When the manufacturers or distributors prove them to sound better in proper blind tests, that's when we can draw such a line.

Quote: Originally Posted by Mad Max How come some of y'all use those dip sockets as adapters? Way too much solder going on there. Doesn't that affect the noise floor? A socket shouldn't change the noise floor, or the sound, the slightest bit unless it makes it unstable. I think...

Quote: Originally Posted by leeperry well, time to move to single opamps my friend...duals always sound ugly. I kind of agree. The question is why this is so.

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The perceived quality of sound will always be subjective, so don't make this into a battle of what's wrong or right. This is my oppinion: 1. If you're using an opamp based amp, this IS the amplifier and will be the single most influential part. IME it's the amplifying stages that degrades the...

Quote: Originally Posted by metreonfuture well then, how does one make a punchy sounding cmoy that has strong mids and bass and good sparkly highs (that are heard! not felt like the dentists drill!!!!) with phones from (i think it's 16ohm for the atrios) to the dt770 80 ohm to the dt150...

Use any standard polypropylene like WIMA. Small. Cheap. Thermal stability. Sounds good enough (most of us probably can't hear the difference between a straight wire and a pp cap). No need to worry about long leads with unwanted inductance, burnt polystyrene or an empty wallet.

There's nothing wrong with JFETs in the signal chain. If cascoded or CFP they can make a very good input stage. If you want, you can build a discrete amp that's on par with high quality opamps, just don't expect it to be as simple as two or three transistors and some resistors. One of the...

How small? How good? A super basic discrete amp will sound worse than an opamp based amp. Simple isn't better. It's just a DIY wish. All amps can be made portable. There's a world of possibilities.

My experience is limited to folded cascode circuits like Earth. I have less experience from standard opamps like Moon or complementary amps such as Sun. Improvements on Earth will make it an AD797-clone. The simple SK170 input stage sounds warm and fuzzy and nice in a way but not clean...

Do you know if the Audio-gd people read this thread? Are they open to creative criticism and ready to improve their modules?

Quote: Originally Posted by Mad Max What does that resistor do, exactly? How do you know which value between 2.2k to 10k is best or is it experimentally determined? Edit: I see AD744 there is special because of pin 5 being for "compensation." What is the compensation? None of the...

Burn in will never change the sound dramatically. Such reports are either vastly exaggerated or the change is in the head of the listener. It's often stated that RFI/EMI will influence the sound of amplifiers, and an amp could sound different depending on what activity is going on in the area.

Either there's something wrong with this amp or the amp you use as a reference.

I haven't that much experience from "resistor rolling". I've tried PRP, Panasonic, Firstronics metal film and no-name carbon film. If there's an audible difference it's minor and greatly overshadowed by the coloration of the active parts (transistors, opamps) and the amplifier's design. Until...