🚀 go-pugleaf

I agree that, in general, an expensive HiFi system sounds better
than a cheap system.  Cost and exotic components, however, do not
necessarily have a causal relationship with pleasing sound
reproduciton.

The control/preamplifier in my stereo at home is a Fujitech A-102
which is a US import verison of a Luxman Luxkit by the now apparently
defunct Monarchy Engineering.  The kit was under $300.  Even
assembled, it shouldn't have cost more than $500 were it available
for sale as a finished product.  The A-102 uses good quality, but
definitely not exotic parts throughout and has very interesting
quasi-direct coupled FET gain stages design.  The gain stages are
similar to class A-AB, but use op-amp stabilized soruce degenration
(if you'll permit a bit of poetic license) with the opamps providing
a variable load.  I'm sure that tube type purists would sneer at
the relatively complex and convoluted design.  None the less:...  I
compared my finished A-102 against a much, much more expensive
SP-10 in a system with everything else maintained a constant as
possible.  The testers agreed that both pieces sounded very good
and there were some slight differences in the character of the
sound, but there was no general agreement about which was more
analytically correct.  There were no substantive differences in
so-called sound stage and other stereo buff type terminologies.

The biggest problem is that there is not very much high quality
source material available.  Most commercially available recordigns
are bad enough that they don't sound much better on a multi
kilobuck stereo than a cheap boombox.

The biggest problem I've seen in cheap sound equipment is woefully
lousy power supplies.  Plenty of improvement can be had without
resorting fancy polyproylene dielectric capacitors, but with
properly sized transformers and capacitors.  Active regulation does
wonders.


-- 
Bill Mayhew      NEOUCOM Computer Services Department
Rootstown, OH  44272-9995  USA    phone: 216-325-2511
wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu (140.220.1.1)    146.580: N8WED