Is less better?

[62vauxhall]

Although I am quite happy with my reconditioned APT Holman , I swapped a pair of speakers I wasn't using for a preamp I don't really need. Examining the internals made me recall a slogan that I think was attributed to HK - "A straight wire with gain". At the time I first heard/read that, it made perfect sense and was completely self descriptive. From then on, I've believed that the fewer electronic parts a signal passes through, the less adulterated it is. Several preamps have passed through my hands during the last few years and they all had some degree of acceptance as being descent sounding units. But they occupied the low end of the price spectrum and seemed devoid of circuitry compared with other more expensive, esoteric counterparts. How much better, percentage wise would a $1500 say Luxman preamp sound than a $150 Hafler DH110, which was what I got in exchange for some restored 40 year old Wharfedales.

I used Luxman only because I know there is little vacant space inside some of them.

To my mind (which is cluttered as all hell), I can't help but think that when one component/device/circuit is incorporated in the name of betterment, other components/devices/circuits must be implemented to support or compensate for the intended enhancement. All that additional hardware must, to some degree contribute some unwanted something.

 

[Gepetto]

Although I am quite happy with my reconditioned APT Holman , I swapped a pair of speakers I wasn't using for a preamp I don't really need. Examining the internals made me recall a slogan that I think was attributed to HK - "A straight wire with gain". At the time I first heard/read that, it made perfect sense and was completely self descriptive. From then on, I've believed that the fewer electronic parts a signal passes through, the less adulterated it is. Several preamps have passed through my hands during the last few years and they all had some degree of acceptance as being descent sounding units. But they occupied the low end of the price spectrum and seemed devoid of circuitry compared with other more expensive, esoteric counterparts. How much better, percentage wise would a $1500 say Luxman preamp sound than a $150 Hafler DH110, which was what I got in exchange for some restored 40 year old Wharfedales.

I used Luxman only because I know there is little vacant space inside some of them.

To my mind (which is cluttered as all hell), I can't help but think that when one component/device/circuit is incorporated in the name of betterment, other components/devices/circuits must be implemented to support or compensate for the intended enhancement. All that additional hardware must, to some degree contribute some unwanted something.

Definitely contributes to unwanted "unreliability"

 

[laatsch55]

And in the case of the Spec 1, a factory mistake in the volume pot wiring allows a phase shift of 96 degrees at lower volume levels. The AK gurus are still mulling this over and what to do about it. I'm very surprised Pioneer let it get in circulation like that. But, the jury is still out on that. Pre-amps have to have a balance of features and straight line amps, not an area for the faint of heart.

 

[JustMike]

A Straight Wire With Gain

By Steven Stone | <abbr class="published updated" title="2014-02-10T05:08:37-07:00">February 10, 2014 5:08 AM</abbr>


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Stewart Hegeman, who designed the original Harman Kardon Citation line of electronics and one of the first omnidirectional speakers (for Eico) is credited with coming up with the saying, "A straight wire with gain." I've always understood it to mean that the ultimate goal of a high-performance audio system was to sound as if the music was passing through nothing except a wire and some way to control gain. Of course when Hegeman came up with this expression it was assumed that wire didn't do anything to the sound. Over the subsequent years we have been found that even wire has some influence on how things sound. Some would even say a BIG influence.
But I've noticed that some audiophiles see "straight wire with gain" as a rallying cry to find, buy, or build audio gear with the simplest circuitry, least number of parts, and shortest possible signal path. And while I've heard some gear with very simple circuits that sounded great, such as the Nelson Pass designed single-ended class-A power amplifiers, generally the very simple systems I've experienced are good, but not great, because they usually don't handle frequency extremes as well as they handle the midrange.

But for some people a great midrange trumps all other considerations - hence the number of Quad ESL57s still in service. I've owned QUAD ESL 57s, and except for a few "magical" combinations, such as pairing them with Marantz Model 9s in triode mode, getting any sort of bass extension will require a crossover, subwoofers, and the other stuff (like extra cabling) that goes along with adding subwoofers. That is not a simple system. And if you want some high frequency extension you wind up with something akin to an HQD system, which is decidedly more complex than the basic Quad ESL57 system you started out with.
So for most practical purposes the expression "straight wire with gain" is an ideal or a concept, not a design recipe. But how do you tell how close you've gotten to this ideal? Simple - you do A/B bypass tests. J. Gordon Holt was very big on A/B bypass tests. And what is an A/B bypass test? It's a listening test where you can easily insert and then bypass a component in the signal chain. The ultimate goal is that you hear absolutely no difference when the component is in the signal chain verses when it has been bypassed. As I've learned over the years, very few preamps or cables pass this test.
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[Lazarus Short]

Have you ever run a source component directly into a power amp? I have, and the volume level is insane, but within the decibels, there is a special magic to the SQ. I think it is due to the lack of a preamp, and all the degradations that will involve.

Then there was a system I once ran with no preamp. The tuner, the CDP, and the tape machine all had variable outputs, and I just swapped IC's to the power amp (Dyna Stereo 35). It sounded better than it had any right to.

 

[orange]

Gee, why not use a Radio Shack tape deck switcher from the 80s/90s?