Recently I did something silly and bought a little pile of expensive stuff I just did not need. Felt a little guilt, a little sting in light of other investments that could or should have been made. It seemed best I may have put a different hat on and resisted the impulse to live a little.

A customer call today reminded me of the importance of these little things that deserve, if only once in a while, time and resources just because they are for enjoyment. Today we are working hard for less in the shadow of questionable forces that turn the dials overhead, it is so easy to ignore the passing of time. Life Is Short. And uncertain.

What does this have to do with music? Well, those tubes you were looking at you wanted to try? That cartridge? The concert you thought you’d just skip? Reconsider the value hidden in treating yourself, in finding out, in living to know. Those spontaneous splurges can carry power and improvement. Not always, mind you, but consider the upside – a new level of involvement, discovery of better, or a deeper connection.

The post Little Things first appeared on Found Music.

The Blade was conceived in 2014 during some downtime setting up room systems at CES in Las Vegas. (IIRC the audio portion was called the High End Show in those days) The room meetings and setups had been particularly inspiring, largely due to some unplanned 1 on 1 time with a Mr. Naoto Kurosawa, owner of Technical Brain Japan. Despite a considerable language barrier, I was gifted a discussion with him on solid state diode behavior and parameters he had discovered that made them sound less like solid state diodes. Truly a Brilliant Man made available by way of an unfortunate shipping mishap – his show gear had not made it to Las Vegas from Japan and he was there with no equipment to show. Subsequently, at later venues I did finally hear his amplifiers and I remember they were among the best I had heard of any type. I digress, but the point is he had given me an idea or two to try in my own power supplies from his incredible knowledge of transistor and diode behavior.

The idea of solid state rectification is a sexy one indeed, and one I had tried to make work for some time. It was alluring in that it is easier to implement than tube based supplies; light, compact, low impedance, and can deliver current. Lots of it. All great good stuff for sound, particularly in an amplifier designed to drive complex loads. The problem to solve was that SS rectification (in all the ways I had implemented it) sounds less vivid than DHT vacuum or Hg tube versions, lacking in areas of color and insight. Off I went, propelled by the excitement of learning some concepts from a true master. I built the first iterations of the Blade amplifier with this supply. Ultimately I had developed an arrayed SiC Shottky full wave scheme with a carefully tuned snubber. The oscilloscopes were pleased.

However, this choice has always gnawed at me. The last year has been dedicated to the task of redesigning the Blade. Now tube rectified, there is a host of important circuit improvements. Today there is a more refined driver section and ~12W more power with KT88. It is quieter, more muscular, smoother, more extended, and more detailed.

The post Iterations first appeared on Found Music.

The short answer is all of them. In performance driven applications everything matters, but to varying degrees. With limited budget, time, and space it helps to isolate variables and prioritize our steps with help from a rule of thumb:

A chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link.

Losses at any stage in the audio chain cannot be restored. As we fix weaker links, we “promote” the next strongest links to be the new weak ones. Poor performers truly reveal themselves when removed or replaced by better.

Our job, if we want better sound, is to look at the system as a whole: identify the areas of greatest deficiency and address those first. Once we achieve better performance we will hear that small changes make more noticeable differences as we go. As performance improves, smaller details take on a new significance. These smaller details are where significant results are achieved. This approach is the same in component development, be it a phono cable or an amplifier.

The F1 car responds to 1 pound of added tire pressure very differently than a passenger car. The Prius driver might be led to believe that any talk of tire pressures affecting performance is ramblings of the mad. Context, my friends.

One area that is always worth a careful look is AC power delivery. Power is the foundation of amplification – nothing in music reproduction happens without it. IME it tends to be an area of lower concern in many systems but it belongs at or near #1. Power cables, dedicated lines, and outlets contribute heavily to fidelity.

So what is the most important cable in the system? What is the most important component? Look for the one doing the most damage.

The post The Weakest Link first appeared on Found Music.

The two power tubes are ones I just cannot choose between. The KT is detailed, muscular and full, energizing the room in a way that a memorable personality does. The 6AQ5 is sweeter, balanced – more timid and childlike.

The target is a small amplifier in an efficient package that performs at an unusual level. The front end is a small pentode, selected for drive and high gain. In this configuration, the driver section is designed to operate without phase distortions being introduced by capacitor bypassing on the cathode. With enough gain, no bypass is necessary. Purer sound results from keeping music’s phase relationships undisturbed.

The post A simple approach first appeared on Found Music.