Book Review (8):The Audiophile's Project Sourcebook,et al ;Slone

[Paul]

Twaddle, stuff, and nonsense


Basically this whole book is the effort of a hayseed electronics vendor
to peddle his own kits of plain vanilla grade stereo equipment. With
skilled electronic assemblers in America getting $8.30/hr (and equally
skilled Asians getting that per day!) and components in hobby
quantities bringing a 50 to 500 percent premium over what commercial
buyers pay even in 100 piece quantities, he claims a hobbyist can
better commercial grade designs in his hobby workshop cheaper.

This reminds me of Fred Willard's character in the excellent film, "A
Mighty Wind". One of his catchphrases-"I Don't Think So!"-applies here.


These amp designs, apparently mostly from Douglas Self's books, are
nothing special or unique: as someone else pointed out, if they were,
there would be dozens of amplifiers of "Slone type" sold ,just as many
companies made "Williamson style" amplifiers, without compensating DTN
Williamson, during the early postwar hi-fi era.

About the only justification for homebrewing audio amps is to get a
design offered commercially only as a "high end" piece at huge expense
(and gross margin) or not at all. You can get an education, perhaps,
but a breadboard project of a couple watts can give you that, and
besides, audio amp design isn't exactly in big demand: the websites of
High End, pro, and mainstream audio equipment manufacturers list
continuing job vacancies for DSP software engineers but never analog
designers.

[Damon Hill]

"Paul" > wrote in news:1103518483.213394.192520
@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

> Twaddle, stuff, and nonsense

Yet another schizo review by "Paul", who apparently has
an obsession of some sort. I can't tell if he's actually
read the book for content, or skimmed it and decided the
author's attitudes conflicted with his, and isn't about to
let anyone forget it.

I found the book useful as I did Self's. It's a jumping-off
point for geeks like me who find some fascination with
audio electronics design. Slone's not God (Leach is ;).
There are at least a million ways to design and build
audio amplifiers, some of which are better than most. He
covers only part of that vast range of design, of course.

Slone's skepticism of audio cognescenti is understandable;
they argue perceptions without understanding technology, he designs
what they cannot and of course they bite the hand that feeds
them. I find his attitudes honest and refreshing.

And the arguments go on, ad infinitum. Buy the book, read
it and see if it's a useful reference to go on the shelf
with your other references, give it away to someone deserving,
or drop it off at a used bookstore for a dime on a dollar.

At any rate, make it YOUR decision.

--Damon, who needs to learn more MOSFET design. Maybe

[Rui Pedro Mendes Salgueiro]

In rec.audio.tech Damon Hill <damon1six1> wrote:
> "Paul" > wrote in news:1103518483.213394.192520
> @f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:
>> Twaddle, stuff, and nonsense

> Yet another schizo review by "Paul", who apparently has
> an obsession of some sort.

The reason why "Paul" seems schizophreniac is that he is quoting,
without attribution, from the reviews (by several persons, who
disagree with each other) at Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/0071379290/

For instance this review was written by "Bob Lockett "Lockett,
Stockett and Barrel" (Shawnee Mission, Kansas)".

--
http://www.mat.uc.pt/~rps/

..pt is Portugal| `Whom the gods love die young'-Menander (342-292 BC)
Europe | Villeneuve 50-82, Toivonen 56-86, Senna 60-94

[John Walton]

first -- Self isn't a fan of MOSFET's, Randy is a proponent.

secondly -- if you have analog design skills the folks at TI, Nat Semi,
Linear Tech, ADI and Maxim would like to talk with you.

third -- Slone is out front with his "life ethic", and a lot of
"red-state-o-phobes" don't like it.

"Paul" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Twaddle, stuff, and nonsense
>
>
> Basically this whole book is the effort of a hayseed electronics vendor
> to peddle his own kits of plain vanilla grade stereo equipment. With
> skilled electronic assemblers in America getting $8.30/hr (and equally
> skilled Asians getting that per day!) and components in hobby
> quantities bringing a 50 to 500 percent premium over what commercial
> buyers pay even in 100 piece quantities, he claims a hobbyist can
> better commercial grade designs in his hobby workshop cheaper.
>
> This reminds me of Fred Willard's character in the excellent film, "A
> Mighty Wind". One of his catchphrases-"I Don't Think So!"-applies here.
>
>
> These amp designs, apparently mostly from Douglas Self's books, are
> nothing special or unique: as someone else pointed out, if they were,
> there would be dozens of amplifiers of "Slone type" sold ,just as many
> companies made "Williamson style" amplifiers, without compensating DTN
> Williamson, during the early postwar hi-fi era.
>
> About the only justification for homebrewing audio amps is to get a
> design offered commercially only as a "high end" piece at huge expense
> (and gross margin) or not at all. You can get an education, perhaps,
> but a breadboard project of a couple watts can give you that, and
> besides, audio amp design isn't exactly in big demand: the websites of
> High End, pro, and mainstream audio equipment manufacturers list
> continuing job vacancies for DSP software engineers but never analog
> designers.
>

[Arny Krueger]

"Rui Pedro Mendes Salgueiro" > wrote in message

> In rec.audio.tech Damon Hill <damon1six1> wrote:
>> "Paul" > wrote in
>> news:1103518483.213394.192520 @f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:
>>> Twaddle, stuff, and nonsense
>
>> Yet another schizo review by "Paul", who apparently has
>> an obsession of some sort.

One word: tubes.

> The reason why "Paul" seems schizophreniac is that he is quoting,
> without attribution, from the reviews (by several persons, who
> disagree with each other) at Amazon.com:
>
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/0071379290/


This review is a hoot!

It starts out with name-calling:

"But just because Mr. Slone hates tubes (and he does, although he can't be
honest with himself, like most fundies, and so has to attempt to disguise
his real motives) doesn't change reality. Measurements aside, all other
things being equal, tube equipment generally sounds better."

Note the apparent sequel to that long-term boogie man of retro-technology
high enders *objectivist* appears to be *fundamentalist* (here shortended to
fundie). Also notice the introduction of retro-technology TRVTH:
"Measurements aside, all other things being equal, tube equipment generally
sounds better."

Then we get opinion-stated-as-science:

"If you listen to good music at normal volume, in a normal house, the
average power output of your amplifier is almost always between 10 and 500
milliwatts. You can prove this with a DMM that has at least a 20 kHz AC
bandwidth and peak and averaging functions hooked across your speaker. The
Class B Lin topology solid state amplifier with large amounts of global NFB,
which Slone describes and advocates to the exclusion of all others, does
very well at between 5 and 100 percent of its rated power, but is terrible
at between .01 and 1 to 2 percent of rated power."

To which I say - why is it that I can tick on the clipping indicators on the
125 wpc amps in my living room at will? Here, let me put on this CD that I
made and play it at the same level that was in the room when I recorded it.
Note, I recorded it during a traditional-style church service and its a
recording of a small choir singing a capella.

Enough of this weirdness!

[Arny Krueger]

"Paul" > wrote in message
oups.com

> About the only justification for homebrewing audio amps is to get a
> design offered commercially only as a "high end" piece at huge expense
> (and gross margin) or not at all.

I suspect that most people who build amps just do it for the fun.

>You can get an education, perhaps,
> but a breadboard project of a couple watts can give you that,

Building low-powered amps is more fun. Building high-powered amps is risker,
and potentially far more expensive.

> and besides, audio amp design isn't exactly in big demand:

It's a solved problem for the most part.

> the websites of High End, pro, and mainstream audio equipment
> manufacturers list
> continuing job vacancies for DSP software engineers but never analog
> designers.

Which makes a point.

[[email protected]]

Arny wrote:
"To which I say - why is it that I can tick on the clipping indicators
on the
125 wpc amps in my living room at will?"

Note that the reviewer listens to Klipsch LaScalas, which deliver 104dB
1M/1W.

TB

[Sander deWaal]

said:

>Arny wrote:
>"To which I say - why is it that I can tick on the clipping indicators
>on the
>125 wpc amps in my living room at will?"

Did he really say that?
Then he has either some woefully inefficient heaters....umm, speakers,
a room the size of a cathedral, or he's deaf as a brick.
Or all of the above :-)

>Note that the reviewer listens to Klipsch LaScalas, which deliver 104dB
>1M/1W.

Enough to use a SET within agreeable distortion figures.

--
Sander de Waal
" SOA of a KT88? Sufficient. "