Graham wrote:


"Bruce J. Richman" wrote:

(3) he has repeatedly claimed in his anti-tube,
anti-vinyl ranting and raving that these products produce audible noise and
distortion, yet he has presented no proof to substantiate his claims.

Why should he need to ?


Of course, in a rational world, dealing with rational conveersation, which
excludes Krueger, he should not have to produce any proof. However, Krueger
constantly demands that others prove what they say whenever he disagrees with
it, so turnabout is fair play. He has also main numerous false and libelous
claims about me, so therefore, my request for proof of what he says, even when
it involves audio per se, seems reasonable to me.

Be that as it may, I am reacting to his use of the word "audible", which is of
course, subject to individual perceptions and idndividual differences. There
is presumably a difference between distortion which can be measured and agreed
upon, and "audible distortion" which may or may not be apparent and/or
problematic for a given listener.

It would be interested to observe the results of carefully controlled double
blind tests between my amplifier, for example, a coinrad-johnson Premier 11A,
and an equivalent SS design. If the listeners can not distinguish between them
at a 95% significance level and/or identify that difference as due to
distortion, where's the evidence that, as Krueger claims, "audible noise &
distortion" are part of my audio system.



To illustrate that a tube produces distortion, all you need to do is to look
at the
transfer characteristic. No tube has a truly linear 'curve' .... ahem - hence
they
are called curves it seems - lol.

I you understand the science of electronics, can draw a load line and
interpret it
- that's all the evidence you need to see that any tube will introduce
distortion.

Self-noise is also inherent in any gain circuit ( whether it be tube or solid
state
) . Again, a knowledge of the science of electronics helps here.


See my comments above. I'm aware of the fact that all preamplifiers and
amplifiers produce noise and distortion to some extent. The issue is
audibility at a normal listening position for a given listener with presumably
average hearing.





As for vinyl, I was under the impression that tracking error distortion was
well
understood ( again from scientific principles ) and the idea of a noiseless
vinyl
recording seems to fall at the first hurdle, given the difficulty of
producing a
perfect pressing. Phono pre-amps also have self-noise too.



Since Krueger chose to lump these 2 very different sources of noise/distortion
together - i.e. electronics and vinyl - I chose to treat as statement as a
generalization. As you know I'm sure, tracking error can be minimized by the
use of either relatively long tonearms or linear tracking arms properly set up
(I had one of the latter, an ET 2.5 Linear Tracker and currently one of the
former, a VPI 10" tonearm). Whether the tracking error effects are audible is
again, I would submit, a matter of individual perception and hearing.

Finally, Krueger lied transparently when he claimed that I said that vinyl
never produces noise. I said no such thing, and naturally, know better than
that.

In the final analysis, I will always trust what can actually be heard over what
may only, in some cases, be measured. I'm not saying that measurements are not
important, but in the final analysis, what I hear is what I value.



Graham







Bruce J. Richman