Audio Op Amps - Myths and Truths
This is one of the MOST important things you can read.
If you go to various Audio Forums you will always hear that you should 'upgrade' Op Amps, Capacitors, and so on...
But more often than not, you will get mis-information, often by people whose business is the modification of equipment!
They make money ONLY if they can get you to modify your equipment
- so they tell you that you really need to do it (even when you should NOT do it !!) of course !!
They use mystical and unverifiable subjective words like 'more air', 'better definition', or they misuse technical terms
like 'Headroom'... saying lowering noise by 2 db automatically gives you more 'headroom' (it doesn't).
They say you need a 'better high quality Op Amp installed.... or special capacitors...
Or say you need to change those 'SLOW' OpAmps in your console or tape recorder....
They mislead you into thinking that you will hear the difference between an OpAmp with 0.002 % THD distortion
vs. one with 0.001 % THD distortion. (SORRY...you can't hear this difference !!!)
Or that you will hear the difference between a Slew rate of 11 V/us vs. 13 V/us.
Almost all of this is 100 % bullshit.
So START with reading this very good and detailed article on OpAmp Myths and Truths.....
Great Article on 'Op Amp Myths and Truths'
More Technical Info on Audio Op Amps
This is a VERY good series written by Douglas Self for EETimes...
It is a bit technical, but gives a lot of good honest information on all types of Op Amps and their use in Audio Applications.
Note it is in 4 parts, with each part about 4 webpages in length.
Great Article on 'Op Amps' Part 1
Great Article on 'Op Amps' Part 2
Great Article on 'Op Amps' Part 3
Great Article on 'Op Amps' Part 4
This next article is about a BLIND listening test
between a VERY EXPENSIVE and a VERY CHEAP audio set up...
A Great BLIND audio listening test
Monster Cable vs. Coat Hangers
Speaker Wire Listening Test Results
found on the WEB.... a good description of the 'audiophile'
I think most people misunderstand what really motivates audiophiles.
It's NOT the pursuit of ultimate sound accuracy -
some of the "audiophile" gear is downright horrific when it comes to faithful reproduction of sound.
Many $500 studio monitors are far more accurate than some $10k "audiophile" speakers.
What they're really after is
a sense of satisfaction that comes from owning and using an expensive piece of gear.
A lot of these people are middle-age men with some amount of disposable cash.
The wife has vetoed the classic midlife crisis remedy - the Harley-Davidson motorcycle - so what's a man to do in this case?
Well, spend all that money on fancy LP players and cables and speakers.
When you look back and you might go "all those years doing some shit work in an office were pointless"
- well, that's a problem. You can't go there.
You must assign some sense of higher purpose to it all, or else you go crazy.
Audio equipment provides you a way to do that.
And no amount of reasoning, or double blind testing, will ever change that,
because it's NOT A RATIONAL ISSUE.
Magnetic Heads - information and a very good description of Head construction and wear over time...
From John French at JRFmagnetics
Magnetic Head construction, design and information
times this site has been accessed since 1953
