of the
day!

Mick, I agree with you until the time the A1 volume pot broke.
It sounded good and I was very satisfied.
I never stressed the ampli, I used it in a "religious" way, always
wired to my Celestion 5 speakers.
Now I discover it is not a single failure, other users complain about
a bad design. I am very upset.

I stop trusting Musical Fidelity.
I purchased the A1 for its sound AND for its quality (hi-fi products
claims).
A1 design quality is worse than many consumer products... so I am
wondering about sound quality... it is really a thorn in my side.

But superficial build quality and engineering quality are two separate
things... Look at the new Ferrari Enzo - reports of trim bits falling off
in the first few hundred km but the core mechanicals are still well
engineered. Closer to the topic, the knobs on my Cyrus 2 lost all their
paint within a couple of years but 15 years on the amp still sounds great

On Fri, 19 Dec 2003 06:08:14 -0800, Sala Massimo wrote:

snip

Mick, I agree with you until the time the A1 volume pot broke.
It sounded good and I was very satisfied.
I never stressed the ampli, I used it in a "religious" way, always
wired to my Celestion 5 speakers.
Now I discover it is not a single failure, other users complain about
a bad design. I am very upset.

I stop trusting Musical Fidelity.
I purchased the A1 for its sound AND for its quality (hi-fi products
claims).
A1 design quality is worse than many consumer products... so I am
wondering about sound quality... it is really a thorn in my side.


If you are dissatisfied with the sound, why not build something like the
Zen? You can have true class A then.

I am thinking about "Death Of Zen" project (funny names...)
See Elliott Sound Products, http://sound.westhost.com
I appreciate really much his feelings about hi-fi and electronics
projects. Take a look at the very interesting web site!


Yep - I like that site! This is an interesting one too - he has replaced
the preamp in an A1 with a more conventional one:
http://www.mhennessy.f9.co.uk/mf_a1/#construction

I'm just experimenting with a source-follower single-ended MOSFET
headphone amp, with an op-amp voltage gain stage. Its rather good but not
enough output (yet!) for speakers. :-)

--
Mick
http://www.nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini information
Also at http://www.mixtel.co.uk where the collection started.
Currently deserting M$ for linux... :-)

Form@C wrote:

I'm just experimenting with a source-follower single-ended MOSFET
headphone amp, with an op-amp voltage gain stage. Its rather good but not
enough output (yet!) for speakers. :-)


You could always try a gainclone

http://home.student.utwente.nl/f.s.b...rtedLM3875.gif

--
Nick

On Fri, 19 Dec 2003 18:35:41 +0000, Nick Gorham wrote:

Form@C wrote:

I'm just experimenting with a source-follower single-ended MOSFET
headphone amp, with an op-amp voltage gain stage. Its rather good but not
enough output (yet!) for speakers. :-)


You could always try a gainclone


http://home.student.utwente.nl/f.s.b...rtedLM3875.gif

I *could*, but I rather like the look of something like this:
http://digilander.libero.it/essentia...ybrid_home.htm
'cos I suspect it has more chance of *really* sounding good, rather than
being based around a chip being used for other than its designed purpose!
(ducks down behind 0.2C/W heatsinks to hide from gaincloners hurling
flaming 1000uF capacitors...)

:-)

--
Mick
http://www.nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini information
Also at http://www.mixtel.co.uk where the collection started.
Currently deserting M$ for linux... :-)

On Fri, 19 Dec 2003 18:35:41 +0000, Nick Gorham wrote:

Form@C wrote:

I'm just experimenting with a source-follower single-ended MOSFET
headphone amp, with an op-amp voltage gain stage. Its rather good but not
enough output (yet!) for speakers. :-)


You could always try a gainclone


http://home.student.utwente.nl/f.s.b...rtedLM3875.gif

I *could*, but I rather like the look of something like this:
http://digilander.libero.it/essentia...ybrid_home.htm
'cos I suspect it has more chance of *really* sounding good, rather than
being based around a chip being used for other than its designed purpose!
(ducks down behind 0.2C/W heatsinks to hide from gaincloners hurling
flaming 1000uF capacitors...)

:-)

--
Mick
http://www.nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini information
Also at http://www.mixtel.co.uk where the collection started.
Currently deserting M$ for linux... :-)

Form@C wrote:

I'm just experimenting with a source-follower single-ended MOSFET
headphone amp, with an op-amp voltage gain stage. Its rather good but not
enough output (yet!) for speakers. :-)


You could always try a gainclone

http://home.student.utwente.nl/f.s.b...rtedLM3875.gif

--
Nick