"Mike Gilmour" wrote in message
...

"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 02:31:25 +1100, Patrick Turner
wrote: ...Clippidy do da.....

Mike Gilmour wrote:
Likely better than a Swiss-made one...... (not a Rolex fan - like SET
valve amps, all marketing and no substance)

I'm surprised and interested by your remark remark that Rolex watches are
effectively a substandard product? On what do you base this opinion on?


Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering



Sorry for the typo..its answering the phone and typing at the same time ;-)

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 18:16:05 -0000, "Mike Gilmour"
wrote:


"Mike Gilmour" wrote in message
...

"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 02:31:25 +1100, Patrick Turner
wrote: ...Clippidy do da.....

Mike Gilmour wrote:
Likely better than a Swiss-made one...... (not a Rolex fan - like SET
valve amps, all marketing and no substance)

I'm surprised and interested by your remark remark that Rolex watches are
effectively a substandard product? On what do you base this opinion on?


Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering



Sorry for the typo..its answering the phone and typing at the same time ;-)


Don't you mean it is simultaneously answering the phone and typing at
the same time? ;-)

d

Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com

"Mike Gilmour" wrote in message
...

"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 02:31:25 +1100, Patrick Turner
wrote: ...Clippidy do da.....

Mike Gilmour wrote:
Likely better than a Swiss-made one...... (not a Rolex fan - like SET
valve amps, all marketing and no substance)

I'm surprised and interested by your remark remark that Rolex watches are
effectively a substandard product? On what do you base this opinion on?



Gawd, don't get him started on about his bling - it'll be about his 'motah'
next.....

"Patrick Turner" wrote


Is it your opinion that the 6550s are a better valve generally? - I'd
sooner
not spend £150 or more to find out they are, if that's likely to be the
case!!

(I can't say I 'remember' a vastly different sound myself.....!!??)

KT88 EH and 6550 EH are now exactly electronically identical
from all the tests I have done.


OK - useful.


Brands other than EH will be different.


Understood.


Not necessarily better or worse, and tube amps sonic signatures
depend on combinations of sources and speakers; so do some SS amps.
so I don't think there is an easy explanation for what we hear.


Agreed entirely. I've just spent a while switching amp/speaker combinations
about myself.



Both perform well, and a guy who replaced the ageing jan GE6550A in an amp
I
made for him
was astounded with the new 6550 EH.


I have a number of EH valves (including 2A3s) and have to say I like them a
lot. Jim Fish of Wilsons Valves - a highly respected UK 'valve man' (who
won't sell Mullard NOS to the Yanks, to give you a clue) reckons they are
the modern equivalent of Mullards.


But I also changed other things in the amp, like using EL
84 as driver triodes, instead of 6CG7, and a simpler NFB application.
And so I dunno what contributed to the
better dynamics.
Thd went from 0.04% at 3 watts to 0.01%, with no more NFB applied,
so maybe that says something.


Interesting.

"Mike Gilmour" wrote in message
...

"Patrick Turner" wrote in message
...


Mike Gilmour wrote:

"Patrick Turner" wrote in message
...

Expect thats the new bottles giving out the smell, had the same
thing
happen here when I installed 8 new KT88's..the stink was 'orrible but
it
went away after about an hour. Funny that, because it's the first
time I
had quite that strong smell from new power valves...probably a bit of
burnt
bean sauce and rice wine after the factory lunch break :-) ......If
they
have one that is!

Mike

Smelly amps after turn on indicate the tubes have not even been tested
properly.


Yes that makes perfect sense. I'm in a habit of testing before use anyway
& giving power tubes a fairly easy start in life. I've generally found
tube suppliers to be fine exchanging defective or sub-standard bottles but
I'm not happy about the new possibility of premature tube death due to
improperly tested tubes..



Mike, you keep boasting about your sodding tester and you're going to get a
package marked 'Test This Little Lot' in the post.... ;-)

"Patrick Turner" wrote


But the competition is extremely hot for all electronics made outside
asian
sweat shops.


That's something I'm wondering about - I suppose the new wave of cheap
Chinese amps just *has* to be made in sweatshops. Still beter to buy them
than not I suspect.....


He chose levels and the discs, I merely witnessed
a tuberligious experience.


:-)



I don't sell amplifiers; they sell themselves.


Ain't that the truth!! :-)

People come here for a listen, they mostly go off and buy summat valvey and
all I do is point out the downside!! (Heat, voltages etc.)

"Kurt Hamster" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 16:37:35 +0000 (GMT), Dave Plowman (News) used
to say...

In article ,
Kurt Hamster wrote:
**Ah, so Keith WAS a drinker. That explains a great deal. The damage
has already been done.

And by his outburst about being teetotal, without qualification,
hopefully not in denial.

So you maintain that an alcholic can't become teatotal then?

No. Do you?

You seem to infer that it can't happen without some form of
qualification.



Would an RSA 'Certificate Of Professional Competence' do?

:-)

Kurt Hamster wrote:

Which is why, I suppose, they are called MOSFETs and not transistors.

What did the T stand for in MOSFET again, Kurt?

Jim Lesurf wrote:

I can't comment on the psychology area, but the physiological processes in
the ear involve various forms of nonlinear response. However I'd say we
have to take care with calling this 'distortion' as it is probably better
considered as something like conversion or processing.

Agreed. I was trying to stick with the language mick used (and finding
it somewhat difficult to convey my meaning in the process) (no offense,
mick)

However IIUC your point correctly, Ian, it was that you were saying that
this happens in the hearing process, not in the sound as it is produced and
propagated.

Correct.

Hence if it is not externally applied when we listen to live
music, then it becomes debatable if we want equipment to apply a process
which our head will be performing anyway. (Thus applying it twice in
sucession, which would not occur for the live sounds.)

Yup. IMO.

Snag being to try and equate or compare such 'external' and internal
processes, or make assumptions about what may do to the other. Not easy, as
we don't seem to really understand the implications of either process...

And few people would allow one to attach a sensor directly to the nerves
in the ear...

Sadly, MRI technology which would be able to resolve signals on the
magnitude of nerve-sizes is not quite with us - it requires multi-tesla
strength magnets, and the only such machine in existence apparently has
an apperture just big enough to insert a fly into...

"Keith G" wrote in message
...

"Mike Gilmour" wrote in message
...

"Patrick Turner" wrote in message
...


Mike Gilmour wrote:

"Patrick Turner" wrote in message
...

Expect thats the new bottles giving out the smell, had the same
thing
happen here when I installed 8 new KT88's..the stink was 'orrible
but it
went away after about an hour. Funny that, because it's the first
time I
had quite that strong smell from new power valves...probably a bit
of
burnt
bean sauce and rice wine after the factory lunch break :-) ......If
they
have one that is!

Mike

Smelly amps after turn on indicate the tubes have not even been
tested
properly.


Yes that makes perfect sense. I'm in a habit of testing before use anyway
& giving power tubes a fairly easy start in life. I've generally found
tube suppliers to be fine exchanging defective or sub-standard bottles
but I'm not happy about the new possibility of premature tube death due
to improperly tested tubes..



Mike, you keep boasting about your sodding tester and you're going to get
a package marked 'Test This Little Lot' in the post.... ;-)






Hey I get enough of those already, several friends...some with large OTL's
i.e. two monoblocks = 30 valves to test at a time :-(
My Avo valve characteristic meter MkII is as old as the hills so not much to
boast about..as it came in on a Zimmer frame ;-)..... but it does work very
well if calibrated from time to time..and I picked it up for next to
nothing.