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Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort-Of Cheap

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Re: Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort-Of Cheap

#91

Post by russh »

88 wrote: post #61
Karunamon wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course they’re anecdotal - listening to music is a subjective experience. If someone really thinks their music sounds better after adding $100 cable lifters and taping $50 bags of rocks to their $10,000 system, they are automatically correct . Their ears, their hobby. It would be like saying that something can’t work because it’s a placebo - even if all they’re getting is a sugar pill, if the symptoms went away, t…

Placebo effects are real.

Placebo effects are real profitable.

Re: Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort-Of Cheap

#92

Post by raphlinus »

milesvp wrote: post #50
scblock wrote: post #2

Oh geez they could have left this statement out: "When I wrote my previous article, class-D audio was fairly new, and audiophiles were still arguing about whether class-D amps could sound as good as class-AB or class-A units. Nobody is having those arguments anymore." Those arguments are still front and center when it comes to amplifier design, both on the manufacturer and consumer sides.

I'm not convinced audio engineers are having that argument anymore (which is more the audience of IEEE). I get the impression from an engineer I know who's specialized in digital signal processing, and who's done a significant amount of analog work, that anyone who's still having some of these arguments doesn't understand some of the basic maths of the problem space. That basically, you can always digitally encode an…

Likely that was xiph on why excessively high sample rates don't do much for the listening experience: https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html

Re: Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort-Of Cheap

#93

Post by dbrgn »

mbell wrote: post #89
fermienrico wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, I removed the Vinyl argument. That's for another time. Nothing wrong with Records but I've had the same issue talking to people about Records wrt to audio quality. I own Records and like you, I enjoy the experience. There is something amazing about listening to the entire album without distractions and in the sequence that the artist intended. You could do this with mp3/CD, but Records get me in the right mood :…

There are objective reasons to favor vinyl even today. The 'audio quality' if measured in terms of SNR is objectively much worse than any modern medium, however the mixes used for vinyl tend to not be compressed to death so the dynamic range can offset this shortcoming.

In that case you're comparing mixes, not media.

Re: Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort-Of Cheap

#94

Post by TylerE »

sneak wrote: post #90
TylerE wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't lump all audiophiles in with some sort of distorted (irony...) stereotype. I don't have a $10k system, or anything close to it, but yes, my system that I put together for about $1000 is way way way way better than what you're listening onm because I care enough to have a good external DAC, and feed that into a good amp paired with either a set of decent used speakers or one of a couple of sets of good he…

Your external dac is indistinguishable to your ears from the internal one in whatever device you are using to supply it with bits. This is precisely what OP is talking about.

No it isn’t, because if it was internal it would be inside my PC... which is pretty electrically noisy. I can run from my PC to the amp directly and here audible clicks every time I move the mouse or the one of the hard drives spins up.

Re: Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort-Of Cheap

#95

Post by spiralganglion »

irrational wrote: post #26
Matsta wrote: post #10

The majority of all active speakers produced nowadays are Class-D, it's nothing really new (and the fact they are super cheap). No idea how this guy wrote this article and didn't come across DIY Audio (or he just didn't mention it in the article). There is a tonne of information here: https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/class-d/

I have some questions. My son has been taking guitar lessons using a classic guitar. Using the advice of his instructor we are getting him a begginer's electric guitar for christmas. We also need to get him an amp. Is the amp in this article the same kind of amp that you could plug an electric guitar into? I know nothing about music or instruments, but I do know about electronics so I was thinking it might be fun to…

[Professional Musician / Hobbyist Maker]

Yes, this amp can work — experimental musicians run instruments through much weirder things — but it'll sound strange.

Whether you build an amp or not, you should definitely buy a standard guitar amp, so that he can focus on his guitar playing. A standard guitar amp (solid state or tube, to taste) will let him hear how his playing compares to other musicians (who also use standard guitar amps), helping him gain a critical ear. He'll learn what parts of the tone come from his fingers.

When he's ready to go experimental, then he can start playing with (say) ripping pickups out of guitars and wiring them up to headphones as portable EM detectors. When he gets to that phase, that's the time to start using line amplifiers like the one in this article instead of instrument amplifiers. And drilling hundreds of screws into his guitar.

Re: Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort-Of Cheap

#96

Post by mbell »

dbrgn wrote: post #93
mbell wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are objective reasons to favor vinyl even today. The 'audio quality' if measured in terms of SNR is objectively much worse than any modern medium, however the mixes used for vinyl tend to not be compressed to death so the dynamic range can offset this shortcoming.

In that case you're comparing mixes, not media.

Yes, but the two are intertwined. You often can not get a flac file from source with the same mix that was put on vinyl, just the unfortunate reality of it. This is exactly what I'm saying, people will say that vinyl "sounds better", and they aren't wrong in a lot of cases. Not because vinyl is a better medium, but because a good mix isn't available in any other medium.

Re: Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort-Of Cheap

#98

Post by dbrgn »

kazinator wrote: post #71
dbrgn wrote: post #53

How would one best control the output volume on such a DIY amp? 2-channel logarithmic 10K potentiometer in front of both inputs? What if you use balanced input?

If your input is balanced, it will be handled by some op-amp circuit or whatever, which converts to single-ended internal signal, like the "balanced line input module" shown in this page: http://sound.whsites.net/project30a.htm You can easily insert a volume control right after such a stage.

Yeah, but in the context of this article, I'd have to cut some traces on the PCB to get there. Doesn't sound like the ideal solution to me :)

Re: Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort-Of Cheap

#99

Post by brokenmachine »

ohazi wrote: post #20
fermienrico wrote: post #16

It is refreshing to see these types of articles. Of all disciplines of human interests and hobbies, Audiophiles are one of the most stubborn, misinformed, anecdotal and delusional bunch. Of course I am generalizing, but every time I engage in a discussion about audio quality, it is a losing battle. Not because of lack of data or supporting evidence, but because of the fundamental dissent for data driven arguments. Yo…

Someone I know was recently trying to have a conversation with an audiophile about the possibility of re-purposing some audio equipment to make noise floor measurements for another system that had similar frequency and dynamic range characteristics. The technique worked just fine, but man, that guy was loony. He was trying to claim, with a straight face, that a GPS disciplined oscillator wasn't stable enough for his…

Oh god, jitter... If ever there was a more pseudoscience audio term, I haven't heard it.

I wish there was a separate term between audiophiles who just want to spend a lot of money on hocus pocus, and audiophiles who want the measurably best performance.

Then the audiophile forums would not be polluted with people who spend thousands on cables and other rubbish, when the room response/treatment and speaker selection has a million times more effect on the actual sound.

Re: Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort-Of Cheap

#100

Post by function_seven »

sneak wrote: post #90
TylerE wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't lump all audiophiles in with some sort of distorted (irony...) stereotype. I don't have a $10k system, or anything close to it, but yes, my system that I put together for about $1000 is way way way way better than what you're listening onm because I care enough to have a good external DAC, and feed that into a good amp paired with either a set of decent used speakers or one of a couple of sets of good he…

Your external dac is indistinguishable to your ears from the internal one in whatever device you are using to supply it with bits. This is precisely what OP is talking about.

There’s a huge gap in quality between most onboard DACs and externals. It’s not necessarily because the onboard is worse at C-ing the Ds to the As, but because they’re not isolated from the noisy electronics that share the power supply.

My laptop emits different squeals when I scroll a window, for example.

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