Many of us grew up with the idea of the component audio system. A receiver (or a separate preamplifier and amplifier), tuner (radio), record player, tape deck, and later on a CD player. If you were into more fancy stuff, you had a DAT or MiniDisc deck as well. While some of us cling on to this mindset like there's no tomorrow, the real world seems to favour a different method of consuming music. According to Erica Ogg (what's in a name), the component audio system is on its way out - thanks to the iPod and the commoditisation of music.
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Member since:2005-07-22
I've got a pair of Audiostatic DC1 electrostatics that I drive with a pair of Radford tube/valve amps with four EL34s per channel and they indeed do sound great. But the total cost is about 10000 euro or so.
I can't fit that system into the small flat where I now live and at the moment I'm using a pair of modified Tandy Genexxa LX5s, and a battery powered modified Trends TA10.1 tripath chip amp. The little Tandys aren't electrostatics, but they have an exotic 'Linaeum' film tweeter which certainly has much of the magic of my big electrostatics in the treble and midrange, although they do lack bass.
You can get Tandy/Radioshack speakers for about $100 on ebay. Then you need to rewire them (I used Chord Rumour), change the inductor and capacitor in the crossover to higher quality parts (total cost another $50), stuff the ports with drinking straws, and add more foam padding inside the box. Google for instructions.
The basic Trends amp is about $150, and you can get a modified one with battery power supply from Audiomagus (http://www.audiomagus.com) for about $450 dollars. So for a total cost of $600 or so you've got a potentially really exotic system. Add some more little Tandys and a subwoofer, driven by some more tripath digital chip amps and you can build your dream 7.1 system for a relatively low cost.
The iPod is actually a high quality source, although the DAC in the current models isn't as good as the Wolfson in the previous generation. So you can use that as a main source for your system and still be an Audiophile. Buy an older Wolfson based iPod, and get it tweaked by Red Wine audio, and you have a seriously exotic source.
Other great amps/speakers that are cheap include the Glow tube amp ($500), or the Nuforce Icon-1/S-1 amp/speaker combination, the John Blue JB3 speaker ($300) or Hornshoppe horns ($800). The new trend for highly efficient full range crossover-less speakers means that you only need a low power amp to drive them.
I think these new cheap super quality components are a new golden age of affordable Hi End, and I'm having as much fun as I ever have, while spending very little money.
Member since:2005-07-06
Tripath is a Class-D PWM amp. PWM amps are digital right up to output FET which is hooked to the speaker wires. They have made up a Class-T but it is just a Class-D PWM amp with a feedback line. The feedback line is important. It allows the amp to compensate for things like ripple and droop in the power supply. Digital plus the feedback loop is why Tripath amps sound so good. BTW Tripath is close to going under, a similar amp is the TI TAS5706.
Tube and analog amps are very vulnerable to power supply issues. That's why they have those giant toroidal transformers that weight 50lbs. A 50lb toroid trys to stabilize the power supply.
In the long run the digital amps will win. It is simply much more efficient to use a feedback loop to compensate for power supply variance than it is to build a power supply that doesn't vary. They are lot more power efficient too consuming up to 50% less power to generate the same music volume.
MP3s don't represent all of digital audio. MP3s sound bad because a big chunk of the music has been thrown away in the compression process. Better compression schemes like AAC sound better. No compression sounds best. 192K/24b audio contains more information than the ear can hear.
Speakers are the most critical component. No matter what the amp does it still has to move air for you to be able to hear it. Speaker placement and room acoustics are key. Make sure your subwoofer has enough low end range.
Member since:
2007-09-06
My speaker tech knowledge is lacking so I'm sure there's something cooler but the most interesting I've seen are a set of electrostatics at an audiophile friend's house. It's just wierd to see these two rectangle sheets of metal screen with no magnet well behind them but the sound quality from them speaks for itself. I was just pondering what a 7.1 setup with six of those and a good woofer would be like; geekly cool overkill for a computer though.