Hopefully those who read the last two articles in Roger’s Corner learned a bit about OTL amplifier circuits. As someone who currently owns a couple it is my opinion that with the right speakers, there is not another amplifier circuit that produces the same level of transparency. For example, pairing an OTL amplifier with a good electrostatic speaker, also known for transparency, as well as speed, is about as real as music reproduction gets for me. I am not one of those folks that feels you can replicate a live performance with 2-channel stereo reproduction, but playing live performances recorded on 15 IPS reel-to-reel tape with an OTL amplifier and electrostatic speakers is very satisfying to me.
Regardless of the components that make up their system, audiophiles enjoy listening to the music their system reproduces. However, audiophiles often do not understand what to listen for to determine if their system is reproducing music optimally, or even more important how to fix it if anything is wrong. For the audiophile it is much easier to get on the upgrade wagon and try to find another component and hope it cures what if anything might be the problem with what they are hearing. Worse yet, is thinking that cables (the audiophile approved “tone control”), might cure their systems ills. Something sounds “bright”, get a “warm” cable. You get the point.
Prior to his death, as Roger was mostly immobile and had much more time on his hands, he took to starting a forum where he conducted an online Q&A. So, his desire to educate audiophiles stayed with him to the near end. I decided as part of this Roger’s Corner, and perhaps future ones, I would post a question that was asked of Roger and his answer. I feel this first question is appropriate given it involves listening and if you sense the story Roger relates sounds familiar, perhaps you were there.
Question: I am curious and wonder if you could tell me how you trained your ears?
Answer: Time, as well as attention to distortion, frequency response variations, and lots of A/B testing.
One experience I would share is a listening session with 5 rather proud golden eared audiophiles and myself. They were all lined up on the couch in pretty good position to hear the system. I was 90 degrees off axis having some wine and cheese when I heard a horrible rendition of a standup bass.
I first said: “That is the worst bass fiddle I have ever heard, is this some horrible recording?” I was told that it was a well-respected recording. Then I asked, “What do you guys hear?” The responses were the typical audiophile things like, poor imaging, no depth, yada, yada, yada. I said: “What I hear is a lot of distortion, like 30%.” It turns out the source of the problem was a tube modified OPPO player. I said, “Hey got some more 6SN7s around?” So new tubes made everything fine. The host, a good friend, quickly brought out his tube tester and we found the old tubes were down to 20% emission.
The point of this story is that audiophiles rarely hear distortion as distortion. That word is not popular. They were listening to and judging a system that was simply broken. So, the first thing people need to know is when their system is broken. I think many systems are.
In closing I feel putting in the appropriate time listening and developing confidence in your hearing (which can be hard depending on who you hang with) are good places to start. Also, someone forwarded me this link that has some good information:
http://harmanhowtolisten.blogspot.com/2011/01/welcome-to-how-to-listen.html
I know that Harman has developed some very good listening procedures and selects their listeners carefully. The qualification process to become one of their listeners is long and many people are eliminated. What Harman wants to get out of all this is to have listeners tell them if they are going in the right direction with changes in speakers and other components. Of course they use measurements also. Any sane person would.
On another topic, I met up with Leslie and Grant a few months ago when they were in town. Leslie had mentioned several people have been inquiring about the Music Reference RM-10 Mk III that we are in the process of making and when might we have the DIY class for some of you to build one of your own. Well, we had been pretty encouraged of late that we were getting close to the finish line. However, we were dealt a big blow today when the person making our frames told us that they would no longer be able to make them. However, as an alternative, it may be that that in the style of Roger each builder could just get a nice piece of wood and some hardware and build it right on a board. I will give that some thought as once we get our circuit boards manufactured, we will then have all the necessary parts for the build.
Now I will mention this will not be an inexpensive build, but it will be a good deal less to build your own than buying a new RM-10 Mk III. To give you a little idea of cost, the transformers are about $900 per set (two output transformers and a power transformer). Also, if you are one of the lucky few to get the kit and be part of the DIY build you must be a seasoned DIYer or someone who is not going to need their hand held as there is not going to be an instruction manual to step you through the build process (unless someone wants to volunteer to create one). You get parts, hardware, a schematic, and a bill of materials. The rest is on you and your DIY skills. Stay tuned for more updates as I get them.