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BOOKS AND ARTICLES
This mysterious Mr. HIGH END
The ghost of High End roams not only in civilized Europe, but also among us. With the help of the resolute and courageous Mrs. Advertising, he penetrates our consciousness, inspiring us to amateur creativity and provoking expensive, sometimes unjustified purchases. We hope that our answer will help you, dear readers, to use your time and money more rationally. Many authors have tried to paint a verbal portrait of Mr. High End, and some of these portraits have already appeared in our magazine (see “AM” No. 6 (11) 96, p. 34, “AM” No. 3 (20) 98, p. 41 ). Alas, its clear, distinct image has not yet been achieved. Experience shows that the process of designing high-end class equipment is characterized by the perfection of technical ideas for the sake of emotional and psychological impact on the listener. It's no secret that a skillful, convincing description of the technical merits of the equipment and its high cost are already an indirect incentive for the birth of musical involvement. Only true music lovers, and there are only a few of them, can look at the sound path as a “black box”. We pay close attention to all the questions and requests of our readers, but not everything depends on us. The editors have already considered the issue of the advisability of publishing circuit diagrams of audio equipment and the possibility of their individual distribution, but the financial crisis that has occurred in the country may also affect our magazine, at least due to a decrease in the purchasing power of potential readers. Thus, now we cannot do this, because certain costs will be required for inquiries to firms and to the editorial offices of foreign magazines. The editors do not yet have their own library of circuit documentation. Circuit solutions used in high-end equipment are by no means always new and often do not differ in scientific sophistication. High sound quality is ensured mainly by the quality of components, high-level design and technological process of manufacturing parts. The pursuit of high musical fidelity has raised the technology of manufacturing capacitors, transformers, conductors to an unprecedented level of quality and cost. One hundred dollars for one capacitor or one variable resistor is not uncommon, we are not talking about wires. As for the circuit ideology, there are five main factors-features in High End class amplifiers: 1) a small depth of negative feedback (NFB), up to the exclusion from the circuit of its traditional common loop, covering several stages of amplification; 2) operation of amplifying stages in class A; 3) in power amplifiers, a single-cycle output stage is often used; 4) amplifying stages are built mainly on lamps, since in transistor circuits it is more difficult to do without negative feedback; sometimes there are transistor-tube, “hybrid”, options; 5) push-pull (push-pull) amplifiers are designed, as a rule, according to a symmetrical, balanced scheme. These factors contribute to obtaining a more lively, rich in nuances of sound, but at the same time lead to undesirable results. The first factor increases the output impedance of the amplifier, and this limits the choice of speakers. If there are complex filters in the speakers, then the resulting frequency response is distorted due to the uneven impedance, in addition, an amplifier with a high output impedance dampens the bass poorly. The second, third and fourth factors make it difficult to get enough power, especially in tube amplifiers, which also imposes restrictions on the choice of speakers. Horn speakers, which are highly sensitive, have a very specific sound and may not please everyone. The specificity of the sound is caused by acoustic transformation in the pre-horn chamber, longitudinal axial distortions inside the horn, and diffraction at its edges. The fifth factor, on the contrary, contributes to a significant improvement in sound, but for its full implementation it is desirable that the entire sound path be symmetrical. There are three main principles in the design ideology. 1. Carefully worked out topology of the wiring diagram, excluding the harmful interaction of conductors and parts. 2. Rigidity of the structure, the use of damping materials that provide the necessary protection of the system from both external sound waves and internal vibrations caused by currents passing in the circuits. 3. The use of particularly high-quality parts and electrical components (capacitors, transformers, conductors, solder, electrical insulating materials, etc.). The last of the principles is the most important, and we will dwell on it in more detail. The quality of the details is much more important than the perfection of the circuit. It is this that requires the developers of High End equipment to shorten the signal path, simplify the circuit at the cost of scientific and engineering compromises. The theoretical merits of the most perfect complex circuit can be drowned out in the “false chorus” of a large number of even benign components. The most insidious are capacitors with their bouquet of dense non-linear distortions. Therefore, Vyacheslav Medvedev, who was convinced from his own experience of their “harmful effect on sound” (see “AM” No. 3 (20) 98, p. 133), is right. The only exceptions are capacitors with an air dielectric (and even then only with sufficiently thick plates), but they are unacceptable for use in the audio frequency range. Capacitors with a solid dielectric are slaves of materials and construction. The three main causes that spoil the sound are vibrostriction, absorption and polarizability of the dielectric. A soft paper dielectric, and even with an oil filler, gives excellent results, because paper-oil capacitors are popular in both High End equipment and DIYers. Capacitors with high capacitance and low impedance capable of instantaneous discharge should be used in the power supply circuits of the equipment. These requirements are contradictory, they are difficult to constructively implement, and therefore such capacitors are expensive. A bad capacitor in the power filter will eat up all the macro dynamics, the energy of the sound attack. The advantages of transformers cited by V. Medvedev (see “AM” No. 3 (20) 98, p. 135) are quite justified. The amplitude of non-linear distortion in transformers can be large, but the spectrum of these distortions is rare and consonant, so the sound remains clear, although slightly colored. However, designing a good transformer, especially the output one in a power amplifier, is a difficult and costly task. Here a number of conflicting requirements arise: the necessary value of the inductance of the primary winding argues with its own capacitance and with the leakage inductance between the primary and secondary windings. The degree of chemical purity and oxygen-freeness of copper are also significant, although the structure of the conductor in the winding can be neglected. These requirements also apply to power transformers, since the power supply also has a very significant effect on the sound. Rectifier semiconductor diodes create impulse noise that penetrates the amplifier circuit, so especially scrupulous developers use tube kenotrons. Unfortunately, dear readers, within the framework of one article it is impossible to give comprehensive recommendations and highlight all the problems that concern the audiophile world today - a separate book is not enough for this. Listening to music, like playing it, is a creative process. Designing equipment for this purpose is also creativity, where art and research are ahead of science, and sometimes even contradict its canons. We wish you all success in your art, which is dear to your heart (and to your family budget). Feel free to share your successes and failures with us. Always happy to help you. We hope that in the future our assistance will be more meaningful and effective. Literature AudioMagazin №6 1998
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