[LobalWarming]

So what you're saying is that the $5k fuse I put in the Vali 2 might be overkill?

Oh noooes... you and I and all tube hoarders collectors know, the hoard collection of tubes the Vali 2 can employ can easily exceed $5k by overspending only a little. Therefore, Vali deserves only the 'best' fuses to preserve the sonic and financial integrity of hoarding collecting.

Like the sage farmer, it's just one of the costs we bear to be outstanding in our quantum field.

 

[Paladin79]

I am aware of your works as you know and what you picture is people learning tricks.
Blind studies are really a different piece of cake that even a lot of scientists do wrong.
Blindly picking out one out of others is a real neat trick but doesn't tell you anything about anything.
comparatio invalida so to speak.

I am not following you but I am sure you mean well. Oftentimes I use it when someone makes claims I doubt. One such instance was a gentleman who said a cable cooker caused amazing results in his power cords. I had the same cooker in my possession so I said that is wonderful!!! I will cook four identical cables and leave four uncooked and send them to you. They will be numbered so only I will know which is which. I even offered to let him keep all the cables. Now if he had been able to do that, I would have been totally amazed. Occasionally people were able to impress me. There is a lot of audio hype out there, I tend to be skeptical about some things so occasionally I spend the time and money to find out as best I can. Now I am but a simple woodworker so my opinion means little.

 

[OldRoadToad]

Having conducted some blind fuse tests with high end fuses vs standard, I can only laugh but each to their own.

Perhaps high-end fuses are polarized and can only be effective when in the proper position? Nah. They're expensive crap for the Obsessive/Compulsive folk. They are a part of that which powers the frAudiophile Galaxy...The FARCE®™.

ORTiwan Kenobi

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

I am not following you but I am sure you mean well. Oftentimes I use it when someone makes claims I doubt. One such instance was a gentleman who said a cable cooker caused amazing results in his power cords. I had the same cooker in my possession so I said that is wonderful!!! I will cook four identical cables and leave four uncooked and send them to you. They will be numbered so only I will know which is which. I even offered to let him keep all the cables. Now if he had been able to do that, I would have been totally amazed. Occasionally people were able to impress me. There is a lot of audio hype out there, I tend to be skeptical about some things so occasionally I spend the time and money to find out as best I can. Now I am but a simple woodworker so my opinion means little.

Again, that's people doing tricks. Not (blind) testing.
I am just a simple scientist but I know how to science.

 

[LobalWarming]

I always say that if you want to see if a fuse makes a difference, get a piece of copper of the right diameter and lenth, and replace the fuse with it [at least for the duration of your listening tests]. You cannot get any better than that.

Unless... the wire is a quantum entangled gold-niobium–titanium alloy superconductor cooled to 1.2K. It's that last couple degrees above absolute zero that make for the most chilling listening experience.

 

[Paladin79]

Again, that's people doing tricks. Not (blind) testing.
I am just a simple scientist but I know how to science.

It is also a term kicked around audio at times. Obviously not what you are talking about I suppose.
“ A “blind test" is a method of testing in which the people being experimented on have no idea about what they're getting. This test method prevents results from being influenced by any a priori information. In the field of Audio, blind tests truly highlight what a listener is able to hear.”

By the way I hope you are still able to use the items I sent you, I made great use of the little brass name plates you sent. I still have a few and they cause me to think of your kindness in doing so.

 

[sixergixer]

Unless... the wire is a quantum entangled gold-niobium–titanium alloy superconductor cooled to 1.2K. It's that last couple degrees above absolute zero that make for the most chilling listening experience.

I prefer my sound signature to be about 500° warmer than that.

 

[Paladin79]

Many of your friends are crazier.

Yes but never boring.

 

[dreed]

Indeed. I'm starting to warm up to silver. Initially, I was a solid Black only Schiit type. But now I'm starting to appreciate the beauty of silver Schiit. I foresee a change over to mostly silver Schiit in my future. Color me a convert!

I started buying Schiit before black was an option. The Hel is the only black thing I have, and that stands alone on my work desk, so it doesn't have to match anything. I'm really glad they made a Silver option for the MJ3, as I was unlikely to buy a black one.

 

[sam6550a]

Darned blabber cat, I gave him a couple GEC to shut him up but he told anyway. I always found it interesting that a tube produced over four decades using similar parts could sound so different. Many of you have heard them and generally the results are pretty positive.

Many vintage tubes sound good due to the operators that assembled them. I have heard many say "we can automate this process, all will sound great, etc.". Bullschiit. Cue forward to the 1970s. My company was building a gimballed optical guided missile seeker head for a very popular air to ground missile. Assembly required optical alignment of the detector with the lens assembly, followed by adhesive curing and other operations. To do this task, numerous tools and an elaborate assembly fixture were designed, and numerous process plans created to produce the seeker assembly. Please remember that after all of this assembly, the seeker would go to the QA test station, where its performance would be measured and it would be accepted or rejected.

So, after the usual start-up problems, production commenced and acceptance rates were soon at about 85% to 90%. Then, suddenly, acceptance rates went to 0%. Not a misprint, folks, zero, nada, nothing, etc., so seeker shipments and missile production stopped. Many people sitting there with nothing to do, no seekers available. Management panic, blue ribbon investigative teams, many consultants [definition: A guy with a briefcase > 100 miles from home who is paid an obscene amount of money to look at an issue and state "Yep, you have a problem", and depart without offering any solution].

Someone in hands on manufacturing noted that on the day before the yields went to zero, the alignment operator, Mary, departed on pregnancy leave and was replaced by Jane. Suddenly, half of the manufacturing staff [yeah, it's an exaggeration, but it conveys desperation], shows up at Mary's house. Short version: Mary paid no attention to the process plan [it did not work], did not use many of the "features" of the elaborate fixture, and developed her own method to align the seeker SO THAT IT WOULD PASS QA INSPECTION. She also had submitted suggestions to supervision, but were not acted upon.

Take this back to 1930-1960 tube production, and you know one factor why new production tubes don't sound as good as NOS. Peaple used to hand wind control grids. This had an amazing impact upon the sound of a tube. The other factor is materials. We cannot utilize many of the materials and chemicals that we used in the 1930-1960 era. Most of this is nonsense---for example arsenic, cyanide, and other materials are used in semiconductor manufacturing, but thorium and other alloys are verbotten.

I am sorry if I bored you with my narrative, but my point was that no matter how we completely "automate" things, they still depend, to a large degree, on the actions creators.

I apologies again for my ramblings, but I am trying to make folks understand that creation of a great vacuum tube is 40% science, 50% art, and 10% luck.

Regards,

Sam

 

[sam6550a]

Just hopefully not Barbies.

I have heard that it might be Kens, but----.

 

[bcowen]

I am not following you but I am sure you mean well. Oftentimes I use it when someone makes claims I doubt. One such instance was a gentleman who said a cable cooker caused amazing results in his power cords. I had the same cooker in my possession so I said that is wonderful!!! I will cook four identical cables and leave four uncooked and send them to you. They will be numbered so only I will know which is which. I even offered to let him keep all the cables. Now if he had been able to do that, I would have been totally amazed. Occasionally people were able to impress me. There is a lot of audio hype out there, I tend to be skeptical about some things so occasionally I spend the time and money to find out as best I can. Now I am but a simple woodworker so my opinion means little.

But this could never work because the cables would be cold by the time they arrived. Who wants to eat cold steak? Yuck.

 

[Paladin79]

But this could never work because the cables would be cold by the time they arrived. Who wants to eat cold steak? Yuck.

Why am I reminded of a steak dinner and large bottle of wine I won in a similar situation? A fine Italian wine I might add. Both came from the same restaurant where Mellencamp took Billy Joel here in town.

 

[hearditontheX]

Jerk.

I guess it's kinda like when I see someone parking a Ferrari in the Target parking lot and ask if they want to test drive my Pacer. They always decline. Rich snobs.

Stop teasing, lets see that Pacer.

 

[sam6550a]

Why am I reminded of a steak dinner and large bottle of wine I won in a similar situation? A fine Italian wine I might add. Both came from the same restaurant where Mellencamp took Billy Joel here in town.

Are you offering for your friends?